Days 20-72

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray"...*

My big plans for this blog fell by the wayside it seems. I am enjoying staying at home immensely. I am not, however, enjoying the fact that my children DO NOT SLEEP.

It is fortunate that I am home because I cannot imagine for a second being able to cope with a full-time outside-of-the-home job with the amount of sleep that I am getting right now. I'm getting by so far by napping when the kids nap. Hopefully we turn a corner on this sleep situation soon.

Let's see...what have we been doing?

Library (almost) every Tuesday
Swimming pool (once)
Grocery shopping
Playing with our neighbor kids
Kids' swimming pool in the yard
Watched movies and TV (perhaps a little too much)
Legos, Legos and MORE LEGOS
Going on walks
Playground
Gardening
Swinging on the rope swing
Campfires
Grilling out
Eating outside 

I find that doing these blog posts in the evening might work better. Mornings are too much of a hit-and-miss, depending on how much sleep I get. So from now on, instead of setting goals for today I'm going to set them for tomorrow.

Please comment and tell me how awesome I am so that I'm motivated to continue with this blog.  :)

Jo

Goals for Tomorrow:

start a load of laundry
make a big breakfast (good fuel for a busy day)
Mama bath
pick up K's meds
family picnic at Whitewater State Park
fold (at least some of the) clean laundry that is piled up
put away (at least some of the) folded laundry
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes
have a campfire if the weather permits
drink a beer  :)

Goals For the Weekend:

take at least one good nap
stay patient with The Littles even if I'm tired
make at least one 'good' dinner
do a meal plan for next week
portion out medications for the week so that I remember to take them
water/weed at least part of the garden

*Yes, I know this is a misquote but it sounded better than the original. :P 

Days 15-19

We are doing pretty well at following a schedule. Breakfast right away and lunch by noon, followed by naps. We've played outside every day we can and I've gotten supper on the table by 6pm almost every day. (I relaxed a bit on the weekend and it was on the table by 6:15. Ha!)

This weekend the kids played outside and we also planted more seeds. We had friends over for supper on Saturday and the kiddos had a blast. On Sunday,Daddy took 3 of 4 of the kiddos to Grandma and Papa's house for Papa's birthday. H has a cold/teething thing going on so I stayed home with her so that we wouldn't spread her snot around too much.

I've been taking naps with the littles during the week because they don't sleep through the night and Mama is TIRED. J is up multiple times to go to the bathroom-which is great because his pull-ups have been dry (YAY!) but bad because he doesn't just go and go back to bed, he wakes us up each time. We've started putting H in a crib in J's room at the beginning of the night and I pull her into bed with us when she wakes in the middle of the night. She's still nursing so being able to get to to sleep right away is a blessing. :)

So...today is lazy day because we had a rough night last night with each munchkin being up around three times each. *yawn*  The kids are watching Ice Age: The Meltdown (don't judge me) and eating Goldfish crackers while I keep the chaos to a minimum and get updated on this here blog. ;)

Jo

Goals for Today:

start a load of laundry
fold a load of laundry
take a nap
make a good dinner (chicken?)
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes
J bath
H bath
K bath
Mama bath
organize H's clothes
work on giant mountain of clean clothes in my bedroom

Day 14

I think a tiny part of me thought that staying at home with the kids would equal being able to sleep in just a little. This is not the case. My children are apparently morning people. *shudder*

We have been up and dressed and have had breakfast and watched Scooby Doo Meets Batman and have had a dance party to Noodlebug and have laughed and cried and had tantrums and laughed some more. We've done many of the things that little people do.

So far? Today is a very good day.

Jo

Goals for Today:

start a load of laundry
dance party
fold a load of laundry
have J help me make lunch
take a nap
make orange chicken for dinner
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes
organize H's clothes
work on putting away giant mountain of clothes in my bedroom

Day 13

Up and at 'em at 6:45 this morning! Wooooot! (NOT)

Good news is that baths are done and breakfast is in progress. Jamie requested waffle cookies again (which is pretty awesome because it basically involves a frozen whole wheat waffle and a toaster).

We survived yesterday and even spent some time outside. I started my seeds in egg cartons (with lots of K's help) while the little ones played with their garden tools. They also got into some bubbles, but it kept them entertained so we just let them have at it. J had to take his pants off before he could even get into the house. Daddy supervised the littles, even though he hates being cold, and it allowed us to get all of our vegetable seeds started. They are on the porch for now and will stay there until Minnesota decides it is actually spring. *insert eye roll here*

Jo

Goals for Today:

Jamie bath
Harper bath
Mama bath
start a load of laundry
go to the library for story time
fold a load of laundry
take a nap
make a good dinner
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes
organize H's clothes (had a picnic instead)

Days 7-12

Today is the first day that the kids are 'officially' home full time as their last day at daycare was on Friday. So far so good. The kids are dressed and so am I. They are on the couch next to me watching Octonauts and eating waffle cookies. These are whole grain waffles with nothing on them. They seem to think they are pretty fantastic and I enjoy only having to worry about sweeping up the crumbs.  :)  I plan to do meals at the table but thought today we could do a treat since it's our first day home.

Recap of Days 7-11

We went to the Clinic on Wednesday and it was pretty much as miserable for Harper as you'd expect. Poor baby, blood draws are THE DEVIL. We were just getting her lead tested but man, getting the pokes done in those tiny little arms just stinks.

Thursday was a nice lazy day. I puttered around the house and didn't set any specific goals but got some stuff done so that was nice.

Friday was errand day. I took Brad to work so that I could get some major grocery shopping done. I was able to hit some good sales and stocked up quite a bit on things we needed. The hardest part was figuring out where to put it all!

Saturday we went to Como Zoo and the kids had a BLAST. We were disciplined and packed snacks and stuff for lunch so we were able to not spend any money except on gas. I'll post more about that on my other blog if I have time today. B took a ton of pics of the littles.

Yesterday H and J and I went to get K from her dad's house and also visited some friends. J fussed for most of the 1 1/2 hour car ride home because he didn't want to leave and about the time he stopped then H started fussing because she was sick of her car seat. This made me very nervous and I had many "Have I lost my mind thinking I can manage these kids alone all day??!?!?" thoughts.

So far today isn't too bad. We shall see.

Jo

Goals for Today:

Survive  :)

Day 6

I'm home alone today and it's pretty glorious. I'm taking the opportunity to relax and gear up for tomorrow. I have to take H and K to the clinic for some tests. (Nothing to worry about, just some routine follow-up.) J will be along for the ride as daycare is closed. Wrangling the two littles ought to be fun, especially since H's test involves a blood draw. She's already developed a doctor phobia so I'm really not looking forward to it.

I was rather proud of myself yesterday. In addition to doing everything I could on my list, I also reorganized the front porch area. It was pretty cluttered and you couldn't actually walk through it, as it's the 'catch-all' for ALL OF THE THINGS. Also got the recycling out to the bin (thanks K) and organized J's clothes.

Jo

Goals for Today:

put away clean dishes from drainer and dishwasher
start a load of laundry
fold a load of laundry
take a nap
make a good dinner
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes
Harper bath night (ended up being done Wed a.m.)

Days 3-5

I took the weekend off to hang out with the family. The littles were CRAYZEE, which scares me to death thinking about taking care of them on my own all day. Today they are at daycare, finishing off their last week before being with me full time.

This week is cleaning week. I am planning of 'de-winterizing' the house and packing up (most of) our winter clothes. I got a start in the little alcove where we keep boots/hats/gloves/etc. and I'm hoping to at least get that finished today.

Jo

Goals for Today:

clean kitchen
clean out refrigerator
de-winterize shoe area
start a load of laundry
fold a load of laundry
make sure K does her chores
go to the library  (watched a movie instead)
fill L's gas tank
litter boxes (K)
clean off dining room table
take a nap
make a good dinner (forgot I declared leftover night)
play outside with kids for at least 15 minutes (was too cold and windy)