Resolutions: Take 33

Some years I make resolutions. Some years I do not. Other years I make resolutions but I call them something else. This is one of those years. This year I'm calling my resolutions list a "re-focusing".  It's a list of things that I was doing that I want to get back to, and a list of things that I want to do better, and a list of things I want to try. 

I broke my list down into a bunch of categories and I have multiple goals for each category: Family, Couple, Personal, Home, Finances, and Writing. The categories are pretty self explanatory. I'm only going to share a few of my goals, one because the list is long, two because some of the goals are private, and three because I don't want to bore anyone.

As an aside, I compiled the list while I was tromping on the treadmill. I hate multi-tasking, well not multi-tasking per say, because I would be a failure of a mom if I couldn't multi-task...but I just hate the word. It was such a buzz word after I graduated from college and it seemed like every resume highlighted the fact that you could multi-task and every job was expecting you to really be great at doing a million things at once. But do we really need to be doing a million things at one time? And how could one person seriously be great at EVERYTHING when their full focus isn't really on ANYTHING?  When I am multi-tasking at home (read: running the washing machine, while dinner is cooking, and I'm feeding the baby, and Jordan is at the table asking questions about homework, and my cell phone rings, and the television is on, and Livi is singing at the top of her lungs, and Ava is rough housing with the dog) sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode!

Today was one of those days too...My alarm didn't go off this morning for the second day in a row, so I had 10 minutes at best to get Jordan up, dressed, fed, and bundled for the bus. Then I turned around and woke Ava, got her fed, picked out her clothes, pumped for the baby, fed the baby, got Livi up, drove Ava to school, came home, organized myself for Daisies later this afternoon, showered (with Livi), got dressed, packed 3 different bags, fed the dog and let him out,  put the dog away, picked up Ava from preschool, headed to my mom's, fed the baby, fed myself, went to JoAnn' to pick up supplies for Daisies while my mom fed the girls, came back to my mom's, took the girls to Olivia's dance class, breathed for one minute. Then we went to the school for the Daisy meeting, came home, let the dog out, fed the baby, pumped, got Jordan started on homework, started dinner. I talked to Jim on the cell, ate dinner (fed the baby again). I straightened up. I threw a load of laundry in. I helped Jordan finish Homework. Straightened some more. Danced around the kitchen for a minute. Sent Jordan to the shower. Got everyone in PJ's. Got everyone a bedtime snack. Fed the baby. Sent everyone to bed (teeth brushed, prayers, and tucked). Let the Dog out. Folded Laundry. And Now I'm sitting down to blog...randomly blog apparently.

Head spinning yet?  This isn't a typical day, but it is my typical every other Wednesday.  Every other Wednesday is exhausting!!! So pardon me, while I unwind in a rambling blog post that was supposed to be about Resolutions and has turned into a little breather for me...as writing my blog should be!

Oh, and for the curious, I'll throw in a couple of my re-focusings for the New Year:
Plan a family fun day 1-2 times per month.
Plan a date night 2 times per month.
Pray morning, night, and whenever I think of it throughout the day.
Exercise 5 times per week.
Pay for home projects with cash, which means saving up for them before they start.
Keep house tidy with the help of Flylady techniques.
Blog 3-4 times per week.

Have you made resolutions this year? Have you taken a minute to re-focus?  Do share!

Slow Down, Christine.

All of the blogs I'm following seem to be getting into the holiday spirit. Everywhere I look there are gift giving ideas and decorating ideas and shopping tips...there will be none of that here. At least not today, but maybe not ever. It isn't that I'm not in the holiday mood: my tree is up, my advent wreath is out, the kids are busy making lists, I'm threatening "Santa's WATCHING!" at every turn. There's plenty of holiday talk going on around here, but at the moment I'm busy trying to take in a lesson from the universe and an important lesson for advent: SLOW DOWN.

Here we go again: Two Tuesdays ago I ran into a deer (not an uncommon occurrence where I am from!) and this Tuesday I had another eye opener.  I slogged out to my car in the cold rain, umbrella-less, with 100lb baby carrier slung over my arm, and sleepy kids in tow and got in the van to take my oldest down to the bus stop. (I really wish the bus driver could pull up in front of my house which is only 6 houses away from the stop. This isn't even a bus...it's a MINI VAN. There is no reason the driver should have any trouble navigating on my street. But, I digress.)

Jim drove the van last. Now, hear me: I am not blaming HIM. I am merely explaining why the following events were more likely to happen on this day.  He had the van pulled squarely at the end of our driveway. It would have been quite simple for me to back out of the driveway. All I had to do was slowly apply the gas, keep the wheel straight and go in reverse. That isn't how I roll. I don't like to back up. Normally I have the van positioned in the driveway so that I can do one three point turn and head out of the driveway nose first. But in order to turn myself around on Tuesday I had to do multiple three point turns to get there.  At a certain point, I began to think: How many more three point turns do I need to do to get this van turned around?  Then there also came a certain moment in the three point turn madness that it was too late to turn back. I did one more three point turn and then I thought, "This should be fine, I'm going."  It was raining and darker than usual at 7a.m.  And I misjudged how much room I had to maneuver.  And ooops. This happened:

Yes, I sideswiped the house!

I forgot all about it (duh!) until I let the dog out later that morning. I went around to check out the damage and that's what I saw.  Sometimes I'm a real ditz. Now I had to face Jim. I knew he would be frustrated with me.  I already felt horrible about it, but I couldn't put off the inevitable phone call where I have to explain my crazy logic to my logical husband:

"Why didn't you just back out of the driveway?? I had it parked perfectly for you to do that!" I know, dear, but that isn't what I am used to doing every morning and don't you know that I live my life on auto pilot half the time and I just want to do things the way that I do them so they can be done and I don't have to think about them anymore? 

Do you realize how horrible this sounds?  I did. He was angry and I started to cry. Not because he was saying anything untrue. Not because he was being cruel. But because I just don't think about things sometimes.  I just do what I do because I always do it that way.  I don't assess the situation to make the best possible choice all of the time. This is something I don't like about myself, so it's really hard to admit.  

So from that point on, I started to have a bad day. I felt like an Eeyore--at least I could hear his voice in my head "it's raining..."  "I messed up my car..."  "I'm too tired to exercise." "This is boring." There were bright spots in my Tuesday:

We got our new kitchen table.

Ava drew this adorable picture. It's me happily doing many different exercise moves. I can't get the picture to go right side up, but you get the point. I love the picture of me doing a push-up (it's on the left of the screen).

And Jim brought me flowers when he came home from work. I hardly ever get flowers.  He must have felt bad that I was crying. He probably didn't realize that I was being harder on myself than he was being on me...but the flowers were a nice surprise and brightened my day.

I hope these downer Tuesdays don't continue!!  I think if I can practice what I so often preach in my blog about living in the moment and being present in the moment that things will turn around for me.  If not, I'm sure I'll get another knock on the head to get me back on track!

Confessions of a busy mom

I have fallen into bed completely exhausted after the last three days and have been having the best, deepest sleep I have had in a long time.

I have been running around like crazy, but still managed to make my bed! Yippee.

I have avoided the drive through lane even though a couple times it was pulling me like a magnet! Woohoo!

I was sad when I thought that in a few months Chloe will be eating baby food.

I have made a promise to start walking the dog regularly when we move...Poor pup has been a little bored lately.

I forgot to step on the scale this week.

I have remembered to tell the girls individually that  I Love Them at random points in the day.

While sad that Ava started her first REAL day of school today (because it means Summer is officially over and She, all of them, are growing up) I secretly jumped for joy at the idea of  3 hours minus two kids of unscheduled time! TIME TO BLOG!!!

We are getting closer to moving...I'm excited, nervous and spend many moments mentally decorating and furnishing and renewing the new house!

This is crazy, but I googled our sellers and found out that the wife has a blog and I anonymously followed her and have been reading about her adventures as she packs up and prepares to leave "our" house.... :) It's funny how many parallels I've found there!

I love how chubby Livi looks in her dance leotard and watching her prance has been one of the happiest moments of the week!

It just hit me that I forgot to take a picture of Ava today! OOOOPS! I took one of her at her Orientation on Wednesday, but I forgot to do it today on her *official* first day!

I would love it if someone decided to pay me to write and I could stay home and make some $.

Okay, I'm stepping out of the confessional now. Have a blessed Friday everyone!!

Weigh in Wednesday: Smorgasbord!

Happy news for me this morning. I lost .6 lbs this week. Wish it would have been 2, but I can't be upset about a loss. I had 3 parties since last Wednesday and each had a smorgasbord of exceptional choices (taste wise, not diet conscious wise.) I am having a really difficult time fitting exercise into the equation. I can't expect the weightloss to continue without it so I must figure something out!

This post is going to be a smorgasbord of sorts as well..besides the weigh in day, there's lots to talk about!

The three parties in the last seven days: My Grandmother's 88th birthday. We had family come up from Florida to visit so it was great seeing family that we never get to see. My niece's (and Goddaughter)1st birthday party. She is getting to be such a big girl! She's still a baldy bean but should be walking soon.

I can't believe it's been a year since she was born. It got me thinking a little bit about one of the babies I lost last year. My first miscarriage was a baby girl. I named her Sadie and I lost her when I was 16 weeks pregnant. Her 1st birthday would have been coming up here in August. I think about what she would be like...

Ahem, The third party was a church gathering. A thank you party for those that volunteered to raise funds for our capital campaign. I didn't know what to expect because the party was held at house where our pastor lives and I have never been there. Also, our pastor is rumored to be an EXCELLENT chef (Although I have not eaten his food)and I was intrigued to see what would be served. Let me tell you the spread was not disappointing, BUT he didn't have time to cook anything and had it catered. There was wine flowing freely and hoers d'oeuvres like: Mushroom Pate, Mini Crab cakes, A cheese assortment, These pinwheel thingies, Spiced nuts, an Olive tray, Tomato tarte, and more. Then there was a dessert room with tons of cookies and treats. It was heavenly!!!

On Monday when I went grocery shopping the power went out. The generators came on, but it meant that I couldn't dump the kids into "The Eagle's Nest" which is the free daycare at the store. I wasn't about to go home so I started the trip with the 4 girls beside me. There were no Large Carts (you know, the ones that you can seat three children in) so I had the baby in the cart and everyone else just tagging along. I was hoping that the power would come on within minutes, but tried to make the best of it. I gave my list to Jordan and set her to the task of finding and checking off items from the list. Ava and Olivia helped pick out the produce: nectarines, mangoes, bananas, apples etc.

An older woman stopped to admire Chloe and asked if she was mine. I said yes, then she noticed my tag alongs and asked "Are these yours too?" She asked with a smile. "Yep!" She said that I did not look old enough to have 4 kids. I said "Well, I am 33." She looked at me like I was nuts and said that I looked so young...she thought I was 16! OK! I took it as a compliment. Recently, I've noticed some wrinkles that were never there before so the fact that this woman thought I looked young, made me feel good.

Monday night was book club. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin was this month's pick. I was super excited to read this book. Who couldn't use more happiness in their life? I've decided to start my happiness project but I have to think about it more. I'm sure you'll be hearing me go on about it in this blog sooner or later! I've already included a button on my sidebar if you want to check out what it's all about.

Also, we are under construction at "What Little Girls Are Made Of"...lost my layout so I was forced to revamp a little. There are more changes to come, but for now, I just wanted to make it presentable. I am working on a new banner and I may change other things too. I just need to find the time!!

Lastly, I'm super exhausted. Between making phone calls (which I despise), taking care of kiddos who have some sort of mystery fever, cooking, keeping up with daily chores, detail cleaning for our first open house this weekend, and being alone in the evenings (Hubby has been working late--yay, for extra money for vacation. Boo, for parenting alone, no adult conversation, and one tired man) I am completely pooped.

This really was a smorgasbord...hope you found something to indulge in...

T Minus 5 Weeks!

So where have I been?  It's nice to know that I have some "real life readers," that is people that I personally know, who are wondering when I am going to post next!  Really I'm flattered and I apologize that I haven't been able to post every day.

With less than 5 weeks until baby number 4 arrives I am nesting like crazy, which leaves little time for anything else.  That, in combination with preparing the house for the market, has kept me offline for most if not all of these last days.  With my trusty phone in hand, I've been able to quickly post to Face Book or do any other Internet perusing that I need to do in 15 minutes or less, but they have yet to perfect "blogging by phone."  So actually sitting down to the terminal is a real treat.  The only thing that brings me here today is that I needed to check on a few things that I couldn't do from my phone!

We are planning to meet with a realtor this week and make the final preparations for posting our sign and getting this ball rolling!

The girls and I have been going through toys together.  A ton more would be gone at this point, but I figured I should let them have a say as to what stays and what goes.  It's hard to get the three of them to agree unanimously that something should be tossed, so concessions have been made. We are halfway through the project and I have two large garbage bags to toss...If I can come out of there with two more, than I will be thrilled!

I mentioned Flylady.com in my last post or two and, wow, I've really embraced this method of housekeeping and I have to say my house has never looked better for longer.  I used to be a marathon cleaner, which means that the dust rags, mops and Windex really only came out when I knew I had company arriving within the next 48 hours...Thanks to Flylady, I would happily invite you in if you showed up on my doorstep. I didn't think this was possible with three little ones who always seem to be trailing me with dirty clothes, toys, and crayon pictures of rainbows, flowers, and princesses. I can still see places that need decluttered, but at least now I feel like I have a plan of attack and I am not so overwhelmed with the everyday tasks--planning meals, making beds, turning over a load of laundry, that I can't get to these areas that have been neglected for far too long.

In other news, the dog has been given more freedom!  Usually, crated at night, we are trying to eliminate the need for the "decorative" 2 1/2 x 3 foot crate in our dining room.   We will need to move it when we show the house.  I like having the crate around, because lets face it, the dog can be a little pesky and it's nice to be able to put him in there to get him out of my hair.  Also, not everyone who comes for a visit wants to contend with a 70 pound, bum wiggling boxer drooling on their pants or trying to sit in their lap! He's doing okay...although he knocked Olivia off the porch and into what's supposed to be my garden and she got a nice goose egg and cut on her forehead and scrape on the side of her eye!  I've also seen about 5 chewed up toys laying around this week and have countlessly yelled "LEAVE IT" as he tries to sneak off with another Barbie to nosh. But that's what we get for organizing the toy room this week I guess! Once everything has a place, it might get better...or he could just move on to shredding shoes, or crayon pictures of rainbows, flowers, and princesses!

I couldn't be a single mom...

Nope. And I don't like weeks that test that theory either. I give props to anyone (man or woman) who can make it through a day at home with the kids, from morning until bedtime, without another adult in sight, and manages to keep sanity intact, patience from running dry, energy at a reasonable level, and household running like it's been sprayed with WD40.



I find it virtually impossible. This week has been busy so far and the weekend looks just as busy..but at least after tonight my hubby will be back with me! The reason for my unwanted foray into single parent mode is that we've just had one of those weeks. My husband plays Deck hockey (recreational) and Monday and Wednesday night were championship games...which his team won, by the way (Yay to 30 somethings recapturing the vigor of their youth!).



The girls and I had dance class to attend on Monday night (as we do every Monday night) and I got thrown for a loop this week when the recital schedule came out and I found that Jordan and Ava will be dancing on two separate days. My disappointment and disgust with dance class in general could be a blog topic of its own and I'm sure it will become one at some point. The girls do enjoy it, which is the only reason we are sticking it out. But it's been an eye opening experience for me. Let's just stop it there.



Tuesday and Thursday night and NEXT Tuesday and Thursday Jim will be finishing up an OSHA Safety training class for work. So it's a long day for him (and me) as he leaves for work before the sun comes up and doesn't arrive home until just before 9pm, well after the kiddies have been sent to bed.



Last night I also had a volunteer meeting to attend so it meant bugging my parents to watch the kids...which they never seem to mind thankkfully. But, we missed the usual bedtime routine and I've been promising to put overnight curlers in Jordan's hair and have had to renege two nights in a row. TONIGHT her hair will be curled. Poor thing has handled the disappointment fairly well, and it seems like such a small thing, but I feel really bad that I've been saying I would do it and before you know it time is up and it hasn't gotten done!



I complain (mainly in my own head) that my husband really doesn't do much when he's home. For the most part, I don't mind because he works so hard outside of the home and after a week like this one I don't mind even more. Just having him in the house in the afternoon is helpful to me. He brings me my sanity. He's pretty vigilant with the kids...is a better enforcer of "the rules" and is just the right person to hug me when I need it. I do get and give hugs and kisses all day from my little ones...but they usually involve a request attached. Love ya, mom, can you get me a drink? What's for dinner? Can I play on the computer? These hugs while sweet are also draining at the same time. Imagine: Leech. Well, that might be too strong a visual...BUT hugs from DH fill up the tank...they don't drain from it...so you can see how they are missed after a long day with the kids.



The day always starts out fine...but when the energy is waning I turn into a bug eyed lunatic. I don't care what we have for dinner (we did fast food once this week and one night I made spaghetti without the homemade meatballs(easy)). And I end up screaming my kids into bed, instead of tucking them. It's horrible. I can't seem to stop myself...it reminds me of the old nursery rhyme:



There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children she didn't know what to.

She gave them some broth, without any bread,

And whipped them all soundly and sent them to bed.



There's the truth. I love my kids, but I need the support of my husband to really be the shiny happy mommy I want to be. The minute my husband comes through the door I breath a sigh of relief...put down the chocolate that I've been secretly stress eating... and give him a great big hug!