TRICKER TREATS

I thought I'd share with your a few of the tricks I've found to keeping life a little less scattered and a little more organized with my "situation." Nothing fancy you know, just small swaps that help a sister out when trying to make dinner and clean and entertain children during the "witching hours" of the evening. Usually after PM naps and before dinner is on the table. And by dinner, I mean spaghetti-O's or something else super lame :)

This is my cupboard under the island countertop - near the kitchen table. It's full of "activities" such as play-doh, crayons, stickers, markers, paints and all the paper you can imagine. I usually try to have Layla and Rider doing something at the table before dinner because most likely I FINALLY got the house clean while they napped and I don't want them leaving a new path of destruction.

Have a laundry basket in the kitchen. We live in a split - multi level home and the laundry room is in the basement. The kids dirty clothes baskets are upstairs in their rooms. So where do I put all the millions of bibs, burp clothes and wash rags we go through each day? I chuck them in the laundry basket to be later emptied in the basement at the end of the day. Viola. No more trips up and down the stairs every 15 seconds. Lazy. I know.

Same reason I don't want to go up and down the stairs 579 times a day to change Rider's diaper... seriously! The kid poops at least 8 times a day. And that's just during his waking hours. So I have a diaper and a toy station on each level of the house. Again, lazy. I also rotate toys from the play room, to their room to the family room. Keeps em guessing.

Binki's. Oh the binki's we go through. Owen likes to chuck everything. It's a family trait. Super. And Rider likes to steal every binki I give to Owen. So, despite having two drawers filled with binki's around the house, plus a few spare in the car... we lose track of them too quickly. And when I have my hands full with two boys and they're screaming - I can just say "Hey Layla, go grab a binki out of the drawer." She knows right where to go. Next to the fridge or in the boys dresser. 

Wear protection. Not that I have some fantastically expensive designer table... but just because I don't want it to look totally trashed before it needs to. Each of the kids have their own place mat and it also makes for quick clean up.

And this chair is fantastic. It catches almost all the millions of little crumbies that fall out of one's hand as he likes to crinkle up his food and apply direct pressure to each cracker before placing into his mouth. Rider. And when all else fails and I've already vacuumed and mopped the floors for the day... I call in the dog to re-clean them. He's fantastic at it.

LEAVE A COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR TRICKS OR TREATS WITH ME!

HALLOWEEN IN THE HIZHOUSE

It all started with a single orange wicker basket shaped like a pumpkin. I received it for my 20th birthday from my sister-in-law Sidney. My first Halloween decoration for my first house. If you could call it a house. It was eleven years ago, our basement apartment, with carpet that simulated something like a thin sheet of fabric laid over cement. The kitchen had a drain in the center of the floor that the linoleum sloped down into. The bathtub, a baby blue - the toilet also. Awesome. We've long since upgraded to much better living quarters... and each year, another decoration item is added to the pile. I love decorating the house for Halloween. I love it more than Christmas decor. 

never mind the fact that if you look close enough in the mirror... it looks like the witch is riding on top of Kday's head. 

Wait, what does spaghetti O-s with meatballs have to do with Halloween?
Nothing, but I served it to the kids for dinner the other night (don't judge) and it reminded me that I totally craved it as a weird pregnancy craving last year. Gross right? I know, but I was just reminiscing this time of my pregnancy during autumn last year.
Now stop being grossed out by my weirdness and go buy yourself a Halloween decoration already!

ROCKTOBERFEST...

I planned to write yesterday.

But then we did this instead.

We checked out the baby giraffe at the zoo.

With this awesome family.

I planned to write today.

But then I realized my taxes are due in a few days.

I thought I could just file another extension...

Nope.

And filing taxes with a small business.

And two children who remain birth-certificate-less and SSN-less... 

Well, it's a pain.

Here's what's coming down the pipe:

TRICKER TREATS 

HALLOWEEN IN THE HIZHOUSE

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET

AND PUMPKIN FEST 2012

ROCKTOBERFEST PLANS

I'll be posting all weekend. 

So while you're sitting around watching THIS...

Tune in here at intermission

:)

ROCKTOBER 2012

It's ROCKTOBER people.

I've got plans.

Big plans.

It's going to be an awesome month.

Can ya feel it?

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

I didn't believe them.

When everyone told me time would go too quickly.

The first three months of her life seemed to be in slow motion.

Then - 

It changed.

Life sped up.

Here we are:

School bound.

What?! 

The thing is...

I only have 2 more years with her.

And then...

She will spend more waking, daily hours under the influence of teachers - other than myself.

She will belong to the education system. 

She will no longer be my baby that goes where I go and fills my ear with a mousey voice of constant intriguing chatter.

2 years is not enough time. 

I want forever.

I want to be "Mom - the woman that knows everything and has all the answers." forever.

So I will listen now.

Enjoy every moment -

for it will pass in the twinkling of an eye. 

JOGGLING- the definition

They say: If you fall off the horse a thousand times... get back on a thousand and one.

I feel like this is the ten thousandth time I'm getting back on the horse.

It always feels better the moment I get back on - than it feels to stand next to the horse and debate walking away.

It's been 4 weeks since I've started working with Mary Foss, ie: The Boss Foss. My first day back on the horse I attempted a brisk walk - I barely made it 1.5 miles. And my body hurt. It ached, it cried, it moaned. And I felt like I wanted to get off that horse, walk hobble away and never look back. Ever.

But I kept going.

It' hasn't been as consistent and I or The Boss Foss would like it to be - but the mornings after a decent nights sleep, I've been waking up at 6am to walk.

A few weeks into my walking - my body hurt less and less and I even began to feel the twitching of a desire to run jog. It's Joggling actually. A mix of hobbling and a mix of jogging. My body still hurts and my ankles feel like they're going to give out beneath me at any step. I'm carrying so much weight I really can't call it running or jogging because it's a slow and decrepit shuffle... but it's the preface to an actual jog. "Someday,"  I chant under my labored wheezing, "someday you'll run again, someday."

My 1.5 miles grew to 2.5 miles and there it began - the bits and pieces of joggling between a few minutes of walking. It added up to a total of less than a half mile.

Today felt different - a good different. For the past two weeks I've been forcing myself to get in bed at 10 pm. And the last two nights, Ohwee even slept soundly through the night without waking me. And today I joggled the farthest I have since I started - .613 miles - non stop. What a feeling of accomplishment I felt. A feeling I haven't felt since birthing my son. Wow, I did that. It's been a while since I've accomplished anything with my body.  That's how down in the dumps my body is right now. But I joggled over a half mile and I loved it.

My body is screaming at me this afternoon and my right ankle usually causes me problems for the rest of the day on my walk days. But it's proof that I'm back on the horse and riding again. Giddy-Yup

JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY

I have a love hate relationship with Monday's. It's my favorite day to get life back on track. Clean, plan, prepare, wash, fold, scrub, put away, re stock... etc. I love it. But it's also so annoying to lose an entire day to getting this done every week. My level of organization and cleanliness on any given Monday is usually a sign of the week to come and the level of chaos that ensues.  Ie: If I don't re stock all the diaper stations, catch up on laundry and mop the weekend mess off the floor... life is a lot harder when it comes time to diaper, dress and feed the children throughout the week.
P.S
I'm loving this overcast and cool, autumn weather - aren't you?