Habit Forming - Day 5 - The No Nap Habit

One habit I worked hard to break myself of is napping. That's right I have a no-nap habit.

Growing up Saturday and Sunday afternoons were reserved for napping. In fact, I do believe I typically napped daily even in high school - falling asleep doing homework between school and dinner counts as a nap, right? Sunday afternoons when we got home from church, after lunch, my sister and I would curl up on the couch and put on a movie - usually something along the Jane Austen lines. Then fall asleep. It was always my favorite part of the week.

When I moved out on my own, I continued my napping habit on the weekends. Lounging around lazily, waking up and ordering a pizza. It was heavenly. After Mr. Amen and I married, we kept the tradition going. Weekend naps were the best cuddled up with my fella. After we welcomed our son, we were tired new parents so when the baby napped in the afternoons, so did we. And we continued this tradition up until recently.

One thing that bothered me as I got older was that I no longer found the naps to be refreshing. I would wake up with a headache and remain sluggish for the remainder of the day. I had the feeling I had wasted my "free-time" by sleeping and hadn't accomplished anything on my ten mile long to-do list.

So I quit.

Cold Turkey Style

Now I am a committed no-napper. Am I still tired in the afternoons? You bet, but I don't give in to the temptation to lay down and rest my eyes. Not even for 10 minutes. Not even if I set the timer. Not even if I set my alarm clock. Not even if I know the kids will be up in 20 minutes. I do not nap.

I use the time to catch-up in the middle of the day to keep things from becoming completely overwhelming by the end of the day. Nap-time is now mommy's break time. Well, if you consider these things a break:

• Pick-up the family room/living room/dining room/kitchen of any toys/clothes/other random crap that has found its way to these spaces. This is critical to keeping me sane for the rest of the day. By the time the kids go for their afternoon naps (or quiet time for my oh-so-grown-up 4 year old who refuses to nap), the house is destroyed. They have to pick up before naps, but then I do the real heavy lifting after they are in their rooms.
• Start dinner. Sometimes I cook the meal at nap time, then just heat it up at dinner time. Sometimes I do my mise en place during naps. Sometimes I do my baking if dinner doesn't require any pre-work.
• Read. I take at least 15-30 minutes to sit down and read. It can be blogs, other stuff online, a book, a newspaper, a devotional, my Bible, doesn't matter. I just try to do some reading each day.
• Work on our finances - update the checking account register, pay bills, etc. It is much easier to concentrate on this stuff when the kids aren't hanging on my arm or asking to watch the Alphabet Song again and again.
• Pray. I might spend some time in prayer specifically for my husband or I might saw a Rosary or a Divine Mercy Chaplet. I might just spend some time meditating on the day's readings from Mass.
• Every now and then I get the chance to watch TV. I am partial to Food Network (though I think the commercials they are airing are getting out-of-hand and are no longer always child friendly). Sometimes I'll watch an episode of The Office on Ne.tflix. We all need time to zone out, right?
• Laundry reset. I'll go move the load I started in the morning from the washer to the dryer. If there is still a load in the dryer, I'll fold it. If I am feeling especially ambitious, I might start another load or if I am washing cloth diapers that day, those require three full cycles (well, really only 2 cycles and an extra rinse, but I usually do another full cycle instead of just the rinse to make sure all the soap has gotten out), I will start them up again, knowing I'll need to do another wash that night before drying them in the dryer or hanging them on the line the next morning.

Not napping has made a big difference in the rhythm of my day. It gives me the "break" I need to accomplish things without the kids hanging on me. It gives me time to "catch up" and get my peace of mind - or just a piece of my mind - back before the afternoon/evening routine kicks off around here.

So, on day 5 of my Habit Forming Challenge, this is what happened:

• Out of bed at 7:30am, showered and dressed.
• Both kids up, dressed and fed (liquids at least) so we could leave on time at 8:30am sharp for picture day at football. Che.erios in the car for all :-)
• Picture Day at flag football. It was just my darling SIL and I with only 4 kids between us, so you think we would've been fine. But not really. It was about 85 degrees and humid inside the building where they were taking the pictures...and there was a gaggle of 4-5-and-6 year olds running around like chickens being prepped for supper. All the big kids decided they needed to use the potty at once so we took over the unisex, handicapped bathroom to wrangle them all. The 6 year old thought it was sooooo fun to push the door opener button repeatedly, until he was threatened with an untimely death, then it ceased to be fun. The 5 year old was having trouble with her pink leggings and was too giggly about us all being together in the bathroom. The 4 year old struggled with his belt and required Auntie's help to wrangle his boy-bits out from under his extra long football jersey. And the 1 year old just thought the under-side of the sink was the coolest thing she'd ever come across. Meantime, Auntie and I just about sweated our derrieres off and I wondered why I had chosen to wear light grey sweat/yoga pants. Now I couldn't sit down because when I stood back up all my sweaty grossness would be visible. 
• Flag football game!!! The kids had a blast.
• Home for lunch and naps for the kids and Mr. Amen.
• Laundry
• Finances
• Reading
• NO DINNER PREP!! Well, I mean, I did make sure we had chicken nuggets in the freezer and mac 'n cheese in the cupboard. My parents came over to watch the kids so we could go out for an adult evening!!
• Eucharistic Adoration of the exposed Sacrament for an hour. I had the chapel all to myself as my holy hour is during Mass at my parish. Sometimes at the beginning of the hour there are a few people finishing up their penance having just come from the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession), but not this time. There were 2 other Adorers there when I arrived and they both promptly left at 4pm. No one else even came in until 5pm. It was so refreshing to spend an hour with Jesus and to have Him all to myself :-) Swoon! I'm in love.
• Dinner and movie date with Mr. Amen. He looked so handsome in his jeans, dress shirt and jacket. He's a snazzy dresser that husband of mine. I wore a nice outfit (should've taken a picture) - maternity jeans (what's up, stretchy waist!?!?), a white tank top, a black maternity/nursing tank over that, with a black sweater with green accents, my green pendant necklace and houndstooth high heels (6-inch). Unfortunately my hair was in a ponytail and I wasn't wearing any makeup, but pregnancy glow, right?
• Indian food for dinner, Rus.h for the movie. We're Fo.rmula 1 fans, what can we say?
• Loaded dishwasher, watched some TV, did some more reading.

So a good, productive day, especially considering all the sweating I did early in the morning at football.

Habit Forming - Day 4

I had a great conversation with my sister-in-law as we sat at flag football practice watching the kids tonight. I told her about my series on ye old blog for the month. Before I get into our conversation let me tell you about her.

She and my brother went to high school together and they started dating in 1999 and married in 2004. She is a wonderful wife and mother to 4 spectacular kids (so far) and 2 fur babies. She is pretty, witty, intelligent, fun, kind and did I mention pretty? She is a birth doula and a baker and a great friend. Most of all she is a SAHM, and she is darn good at it. She'll deny this of course, but she is a very wise woman and I would do well to listen to her advice.

So I told her that I was struggling with adjusting to my new role as a SAHM. Most days I feel like I am failing at this "job" in every possible way. She knows me well and knows that I have wanted this opportunity for a long time. By asking a very simple question she really got to the heart of my struggle. "What are your expectations of being a SAHM?"

And that right there is exactly my struggle.

I want to take care of my kids. I want to make good food. I want to have time for leisure. I want to homeschool. I want to keep a clean, orderly and organized home. I want to support my husband in his role as provider for our family.  I want to have fun. I want our lives to look like what I see on other people's blogs. But mostly I want to enjoy being at home.

"You need to lower your expectations. I think you are just too hard on yourself."

Am I being too hard on myself? I know the things of which I am capable. I have high hopes and high ambitions. I will push myself pretty hard to accomplish the things I feel are important. I think she is right though.

I feel like a failure when I look around at the end of the day and the house is still covered in toys and unfolded laundry, but I should see my sleeping children with full bellies and be content with taking care of them. I feel like a failure when my 4 year old can't tie is own shoes, but I should be content with his zeal for sharing God's love with everyone he meets. I feel like a failure when my 13 month old leaks through another diaper, but I should be content that she walks straight to her room when I say "Time to change your diapee!" I feel like a failure when I look at our bank account and realize I could do better at saving at couponing/sale shopping to save us money, but I should be content that God has met our needs and many of our wants and we are very fortunate to have the resources we do.

Here's what my day looked like:

• All of us up and dressed by 8:30am
• Kids fed three decent meals
• 2 loads of laundry completed (including one load of diapers, which is really like doing three loads)
• Homeschooling done - letters E and F reviewed
• Read a book to the kids (multiple times because they love it so much)
• Ran errands to Lo.we's, Targ.et, Krog.er, dry cleaners
• Worked on some writing I'd been wanting to get done
• Vacuumed the floor in the kitchen because I didn't fit between the van and the wall in the garage to reach my broom (bathroom where I usually keep it is under construction)
• Flag football practice done (we were about 15 minutes late, traffic was ridiculous!)
• Gassed up the van (Mr. Amen pumped the gas, but I drove)
• Dishwasher loaded
• Junior bathed and ready for pictures tomorrow
• Bed time routine completed, all items ready to go to football game tomorrow, including the camera

So I'd say it was a good day. Not perfect. But I feel content with all I accomplished. And that's good enough for me.

Habit Forming - Day 3

Today was off to a rough start from the beginning. Mr. Amen woke up late and got in the shower late and our son, who had an accident during the night, but changed himself and didn't even wake us up, woke up and immediately started talking (nothing out of the ordinary), but he woke up his little sister, who then demands attention. And today, big brother's attention was not getting the job done. She wanted "MAMA" and she wanted me now.

Which was a problem because I really required a shower this morning since I had an appointment with my doctor today for a biopsy of a skin condition. Gross and ouch!

So Mr. Amen left at 8am, and I was unshowered. Neither kid was dressed. Both kids needed to be fed. So I fed the kids while unloading the dishwasher. Then I totally forgot to do school. But I did remember to check our bank account to make sure our extra mortgage payment had found its way back to our account (it had - Thanks be to God!).

Then somehow, time completely got away from me and the next thing I knew we were "playing" the piano when my mom pulled up in the driveway, which meant it was after noon. My doctor appointment was at 1:20pm, so I jumped in the shower while Mom fed the kids. Then I took off for my appointment.

It turns out that when I entered the appointment into my electronic calendar (Cozi), I got absolutely nothing right about it, even though I confirmed it verbally with the scheduler before I left last time I was there. I thought I was seeing Dr. B today at 1:20pm in Suite 350. Turns out they had me scheduled for tomorrow with Dr. W at 1:20 in Suite 200. Seriously. Come to find out Dr. B left the practice and Dr. W was covering her schedule for tomorrow.

Of course, the problem is that my babysitter, aka Mom, was there today and is not available tomorrow. They were able to accommodate my scattered mess of a self and they squeezed me in with Dr. S at 2:10pm. This gave me time for a candy bar. Delicious! Gotta get that in before my 24 week glucose tolerance test.

The biopsy, I was told, would feel like a bee sting. However, the thought of a bee sting in this sensitive area of my body just seemed like a root canal with no anesthesia. So the biopsy took place as I practiced my labor breathing techniques (the doctor was not impressed, and I don't think she believed me that I had done a natural childbirth and that I planned to do another). Whatevs!

Then when I got home, the numbing agent wore off and wowee! The Sting set in.

Thank God my parents had us all over for pizza or it would've been soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches all around.

But I did get Junior's sheets and mattress protector washed and back on his bed before 9pm; and I did call our lawn service to see when they are coming out to aerate and overseed. My dad painted the bathroom. Mr. Amen loaded the dishwasher and all I need to do to make my list for tomorrow/check my calendar and get anything ready that we'll need right away.

So basically today was an epic fail.

Oh! And We have a mole in our front yard. He appeared last night and he has already done quite a number on the lawn.

Habit Forming - Day 2

Well, that was quite a day now wasn't it?!?

Last night I started thinking through my bed time routine a little more. Last night my routine consisted of:

• load the dishwasher
• clear the counters
• pick up the toy mess in the family room, dining room, kitchen and living room (the kids do "clean up" before they get ready for bed, but they don't do a stellar job yet)
• check my calendar for the next day's appointments
• prep anything I would need for today and put it at my "launch pad"
• choose my outfit
• got ready for bed

I think it worked out nicely and I am doing the same thing tonight.

Now for how today fell apart worked out:

• Showered and dressed by 8am
• Both kids up, dressed and fed 9am
• Installed gate at bathroom hallway entry (so I can open the door for ventilation in there to prevent mildew from overtaking the shower, but keep the toddler out of the room so she doesn't drink the toilet water)
• lunched at home with the children
• nap for both kids
• planned dinner and executed that plan
• grocery store run to return night time diapers bought in the wrong size and pick up 2 things needed for dinner (accidentally used the ingredients in other dishes the other day)
• Bathed both children (with Mr. Amen's help) and got them both asleep before 9pm

That doesn't sound too bad, except that the plan for the day included attending Daily Mass and Homeschool Group. Those things didn't happen. Just after 9am my parents called and said they were coming over. My dad is renovating our half bath for us, free of charge (it is seriously ugly - before and after pictures will be provided) so I feel that I should just be here when he is here to help him with anything he needs, feed him, and get him water. So since they were dropping by unexpectedly, I didn't haul the kids out the door to Mass. Which means we also missed homeschool group.

But I think it was OK because while I was here visiting with my mom, Mr. Amen texted me and said he was expecting a package of shaving supplies from UPS today or tomorrow. Innocent enough, but the control freak in me needed to know how he had paid for these expensive shaving supplies. So I logged into our bank account to see if he had paid cash or used a credit card. I am so glad I looked at our bank account because I saw that our mortgage payment, which I set up manually each month, was deducted TWICE from our checking account. So our account was overdrawn. By a lot. But we have overdraft protection, so my credit union kindly transferred the money from our savings account to cover the overdraft, then politely charged us a fee to do so. Now our checking account had a very circular balance, as in $0.00.

Well, that about caused me to go into labor.

I logged onto the mortgage company website to see what the heck had happened. They had a message that they were experiencing problems with their payment site. So I called, but they said they were experiencing technical difficulties and disconnected me. So I tried contacting the "virtual assistant" on their website, but no one was available to field my questions. So I told my parents we had an emergency and I put the kids in the van and left for the nearest branch location of the bank that holds our mortgage.

The lady that helped me eventually was very kind and honest about what had happened. She actually just read me the email they received telling them what happened and what was happening to resolve it. Seems they accidentally processed the file twice and over 35,000 of the bank's customers were affected by this mistake. We should have the money back in our account today or tomorrow. And if I submit a bank statement showing the overdraft or NSF fees they will reimburse us.

So that little adventure, threw off our schedule a bit and threw me into a tizzy.

Which I recovered from by eating ice cream as the children napped.

Which caused me to experience intestinal armageddon the remainder of the afternoon.

Which made me want to eat comfort food.

Which made me choose this incredible recipe for dinner.

Which I made despite the fact that it was in the 70s and sunny today.

Which was delicious and amazing and perfect and everything I had hoped it would be and got my day right back on track.

Habit Forming

Not this kind of habit.

I have come to realize that being home with my 2-kid wrecking crew will require me to create some better habits. I could let the house fall to pieces and basically live in relative filth or I can build some routines to better manage this zoo.

I'll take Building Better Habits to Better Manage This Zoo for $1,000, Alex.

I've been receiving the Fly Lady emails for about a year or so and have tried implementing that system. It seems to do wonders for other people's households and if I actually follow through with her ideas, I think it would go a long way to managing the chaos here too. Except that...

I don't think the Fly Lady anticipated my unique brand of children. I referred to them above as a 2-kid wrecking crew and I wasn't exaggerating. Well, maybe a little, but not really.

Just before I started dinner yesterday, I picked up all the toys in the kitchen and put them where they belong in the family room. I also asked my darling son, 4, to come get all his crap precious things off the kitchen table so I could set it for dinner. He happily complied, but before I got back into the kitchen from putting all the "floor toys" back into the family room, which is literally one step away from the kitchen, my dear daughter had brought her purse into the kitchen and unloaded it and also found that "someone" had left the diaper bag unzipped and emptied its contents onto the floor. I saw the mess as soon as I stepped into the kitchen, but I didn't see the tiny Jessie doll before stepping on it. That dang thing is worse than a lego.

On Friday, I cleaned up Junior's room, then moved on to Miss A's room, only to have the kids destroy Junior's room as I cleaned Miss A's. Then when I went in to demand that they put Junior's room back together, Miss A slipped past me and strew the contents of her changing table shelves all about her room.

Basically, I am wondering if instead of trying to create new habits and routines for our family, I should just build shelves approximately 5 1/2 - 6 feet off the ground on every single wall and put everything on them thereby removing the temptation to scatter anything they can pick up. Oh, and they should just watch TV all day, every day so I can get rid of all these blasted toys.

Not my best ideas.

So I am using October as my "Habit Forming" month. This month I am going to work my morning and bedtime routines to the max. I am going to figure out the schedule that will actually work for this family. Finally I will be doing some major decluttering around here. I think that clutter is a big part of our problem and if I can get that stuff under control, life will run much more smoothly.

I'm going to use my blog to be accountable and to document my progress.

So far today, here's what's happened:

• Woke up early and showered and dressed before 7:30am (minor miracle).
• Finished homeschooling for the day at 8:35am
• Took Junior to swim class and only yelled once when he peeked under the partition into the changing room next to us just to see "who is having a rough day over there" (again, minor miracle).
• Made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast
• Spaced out and got sucked into the interweb for about an hour Not good!!!
• Hung the cloth diapers out to dry in the sun at which time the sun promptly vacated the premises. The weatherman tricked me. They said 70s and sunny. Instead we got 60s and gloomy.
• Fed the kids lunch
• Put Miss A down for her nap
• Mowed the lawn
• Trimmed the bushes and overgrown trees and cleaned up that mess
• Planned dinner
• Typed this post

 A few of my bigger organizational goals for the month are:

• Define my morning, bed time routines and cleaning routines
• Clean up and organize the basement (well, it's only been 1 year and 9 months that we've lived here, so it's about time to get that mess under control). I don't expect this to be totally done this month, but progress must be made and clearly visible to my father. He has very high energy levels and very little tolerance for (other people's) clutter.
• Meal Plan -  3 meals a day (with some wiggle room for leftovers and outings)
• Get paper clutter under control (Fly Lady's habit of the month); focusing on family pictures, recipes, and getting our filing system in order
• Get sprinkler system winterized
• Finish organizing the closet and dresser/bookshelf area in our bedroom
• Not getting lost in the internet during the morning hours
• Go to Homeschool group and Moms and Tots group at our parish (introverted mama can't seem to get herself out the door to these events, but I must do this for my kids no matter how much it pains me to meet new people)

I am using several blogs and ideas to get me moving in a positive direction and I'll share that information with you as I go. I've been doing some reading on home economics, homemaking and basically how to be a stay-at-home mom. It's not a secret that I've been struggling with this transition to SAHMotherhood. I feel a little lost without a boss to be accountable to and deadlines to meet. I want to be good at this stay at home thing and I want to really live out my vocation as a wife and mother to the very best of my ability. So here goes!

Looking for a little serenity before the three kid tornado hits.

7QT (vol. 8)

Linking up with the incomparable Jen over at Conversion Diary for another fine episode of 7 Quick Takes Friday. For my 7QT this week, I thought I'd do a little catch up on all things random.

(1) 

My daughter love, love, loves her Uncle. My parents have a picture of him in his police uniform on a table in their family room, just a head & shoulders shot. Each and every time we go over there, our baby girl just stares at her Uncle with a sappy, gooey look in her eyes. Last time we were there she reached out and grabbed the picture and walked around with it the remainder of the visit. And I found her sitting on the floor smooching his picture, then laying her head affectionately on it. Very sweet. Thing is, she acts totally shy around him when she sees him IRL. He will talk to her, pick her up, cuddle her, squeeze her, and basically love her up and NOTHING. She just stares blankly at him, as if she's never seen him in her life. And she sees him at least once a week. Silly girl.

(Breaking News: Since I wrote this post, my brother came over in his police uniform with his squad car to prove to my son that he really is a policeman. My daughter was quite impressed, and even let him pick her up this morning without crying. I'm not making him any promises...but it looks like she's made the connection between the handsome guy in the picture and the Uncle that is always hugging her.)

(2)

I had an allergic reaction to something this week. Last Wednesday evening my left index finger swelled up and was very sore. I thought I had injured it. Thursday morning I called my family doctor to make an appointment because it was still painful and swollen. Thursday evening, my middle finger on my left hand and my index finger on my right hand swelled up - and itched like crazy. Ugh! I figured it must've been from the oral progesterone I had just started up again (got to stop the painful Intra-muscular injections!!! YAY!!!). I had taken the oral medication before with no problems, so it seemed a little mysterious to me. Then I woke up on Friday morning and noticed that my lip was a little tingly. Over the next few hours, this happened:

Pretty, huh? My doctor said it was probably a reaction to the oral progesterone. My OB/GYN thinks it is from a dye or other component of the generic medication and suggested we try brand name instead. So I stopped taking it for a few days until I could get the brand name drug. But then on Monday afternoon, my lip started feeling tingly again and I ended up looking about the same, only with the swelling localized to the other side of my lip. I saw the allergist on Thursday, and he thinks it's a reaction to the baby aspirin I take daily.

I've been taking baby aspirin practically daily for the past few years due to the recurrent pregnancy losses we experience. My OB/GYN suspected a clotting disorder, but didn't feel like we should go through the trouble of actually testing me since he would just put me on baby aspirin anyhow. Since I started taking it, we've had our daughter and have successfully made it to (tomorrow) 18 weeks in this pregnancy. The allergist suggested I get a hematologist to work with my NaPro OB/GYN (who is actually a different OB/GYN than the one who I see for my routine care) to get me tested for whatever clotting disorders I am suspected of having to determine if I actually need the baby aspirin or not.

These tests are quite expensive; the two I've been told I should be tested for are MFTHR and Factor V Leiden and each test costs over $2,000 which is not covered by my insurance. (Don't get me started on why they won't cover it...let's just say it has to do with how insurance is happy to cover anything related to terminating a pregnancy or preventing pregnancies from ever occurring...but they just can't bring themselves to cover anything related to sustaining a pregnancy (like my progesterone injections or oral progesterone) or finding out why we keep losing pregnancies. Oh crap! I started ranting. Must. Stop. Now.) And now on top of it all, because I left my job and I carried our insurance, our insurance ends on Saturday. We are going onto the coverage offered through Mr. Amen's job though immediately. The only issue:  we just met our deductible under my insurance plan during this month...$3,000. Insurance is just starting to pay for stuff for us. Now on Sunday we start a new plan (through the same insurer) and now have a $3,600 deductible to meet before insurance will cover anything. Delightful!

Praise God Mr. Amen has a job that offers insurance, that he has a job that allows us to pay the premiums (and eventually the deductible!!), and that we are a typically pretty healthy family!

(3)

Look at what we've gotten out of our garden! I was so excited to plant it, but didn't keep up with weeding it. Then we had the watering situation get a little out of control, but now. Now, just look at these monster zucchini!! And all these adorable tomatoes. Plus the beans. I think the peas are also yielding like crazy, but we also have some poisonous red berry plant things, so I am a little afraid to pick the peas because I'm not sure they really are peas, since they aren't where I planted them.

(4)

My SIL commented on a FB post of a friend of hers (another blogger) who asked if anyone veiled or had thought about doing so at Mass. My SIL isn't Catholic anymore (or should I say, "again yet"?) so had no idea what her friend was referring to. I clicked through the links provided and happened upon a link to a site that shows how to tie scarves and head coverings in various ways. I was fascinated, and because Mr. Amen buys me silk scarves on all his adventures, I thought I'd try 'em out. I don't use the scarves because I feel like they just add bulk, where none is required on my lusty frame, so I figured my head, which seems comparably small to the rest of my voluminous silhouette, would be a great place to try to get some use out of these beautiful gifts.

Or not.

(5)

I decided that in order to save some moolah, I would give my sweet Junior his haircut. It went just fine. He was very patient and didn't cry at all. It turned out well - can I really screw up giving him a buzz cut? At the end of the haircut, he noticed my husband's santa hat and a Christmas stocking among the Christmas decorations in the basement. He's been wearing them ever since. So, I guess, Merry Christmas, everyone!

The hat is pushing his ears out (even further) and making him appear almost elf-like.

(6)

I made a cheesecake last week. It was divine. Very silky and creamy, with a layer of chocolate at the bottom. Cheesecakes are one of the easiest cakes to make, which may seem surprising to some people, but it is true. Enjoy this fine picture courtesy of my phone (as are all these wretched pictures - one day, I promise, I will figure out how to upload pictures from my actual camera)!

(7)

Lastly, this is what greets me each and every morning when my husband is in town. How can one adorable man use so many cups in the morning? OK, the sippy cup and one of the coffee mugs isn't his, those are for Junior's hot chocolate. But seriously?!?!

One last funny, my son was just trying to turn on the DVD player to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and it wouldn't open so he said, "Hey, you! Open up in the name of Jesus!" Too cute.

Click on over to Jen's lovely blog for more 7QTers. Have a delightful, long weekend

Date night...what the what?

This week is shaping up to be pretty interesting around here. It's my second week at home with the kids full-time, fourth week not working at my old job. Reality is setting in.

There's the never ending loop of make a meal, clean up a meal, make a snack, clean up a snack, make a meal, clean up a meal, make a snack, clean up a snack, make a meal, clean up a meal...and round and round we go. I told Mr. Amen last night that I feel like that's all I do.

But I know that's not true.

I also get to sweep the floor, do laundry and change diapers.

And that's not all. For the low, low price of feeling like my brain is melting, I am getting repaid in unlimited kisses, hugs, cuddles and adorably sweet comments from the eldest offspring, and scrunchy-nosed smiles from the latest ex-utero offspring.

Last Friday after we set up camp at my parents' house for the day due to numerous doctor appointments requiring someone other than me looking after these little monkeys, my son, on his way to the bathroom to wash his sticky hands said, "Mama, you sure are taking great care of me and sissy." What could be better than that? I don't think there's a paycheck in the world that can compare to a 4 year old's compliments about my shoddy childcare skills.

But there are moments I'd be tempted to run off in search of that paycheck .

Do I sound like I am having some love-not-so-love moments over here?

We are still trying to work out our daily routine and we have to start school next week. I have a tentative schedule set up for school days, but I really feel like it is pretty unrealistic at this point. Everything with the kids takes much longer than I think it should.

Example? Certainly. Here's baby girl after her marathon hour and half long breakfast eating session.

Her meal times are a good time to both contain her and work with my little hombre on his schoolwork.

 So all this to say that I called my mom last night to ask if she could do me 2 favors. One, I had made plans with some girlfriends for Thursday evening, but Mr. Amen has to work late and wouldn't be home in time to takeover munchkin duty...so I called in the reinforcements. Of course, my parents are more than willing to pinch hit for us, so "ploblem" easily solved.

Next request/favor:  Would they possibly be available at any point over the next ten days to watch the nut-free peanuts one evening so we could go on a "date" before his next 3 week business trip? Seriously, ya'll (all 2 of you!!), they said yes again and we are actually going to go on a date on Saturday night. We'll skeddadle off to Mass first, then drop the Amen family members that cannot wipe their own butts off at my 'rents before those that can enjoy not having to finely chop and blow-until-cool every item on a dinner plate.

Now to find a restaurant we haven't been to yet, that has a good coupon available. Because I haven't found a restaurant yet that will take the currency I get paid now.