How I am achieving my goals thus far:
1) I am trying to give myself 15 minutes to blog...no matter what the topic. It may be here about my family, the link above about my dogs, or elsewhere about food or working out. Check the links on the side...I may have something new someday soon.
2) I was hoping to spend at least 15 minutes a day after work training the dogs. Recent snow storms have turned my hour drive home to a hour and a half to almost two hour drive home. In order to spend time with my family, eat and other obligations, I haven't taken them walking since Sunday. I plan on working with them throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. More on that in the other blog.
3) Cleaning. I loathe cleaning yet my house is the cleanest it has been in a long time. I am starting with one room at a time following the FLY process. The lady behind the scenes has been helping people for years recapture their home from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). I have just glossed over my chaos for years and at family events I joke about how I didn't have time to do this or that and my house is embarassingly dirty. Sure I have things picked up, but the things that should have been cleaned, never were and joking about it was my coping mechanism. Well no more; take a look at that sink:
Each babystep in the program allows you to just jump in wherever you are at. There is no right or wrong way of doing anything. Shining your sink is one of the first steps to getting your home in order, and you do it every night. Yeah I thought that was an odd statement until the first time I did it. I woke up the next morning, walked into the kitchen and it looked so bright and inviting despite the fact the counters where still cluttered. That one bright spot has been my striving point and after days of work, I finally have a shiny sink again and guess what....the actual process just took 15 minutes a day! We think we need to scrub and scrub to get things clean, but we don't. A little cleaning every day helps.
With this the living room is clean, just have to pick up toys nightly, my laundry is dwindling down to a manageable size...doing just one load a day and I feel better about people dropping by or inviting them over and not having to hustle to get things in order. Sure these are things I figured out myself awhile ago, but having a silent cheer squad helps. The little email reminders help too. With each one I know that others like me are picking up their clutter and smiling at the little things, like a shiny sink.
Yeah I think I have a blog on this topic somewhere too.....
And now finally the reason for this blog and I leave you with some cuteness:
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| Crystal all dressed up for Christmas dinner |
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| George trying to pretend he's asleep while still smiling for the camera |
The kids are doing wonderful. I hate being away from them, but I love the cheers and hugs I get when I walk through the door. George is doing well in school. Progress reports come out next week, it will be nice to see where he has improved since the last report and what he still needs to work on. Socially I think he is doing better as well. Everyday he tells me he got his sticker and tells me how many he has now. I also have started asking him "What did you do well in school today?" This gets a better response than "How was school?". He just starts babbling on about the new train they have and the blocks and how he got to play with is friends. He's singing more and generally seems happier, since I went in and had a talk with his teacher and the schools counselor. I still had his sensory test done. All it consisted of was his teachers filling out a questionnaire about him and Casey and I filling out the same questionnaire. Hoping soon the OT calls us and we have some answers. Truthfully I think it is just his personality and him being five and learning how to control that personality while still expressing it.
Crystal is also doing well and is copying everything her brother does. This makes for some interesting dilemmas when I want him to do something because he is capable and she tries to do it to. I would like for one of his chores to be to clean the cat box for example, but you see where this could bite me. Yep Crystal wants to do it too and well it doesn't go so well so I have opted for that to not be a chore for a little while longer. She is still a girly girl and is at that age where she wants to dress herself. Dresses become skirts, skirts become hats and she thinks she needs to wear multiple pairs of pants. Her whole wardrobe ends up on the living room floor before the night is out, and don't get me started on the shoes! "Shoe shoes" as Crystal calls them.
They keep me busy and zap what little energy I have at the end of the day, but wouldn't have it any other way....what other excuse would I have for reading "Pete the Cat" and dancing like a crazy person to get a laugh. Though admittedly I enjoy reading the kids books, especially when George reads along and love dancing like an idiot...especially to please a two year old.
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