What I'm Focusing on This Week

I started feeling a little overwhelmed this weekend, so I decided it might help me to get a few things out of my head. Sure enough, seeing everything listed out, I do have a ridiculous number of things I'm trying to accomplish this week. No wonder I'm dizzy!

For the kids, I've been working with them both on staying in their rooms after we tuck them in at night. Kaylin has been very motivated by the reward system, but Ryan is taking a little longer to comply. There's always a little bit of wiggle room in his mind. Regardless, our evenings have been nice and quiet the last few nights. No faint whispers of "Mommy?" from the stairs, no running water coming from the bathroom, nothing. Just sweet silence.

I've also been rewarding them for staying in their rooms until 6:45am and not coming downstairs until all of their "chores" are done. (get dressed, put PJs away, brush teeth, make bed) I'm desperately trying to nip the morning dawdling in the bud. I'm OVER the tension at the breakfast table to get Ryan out the door to the bus. Keeping everyone in their rooms until they're dressed eliminates chatting and playing which eliminates rushing and me barking orders. Every day has gotten a little bit better and I see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one!

As for me, I've started waking up at 6am every day to cross #1 off my 101 Goals list. It was #1 because it was the first thing that popped into my head; something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. With the sun rising a little earlier these days, waking up early hasn't been as tough as usual. It's so much nicer to get a few things done in the morning instead of having my kids wake me up by bursting into my bedroom.

Another thing making this 6am goal a little easier lately is my 5:30am "crying baby alarm" - something else I'm working on. I have NO IDEA why Jason wakes up at 5:30 every day. I've tried everything: putting him to bed later, shortening his daytime naps to try making him more tired at night, feeding him a formula bottle before bed, starting him on rice cereal to keep him full longer...nothing is working! I realize I'm probably a few weeks away from him figuring out how to put his pacifier back in his own mouth, which will help, but for now, it's really messing me up. Because when he gets up at 5:30, he's ready for a nap by 7:30am, which moves my whole day up by at least an hour, then he's exhausted and ready to go down for the night by 5:30pm. That early of a bedtime does NOT work for me!

I think part of the issue has been that Jason's been going through a growth spurt. The other day, I nursed him at 10am (what should have been a full feeding) but he still acted starving. I gave him another SIX ounces of formula before he finally stopped fussing and acted satisfied. What's funny is that I can totally see that he's chunked up a bit. Just a week ago, I looked at him and thought, "This is my first baby that hasn't been huge. He's in the right size clothes for his age, he doesn't have tons of rolls like the other kids, he's even got skinny little legs." Then POOF. Growth spurt and now he's a little rollie pollie.

On that note, something else I need to do soon is to pull out my storage bin of 6-9 month boy clothes and rotate them into Jason's dresser. Just in time for his 6 month birthday! (Ryan was in 6-9 month clothes at 4 months.)

I spent a couple of hours yesterday getting all of the kids clothes organized. It felt SO good to bring order to the hand-me-downs, clearance items and garage sale purchases I've found over the last month.

That got me in the mood to declutter, which is just in time for Simple Mom's Spring Cleaning Week. I have some specific areas of the house that I'm itching to sort through. I'll try to remember to take before and after pictures to share my embarrassing nooks and crannies progress.

Those are all of the physical things I've been working on, but I have some habits with the kids I'm intentionally trying to break this week, too. I received an email newletter from Biblical Parenting titled, "What to do when kids are annoying." Judge me all you want, but I will be the first to admit that I've had those thoughts before. "Why is he making that annoying sound?!?!?" "I wish the kids would calm down - their getting annoying." I hate that I've actually used that label in my head, but the title certainly grabbed my attention. The article suggested working with your children on self-control and sensitivity. I printed the list and put it on the fridge this weekend and have referenced it several times already. (specifically the 4th point about limiting noises...my kids are not quiet creatures)

- Self-control is the ability to control myself so that Mom and Dad don't have to.
- Self-control means to think before I act.
- Self-control is the ability to talk about problems instead of grabbing, pushing, or hitting.
- Self-control means that I limit the noises I make when others are around.
- Self-control means that I focus on one thing until it gets done, before I move to the next.
- Sensitivity means that when I walk into a room I look and listen before I speak.
- Sensitivity is thinking about how my actions are affecting other people.
- Sensitivity means thinking about how I could help someone else.

The other bad habit that needs to be broken in our house is not reacting emotionally. Luckily, that's a self-control issue, so it kind of ties into the article I just mentioned. If I hear, "HEEEEEEEY-YUH!" one more time, I might lose my mind. My newest mantra is, "Please change your tone." I say it again and again. And again. And again. I hate how disrespectful the tones have become around here! I blamethat one on school and look forward to removing that element this summer.

Last night, I handed Ryan some glass cleaner and a towel to clean his handprints off the sliding glass door. I wasn't necessarily trying to punish him, just teach him a little responsibility and to clean up after himself. I actually had to take it away from him 30 minutes later...he LOVED cleaning the glass! So I taught him how to do it correctly and have decided that will be one of his new jobs. He's thrilled.

Then when I was folding laundry yesterday, I gave Kaylin some dishtowels and wash clothes to fold with me. Not only did it make her feel helpful, she actually did a pretty good job! She was ridiculously proud. So that will be another new chore that she can help with, too. I forget as they get older, they are more able to help. And at this age, more willing to help!

Are you exhausted just reading about all of this? Yeah, me too. The most intense item on the list is working with the kids on self-control and reminding them to speak respectfully all. day. long. Setting my alarm clock, bribing them before bed, organizing...those don't take as much mental energy as it does to constantly be intentional and keep their attitudes in check.

After all that explaining, I think I need a nap. I could blame that one on my 5:30 baby alarm, too.