Perception...Reality

This morning as we were all rushing around to get dressed and get out the door in time for a bakery breakfast, I literally stopped for a minute when I realized that I haven't cleaned my bathroom mirror in (gasp!)  a whole week.  Seriously, it's a week today--I wrote those notes to my Boy and the knuckleheads before I left for work at 5 last Friday morning.  There are also notes on the door-mirror.  After I realized this, I told James, "It's been a week--I've gotta clean this mirror today!"  (Never mind the toilet, bathtub and floor that need cleaning...I don't know if anyone but me notices those.  So read on...)  On my mental to-do list, I wrote and highlighted "CLEAN BATHROOM TODAY."  

Off we went, for a fun breakfast and a slightly late arrival to 2nd grade.  Noble and I left Krause and came back home for a bit more rushing around, then a quick trip to recycling and an aborted trip to the CPA (I found about $500 in receipts yesterday...yikes!  Thinking that could make a difference!) before Bible Study.  All the while, I'm thinking about what I HAVE to get done today.  

And then in Bible Study, the discussion turned to control issues.  (Now, YOU say Control freak WHO?)  I know our home is a control issue for me, and just when I think I'm doing better and not being so OCD, someone pops a mirror up in front of my face, and there it is.  Today, it's literally a mirror...I don't HAVE to clean that mirror today.  And I haven't, and I probably won't before I go to bed.  But I did enjoy my time with Noble today, including a nice quick nap with him (ha ha!) and I'm looking forward to a fun afternoon with both kids.  (Kayci saw a fun candy corn wreath in Martha Stewart Living, so we're going to give it a shot today.  Noble's got one to play with, too!)  My work--that I get paid for--got done today.  Bible Study got done today.  Crafts with my kids will get done today.  Dinner with the family and some cuddle time with my Boy will get done today.  That mirror and the rest of the bathroom?  Well, they'll have to wait a few days...I've got work and family commitments for the next 4 or 5 days.  And that's okay with me.  

This morning, my perception of that mirror:  failure on my part.  This afternoon, the reality is somewhere in between--it's not a failure, but it's not to be overlooked forever, either.  It'll keep.  

Post Script on the Rides

Why didn't we buy our kids fair armbands, you ask? It's not just that we'd spent a million dollars on tickets and food and didn't want to pay up...it's because of THIS EXPERIENCE. (Click it and read the post from 9/09.)

Knock, knock...

Who's there?

Control freak. Now YOU say, "control freak, who?"

That one may be funnier in person. But it keeps running through my head today. :)

It's Monday...after a long weekend spent moving Mom into her new townhome/apartment. I'm happy to say we all worked together very well and all that's left are tiny details. As Noble says, teeeeeeeeeeeeeeamwork!

Speaking of Noble, two things come to mind: 1) I FINALLY GOT PAID!!! So that means we headed to the Apple store this weekend, naturally. 2) As we left the AT&T store this morning with a newly activated iphone4, Noble looked up at me and said, "We go Carbucks now, wight?" Who can argue with that logic? Starbucks was right there, Noble wanted a snack...and he was incredibly patient (for the most part, ahem) while we waited for freakin' ever in AT&T for someone to not just walk past us...but help us. I finally stopped one of the, I kid you not, 7 people on the floor and asked, "should we come back later?" She looked shocked, and said, "why?" I said, "because we're all just WAITING and WAITING." So then I got served, as I was the next in line. Sigh. Customer service, people. But I'm back to a phone with a front camera and a flash, so all's right with my world.

You know you have to be careful what you say around kids, right? Well, point proven. I visited Kayci's class this morning to help them put together scarecrows (sidebar: I take NO credit for any of this year's scarecrow, and while it's now how I would do it, I am happy that another mother took it on and is doing it. Mostly happy. The control freak in me is, well, freaking.). But I digress. I looked at Kayci's journal entry this morning, and I had to laugh out loud. The Washington County fair just ended this weekend, so the journal starter was "I rode the rides..." My smarta** wrote, "I rode the rides at the Downtown Aquarium. At the fair, I only rode some stinking weird boats for Noble." Too true, but come on... Admit it, you giggled a bit, too.

I wish I had a picture to break up the monotony of this post, but alas, I got nothin'. Sorry. Will work on that!

Happy Monday--yep, Bren, it's been a bit Manic around here, too. In part because Kayci didn't think to tell me until bedtime last night (when we got home) that I was going to school today to help. Oh, and by the way, I needed to take 20 scarecrows with me. Alrighty. :) So we worked on those together last night, and I just readjusted my schedule today. With just a little sighing involved--I really, really wanted to stay in PJs longer today. Oh, well.

As soon as Noble wakes up, we're back off to Krause to help the afternoon class wrap up. After that, who knows? Well, I know some of what will/needs to happen tonight, but there are lots of blanks that will be interesting to fill in. Like, _____ is for dinner.

Every day is an adventure...

...and my tour guide has been amazing this week. We've seen a remarkable difference since we started following a less-screentime-intensive routine and I have done the same, staying away from the laptop, my phone, etc. during the day when we're together. :)

Blog? What Blog?

I tend to write blog posts in my head as I go about my daily business. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for you), I rarely have/take time to sit down and pound them out. I'd like to get back to blogging daily...if for no other reason than keeping the cobwebs blown out. That, and a lot tends to happen around here. :) My list of things I want to do is about as long as the "have to do" list every day, and that one tends to win out. I did want to share one thing, though, to keep myself honest. A little backstory, first...

We're entering the 4th week of school. The first week and a half or so, I thought I was kind of killing time until Noble started daycare a couple of weeks...but that's not going to happen. Seriously, there's a reason people stand in line overnight for this place--there's just. no. room. So, once I found that out, I was relieved (not ready for him to be in daycare again!) but sad, too, because HE is ready for more socialization, etc. That's been weighing on me, trying to find a balance for him that will work.

The first 10 or so days of school went by in a blur...and then one day I was like, OMG, what am I doing? Why don't I have some sort of schedule during the day with him? So I started taking stock of how our days were going, where our days were going. It wasn't pretty--I just wasn't spending time WITH Noble as much as just time in the same place as Noble. And he was getting very whiny and just...eww.

Here's where I want to keep myself honest: on Thursday, I started a new Bible study. While I was sitting there we were asked which part of our parenting we wanted to work on. My list was too long to go into...I need a lot of work!...but the thing that came to mind first was "routine." After going through my/our days, I'd realized that what we were doing wasn't what we NEEDED to be doing, and we'd gotten into some straight-up habits (like, no bedtime story--what was up with us?? and my personal nemesis, eating in front of the TV...which is another whole story...). I woke up Friday morning and resolved to change. The first change, which I thought I'd pretty well mastered, was to leave the laptop on my desk while Noble's awake. Turns out, when I got busy with back-to-school stuff, I'd started bringing the laptop out into the living room/dining room and I'd grab a few minutes while he...you got it!...watched TV. So turns out, I had the TV on too much. Sigh. Parenting is NOT for the weak at heart...this stuff is HARD. I almost missed the boat on Friday--I pulled out the laptop "just for a second" once I got Noble interested in some play-dough. And you know what? As soon as it came out, he got very whiny and wanted "baby-juice", which is Noblese for cuddle/nap. (See this blog post about the baby...woo hoo!) That was the wake up call that I needed, so I put the laptop away and let Ms. Kristi out to play. You know what I didn't realize until that point? Noble is 2 1/2 (as of last Wednesday!). He's almost as old as the kids I love to write curriculum for, and mentally, quite a bit older than some. My point is--he is ready for the next step...my baby is now a young preschooler. Sigh.

So, Friday we took a big step. And at the end of the day, we were both pretty darn satisified. :)

This week, my goal is to keep working toward finding the balance between my work and the work I need to do with Noble. Wish me luck! :)

I'm baaaaack...with 8 Questions

School started...can you tell? I can tell, since I'm still trying to develop a routine and cross all of the MUST-do's off my to-do list...no easy feat this year for some reason. And I've had a lot on my mind on top of that, so it's been a weird week or so. OH, and when we got home last Monday, no internet...James took care of it but it took a couple of days to get the new modem, etc. so we were offline (other than phones) until Sunday morning. It was a mixed blessing. :)

So I'm back, and I have resolved to get to blogging again...if for no other reason than to clear my head!

Last night I saw that Heather tagged me on her blog (thanks, H!) so I'll play along. I'm going to answer Heather's 8 Questions, but then I'm going to change it up a bit. Instead of tagging 8 other bloggy friends, I'm going to tag 8 of y'all who read my blog on Facebook! So here are my 8 answers to Heather's questions, then keep reading for MY 8 questions...

1. How much time do you spend on your blog or viewing other blogs daily? Not as much as I'd like...blogging is the first thing to fall off of my to-do list when I'm busy. So maybe 10-15 minutes...maybe. That includes FB, sadly. :(
2. What would is your dream job? Published writer! (Like, not published like now...published like, it's got my name on it and hopefully James' pictures in it!)
3. What is your hobby? Blogging...but you see how that's going!
4. What is one bad habit you have? ugh, not controlling what I EAT!
5. What is one thing on your bucket list? tough one! I'd like to go to Ireland and Scotland one day, I think.
6. Do you prefer the lake or the ocean? Lake, a deck, and probably a cold beer!
7. What TV show are you embarrassed to admit you watch? I listen to Real Housewives (any Real Housewives...sad) while I work online.
8. Do you have a phobia? If so, what? Not really. I do have a crippling fear of zombies, if that counts.

Okay, I did it...your turn! These 8 questions are for: Lynn, Mandy, LaDawn, Kellie (I still think of you as Hendricks!), Kim Bartholomew, Denise, Shea, and Bren-duh!

1. You have 30 minutes to yourself. What do you do?

2. What is your favorite book right now? (Or author!)

3. If you could vacation anywhere in Texas on someone else's dime, where would you go?

4. Do you collect anything? If yes, what?

5. You open up your birthday card, and there's a gift card inside (Score!). Where do you hope it's from? (Horrible grammar...you get the idea!)

6. What is a household chore you really, really don't like to do?

7. What is your favorite thing about yourself?

8. What is your favorite thing about your significant other?

Can't wait to see what you girls say!!!!

Oh, yeah...school

So I got up at 5:30, did a little laundry, cleaned a little root beer float off the floor, then settled on the couch with a chick flick, my laptop and the work I needed to finish um...last week. I just looked up at the clock, and it's official:

early morning. FAIL.

Now I need to put the laptop and work away until Noble takes a nap, and get up and work on Kayci's lunch for today before she wakes up and it's time for breakfast and outfit and...life.

Kayci had a good (possibly great!) first day of school. :) After school, we went to BlueBell with the Dallmeyers for a treat, then we had another treat--Kayci leveled up in gymnastics!

And she's up...early, now that she can set her own alarm. (Taylor Swift on the iphone--my, how times have changed!) Hope you all have a great day. I'll try this work thing again a little later...

:) me