Work in Progress...

Obviously, I am not very good at this whole 'blogging' thing because I thought that my 'Work in Progress" post would only be seen on The Common Sense Wife, Dad, and Grandparents pages.  BUT, since it went onto the main page, I guess I'll just fill you in.

I have a plan.  My hope for this site is to feature a few posts a week from dads, grandparents, and topics related to marriage.  I love hearing other prespectives so I wanted to share them with you! 

So, I'm not sure when these posts will start but I will surely let you know. 

Thank you for your support thus far...I am having a blast and I hope you are enjoying it as well!

Make Memories!

Have you heard the new Trace Adkin's song?  If not, take a moment and listen.

When I first heard this song, it brought me to tears.  It reminded me of my childhood and the memories that I have with my family.  Like most children, I remember begging my parents to do everything under the sun KNOWING that it would 'mean' so much!  Well, guess what, I don't remember going to Disney World, I don't remember specifics about snow skiing trips, and I don't remember any of the toys that I had to have.

What I do remember is all of those countless hours my dad spent driving the boat so my brothers and I could tube and water ski at the lake.  I remember singing and dancing in the car with my mom.  I remember my brother and I BELTING out Backstreet Boys and NSYNC on the way to school.  I have so many fond memories of my childhood and very few of them have to do with a whole lot of hoopla.

After hearing this song, it got me thinking about how we are raising our children.  Are we trying to make memories or buy them?  Or are we so wrapped up with our day to day life that we're not even finding time for special moments?

Thankfully, I married a fantastic man who is so eager to share his childhood memories with our kids.  By the time Little P was 15 months, he had already gone on his first overnight camping trip...boys only.  I have LOVED watching him take the kids hiking and camping in the woods behind our house, fishing at the pond down the street, and spending countless hours in the backyard playing basketball and baseball.  He's making memories.

Likewise, during the course of our everyday, its hard for me to remember to make memories and not go from one chore to the next.  Will my kids remember the laundry always being done on time?  No.  Will they remember if their bathroom was always sparking?  Definitely not.  Will they remember that I sang my heart out with them in the car?  Probably. 

By no means am I saying that our daily chores should fall to the wayside, but I am saying that we need to remember that not to get caught up in our brain and forget to see whats in front of us.  So, take a break from the day to day and take the kids into the woods for a hike and a picnic, dress up in a silly costume and have a dance party, or whatever your kids' little heart desires.  After all, they only stay this little for a day.  Tomorrow they will be just a little bit bigger...

Mama Recommendation: Toddler Sleep Clock

A few months ago, we were having some serious problems with our two toddlers (2 and 3) waking up at the crack of dawn, really, BEFORE dawn.  We searched high and low for suggestions on what to do and finally came upon the

KIDS"Sleep Classic Toddler Sleep Training Clock

At first, I was very impatient so I thought it didn't work.  But I was wrong!  If you give it a little time, make the kids excited, and keep reminding them of what to do, it will work!

All you have to do is set the time that you want your toddler to get out of bed, tell them to wait until the bunny is awake, and WA-LA!  Like I said, be patient, it may take a week or two for them to fully grasp the full concept but now it is such an exciting thing for them to walk out of their room screaming, "Good Morning Mommy!  The bunny is awake!" 

The other nice feature of this clock is that you can also set it for naptime.

This is just another resource that has helped to make my life easier and helped me to be more rested and prepared for my day! 

Do you have any sleep tricks for your kids?

The Daily Grind

Lately, I have received a lot of questions about our day to day routine. 

Before I lay out our typical day, I want to say that I am a huge believer in making your routine work for you...the mom.  When I was pregnant with Little P, I read something that made so much sense to me.  It said to make your home a FAMILY centered home, not a child centered home. Meaning, as an adult, we have the ability to look at the big picture to see what works for the WHOLE family, parents included, not just the kids.  This means, within reason, mom and dad make the schedule.  That was a huge revelation to me and boy has it changed the way I parent.  Of course, you are going to have your days where nothing goes as planned but on a typical day-to-day basis, mama sets the schedule.

So, our general routine with a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and 10 month old is as follows:

6:30-7:30 They wake up   

       Breakfast

           Get Dressed

8:30-11:00 Mini C's first nap

                                                                Kiddos are usually playing, doing an activity, etc

12:30 Lunch         

              1:00-4:00 All kids are down for nap

5:30 Dinner      

6:00 Bath time  

    6:45 Mini C to bed

               7:30 Little P and C to bed

So, that's it.  Every parent has to come to the point of deciding whether they want their kids to stay up late and sleep in or go to bed early and wake up early.  For my husband and I, we need that time every night to unwind and spend time together.  For others, sleeping in the morning is important.  Its all in personal preference. 

The only point I have to make is that you have recognize that as a mom, you have to take care of yourself.  Make sure your daily schedule works for you and gives you a little break somewhere so you can gather and prepare yourself to finish your day.  You can only put out so much before it becomes too much.  Your glass also need to be filled up...make time for that to happen, even if its 5 minutes.

Mama Sale Alert: Signing Time

I am the BIGGEST 'Signing Time' fan!  We were introduced to signing time when my son was 16 months.  He was not talking at all and we needed to find a way for him to communicate.  It was AMAZING!  Within one week, he had over 50 signs! 

I had never really entertained the idea of teaching my kids sign language, but once it was a necessity and therefore carried over to my other children, I have been forever changed!

Besides the 'love it' factor that it was the ONLY show I could get my kids to watch when they were little, it also made life so much easier.  By 9 months, both of my girls have been able to communicate their basic needs and desires.

Most people are concerned that by teaching their children sign language, it will delay their speech.  This is not the case.  Both of my girls have been right in line, or early, for talking.  If anything, it has added to their vocabulary and ability to communicate what they are trying to say.  Additionally, I found it easier to help my son LEARN to talk because he could sign what he was trying to say and I could help him SAY it.  Took the tandrum right out of the equation and added confidence.

Today, 10/10/2011, www.signingtime.com is offering 25% off of anything in celebration of Rachel Coleman's birthday (she's one of the co-founders and the woman on the DVDs).  I HIGHLY recommend all four Baby Signing Time DVDs to start signing with your little one.

I also highly recommend reading her blog as her life is an inspiration for mothers everywhere.  With two children with disabilities, she and her husband are DETERMINED to not let their disabilities define them.  So incredible.  Go back a bit and read forward. http://www.rachelcoleman.com/

Happy Signing!

When Less Is More

As a busy mom, I am always trying to find ways to simplify my life.

Less dishes?  Tell me how!

Less Laundry?  I'll do it!

I wanted to share with you a few things that I have done to simplify my day-to-day.

Bottles and Sippy Cups

After learning the hard way and having a sink like this:

I vowed to never to do it like this again!  I learned my lesson.

Now, whether I am pumping or using formula, I never have more than 3 bottles...EVER!  I have to admit, I was little skeptical of my own idea but it made my life SO much easier.  Not only did I not have a sink full of bottles but it FORCED me to clean them almost immediately which meant that I usually did one or two other dishes while I was standing there.  It really helped with not letting the dishes get out of control.

So, once the kiddos got to the sippy cup stage, I refused to have this:

For some personalities, that works.  For me...O.V.E.R W.H.E.L.M.I.N.G.

So, each of my kids has 2-3 sippy cups.  One is for water and then the other one is for juice or milk.  There is no specific designation, I just always have a water cup going and they get a cup of juice with breakfast and usually a cup of milk at some point throughout the day.  At the end of the day, its super easy to round up the cups and pop them into the dishwasher.  Works for me!

Dishes and the Dishwasher

Dishes, oh, dishes.  You can ask my mother and she will tell you that I HATE doing dishes.  My father-in-law, whether he knows it or not, always has this special way of doing the dishes when he visits.  There is no better gift.  I don't know what it is about it, I just HATE them! 

Anyways, given that they are necessary, I have had to learn to love accept them.  What I have discovered is that even if I don't do the dishes all throughout the day, I DO NOT sit down at night until they are done.  Period.  My kitchen has to be done before I sit down to read, watch TV, go to bed, etc.  For me, there is nothing worse than waking up to work.

As of now, I only have three kids (yes, yes, I'll cover the whole 'how many do you want' question another time)  so, generally, I only have to run the dishwasher once a day.  I have struggled to find the 'perfect' time to run it and have finally decided that starting it right before I go upstairs for the night is the best.  This way, I can load it all throughout the day, unload it in the morning, and then start all over.  My bottles, sippy cups, bowls, and spoons are always ready in the morning for breakfast. 

Clothes

If you haven't read it already, here is my clothing system.  In short, at the beginning of each season/size, each child gets:

8 daily outifts

6 PJs

1 Extra Pair of Jeans

2 Church Outfits

Any seasonal pieces necessary

Seriously, a lifesaver on the laundry front but also on the organizing and shopping front!

Without a doubt in the world, I have found that less is WAY more when it comes to most kid things.  The more I have, the more chaos there is.  So, simplify, simplify, simplify is the name of my game.  Sometimes it requires more immediate discipline on my part but in the long run, it makes my life so much better.  And lets face it, there's some truth the saying, 'If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy'. 

Mama Recommendation: Scentsy

My friend, Lauren, sells Scentsy.

Because she knows of my aversion to smelly things (I get serious headaches), she never told me about it. 

But, once September hit, I had this incredible desire to have SOMETHING fall smelling in my house.  (It was probably because of all of Lauren's blog posts about making apple cider, fall decorating, and pumpkin pies.) Anyways, I looked into a few different options but didn't try TOO hard.  Finally, I decided to call Lauren and ask her about scentsy.  My biggest concern was my headaches and I wanted to know if there were any scents that were either very mild or could be controlled. 

I was DELIGHTED when she told me that you could use as much or as little of the wax therefore controlling the strength of the aroma.  So, after she told me, much to my surprise, how incredibly affordable scentsy is, I decided to try it out and buy one. 

Enchanted Mid-Size Warmer with the Pumpkin Roll Scent

Isn't it pretty?  It looks so pretty on my kitchen counter!

Anyways, for those of you who don't know how it works, here's a little run down.  Scentsy uses ZERO fire.  It is not a candle (very child friendly).  Instead, the light you see coming through the holes is from a lightbulb.  You place your wax bar on the plate on top, turn it on, watch the wax melt, and fill your home/office/whatever with a wonderful smell!  What is amazing is that in order to get another scent, you don't have to buy another warmer, just pay $5 for the new scent block, AND THATS IT!  AMAZING!

So, I HIGHLY recommend scentsy.  I can't tell you how excited I am to order my Christmas Tree Scent for Christmas...WOOHOO!  If I didn't already have my Christmas gifts, I know quite a few sister-in-laws, mothers, and grandmothers who would be recieving one of these.  I. LOVE. IT.

Hop on over to Laurens Scentsy page and check it out!
www.laurenbecker.scentsy.com
Checkout through Lauren Beckers party.

I can tell you now, if you buy from her, you are supporting a military wife who is preggo with baby boy #2.  Seriously, she's the kind of girl you want to support! 

If you want to read more about Lauren, her family, and her style, this is her blog: www.itsbeckerstyle.com

Have a great fall weekend!