Here’s what I didn’t blog about the last couple of weeks:

Blogging
Every blogger eventually feels a bit of burnout. With ADHD, the tendancy to burn out on *anything* is quite high. I was feeling less and less excited to post. I was feeling anxiety over days I should have posted this, or I need to get that post up. It’s easy to let blogging rule your life. It’s easy to push the kids aside and tell them Mommy is “working” even though Mommy really got distracted (again) on Pinterest.

I took a mini-break to avoid complete burnout and now I’m (sort of) back. But I’ll be doing it… slackery style. No anxiety, no stress. I’ll just blog.

Bronchitis
Possibly spurring on my decision to take a short break from blogging, was the nasty cold that hit me immediately after returning from vacation. The cold took about a week to clear up, but the nasty coughing stayed with me. My coughing was far worse at night and I soon was out on the couch so at least my husband could get some sleep.

Eventually the coughing got so bad, I dragged myself and kids into the doctor. Not that the kids needed to see a doctor, but it’s always a package deal. *Mom sigh.* I had coughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my abdomen–or what would be, if I had any abdomen muscles of which to speak. *Mom sigh take 2.*

Blackouts
During church on Sunday, we learned that the street immediately across from ours hadn’t had power for a day and a half. Apparently, we’re real hermits to not notice that little detail. Walking home from church, our power went down too! Fortunately, my husband is the Rockstar of Crisis Management. We had loaned out our personal generator just moments before our power went down and so he went to work wrestling a work generator home to power our furnace.

I whipped up a big batch of hot cocoa on our gas stove which served the dual purpose of both warming our bodies and of convincing the kids that this was an adventure! We ate dinner at my in-laws while my husband wrestled home a generator. I read my kids the last chapter of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle* by flashlight and then entertained myself on my internet-less tablet. I woke up at five a.m. when the power turned on, and normal life resumed! We are definintely in need of non-tech gear in the event of a disaster of some sort!

Are you prepared in the event of an emergency or disaster like a power outage? (Okay, a short term power outage is not a real emergency, or a disaster… but it’s still best to be prepared!)

I have no idea how that happened–me not being sick. My toddler likes to put her hands on the sides of my face, and touch her nose to mine. Particularly so when she has snot dripping like a faucet and has a smoker’s cough. Also, I slept in bed with my husband whose cold is still dragging on. Also, I slept many nights with at least two other children, whose source of comfort seemed to stem from sleeping on top of me.

After last week… I’m a bit emotionally scarred. We’re still getting back on a schedule that constitutes real life. Like eating, getting out of bed, and even leaving the house on occasion.

Blogging? Eh.
Whatever.

The last week I have had plenty of thinking about blogging, but very little doing. We’ll remedy that.
Sooner or later.

(I’d totally tell you what awesome posts are coming up, but we all know that pretty much clinches it if I do: I will never actually post them.)

soooo….. how have you been??

I’ve been meaning to Google “how to build your kids’ testimonies at breakfast,” but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Fortunately for me, my wonderful friend Nicole, from MOMentity, went and got all inspired for me and then left a note on Facebook for me. I didn’t even have to Google it.

(Click the logo to go to MOMentity and download the series!)

Four weeks, five days a week: a simple scripture to read on a school-child applicable theme. They are both LDS and Christian friendly. They take just a minute of your time.

A minute of time, for the peace of mind knowing your children are going out the door on the right foot, knowing they have started their day with the word of the Lord in their heart.

In fact, you have now started your day with the word of the Lord. You have shown your children that to you, He matters. Even during a simple school day, He comes first. If you’ve taught your children that much… then you’ve reached your greatest success as a mother.

Sometimes, a mom needs a few tools in her arsenal. These toys may include a hidden stash of candy to halt a breakdown when you need to leave the house, or the silliest song to break up the monotony of a long drive. It could be the CD that lulls your kid to sleep every time, or perhaps its the nightlight they won’t sleep with, no matter where you go. Today, I want to talk about a tool that’s a great kid motivator: the timer!

10 Ways to Use a Timer With Kids:

1. Exercise Time! Set the timer for one or two minutes and see how many times they can run laps around your house, do a set of jumping jacks, or hop on foot. Do it right along with them and call it your exercise for the day, too!

2. Play With Mommy Time. Use the timer to set clear expectations. Dreading another round of Barbies or trucks, but feel guilty for putting your tot off constantly? Set a timer and let them know exactly how many minutes until Mommy is going back to her important stuff. (Facebook, anyone?) This will keep you from wandering off after 3.4 seconds into the ‘game.’

3. Break down chores. Use the timer to break down a large task into manageable pieces. If your kids’ friends left the playroom trashed on the last play date, don’t demand your child clean it all right this second. Tell them they just need to clean for ____ minutes, then you’ll jump in and help with the rest.

4. Race It! Set a timer and see how much cleaning you can do before the buzzer rings! Your kids will be amazed at how much they are able to do while racing against the clock.

5. Time out. What would time out be without a timer? A rule of thumb is to put your child in time out for one minute for year they are old. My two year old is in time out for two minutes, my four year old gets four minutes but I add a minute every time she screams while in her room.

6. Beep to Go! If you know your three year old will freak when its time to be torn from the beloved TV, let him know you’re setting a timer until its time to get ready. When the timer beeps, the TV goes off (or the toy dinosaurs get put away), and its time to go! (To get your kid to school on time with a timer, check out this post!)

7. Time for a Snack. If your child is the kind that won’t stop asking for munchies, set a timer during snack time to let them know when the next snack or meal will be.

8. Time to Go Potty! Potty training and timers can be a mom’s best friend. When you have other things to juggle (babies, older kids, pets, making dinner, etc.), it can be hard to remember when it’s time to take your toddler to the potty. Little tots are still learning to depend on their own body signals, so set a timer and stick to it. If your toddler doesn’t ‘go?’ Add another five minutes and try again.

9. Time for… Quiet Time! Is it just me, or does quiet time in my house equate to me closing my eyes for five minutes and my children doing something destructive? Start the timer and load them up with books. Older children should be able to start out at about ten minutes of quiet time and go up as they get used to the concept, and younger children can start anywhere from 2-5 minutes. A two minutes break doesn’t seem helpful to you, but you can gradually increase it. Just make sure your child is safe from hazards and markers! This is one we are just starting to work on at my house. :/

10. Time to Leave Mom Alone. :) Okay, seriously. Sometimes we don’t need to separate everyone and tell them to be quiet, we just want the kids to play nicely somewhere else for a few minutes. Keep your door open and let them know you’re listening (Mom is always listening!!), but ask them not to come back until the timer rings. Use your judgement on setting the timer. If your kids play well together, you may get a good twenty to thirty minutes alone, especially if the TV is on! If your kids are younger or are prone to bickering, you can make a quick phone call or check your email. With this one, I like to ‘reward’ (aka bribe) my kids. If they leave me alone, they get a treat, or some fun Play with Mom time!

For a bonus Mom-tip with a timer, read this post on how to get started cleaning your house!
Photo credits here.
Linking up to Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings! 

How do you use a timer in your home?

Source: Shoebox Blog

WANTED: ONE MOM FOR TEMPORARY HIRE

Our fast paced company (The Family, Inc.) is currently looking to fill a temporary position for one Mom. Current Mom is seeking a Mental Health Break and would like to train temp worker prior to taking Leave. Job responsibilities include the emotional, spiritual, educational, and physical growth of current associates.

Successful applicant will be:

Trained in math and spelling up to seventh grade level, with history of working with teachers and other school support. Exp. in making doctor’s appointments and finding babysitter’s especially helpful.

Skilled in making dinner, though willing to train. Dinner must be filling, thrifty, and somewhat nutritious. Getting certain members of the the company to eat vegetables would be a plus.

Daily janitorial duties are required. Junior associates will disrupt applicant during cleaning process, so applicant should be able to multitask well. Associates will also make messes in the area previously cleaned, so patience is required.

Must have good eyesight for finding the Lego’s and misc. thumb tacks hiding in carpet. Applicant should not have a strong sense of smell, as she will need to wipe the rears of junior associates. Applicant will also need to have quick fingers to fill a sippy cup before junior associate cries, a strong voice for reading the same story over and over; physically fit is preferred but not necessary, though ability to chase after associates and company animal desired.

Must be available 24/7. Ability to sleep less than six hours a night would be a plus, as junior associate wakes several times for the potty. Drivers license required. Position unpaid, though highly rewarding.

As current mom is feeling overwhelmed and underqualified for the position, possibility to turn into long-term employment possible!

An article in the New York Times reported of a study by MindLab to determine the top ten most frequent reasons men and women awaken from their sleep.  Are you surprised to hear that the sound most likely to wake a woman from sleeping is a crying baby, regardless of whether the female subject had a child of her own?

 The top ten sounds a man is most likely to waken to are car alarms, howling winds, buzzing flies, snoring, noise from drains, crickets chirping, sirens, ticking clocks, construction sounds, and a dripping tap.
“Crying baby” didn’t even make the list.

And that’s not all, folks. An article in the Washington Post reported that, according to a study done by the University of Michigan, women are 2.5 times more likely to wake from sleep to care for others.

Is it not just me, or is this not even remotely surprising? The lead researcher on the study by the University of Michigan, Sarah Burgard, commented, “Obviously, the child-rearing responsibilities may be slanted at first due to breast-feeding, then the responsibilities are never renegotiated.”

I know some of you will disagree with the study completely. Some of you probably would have to be reminded that you even have children while you are sleeping. I would have assumed, pre-motherhood, that this would be true of me. I’m the world’s most crabby person when woken–particularly when woken repeatedly–and I tend to get downright nasty if you don’t shut off your flipping stupid alarm right this second. 

Approximately one day postpartum with my first child, I become an entirely different person in my sleep. The softest baby moan rouses me from the deepest, most loveliest sleep. To this day, my two year old rarely sleeps through the night, and I am the one to take her to the potty many times over, give her a sippy, *I command you not to judge me* and comfort her when scared. The other day my husband went to bed with a migraine. I woke up no less than half a dozen times with Abigail, taking her potty and soothing her back to sleep over and over.
{Mental note: find out about sleep training.}
 Most nights I don’t mind, as I’m a stay at home mom and my husband leaves the house before dawn. Half a dozen times seemed like a bit much, however, and I was exhausted the next day.

The next night my husband was feeling better after sleeping an entire day and a half. I commented that as he had slept the past 36 hours, it was his turn to take care of Abigail during the night. Any guesses as to how many times she woke up?
Zero.
I think that’s a first since potty training.
Go figure. 

Who takes care of waking children in your home? Do you take turns, or is it all up to you?

I need your help.

It’s week three of the summer (seriously?? just the third week?!) and I’m out of consequences for misbehaving kids. I prefer consequences that fit the crime or at the very least, that take effect immediately.

As of late, I’ve lapsed into staring blankly at the misbehaving child, wracking my brain for a punishment. I come up with nothing and out pops some lame threat like, “Stop doing that or we won’t go to the pool next week.” It stops the behavior momentarily. It doesn’t do anything to change the behavior.

And worse, I forget. Or the kids can “earn” the lost privilege back.
(Of course, they lose it and earn it about seventeen times in the course of the week.) 
It’s pretty pathetic.
It’s also pretty ineffective.

So, I ask you:
What’s your preferred punishment for older and younger children?
What’s the most creative punishment you’ve given?

Today she had an official launch party, which I was lucky enough to be a part of. Watch the video of the party here. You’ll want to do this because she is giving away some fabulous prizes. She has a jewelry line with hand stamped jewelry featuring the MOMentity resolutions; my favorite is stamped with the words “I Am Valuable.” She’ll be giving away two necklaces, and I’m giving away an FHE Made Easy packet. You just need to watch the video to grab the secret words to comment on her post here!

There will also be plenty more giveaways throughout the month on her blog, as well as regular articles on finding happiness in motherhood. If you struggle, as I do, to find joy in being a mommy each day, this is definitely a site you’re going to want to keep an eye on. MOMentity also has a Facebook page, a Google+ page, and you can follow her on Twitter as well!

Side note: I have occasional moments when I think, “Aw, baby! Another baby wouldn’t be so bad…” Then I do the math. That’s five, people. Five kids. No way. Uh uh. Not now, anyway. Not in this house. Babies are like a gateway drug… to kids. 

Anyway. Nothing like being sick to realize how needy your kids are.

Every
second
of
the
day.

They need you.

They need you to eat.
They need you to pee.
They need you to poop.
(This is fact, people. I can’t make this up.)
They need you to listen when they need to tattle.
They need you to kiss their owies.

Even when doing so is going to make them sick and miserable. You have to do it. They won’t let you not do it, so you kiss them and cringe, knowing how miserable they will make you in the coming days.

Then they need to eat again.
Which only leads to more pee.
And more poop.
All of which
they need you for.

My husband works a zillion hours a week (that’s an actual calculatable figure, people). Once he gets sick he goes down hard. And while the people at work tend to get pretty upset that he is home sick, he gets to stay home and sleep.

When I get sick, I’m still making breakfast and lunch and usually dinner. (Though Gary did do it last night, 5 points for him!) When I get sick, I still am wiping bums and holding children and all those other crappy things you do 100 times a day without thinking about it until you’re sick.

So… I’m just a wee bit sick. How are you?

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Lost your Mommy Mojo? Three Tips to Get It Back

I am so excited to join you today! It’s a privileged to be a part of Confessions of a Slacker Mom!  Last week Sarah was my lovely guest over at My Everything Else. (Do I dare admit that her post encouraged me to stop slacking?) Her ideas inspired a toddler-friendly Learning Cupboard for my twin toddlers! Take a peek…

I’m Nicole, from My Everything Else. I’m a mommy to four (#3 & #4 are identical twins), writer and consultant. My blog used to be about learning to juggle the new twins in addition to everything else. I quickly learned that life is much more about the Everything Else.

But recently those little twinners have thrown me into a Mommy-Midlife-Crisis. It’s real and it’s serious.

They went from two naps a day to just one. Just. One. Nap. It cannot be.

I was a mess! I needed those nap times more than I needed my daily dose of Diet Dr Pepper.

Much of my life exists through my laptop and nap time was laptop time. How was I going to get work done for my client, meet my writing deadlines, pay bills, plan meals, and (admittedly quite important) Facebook and blog?!?

I sulked for several days, barely finding any time to shower. This was tough. I tried to squeeze in computer time everywhere I could. I was never present in the moment. I even day-dreamed about my previous life and ambitions for a career.  Then I realized only I had the power to snap out of it.

It wasn’t easy. It required dedication (that means no slacking).  Here are three tips that helped me. Maybe, if you ever find yourself in a Mommy-Midlife-Crisis, they can help you too.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

I love my sleep. I went years and years as a sleep deprived mom. We just got the boys to start sleeping through the night regularly. But I realized if I woke up one hour before I had to get my daughter up for school I could shower, get dressed and maybe—just maybe—put on makeup.

If I woke up two hours early. I could even read my scriptures, do some yoga and get time in on my computer! Ahhh.

It was a plan. Six A.M would come early but not if I made Mom Rule #1: In bed by 11 p.m.

Separate ’Working Me’ from ‘Mommy Me’

Even though I stay at home with my kiddos. I work from home too. I suspect lots of moms do. Even if their ‘work’ is just for church obligations, the PTA or a hobby. I decided in order to succeed and bring my Mommy Mojo back, I would need to ‘go to work’ each day.

I took out a weekly planner and blocked off my working time from my mommy time. And then I made Mom Rule #2: I am valuable.  I was sure I could succeed at both ‘working me’ and ‘mommy me’ and view myself as valuable and successful.  Why do we moms not have higher self-worth?

Engage My Kids

Now that I wasn’t sneaking off to my laptop, it was time I cherish the moments with my children.

While my laptop was closed (thankfully I have email and Facebook on my phone), I put my aforementioned Learning Cupboard to use. All four of my kids are crazy about it. And, as soon as the weather gets nicer, we’ll spend time outside. Maybe I’ll even get crazy and plan a picnic in the park.  Why? Because of Mom Rule #3: Above all else, spend quality time with my kids.

 I still slack a little. This week I broke Mom Rule #1 and really paid for it the next day. And I have a really hard time avoiding the snooze button on my phone. But I assure you, I got my mojo back! I actually now have more time on my laptop to get stuff done and am present in the moment.

If you’ve lost your Mommy Mojo but found it again, I’d love to hear about it!