The first big change was that The Hubs & I made a commitment to cook healthier and eat better. To us, that meant enjoying home-cooked meals together. It meant a lot more planning and more work preparing meals, but it has totally been worth it. We have grocery lists, and menu lists, and stocked up freezer and crock pots and the whole shebang. I know it sounds old-fashioned, but there is something to be said about that family time around the table… listening to Miss Chatterbox talk about the latest daycare gossip, or Mister Messy Face demand "moah 'tatos", and just sharing our day with each other. It's time we've found to be extremely valuable and I wouldn't go back if you paid me to!
We'd also been having some food battles with the little Miss of late, so we started a new "program" to help with that: if she ate what we put in front of her without complaint all week, then we set aside one night a week where she gets to be the boss. So "Asha Picks Night" (Friday) was implemented, and with HUGE success! There's no limits, she can choose whatever she wants to eat either at home (usually Tacos) or out (surprisingly varying in selection!) and we ALL have to eat what she chooses without complaint. As a result, we have had very little resistance from her the rest of the week because she can't wait to pick her current fave on Friday night.
I've started a couple things "just for me" too. I vowed to start doing some things for myself that I really enjoy, which in turn makes me less stressed and indirectly, a better parent I suppose? So I finished a couple books, and got some little projects done around the house. Also, since I enjoy watching TV, and I need to/want to work out so I went for a two-fer. I had about 6 episodes apiece of my favorite TV shows saved up, but they kept getting pushed aside for episodes of Blues Clues and iCarly. So I hooked up a bigger monitor to the desktop computer we have in the storage/crafting/workout/office room and now I watch episodes of the TV shows I love on Hulu while running on the elliptical every night! Win-win!!
I'd been having that creative urge again lately, so I've been sporadically working on some digital scrapbooking in the evenings after the kids go to bed and after my workout. Mostly just trying to get that hard drive full of digital pics of my kiddos organized into something tangible. It has been a daunting task, but quite a walk down memory lane. I also had the opportunity to do some fun video editing stuff lately (more on that in another post soon to come). But I also started writing. Not blogging writing, but something else. I can't tell you what just yet, but I promise my blog followers will be among the first to know! (mwah-ha-ha, sounds cryptic, no?). And that has been taking up quite a bit of that elusive "spare time" of mine as well.
Add to all that the fact that I got the opportunity to take not one, but TWO week-long trips out of town for work, and suffice it to say that when I got home from those trips, the munchkins didn't let me out of their sight for a full week for fear I'd leave them again. Not that Daddy didn’t do a perfectly wonderful job of caring for them in my absence, but…he's just not Mommy.
So I apologize to my devoted readers (both of you!) for the lack of blog posts since the beginning of 2011. Never fear, I haven't run out of things to say! Haha! But now that we're getting a little more accustomed to the new changes we've made, and now that the days are getting longer (though the weather not so much warmer) I'm planning on devoting one night a week to getting back to my usual shenanigans.
Let me give you a little TMT "catch-up" of our life over the past 2 months: |
| We had our very first sleepover... |
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| Went to daycare in our PJ's... |
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| We've reunited with old friends… |
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| Got fashionable... |
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| Raised a little hell with our buddies… |
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Got a new big-boy haircut... |
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| Celebrated a very belated Christmas with some great friends… |
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| Snuggled to stay warm in this ridiculous arctic weather… |
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| Hung out with family... |
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| And celebrated Daddy's #32 birthday... (and no, he hadn't been drinking in this pic. He will probably kill me for posting it for all the world to see, but I think it happens to be a hilarious photo of him, and it's my blog, so there.) |
And look at that! It's 11:30pm. I need my beauty rest, so it's goodbye for tonight. Stay tuned for next week's post: More on my travels to faraway lands. Thanks for coming back! I've missed you!
4 comments:
1) totally love that Jordan turned "4" ;) Super pic! haha
2) I would LURVE if you would share some of your successful meal plans and crockpot recipes. I too am doing this but find that i typically only know about 6 recipes... :)
LOVE your idea about eating all your meals together and "asha picks night" so cool! I will be stealing that one in a few short years!
Kim, I'll be happy to send you my list of "go-to" recipes. Fair warning, though, I am boring - the spiciest thing we eat is ketchup...
And Cassie, it really does work wonders! But hopefully you'll be one of the lucky few whose kiddo will eat anything without any lip! (haha, right?)
LOVE Noah's haircut....super dooper cute! And I also LOVE that you posted the pic of Jordan....I'm sure he won't mind at all that you did! :-) Glad that Shanna's Shenanigans is back!! We've missed you!
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