Ummm...I guess it is spring break

The winter/spring season has been the busiest I can remember. It turns out that Spring Break is next week. THAT snuck up on me. I've got 3 kids who are so excited to be off for a week and I've got nothing planned. I briefly considered several mini-vacations, but we've had a lot of vacations lately and are planning a trip for May...so that's not in the cards (or checkbook).

I chased down hubby this morning and invited (forced) him to discuss a Spring Break Plan O' Action. We are now on the SBPO'A committee. We came up with a list of fairly low-cost items that we could do and plan on implementing one per day. Here's our options:

* matinee movie (Mars needs Moms? Okay for a 4 yr old?)
* Kid-friendly dinner (Rainforest Cafe?)
* get haircuts
* Arcade at Lincoln Square
* Rollerskating at Bellevue Skate King (take the 4 yr old?)
* Go visit Great Grandma
* Go to the dentist (is it possible to get an appt for all 3 kids on the same day?)
* Get a kid portrait taken at a picture studio

So, anyone got an other ideas? Swim lessons for Spunky Girl and the Big Guy continue this week, as does the Big Guy's preschool (they couldn't possibly have the same Spring Break. Of course not.) We'll just have to schedule our other outings around those. Maybe I can think of some other inside the house things to do that would be fun too, but I can already hear myself saying "No, you can't have any more screen time" and "Please put the video games away and find a book" a million times.

Who's got other ideas for me? Other sanity tips? We're not supposed to have great weather next week, so sending the kids outside to play won't work most days. Even if they do go outside, I have to watch that they don't grab their gaming devices on the way out.
Apparently they don't find a yard full of grass as inviting as I'd hoped they would. Sigh.

A Daunting Task

It feels overwhelming. I feel defensive. The reasons why it won't work come bubbling up faster than the hopeful thoughts of success.

Healthier eating. If it was just for me, I know I wouldn't do it. I'm content enough with my health that the extra efforts to control my snacking and cook healthier meals just won't happen. But when you bring my kids and hubby into the equation...then I have to try.

My kids aren't getting enough fuel during the day. Every morning, the girls get up and make themselves breakfast. They get themselves cold cereal (usally Cinnamon Life, Frosted Mini Wheats, or Kix) or they pop a bread item (bagel, english muffin, or Eggo waffle) into the toaster. I send them to school with a bagged lunch, consisting of a Capri Sun drink, half a turkey or ham sandwich, a piece of fruit, and some type of cracker. Spunky Girl, my 6 year old, never touches her sandwich. That means that every day she consumes only carbs and a light amount of fruit until 3:30 pm. That is just not the fuel she should have to run her brain and body throughout the day. I've tried sending other protein sources in her lunch (like yogurt or cheese) and I've tried making them smoothies in the morning (a lot of work and they only take one or two sips). It just never seems to stick because they prefer the carb options.

At snack time after school, I can usually talk them into some cheese...but only if I pair it with a carb. Sweetness, my 8 year old, loves nachos so she'll pop some tortilla chips into the microwave with cheese shredded on top. Spunky girl will have some slices of cheese with crackers or maybe some string cheese. They'll eat those things if there is no sugar-filled items to entice them, like a pudding cup or cookies.

The dinner plate always has three parts: the protein, the carb, and the veggie. Sometimes the carb and the meat are combined (like tacos). I found myself always placing a large carb item on their plates because I knew I would only get 2 bites of a veggie and 3 bites of a protein into them. At least when I offered a carb, I knew they wouldn't leave the table hungry. I try to serve water or milk only with dinner (although I've been talked into chocolate milk more times than I want to admit).

I look at all that breakdown and think "I'm not doing too bad. That sounds like a reasonable offering." but then I think about the breakdown of food that actually ends up in their body and I realize it is pretty much all carbs except for maybe 8 bites of fruit, protein, and veggie.

I think the hard part about making healthier food is that I have to mentally gear up for 2 things:
* the extra time it takes
* the resistance I'm going to get from the kids

Adding more work into the day is daunting when you already feel like the work you do is constant. There is already a long list of housework chores that aren't getting done. When you add to that the knowledge that the extra effort you put in will not be met with gratitude and joy, but instead with groanings and tears, it makes getting started a bit of an emotional hurdle. Do I really want to make meals an unhappy event? Do I want kids crying because I've only served pork chops and broccoli for dinner and there isn't anything that they want to eat? Do I really want to make myself get up early to cook a protein filled breakfast on the stove instead of letting the kids make their own breakfast?

So we gave it a try this morning. Hubby woke me up early (as he was leaving for work) and I started on breakfast before the kids got out of bed. I made eggs and sausage patties this morning. The kids loved it. Spunky Girl ironically commented "sausage is junk food" and happily ate it. Hubby commented "they probably shouldn't have eggs every day", which might be true from a cholesterol point-of-view. I feel good about sending them to school with a belly full of protein, even if it isn't low fat...at least it wasn't full of white flour and sugar.

I thought I might try to change one thing a month and then keep that one thing going. February will be trying to make healthier breakfasts for the kids. Maybe March will be trying to cut down their tv time, although I suspect all the sports that are starting in March (swimming and soccer) will help with that. Who knows.

got ideas for me? Things that I can do for healthier eating? I'm sure I've got a defensive reason why that won't work, but I might still give it a try!

The Sweet Spot

My sister asked me today if I've given up blogging. I really haven't, but you sure wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at my recent blog activity. Hubby is watching the SeaChickens play, so I guess tonight is the night for my first blog post of 2011.

I found myself wondering the other day if I've hit a parenting sweet spot. I've always known that I'm not a "baby stage" parent. I just don't love the baby stage. I love the child, of course, and I love the new baby smell, but I don't love the spit up, I don't love the diapers, I don't love the back ache from carrying the kid in a car seat, I don't love the middle of the night crying, I don't love the nursing, I don't love giving them baths, I don't love being trapped by a sleeping child's schedule...and I could go on and on. It is amazing I had 3 lovely children given how much I don't love the baby stage.

I don't think the toddler stage is really my stage either. I don't really care for tantrums at the library, or the constant buckling and unbucking of car seats. It is cute when they learn to talk, but then go through that talking all the time phase where you constantly have to go "uhuh, yep, sure, uhuh, really?" I've been known to say "mommy seriously needs a break from all the talking".

So, when the kids got out of school for winter Holidays, I wasn't sure that 2 weeks of all the kids at home together was going to be tons of fun. But it was; it was tons of fun. We really had a good time. We went to the movies a couple of times (yea for $5 movies at Factoria), we went to Barnes and Noble a time or two, we went to the park to go scootering, we hung out together. I don't think I had noticed that the Big Guy was turning into a kid that could hang out, but it was sure noticeable that it was finally happening. No more "mom will stay behind with the Big Guy while Dad goes out to have fun with the older girls".

I remember my pediatrician warning me that the terrible twos for little boys runs about 1.5 years. Here we are...the Big Guy is 4 years old in 3 months...and we've gotten past it. I know everyone's experience is different. Some little boys don't have the tantrum-filled 2/3 year old behavior. But my little boy did and I was unprepared (although warned) for how much patience I would need. But now...SWEET SPOT!!!

Hopefully there is such a thing as a sweet spot and it isn't just a fairytale land in my head. Or, maybe even better would be that the Sweet Spot lasts for the rest of our lives. That's not too much to hope for right? Who doesn't love the constant drama of the teenage years?

Let's just capture this "sweet spot" in time with some pics:
Sweetness -- the leader of the pack

Spunky Girl -- the life of the party

The Big Guy -- the newcomer to the hang-out crew

A Child's Psyche

This morning, as I walked my girls down to the bus stop, my Spunky Girl said "I lie to myself".

"What do you mean?" said I
"sometimes I lie to myself so I don't get so hyper" replied she
"hyper about what?" further inquired I
"like going to the cabin" said she
"like what kind of a lie" said I, still a bit confused
"like there will be no snow at the cabin" said she
"Of course there is snow at the cabin" broke in her older sister (who thinks life is a big candy shop)
"Yep, there is snow there honey" said I
"I know" she said "but I tell myself there isn't any snow so I won't get too excited"

The whole conversation made me realize how much nature plays a strong part in who we are and less of that nurture stuff.
Spunky Girl doesn't have life experiences that teach her not to trust that good things are coming, and yet she still keeps herself in check from getting too excited about them.


Sweetness, her older sister who thinks that life is all candy candy candy, can't imagine a world where anything bad happens. "Of course life is going to be awesome" she thinks.


I think perhaps it is too early to tell how the Big Guy, who I think I might start calling Cave-man, will react to life. I think he expects life to lay itself at his feet "right now"! Anything else will just be unacceptable.

Maybe someday, a high priced therapist will conclude that Spunky Girl puts up walls around herself to protect herself because of some trauma she experienced in her young life...but I will know better. And come on, doesn't mom always know better?

The problem with being noise sensitive

I'm noise sensitive. Little noises irritate the heck out of me. I can hear people chewing from rooms away. Gum snapping? You gotta be kidding me. Clipping your nails? Sends me to the moon. Random tapping? Uh...NO.

So, where's the problem, right? I'm the mom. Maybe I've got to put up with some of hubby's noises, but I sure don't have to listen to kid noises. I just ask them to stop whatever noise is irritating me. But the problem is that I model the behavior that my kids adopt. I teach them, by my behavior, that they don't have to accept somebody making noises that irritate them. I teach them to say "Shhh...that's irritating me" everytime I say "Shhh...that's irritating me". And when you've got 4 people saying "Shhh...please stop making that noise", it turns out that EVERY noise is irritating to someone. Do we really have to live in silence? Is it not okay for a person to hum a little ditty if they feel like it? How do I tell the kids that they can't keep asking everyone to be quiet when I get to tell people to be quiet whenever I feel like it?

It's not that I believe that children should have all the rights that parents have, 'cause I don't. There are definitely times when I think a parent gets to tell a child to be quiet because they are being irritating. But I also don't think I want to be the kind of parent that says "do what I say, but don't think it is a nice way to behave to others".

But...I don't my kids going over to someone else's house and making annoying noises either. Somehow I have to find a way to differentiate legitimately annoying noises (that must be stopped at all cost) and normal annoying kids behavior (which I need to learn to live with) so my kids can actually have a life without being told to constantly "be quiet" by their siblings.

I need to say that to myself again. I need to learn to live with annoying kid noises without telling them to be quiet. No more falling to the floor with my hands over my ears because my kids are humming the theme song to iCarly.

Sigh.

This may be a work in progress.

Refusing to get derailed

4 weeks ago I started my 12 week fitness and weight loss plan. Then life happened. Life in the form of wisdom teeth removal (not fun, but not such a big setback), bone graft (super lame...took weeks to recover from), mole removal (scary, but trivial), plantar fasciitis (stupid, stupid, stupid...and just won't go away), and throwing my back out (again). So here we are 4 weeks later and I've neither become an athlete nor lost any weight. Sigh.

But I've got 8 weeks left in my original plan and I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. I've got too many cute pairs of jeans in one size smaller to get derailed so easily.

I'm waffling on whether I want to run the fun run that I was planning on in October. I really like the idea of being a runner. It fits into my frugalista game plan. Running is a heck-of-a-lot cheaper than working out in a gym. There is also something REALLY appealing about lacing up a pair of running shoes and being unavailable for conversation for about an hour. Imagine...nothing but the birds chirping for an entire 60 minutes. But, that plantar fasciitis thing (which is like a swollen muscle beneath my right foot...I think) gets worse when I jog or walk a long way.


So...if I run I risk making the pain worse, but if I don't run it feels like I'm giving up.

Regardless of whether I can make the running-thing work out, I am definitely restarting my calorie-counting. Tomorrow. I mean it. Tomorrow. Dear friend Donita has a bodybugg to lend me (Yeah!) so I'll go pick up that this week and start tracking on the bodybugg website. Until then, it will be calorie counting on livestrong.com.

That's the plan. I hope that 4 weeks from now I'm not listing all the things that derailed me for the last month, but even if that happens...I can always start again. Right? Right!

A letter to my girls

Dear girls --
You've finally pushed me over the edge. You know how your dad has been saying that he is going to confiscate the clothes you leave out? And I haven't really been backing him up, preferring to lecture you a little bit and then help you put your clothes away? Well no more.

Today, little Miss Sydney, I found the shirt that I told you to change before school in my dirty laundry basket. It was there because you were too lazy to put it away, even after I was nice and went and got you a different shirt to wear to school. You didn't seem to care that I would have to sort it, wash it, dry it, fold it, and hound you to put it away because you put it in there...when you would have only had to put it away. Way more work for me, but essentially the same amount of work for you. Not cool.

So now we have this fun new system! If you leave clothes on the floor and I find them when I come in your room at bedtime, they are confiscated. If you leave clothes on the floor in the bathroom or living room or back deck (whichever weird place you've decided to change), they are confiscated. I keep them for a month, at which point you have to put them away anyway.

And little Miss Cheyenne...I heard you talking about stealing the clothes back out of the box. That would not be smart girl. You do not want to see the amount of chores you will have to do to buy those clothes back that you stole from me. You might as well choose to be a prisoner on the chain gang for Halloween, because that is what it would be like.

I'm glad we had this little talk.
Love, Mom