Becoming a Family Manager

I'm enjoying the Family Manager books I got a couple weeks ago. Truthfully, a lot of the info is common sense but it helps to see it in writing and to have it all in one place. I have been using my day planner much more and I printed the free "daily hit list" from the Family Manager website. http://www.familymanager.com I have learned that I am a planner. I need to have an action plan for the day. And I have to plan it a day or two in advance. My brain doesn't function well in the morning so I need to have the day already scheduled out if I want to get anything accomplished. If I try to do my schedule in the morning while I'm having my coffee, I will sit there for far too long just in a daze, overwhelmed by where to start.

I love my day planner calender. It's an Amy Knapp family organizer. http://thefamilyorganizer.com I love that it has a place for daily menus. I sit down Sunday evenings with my cookbooks and plan the meals for the week and make out the grocery list. Then Mondays after I drop Cooper off at school, I go to the grocery store.

It's an acorn, It's a walnut, no it's a ....

We have finally gotten Cooper over the not wanting to poop on the potty thing. I was reading some parental advice on some random website I Googled. I decided I'd go ahead and try the "candy reward". I try not to use food as a reward system but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So we tried "Potty Pops", Dum-Dums left over from Halloween...don't judge me :) It worked great. He has done really well. He'll still hold it for a couple of days and he has stopped up the toilet twice, but at least he will go get on the potty.

His pre-school teacher, April, has been great. She has 3 boys and had these issues too. Monday when I picked him up she was laughing and was ready to tell me about the next episode of the Cooper Poop chronicles. On their way back to class after playing outside one of the other teachers saw Cooper pulling on the back of his pants. He started wiggling his butt and hopping around until "something" fell out. He just kept on walking and went back into class. The teacher went and got April and pointing said, "That belongs to one of your kids." April asked "Is it an acorn or a walnut from the playground?" Guess again!

I was horrified! I could not believe that he did that. I really did not even know what to say to her. I ended up not making a big deal about it to Cooper because I don't think that it's anything that is going to happen again.

I'm hoping that this chapter will close the book on the Cooper Poop chronicles. We'll see...

So Slack

I can't believe I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. It certainly didn't feel like 2 weeks, but a lot has happened.


Easter Sunday, Tim's friend called to see if he could come out and play. I was fine with it. We had already had our family get-together time. He went mountain-biking on the same trail where last November he fell off his bike face-first and nearly bit through his lip. This time he only dislocated his finger. He has one more chance on that trail. 3 strikes and he's out.

We had a girl's morning last Wednesday. It was nice to sit and have breakfast. We went to the mall since it was raining. Then Friday it was Cole's birthday cook-out. It was great for everybody to get together. It's been too long.

Then Saturday morning we get a call from Tim's dad. Carlene thought she was having a heart attack. Chest and neck pain, trouble breathing. So far, no heart attack, no Embolism. They were going to do a bone scan today. Hopefully she's home by now, I haven't talked to her today. Thank God everything appears to be okay.

We all went to church yesterday. Abbie and I went to River Oaks Community Church 2 weeks ago to check it out. I really liked it and we all went this week. Tim enjoyed it too. We liked the casual atmosphere, contemporary music and younger membership. I'm really anticipating the sermons for the next 2 weeks: "God in your Marriage" and "Love and Respect in Marriage". We went at 9:00 so Abbie could go to SS. Sunday School doen't start until K'garten age so Cooper was in more of a Nursery situation. I'll have to get more info on whether or not there is a lesson taught for his class. The 10:30 service has a Children's Church (ROCC) but not SS. Abbie decided she liked SS better than ROCC because SS served a snack. That's my girl!!

Ihope my books come today. I feel like I'm in limbo waiting to change my life. I found this author in my Google searches. She's been on Oprah like 4 times. HOW did I miss her??? I printed the free "Daily Hit List" and I really like it. I'm going to print out 5 and laminate them so I can re-use them like we do with the chore charts. I need to re-do Abbie's chore charts.

THEY'RE HERE!!! THE MAIL IS HERE!!! I'll let you know all the secrets to blissful living next time!