Kicking my butt

I am officially on day 10 of P90X, if you don’t know what that is, you probably haven’t seen the infomercial. I actually haven’t either but I’m told that it’s on all the time. P90X is an extreme workout program that I purchased for Steven for Father’s day. (It was the perfect gift for him, I promise) In any case I decided to join him on the 90 day adventure and so far it’s been great, but I’m exhausted by 10 o’clock every morning and I’m ready to go back to bed. This of course isn’t great when you have 3 small children who would never allow this to happen. I’m waiting for when { the working out is suppose to give you more energy}happens. As well as when I’m suppose to drop the 12 dress sizes it promises j/k  I have been faithful in getting up early every morning, before the children- to get the work out in, I’m hoping I can keep it up for the remaining 80 days… wow, that’s a long time.  And maybe if I get brave I’ll post my before and after  pictures.  Hmmmm I’ll think on that.

A bust

Well, we started with good intentions and in happy spirits.  For those that know us well, you’ll know that Steven and I are not planners. At about 5:30 on the 4th of July we started to try and figure out what our plans were going to be. Because we live in a large metroplex we had about 5 or 6 different options of where we were going to go see fireworks. Our original thought was to go to a smaller  town outside of the city so that we wouldn’t get caught up in all the traffic, but then we decided why not save us the drive, stay in the city and get home earlier. That is NOT the way it went down for us.  The fireworks were suppose to go off after a baseball game. We got to the field about 7:45 and got a great spot. We figured the game would be over about 9:15 and the show would begin. Sadly by 10:30 there was no end in sight. The game went into over time and by 11:45 it was in the 13th inning and we could stay no more. So we took a devestated Zoe home with promises to hunt down fireworks someplace else another day. Zack on the other hand had wanted to go home after about 20 minutes of being there (he really isn’t much for excitement) so he was glad to be leaving, and Olivia held out as best she could, but was  just about in melt down mode by the time we left ( can you blame her, really?) So our 4th was a bust.  Those that did stay didn’t get home until after 1:00 !!!!!

Catchin up

I have been away from here for a while. I am still working on trying to find that happy medium of family life and hobby. And since most of my “free hobby time” is focused on the website and other blog I barely get to hang out here. So if you ever want to know what’s going on with me and havn’t heard from me for a while, check on me there.  So besides all that and us melting in the Texas heat- I have been busy preparing Zoe’s curriculum for next year. I was able  to spend Monday with a couple other homeschooling moms traveling around the DFW metroplex  to various homeschool stores hoping to buy the rest of the curriculum I need for cheap.  I did find some great finds, one store had an everything in the store is 40% off sale! LOVED IT!  I’m still on the hunt for two more things and then I think I’ll be set. Zoe is so excited to get started, everyday she asks me to do school.  I’m excited about this new journey too. There are so many choices and decisions and I wonder how I’m going to get it all done, but as a good friend has reminded me… it’s one day at a time. So that’s how I’ll begin.

On Vacation

We are in Iowa this week visiting family. Although I’m not sure we would ever leave the great state of Texas, I love coming home to Iowa. Things seem to move more slowly here, and there is something about the picturesque view of Iowa fields and farmhouses that make me long for a quieter existence. This trip unlike any other has been much busier. We spent a few days camping with the family and all of us managed to come out still smiling, went to a class reunion, and checked out my sister-in-laws house about an hour from here, I’m also getting to see one of my best friends and college roommate tomorrow and then we’ll head back home soon after.

Operation Fun mom Progress Report

Ok,  so I didn’t accomplish too many of my fun mom goals this week but I did make it a point to sit down and play a few board games with my children, and read more stories together. My real goal is just to participate more in actual “play” with them. I want them to know I’m interested in what they are doing- and time together is definitely one of Zoe’s love languages. I also want to help control the mess in this house. I know it seems crazy but when they are productively occupied they are not running around the house making messes out of every room.  One of their favorite games these days is to build a “rocket ship” out of blankets, pillows, chairs etc. and drag all of their toys from various rooms around the house into the ship. They have such a great time doing this, that I can’t say no-but clean up is a mess!  Another game I truly dislike is their own version of hide and seek. For this game they hide all of their favorite toys around the house and send the other one to go find them. This would be a fine game except they usually lose interest half way through looking and I end up finding toys in cabinets, under chairs, in the shower, EVERYWHERE!

So here are my ideas for this week.

*Take one of their favorite stories and put on a  play for daddy, character costumes and all.           

*Build a town out of blocks and small boxes to play cars in

*make a meal together

*lots of reading, snuggling, and giggling.

Operation Fun Mom

I am not exactly what I would call “the fun mom” sure, I spend time with my children, we read, hang out, watch movies together yadda yadda yadda. But I don’t really play with them. This realization has hit me recently, and as I sit her typing while I listen to them, the guilt is mounting. I am definately a mommy that likes to keep my children busy coloring, painting, playing with playdough, etc. But I don’t usually participate in them, I usually keep watch while I go about my daily chores or browse a book or magazine. I’m not sure my children even notice, but I do. I want to want to play with them. So I have a plan. My goal is to do at least 3 activities with them a week where I just get down with them and be silly. I know 3 seems kind of lame, but I have to start somewhere. And to keep me accountable, I’m going to post about them at least once a week. On our Meals for Deals blog, we will be starting a series on Kids in the Kitchen, so hopefully this will also help get me motivated. Maybe eventually it will just come naturally and I won’t have to plan for it. Maybe by me posting about it, you will be inspired as well. If you already have fun things you like to do with your children please share.   So begins… Operation Fun Mom.

Motivation

If you need motivation to clean your house- Make plans to have company over.

Home sweet home… just not mine.

This little pup showed up at our house last week. I felt compelled to take it in- against my own better judgment, but after an unfortunate incident a few years ago with  a neighbors dog  being lost- I didn’t want this little gal to end up lost as well. Thankfully I only had her a few hours before I was able to locate a temporary-maybe forever home for her. Steven jokingly tried talking the kids into trading our dog for this much smaller, cuter version. Well, then the dog showed back up at our house this past Friday. I tried getting in touch with the woman who took her, to no avail. And then I fretted about this dog all weekend. We do NOT want another dog, even as sweet as she was. Obviously this dog was going to be trouble to who ever took her since she kept escaping. Long story short, I ended up putting her on Craigslist and she was gone by Monday. It probably helped that she was a Shih-Tzu.  I found her a home in Dallas,  so I don’t think she’ll end up back at our house again.

Dance Zoe, Dance.

This weekend was Zoe’s dance recital, she has really turned into a little performer. She loves getting in front of people and dancing, singing.. doing whatever. She can’t wait to do it again.

The other Zack

We have one of those camera things that hook up to the TV and has microphones for the kids to sing into (thanks Aunt Dena) This is great for our little performers who like to watch themselves on TV. Today Zack was playing with it and said “Hey Mommy I was walking this way and that other Zacky on the t.v. moved the other way, Isn’t that crazy mommy?”