Snapshot Thursday

What's at the top of my to-do list?
--Get ready for Ben's birthday. He's turning 3 Saturday. I need to form my hamburger patties and get the house cleaned.

What have I accomplished?
--Just this morning, I took down Ben's baby bed. Mary screamed during the entire process "NO! NO! NO!". You would think her village was getting raped and pillaged! It was very difficult to work with her hanging on me. Ben was totally fine until Mary's cries got to him and he said, "Mommy, I'm scared!". Geez. This is supposed to be FUN! They started to regroup as I put together the big bed and saw the potential bouncing factor. I moved the room around to juggle the bigger sized bed and hung some train shelves that used to be in Sam's room over a little bookcase. The room already looked mostly complete! We cleaned up and then went to WalMart to get Thomas Sheets. Ben held the sheets in the cart and just stared at them. I got a lot of shopping done while he studied those sheets. As soon as we got home we put them on his bed and he wanted to lay down right away. He loves his new room! I'd like to hang a Thomas poster. I think I'll shop on-line for one.

What's bugging me?
--Ants all over our house.
--Broken bench on the back patio that could collapse if someone sits on it.
--Ben's high pitched, whiney requests/demands.

What have I said I was going to do but I haven't?
--I'm still not eating healthy. I'm eating more fruit but not enough veggies.

What's my latest obsession?
--Preparing for my CRHP retreat. They've asked me to lead music and I've been a maniac, pouring through song books and trying to see what would be good music to play. I'm constantly sneaking away into my bedroom, practicing songs on my guitar. From all the guitar playing, I'm developing new blisters on my fingertips. I went through quite a long period of not playing. This gives me a reason to play again. It's a mix of fear of failure coupled with excitement.

What's been making me happy?
--One evening I told Ted that I feel like Sam and Abby are strangers. Ben and Mary require most of my attention. Sam and Abby are already gone most of the day at school, and then when they come home, they ask for snacks and then run to the computer or outside to play. Then I'm preparing dinner, we eat, do homework, sometimes we have some family time, but most of the time one of us is running off to grocery shop, or go to a meeting (CRHP or Men's and Women's Group). We don't always have a sit down together dinner meal. Sometimes I'll feed the kids before Ted gets home. The game nights on Wednesdays have helped, but it's not enough. We're not really talking, we're spending fun time together...which is good...but not really talking. After discussing it, we decided to follow our routine on Wednesday nights, but do it every night. Have all the kids ready for bed by 8pm, lay Ben and Mary down, and then spend time with Sam and Abby. Instead of playing a game (which we'll still do on Wednesdays), we'll share our highlights of the day and lowpoints. I thought the kids would be bored with this, but I noticed them reminding us, "Aren't we going to talk tonight?". We find out things about their day that they wouldn't have taken the time to tell us otherwise. Some people can naturally do this during their regular day and don't need time set aside. I hope to be in that place some day. For right now, this works perfectly for us. It's really nice because we end up snuggling together on the couches. The kids seem at total peace, knowing they have our full attention. It's basically what Ted and I do every night before bedtime. It's been working great for us too. This has been making me happy lately.

--The thought of a finished basement. We gave the bid to a friend who is a teacher during the year and does these side jobs in the summer. He's going to do our basement over the summer and Ted will make our cost cheaper by taking off 4-5 days of work to help! I can't wait to transform our dark, dreary mess of a basement to a bright, cheery and organized one!