Cut the excuses

I got called out by a dear friend today. She asked me what has been stopping me from staying on top of my responsibilities. I was ready for her with my standard answers, I need more time alone and less distractions.. But the look she gave me was so penetrating I had to stop defending myself. It was embarrassing to admit my real reasons. But I needed to know how ridiculous it really was to be so behind on things. Unacceptable.

Suggestions:
Kids clean ten things and put them away
Ten minutes completely focused on them, playing. Love bank, ten minutes to clean alone
Give them an activity to do
Put away one toy before taking another out
Be playful, get on their level often, but be firm when you have to be

Use your heart more not your head, solution to depression as well as cleaning, responsible time v. Intellectual time
Go biking while the weather's nice!

Talked about exercising the kids, park time for instance, but it's not enough
Intellectual time and attention and playtime

They knelt down to pray facing each other this morning, mom and daughter

This lady is a powerful force for good, no wonder she's restless at the end of the day! So much energy to share :)

Check out fly lady, so funny she says

Routinely Rodriguez

I took my DeLorean back in time a year.. and I discovered something unfathomable. I used to do morning routines with the kids. This was back in March and from what I can tell the kids took really well to routinely making their bed and putting on day clothes before breakfast. Scripture study was a must too, just after we'd eat breakfast.

Well, then what happened? Ahem, Uncle Frito changed Job's work schedule. In April if I'm not mistaken. For whatever reason I fell off the schedule and took the kids down with me, LOL.

But today we decided to be responsible again. We ALL put on day clothes, brushed our teeth and made our bed. I started breakfast only to have Job finish it while I put Memo to bed, then after eating we read scriptures! Brilliant! And we're starting to do bath time at nights, instead of whenever the mood hits me, leading me to seriously cut the current night time routine down to bare bones.

Let's see.. now we do our *favorite part of the day* in the morning (favorite part of yesterday?) and we do our tooth brushing as a family in the morning (all the other times they're on their own). Even our pajama dance is, you guessed it, done in the morning! Before we put on boring day clothes :)

And that's where we're at right now. Thank you for reading my disjointed account of what we do with our lives! All in no particular order =D


**UPDATE**
 Routine is as routine does. And my routines are ALWAYS changing. Poor boys, I hardly know how to stick to our bedtime routine and daily routine! We're still doing the morning routine of day clothes, brushed teeth and bed made . But the early morning pajama dance fizzled out and however ideal it is to bathe the boys at night, I also really like when Job steps in to wash 'em before he heads out for work!

My crazy, over-stimulated life

Dear door-to-door salesman, friend stopping by to chat, family member who expects my house to be clean, and girlfriends during craft night,

I am sorry that you have been at my door for 45 minutes trying to sell me household cleaning products, and that my silence leads you to believe that I will. My mind is as empty as my fridge because I haven't been grocery shopping nigh on a month. To my friend who wants me to go with her to Zumba this week... ah yes. It was my idea that we go to that. Sorry I forgot. Sorry I will probably forget again.

The truth is I am overwhelmed. And I have the results, or rather the lack of results to prove it.

My house is in a state of unrest, the toys and clothes are competing guerrilla forces and there is only all-out civil war in sight. Or more accurately, the real insurgents are battle-crying three- and four-year-olds that will only cease fire if Mom drops the iPad and brings out the blocks. Or gummy snacks. Or.. **breathing into a paper bag** the watercolors..

Did you know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours of screen time for older toddlers and preschool kids? Any more than that over-stimulates the little tykes, and leaves parents with turnips for children. "Tubers and the tube". Couch potatoes.

Weeelll, with the squash I painted orange at pumpkin-painting night as my witness, I too am easily over-stimulated.

There's so much I want to cram into each day, so many newspapers to read and daily deals to check in my inbox. By the way, the Thanksgiving week newspaper delivery was out of control. It got to be so many that I stopped bringing them inside. That and toys + clothes piled knee-high really drains a person.

And so I crawl under my stack of to-dos and hide, it's too much I tell myself. Total mental shutdown.

But when your little ones surprise you with catapults and castles they've fashioned out of blocks, or your mini-Monet actually paints something recognizable, it hits home. Even the non-verbal baby shows his love for you in a full, if toothless, grin. My boys dress me as a princess and give me bouquets of the flowers that are supposed to go on the Christmas tree. These little guys not only keep me on my toes but they often have a solution where my creative consciousness falls short. They rely on me and Job to meet their physical and emotional needs and in return things are so much more fun with them around. I love my crazy, over-stimulated life!

"In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul." *

Me at craft night with my homegirls: "Oh, I'm just painting the squash the color it should be," I told the group. And that was orange. Go figure.

*Lisa T. Shepherd

Summer of Baby Love

It's summertime Manly v-neck sleepers
And the livin' is easy. Seriously, Ezra loves showing off his panza, otherwise known as tummy!

The cool comfort of underwear
And the more t-shirts the merrier! Leví is wearing 5 at once. :)

Playing in water

Piñatas

The candy from the piñatas
And lollipops especially, many which come from piñatas but also from the doctor and the bishop at church and many other well-meaning souls who slip them one when you're not looking...

Car seats and getting help! From a technician!

This is supposed to be my brag blog but I have to dedicate a little space to car seat safety. I went to a safety fair at a local strip mall near my house and was blown away by the technicality of installing a car seat! I had read my instruction booklets and was sure that I was one of the 20% that had installed the things correctly.
(In 2009 as many as 80% of car seats were found to be installed wrong.)

But this wonderful lady car seat technician showed me the error of my ways very kindly and very thoroughly. She showed me how to cinch it in just right and then made sure that I could do it myself. She told me about the new American Academy of Pediatrics regulations for 2011 that say all children 2 and under should ride rear-facing. She helped me hook both kids' car seats in rear-facing, assuring me that, even though I wouldn't be able to see them they would be just as happy and much safer facing backwards. She's right, they do just fine facing the other way and Levi even is memorizing routes to get to dad's work and things he might have been too distracted to do if he had been facing mommy and daddy. You can get a hold of my favorite techinician by searching under the city of West Valley, UT at this website.

And one more thing, I happened to read a blog post on blogsdemamas.com about a little girl that was moved out of her booster seat too soon (at age 6) and the grave consequences of that decision. The same would go for putting a too young child in a booster seat too soon. You have to worry about what part of the body the seatbelt will put pressure on in an accident as well as the strength of their neck. That's why rear-facing for as long as possible is best. Their necks cannot take whiplash!

I know everyone is trying their best at this parenthood thing and the do's and don'ts list is soooo long. This is just one more thing that is within our grasp of fixing. Just set up a 1/2 hour appointment with a technician in your area! And enjoy the peace of mind of having your cherubs safe as you drive around town.