Sunday, January 20, 2008

Finding time to blog...

I am desperately seeking a time machine; I don't need to travel back in time (although if I did I would go to the '90s buy some Yahoo stock and sell at just right the moment) or even go forward--I just need to freeze the current time so I can get an extra hour.
What would I do with hour? Glad you asked :)
1. Sleep!
2. Blog more ;)
3. Paint my nails
4. Shower and take my time (no 4 minute speed drills!)
5. Exercise--YOGA
6. Pray (and thank God for the extra time)
7. Sleep

Notice how the extra hour is all about me. I'd love to be something no mom is ever--self-centered--for one small hour.
And I'd only use the time machine, once a week--maybe more on those really crazy weeks.
Sooo anyone know where I could get a time machine. I'd pay dearly :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Monday, January 7, 2008

Wow--what a depressing post!

I had no idea how bad off I sounded on my last post until my sister call ed and asked if I was OK. Obviously I have not gotten down expressing true emotion yet;)
I'm really fine--we survived; the baby too a THREE HOUR nap and in about an hour I get to watch MY BUCKEYES whoop up on that other team. Woo-hoo
So I leave you tonight with a big O - H
(psst--non-buckeyes, the response is 'I - O'

Go Bucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I can I think I can I think I can....who am I kidding?

Since September, I have had a babysitter watch my two younger children while I homeschool my older two. well, the 'nanny' got lazy, I saw little compassion in her with the kids and we had to get rid of her. I had seen the laziness for a while but I was so hooked on being able to concentrate with the girls I ignored it. Well it got harder to ignore as the two younger ones spent more and more time in the homeschool while she ate or whatever. More stuff and yadda yadda yadda we had to let go.
Now I am alone and terrified. We did a semi-homeschool ay today as a trial run. I had no idea my boys (the younger ones) needed me so much. I tried to distract the younger ones with games/toys they had not seen in a while but it was very difficult.
I am not sure I can do this---POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE--I can do this. It's going to take a lot of coffee--maybe even an occasional irish coffee (KIDDING!) but I can do it.
Oh Lord help me!

Friday, January 4, 2008

EEEKKK!! A mouse in the house!

Apparently, Williams Sonoma sent me more than a coffee maker yesterday :)
I got my package and noticed the shipping box was slightly open (tape ripped off the top and there was a large gap). I pretty much igorned it and completed clean up time with my kids. Time got away from us and we had to leave for hair cuts and we came home to put together dinner.
Halfway through the meal, my oldest son gets som sauce on his hands and shirt and he HATES that. I finally got up to give him a bath. While I am putting him in the tu, I hear a blood curdling scream. I practically drop son #1 into the tub and race to to the kitchen.
"A mouse, we saw a mouse," daughter #1 screams.
I silently pray she is seeing things. How the heck could a mouse be in our house? We own a cat.
I look over the door by her room and I SEE IT!! I scream and jump up on a chair--seriously I did.
"Get on your chair now," I scream and the the girls start to scream.
"The baby--where's the baby" I am truly frantic.
"He's in the tenda (a high chair)" daugher #2 calmly states.
"OK, I need to get my phone," I had my phone plugged into our player for dinner music. I hop off the chair, grab the phone and call my husband.
"There's a MOUSE."
"What?"
"There's a mouse. I SAW him."
"OK. I'm just about on my way."
"You need to get home. What do we do?"
"I'll stop by Lowes and get a.."
"No, you will come home and I will go to Lowes and get traps."
Meanwhile during all of this, poor son #1 is still in the tub. I call out to make sure he's OK and stay on the chair.
Well, the husband finally got home, I went and got the traps. Abby, the cat, slept (my daughters now call her the world's laziest cat).
I slept away from the mouse with the girls and the baby while the husband (who thought is was funny that I was so scared to have a rodent in the house) slept in the mouse room. Son #1 slept in his own room--bnrave little guy :)
Next morning-----------------------------------nothing, no mouse sightings, nothing in the traps (we bought the live catch ones, something about a dead mouse, eewww).
So now I am carefully watching every step. The girls have named the mouse "Snowflake" and Abby, the cat, is eyeing the space behind the refridgerator. I refuse to look.
I feel a little silly about overreacting the way I did but at the same time, I wish we had the video camera when I jumped onto the chair--we would be FAMOUSE ;)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

"Hey Finn, it's Michael Buble!"

My oldest son Finn is potty training. He's three and 1/2 and let's just say I feel like I'm the Titanic--it's that wet around here.
Anyway, we have been trying to give little rewards--chocolate, toys, cars (the toy ones but I would gladly get him a cheap C car if he guaranteed no more accidents, EVER). The rewards worked at first but they are getting older--how much sugar can one boy take? So I remembered on Dr.Phil, they rewarded a boy for using the potty by having a superhero call him. I decided to give it a try.
"Hey Finn, if you pee on the potty, Lightning McQueen, wants to call you."
"No, no mcqueen"
"How about Bob or Larry (Veggietales)"
"Don't wanna talk to tomato or LAARRREEE"
"I think Santa might call"
"NO"
And then remebering his love for big band music, specifically Michael Buble, I said "Do you want Michael Buble to call you on the iphone?"
"Yes." (he's whispering) " I wanna talk to Michael Buble on the iphone"
And we have success!!! I'm not sure if it was Michael Buble or the chance to use the coolest thing in the world (at least in his mind) the iphone BUT it worked!!!
And then dorky me has a neighbor call our landline (not my cell) and say it's "Lightning McQueen"--no wonder he's messed up!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Mom makes a New Year's Resolution, Kids suffer

OK I said no coffee for me unless it is a homeschool day. Well, today is a cold, stuck-in-the-house-because-the kids-have-their-schedules-all-messed-up (appaently staying up til midnight one night means you need to stay up til at least 10 the following night) and I had the urge to brew some yummy chemical enhancing beverage aka full caff coffee. I got the grounds ready and suddenly remembered my post from less than 12 hours ago--NO COFFEE UNLESS IT IS A HOMESCHOOL DAY.
The good mommy dumps the heaven sent grounds and grabs a water to stick to her resolution. Not me (evil grin). I told the kids we need to get ready for school and immedietly set them up for practice work-math speed drills, phonics spelling, literature work, etc. They thankfully did not complain (boredom it appears is powerful in the young gradeschooler!) and voila, it's a homeschol day. I enjoyed my coffee guilt free (even if I did have to microwave some of it and hour later).
Wonder if I can pull this off tomorrow?

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Getting healthier

Overall, we're a pretty healthy family. We get our groceries at Whole Foods (so no partially hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup), we avoid processed and fast food and try to eat a good variety of veggies. But we have our weaknesses--I love baking something sweet with the kids about once a week, I absolutely prefer white pasta over whole wheat and everything always seems better with bacon. So in this New Year, I'm going to try to make a few changes to improve our diets.
First I am going to be more dilegent in all of eating 'the rainbow' of veggies at least every three days (basically this is just what it sounds--I want to serve everything from red tomatoes to purple eggplant since a variety of colors guarantees a variet of nurtients and antioxidents). Note I said 'serve'. The baby will easily eat all the veggies--he is in the eating 'honeymoon' stage and loves everything from red bell peppers to spinach but my 3 yr. old is in the 'yucky' stage and getting him to eat anything but bread has been an issue. My older girls both went through this stage and thankfully the 9 yr old has returned back to veggies world and is gladly gobbling up her sauted kale; the 6 yr. old is getting better but it takes a lot of prodding. I am not pushing my 3 yr old to eat the veggies too much in hopes, he will come back to enjoying his veggies soon--it is just very difficult to watch him turn down everything but a grilled cheese.
Second, I want to up our fish intake. Currently we have wild salmon approc. once a week. I am planning on adding more wild fish to the diet and I hope we will 'go fishing' at least twice a week.
Third, I want to once again try to replace the white pasta with whole wheat even if it is only 1/2 and 1/2. I personally love pasta (my true weakness) so this is going to be the toughest. Pasta makes almost all veggies awesome!
Finally, I want to cut down on coffee and Starbucks. I usually get an organic Chai twice a week. I'd like to cut down to once a week. I love brrewing coffee at home--I'll try to limit it to homeschool days and maybe Sunday since I am not crazy about church coffee.
And that' about it. I have a baby sleeping on me, my laptop is out of juice. It's time to sleep and get reeved up for tomorrow!