Long time no see!!

Oh my gosh, I've been bad at posting. Maybe because I have an infant and 2 kids in the house??? Jeez!

So Thanksgiving is over. Christmas is on it's way, but before then I have Ali's birthday and our anniversary. I could complain, but I actually like all the craziness. It distracts us a bit from the hustle and bustle and commercialism of Christmas. I try to take it one event at a time so we don't even decorate until mid-December. I want to keep Ali's birthday separate from Christmas. It's not her fault she was born so close to the holiday, so there are no holiday decorations out until her birthday celebrations are over.

Our tradition is Christmas Eve with the Hemingsons. Christmas morning opening Santa presents, quick get dressed and my parents and sister come over with more presents. Christmas Day is spent my side. It works out pretty good because it's our little tradition and the extended family knows the routine. They know what to expect and there are no arguments or guilt trips. (There's also a little known party called Christmas Eve Squared, Dec. 23, with my wonderful friends. It's a bit of a drive so we make it when we can. I have to include it in our traditions because it's been going on for YEARS! Thanks to S&S K!)

This year I'm throwing in some new things. Breakfast! Christmas Eve morning..... yummy sticky rolls. Christmas morning....egg bake. It feels weird to even put an importance on a breakfast tradition, but I think it'll be something the kids will remember, and a lot more fun than cereal or toast.

What's your tradition? Is there anything you'd like to change?

Read a good book lately?

I have to admit, I'm terrible at making time to read a book. I'd rather veg out in front of the TV for some no-brainer time. I usually only get a book read if it's a requirement for class or for a book club assignment (which is a rarity for me).

Thanks to a friend, I'm actually reading a book! We're sharing it and I gave myself a deadline read it before giving it to her. I saw it on Oprah...."Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth. I also need to thank my husband for stepping in with the kids while I finish the page before putting the book down.

FINALLY, someone who makes sense and explains it in a way I can understand! It's about our relationship to food and why we eat the way we do. If it's compulsively or otherwise. Totally makes sense. I'd recommend it to anyone who has issues with their weight (either too heavy or too skinny) or their image. (Note: and I'm not getting paid for blogging this either!)

I think I'm finally ready to stop running from whatever I'm running from, stop bolting from my fears, and actually think before I eat. How about you?

TV time

I remember! I was going to blog about TV time. Now that I'm no longer pregnant with it's on again off again bed rest, it's time to get serious about playtime with the big kids. M1 is getting a Buddha tummy and on a 6 year old, it's not cute. So it's time to turn off the TV. We've started with just an hour of TV time in the morning and then a movie during "rest time" in the afternoon. Once school starts there won't be any TV and I'm really excited for that.

What is everyone else doing?

Brain fog

It's been forever since I've blogged. I have/had the perfect thing to blog about and every time I sit down...poof! there goes the idea. It can't be age because I'm certainly not THAT old. Must be a mommy thing. I wonder if they've been able to scientifically prove that each kid takes a little part of your brain during pregnancy. I'd buy it!

Well today we had a busy morning and a mommy with a little icky tummy. Not a good combo, but what do you do? M2 had a birthday party and M1 had a karate fun tournament/pot luck. Thankfully both at the same time. That means just one trip into town for us! I won't go into details, but it got a little hairy around here this morning as we all tried to get ready with showers, expressing milk, and making a salad (for which I didn't have all the ingredients) all with a baby crying - no, screaming - through the process. There's nothing like 30 minutes of screaming baby to frazzle a mommy. Even a veteran mommy gets flustered. Doubly thankful for my mom who came with us to help with baby when I was helping M1 at the fun-tournament. At one point I really wanted to blame my hubby for all this chaos because he was safe at work. That would be completely unfair....I'm the one who signed us up for all this. Besides, he'd rather be with us than at work. Put on your big girl panties and deal. In the end the kids had fun and we're all still alive to tell the tale.

Next on the agenda. Get the big kids to bed early. They spent the night at grandmas, went to bed WAY too late, got up WAY too early, and are WAY too tired.

Good night everyone. Please say a little prayer for us tonight...it'll be a rough bedtime.

Love that fresh baby smell

We were on vacation last week and wouldn't you know.....can't think of anything to post from it. We had a great time. It was fun to see my brother and his family and my sister. The kids had a FANTASTIC time getting to know each other. My daughter instantly misses her cousin. The moment they drove away she was sad and HAD to draw a picture to mail to her new best friend.

This afternoon the baby was fussy. I couldn't get him to take a nap, but he wanted to sleep. I was starting to get a little irritated. Having a baby attached to your hip for hours on end is a little draining. I decided to get in the car and do some shopping in hopes that would get him to sleep. It did! Yay! Here's the kicker. On my way home, I could smell baby on my hands and I wanted to pick him up SO BADLY! Where did that come from? Here I was spending all afternoon wishing I could put him down and now I want to pick him up? UGH. Motherhood is strange.

I will not continue to give myself permission to fail!

The big Monkeys are off to the lake with grandma and grandpa for the week. We'll be joining them on Tuesday. In the meantime I'm relaxing with baby and doing things I can't otherwise do.
One of those things is taking a long walk in the park by the river. It's hard to do that now with the big kids because they want to walk, but they can't go the whole way which induces whining and complaining and makes the trip totally worthless.

I could talk about the things I saw, how hot it was, or how the baby cried most of the way back to the car. But I had a revelation of sorts about goals. I've blogged before about loosing the baby weight and how I've started down that road. Today was the day I was going to take a really long walk that pushes me to the limits (because the baby was suppose to sleep the whole way, right??). I get half way through the walk and think "well, I could really stop here because it's been a long time and I could get away with it." Then it hits me. If I give myself permission to fail to reach this goal, I'm giving myself permission to fail the next time and the next time and the next time. I'm giving myself permission to not reach my overall big-picture goal....which means fitting into my fall/winter clothes.

It happened all over again as I pass a certain fast food restaurant. I could really use a drink and since it's dinner time I could grab a burger. Stop, stop, stop, stop! If I don't get into the drive-thru today, I will have an easier time saying "no" tomorrow. If I give myself permission to eat fast food today, I'll continue to do it. When do I start DOING the right things? What day to I want to draw the line? Apparently today is the day. I'm done.

Beat the Clock

Ever feel like your time while baby is napping is a lot like playing "beat the clock"? How much can I get done? When's he waking up? Quick! Let me get just one more thing done.

The big kids and I cleaned the playroom this morning. It was actually my son's idea. My brother, sister-in-law, and niece are visiting from Alaska. We told the kids they need to get that room cleaned so they can play with their cousin. Well, apparently this morning was when the mood hit. We got it mostly done. The garbage is full of broken toys, and we have a bag of unused toys that will go to "kids who don't have any toys." The whole time we were cleaning, we could hear the baby making stretching and wake up noises. I thought for sure we'd have to cut our cleaning spree short. I ran around until the sweat was dripping. This one can be thrown, this goes back in the kitchen, toss this one, put that one away, another book on the book shelf, "are you SURE you want to keep this?", etc. Whew!

Now he's going down for another nap. How much time do I have? Blog updated, check. Next up, get the clothes off the line and wash the dishes. Maybe turn on Scooby Doo (yay for the DVR!) and give the kids a Twin Pop so I can get some uninterrupted time. Wish me luck!