A break from my break

I'm taking a break from my blogging break to let you all know that you need to check out the giveaways at 5 minutes for mom! They are giving away a $100 gift certificate to Land's End and a brand new HP Photosmart A626 Photo Printer! Go leave a comment and enter to win.

Since I'm here anyway, I have to tell you what happened yesterday. We were getting in the van and Chloe and Luke both went around to the passenger side to get in. I was putting Audrey in her car seat on the driver's side and went to put the diaper bag down on the floor of the van, and almost set it on...a black widow in a web!

Thank God Chloe and Luke went to the other side because it was right where they put their hands to climb in.

And it was mean! It went right into attack mode when we tried to kill it.

Needless to say, I've been a little twitchy while driving since then!

Burned Out

Lately I've had so much trouble thinking of anything to blog that is more interesting than "grrr...argh...frustrating kids...must wash more dishes..." and I've realized that I am burned out. I'm tired and I feel like I spend 70% of my day yelling at or in some way disciplining my kids, 25% cleaning and 5% sleeping.

And I don't want to be *that* mom, who resents her kids and complains about them all the time.

My dad is coming in two days and is going to spend an entire week. He's going to help with some household projects and the kids love playing with him, and I am going to get out a bit. I'm going to leisurely browse Lifeway and find a new book to use for my quiet times, since lately I seem to just be reading the Word blindly with almost no comprehension, much less any application to my life. We're also going to do some fun trips as a family, and it will be so nice to have someone help with buckling three kids into carseats in 100 degree weather!

I may even get the last of the boxes in my bedroom unpacked and have a yard sale so I can finally park in my garage.

I'm going to take a break from the blog for the next week or so, and hopefully I'll come back refreshed and finding joy in my life again!

Have a great week.

WW- Dreaming of Winter

Tackle It Tuesday- Chloe's Room

Something had to change. Luke has been terrible at bedtime since Isaac left. He's up for about 2 hours every night after bedtime yelling and screaming for different things- drinks of water, using the toilet (which he refuses to do during the day), needing a different blanket or pillow...the list goes on.

So Audrey has been sleeping in my room since she couldn't share with him, and I wake up at every little noise she makes.

I was exhausted and frustrated with my kids. So I decided to move Audrey's crib into Chloe's room and totally rearrange the furniture there. By myself.

Halfway through, I thought, "What in the world was I thinking?"



I took a break for a few days, but finally sucked it up and finished moving things, and here is how it turned out-

So now Audrey and Chloe are sharing a room, and Luke is still up 12 times a night, but at least I'm getting a little more sleep!

To see more tackles, visit 5 Mintues For Mom

A blank canvas, a wide open space

Ok, seriously. I have nothing to write about. I have been wracking my brain trying to think of something funny, but my days lately, well, they haven't been exciting.

The most thought-provoking thing in my life right now is what sort of bed to buy Luke. And I am really struggling over this. The movers lost pieces of his toddler bed and he has been sleeping on his mattress on the ground since we moved! And I just can't decide- should we get him a regular twin like Chloe's? If we have more kids or adopt this would give us the most space.

Or we could get a full-size bed, which we already have a mattress for in the garage. Then it could serve as a guest bed when family comes and Luke could sleep in Chloe's room.

And I won't even get started on the various bunk beds.

It's riveting stuff, I know.

In other news, our personal financial information has been stolen for the third time! Tomorrow I have to place a fraud alert and order copies of our credit reports. Again!

Oh, my dad is coming to visit for a week, and we are going to paint one wall in my living room, and paint and install cabinets in my laundry room. Is anyone out there good at decorating and painting? Because I really need some advice. There are all sorts of funky niches and cutouts in my house and I just can't decide which walls to paint and which to leave white. But I did decide on a color- the one on the very right.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take some pictures of my walls and see what ya'll think I should do with them.

WW- Toothless Grin

Note to self- part two

Next time you pull Audrey out of the carseat and grab a handful of poop from the leaky diaper, don't forget to go back out to the car to get the carseat and wash it.

When the heat index is 113-115.

Your nose will thank you when you get back in the van.

Two days later.

Note to self

When hardboiling eggs over very high heat, it is helpful to have water in the pan.

There is much less popping and exploding.

Not to mention the smell.

I thought about making this my new tagline...

But I thought I might get some bad google searches...

Going back to diapers!

So I've given up on the potty training. It was so easy for him to get the whole routine down, and he has great control- if he uses it! But he either doesn't care that he has accidents or he just can't interpret his body's signals.

On Saturday Luke still had never told me he needed to go. When he did have accidents, he just stood there and watched himself pee and said "uh-oh." Since I'd have to put him in a pull-up for church and small group on Sunday I decided to just give it up.

Then, 10 minutes after I put him to bed on Saturday night I heard him yell, "Uh oh, Mommy! I go potty in my pull up! I need to go potty in the toilet!"

BREAKTHROUGH!!! Right?

No.

We skipped church and small group to take advantage of our breakthrough, but not only did he not initiate going all day Sunday, he also became really resistant to going when I prompted him to.

At least, until bedtime.

Then he was all about getting out of bed to use the toilet.

The little stinker.

So right now he is in his last pull up and he doesn't care. He hasn't asked about the toilet at all. He's patted himself and told me he was dry a few times. But he wasn't. He just can't feel the wetness in the pull up.

*sigh*

I'd really like him out of diapers so that he can go into a gymnastics or "Little Tiger" karate class by himself when he is 3. I feel like he is missing out on so much being the middle child. But I just don't have it in me to force him to go potty every half hour or so for an undetermined amount of time, you know?

They can't fool me!

You know you have watched too many episodes of Alias when you wake up to the sound of your child yelling and screaming that he's ready to wake up, and you tell yourself that it is really just the evil plot of your nemesis to drive you crazy with sleep deprivation and you block it out and pull the covers over your head.

And you really believe it for a while.

Day 3

Yesterday was about the same as day 2. Luke never initiated going potty, but went when I prompted him. Today I was thinking about just putting him back into diapers and asked if he wanted to put on a pull up instead of his underwear.

His answer?

"No way!"

So I guess the potty training continues for at least a few more days!

Day 2

I'm not really sure if much progress was made today. Luke still isn't telling me when he needs to go potty. I have to prompt him regularly. And I'm just not willing to ask him if he wants to go potty every 20 minutes for weeks on end! I have one or two other things to do. I guess I'll see how things go and maybe by Monday if he still needs me to direct him constantly, then I'll just put him back in diapers and try again after he's three and my husband is back. Maybe I'll just go to Barnes and Noble and buy the potty training books one of you mentioned in the prvious posts.

That can be dangerous, though.

The only Starbucks in town is in Barnes and Noble, and somehow even when I swear I'm only going in for one book, I come out with 3-5 and we all get snacks and drinks.

And I get a really big coffee.

It has some sort of secret suck-you-in power.

Kind of like Target.

Day 1

So I have a break from the, er, bowels of potty training, so to speak.

At the end of the first day, Luke now goes potty every time I take him, so I know he has some control. He also recognizes when he's wet, which he didn't in the beginning. But he doesn't know when he needs to go, and just pees on the floor and then yells, "Oh no! Mommy! The potty came out!"

I was hoping that by the end of the day he'd be able to tell me when he needs to go, ven if he doesn't quite make it on time. That is where we were with Chloe (and she was almost a year younger!)

But we made progress, and it wasn't too bad. Hopefully it will be mostly done tomorrow, though!

Spider!!!

Today I came running when I heard Luke yell from the other room, "Spider!!! Mommy, spider!"

I won't even tell you how many times this happened and I looked for the elusive spider.

I thought it must have been a fly he was seeing, because there was no way a spider was getting around the house that quickly, and I refused to entertain the idea that several different spiders had taken up residence in the house.

And then I realized...

Luke was wearing his new bug underwear.

There was a spider on them.

So later when I heard him yell, "Mommy! I got crabs!" I knew he didn't really. It was his new underwear.

I'm quick like that, see?

It's Potty Time!

Today we are potty training Luke.

We've done the potty dance. We do a "go underwear!" cheer.

I even had to do a "gas" dance when he had gas while sitting on the toilet.

And no, don't even ask, I'm not demonstrating any of the dances for you. But I will tell you that it involves much waving of the hands and grooving in circles.

We have had two accidents, one big and one small, but he does go quickly every time he sits on the toilet. No forcing him to sit there for 10 minutes or anything.

Thankfully a friend picked up Chloe to play at her house, because Audrey decided to teeth her first two teeth today! I thought about putting off the potty training, but Luke has been asking to sit on the toilet (and actually going on it) on and off since February, and we had everything ready to go and we had already talked about learning today, so I'm hoping that she'll get over the fussies quickly.

Ok, it's time to head back to the toilet. I'll come back and update you later.

Can you stand the suspense of it?