June 20th, 2007

I woke up this morning because my 1yo who is actually 20 months old showed up at my bed. I was surprised. He had crawled out of his crib and opened his door and walked quietly to me. All of these things I was unaware that he could do.

Shortly after 3yo woke and they both watched TV while I folded laundry. When I got done 6 yo was awake and we all put away the laundry and cleaned the boys’ rooms as well as mine.

Then I made pancakes (That’s their reward for working quickly and saying, “What can I do next.”). While each pancake cooked I cleaned up around the kitchen and did dishes. When the boys were done I let them have a short stint of television while I ate my breakfast ALONE.

We then got ready for a sprinkler party. Party is used loosely here as we just turned on the sprinklers and filled up the little pool and invited two friends over. That was fun and I think I got almost as wet at the kids. Next time I think I’ll wear my swimsuit.

Then I made whole wheat noodles with red sauce and cheese for both me and the boys. After lunch 1yo went down for a nap and the older boys did their workbooks. After workbooks 3yo went down for a nap and 6yo finished his workbooks while I did my 15 minute tidy that I try to do at nap time and every night.

6yo then ate a cookie with milk and played quietly (only when I reminded him) while I checked my blog, read other blogs (10 minutes) and read my scriptures.

Then he did his computer time. This is one of his favorite times of the day. We initially were going to buy different educational computer games, but then I came across a program that we have loved. It is called Time4Learning. I have been so pleased with this program. It is basically online school, but then it is followed by fun. We do 15 minutes of lessons and then 6yo gets to play great, safe games for as long as he wants. (I will write more about this later.)

He was so excited about one game that he went over to the neighbors and brought back five boys to watch him play. That lasted for quite awhile until they all migrated outside and then to the neighbors’ house. (I have three boys and our neighbors have 5 boys. There are lots of boys around here.)

In the meantime I read my book, I am a Mother while 6 yo was working on time4learning. Sometimes he needs a little help so I like to be close by. He is getting better and needs me less and less.

While he was playing his game I was able to clean both bathrooms, wash the sliding glass door (quite a feet), and shine the faucets (there is something about a shiny faucet even if the sink isn’t perfect), wash walls down that had who-knows-what on them, and wash other mirrors in the house. I made lasagna. (The oven heated our house right up. Any suggestions for no oven summer meals? I would love them.) And then I moved the sprinkler around the yard to several dry places.

We then had dinner and tried to find something that the whole family could watch. We ended on Deal of No Deal. (I wanted to watch So You Think You Can Dance since I used to have my own dance studio, but their costumes are too skimpy and the moves are too suggestive and not appropriate. This makes me so sad because I so miss seeing good dancing.)

There were the normal last spurts of energy from the kids, a few cries and accidents and last minute drinks and such and now 1yo and 6 yo are down and 3yo is waiting for me. We will play and then books and then to bed.

I didn’t stay true today, but I’m going to try a different route. Instead of sighting all my blips of the day I think I will concentrate on the good things I did. I think it would be safe for you to assume that there were blips, I’ll definitely tell you if there isn’t, but I’m not going to focus on them.

I was full after preparing dinner because one taste turned into a meal and the great thing was that I didn’t eat dinner like I would have in the past. I ate peas from our garden, tried the lasagna since hubby said it was the best I ever made. (Get this, I pureed a green pepper, asparagus and some peas into the sauce and no one was the wiser. Yes! I love that. I tend to do that with muffins too and it doesn’t go over so well. They have all gotten so they are a little hesitant to try them.)

Also I didn’t eat the ice cream I planned to tonight because 1yo kept following me to the downstairs freezer. He knew something was up. He knew I was carrying a bowl and spoon somewhere and he wanted to be there when I filled the bowl. He didn’t know what it was, but knew it must be good since I was trying to be alone. Well I didn’t want him to have some and I didn’t want to eat it with him begging. I wanted to enjoy the indulgence and that wasn’t going to happen so I didn’t eat.

I’m thinking about adding another incentive to eating the way I planned. If I go with the plan then I get to sleep an extra ½ hour. If I don’t then I need to wake ½ hour earlier and do yoga to try to focus my mind and body. What do you think? Do you think it will work?

I saw this on Yet Another Weight Watchers’ Blog and I liked it. She said, “you still have to eat less food to lose weight, and that it sucks sometimes. We need a leader who can agree with us that it sucks, but gently and firmly tell us we still are going to have to do it anyway.” I don’t know why that hit me, but it is true. There is no getting around it. We have to eat less food. I guess the question is how to get ourselves to want to give up eating more food.