For the Love!: Journal #24

Out My Window:

Sunny!! It is January 17th, sunny, and about 50 degrees outside!! It is a bit breezy, but I went for a walk with "the girls" (Rebekah, Miriam, and Zipporah) and we only needed jackets.

Clothing Myself In:

Yoga pants, a Franciscan Women's AA Basketball Champion T-shirt (let's get specific, ok?) and bare feet.

Side Note: I realize Yoga pants are "from the devil" and all, but MAN are they comfortable! Like sweat pants, but more comfy and they don't fall down over my bare feet, casing me to walk on the ends (like my sweats do). So, yes I still wear them, but generally (except in extreme circumstances) only in the privacy of my own home. (For the walk mentioned above I was wearing jeans.)

Around the House:

I am really enjoying our new living room set-up. Moving the half-dresser away from the front window allows it to be used more as there is no window behind it to block now. So I have started putting the kids school books for the day on it in piles. We have slowly been moving our school studying from "the study" to the living room because (A) we have poor internet signal in that room - the one room in the house we need internet the most happens to be the furthest from the router, go figure and (B) I am tired of fighting the Legos and K'nex every morning for a space to walk and sit!! Instead we have been doing school work at the kitchen table (or on the couches or on the floor) and that has been working well for us.

I bought some new Leap Frog videos for Paul and Miriam as I generally let them watch one or two a day when I need them to be "otherwise occupied" when I work with "the big kids." And let me just say Leap Frog makes some GREAT products that I do not feel guilty giving the kids a little screen time to enjoy.

The Baby:

She is adorable as ever. She is still not sitting up or really rolling much. She is doing better with tummy time, but is still not a huge fan. She will often tolerate it for a little while but then rolls onto her back in short order. She still sucks her thumb, but not ALL THE TIME - just when she is tired usually. She is finally starting to get some big smiles and even giggle a little. Her favorite "zones" are her play mat where she can reach her hanging toys and her bumbo. She seems to wave her arms more than the other children did as babies - or maybe she just has really long arms. She is very long (although she has not had her six-month-check yet because the doc rescheduled it) in my humble opinion.

The Kids:

The kids have been draining their kid-sized glass cups at dinner time and begging for more, so I finally bought a small pitcher they can pour additional drinks from to cut down on time I spend going back and forth from the kitchen to supply more drinks. The kids LOVE it. They love it so much I often fill the pitcher once and let them fill their own cups and then fill it again so they can fill their own seconds, too. Why did I not think of this sooner?

In other news, after some tough deliberation, I have decided to cut Swim Team this semester. The baby has shown me she prefers to go to bed at about 6:30pm, which is not too much of a problem as Swim Team starts at 7pm, but my dear husband has Boy Scouts on Mondays, Aikido on Tuesdays, and darts on Thursdays. I teach religion class on Wednesdays and they do not have swim team on Fridays. So. . . in other words, if I cannot take all the kids, I guess it is not going to work right now. And you know what? I think I'm ok with that. We will do swim lessons in the summer and then, when the baby is older, perhaps we will jump back into Swim Team in the Fall.

The one perk of cutting an activity is that we have some more free time one evening to spend as a family and I am looking forward to this. I know I spend ALL DAY with my kids, but I spend it guiding, directing (often begging and pleading) them to do their school work. In the evenings, we get to do some serious, no-strings-attached playing.

In the Kitchen:

All the "brilliant" kitchen-savvy-money-saving-types say I should have a monthly menu and STICK TO IT!! And I have TRIED to do such. But the following are my reasons for not doing this:

#1) I do not know that many recipes!!

#2) My family often does not take well to new recipes so I am not eager to learn more!

#3) I have difficulty deciding how soon is too soon to have a certain meal again.

#4) I do not like feeling "trapped" in what to cook for dinner.

#5) I often look at my menu for the evening and think "I really do not want to eat and/or prepare this meal this evening!!"

Despite these struggles I have TRIED to do a plan of some sort - and mostly failed horribly at it. In any case, I think I have FINALLY FOUND SOMETHING I CAN SORT-OF HANDLE!! Instead of shooting for the whole month, I aim for a week. And I look at the meal plan as "suggestions," not "requirements," so they are not so intimidating. This coupled with the fact that I have resigned myself to heading to the grocery store weekly in order to have fresh produce on hand appears to be a winning combination here.

This week we are having roast tomorrow, crockpot pork on Monday, homemade pizza on Tuesday, grilled cheese on Wednesday, hamburger pockets on Thursday, and potato soup on Friday.

I should also note that I have started browning up a bunch of hamburger at a time and then freezing it in meal-sized chunks for future use. It makes meals like spaghetti super-quick and meals like lasagna much more manageable. I also make a giant batch of taco meat (read: mostly beans, tomatoes, and spices, but a little meat, too) and freeze it in meal-sized portions to make burritos and tacos into "easy" and quick meals. I am all about doing more work ahead of time to make it easier around mealtimes.

Bringing Me Joy:

*My husband. Tonight he fixed my van door!!! And he works so hard to keep me happy.

*My children - especially Paul. I feel like Paul has gotten a bit of a bad wrap because he is so high-spirited, but really Paul is a wonderful son. He is so smart and funny and a great addition to our family.

*Feeling better. I know it takes a while to recover from a baby - not just the "getting it out" part, but all the other things that stack up, such as getting my body back to workable condition, getting rest, avoiding sickness, etc, but I ALWAYS FORGET that it takes a while and have very little patience with myself!! Anyhow, I am finally feeling more up to exercising more intensely (which should help my clothes fit better soon!) and adding more movement to my day (as Katy Says).