Typical Miscellany & Minor Matters

So the home computer is interminably slow this afternoon, and I am thumb-typing this on the iPod touch Dan gave me for my birthday. This is quite challenging, especially as I try to get my thoughts down quickly before they disappear. (note: I gave this up after a few paragraphs and restarted the laptop, which M-girl had apparently been playing with).

My birthday and M-girl's were both this week, in addition to Dr. O's spring break and Ash Wednesday. We took the kids to the Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner and brought a king cake that I made using dough from allrecipes.com's Clone of a Cinnabon recipe, and it turned out great!

We are heading to PA for a quick overnight trip tomorrow to celebrate a number of family birthdays on Dr. O's side, and it will be a great visit with cousins! Next week the kids and I will go to Indiana to visit with some friends and family as well. The kids are especially excited about going to "Chunky Jesus", which is kinda sacrilegious but is how Aidan pronounced "Chuck E. Cheese's" for a very long time.

So today is Weekly Home Blessing, which is Flylady.net speak for 7 10-minute chores to maintain a home's basic cleanliness. I typically do mine on Thursday in preparation for the weekend and occasionally on Mondays to dig us out of the mess created by our weekend revelries. The chores are to get rid of surface clutter (I put mine in bags as I go and then put the stuff where it belongs at the end), change sheets, empty all trash, polish the worst windows and mirrors, dust, vacuum, and mop. I've been doing it for over a year, and it has made a huge difference here. The daily stuff includes wiping down sinks and toilets, making beds, and anything else that gets gross regularly enough to warrant daily attention. I like a streamlined plan that reminds me to do the important stuff on a schedule so that I'm not wandering around not sure what to do. I can't adhere to it strictly because I have small children and a dog, so a perfect house is a lost cause.

It's been pretty darn glamorous around here. After my hot date to Olive Garden yesterday where I ate entirely too much smoked mozzarella fonduta (totally worth it!) I came home and tried to get M-girl down for a nap and to get laundry caught up. I utterly failed at both attempts, but I managed to put her down again just before Dr. O brought the Jedis home. Then he caught us up on laundry with tremendous dedication and energy, plus guiding kids through homework, doing the dishes, and making some excellent Spicy Black Bean Burgers.

We managed to get the kids through a somber Ash Wednesday service, although I had to "tomato stake" A-man. For those of you unfamiliar with this term in a child-rearing context, it means to keep the child very close to the parent, often with constant physical touch, in order to monitor behavior and prevent anything really ugly from happening. I had to do more of that than usual with A-man last night! He was in rare form, and I decided to immediately "tomato stake" that kid by holding his 5-year-old lanky body very closely to me, rocking him on my lap and stroking his head. I carried him when we went forward for the imposition of ashes. I intertwined my arm with his during Communion. And it mostly worked. No big meltdowns at church, although he did quietly sob for a minute or two. He was overtired, as were his siblings. And so were his parents, to tell the truth.

My recent attempt to tweak the bedtime and morning routines has been very effective, except for last night when I fell asleep before I could go upstairs to sit with them. There was some naughtiness afoot, and both have lost their screentime until they help me get the upstairs bedrooms clean enough to be ready for vacuuming and get the big basket of kid laundry put away. They do this a lot right before Weekly Home Blessing, and I'm secretly happy to have screentime to hold over their heads until they are helpful and have good attitudes. Good opportunity to teach them hard work and self-control!

So today's tasks have involved lots of wiping surfaces, decluttering, and well, shaving the dog. She was overdue for a trim, and I thought she had fleas. I washed all her bedding today, shaved her, and bathed her so that I could put her flea prevention/killer on. I want it to be on her while we're gone so that there's less opportunity for the kids to come in contact with the medication. She apparently doesn't have any fleas yet, but the season is upon us anyway. I also tried to give her her heartworm and other medicine ground into a powder and then mixed with gravy. No dice. She would not eat it for anything! For a dumb dog, she can be surprisingly astute about my trying to hide meds. Finally, I put some broth in the dish and crushed up some crackers into it. People food did the trick. She's at my feet right now, but after the drugging, shaving, and bathing stunt I pulled today, it'll be a while before she trusts me!

M-girl's stunt of the week is to destroy her room during nap time. Her other defense/means of protest regarding naps is to wait until that time to poop in her diaper. Both are quite effective at keeping her awake and occupied during a nap time that both of us need very much. She's never been able to go to sleep with anyone else in the room, even from shortly after her birth, so sitting in the room until she drifts off isn't an option like it is for the Jedis. The difficulties are that she can get out of bed and explore her room now (which is a good thing from a development standpoint), and she is getting to an age at which many children do start to give up naps. However, she does not sleep enough night-time hours to make up for giving up a nap, and more night-time sleep could be difficult with the rest of the house up and about in the morning. If I let her up after a long time spent destroying her room, she's overly tired and ready to destroy other rooms in frustration. This typically happens closer to the time I need to go a few blocks away and pick up the Jedis from their bus stop. M-girl thinks: "Checkmate, Momma!"

Yes, I am posting this to Facebook, but I don't have to get onto the site to share my blog posts. I know a few people who have O'H-kid withdrawal, so here's a fix!