What keeps me sane...

I've am mostly crazy, but there are a few things that I do that keep me from going crazy.

I have something that I do Monday thru Friday so I don't get overwhelmed with housework. Monday is laundry. Tuesday is bathrooms. Wednesday is vacuuming the upstairs. (I have carpet on the main level including the dining room so I vacuum that level about every other day.) Thursday is meal planning day. I plan lunches and dinners for two weeks at a time. It really helps me to not go crazy trying to figure out every night what to make. Friday is laundry again and budgeting. If I don't get one done on that day, I try not to sweat it and sometimes when I am feeling extra ambitious I do the next day's thing so I have less to do later.

Another thing that keeps me sane is Quiet Time. My mother-in-law told me about how she would have all of the kids stay in their room for a certain amount of time every day even if they didn't nap anymore. When we started this, the boys would fight me about it, but now that we've been doing it for a while it's no big deal. After lunch, every day (well, weekday) we go to their room and read until Grant falls asleep. After that I leave for some silence and the big boys stay in there for just a few minutes. I used to read to the boys for up to 30 mintues, which was great but now Cleod likes to read so I sometimes get a little nap too. I love Quiet Time!

Job time! The boys have to do a certain amount of jobs for things like TV, computer or treats. It usually works out great because they help clean up the house and then they have a break on the computer or TV and I have a break to do some extra cleaning or reading.

Also, I rinse my dishes after almost every meal and usually load them into the dishwasher right away. I LOVE an empty sink, but I will even deal with a sink of rinsed dishes. I have trained my children to put their dirty dishes in the right side only so the rinsed and unrinsed dishes don't mix. (Wow, I sound a little crazy, don't I?)

Bedtime rountine: Baths done by 7:30pm. Read scriptures, brush teeth, say prayers and let the boys read in bed until about 8pm. Then, lights out! (OK, I am a lot more flexible about the timing than it sounds, but I try.) I think that when the time changes next week I will start 30 minutes earlier. We'll see.

I have alarms on my phone for everything: pick Cleod up, start making dinner, boy's bedtime and even my bedtime, although I usually ignore that one. Silas hates that my phone is ringing all the time, but it helps me a lot.

Date night! We try to trade with our friends, Brett and Deruchette so that every other week we get to go out without paying a babysitter. I love this because we can go to the temple and not have to pay a babysitter a fortune. The last date we had, we each went and got the food we wanted (which were from different places) and came home and ate while watching a movie from Redbox. It was awesome.

I also plan my meals for at least two weeks at a time. I love looking at my list in the afternoon and knowing exactly what to make that night.

Anyway, these are some of my crazy quirks that help me to feel not-so-crazy.

What's a nerd?

Cleod: Mom, what's a nerd again?
Mom: (thinking of what to say)
Cleod: Someone who's smart?
Mom: Yeah.
Cleod: And someone who reads a lot?
Mom: Sure.
Cleod: (thinking for a second, and then smiles) I'm a nerd!

My reader

Cleod will be 6 in a little over a month. He's been reading for about a year now. Just before his 5th birthday he became really interested in reading. He was sounding out words and asking me what things said. It just exploded from there. He seriously has a gift for reading, which I have told him several times. The last few months he has been reading the Magic Tree House books, some really, cute, little chapter books. Today he finished number 6, which is rated at a second grade level of reading. He also has been reading his own verse at scripture time every night us for several months now.

I'm not trying to brag. Like I said, he has a gift. But I know that there were a few things that we did to help him.

NUMBER 1 - We have had tons of book since Cleod was a baby. I get books a thrift stores mostly, so they are cheap and I don't stress out about them much. Also, we get them as gifts a lot too, especially from my mom because she's obsessed with kids books like me.

Here's Cleod "reading," January 2006 at 14 months.


NUMBER 2 - We take books wherever we go!

Cleod, 18 months old in California.


NUMBER 3 - When I see that the kids are interested in a book or an author, I buy them or check them out. For example, when Cleod started showing interest, I checked out a Dick and Jane book from the library. Because it repeats so many of the same words over and over, he felt confident and loved to read them. Also, the Mo Willems, Elephant and Piggie books are so adorable and Cleod reads them with such emotion, it's hilarious. (Cleod is reading a Pigeon book in the first photo...also a Mo Willems series.)

Here he is (3 1/2) reading a "Who's Your Hero? Book of Mormon Stories Applied to You" book. THEY ARE AWESOME!


NUMBER 4 - Library time!

NUMBER 5 - Reading to the boys at night and at nap time.

NUMBER 6 - Reading in front of the kids so they know you love it too.

I could probably go on forever, and these are totally basic things, but I think they work. I will have to see how the other boys do. They all love books so I think we are going to be a family of nerdy readers, but that's fine with me.