Let’s hit the easy stuff first, shall we?
Thank you for all your sweet comments on my new profile pic. It’s nice to not be sporting an 8 months pregnant picture any longer. Whew, that’s a lot of weight I shed in just one photo session! *hehe* The photo-taking magician is my friend Melissa Stover at A Familiar Path. Go visit her, you’ll feel so at home over there.
Mandy ~ “My question is . . . these chocolate chips you so love, are they milk or semi-sweet?”
~Mandy: Either. Both! I grew up with only semi-sweet (was that a time period thing or a my family thing?) and now use almost exclusively milk. However, I’ve recently discovered dark chocolate is so mahvelous!! Eating them is my little secret, I only eat them after the kids are in bed – I don’t wanna have to share! And I love eating them (instead of Kisses or other candy bars) because it feels like I’m being much less naughty by eating those teeny tiny little things. When, in reality, I can polish off half a bag way too quickly.
~Mandy: Either. Both! I grew up with only semi-sweet (was that a time period thing or a my family thing?) and now use almost exclusively milk. However, I’ve recently discovered dark chocolate is so mahvelous!! Eating them is my little secret, I only eat them after the kids are in bed – I don’t wanna have to share! And I love eating them (instead of Kisses or other candy bars) because it feels like I’m being much less naughty by eating those teeny tiny little things. When, in reality, I can polish off half a bag way too quickly.
Brenda ~ “What I want to know is….how do you get something done that requires you to concentrate? Like…pay bills? Or write an e-mail, or cook supper?”
~Brenda: I have no idea. That’s good, right? Most of the time I feel like I have absolutely no brain whatsoever. And trying to make it work, makes me nutty. I work on auto pilot most of the time – muscle memory – I can make coffee while still fast asleep, I’m sure of it. I don’t pay bills all at once, I run to the water department when they’re going to shut me off, remember! Emailing and writing, especially the heavy duty stuff is written at night. Or while the kids are watching a movie. And in chunks. I do most everything in segments. When I write anything at night, most of the time I leave it in draft until morning so that I can look back over it and ask myself “Do I really want to say that now that the sun’s shining? Did that make sense that way? Was I considerate? Was it even coherent?” New recipes from the computer are the hardest – I don’t have a working computer so I literally run back and forth and have to repeat the measurement over and over – sometimes checking the same ingredient 5 times. I wish I was kidding. Now, I’ve recruited the 8 year old to help read it to me, so there’s much less running involved in cooking. But the one that sends me over the crazy ledge is grocery shopping. I take all the kids. Every time. And usually alone (sometimes Matt comes, but mostly I go it solo). I have a plan. I pray a lot. I only go to the stores I know like the back of my hand (muscle memory pays off!)
~Brenda: I have no idea. That’s good, right? Most of the time I feel like I have absolutely no brain whatsoever. And trying to make it work, makes me nutty. I work on auto pilot most of the time – muscle memory – I can make coffee while still fast asleep, I’m sure of it. I don’t pay bills all at once, I run to the water department when they’re going to shut me off, remember! Emailing and writing, especially the heavy duty stuff is written at night. Or while the kids are watching a movie. And in chunks. I do most everything in segments. When I write anything at night, most of the time I leave it in draft until morning so that I can look back over it and ask myself “Do I really want to say that now that the sun’s shining? Did that make sense that way? Was I considerate? Was it even coherent?” New recipes from the computer are the hardest – I don’t have a working computer so I literally run back and forth and have to repeat the measurement over and over – sometimes checking the same ingredient 5 times. I wish I was kidding. Now, I’ve recruited the 8 year old to help read it to me, so there’s much less running involved in cooking. But the one that sends me over the crazy ledge is grocery shopping. I take all the kids. Every time. And usually alone (sometimes Matt comes, but mostly I go it solo). I have a plan. I pray a lot. I only go to the stores I know like the back of my hand (muscle memory pays off!)
So to sum that up, I talk out loud to myself, repeatedly, I get the help of my many busy little people “Hey, tell Mama in a minute ‘chicken soup’ and you, child, yes, you, you tell Mama ‘bread’ don’t let Mama leave the store without bread.” I also find myself saying much too often, “What was I saying?” Oh, and I do what I know.
Diane ~ “I’m fairly new to your site……so I apologize in advance if you’ve talked about this elsewhere. My question might seem a little silly, but – I’m going to ask anyway! How do you keep your little boys busy? We have a girl and four boys (ages 11 mo. to 9 yrs.) and I’m constantly trying to come up with ideas to keep my boys from boredom. I hear all the time from them, “What can I do?” That question usually comes after schoolwork and after chores are done, and after they’ve played outside, played inside, etc. I just don’t have enough “constructive” stuff for them to do. So then I’m constantly being asked, “Can I watch TV?” Any thoughts or ideas?!!!”
~I love that Stacey jumped right in to help out, because that’s WAY more than you were going to get from me. I hear ya, girl. I don’t do nearly enough. And I love Stacey’s ideas (further, I’m sure my children will love them even more!). I have the same thing over here. My only move so far is to keep them moving from one thing to another. We eat, do schoolwork, eat, play outside, have read aloud time, rest time, tv time, snack time, chores, play outside time, eat some more. It’s a constantly rotating schedule. Part of me starts feeling bad about not having enough for them to do and then I think, you know, get an imagination. If they insist on complaining after I have suggested many varied “legos? color? write? dress up? ” I fall back to the “I can give you some work to do.” And they scatter to the wind!
~I love that Stacey jumped right in to help out, because that’s WAY more than you were going to get from me. I hear ya, girl. I don’t do nearly enough. And I love Stacey’s ideas (further, I’m sure my children will love them even more!). I have the same thing over here. My only move so far is to keep them moving from one thing to another. We eat, do schoolwork, eat, play outside, have read aloud time, rest time, tv time, snack time, chores, play outside time, eat some more. It’s a constantly rotating schedule. Part of me starts feeling bad about not having enough for them to do and then I think, you know, get an imagination. If they insist on complaining after I have suggested many varied “legos? color? write? dress up? ” I fall back to the “I can give you some work to do.” And they scatter to the wind!
**How about one more and we’ll save the rest for next time? Who knew y’all’d step up and keep the nobody-reads-this, paranoia-induced-candy-eating at bay? 
Kathi ~ ? – do you feel the need to get away from your kids much, because I don’t…and it makes me feel weird…because our house is as crazy as yours, and I’m fine. P.S. Sam’s sells REALLY BIG bags of chocolate chips. I must ban them. We made 1, as in UNO, batch of choco chip pancakes with this last one…and ate the rest straight from the bag…I say “we”, but it was mostly me.
~No. I don’t. And I used to feel weird about it too, not so much anymore. It’s just who we are. As Melissa (same friend who did my pics) said when asked why she was taking all her kids on a cruise with her and her husband, “I like my kids.” I did at first, want to get away from them – when my first was about 21 months and my second was a couple of months old. Or at least I thought I did. But then I would leave them, feel miserable the whole time, and vow to not do it again. It was never the big payoff everyone promised it would be. When I was losing my mind with 2 little ones, what I thought would fix it (a trip away) never did – because it wasn’t about my circumstances, it was about my mindset. God was working on my selfishness. Once I realized that, I was much happier. And, Kathi, don’t tell me things like that about the chocolate chips!! We’ve started hitting Sam’s each payday – that’s all I need is a BIGGER bag!!! (Did you keep it in the baking cabinet and keep telling yourself “just a couple and then I’m going to save the rest for cookies” and then eventually just give in and sit down on the couch with the whole thing? Or is that just me?!)
~No. I don’t. And I used to feel weird about it too, not so much anymore. It’s just who we are. As Melissa (same friend who did my pics) said when asked why she was taking all her kids on a cruise with her and her husband, “I like my kids.” I did at first, want to get away from them – when my first was about 21 months and my second was a couple of months old. Or at least I thought I did. But then I would leave them, feel miserable the whole time, and vow to not do it again. It was never the big payoff everyone promised it would be. When I was losing my mind with 2 little ones, what I thought would fix it (a trip away) never did – because it wasn’t about my circumstances, it was about my mindset. God was working on my selfishness. Once I realized that, I was much happier. And, Kathi, don’t tell me things like that about the chocolate chips!! We’ve started hitting Sam’s each payday – that’s all I need is a BIGGER bag!!! (Did you keep it in the baking cabinet and keep telling yourself “just a couple and then I’m going to save the rest for cookies” and then eventually just give in and sit down on the couch with the whole thing? Or is that just me?!)
**Phyllis, it’s good to know I’m not alone! Tammy, you’re such a wealth of encouragement – thank you so much! Jules, too much to say on the homeschooling curriculum this post – next time!! And Stacey, I’ve been thinking about needing to let you all know how I’m doing after my slump and I haven’t done it yet. Definitely coming up – so much to say to all your questions. Just know, in the meantime, that God is so good and my heart IS healed!!
If you missed the first round of questions, but have some of your own, please drop me a comment - I would LOVE to answer them. And upcoming, I have questions of my own about how you clean bathrooms - get ready! I love y’all, have I told you that lately?
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