Works For Me Wednesday

Today is Works For Me Wednesday: The Great Parenting Advice Edition. My parenting advice is to teach your kids to sleep from the day they are born. Now, you would think that sleep would come naturally to kids, but it doesn't, at least after the first few months. Those first few months are bliss. Babies sleep a lot, and they usually don't care where they are. But give it time. Soon they will start fighting it and it doesn't matter how tired they are, they will resist sleeping at all costs. Get them on a schedule early on and get them used to sleeping in their crib early on. Even if you use a bassinet when they are newborns, have them take naps in their crib, so when they outgrow the bassinet they will already be used to their crib. Let them learn to fall asleep on their own, otherwise your life will be miserable. When you know they are getting sleepy, put them in their crib while they are still awake so they can get to sleep on their own. If kids learn good sleep habits when they are babies, that will carry through during childhood and even adulthood. I recently read an article (and I can't remember where) that said children who have sleep problems usually grow up to be adults who have sleep problems.

Sleep is very important in keeping kids in good moods and, when they get in school, for learning. A well rested kid is a happier kid and learns better than a tired one.

I have to admit that we are the envy of our friends and relatives because our kids sleep so well. I can't believe so many of them say to us, "You are so lucky that your kids sleep good." Well, we aren't lucky. It took some work to get them to sleep good and we made some mistakes along the way.

This is going to be long, so now that you know my advice, you really could stop reading now, unless you want the detailed information on each of my kids, which may be boring to most people.

Since Carson was the first, I held him constantly for months; therefore, he got to where he wouldn't sleep unless he was being held. Well, that was fine for the first little while, but when he was nine months old and I couldn't get a freaking thing done because I had to hold him or he wouldn't sleep, I had to take drastic measures. I admit, I let him cry it out. The first day he cried for two and a half hours, the second day he cried for 10 minutes, the third day he cried for five minutes and from then on he didn't cry at all. Now, I admit that the two and a half hour crying session about did me in, and I was telling a woman at work how guilty I felt about it and she said, "Why? It's not like he's ever going to remember it or hate you because of it." And guess what? He is now seven years old and he goes to bed when it's time, sleeps great and she was right, he doesn't hate me. Another mistake we made with Carson was playing a tape of lullabies for him at bedtime. It got to where he would listen to the tape and when it was over he would yell at us to start it over. We would have to start it over up to three times a night before he would go to sleep. It was ridiculous. I don't recommend music or any kind of sleep machine because then they have to have it. My mom is so used to using a sleep machine that if she goes out of town and forgets to bring hers she has to go buy a new one or she can't sleep. I would hate that.

With Hayden I already knew the mistakes I had made with Carson so I started working on him early. Of course, in the beginning I did hold him a lot when he slept (you can't help it with a newborn), but I still had him take most of his naps in his crib. He slept in our bed for the first few months. I know it's not recommended to let a newborn sleep in your bed, and I'm totally not recommending it, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't wake up during the night to feed him. I was breastfeeding, so when he would wake up to cry I would just whip it out, get him latched on and fall asleep until the next time he cried, then I would switch sides and do it again. I honestly don't even know how long he fed during the night because I was asleep. The reason I was so tired was because my dad was dying and the day after I got home from the hospital I would wake up, get the boys ready and go to my parents' house all day every day until he died. It was really hard. Anyway, I never did let Hayden cry because he learned very early on that when it was time to sleep, it was time to sleep, and when it was time to sleep, he slept in his crib (after the initial exhaustion period on my part).

As for Amaya, we had to handle things differently because with her being adopted and not a newborn we had to resort to other methods. When we were still in China with her she took naps and went to bed at night perfectly, but as soon as we got home it was a totally different story. I think most of it had to do with the time change. The first night she slept fine. The second night she didn't sleep at all (neither did the boys) and we were totally exhausted because of the major jet lag. By the way, why did we not feel any effects of jet lag when we went to China but when we got home it was unbearable? Anyway, by the third night I was ready to kill myself because I couldn't take the lack of sleep anymore. So what I did was put her in her crib, leave the room, and when she started crying, which was immediately, I went back in and rubbed her back and sang to her until she stopped crying. I didn't pick her up, but I was touching her and singing to her. As soon as she stopped crying, which sometimes took a minute or two, I walked out again, and she would start crying immediately so I would go back in and repeat the back rubbing and singing. I must have walked in and out of her room 500 times that night. Finally around 4:00 a.m. I walked out, went in my room, and fell asleep for 20 minutes. I don't know if she was asleep or awake, but I was able to be out of her room for 20 minutes. Then she woke up again so I went in again. She cried a couple of times more, but finally she fell asleep, and guess what? After that night she took her naps and went to bed at night without crying at all, and almost two years later she is an excellent sleeper.

We really are lucky to have three such great sleepers. It wasn't always easy, but it was so worth it. Now they all go to bed at 8:00 and that gives them plenty of sleep and lets us have a few hours to ourselves to get much needed things done around the house before we go to bed.

My advice is train (I know it sounds like I'm talking about a dog here, but I'm not) your kids to be good sleepers and it will benefit them throughout their childhood and into adulthood, not to mention helping you keep your sanity.

For more parenting tips go to Rocks In My Dryer.

If You Want To Try To Win A TV...

...go over to 5 Minutes For Mom and enter the contest they are having to win a 37"flat-panel tv from Best Buy. I really want to win this. I am tired of having to get up, walk across the room and turn the dial - yes, the dial - on the tv when I want to change the channel. It would be nice to have a modern tv in the family room for all of us to watch. The funny thing is our tv, which is extremely old, has outlasted several newer tv's that we've had in our house.

Amaya Loves Me

While we were camping this weekend I was playing with Amaya and I said, "Amaya," and she said, "What?" I said, "I love you," and she said, "Wuv you, Mom." Then she gave me a hug. It is the first time she has said that. Then, of course, for the rest of the weekend the boys had to say, "Amaya, I love you," and she would say, "Wuv you, Hayden," or "Wuv you, Carson." It was so cute. She is such a lovable little girl and I love hearing her say, "Wuv you, Mom." It makes my day.

Fit4Life Friday

Okay, I totally blew it this week on my Fit4Life goals, but it was a holiday week so I had fun blowing it. I didn't even weigh myself today because I know I GAINED weight. Darn it. The only thing I did is organize my kitchen. And I unexpectedly organized my bedroom and Amaya's bedroom.

I don't have time to check everyone else's progress today because we are leaving in a few minutes to go camping. I'll check them on Sunday night or Monday. We are taking all healthy food with us, no junk, and hopefully we will get in a few hikes, so maybe it will jump start me back into losing.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

A Day In The Mountains

Today we decided to go up in the mountains and go on a little hike to try to get out of the smog and the heat. It didn't work. The air up there was just as bad as in the valley because of all the smoke from fires. It also didn't feel any cooler up there than it did at home. But it was fun anyway. We went on a little hike which was more of a walk. It was just a short half-mile walk on a paved trail. There was supposed to be a picnic area at the end with a lookout so you can see down the canyon, but it was basically a small deck with no shade and nowhere to picnic unless you sat on the ground, which we did. The kids had a great time and it was nice to get away for the day. We saw a lot of beautiful wildflowers and a lot of cute chipmunks, which Amaya thought were mice. We have realized that we need to get up in the mountains more often. It only takes us anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes to get up one of the canyons and go on a little hike and have a picnic. We need to take advantage of our beautiful scenery.

Fit4Life Friday

Why is it so hard to set goals and follow them? I'm working on it, but I haven't even accomplished one of my five goals yet. I am going to keep my same goals from week to week until I accomplish each one and make it a good habit, then I will replace the accomplished one with a new one. Here's my progress for this week:

• Exercise three times a week: I exercised two times this week, which is better than the past two weeks when I only did it once. I did The Firm Cardio Sculpt one day and I walked a nine-hole golf course one day while Carson golfed. He has golf camp this week and yesterday and today the parents can come (out of about 28 kids I think 3 parents came, which I thought was weird) and walk the course and act as their child's caddie. I did it yesterday and I'm going to do it today, too. At least I'll have one day of exercise down right at the beginning. I realize it's not that strenuous, but in 102 degree weather I should at least sweat off a couple pounds.
• Watch my portion control and don't eat any processed food for snacks: I did very good on my portion control. I didn't eat second helpings of any meal. I stopped at convenience stores twice on my way back from golf camp and one day I got a bag of chips and the other day I got a candy bar. I really need to stop doing stuff like that.
• Reading schedule for the kids and for myself: I read to the kids and they read to me, but it was all just random and not consistent. I started out good and actually read a little bit to myself for a few days, but then I got busy and didn't read for the rest of the week. I know I have a library book due today and I hope it's not the one I'm still only halfway through.
• Organize my work stuff and get jobs completed: It didn't happen. I know why it didn't happen. There were some papers I needed to find for a subpoena I got (a former employee of mine died and her husband is suing the hospital, doctors, etc. and they need records back to 1994) and I thought it would take me a while to find the papers, but I found them very quickly so I forgot about organizing stuff.
• Organize the kitchen: It didn't happen.

I am doing better on my health-related goals than the others, and I did manage to lose three pounds this week so I'm happy about that. I wish I could lose three pounds every week, but I know it will start tapering off.

Now I've got to go over to NspiredByFaith and check out the other Fit4Life participants and see if they're doing better at accomplishing their goals than I am.

Works For Me Wednesday

I totally forgot that it was Wednesday and time for Works For Me Wednesday until I was doing my daily blog reading. Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with a tip, but I feel like I have to think of some sort of tip to contribute since I get so many great tips from everyone else. I get so excited to see everyone's tips each week.

Anyway, I was having a hard time thinking of a tip until I read this post on Stacey's blog. I found out about it from 5 Minutes for Mom. It tells of a near tragedy when her son got buried in sand on a beach and they couldn't find him for five minutes. Luckily, a woman that was helping search thought to look under the sand and they found him. Thank goodness he was fine.

After I read the story I thought to myself, "I've got to explain to the kids how dangerous it can be to get in a hole dug in dirt because it might cave in on you and you could die." Then I realized that I says things like that to myself all the time. Whenever I hear of a tragic story or a near tragic story I tell myself I need to explain to the kids what they should watch out for or shouldn't do. I had the same thought last week when I read about a little girl that had her intestines pulled out of her body by a malfunctioning drain in the bottom of a swimming pool. I had heard of this happening years ago and knew it could happen. I thought that I needed to explain to my kids to stay away from the drains in swimming pools and explain why. I thought that last week and then forgot about it.

As adults we have so much more experience with situations and hear about a lot of preventable tragedies that happen to adults and kids. It's not that parents are always negligent when tragedies happen, it's just that there are so many things that can happen that could be termed "freak accidents" that we need to explain to our kids (and remember them ourselves) what types of things to avoid. Obviously what happened to that little boy being buried in the sand was a freaky thing that his parents would have had no idea could happen, unless they'd heard of something like that happening before, which they hadn't. Unfortunately, even if you've heard about something like this happening, at the time you hear about it you think how sad and tragic it is, but you soon forget about it. In order to keep these types of things in our mind we need to hear about them more often than just once every few years, just like when I heard about the swimming pool drain incidences several years ago and had completely forgot about it until last week.

Anyway, finally on to my tip. I've decided that every time I say to myself, "I need to tell the kids about this," meaning about a tragedy and how it happened so they can avoid doing things that might lead to their own tragedy, I'm going to write it down on a list instead of just trying to remember it and never getting around to telling them. I'm going to call my list "The Safety List" and set aside a time each week called, "Safety Time" where we can sit down as a family for even just five minutes and Mike and I can explain certain situations and bad things that can happen. If they hear things on a weekly basis then they will have a much easier time remembering it. I think all parents should do this. Of course, each safety tip you give your kids needs to be age appropriate. For instance, every time I hear of a tragedy involving teens driving I am going to write it down. Of course it will be a number of years before we talk about that type of thing because my oldest child is only seven, but at least I will have it written down on my list for the future. Every time I hear about a tragedy involving kids and drug use I will write it down. Again, hopefully it will be years before I have to talk to my kids about that, but when the time comes I will have it handy. I think another good thing to do would be to cut articles out of the newspaper and keep it in a folder with the list so I have concrete proof that the tips I'm giving them can help them avoid real tragedies. I think if they can see a clipping from a newspaper they will really believe me and not just think I'm "being a parent" and worrying about nothing.

Unfortunately, being a parent is very stressful when it comes to trying to keep your kids safe. It doesn't matter how careful you are, sometimes bad things happen, but I think the better prepared you and your children are, the easier it will be to stay safe.

So far my list will include:

Do not get into holes dug into dirt because they can easily cave in. I've heard of this happening to construction workers who died even though fellow workers saw it happen and started digging immediately.

Stay away from drains in swimming pools because if they malfunction they can suck you down onto them and you can either drown or get your insides sucked out causing life-long, permanent injuries.

This one is for adults. If a child gets into baby oil and drinks it and accidentally inhales it, they will most certainly die because the oil coats the lungs so even if the child doesn't drown from drinking it they will suffocate because their lungs won't work properly. Baby oil is very dangerous to kids. I knew of a man who died in a similar manner because he asphyxiated when he was drinking Castor Oil and it coated his lungs and there was no way to get it out.

When riding your bike or scooter or even walking on a sidewalk, look ahead at the driveways and notice whether there is a car backing out or someone getting in their car. It's hard for adults in cars to see small children behind their cars.

I know that if I sit here writing and make this post into a novel I can think of a bunch more tips. I think the list is probably never ending. Depending on how long your list is you don't have to read the whole thing every week, but try to read a portion of it each week so at least once a month they will hear all the tips and hopefully it will stick in their brains.

If anyone out there has some great safety tips, leave them in my comments and I will add them to my list. I think as I think of more I will do short posts here and there with my tips that I am adding to my list.

Keeping our kids safe is our most important job, and sometimes it is impossible, but it is better to be equipped with too much information than not enough.



Go to Rocks In My Dryer for a lot of great tips.

Tackle It Tuesday

My tackle this week was to get our library habits in order so I can participate in an on-line book club that I've been part of for about two years but have never really actively participated in because I either don't get the books on time or I don't set aside a good time for reading.

We have two library systems that we belong to. We usually go to a library as a family a couple of times a month, I usually take the kids without Mike a few times a month, and then there are a few times a month when either Mike or I stop at a library to pick up books we've requested. With all these different times of checking out books, along with the fact that we usually renew a few during the month, we have numerous due dates during a month for our books. To make it easier to keep track of, as soon as we get home from the library I write LBD* on the calendar for when the books are due. It stands for Library Books Due, with the little star added for emphasis. Whenever I go on-line and renew books I write LBD* on the new due date on the calendar. We keep all of the receipts in a plastic bag in the library book basket, and as all the books from a particular receipt are returned, that receipt gets thrown out.

This week I made sure all of our due dates were right. I love checking that kind of stuff on the Internet. Our libraries also e-mail us a few days before books are due to help us remember. Then I went on my book club and found out what the books are for this month. Obviously I'm a little late since the month is halfway over already. Luckily one of the books is a kids' book so we can read that one quick. Then I went on our library's website and requested the two books. It's much faster to do that than it is to go to the library and try to find it. Even when it shows it's available on their website, whenever I go there for some reason it's not where it's supposed to be or not there. I don't waste my time doing that anymore. If I want a specific book, I request it, let them find it, and then I go pick it up off a shelf. That's much easier. I went and picked up my books today and I am ready to read this months' books.

Since we love to go to the library, hopefully this new system will help us get the books we want and return the books on time so we don't have any fines.

Organizational Skills Needed

I just heard a report on the news about a woman who gathered her children up to take them to a babysitter and accidentally left a two-year-old behind. A neighbor heard a child crying and looked over the fence and saw the child in the backyard crying, so he called 911. In the meantime, the mother had realized she left one child behind and had called a family member to pick the child up. The child was not hurt. The woman isn't going to be charged with anything, but is required to get some training in organization skills.

I may be very disorganized, but at least I've never left one of my children behind. . . yet.

My Seven-Year-Old Can Finally Ride A Bike

Yes, he is seven years old and he just barely learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. It was very exciting. On Thursday he told me he didn't want training wheels on his bike anymore. I said, "Maybe that can be your goal for this weekend, to learn to ride your bike without training wheels." He agreed. Last night Mike and the boys were playing outside and Amaya and I were hanging out in my bedroom while I was talking to a friend on the phone. All of the sudden Carson came running in all excited saying he could ride his bike just by balancing. So Amaya and I went outside and watched him ride all the way down the street. Everyone was so excited. As he was coming into our driveway I waved at him and he waved back. Then he crashed. But he was okay and got back up and rode some more. I think the reason it took him so long was because he hasn't had a bike for very long. Since he's our first child he just always seemed so little and I never thought he was ready for a bike, until it was too late. A few months ago I saw a kid who looked like he was about four riding a bike without training wheels. That's when I started thinking to myself that Carson is probably the only seven-year-old that can't ride a bike yet. Anyway, now Carson doesn't have to be embarrassed because he has training wheels on his bike and he is really proud of himself. I'm sure this weekend will include a lot of bike riding.

Incentive To Lose The Lard

I was looking at the post that I did about the Pear vs. Apple. Don't ask me why. I'm torturing myself. I guess if I look at it enough times I will realize how bad I look and it will give me the motivation to lose the lard. Anyway, after Hayden's remark I didn't know whether I should be more offended because he though I looked like the apple shape or because he thought I looked like someone he thought was a man. But I did ask for it. I asked for his opinion and I got it. And I wasn't really offended because I know it's true, I just thought it was really funny. Then as I was looking at it the morning Carson saw it. I didn't ask his opinion but he gave it to me anyway. He said, "I think you look like that one (pointing at the apple) with your boobs hanging down and your big, fat belly."

If that's not enough to get me on a fat-busting mission then nothing is. I'm more determined than ever to get in shape so I don't embarrass my kids out in public.

By the way, why is it that kids are totally honest about stuff like that but will make up stuff and blame each other when they're in trouble?

Fit4Life Friday

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Okay, I'll give you the bad news. I didn't do very good on my goals last week. Here are last week's goals and the results:

• Walk Spot every day. I didn't even do it one day. I did exercise to The Firm Cardio Sculpt one day, which I love. It just feels too hot to exercise. Another thing is we have had a huge fire burning all week and it is making the air really bad. I don't think it's healthy to exert yourself much while you're breathing in that bad air. That's just an excuse, though, because that fact didn't even come into play in my decisions not to exercise. I've just been lazy.
• Not eat processed foods for snacks. I did pretty good with this one. There were two days when I ate a snack-sized bag of Cheez-Its. Last Saturday was Carson's soccer game and it was our turn to bring treats. We had extras so I ate one on Saturday and then I ate one during the week. When I was eating them I didn't even remember my goal not to eat stuff like that. But, those are the only two bad things I ate all week so I am proud of myself for that.
• Spend 15 minutes each day organizing. I didn't do that at all. I just spent time maintaining what has already been organized.
• Get on a reading schedule with the kids. I didn't do that at all. We read, but it was sporadic.
• Have a reading time for myself each day. I didn't do that at all. I even had to renew my library book for the second time.

Now for the good news. I did lose three pounds this week, so I am happy about that.

My weight loss goals are the easy ones. I can eat fairly healthy with no problem as long as I think about it. After losing the three pounds I am motivated to get myself moving more this week.

The rest of the goals are the problem. I have so many things that I feel like I need to get under control that it is hard to pick just a couple to work on. I am somewhat stressed out about my job and that makes it hard to think about other things. My job has changed, which is great, but I still have jobs that I need to finish up relating to before the change. Since that is what is stressing me out the most, I need to concentrate on that first and work on the other stuff later.

My goals for this week are:

• Exercise (whether it be walking the dog or doing The Firm) at least three days this week.
• Watch my portion control when eating. I noticed during last week I ate healthy, but after dinner if there was any food left over I would ask if anyone else wanted more and when they didn't I ate the rest. Even though it was healthy food, I ate too much of it. I will continue with avoiding processed food for snacks, except for my beloved Dr. Pepper.
• Get my work stuff organized and start getting old jobs done so I can focus on my new jobs. This is very important so I can relieve some stress. I will do a little each day so it doesn't seem too overwhelming.
• Read to the kids and myself. I really need to do this. I'm going to read to the kids or have them read to me twice a day. I am going to read one chapter of my book a day.
• Get the kitchen organized. This one I am going to delegate a lot of to Mike. Each day I am going to have one task for him to do to help get the kitchen in order. Since I have been cooking a lot lately it is hard sometimes when I can't find something or I have to move five things out of the way to get something. I've already organized a portion of the kitchen but there's more that needs to be done. Mike is really good at helping out around the house if I give him a list. He just can't think of things on his own.

Now I realize that I have a lot of goals for the week. I planned to have fewer, but I just have so much to do. I think having Mike do the last one will help, though. Even if I only accomplish two of them, it will be better than last week.

Good luck to everyone else who is participating this week, and if you want to see how everyone else is doing or if you want to participate go over to NspiredByFaith's website and check it out.

Update on Tackle It Tuesday

I know I'm a few days behind on my update to Tackle It Tuesday, so instead of putting it on that post I'm putting it here.

Carson finally got his room finished. It only took him two weeks, a lot of nagging from me, a lot of whining from him, but he did it.

Here are some before pictures:

Now here it is after all of his hard work:

And here is the proud boy himself:

He says he is going to keep it clean from now on. One thing that cleared it out is he had a train table in the middle of the room, temporarily, that collected stuff on it. He decided he didn't want it in his room so we moved it into Hayden's room. We are eventually going to move it to the basement as soon as there is room.

I Want To Win This

This is the NeatReceipts Scanalizer. It is a small scanner that you can scan receipts, kids' artwork or anything else you can think of. I can think of dozens of uses for this thing for home and work. I could stick this in my bag when I go to work and scan documents in instead of trying to write down every detail. I am very unorganized with my receipts and I could scan them all in and be organized, especially since that is my goal for the summer, to get organized. I think this thing would make anyone more organized. It looks like a very cool thing, and if you want to enter to win it head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom and enter.

Apple or Pear

I was reading a post on Laura at One Day at a Time's blog and it was about apple-shaped bodies and pear-shaped bodies and it had this picture on it:

This picture is from the website of Lifespan.org.

As I was looking at it Hayden came over and was looking at it with me. I said, "Which one of these do you think looks the most like me." He pointed to the apple shape and said, "I think you look like him."

Works For Me Wednesday

One thing that works for us is to buy most of our groceries locally. Now I know that going to the supermarket is probably considered shopping locally, but most of the products at the supermarket, including fruits and vegetables and dairy and meat, are definitely shipped from other states or even other countries. We have a local company that started out as a dairy and has now become a lot more that delivers groceries to our front door once a week. When I was a kid my parents had an old metal box that they would get milk in weekly from this company. Now we have a big, nice, modern cooler on our porch that we get our groceries in each week. We don't live out in the country, either. We live in a fairly large city.

Here is a list of the types of food we get delivered to our door: fruit, vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, yogurt, eggs, syrup, sausage, bacon, beef, chicken, tamales, pasta and sauce, tortillas, salsa, guacamole, bread, bagels, peanut butter, jam, cream cheese and fruit juices. The animals that they get their milk and meat from are all natural and not injected with growth hormones, so I feel that is a healthier choice for our family. They get their produce from local farmers as often as possible and have a lot of organic stuff. We don't exclusively eat organic food otherwise we would be limited in what we can eat, and I'm all for eating as many different varieties of food as we can, but we do like to eat that type of stuff as often as we can.

Not only is the food from there healthier, in my opinion, but it is fun to go on the internet and do your grocery shopping and have it delivered to you. We still need to pick up a few things at the grocery store each week, but it really saves a lot of time, too.

I like the fact that I am buying healthy food for my family and supporting local businesses and farmers in the process. Buying groceries locally works for us.

For more tips go to Rocks In My Dryer.

Tackle It Tuesday

Okay, I admit it, today is going to be a television and video games day for the kids. Since most of my work (paid work) is done at home it is very easy to slack off on it. I need to be more disciplined with my work. I am starting to get behind. Today's tackle is going to be organizing my work stuff, making a list of things I need to do and then making a timeline of when to accomplish certain jobs. I know I have one job that absolutely has to be done for tomorrow and another one that should be done by tomorrow also, just so I don't have to make two trips downtown to deliver them, so those two are my priorities. Then I have a bunch of other jobs that need to be done fairly quickly. I hate when I get behind on things and then have to rush to get things done. The kids are going to have to watch movies or play Gameboys while I get this stuff done. It's too hot to go outside anyway so I don't feel too guilty.

The other tackle will be for Carson, still. His room is almost done. I think it's been two weeks now that he's been working on it. He's got about a half-hour's worth of work and then I will help him organize things. That shouldn't take too long. I will post a few pictures later on this one.

The good news is that Hayden's room is still clean! I usually set my timer for 15 minutes once a day and he has to go pick up the few things that are out, but he's been doing a great job of not messing it up. Hopefully Carson can follow Hayden's example once his room is clean.

The Breakfast That Made The Kids Cry

Okay, it only made one cry. It made the other two mad. This morning I filled three bowls with Cheerios. When I took the lid off the milk getting ready to pour it in I took a quick sniff, like I always do, and realized it was bad. I stood there for a moment wondering what to do. Then I spied a carton of soy milk. We don't drink soy milk. I only use it when I make protein shakes. When it's all mixed up with fruit and sorbet you can't taste it. I figured I'd just use that. I can't be that different from regular milk. My sister and her family only drink soy milk and nobody there complains about it. The kids weren't in the kitchen so they didn't know I used anything different than our regular milk. Hayden was the first one in and tasted it. He crinkled up his nose and said, "There's something wrong with these Cheerios. What'd you do to them?" I told him I just added some extra flavoring to them. He ate a few more bites and said it was gross. Then he started crying. Then Carson came in. He tasted them and said, "What did you put in here? It's yucky." Notice how they always blame me for everything. I gave him the same answer. Amaya said, "Sick." They all refused to eat it. They ended up picking a few Cheerios out and ate them and left the milk. Let's just say they had a very light breakfast and I probably won't be serving soy milk to them again. I will admit that I don't dare to taste soy milk alone. The looks of it is enough to deter me, but I thought I could fool the kids into drinking it. Apparently not.

Rewards for Losing the Fat

Since I'm trying to lose a few (54) pounds, I'm trying to think of a good reward for each five or 10 pounds that I lose. Usually I do a food-related reward. Obviously, that's not the best reward when I'm trying to lose weight because I wouldn't reward myself with a salad. I would usually reward myself with something like a banana split, which defeats the purpose. Brilliant observations, huh?

I've decided I'm going to reward myself with some new workout clothes, since the ones I have are at least 20 years old and I wouldn't be caught dead in public in them. There are some really cute workout clothes now that aren't as bad as the old spandex bike shorts with a matching sports bra that I have now. I just need something I can walk around the neighborhood in, that feels comfortable and people won't laugh and point when they see me. Right now I am just wearing regular clothes, but I would like some actual workout clothes, maybe even some with the special fabric that keeps you cooler.

Having new workout clothes is a good idea because then you won't have anything embarrassing happen like my friend Amy did about 20 years ago when we decided to take an aerobics class. We would go about three times a week to a local community education aerobics class. There was a couple in the class that were mentally disabled. For some reason the man was always staring at Amy, especially when we were doing leg lifts. This went on for a few weeks and it made Amy very uncomfortable because the guy would have his eyes glued to her the whole hour. Finally one day she realized why he was so interested in looking at her the whole time. It was because her spandex shorts had a hole in the crotch and she never wore underwear. As soon as she quit wearing those shorts the guy quit staring. There are a few lessons to be learned from this: (1) Always check the crotch of your pants or shorts for holes; (2) Always wear underwear; (3) If someone of the opposite sex is always staring at you don't get all flattered thinking they are in love with you. You might just have a booger on your face or a hole in your crotch.

Fit4Life Friday

I have been a total slacker this past week. I haven't been this lazy for years. I think it's because my job as I knew it changed as of last Friday and I feel such a sense of relief that I have just been vegging out this week. I realize I didn't really accomplish anything in any way this last week.

My goals were: (1) to lose weight, which I did lose one pound without trying too hard, so that's good (I did exercise one day but I ate like crap the rest of the week); and (2) to get organized, which I didn't organize anything new, but I did go through Hayden's room, the hall, the bathroom and the family room and make sure they were all organized and nothing was out of place. Those are the four areas in my house that are totally organized so far.

One thing I realized is my goals are way too broad. I need to be more specific to have success. So although those two goals are still my two main goals, I am going to do smaller weekly goals to help me accomplish the bigger goals. I'm also adding a couple of reading goals to the list.

This week's goals are:

1. Walk Spot every morning. I've always known walking would be a good exercise for me but I couldn't figure out how I could walk with three kids tagging along. I could take the double stroller and Hayden (because he gets tired fast) and Amaya could ride in it while Carson and I walk. Except Carson already looks like he's anorexic, even though he eats a ton, and I don't think having him walk as far as I want to would be good for him. He already burns off a lot of energy during the day and I don't want him to become even more emaciated looking than he already is. All of the sudden the other day I had a light bulb moment. I can wake up at 7:00 a.m. and take the dog for a walk before Mike goes to work so I don't have to worry about the kids. Boy, I sure am a genius. It took me years to figure that one out. Maybe I subconsciously didn't think of that idea because I hate exercise. I don't have any more excuses. Darn!
2. I am not going to eat any processed food for snacks. The meals I eat during the day are fairly healthy, it's the snacks that kill me. From now on if I want a snack I'll have to eat fruit or veggies and skip the bad stuff. I'll give up Dr. Peppers in a future week. I'm not ready for that just yet.
3. I am going to spend at least 15 minutes (hopefully more) a day organizing something. The next two rooms I need to concentrate on are Carson's room (which it's taken him a week and a half to clean, so far) and the kitchen.
4. I am going to develop a reading schedule with the kids. They are participating in several summer reading programs. Some days we read a lot. Some days we read a little. I want to even it out a little so we set aside about the same amount of time each day to read.
5. I am going to set aside a time for me to read to myself each day. I love to read, but I forget to, and my library book has already been renewed once. I need to finish it.

Those are my weekly goals. I think the hardest one to keep will be walking the dog, but that is one of the most important ones. I can't lose the fat if I'm sitting on it all day long.

You can check out other participants in Fit4Life Friday at NspiredByFaith.

If You Don't Like Poop Talk Stop Reading Now

After watching Dr. Oz on Oprah numerous times I know what healthy poop is supposed to look like. It is supposed to be long and C-shaped or S-shaped. Unhealthy poop looks like little pebbles. If your poop looks like pebbles it means you need more fiber.

Apparently, I need more fiber in my diet. I was in the bathroom pooping when Amaya came in. She's still at the age when she can be in the bathroom when someone is pooping and she doesn't mind the smell. Anyway, after I got up and was ready to flush the toilet Amaya looked in the toilet and said, "Dots."

Hayden must be extremely healthy because his poop is extremely long. One time his poop was so long it spanned the toilet bowl and would not flush down. I was talking to a friend on the phone at the time and I was telling her how it would not go down no matter how many times I flushed the toilet because it wasn't even in the water. She said I was probably going to have to go outside and find a stick to push it down, and that's exactly what I had to do. Even Hayden knows his poop is extraordinarily huge. Sometimes after he has pooped he will come and tell me, "I just dropped a huge turd out of my butt."

Tackle It Tuesday

My tackle for today is to start doing a weekly menu plan. We've had too many nights lately where the kids have had scrambled eggs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or some random mixture (like rice and beans) that I can throw together with what we have on hand. Usually on those nights I don't eat dinner and Mike will ride his bike to the grocery store and get a frozen pizza for himself. Dinner in our house isn't working well lately.

I know most people who do their menu plans do it on Mondays for the week ahead. Tuesdays work better for us for two reasons: First of all, Tuesdays is when the ads for the grocery stores come out. I can check the ads and see what is on sale and plan our meals around that. Second, we have a local dairy farm that delivers our milk every week and they deliver it early Wednesday morning. We have to have our order in by 8:00 Tuesday nights. They have a lot more than just dairy, though. They have fruits and vegetables, meat, pancake mixes and syrup, chips and salsa. We like getting things from them because all of their dairy and meat comes from animals not injected with hormones and most of their produce is organic. Most of their products come from their own farm or other local farmers. I like the fact that the products are local and are healthier than some stuff at the grocery store. Plus the fact that they deliver is great.

Having the menu plan will let Mike do the grocery shopping once a week instead of a couple of times. If we do end up needing something during the week he can just stop at the grocery store that is on his way home from work. I am lucky because I never have to go to the grocery store. Mike has done our grocery shopping for as long as I can remember. Before we had kids we both worked full time and I was going to school at night. It was easy for him to go shopping on one of my school nights and then we didn't have to waste time on our weekend doing it. He has just kept doing it since it is easier for him to go alone in the evening than it is for me to go during the day dragging three wild kids with me.

Hopefully doing a menu plan each week will help us eat better, not get bored and save money.

Also, Carson is still tackling his bedroom (it's been a week now). He can actually walk in there now, but I am going to try to get him to finish it up today. He is moving really slow on it but I refuse to do it for him. I will help him organize it when it is all picked up, but I am tired of him messing it up and expecting me to clean it for him. Meanwhile, Hayden's room has been clean for two weeks now. I have to remind him to pick up sometimes, but when he picks it up he will actually put things where they go instead of just throwing everything in his closet.

Those are our two tackles for the day.

Fit4Life Friday

All right, I know it's not Friday anymore, but I have been debating all weekend whether I wanted to do this. Deedra at NspiredByFaith is hosting it as a way for people to write ab