Week 11--Making the Bed

No, that's not April! That's a little Keanna! Same face an same wild hair!

Contemplations

The chaos of last week has spilled over into this week. In the midst of all this potty/night training, one of the thermostats in our dryer blew out. The result? No dryer for about 5 days! Eeeek!! The blessing in this one was that my dad was able to isolate the thermostat as the problem and I was able to order a new on online. He was not available to install the new one, so I got real acquainted with the inner workings of my dryer and it is now working!! Yay! However, I am still trying to dig out of the mountains of laundry that piled up. While it was down, I did wash and hang laundry around the house, but there are only so many places to hang wet things.

Tuesday afternoon Koda came down with a fever. A day or two later he developed a horrible lung cough. Of course, Lukas started with the same symptoms not long afterward. They are both still sick and will be going to see Dr. Ng tomorrow morning. This afternoon April developed a very mild fever---hoping it's something different!

We are still trying to make the repairs to the house that the bank is requiring for our refi, but have been met with a couple challenges along the way. We are muddling through them, very thankful that we have this house!

Along with all this craziness, it's the end of the quarter. That's usually pretty exciting...for the students. For teachers on the other hand, it means a lot more work. Robbie is busy trying to get all his grading done so he can enter his comments.

This coming week is already filled with a three-tiered shower cake and company on Saturday.

Needless to say, I am exhausted and overwhelmed right now. But through the craziness, I've seen a definite blessing. More than usual, I have been longing for my precious time in God's Word. When I am in the midst of the tornado, the rocking chair, a cup of tea, and my Bible just sound so good to me. If life were always easy, we'd never experience that deep desire and need for intense communion with our Savior. So I thank God for this hectic week and ask Him for the strength and stamina to get through.

One major blessing this week was that I got to attend a mother-daughter tea with Keanna! Just Keanna! No boys and no April! It was so nice to spend time with my precious one without distraction from the other kids. This is a rare occurrence these days. Thanks to Keanna's friend Megan and her mom, we had a great time together, eating tea sandwiches, scones, and sweets! It was also a great time of fellowship for some of us moms who just get to see each other in passing at school.

Habits in Progress

1. Scripture Saturation: Going well! Only about 5 chapters behind!
2. Toy Pick-Up Time: Pushed aside the last few days the kids have been sick. They built a "house" out of chairs, couch cushions, and blankets that we're letting them leave up for now.
3. A Hug and a Kiss: XOXO
4. Water: Still at it!
5. WDTP Scripture Memorization: Still need to put the next verse on a card. I Peter 3:3
6. Two More Hugs: Yup!
7. Disposal Check: Fished a medicine spoon out before running the disposal!
8. Toothpaste Check: Haven't caught April reusing toothpaste this week!
9. Family Time Tuesdays: Due to the refi, Robbie had to work on installing a ceiling fan on Tuesday so family didn't really happen. But the boys did really enjoy watching him and handing him things! And I made Tuesday's dinner on Monday so all I had to do was heat it up!
10. Earthquake Kit: Didn't make it to WinCo this week.

This Week's One New Habit

I really dislike making the bed. After all, it's just going to get messed up again. In fact, when I was in college, we had weekly room checks. I used to sleep on top of my covers with one blanket on so I wouldn't have to make my bed. And I don't really care if the covers are perfect when I'm sleeping. As long as I'm covered and warm, I'm good.

Robbie, on the other hand, likes the covers smooth, tucked in, and all in order before he can go to sleep. This means he is constantly having to adjust the sheets and blankets before going to bed (especially on my side). He faithfully does this every night and never complains. But I don't want him to have to take the extra few minutes every night---he gets too little sleep as it is. If I made the bed everyday, he wouldn't need to adjust and tuck every night.

Now, I'm a realist, so I'm not going to commit to making it as soon as I get up every day or getting it done before breakfast. Mornings in our house are crazy enough as it is and I'm lucky if I'm dressed before 9. A more attainable goal is to have the bed made before the kids wake up from their naps. This gives me a lot of time to fit it into my day and gives me some time to do it without the kids' "help." And since my ultimate goal is not to have the bed made, but to make evenings easier on my husband, it doesn't really matter what time it gets done as long as it's before he gets into bed.

So, I hereby resolve to make the bed every day before the kids get up from their naps so Robbie does not have to fix the covers before going to bed every day.

Weeks 7, 8, 9, and 10--Disposal, Toothpaste, Family, and Earthquakes

Contemplations

It's been a long time since I've written. When I embarked on this adventure, I specifically stated that I would not allow this blog to get in the way of my family or home responsibilities. These past four weeks I've had to push it aside to focus on my priorities. Life has really seemed to speed up in the last month. I can't really think of any one specific reason why. I think it is a combination of things.

The most time-consuming thing right now is continued potty training. April is doing really well. Still having occasional accidents, but is getting better at vocalizing when she has to go. She's peed in the big potty at WinCo and church! Yay! No more hauling the little potty to church every week! (I'll probably take it at least one more week just to be sure.)

Four days ago I added night training to my list of responsibilities. The boys will be four next month and still don't make it through the night. After reading John Rosemond's book in preparation to train April, I decided that once the pull-ups were gone, I wasn't buying any more. The boys are just going to have to learn to stay dry. We used the last pull-up three nights ago. Lukas has stayed dry both nights! Koda has woken up wet both mornings. Hopefully he'll catch on soon. My sister used this method with my niece and it didn't take long. In the meantime, it means I'm washing bedding every day. In the long-run, it will be well worth it, but right now, I'm just tired of doing laundry.

I added a new writing responsibility to my plate in January when I started writing a weekly post for The Frugal Find. This isn't that bad as I can sometimes use Near to Nothing posts and just tweak them a bit. (Sorry, can't figure out why this is centered.)

Another added stress has been the refi we're currently in the middle of. We're hoping to close in the next couple weeks. If all goes through as planned, we'll save a good chunk of money every month and a ton over the life of the loan. But before it can be finalized, we have some things we need to fix around the house. It's all stuff we wanted to do anyway, but it just wasn't high enough on the priority list to make the time for it. Now we have to do it.

Through it all, I've had quite a few times in the past two months when I just wanted to leave the kids to run amok while I crawled under the covers to hide, cry, and sleep. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a full-time mommy and wouldn't want it any other way. I'd really cry if I had to go to work outside the house. But lately I've just been so exhausted.

To get through those times, I just keep reminding myself of God's promises of rest in Psalm 127:2 and the glorious future rest in heaven that we read about in Hebrews 4. It truly is only the Lord who can sustain us in troubled times.

Habits in Progress

1. Scripture Saturation: With the craziness of February, I fell quite behind and am still about 10 days behind. Rather than try to catch up, I decided to start March's reading list and go back and pick up February's neglected readings as I have the time. I think this way I will be less discouraged about being behind. I am so far current for March.
2. Toy Pick-Up Time: Going well---need to do a thorough purge of the toys to make it easier and faster.
3. A Hug and a Kiss: Met Robbie at the door almost every day this week!
4. Water: This is becoming such a habit that when I forget, I remember as soon as I start eating my meal.
5. WDTP Scripture Memorization: Proverbs 29:17 "Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart." Due this Thursday.
6. Two More Hugs: Great!! Just gave them each a hug this evening!
7. Disposal Check: Now that they boys are old enough and coordinated enough, I've been having them carry their own dishes to the kitchen after meals. They usually dump them into the sink. But since they can't see what they're doing, this means that the silverware sometimes ends up in the garbage disposal. After running a few spoons through the disposal, I decided I need to make a habit of checking it before running it. Since then, I haven't run any silverware through it.
8. Toothpaste Check: April LOVES to brush her teeth! I often find her at the bathroom sink brushing away. She also loves toothpaste. She discovered that there is often a great supply of toothpaste in the sink after the older kids are done brushing. I have found her scraping the toothpaste out of the sink with her toothbrush and brushing with it. Gross!! So I now regularly check and clean the sink after the older kids are done.
9. Family Time Tuesdays: Sort of as a result of all the recent busyness and craziness, Robbie and I ended up having a huge discussion about how we can make more time for the kids. We decided that Tuesday nights are going to be family time. On Tuesdays, Robbie will not do any school work until after the kids go to bed. I will plan meals that require little or no prep just before dinner time and will wait to clean up the dishes until after the kids are in bed. This last Tuesday was the first time. We all played Legos together and it was so fun! The boys especially liked building things.

This Week's One New Habit

For those of us living in earthquake country, it is very important that we all have emergency supplies on hand: battery-operated radio, drinking water, flashlights, non-perishable food. I used to be real good at making sure we had all these things on hand. But since we moved into our house (almost 3 years ago), I haven't really collected these things again. I've wanted to get this going for some time now, but this week's small quake really gave me motivation.

Buying enough food for six of us for a few days will be really expensive. So to spread out the cost, I plan on buying one or two canned items each time I'm at the grocery store to put away in our earthquake kit. Once I've stocked up as much as we need, I will continue to buy new stuff and use it to replace items that are nearing their expiration date--yes, non-perishables do perish.

So, I hereby resolve to buy at least one extra can of food every time I am at WinCo in order to build up our earthquake emergency kit.