First rambling: School is cancelled today due to the snow. Everything closed early yesterday and there is a blizzard warning until 6:00 pm tonight. We get to enjoy a cozy day at home. The kids will be going outside to play a few times today, provided it's not too windy. They love to sled, make snow angels, and such when there's TONS of snow. Their favorite snack after playingoutside: hot chocolate with marshmallows, pretzels and wheat toast with butter.
Next rambling: Andrew will be getting tubes in his ears. This news is quite a relief. He has had ear infections and fluid in his ears continually. His speech is delayed and it has been a concern for us. After yet another hearing screening, it was determined that surgery is the way to go. We are doing it next week. I can't wait for him to be able to hear so that he can learn to speak!
Another rambling: Kids do the cutest things that make being a mother so sweet. Recently, James overheard me ... being sick ... (you know, morning sickness). A few days after, he said, "Mom, when you were sick the other day, I prayed for you." Melted my heart. Megan loves to say to me, "Mom, you're the bestest mommy ever." Even on days when I don't feel like that may be true. I'm grateful for the sweetness of kids.
More rambling: Afternoons have always been a struggle for us. My two oldest kids stopped napping at the age of two. That's right. AGE TWO. Yes, I can hear your collective gasps. James & Megan have always resisted quiet time, so afternoons have been a juggle between entertaining them and trying to keep them quiet so that Andrew can sleep. Well, it started to turn ugly. The combination of cabin fever and a tired mom contributed to too much TV, lots of bickering, heaps of frustration, and some guilt for mom. Enough is enough, I said. Time to get this under control. And now we have a new schedule for the afternoons:
12:00 Lunch Time
1:00 Nap Time/Quite Time. Choose two quiet toys from the play room and play in bedroom.
2:30 Snack Time then enjoy a story with mom
3:00 Activity Time with mom depending on the day - (see below)
3:45 Free Play
4:15 Clean-up Time
4:45 Mom makes dinner while the kids settle down with music & coloring or homework.
For our "Activity Time," we get to do the following:
Mondays: Movie day
Tuesdays: Craft day
Wednesdays: Cooking day
Thursdays: Game day
Fridays: Free Choice day
Saturdays: Family day
Sundays: Sunday box day (We have games and activities that are good for the Sabbath in this box. We only use it on Sundays, making it a special treat. We got this idea from The Friend magazine)
Ok, can I just tell you how beautifully this has worked for us? I had a talk with the kids and said our new rule is quiet time every day no matter what. I think it has worked so well because they have more structure, an activity to look forward to after quiet time, and also attention from mom. Which is what all kids want, right? By the end of the day, dad can come home to a clean and peaceful house. I'm in a better mood because everyone is more settled. And I don't have to clean up after they go to bed. All I can say is, hooray for structure.
Embarrassing rambling: I bought six boxes of Girl Scout Cookies last Saturday. Six days later, we are nearly finished with our last box. Is this normal? Or isn't it true that they simply don't put many cookies in their boxes, hence making it possible to consume roughly one box per day?
Ok. Final rambling: I have been trying new recipes all week. Some have been ok. Others are definite do-NOT-do-overs. But, last night we had a wonderful sweet & sour chicken. It was as hit with everyone, and there were no
leftovers! We'll definitely make it again. Here's the recipe:3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken cut into strips
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Sprinkle chicken on both sides with garlic salt, pepper and let sit for one hour.
(I didn't measure the seasonings exactly, I just seasoned to taste)
Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 Tb soy sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
3 1/2 Tb ketchup
Dip chicken in one beaten egg and a bowl of 4-6 Tbsp of flour and brown. Put chicken in baking dish. Pour heated sauce over chicken and cook at 350 for 30 minutes. Turn chicken and cook 30 minutes more. Serve with rice.
(We only used one pound of chicken, so I lessened the cooking time and made a little bit less sauce. We also added a sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes to the sauce and it was so yummy! Another note, I didn't let the chicken sit for one hour with the seasonings, maybe 15 minutes. It was still great and will probably be even better when I let it sit for the full time next time.)
5 comments:
I will DEFINITELY be writing down your new schedule and trying to apply it to our lives. I know in my head that structure will make everything more peaceful, but for some reason it's so hard to come up with a good one. I am so glad it's working for you. The snow reminds me of the snow we had in Denver a few months ago. I hope they're good about plowing the roads because we were stuck inside for days!
Great post. First of all I'm glad that Andrew is getting tubes in his ears. Lexi needed them when she was little (I think) but he doc we had was very non-intrusive type and didn't do them. Her speech was delayed and she learned to pronounce things a little bit wrong. She then taught the other kids to talk and now they pronounce things wrong. ANYWAY! I think tubes are great and I'm glad you're going for it. Kids should not have to suffer through constant ear infections. Lexi STILL gets them. She's had 2 in the last 6 months and she's 6!!. Second of all, I love the schedule that you came up with for your kids. I love schedules. I think they help a lot to make things run more smoothly and to give kids and mom time alone and time together. I'm going to blog about a chore chart we've been doing that has helped us a lot lately. Thanks for the new schedule ideas. Lastly, I will try the chicken, it sounds delicious. You're doing a great job as a mom!
Woman, could you please stop being so organized? You are putting the rest of us to some serious shame! I will have to try to emulate your perfectness!
Oh and tubes were awesome for Hadley. She had hers at 11 months and it was night and day!
Heather
Hi, hope you don't mind my comment. I'm a friend of Heather's and I took a peek. I LOVE your schedule! Now, do you have one for cleaning?
Hi! No, I don't mind you posting at all! I do have a schedule for cleaning that I try to follow. It's from flylady.net. I clean the whole house on MOndays and the rest of the week I spend about 15 minutes a day in a particular zone of the house (ie, zone 1 = kitchen, zone 2 = bedrooms, zone 3 = bathrooms, etc). This way, I'm not cleaning all the time, but my house is still in order and relatively clean. It's worked well for us. :)
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