I just love our little community of chef wives and girlfriends in our closed Facebook support group. It’s so fun to be able to connect and talk back and forth with each other about the joys and trials about being married to or dating a chef.
A few months ago in the group, we were joking around about some silly chef wife t-shirts someone saw online. The conversation kept going and long story short, one chef wife came up with a great little phrase (see below) that we all thought was true and realistic and I had some t-shirts printed for us! Woohoo! I’m so excited!
As Mother’s Day approaches, I know for many of us, it will just be a normal day . . . husband at work (on arguably the busiest day of the year) and us home with the kids. But instead of dwelling on that, I thought it would be fun to hear what it’s like to be the mother of a chef and who better to chat about this with than my sweet mother-in-law, Susan!
My husband and I started dating when I was 15 and he was 16. From the very first time I was over at their house, (as a girlfriend, not as a 5 year old with my family who supposedly sang and danced in front of the fireplace) I was treated like family.
There are many things I admire about my mother-in-law but the main one that stands out to me is her love for and dedication to her family. There is nothing she (and my father-in-law) wouldn’t do for her children and their families. The time and effort she puts into being a Mom and Grandma amazes me every day. She is a wonderful example of a godly Mother and wife and I am so grateful God allowed me to marry into her family and to be able to call her Mom.
So as we get ready to celebrate her this weekend (from 19 hours away – BOO!!), I thought it would be fun to ask her some questions about what it is like to be the mother of a chef AND the mother of a general manager/restaurant owner.
Yes, you read that right. 2 out of her 3 adult children are in the restaurant industry!(more…)
How much to you know about food as the spouse or significant other of a chef?
After 19 years of being married to a chef, you would think I would be a culinary genius.
We have tons of cookbooks and recipes. I’ve tasted more food than the average person. Our lives seem to revolve around food.Vacations always have something to do with food and where we are going to eat. We plan the meal or snacks for our date nights before we plan the rest of the night (if there is anything else we are going to do).
Have you ever sat down to just “glance” through your Facebook newsfeed and then looked up an hour later? That never happens, right? Facebook (and other social media) can be so much fun and it’s so easy to just keep clicking around, totally losing track of time.
Like many of you, I am on Facebook to connect with my friends, but also for my blog. I might be the only one, but when I sit down to look at Facebook for my blog, I tend to get distracted REALLY EASILY when I see posts from my friends and family. I waste far too much time clicking around seeing what everyone is up to!
As it is, I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love being able to keep in touch with friends and family that live far away (and friends that live down the street too). In the past I’ve struggled with contentment and Facebook fueled the problem. The amount of people that see the posts on my business page is often frustrating. I know that many bloggers have given up on this social media platform because of this. However, even with the number of people that see my posts, Facebook still brings a decent amount of traffic to my site. Because of that, I can’t ignore it.
So between the need for blog referral traffic and the potential of wasting a large amount of time on Facebook , I had to come up with some sort of solution or I was going to have to deactivate my account. Facebook was consuming my life!
Can I tell you the BRILLIANT solution I found to this problem of losing hours in my day?
There are three parts to it. You better sit down. They are MIND BLOWING!!
Pin this for later!
1. Set a timer!
Amazing, isn’t it? Yes, when I sit down to look at social media, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, I turn on a timer. If I don’t, I get sucked in and I will lose track of time. I installed the chrome extension “1-click timer” and it works great! It plays nice music at the end of the time instead of startling me with a loud obnoxious beep. (Before I did that I always had to hunt down our kitchen timer that the kids had “needed” to use somewhere else in the house.)
2. Set up Interest Lists on Facebook
One other way I found to stay focused on Facebook when I am using it for business is to set up interest lists. Like I said earlier, I get distracted by my friends in my newsfeed. So instead of scrolling through my newsfeed to see pages and people I want to follow for my blog, I added all those types of pages to an interest list. (You can see it here if you are interested.) Each day I set my timer for 10-15 minutes (some days one time, other days a couple time throughout the day) and scroll through the list. From the list, I collect links to share with my followers, I comment on posts as my business, I click over to articles and pin them to Pinterest and sometimes I save things in One Note to share in my newsletter. This saves me SO MUCH TIME!
Here are a few pictures to walk you through how to set up an interest list.
Once you are on a page you’d like to add to a list, click on the arrow next to the Liked button. Then choose, “Add to interest Lists.”
Choose which list you’d like to add the page to or create a new group. (I chose my list called Blogging for the page in this picture.)
Back on your main Facebook Newsfeed page, look for the list over in the left hand column. If you see it, click on it and you’ll see posts from all the pages on the list. If you don’t see it listed, look at the next picture for instructions.
In the left column on your main Facebook page, find the heading that says “Interests” and click on it. That will take you to the settings in the next picture.
Click on the settings button next to the Interest group you’d like to see over in the left column and click “Add to Favorites.” Once you do that, you should see the group appear over on the left.
3. Turn off your Facebook notifications.
When I started getting decent engagement on my Facebook page I turned off all my Facebook email notifications and even removed the Facebook app from the main screen of my phone. If your phone is notifying you all day long and you are constantly checking it, you’ll never get anything else done. (I’m speaking from experience here.) I check my page and private Facebook group a few times a day (using a timer) and that’s really helped me stay more productive the rest of the day!
At first I was worried I would miss things. But when I log on to Facebook, I go to the globe and see the notifications from there. If there are a bunch of them, I open each new one in a new tab (by holding down Ctrl on the keyboard while clicking) so I make sure I don’t miss any.
That’s how I’ve managed to save time on Facebook for my blog. Nothing crazy, but with those 3 simple “tricks,” I am able to stay more focused and not let Facebook consume my life.
So now that I’ve saved you time (you’re welcome), can I ask you a favor? It will just take a second. I promise.
I know most people reading this post are not my target audience. (I blog about being married to a chef and raising a family with a chef.) If you know someone married to or dating someone in the restaurant industry, (a chef, server, line cook, manager, bartender, etc.) will you share my blog via email with them? I appreciate your help in getting the word out about my blog. (If that email link doesn’t work in your browser, please use the sharing buttons below to share it. Thanks!)
Other posts in this series:
From one chef wife (or blogger) to another,
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