Buddies

Since my husband took his new job last summer he has been traveling a bit more.  Thankfully it hasn't been as bad as we initially thought it would be and usually the trips are only 2-3 days long.  Although we don't like it when he is gone, we have adapted and set up a routine while Daddy is away.  On this last trip of his, I noticed that being alone with the kids isn't as daunting and tiring as it used to be.  Before when my husband would travel, I would go into survival mode and just pray to make it through the day to bedtime and then collapse into bed exhausted after working and caring for a 4 (kids & dog).  This time, I actually enjoyed my time with the kids.  We took long trips to the library, watched movies, played games, and ate quick yummy meals like grilled cheese or pizza.  My older two are pretty good company these days and I no longer feel "alone" when my husband is gone.  Below is a picture of my "buddies" one evening when the baby was already in bed and we were enjoying some "chocolate" before bedtime - chocolate milk for them, hot chocolate for me.  The picture quality is terrible b/c it was a quick snap with my phone, but it captured the moment. 

Our Savy Little Princess

While at the grocery store this weekend I picked up a People magazine with Kate Middleton on the cover.  I have to admit that I'm looking forward to the upcoming royal wedding and think that the new princess-to-be has a fabulous sense of style.  Anyway, over dinner the next evening I was explaning the British royal family to the kids and finished it up with the statement, ..."and Prince William is getting ready to marry a princess!".  My three year old daughter looked up at me with wide eyes full wonder and excitement and asked earnestly, "Is it me?".  She was completely serious!  Her father and I about lost it, but held it together long enough to let her down slowly with the news that it was not her but another girl named Kate.  She took the news pretty well and responded with a very disappointed, "Oh, okay".  I loved it - she truly believes she's a princess! 

Our princess she may be but our girl has an pretty savy analytical side to her.  She can beat me cold at Memory and loves the game Blockus which was intended for her older brother but that she has usurped due to his lack of interest.  I love seeing both sides of her - as different as they are.  The side that loves cooking, baby dolls, dress up, and bows, and the side that loves problem solving, playing strategy games, and declares, "Mommy, I can do it myself!". Below is a picture I snapped of her & her daddy playing Blockus long after the other kids had gone to bed.   

Cleaning Schedule

Towards the beginning of every year, I review our monthly recurrent expenses from the previous year to see if there are places we can cut back.  This is something I started doing when my husband and I were poor graduate students many years ago and that practice has stuck.  Personally, I think our "poor graduate student" phase (which was 5 years) was the strongest and best influence on our financial practices as a couple and a family. 

Back to the story...as I was reviewing last year's expenses I realized that having someone clean the house is a larger expense for us and that it seems to be the only "unnecessary" recurrent expense in the budget.  In light of the fact that we are thinking about joining a country club (albeit unnecessary, it will be fun!) for both social & extracurricular reasons, and that I'm a big believer in "if you add an expense, you cut back somewhere else" I'm trying to work all the cleaning into my schedule so that we can remove the house cleaning expense from our budget. 

So, I pondered a few ideas over a couple of days  and realized that my most productive time is in the morning.  Both my husband and I are very much, "early to bed, early to rise" people.  Therefore, I divided up the cleaning over 3 days during the week with some things to do on the weekends.  Except for Monday (which is the day I'm home with the kids), each task only takes about 30 minutes which I do from about 5:30am - 6:00am.  I am able to get my workouts in on those mornings as well.   I've tried it this week and it's working well so far.  I still haven't made the decision to let go of my cleaning person yet, but I think we probably will over the next few months.  Below is my schedule. 

Monday: clean downstairs (fit this in between naps, errands, workouts, etc)
Tuesday AM: mop/clean upstairs bathrooms from 5:30am - 6AM
Wednesday: clean upstairs 5:30AM - 6AM
Thurs: off
Friday: off
Sat/Sun: laundry & sheets, project time (closets, garage, yard, etc)

Week Full of Activities

This week is filing up with some fun activities!  On Monday evenings, I attend my BSF Bible study.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to go next week because my husband is on travel, so I made the most of my time this week with my wonderful group studying and discussing of the book of Isaiah.  Tonight after a work/school day, all five of us headed to a local restaurant that was designating 10% of all proceeds earned from 6-9pm to a Christian Children's Home that is supported partially by our church.  It was a blast b/c the place was packed with all our buddies!  The kids went from table to table visiting (even my youngest happily toddled to visit his teachers & pals).  Of course, I LOVED getting some hang out time with my mommy friends.  Tomorrow we're having some friends over for dinner.  The kids are excited to see their friends again tomorrow night and I have an "easy-to-fix-on-a-work-night" menu planned that hopefully will please both kiddos and adults (we'll see!). :)

We usually save our social activities for the weekend, but having some during the week is a nice treat!  Our upcoming weekend is pretty low key so we'll have some catch up time then.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Mommy & Kids Valentines Date

Every year the Chick Fil A near our house sponsors a mommy or daddy & kids date night once or twice a year.  This Valentines Day, they sponsored a mommy/kids date night to which my older two kids and I went.  My daughter being the very fashion conscious person that she is, picked out matching outfits for she & I.  Her brother was unwilling to participate in the "red" theme of the evening.  

After getting to the restaurant, the kids & I settled into our table and completed the craft they had set out for us (picture frames in which to put a picture from the evening) while waiting on our dinner.  After dinner the kids enjoyed some giant cups of ice cream.

Thank you Chick Fil A for a great date night!  Not forgetting Daddy who stayed home with little brother, we brought him a treat to sweeten his evening.

Spoke too Soon!

I should have knocked on wood after my previous post.  Unfortunately, I didn't and my husband, oldest son, and I all woke up sick this morning.  Hopefully it will pass soon.  Having pneumonia has made me MUCH more cautious and I will happily endure this virus with lots of liquids, rest, and NO EXERCISE!  These lungs will stay clear!

On the swim team front, I think I've found one!  The club offers a pre-team for kids 4-6 to teach them strokes.  They can start the team once they can swim one or two laps of the pool.  Both my older kids will be able to participate this summer and I am so excited for them!  Soccer starts back pretty soon for my son and will carry us through until swimming starts in May.  So many fun activities to anticipate!  

Healthy!

After a tough winter health-wise, I believe that my family is on it's way to being healthy.  Today for the first time in a while, all 3 kids went to school as planned.  We had a scare last night when my oldest ran and temperature, but it was gone this AM so I attributed it to his flu shot and happily sent him on his way.  The weather here has been beautiful so I'm hoping that my kids can stay healthy so we can enjoy it as family this weekend!

As for me, I am almost back to 100%.  I still get pleuritic pain when I cough, sneeze, and a little bit after I exercise, but otherwise it is not noticeable.  Last weekend I ran outside for the first time and was pleased with how I did.  I stopped after a 5K, mostly b/c I needed to get home and showered to take my daughter to ballet but I will try to do 4-5 this weekend.  Also this week I've started into a training program for a May triathlon!  It's wonderful to feel healthy - I'm back up to a healthy weight, and I am sleeping so much better!  I think my husband may train for and complete the May tri with me...and...there may be a kids race for my older 2 to do! 

On other exciting news, I'm exploring swim team options for my kids!!!  I am so excited about this b/c I swam on a team from the age of 4 until high school and have a lot of wonderful memories from those times.  I really hope we can find a team with a pre-team for both my son & daughter to learn their strokes.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Mother of the Year - No Way!

I'd like to nominate myself for the 2011 Mother of the Year Award- especially after the stellar mothering example I set today.  It all started when I took my youngest to the doctor after high fevers for 5 days.  First, the nurse took his oxygen sats, which were in the 80's (normal is close to 100), and shook her head sadly.  Then, she asked if my children had received flu shots to which I embarrassingly replied, "not yet".  After my response she looked at me reproachfully and asked, "You're a pharmacist, right?". 

After that, the doctor came in to examine my son.  She barely held the otoscope to his ear before exclaiming, "Oh wow! What an infection!".  She then moved on to his lungs and stated mournfully, "Poor little guy, he's not moving any air".  I think the real question she wanted to ask was, "Why didn't you bring him in sooner?". 

After the initial examination she exited the room so that her nurse could try an albuterol nebulizer to open up my son's lungs.  While she was gone, my older two kids distributed the toys and books around the room so artfully that both she and her nurse almost tripped the next time they came in the room.  That earned me a few "control them please", looks.  Lastly I sealed my title as mother of the year when my older son was hysterical at the thought of getting his flu shot.  He was screaming so loud (before she even brought in the shot), and flailing so forcefully that the entire office could hear and my legs and arms were bruised.  I tried everything I could to get him to calm down - nothing worked so I spanked him.  I couldn't get his attention any other way!  The spanking worked so I threatened to do it again if he didn't cooperate with the nurse.  Great - now in addition to fearing shots, he's going to be scared of getting in trouble! 

So at that point, I had neglected to bring my son in to the doctor in time to prevent the icky sickness he had, almost enabled a few broken ankles by not controlling my kids, and spanked my 4 year old for being scared....and you wonder why I think I deserve an award?

All's well that ends well.  I left the pediatrician's office 3 hours later with a prescription for amoxicillin, a toddler with normal oxygen sats, and 2 kids who received their flu shots.  I even was able to make it to my BSF Bible study this evening (which was much needed!).  As for that mother of the year award, I prefer platinum and can send you the address to which it can be mailed....Ha!  ;) 

A Wicked Valentines Date

Despite having a sick little boy my husband and I made it out for our Valentines date this afternoon.  We went to see "Wicked" and then went out to dinner.  The show was pretty good.  While it doesn't top either of our lists of favorites (we prefer the hard core comedies to the dramas although this was a mix of both), it was a joy to watch.  The show climaxes at the end of the first act with some dazzling special effects.  The second act is not quite as good as the first, as is common with these types of shows, but provides a satisfying wrap-up to the story.  This show showcases female talent  - the duets sent chills up my spine.  Wicked also unusually but wonderfully gives the female lead to an alto while allowing the soprano to sing the comic 2nd lead (you could argue that there are 2 leads, but most of the dynamic songs were sung by the alto).   I can only imagine what an awesome production it must have been with Idina Menzel & Kristin Chenoweth in the lead roles.  It was a treat to see a great show and to follow it up with a yummy dinner.  If you have the chance to see "Wicked", go see it.  It's a fun filled couple of hours where you get to escape to Oz and try "defying gravity". :)

Sick

Well,  I never got to try my ideas from the previous post because my youngest caught the flu.  My husband and I were supposed to have a fairly exciting weekend socially with a date night on Friday courtesy of free babysitting at our church, company for dinner tonight, and an afternoon/early evening outing tomorrow for Valentines Day.  While we are still planning our Valentines outing tomorrow to go see a show and then have dinner, we cancelled our other social engagements for the weekend.

My sweet baby is really quite sick and I feel so sorry for him.  He set a record today for the highest fever hit by any of my 3 kids.  I'm sure that was one honor he could have done without.  For a scary period of time today no medications touched his fever.  Thankfully that didn't last long and he started to improve this afternoon.  Hopefully we're through the worst.  The below pictures pretty much sum up how he feels.  Even though we haven't gotten out as much as we had planned, I have enjoyed getting some at home family time and some extra snuggles with my boy.  It's hard to watch your child suffer and even though I know he'll be fine soon, it makes for a worrisome few days!  

Entertaining - without dessert?

Over the past couple of months I have worked to minimize the amount of sweets & simple carbs in my family's diet.  We have made some good progress and eat sweet "treats" far less often than before.  I am also pleased that my kids no longer reach first for crackers & cookies as snacks (they used to go through boxes of the organic cheese & graham bunny crackers quick!) but ask for fruit, carrots, or string cheese.  However, this is definitely an ongoing challenge and there is still much room for improvement! 

Next, I would like to change the way I entertain to keep those habits in check even if we have guests for dinner.  In the past I used entertaining as an excuse to make the sweetest & most decadent desserts - after all, it was for company!  What I found was that my family (and I!) would eat the dessert leftovers for the rest of the week despite the fact that it was only intended for the one evening we had company.  Therefore, if we entertained a couple of times a month then we had sweets hanging around the house for at least 2 weeks of every month.  We haven't had company for dinner much since the holidays, but I love to entertain and am ready to do that more over the next few months.  It will be a fun challenge to entertain within the scope of our new eating habits and look for new healthy dessert options. 

We're having some friends over on Saturday and I'm going to try something new for the after dinner "treat".  I was thinking maybe a fruit & cheese platter, or fruit & yogurt parfaits.  I am looking for something that is slightly sweet (not much), and that will only last for that evening .  We'll see how it turns out.  Hopefully our company will still enjoy dinner!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

I dropped my oldest off at the school where he will start kindergarten in the fall for his evaluation.  The school we are sending him to evaluates each child prior to starting kindergarten.  I am so very excited about the school he will be attending.  It is one of only a handful of blue ribbon schools in our state and when my husband and I visited it we were so impressed with the resources and opportunities the school provides.

My oldest is such a neat kid.  He is extremely friendly - he met all the kids in the classroom while I was talking to the teacher and had promptly hung up his coat and backpack as if he had been going there all year.  The sweetest moment happened before we left when his sister ran back and gave him a big hug and a kiss in front of everyone...the best part was that he happily reciprocated.  Nothing warms a mom's heart more than seeing her kids love each other.  I can't wait to hear how his day went when when I pick him up at 12:30!

My oldest is pretty good at playing by himself and has a creative streak.  This combination sometimes results in big messes!  Case and point, yesterday after church he was doing his "room time" where he plays in his room for an hour or so in the afternoon.  When I went upstairs to get him ready for the Superbowl party, he gleefully exclaimed, "Mom, come see what I did!".  He had made a sign in the bathroom, but if you look closely at the word "nice" you can see that he wrote it in toothpaste!  He was trying to make his sign as colorful as possible and found the brilliant blue of the toothpaste irresistible.  It was a tough moment for me because he was so very proud of his sign and clearly was expecting a positive reaction from me yet he had made a huge mess that was going to require some serious cleaning.  I started with the positives but then had to bring up the waste & mess of the toothpaste.  My sensitive little guy's feelings were hurt a little, but after some snuggles and a good talk he was back to his chipper self and he understood why not to write with toothpaste.  Afterwards, his daddy brought  the camera along with the carpet steamer upstairs.  We had to snap a picture...it really was a creative, sweet sign. :)

No Heat = a Date and a crazy dog

It my seem odd that the natural gas shortage due to record low temperatures could lead to a date for my husband and I, but it did.  Both university and my husband's office closed in order to conserve gas and electricity for the rest of the state.  However, since both my husband and I were far behind at work thanks to all the closures this week planned to work a full day even if we had to work from a coffee shop.

Since I had some extra time that morning after exercising and showering, I decided to curl my hair.  I was pleased with the overall look, but my dog was NOT!  When I let our nanny in, he barked gleefully as usual but then I realized that he continued to bark.  When I turned to see what was going on I realized that he was barking at me!  He cowered behind Gina's legs barking and trembling every time I spoke or approached him as if I was the meanest stranger he had ever seen!  I wondered if he or I were going crazy when my husband came downstairs and said, "I'll bet it's your hair".  Imagine that!  I think he was right because when I got home that evening Gromit still barked at me like crazy; however, once I put my hair in a ponytail he was completely fine.  How funny!

As a result of the office closures, my husband and I worked in our respective offices until about 2 and then met at Starbucks to work a few more hours together.  We worked for a while and then decided to use the last hour to buy our Valentines presents for each other.  He needed some new clothes and I've been hankering after some new jeans.  It had been 3-4 years since I bought jeans because I only wear them on weekends, but found an awesome pair of skinny AG's at Anthropologie.  My fashion forward sister has been trying to talk my into skinny jeans for a while (not jeggings - heaven forbid!) and I found a pair that worked for a mom of 3. :)  It was a fun unexpected date thanks to the cold weather.

The Social Network

I really want to see this movie about the creators of facebook - it has been nominated for numerous awards and has a wonderful cast.  As for facebook itself, although I have an account I have started wondering lately if it's not more of a negative than positive mechanism for keeping up with people.  At first, I absolutely loved it because it provided a secure mechanism to keep up with family & friends both near and far.  I felt like I could be a better friend because I was aware of what went on in my friends' & family's lives and could offer encouragement, support, or congratulations.

While I still think it is useful for those matters, I'm beginning to notice that it can also be a rather selfish tool.  Some people actually place a lot of self worth on whether anyone comments on their posts.  I've noticed Christians (even some in leadership positions!) posting things that really seek to divide people not bring them together.  And someone please save me from the politics!  Lastly, I think it can become addicting and as someone who spends a lot of time working on a computer, I can see that I'm spending more time on facebook than I should.

Therefore I'm taking a little break from social networking.  I'll keep my account active because some folks use that as a means to communicate with me, but don't plan to visit it much.  I may get back on in a while, but will enjoy the break!

Snowed In Part 2

More snow plus record lows (we're not going above the teens during the day and will be in the negatives overnight) have given us another snow day today! The exception is my poor husband who has more meetings this afternoon.  He's going to work from home as long as possible because the roads are really terrible right now.  While it's a treat to spend another day with my family, I am sad that my cleaning lady won't be able to come today and I wish I had gotten some eggs at the grocery store this week.  When I made my list I didn't have any need for eggs this week so I didn't get any.  Now that we're snowed in, I could use some for yummy breakfasts, baking, etc.  I have a sweet young lady who really wants to bake brownies with her mommy - I may have to beg some off our neighbors because not only do I not want to disappoint my girl, but brownies sound REALLY good! :)  Mental note: always buy eggs!  Below are some pictures from yesterday.  My two younger kids enjoyed playing in the snow off and on all day (my daughter refused to keep her hat on - thank goodness she has enough hair on her head!).  My oldest had had enough of the snow after his first venture outside.  

I love it when my three kids play together - and last night they had a great time working as team to build a "train" out of their chairs.  My youngest had no idea what he was doing, but was thrilled to be included by his older siblings in their game.  Now...off to workout and see about borrowing some eggs... :)

Snow!

It started snowing yesterday evening and continued through the night.  Hooray!  My kids were thrilled to see all the snow and don't have school today.  As much as I love a good snow day it makes the daily juggle a little harder for my husband and I because our offices are only on a 2 hour delay.  I'm a little surprised that the university didn't close completely, but it will be business as usual after 10.  Thankfully, my husband can watch the kids while I teach from 11-2 and I'll be home in time for him to get to work for some afternoon meetings.  Despite having to juggle schedules and move things around, even we grown ups  love the snow!

 Addendum:  Well, the powers that be at the university came to their senses and cancelled classes so we're all enjoying a snow day (except my husband who has to go in for a meeting).  I  used this morning while my husband was home to start weaning back into longer runs.  I didn't brave the snow, but ran on our treadmill.  Despite being indoors on flat terrain it was probably the most difficult run I've done in years.  I had to slow to a walk several times and toward the end of my 40 minutes my lungs felt as bad as they did the last few miles of the marathon I ran in 2002.   Hard to believe just a few months ago I ran a half marathon!  How quickly it goes...but hopefully it will come back just as quickly.  Now, I need a nap! ;)  Here are a few more snow pictures from this morning.  In addition to the kids having fun, I had to post a picture of our dog, Gromit.   He enjoys the snow as much as the kids!