I might or might have sucked up my goals last week

Last week's goals.....whoopsie

Home

1. At least 3 days where everything gets crossed off of new daily to-do list

2. Put cash in cash envelope system and use it!!!!!! 

3. Make a list of all of the things around the house that will help with decreasing dustmites and helping kiddos allergies.

Stay at home mommy stuff
3. Read 10 books/day with the kids. 


4. Have "songtime" every day with the kids.

5. Stay home at least two days.

Personal
6. Get caught up on Love and Respect in time for bible study on Monday. OI!!!!

7. Have a date night with the hubs.

8. Try one new craft or kid thing from Pinterest

Health
9. Work out four days
10. Lose 1 pound


That would be 2 out of 10 goals met. I'm okay with it. Rob might or might not have passed kidney stones this week, and it is a painful situation (I've heard) so I made him lay in the bed and get better and had the kids to myself alot more than usual. I worked hard on our house this week and we visited a few friends we hadn't seen in a while, and had my sister, Tammy for a visit. The good new is: next weeks goal list is the same as this weeks goal list. I'll check in next Sunday night!


I've been loving the book goal, my little Max loves reading, there are some days he probably gets 10-15 books on his own. But, Rylan is off books currently, so making sure to sit down and read to him has really helped our days.


I was happy to go to my Bible Study with the MOPS group and discover that many of the ladies hadn't caught up on the Love and Respect book. I am just not good at nonfiction, especially self help. Even if they are good and you can see them helping in your daily life.


Also, this whole diet and exercise thing? I have GOT to get it togehter. I've been doing the exercise thing pretty steady, but the diet? It needs some tweaking. Major tweaking. I just turned down a carrot cake cupcake, so maybe that's a start!

This week's goals, kind of second verse same as the first

Home
1. Put 5 items on Craig's List

2. Put cash in cash envelope system and use it!!!!!! 

3. Make a list of all of the things around the house that will help with decreasing dustmites and helping kiddos allergies.

Stay at home mommy stuff
3.  At least 3 days where everything gets crossed off of new daily to-do list 

4. Blog at least 2 days/week, not including goal check-in

5. Stay home at least two days.

Personal
6. Get caught up on Love and Respect in time for bible study on Monday. OI!!!!

7. Have a date night with the hubs.

8. Try one new craft or kid thing from Pinterest

Health
9. Work out four days

10. Lose 1 pound

Jekyll/Hyde vs Devil/Dave Ramsey

There are two people with split personalities living in our house. Rylan and myself.


Jekyll
The fit throwing, fall on the floor, "go away" cause you didn't give me what I wanted little boy named Rylan.

Hyde
The sweet, loving, happy little boy named Rylan, that has recently started saying please and thank you like a pro. He's even thrown in a "no thank you" every once in a while.

These two cohabitate inside sweet Rylan's body. He can go from "I love you" to "you suck in more ways than I can count on hands and feet" in 2.4 seconds.

Then there is me.......

Devil Sara
The child within me that loves to get "stuff" at stores and go out to restaurants. The one that thinks after cleaning my kitchen till its spotless, I should get a dinner out, so that the kitchen doesn't get re-spotted. The one that wouldn't DARE by a name brand item of clothing, but has no problem buying 30 items at the Dollar Tree or clearance section of Hobby Lobby.

Dave Ramsey Sara
I have been listening to Dave Ramsey in the car (all 15 cds!!!) and he's in my head and digging into my conscience. I realize that I should take better care of myself (i.e. not buy so much pure shit because its cheap and save up for NICE stuff, with name brands on it!) and not get fast meals out, instead save up money (and calories) and go out to NICE places. I have also realized I give into my kids at stores, to congratulate (or bribe) good behavior. If I save all those $1 little things that I buy them or me, those dollars will add up and we would be Thousandaires!!!! We can, some day, pay cash for our next car, put way more money down on our first house blah blah blah.

Here is an example of Jekyll/Hyde vs Devil/Dave Ramsey Sara on a recent road trip.

Devil Sara:" you have been so good in the car, you can get something at the gas station when we stop"

Hyde: "I want dease. (holds up small, cute container of m&ms)

Devil Sara "oh, no....I thought I a few bucks in my wallet and I don't. I'll just put it on my card."

Dave Ramsey Sara : "ummmm no, Sara. You are never using that card again. Especially for a $1 item like m&ms. You brought a million snacks for the kids and they are in the car. They don't NEED m&ms. Put on your big girl panties and tell your son no"

So I break the news to Rylan that Dave Ramsey Sara took over Devil Sara and we have to eat a snack in the car.

2.4 seconds go by........

Jekyll: "NOOOOOOO!!!"  pitch gets higher "NOOOO!!!!!"  hands start waving as if to hit his mama "go away!!!"

It took everything in me not to just go buy the m&ms. I had, after all, suggested we get a snack. And then I took if away and I felt terrible.  I had to literally put Max down, scoop Rylan up and then pick Max back up and run out of the gas station with Rylan flailing and screaming bloody murder.

Dave Ramsey Sara: "I'm sorry buddy, I know I brought up the snack and took it away. I forgot I had snacks for us in the car and had spent the cash I brought."

Jekyll: "no!"

Dave Ramsey Sara: "If mommy buys you snacks and toys all the time and uses her credit card all the time, I'll have to go to work and you won't get to stay home with me, you'll have to go to Tiny Town every day."

Jekyll: "no, no, no!!!!"

Dave Ramsey Sara: "I remembered I had brought these snacks for you that are so yummy, here you go." *

HYDE: (grabs the snacks out of my hand)  "thank you for my snacks mommy! Lub you."

I think we are literally making each other crazy......We'll get through it.

I have been trying to come up with more STUFF for each of my kids to do that doesn't need batteries or a remote control. Here we use some blue shaving cream type soap to make pictures. He had a great time. A little blue after. It kind of looked like a Smurf suffered during this project, but he had fun.



* The snack in the car was Snack Well's fudge drizzled caramel popcorn: 130 cals per pack. So freakin delish, you should all go get some.

Weekly goal check in

Last weeks goals
Home
-begin all cash envelope system (MUST DO THIS! I've been listening to Dave Ramsey cds in my car, and the man is a freakin awesome genius and I'm totally on board with his system....in my head. I'm just too tired to set it into motion).
-read my kids 10 books a day (total. I guarantee this will be 9.5 books for Max, 0.5 for Rylan)
-make a cleaning schedule for myself

Personal
-get caught up on Bible Study book Love and Respect
-stay up later than 8pm on a weekend night

Health-
-work out 4 days
-  lose 1 pound


Not awesome, but not too shabby. We took a trip to see my parents and had a doctor's appointment mixed in there, and we all shared some stomach ewww, so I think considering, we did pretty good. The cash envelope system has been made and organized. This Friday, actual cash will appear in it. I've had trouble wrapping my head around it for our particular situation (me staying home= minimal cashola and Rob getting paid weekly=minimal cashola at one time) but I think its going to work. Its just going to take Rob and I being very grown up with our choices until certain envelopes start filling up with money. The ones for clothing, hair, gift giving, you know the fun ones.


I was very happy to have the 10 book a day goal and I'm keeping it. I love my kids sitting in my lap for all those books and it made me feel very confident in my mothering. That's a hard place to feel confident if you are a me. 


I made myself a schedule using Money Saving Mom's custimizable daily docket. I really like it. I find that staying home is a huge challenge, because you often feel like you never get anything done. The way she breaks her list down, which I did as well (but customized for myself) is to break it down to tiny, tiny tasks. Instead of saying "clean the kitchen" I have: sweep the floor, do lunch dishes, do dinner dishes. I have a place where I cross off alone time with Max, I have a box where I cross off "school time" with Rylan. This might seem silly, but these are things that can be thrown by the wayside in favor of longer naps or cleaning time or your kids offering to be extra good if you let them watch Batman.  And they are important things.  It feels good to mark things off, however trivial they are. In the long run they all help. Because our life is a little chaotic, both my kids do inhalers twice a day and need meds twice a day for either reflux of allergies, it helps me make sure I've done there meds. I've only used it 3 days, but I've noticed a huge difference in my productivity. 


I'm upping my goals to 10, because its a nice, round number and I need more things to feel bad about when I fail.  And I'm sorry if this is super boring, but it feels good to be semi-accountable. Because I know all 9 of you have been sitting on the edge of your seat to see if I accomplished my 7 goals from last week. Your welcome.

10 GOALS FOR 1/20/12-1/27/12

Home
1. At least 3 days where everything gets crossed off of new daily to-do list


2. Put cash in cash envelope system and use it!!!!!! 


3. Make a list of all of the things around the house that will help with decreasing dustmites and helping kiddos allergies.


Stay at home mommy stuff


3. Read 10 books/day with the kids. 


4. Have "songtime" every day with the kids.


5. Stay home at least two days.


Personal


6. Get caught up on Love and Respect in time for bible study on Monday. OI!!!!


7. Have a date night with the hubs.


8. Try one new craft or kid thing from Pinterest


Health


9. Work out four days


10. Lose 1 pound


And because lists are boring and all about me, here are pics of our Plus One, Plus One More.

 My favorite two kids on the earth after a playdate involving two story playplace

 Its hard to have THIS much style 

 Max's first corndog. He nodded yes pretty much the whole time he was eating.

 Toddler awesomeness. Cookie sheet+shaving cream+paint brush= happy kid, fun activity and blue hands/mouth arm/paintbrush.

 Kid can't hang. Couponing is exhausting.

We've been loving the outdoors lately. I would be fine and happy if no snow or cooler weather showed up. We will happily suit up for the current temps and play and play and play. Until my kids figure out that snow days mean lots of laying around under multiple blankets, watching movies and drinking hot beverages. 

My those onesies look a trifle tight and short

Well, I finally got Rylan to his 3 year appointment. We've either had an illness, a trip, a meltdown, or some other issue and have rescheduled his checkup 3 times. Plus, he's not really THAT old until you go to the checkup and I was probably unknowingly putting off the fact that my first born baby is 3!!!! I feel as though I blinked and this happened. 

Rylan is now 40 inches tall (93rd percentile), 38.4 pounds (71st percentile) and a crazy chatterbox. He is going to get a speech consult to see if he needs to see a speech therapist for reals (as opposed to my pretend speech therapy in which I bug him for 20 minutes every day trying to act like my sister who is a real speech therapist and gave me some tips). He has made amazing strides in the last year. At the age of two he had pretty much stopped saying most of the words he had been saying and he was resorting to fits to display his point of view on the world. Now, he speaks in sentences, asks questions, and says "thank you mommy for getting my toy." It fills my heart with joy every day to see him progressing as fast as he is. Every week we notice that the fits are getting less intense and fewer and farther between and he is conveying his needs to us (sometimes he conveys those needs ALOT). Why then, does he need to get a consult? He's not caught up. And at this age, its a good time to catch up. 

If you ask him his favorite food, his reply is "chicken nuddets, pied rice and NOODLES!" So you are thinking, oh, he's made a list of all his favorite foods. Um, no, he would like them all on his plate at once as a meal. One night I did make chicken nuggets and buttered noodles and he says "where the pied rice?" I had to break it to my darling 38lb baby boy that fried rice doesn't grow on trees and its a labor of love and that labor hadn't happened that day. The love? Always.

We went to story time this week and discovered that the library carries Easy Reader books. For some reason Rylan absolutely loves these books. I am sure the fact that Batman and Spiderman and Thomas grace the covers helps. He has been carrying them around nonstop and wanted to take them to Tiny Town today. Very excited to have found books that he WANTS to read as opposed to forcing him to have some reading time. Kids go in such phases, a few months ago he was asking for up to 20 books a day! 

Last weekend, for the Cotton Bowl, I put the boys in their onesies from the fall football season. Um, I guess all those cereal bars and bananas have really been causing growth cause they were both showing a pooch belly and about 2 inches of calf. But, still, the cuteness was overwhelming and I believe its what caused our awesome win. 

 The excitement is palpable

Happy Rylan and snuggly (pacey loving suddenly) Max I am quickly being taken over! Love them!

Goals for the week

So, instead of resolutions, I have started a weekly goal program.


Last weeks goals:
Home -begin all cash envelope system
          -Donate an obsene amount of unwanted crapola to charity to declutter house (is 3 boxes obscene?)
          -Do one "chore" per day to help our house not have dust for Rylan's allergies

Personal-get caught up on my book for the bible study in my MOPS group:  Love and Respect and answer questions in the journal (*find journal*)

Health-work out 5 days

           -lose 1 pound
As for the first week....I kinda sucked it up. I did okay (made 1/2 my goals), and on my behalf, I had some MAJOR stomach trouble and was puny for a large part of the Friday-Sunday range. My book for bible study? Its not even bad. Its actually really good and very helpful for my marriage. I just get this inner rebellion when I feel like I HAVE to do something. Its a psychological problem I must work on stat. I worked out Sunday and Monday with my Wii Personal trainer. Then I decided that my personal trainer was WAY too squat and lunge happy, so me and the boys headed to the park and walked around the track on Tuesday. And then I lost my focus. It was quite sudden.

Let me tell you about our house though! I am quite proud of myself for all I did last week on the house. I put 3 boxes of stuff for donation, plus a box for baby Miles, plus a box went to my neighbor that has a grandson. Buh bye clutter!!!!

Then, on Thursday, I wasn't needed at work, but we'd already paid for babysitting for the kids, so I took them to Tiny Town and came back home and went like a madwoman through this house ridding it of all things dust!!!! We had Rylan tested for allergies and the only thing he was severlely allergic to was dustmites. Since he and Max kind of share an affinity towards the same angry airways and eardrums, I'm assuming that Max has the same allergy. I cleaned all of our curtains, treated all of our beds with dustmite killer, put all of our pillows in the dryer on high, vacuumed every nook and cranny, cleaned all of our blinds, and even cleaned Lola! I am praying with everything in me, that with a little extra work on my part, my boys can have a healthier life with less asthma and less illness.  Things that people do with "spring cleaning" are now on my monthly cleaning plan.


Weekly Goals for January 9-16
Home
-begin all cash envelope system (MUST DO THIS! I've been listening to Dave Ramsey cds in my car, and the man is a freakin awesome genius and I'm totally on board with his system....in my head. I'm just too tired to set it into motion).
-read my kids 10 books a day (total. I guarantee this will be 9.5 books for Max, 0.5 for Rylan)
-make a cleaning schedule for myself

Personal
-get caught up on Bible Study book Love and Respect
-stay up later than 8pm on a weekend night

Health-
-work out 4 days
-  lose 1 pound

What I'm loving Wednesday 2012

 I love my serious kid, the one that was very all business about flying this pink helicopter

 I love my wacky kid that is riding on a tiny Batmobile

 I love my little ladies man. And his friend, Nancy.

And Max loves Spaghettios. ALOT!

And a Happy New Years to you!

Or Happy Birthday to Rylan, which is what he's been singing since Sunday night.

 

And who could blame him? This does look like one could get a killer wish granted blowing that fire out.

We took the kids to Sekisui for New Year's Eve for their first ever hibachi grill experience. They loved it. Well, Rylan loved it, Max drank his bottle and looked a little bored with the situation (see below under resolution section, sub-category MAX). But they were very good and earned a trip to Yogurt Mountain after. I was totally lame and fell asleep at 11ish and woke up at 11:55 to give Rob a high five at midnight. The champagne I bought myself? Still in the brown bag in the fridge.....the college age Sara would laugh in the 30-bleeping age Sara's face.

Onto resolutions, or my lack thereof. I'm sick of letting myself down. In 2011, I didn't do a vegetable garden, I didn't lose 20 lbs, I didn't stop biting my nails yada yada yada. I did think about doing another garden, but given the life we've been living in the last 2 years, actually fulfilling my resolution would have been super stupid. It would have been money straight down the drain. And the 20lbs....I lost some, then I hurt my ankle and the kids got sick and then sick and then sick and I found it, the weight not the sickness (knock on wood). My nails? They are actually better. I still have a lot of work to do at realizing I'm messing with them when I am stressed, but you can actually see white nail on almost every finger!

I am resolving to go to church as often as my own body allows me to. This last year has been hard. I have had many days when I have woken up in pain (still do) and many days when the kids have been ill or had a hard night of little sleep. Because the church we like is 30+ miles away, its easy to talk myself into staying home and recooperating on sleep or taking care of my kiddos. But, we need church, and I feel better after going every time. So, if I, myself, am not laid up in the bed sick and contagious, I am going to church.  If the family is well too, they can come with me :)

That is the only true resolution I am doing.

Rob is resolving to put up with my shenanigans for at least one more year.

Rylan is going to try to have less fits ("pits") and dance more

Max isn't aware, but he's giving up the bottle and the diet of 75% milk in the new year. The kid is hooked. And I don't blame him. He's had a hard time and the bottle is his "everything is going to be ok" helper. It is odd how much he loves a bottle considering he was mostly breastfed for 10 months, and if I could go back and give him cups when I weaned off breastfeeding, I totally would, but I can't. We were probably going through an ant bite, or plague, or locust infestation at the time, and we needed Max to be happy and nourished.

So, instead of resolutions in 2012, I am going to try to get myself on a Weekly Goal System with short, attainable goals and make myself check in on whether I achieved them or not.

Goals for the Week January 1-8

Home -begin all cash envelope system
          -Donate an obsene amount of unwanted crapola to charity to declutter house
          -Do one "chore" per day to help our house not have dust for Rylan's allergies

Personal-get caught up on my book for the bible study in my MOPS group:  Love and Respect and answer questions in the journal (*find journal*)

Health-work out 5 days

           -lose 1 pound