Ok so schedule is in play and working.
Did I just type that?
I have to admit, when I took our new schedule home and posted it up around the house, I met with a fair amount of yeah right, Mom and that’s not going to happen.
Am I the only one who occasionally feels ganged up on by their kids?
I found that the most resistance was coming from the evening side of things.
The girls didn’t like that the schedule didn’t allow for TV/computer time. So they negotiated. We decided that as long as everything on the schedule was accomplished before bedtime that they could watch tv or use the computer or read until bedtime.
Our revised schedule is going more like this:

4:45 -- MOMMY UP , SHOWER AND GET READY FOR WORK
5:15 -- GET TRIN READY FOR SCHOOL
5:30 -- WAKE AMANDA AND EMILEE UP, NO BATTLES
5:30 – 6:00 HAVE BREAKFAST TOGETHER
6:00 -- EMILEE SHOWER, AMANDA AND EMILEE GET READY FOR SCHOOL – NO TV OR COMPUTER UNTIL
COMPLETELY READY FOR SCHOOL, MOMMY LOADS DISHWASHER
6:15 -- MOMMY LEAVES FOR WORK
6:50 – GIRLS LEAVE FOR BUS, EVERYONE SHOULD BE READY
3:30 – 4:00 LEAVE WORK
4:00 – 4:30 GET HOME, START A LOAD OF LAUNDRY AND MAKE DINNER, PACK TRIN’S LUNCH
4:45 – 5:15 SERVE DINNER, EAT TOGETHER
6:00 – 6:30 LAUNDRY INTO DRYER, MOM AND EMILEE CLEAN UP KITCHEN, START DISHWASHER
6:30 – GO FOR WALK OR DO HOME WORK IF YOU’VE GOT IT
7:00 – TRIN SHOWER, EMILEE UNLOAD DISHWASHER, AMANDA HANG UP LAUNDRY FROM DRYER
7:15 – AMANDA SHOWER
7:15 – 7:45 TRIN READING TIME IN BED, LIGHTS OUT 8:00 FOR TRIN
7:15 – AMANDA GATHER LAUNDRY, PUT IN WASHER FOR MOMMY TO START IN THE MORNING
7:30 – 8:00 FREE TIME AMANDA AND EM, COMPUTER, READ, HOMEWORK, TV (IN YOUR ROOMS)
8:00 – PHONE AND ELECTRONICS OFF, PHONES CHARGE ON HALL TABLE
8:00 – 8:45 READING TIME
8:45 LIGHTS OUT

There are times during the day where I am standing there wondering what I should be doing and I will just go and look at the schedule and be like oh yeah, laundry. We haven’t “walked” yet since it’s a blistering 100+ degrees out just about every day, but we’ve been doing cardio pilates a few days a week which I am hoping to make at least three times a week. I found it is easier to do something at home since Trin has been getting in the bath after dinner and staying in there until it’s time to read.

Here is what I have discovered this week:
*having the girls get up and sit at the table for breakfast is causing (so far) no morning arguments. I’m not sure if this is because the girls aren’t rushing so they don’t fight over the bathroom or if it is just because they shake off their cranky morning moods at the table. I don’t care what it is, my house is downright pleasant in the mornings and I love it. Yesterday Amanda didn’t eat anything, she just sat with us for about fifteen minutes while she woke up all the way. This morning she had watermelon and a bagel… Emilee has been having a granola bar every morning and Trin has had everything from biscuits to bagels to toast with juice.

*I stopped drinking coffee Wednesday. I didn’t mean to and I certainly don’t know if it will be permanent but I haven’t had any for three days and I feel fine. Some minor headaches the last two mornings but no energy loss. I’ve also been eating something light in the mornings, some mini-wheats or toast with juice and I have a lot more energy. I’ve also lost ten pounds.

*We planned out our “menu” over the weekend and we’ve eaten really well this week. Lots of veggies and grilled chicken. Last night we had salads and corn on the cob, Amanda and Emilee didn’t even clean their plates and both were full. We are always done eating by 6:00.

*Trin has been taking hour plus long baths this week and when she gets out, she puts on her pjs and gets right into bed with her book. She is reading the Spiderwick books right now. She has me set a timer for twenty minutes and as soon as it goes off, she rolls over and goes to bed.

*I’ve been in bed by nine every night this week and with the exception of this morning, I’ve not had any problems getting up before 5:00. I love going to bed early.

*We’ve been SUPER on top of the laundry this week. I will be going into the weekend with one or two loads total. WHAT WILL I DO WITH ALL THAT FREE TIME?

*I feel very good. I feel like a good mom. I feel organized. I feel energized. I feel like I will be able to start other projects now. I am going to thank the girls for being so great this week.

Labels: Amanda, Being Mommy, Emilee, organization, Triniti

Yeah, sure, it looks ok now... (The blurry is a result of no flash on my bitchin' rad and inconveniently broken Nikon. I am sending it away to the doctors at Nikon this week. There will be sadness and no pictures.)

But that was because all of this:

well, it isn't in there any more.
You'll notice that the last shot is taken from inside my closet which is where I considered moving because the floor was all clean and vacuumed and outside the closet? Well it was just plain scary.

There was a battle of excruciating pain and epic proportions.
There was destruction, death, famine.
Children ran away and at least one adult cried.
It wasn't a pleasant experience by any means but it's finished.
Well, almost.
There are still some straggler boxes that I am trying to will into being organized and put away but, well you know how those straggler boxes can be.
Surly.
Surly and stubborn.

Labels: Being a Chic, excuses excuses, my crazy life, organization, resolutions

Today ranked a solid 2.
Today it rained.
It wasn't raining this morning, just cloudy... But sometime during the afternoon, it began to rain.
I didn't think anything of this until I was leaving work.
When I was crutching (I've inducted the word "crutch" into my dictionary of verbs) my way to the door it suddenly occurred to me that rain plus handicap ramp equals another broken bone.
So as I stepped out onto the porch, I tentatively placed my crutch onto the wet ramp and put a little weight on it which caused the crutch to slide across the ramp.
Which caused me to curse The Universe.
So I crutched back to the door to get help but stopped because, well, what are they going to do. I turned around and the crutch I had tested the slickness of the ramp with was still wet and slid right out from under me causing me to put all of my weight onto my left foot. Which didn't hurt. Until I got to the car. (embarrassment evidentally keeps pain at bay)
And then it hurt like fucking hell.
Like it did when I first broke it.
And my ass cried.
And then came home and took a hydrocodone & watched The Polar Express with Trin.
And then when I came to get in bed, I did the exact same thing only this time without wet crutches to blame.
I have no idea how I am going to do this for weeks. Maybe months.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Labels: At work, Being Mommy, Health, mobile blogging, My broken foot, organization, The Universe, Triniti

Ok, believe it or not, I am actually pretty decent at thinking up ways to make life a little easier if you are a Super Busy Mom, like I am. (This post may be a little less interesting if you are a single bachelor... but hey, if you are ;) email me.) I believe that the trick in keeping your sanity is plan, plan, plan & then pre-plan some more. If you ask any one who knows me, they will tell you that I am the crazy lady with the schedules and lists. Just two weeks ago, Jiffinner called me to ask me to go grocery shopping with her that night and I told her I couldn't because I didn't have a list yet. We ended up going the next day to give me time to make one. You see what awesome patience it takes to be my friend?
I believe that if you spend the time to schedule everything that it will save you a ton of time later. It's just simple organization. And I dig organization. Organization rocks.
So, my latest foray into Making Life Easier ala Katehopeeden began when I received my ezine from Family Fun. I usually glance through these and then delete them, but this time the words "Monthly Meal Planner" caught my eye. My brain immediately thinks, ooooohhhhh, it's already organized... I can just copy it...
That is the first thing you should be looking out for if you are wanting to become a Super Organized Super Busy Mom. Always grab or copy or save anything that could possibly be useful and save you from having to dig random recipes out of your already super cluttered mind. Think of it like online banking: would you rather have to go through and keep track of everything individually or just copy it from the online banking page and compare it to your receipts?
So ANY time I see a menu or an easy recipe, I save it. (Another GREAT place for GREAT recipes is The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I am making that peach crisp thing this weekend because either it is as good as the pictures make it look OR I need to get that camera.)
Anyway, as it happened, Family Fun had a months worth of recipes and there is also some list function on there that I couldn't get to work which I can only hope would throw together a grocery list for you as you added recipes to your "shopping list".
I did something slightly different though.
I went through the recipes and printed up some that I thought the girls might like. I printed probably about 40 recipes and took them home and sat down with the girls and explained to them that I wanted them to go through the recipes and pick out what we would be eating next week and make me a menu. On the menu (which runs Mon-Fri), I wanted a main dish, a side and a dessert (because my kids are just ALL into desert these days). And they did. And more importantly, they are excited about this. Really excited. Because they essentially get to choose what we are eating. And because they are choosing, they can't get all pissed off when it's dinner time and it's spaghetti... again.
I then took the menu and the recipes that went with it and made a shopping list. Then I made an excel sheet with the menu on it and put notes in the box next to the food explaining any prep work that might need to be done as well as which daughter would be making which part of the dinners. Then I attached a sheet to it where the girls can say whether they liked something or not (more or less determining whether we will use that recipe again).
Now there will be a funneling down process as we try out some of these foods over the next few weeks and then get rid of the things we didn't like and keep the things that we do. Once we've done that, I can change the excel sheets to run Mon-Fri with things that all the girls like and save about ten weeks worth that we can alternate through.
The last step is I am going to get two three ring binders and in one, put all the printed copies of the recipes (with little separator tabs for like "entrees" "chicken" "desserts" "sides" etc) and then in the other binder put the weekly menus and the grocery lists needed for the whole week (encased in those little plastic slip cover things so they don't get all messed up) attached to it so that they can just pick one of the weekly menus and then I can just grab the week menu, put it on the fridge and grab the list to take to the store.

So there you go. You now have one of my World Domination via Planning & Organization secrets (otherwise known as: things people do when they don't have sex). I've linked you I tried to link you to the excel sheets but couldn't because I am apparently retarded and can't figure it out. Anyone know how to upload and share excel or word docs? If you need a copy of the very basic template, shoot me an email. And, as always, I am totally interested in ANY World Domination via Planning & Organization ideas that you may have.

Labels: Being Mommy, menu planning, my crazy life, organization

Yeah, yeah, I'm alive. What the fuck did you think? That Medic was going to track me down and stuff me in his trunk?
Ok, so I thought that too.
But then Jiffinner assured me that her husband's gun collection would keep him at bay...
So I am calming down.
And I have found that in the calming down process, my new toy is helping.
No! Not that kind of toy!
Geez, people.
This kind of toy.
Ahhhh, yeah.
Just got it yesterday and yesterday will forever be remembered as the day that Medic almost messed up New Palm Pilot Day.
[savvy?]
Anyway, since a few of you had written to ask if I was still alive and kicking, I figured I would take a very short break from my stupid pile of bullshit work and let you know that I am.
So, don't go deleting my blog from your sidebar just yet.
:)

Labels: excuses excuses, my crazy life, My pathetic excuse for a love life, organization