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!

Happy Easter Vacation

We are officially on Spring Break. Whew!! Yesterday Cooper had his Easter Party at pre-school. So cute at this age.

Today we went to the Grand Opening of Bounce U, an indoor inflatable playground. Terri and Spencer met us there. I hadn't told the kids he was coming so they were even more excited. It was fun. I am so glad we got there early. It was so crowded and hot in there by the time we left. But the kids had fun and isn't that what I exist for, to make them happy? Ugh!

Then we all went to get pizza...

And finally, yes there's more, I drove to the house just long enough to grab the Easter Baskets and take a potty break and we got back in the car and went to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Last year got rained out so it was nice to get to go this year. I actually had a couple of video clips I was thinking about posting but I am too apalled at what a hick I sound like on the audio, so until I learn more about posting video (minus the audio) I will be sticking to still shots.

Food Diary

I've decided to re-start the food diary after I have finished eating the lemon bars and Edy's Espresso Chip ice cream. I will give updates here but not daily. I think I'm going to use another website for my daily tracking.

Thursday

FOOD DIARY:

I am doing okay on my food diary. I'm keeping track but I'm not exactly eating well. I've had about 1200 calories today. That doesn't sound like much but it's only 6:00 and I'm bad about night-time snacking. I'm going to go downstairs and do laundry tonight. I'll try to get in a bike ride.

It's hard to calculate calories for homemade stuff. I'm not sure how I'll do that on nights when I cook. Maybe I'll just stick to the cookbooks that already have calculations :)


MOTHER-DAUGHTER MOMENT:

I just got Abbie into the shower. Standing there in her bathrobe looking at herself in the mirror she asks, "Mom, do you think I'm beautiful?" I cringe and ask my 6 1/2 year old, "What do you mean?"
Abbie: "I think my eyebrows look funny."
Me: "Well I think your eyebrows are beautiful"
Me: "So who talks about that kind of stuff?"
Abbie: "Me and the girls chat." (with head bobbing in the "DUH" fashion)
Abbie: "Mom Dakota accidently hit Megan in the neck with the jump rope and she got a rope burn."

And then it was over...

Food Diary

I'm going to start keeping track of what I'm eating. I think starting a food diary is the only way I will hold myself accountable for what I'm putting in my mouth. I'm tired of being so tired that I can't even think straight. I don't even have the energy to start exercising. I need to start somewhere so I think food is a good place to start. I monitor what my kids are eating but I don't hold myself to the same standards. That's not the message I want to send.

I did manage to ride the bike for 15 minutes last night. Burned 85 calories.

So far today I've had:

granola bar, cottage cheese, strawberries, green tea: 288 calories
2 devilled egg halves: 150