The focus of today’s Fitness Friday is finding more time in your schedule to exercise. In my case I have been forced into that scenario because the kids are not napping anymore. In the end I have gained more than I have lost from the new no-nap schedule.

I have an extra two hours in a day to get up and move now. We have spent nap time doing various things in order to keep the kids from falling asleep, especially after 3:00. On Monday we had “quiet time” and then went to Open Swim. We cleaned the entire house on Tuesday. On Wednesday we went shopping for a few gifts and spent over an hour walking around the store. Yesterday we moved furniture around, and today we cleaned up so I could vacuum up all of the mystery stuff we found from moving the furniture.

I’ve also had to incorporate more “Mommy directed” activity in the afternoon to help the kids stay awake until bedtime. We have gone for strolls around the neighborhood, and I even ventured out on a walk to the playground with them in the wagon (which is horrible to pull for a mile, but worth it for all of us). Another favorite activity is going to our neighbor’s house late in the day.

My next goal is to start doing yoga with the kids at least once a week. I know that we all will benefit from the stretching and muscle strengthening that comes with the practice of yoga. Maybe I will even improve my focus a bit!

Photo courtesy of Vimages

Photo courtesy of Thomªs

Cleaning the house never ends. I am constantly doing laundry, vacuuming, picking up toys, doing dishes, and the list goes on. The battle to keep the house in a reasonable condition happens every day, and with young children – 2 1/2 & 5 – the work load can seem insurmountable. I am trying hard to train my wee tykes to help me out with keeping the house clean. I hope to teach them responsibility and respect for our things. I also think that housekeeping is a life skill that they need.

Sheila at To Love, Honor, and Vacuum has lots of great tips to help you get the family – even the little ones – involved in cleaning up the house. I like one of her ideas a lot. She suggests organizing the toys to help kids clean up, and this is something I know works. In our family room I have the toys organized according to category in baskets. In the past I had them labeled so other folks could figure out the system, too.

Mommy Vignettes has a Hub Page,  How to Clean your House with Young Children. She also lists some practical, age appropriate ideas for enlisting your small children in chores. I particularly like the idea of having your kids help with sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor. I have my kids help me with this. They get to use the dust pan and small broom while I use the regular sized broom. Then I fill a large bowl with hot, soapy water. I add a bit of white vinegar to the water, too. (Sometimes I give the kids baking soda and a bowl of water instead.) The kids use sponges to scrub the floor by hand. I assist them and follow with kitchen towels to dry. Then the kids get a bath and Mom gets a shower! It is messy, but really worth it. (This kind of work is really great for kids with SPD, too.)

My last bit of advice for cleaning with small children is to prioritize. What matters the most to you on any given day? Do you need the toys to be cleaned up before everyone goes to bed? Does the kitchen have to be cleaned at the end of the day? Decide on an attainable goal for the day and focus on that. There will be many things that do not get finished. Be patient, though.

Welcome to Fitness Friday! I’m starting this new series in order to keep myself on track with my fitness goals and hopefully encourage you along the way.

This week I went swimming with the kids twice this week. I definitely feel the results of the swimming! My shoulders and back are pretty sore right now, which means I am gaining new muscle. I am hopeful to get to the pool three times next week! It is a great way to exercise.

We also went for two short walks around our neighborhood. I miss the days when the kids would ride in the carriage because I could walk at a fast pace and I didn’t have to keep everyone on course. However, it has been great to stroll around with a couple of our friends. The kids keep each other company and the moms get a chance to chat. So far our walks have been spontaneous. Perhaps we will schedule them some time in the future.

I have been unsuccessful with getting to bed earlier most nights. I don’t understand why I’m not getting to bed since I am so tired at the end of the day. I suppose the I want to feel like I am a grown up. I have to get to bed earlier this coming week!

My new goal is to stop snacking at night. If anyone has a good suggestion for how to avoid late night munching, I would love to hear it. I need all the help I can get!

Photo courtesy of Tom@HK

Out project To Do list keeps getting longer. Do you have this problem in your home? I can’t seem to keep up with the day to day things. Then we add on a few things and the whole system goes out of whack.

Currently, we have seeds to plant and a garden bed to prepare. We have a homeschooling curriculum that I have to organize and read. Plus we have the remnants of the Tinker Bell party to clean up. Now we have added the wonderful new project of assembling a table for the kids. Will we ever finish all of these projects?

Almost everything on our To Do list is related to homeschooling , so I am hopeful that we can work together to get things taken care of for the kids’ sake. It looks like our next few weekends will be filled with school preparations. I suppose I can look at it as a learning experience for the kids! We can even consider it family time.

How do you keep up with the TO Do list?

Photo courtesy of koka_sexton

I wonder if you and your husband have experienced this same scenario. Picture this.

It’s late at night. We are both tired. We are both snuggled comfortably in our bed. Then we hear a little one cry and call for Mommy. (They always call for Mommy, don’t they?) There is a moment of silence in which you both pretend to be sleeping. The crying continues. Without opening my eyes, I beg for E to go take care of the problem. He reluctantly gets up to see what is the matter. He stumbles through a conversation with the little one, and puts her back to bed. The screaming protest begins. E shuts the door and returns to bed. The screaming continues, so I send him back – a few times. Finally, I give in and get up to deal with the little one. The little one settles down for a few more hours, and mom and dad try to go back to sleep.

The next day we are all exhausted. Is there a better way?

Photo by bardgabbard

We were stranded today because Daddy took the 4-wheel drive car to work. It snowed last night. Then all day we had freezing rain. It turned out to be a good thing, though.

Today the girls and I stayed in our pj’s all day. I cleaned up the house, and they played. They were WONDERFUL all day long. They even helped me do some cleaning. Their new job is scrubbing the kitchen floor!

Here are a couple of things to note about today:

~C4 was completely under control today. I was able to leave the room for extended periods of time and not worry about anyone’s safety. What a blessing and what progress!

~I was able to clean up after the Christmas craziness!

~I got a TON of work done for my upcoming workshop. I am getting very excited about that.

~The girls are getting back on track with their routine. They both napped today and went right to bed at the usual time.

~We somehow did school work and devotions today.

What an amazing day! Thank you, Jesus! Someone must be praying for me and my family.

Photo by re-ality

A major struggle for me is to keep myself and my family organized. I seem to have a terrible memory and have to write EVERYTHING down in order to remember anything. I have been diligent about keeping a calendar with all of our appointments, social events, and the like. E adds his information to it, too. I also depend on routine because that means that I don’t have to think about quite so many things. I seem to run on autopilot, which makes me more efficient with the mundane things that need to get done when you are living as a mom.

I am still running into trouble when there is a change in the schedule, though. This is particularly troublesome with our Occupational Therapy appointments. The schedule has changed with the holidays, and now I have missed two appointments. Technically that means that we should lose our slot, but the office manager showed me grace and allowed us to keep our space. Since it took 6 months to get into this OT facility for C4’s SI therapy, I cannot afford to lose our space!

I am appealing to all of those organized and seasoned moms. How do you keep it all together? I am barely keeping my head in the game, and when life throws me a curve ball, I get lost. I would love advice on how to be more organized.

Praise God for a good bedtime tonight! After nearly a week of disastrous bedtimes, my little ones were so overtired. We spent the afternoon and evening at a friend’s house. The kids all played outside for 3 hours, and we even had dinner outside. They all played so nicely together, so it was a great break for the mommies.

When we arrived home, the crying began. I decided that we were doing things differently tonight since bedtime for the last week or so has been so awful.

• I let the kids sleep in the same bed for one thing. They both seem genuinely afraid otherwise.
• We also skipped most of our usual routine to shorten the time it took to get through it.
• We prayed that God would help C4 to feel safe and to have good thoughts.
• I recited a couple of memory verses quietly after we prayed.
• C4 has sensory processing disorder, and deep pressure is a calming activity. Basically, I used the stuffed animals (lovies) and squeezed them around C4. Historically, this has not been effective, but when you are desperate, you try anything. What do you know – it worked! I applied deep pressure until both of the kids were asleep.
• While applying deep pressure, I quietly sang some of our favorite songs.

It took roughly 15-20 minutes for both kids to fall asleep. I know that keeping routines is important to kids with SPD, but I think now we are changing the routine based on bedtime tonight.