Summer Blogging

It seems every time I make a plan it gets derailed. I planned to keep us so busy this week that the time would fly, and boys would sleep great and Kevin would be back before I knew it. The first few days were right on track. Sunday we went on a long hike. Longer than intended actually, due to me forgetting that when boys say "noooo we aren't tired, let's keep going!" it could still be a matter of mere minutes before they are tiiiiiired, and need to be back right noooooow. They all survived though and they were calm in the evening and slept... okay. I ended up with two of them in my bed but that's not all that abnormal when Kevin is out of town. The next day I had a doctor appointment and in the afternoon we went to the pool. Some friends were with us and we had pizza delivered to the pool. It was lovely. Then I took a rest day. Because we all needed it after two very active days. On Wednesday, Zack was under the weather, so we cancelled our plans and stayed home again. Then yesterday it rained. We were all set to escape the house today & go to the beach, but today Mark has a fever. So we are home again and I'm stir crazy. I'm not good at actually staying home. Generally speaking, I need to be out of the house for at least a few hours on any given day. It doesn't have to be anything exciting, but the park, or the pool, or Target. I just need to get out. Kevin gets back this evening and I am so excited to see him!

Much like life derails my plans, my best attempts at blogging keep getting thwarted. When I heard the Silicon Valley Moms Blogs were to be no more, taking out the extra little nudge I had to write something read-worthy (at least I what I hoped to be!) every few weeks, I decided to work a little harder on this blog. I lasted about a week, posting more regularly and then I disappeared again. Granted, it's summer, my husband has been out of town since Sunday and my brain is kind of shot. Summer blogging is hard, because I try to keep the kids busy and while ideally I'd blog in great detail (with pictures) about all the fun stuff we're doing, the reality is by the time we get done with all that I am spent. Also, the chaos, while mostly fun, leaves me unable to think in complete sentences, much less compose a coherent post. That's a tall order on a good day. So instead, I'll take what I can get, quit making grand plans, and blog when I get around to it. Readability optional. When school starts I'll be a little more ambitious.

A Few Confessions

1. I still have not run since I've been home from vacation. I want to. I set the alarm, and when it goes off I just.can't.get.up. I am blaming this on being stuck on Central Time. I was sleeping til 7 central, and now getting up at 7 Eastern is HARD. To run I have to get up and out the door by 6 (ish) and it's just not happening. Next week Kevin will be far far away on business and no running will be happening then. I plan to get one good jog in this weekend, and fill in with the exercise bike next week, then back to running regularly. I did have a thought this morning that might help that was planted by the Beck Diet Solution. I reminded myself that every time I didn't get up that it would be easier to sleep in the next time. The author, Judith Beck, explains how every time you give in (either to food, or to not exercising) you are strengthening your "giving in muscle." Each time you resist that temptation you are strenghtening your "resistance muscle." Unfortunately, today I thought of it too late and couldn't go run and get home in time for Kevin to go to work. But, when he's back in town I hope this strategy will get me back on track regardless of what time zone my body thinks it's in. (PS if you feel like you need a little boost in your quest for healthy living/weight loss I completely recommend this book. I plan to reread parts of it for a refresher very soon. I bought it on Amazon and recommend it because it has really changed the way I think about food.)

2. I had my first mommy meltdown of the summer. It was ridiculous, actually, because I'm really enjoying having all the kids back home, and having things almost back to normal (almost because I'm never totally sure what normal is.) Yet, despite my resolve to be patient and not let certain children behaviors get to me, I completely got mad over something little. You see, Mark has this quality in which he's never quite satisfied. Never quite has enough. Always thinking of what's next, and maybe a little bit wants to run the whole show. I do my efforts to keep him content, but I also have 5 other family members to consider, as well as time and budget constraints. The story goes, all day long he was complaining. Complained when I wouldn't let him play Wii because it was school work time. Complained when he couldn't play Wii because it was chore time. In fact, every time I made any request of him it was met with grumbling. I let it go, because he did it, and this is the new, patient, me.

So, since our morning stuff was done I decided we'd do a picnic at the park. To be even extra nice we got our food from McDonalds and arrived at the playground. Of course, no one could agree where to go so I took a vote. 3 to 1... guess who the descenting opinion was. Guess who deemed the winning playground to be BORING and a BABY playground. I ignored the complaints as I knew once we got there things would be fine. I would not be defeated by his negativity. Mark has another habit of annoying his brothers and doing little ornery things like throw the shoes they are trying to put on their feet into the back of the van. This little act, as I was getting their food gathered and out of the car made me a little berserk and I started kind of tossing the chocolate milk containers back into the van so I could go get the tossed shoes, and when I got to the last one I realized too late that it was in fact my diet coke, which the lid popped off of and emptied into my seat. Sigh. I guess I didn't yell at them, and I wasn't throwing anything hard, just more of a bouncing stuff into the seat to make a point. HOWEVER, it was immature and silly and I apologized to my kids for throwing a little bit of a tantrum. The rest of the day went on and we had fun, so I guess no one was traumatized.

Updates and Randomness

First of all, I have to confess that Mother's Day, while wonderful, was not perfect. What day is? I didn't include some of the funny things that happened because, yesterday, I chose to highlight the good. Which I should be doing more often. Today, I can find the humor on things like being peed on, so today, I will post them. I woke up yesterday, tired and cranky. I decided that I better snap out of it and faked it. Ever heard the term "fake it til you make it?" It actually works a lot of the time. Who knew. So I put on a smile. At some point in the day I started feeling dizzy. Once that passed, we went to the beach. It really was every bit as fun as I told you. I forgot to mention that Ben ate sand. Quite a lot of sand despite my trying to stop him. And shells. And a rock. Okay, he didn't actually ingest the shells or the rock, but they did go in his mouth. And he got a face full of water once because he wouldn't hold my hand in the water. Anyway! Beach was fun, daddy got a sunburned back, but the rest of us fared pretty well. The nap I talked about was undoubtedly the worst nap ever. Kevin took the big boys out, Ben was asleep and Zack was going to sleep with me. Except the second I laid down and Kevin left, Zack decided sleep was not on his agenda. Pulling on my face, pouncing around the bed, and numerous other aggravations were. When Kevin got home I kicked out the crazy boy and slept for about 30 minutes, but I woke feeling groggy. Then Ben woke up and holy cranky kiddo! It was bad. Kevin worked on dinner (yum!) and I snuggled with Ben. I had changed his diaper and not put his clothes back on and suddenly I felt a warm wetness. There was clearly a major diaper malfunction and I was covered in pee. I have no idea how that even happened but I wasn't loving it. I changed and we ate dinner. Well, Kevin and I ate, the big boys whined about it. They were all oh so whiny! So, you see, this was the reason that at 6:30 I was typing about my day and that the kids were in bed. It really was a lovely day, I don't want to diminish that. But, you know, I also don't want to forget the crazy, funny, ridiculous things that happen around here. in case it calms down someday.

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Update on housekeeping:

Guess what! I'm still not Martha Stewart. Bummer. I am getting back on the Flylady system full force tomorrow. Right now my dishes are done and my LR is clean. For today, that's going to have to work, because I have another mountain of laundry to fold tonight. If I keep trying to do better and keep the house cleaner it will fall into place someday right?

On a positive note, the desk is still clean!!!!!

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Update on fitness:

Well, the weight loss has stalled. I haven't gained any, but it's been a few weeks since I've seen a loss. I'm still working out. I'm pretty sure the stall is caused by things like cookies and pie and chips that I've been eating a little too much this last week. Overall, my meals have been very healthy, so I just need to do better about snacking. Starting now.

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Random funniness:

Picture me trying to catch a naughty two year old who was out of bed for the third time around the living room table, saying "Zack! This isn't funny! Stop running." All the while trying not to laugh. Then as we walked up the stairs "Oh man!" (a la Swiper the Fox) I had to press my lips together really hard to not laugh at that one.

Picture Ben on top of the little table at the gym child care scaring the workers half to death. Okay, that one's really only funny because someone else was in charge and I didn't have to get him down myself.

Picture Eric and Mark in the back of the car having this conversation:

Mark: So and so behaved rudely at school today.
Eric: Did he have to go to the principal's office?
Mark (indignant!): I don't have a principal Eric, (then not so indignant) but we do have a front office.

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And one more thing:

Eric lost his second tooth today. He is soooo big!

Yard Work, aka Keeping Ben out of the Street

Last night after dinner we decided to do some yard work. Kevin was trimming the bushes and I was pulling weeds out of the flower beds. You know, so we don't get any letters (we never did get a letter last time so perhaps I overreacted a little. Sorry HOA) Anyway, yard work. I always underestimate how helpful the big boys can be when they want to and if properly motivated. I've mentioned before that Kevin is the master of spin. I'm not kidding he can really convince a child that something they dislike is something they LOVE and make them think it's their idea. It's an art. He's also really good at inventing games that make mundane tasks that are BORING (or Bo-wing if you are Mark) fun! I guess it's the spoon full of sugar factor. An example, we were in GA last November visiting friends and that is where "calling all toys" was invented. We invaded our friends' home with our 4 boys adding to their 3 kids and were doing a quick pickup before bed and the kids were all just kind of standing there watching. So he says OK guys, "calling all toys, all toys to the toy room!" and miraculously they started picking up. So now calling all toys is our nightly drill. They love it. For the record he swears he didn't start it and credits Kydon and Shanna with dreaming it up. I 'm pretty sure it was him, though. Maybe Shanna can clear this up?

ANYWAY, yard work. He was trimming bushes and asked the boys to pick the trimmings up and carry them to the trashcan. He didn't just stop there. Let's play a game! Let's see who can get the most trimmings to the trash can. Eric became "Eric the Super Speedy" and Mark became "Mark the Strong." I don't know why I don't think of these things because it works magically. I don't know if I'm just boring and uncreative or if it's simply that I compartmentalize. Work is work, play is play. I do definitely incorporate his strategies but I just don't think of them on my own.

While the ultimate bush trimming competition was going on I was weeding the flower beds. The grass is encroaching upon the plants and I was brutally yanking it out. I would have been much more successful except my teeny tiny baby (yes I'm still in denial) has this magnetism to the road. He is fascinated and at every opportunity making a dash for it. Fortunately for me, he giggled maniacally every time he headed that direction. I'd hop up from my spot in the grass and run to catch him before he made it to the street. He ate a little dirt, sucked on a few rocks, and had a really fun time. There are still some weeds in the flower bed but my baby boy is in one piece, and that's what matters.