Weighing In: Going "Four" It

Every Monday for the last two and a half years I have "started over". I think to myself, This will be the week that I start to lose weight. This will be the week that I make the change. This will be the beginning of the new me. And I always got the same result... I can work out on the treadmill for three days. Or eat the right foods for three days. After three days, I'm done. I get caught up in laundry or paperwork or a TV program or the many, many things that cause stress in my life. I can never get past the three day mark.

I'm trying something different. A "Two Week Total Body Turnaround".

Wait, did I just hear someone chuckle? Only a stupid person would think you can turn obesity around in two weeks.

Trust me, I am not stupid. However, I am counting calories and working out for an hour each night.

Did I say an hour?

Yes, I said an hour.

An entire sixty minutes.

Devoted to myself.

Yes, me.

Super Mommy.

I find it hard to believe, too.

But...

This time. This week. This chance. This begninning. I am going to make it four days. Because I can. Because I have what it takes within me. Because I deserve it.

Weighing In: The Bottom Line

A few nights ago, I was reading books to my children at bedtime. I was laying on my stomach while reading on my daughter's bed. My almost-three year old came up behind me and pushed on my rear end, trying to get me to move over. Suddenly, he started laughing! He kept pushing on my rear, "jiggling" my fat. My other two children started giggling, too. Giggle, jiggle, giggle, jiggle. Then my husband came in, wondering what all the giggling was about... I was mortified.

I don't have a full length mirror in my home so I don't often look at my rear end. Now I'm thinking that I should invest in one. Before the jiggle gets any worse. Before my random eating gets so far gone that my only option is to audition for The Biggest Loser...

The Bottom Line: I need to lose some jiggle! TODAY!

Not Me Monday: Post-Black Friday Edition

If I would have posted a blog on the eve of Thanksgiving, I would not have written about how I was not going to give in to Black Friday shopping with my dear MIL and SIL. And there was no way was I going to feel guilty for even thinking about backing out at the last minute because I was exhausted. I did not complain about it incessantly to my husband before and after said shoppping trip either.

While on this trip, I did not drink four huge cups of coffee and therefore suffer from a caffeine crash later in the day. Not me!

I did not miss the "football" part of the football party that evening. And it was not me who drank a bottle of wine all by herself. It was not me who neither used profanity while in this crazy state, nor forgot a few conversations that evolved over the course of the night. I would not do any of the afore mentioned things at a party that included my child care clients.

And I would not seriously consider therapy after the events of Black Friday, 2009!

The Daycare Diaries: The Routine of Napping

Before I began working as a child care provider, I could not imagine getting two children to nap at the same time, much less eight or ten children. Then I started working at a child care center. Ten or twelve children, ranging in age from 12 months to 3 years, would lay down on their little resting mats and fall asleep! Even on a crazy day, at least half would sleep for a good two hours. Amazing! Then I would be home on my days off, struggling to get my two children (2 1/2 years and 11 months old) to nap, without success.

One of the most important things that I have learned after five years in the child care business is... Keep a routine! When I say "routine", I don't mean that at precisely 12:53pm each and every day at my child care program, we lay down to sleep. It means that each day, we eat our lunch, use the restroom, wash our hands and then lay down for rest time. In that order. Bed time works the same way for my own children. Children love routine! They know what to expect. No surprises.

Of course, I cannot guarentee that they will all sleep every day, or that their naps will last for the same amount of time each day. Hey, I'm not a miracle worker here... but I do have all eight children sleeping right now. And that's routine!

Cluttered Thoughts

You know you've been neglecting your blog when you can't even remember neither the password to log into Blogger, nor which email address you used to create your account!

I think I'm having a mid-middle-thirties crisis here. Or perhaps it is just that we are approaching the holidays and I feel completely unprepared. I feel so unprepared and apathetic that I have been sitting at my computer staring at my homepage, hoping an answer will just appear on my moniter. These are some of the questions running through my head...

What do I put on my childrens' Christmas wish list when they don't need anything and we don't have any more space for things they want?

How am I going to get my holiday baking done when we have plans every weekend from now until 2010?

My house is a cluttered mess! Can I clean it in time for the holidays?

Why am I blogging when I should be de-cluttering?