The terrific twos

So we are officially in the terrific twos. This is my happy place that I am going to imagine when things are going less than terrific. He is in his big boy bed, free to escape at a moment's notice. And he does. We are in that training phase of trying to get him to sleep in his bed, all night like normal people, and then wake at 7:00 am, like normal people. Some days are better than others. Last night wasn't too bad. He went to bed at 8ish. Woke up at 9ish and came out all geared up and goofy. I'm not sure what happened there. I put him to bed again and he says. "Good night Mommy, bye." I'm not sure why I think that is so cute. "Bye," I tell him back. This morning he awoke at 6:15 sharp. I should be happier with that, but I'm hanging on to the fairy tale. Dream big, right? He laid in bed next to us for about a half hour, holding his breath and then exhaling in a big burst. Why do kids do that? I remember my girls doing that. There is nothing sweeter than the idea of a warm, snuggly child cuddled up in my cozy, incredibly soft bed. They don't breath like the ocean waves rhythmically coming into and out of shore. It is a quiet inhale, an awkward silent holding phase, and then a noisy outburst of air. So not part of my fairy tale. He sits up and I pray that he is heading for one of his sister's rooms. When I do eventually arise, I make it to my coffee maker that is unfortunately sitting cold and idle. Brandon peeks up from the couch, taking a momentary break from Miss Spider's Sunnypatch Friends, and asks, "Good sleep, Mommy?" "Yes Brandon," I smile, "I did have a good sleep." He seems so satisfied with this interaction that he now is asking everyone if they have had a good sleep.

This is a little reminder that we really create these little ones by how we interact with them, day in and day out, the good and the ugly. Apparently, I haven't ruined this one yet.

The meaning behind the madness

I live in a busy household, there is no doubt about that. We all get distracted at times. Sometimes I wonder how things get where they get? The other day my two year old boy was sitting down eating. At least he started off sitting. He really is speaking so much now, he loves to practice his favorites sayings and manners. He also loves to go out on a limb and try new words and phrases. One day, he said out of the blue....”Miss Daddy.” Daddy was at work. So sweet. Anyway, back to my story, he asked for “Cheese please Mommy.” I was shredding some for dinner. I gladly shredded some on his plate. I went back to preparing dinner. I look up and see him sprinkling bits of shredded cheese in the tracks of my windows.

“No Brandon! What are you doing?” Feed flies Mommy. I look in the tracks and I see a random dead fly here and there, next to each one lies a piece of cheese carefully placed. Well I guess that explains that.

Got java?

I was recovering from my 8 year old's sleepover birthday party. I woke up and started my coffee maker. Let me restate that. I woke up and attempted to start my coffee maker. It was broken. I was flabbergasted. What was I going to do? I had to have coffee. I almost cried.

But then I thought that cowboys somehow made coffee without a coffee maker. I'm sure I've seen it on TV.

This is what we came up with.




The chop stick contraption nicely held the strainer in place so that we didn't accidentally lose the grounds. I understand that this isn't an ideal outfit here, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Short story: Coffee? Check. Caffeine level achieved? Check. A quick trip to Bed Bath & Beyond set us straight. Phew! God bless the automatic coffee maker. It is just one less thing. Yee-ha.

The results are in...

I can't believe how fast time is going by. The kids are already scheduling their first quarter parent/teacher conferences. That means two birthdays and Halloween are just around the corner. Which also means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner.

Gasp!

Let's pretend I didn't just say that last comment.

Okay, back to my results. I had undertaken a new fitness goal beginning Aug. 1st. I measured myself, borrowed a weightlifting book, collected a ton of motivation and began. The first month I really stayed on the workout challenge. I got all the workouts in, both cardio and strength training. I could really feel that my motivation was faltering a bit. I saw definition and tone in my arms. The second month I was working more on the cardio side. I felt burned out on the weights. You see, I was reading a great book, so I wanted to spend my time doing more cardio where I can read at the same time. Then my dear Alison got mycoplasma pneumonia and erythema multiforme and my next week was, shall we say without workout, but with stress which may have the same net effect as actually spending time in the gym.

While my daughter was being diagnosed (difficult) and then healing (so sad because of the systemic allergic reaction she had to the bacteria that was infecting her), I realized that the little things really are very little. Dishes, laundry, kids' homework didn't cause me anywhere near the stress that they usually evoke. I was just so thankful to have her on the road to recovery. The next week I was completely wiped out, totally exhausted, understandably so. Then, I was back into the swing of things (workout wise) and I did the annual grass preparation. In the desert, you have to shave back, thatch, and rake up your grass before you plant new seed each fall. Something they don't advertise when they suck you into living here. Anyway, all that work, and dust and debris in the air, caused me to be super wheezy, so working out was out for the next few days. Now I'm feeling better and I wake up and it is Oct. 1st, my deadline.

Drum roll please.....

My weight was exactly the same as August 1st. In my defense, it was a great weigh- in on Aug 1st, I hadn't seen that number for months. It is probably what helped to get me inspired in the first place, hope. My measurements in 7 areas combined today were 9.5 inches fewer than they were on August 1st. I knew I was looking better, but the scale wasn't reflecting any of the positive changes that I was making. So diamonds, not bathroom scales, really are a girl's best friend.

Where do I go from here? Well, I can see how people (I) usually quit when they aren't seeing the results on the scale. I can also understand how people (I) get sidetracked as they put out the fires that are unexpectantly cropping up throughout the week, month, and year. And that is okay. Working out is like doing the dishes. It is something that needs to be done most of the time. It is fine to let it slide when other things become more important, but when it is said and done, you eventually need to get back there and "do the dishes." You know how much better you'll feel when they are done.

I’m hooked.

I was having a hard time getting into a new book. It is a best seller and I had waited for a long time. I was number 281 on the hold list at the library. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finally became available to check out. I was either falling asleep or just having a hard time processing what I was reading. Well that problem is over. I took the book to the gym and walked for 50 minutes on a steep incline. It seemed like 15 minutes max. I’m happy to say I’m hooked! I imagine that it won’t be hard to find time for cardio over the next week or so.

Good thing I already have the second book on hold. I'm currently at number 108. Who knows how long that will take. I better get back to the gym!

The mother of all procrastination.

My label maker is still in the box. I’ve had it for about 7 years. I think my problem is that I don’t want to “label” something until my system is perfect. Who wants to ruin a perfectly good label, right??? Also, I need to learn how to use it. So, to recap, I need to figure out the perfect organizing system, then I need a beautiful storage solution to label, then I need to learn how to use my label maker, then I need to make labels for all the solutions at once. I want to have everything ready and then go from unorganized to labeled in one afternoon. Oh yeah, I forgot, I need one afternoon uninterrupted.

I don’t think this is going to happen.

Enough is enough. This is my epiphany I had earlier this week. How can I be organized if I can’t remember what I store in which container? Once I put something away, I semi-forget about it. So logic would follow that is why I have things out, so I don’t “lose” them. I knew I had a reason for not picking up after myself....I like myself better already.

This week I have been looking around for smarter ways to store things that I have. I have thrown away a lot, donated some, and have gotten a lot smarter on what goes where. I had short things stored on high shelves, with tons of wasted space on top of that. My new best friend is an empty diaper box with a plain old hand-written label on it. There is nothing precious about this storage solution. I feel this sense of freedom knowing for sure what is in each box or tote. I’m hooked. Some people “love” their label makers (want mine?), I love an orange Sharpie and any old box.

The honeymoon is over.

So the newness of the working out has faded, shall we say. I’ve made it a whole month. I am still going, but each visit to the gym is a little harder to psyche myself up for. When I get caught up in something new, it takes priority over everything else. Then when the newness wears off, I look around and finally see all the things that I’ve been neglecting. Ooops! So then my new priority become fixing the symptoms that have cropped up during the latest period of neglect. It’s a cycle of endless catchup-itis. Such is my life. ;-)

The struggle is learning to achieve balance with all my jobs, hobbies, and projects. So my new goal for the gym is 3 times a week. That is close to what I was doing, however, I have to cut the workout to 1 hour maximum. Too many things suffer when I spend longer than that amount of time. This will free up more time to blog, declutter and organize. I will lose more inches in the long term if I stay on the plan, than if I give it my all for 6 weeks and then dropout completely.

So that is where I am. Working out is a lifestyle not a short-term obsession. It is just something that needs to be done, so that a long healthy life is ahead of me.