New purpose?

I hear it's good to journal. I honestly am very bad at writing. I can't tell a story really, but I can make bullet points! So with that effort, I will try to journal as much as possible our days.
You see, even though I work, I get to be home when my kids come home from school. I am very VERY lucky in that regard. Earning money, while helping my kids be kids after school - SCORE!

So with that spirit, I will share what I experience every day with my kiddos. They are growing up too fast. I'm so happy they are growing healthy and blossoming into amazing people. But I know this is going fast and I need to slow down somehow. Maybe by recapping our days right now here at home, it will give me an even deeper appreciation of their childhood and perhaps a look back for them (the kids) to go back and remember our times together.
Like I mentioned above, I'm not a great writer, so kids, bear with me :)

Monday 2/4
*Jackie came home announcing she would be reading the first reading at mass on Wednesday! Wonderful news, as I love the fact they get to be involved in church at such a young age (Jackie you are ALMOST 11 years old my sweetie, and I'm so happy for you! I promise to be at mass on Wednesday!)
*Jackie ALSO has to present her Desert Biome project to her class on Wednesday... double opportunity to get in front of people and talk. I hope you are far more comfortable doing it than I was at your age. Your daddy is the expert at presenting in front of people and so am I (now) but it still gives me butterflies in my stomach. You practiced in front of daddy and me, and our only feedback was to speak LOUDER :) You are going to do great.
*Julien, you are VERY interested in reading Harry Potter(the first book) and are doing a wonderful job. At 7 years old I find that quite an amazing challenge!!

*I can't believe I have to say more than once (almost every night) KIDS, put the books away, time for bed. So, so thankful you guys like to read, but when it's time to rest for the day, it's time to rest.
* I still need to find a fiction book to read. I keep looking but get turned off by Amazon reviews. I really should just pick something and go with it!!
*Jackie - your tap dancing is awesome! You are learning your dance routine for your presentation in the spring and are doing amazing. I honestly think you are a natural at tap!

Tuesday 2/5
*Julien - you my boy have decided to create a comic strip! You worked on it quite a bit on Tuesday and it's all about a napkin who didn't know it was a napkin. You enlisted my help to assist you in spelling, but the drawings and original idea comes from you. Great job and I can't wait to see your finished project!!
*I finally made beef stew - a family favorite. But Julien dislikes carrots (and I LOVE Carrots!) so I had to eat the leftover carrots you wouldn't eat my boy.
*Jackie announced that we should go to NYC and go to FAO Schwartz and to the Harry Potter section. I suppose to buy a wand, spell book and the likes?

*I think you guys are in a Harry Potter trend. You like to quote lines from the HP movies... and are doing a pretty good job with that English accent!!
*Julien, I have a really hard time with you sometimes. You don't listen to me. And I think your teacher is also having a hard time with that. Is it because you just HAVE to do what you want to do? Or is it defiance? I really hope it's the former.
*It is COLD outside! Boy, I have to double up on my layers to just pick you guys up! Brrrr!!!
*We are still talking about our ski adventure and are hoping to get out to the slopes soon!! Julien and Daddy snowboarded and Jackie and me did some skiing! That was the first time for all of us and we all had a blast!

I found this youtube video on an amazing story (which I must have missed when it came out originally). Watch it and if you ever followed the 1996 Olympics (which I did and still remember very well) you'll love it even more!

Stay warm! Wear your hats and mittens/gloves!!

My day these days

For posterity purposes, I would like to keep track of my schedule these days. This is what our Tuesday's look like and note that I am rounding times here to keep things simple.

6:00 AM - alarm goes off and I wake up to Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne's voices! Listen for a bit until I hit snooze for about 15 minutes. 

6:15 AM - really wake up! By now my daughter is already awake. Husband may or may not wake up, depending on whether he had coffee the day before. 

6:20 AM - attempt to wake up my son. This goes smoothly whether or not he went to bed before 9 PM the night before. If anytime after then it could be quite the task to wake this boy!

Go downstairs and make breakfast. Usually some sort of carb (pound cake, waffles, pancakes) and some fruit (banana, blueberries, strawberries or grapes)

6:45 AM - Settle the kids with breakfast and start making lunches. For now we are packing for both of them but soon enough we'll let them buy from the school cafeteria. 

7:00 AM - Start alerting kids that is time to go upstairs and start getting dressed and all the morning routine tasks. 

7:10 AM - I myself get upstairs and start my shower and get ready for work. This usually is early depending on whether my DH does breakfast or if I do it. 

7:30 AM - Kids are ready to go to school and in the car with lunches, snacks (my son takes a snack on top of his lunch) and backpacks ready to go. 

7:50 AM - Kids are dropped off at their school and kisses and hugs are blown. Off to work I go. 

8:10 AM - I arrive at work and settle in for a full day. 

Skip now to the end of the day!!

5:00 PM  - Leave work and usually my dear husband picks up the kids and are either on the way or already at home. 

5:10 PM - Arrive at home and daughter and husband are getting ready to go to soccer practice (it starts at 5:30 PM). I stay home with my son to start dinner. 

Dinner was lamb chops and broiled potatoes. I marinated the lamb chops and my husband is going to grill them when he gets home from practice YUM! This was btw our daughter's request for dinner :)

While the potatoes are cooking, my son practices piano (and that means that I have to sit down with him for him to practice). Practicing piano with him usually means he is right and I am wrong and at the end of practice I've convinced him that mom is right (as any woman always is) Always looking for opportunities to educate my children !

In the mean time I also put one load of laundry (that is the ONLY way I can keep up with it!)

6:20 PM - Settle my son with a light snack (a yogurt) and get him to practice writing his name, numbers and phone number. He's getting quite good at it too!!

6:30 PM - my son and I settle to play a board game. We play until the rest of the fam comes home. 

7:00 PM - dinner is ready and on the table!!

7:45 PM - done with dinner and now my daughter and husband go finish whatever homework she needs to finish, while I give my son a bath. 

8:30 PM - son goes down to bed! Daughter may still be doing homework or she is taking a shower by now. 

9:00 PM - Daughter goes down to bed and parents are exhausted! We get to do it all over again tomorrow!!

These days of waking up this early have been a bit harder on us (well me really!) but I am amazed at how much we get done and how I LOVE mornings!! It's a new schedule and it is an adjustment for all of us!

More later!

It has been a sloowwww week....

Not sure why I feel like that. I have had trouble sleeping yet not motivated to do much after the kids are in bed. Anyway - work is the same (work!). I am helping a friend of mine with getting a job at Sterling! I hope it works out as I would love to see her again on a regular basis!

This week was my favorite show's season finale! Lost!! Boy oh boy - what a finale! I won't say anything since this is not a Lost forum and don't want to spoil it. But it was really insightful, so much so that I had to watch it one more time before I went to bed and really thoroughly enjoyed it :) Great show, great writing and great setting! I highly recommend it!

Also, things are winding down! Yay - soccer is over here this week. Ballet will be over in about 2 weeks and piano will continue for Jackie but other than that we will have our evenings off again! (yay) Which makes it a lot of fun for the kids as we will take long bike rides and just enjoy the wonderful summer days!

This weekend promises the last soccer game, lunch with our wonderful friends the Lebolds and the circus on Saturday afternoon! Yay!

Julien has not been doing the best at school, he's been sent to the director's office about 3 times this week (which is not a good thing as he can get defiant!) That has been really frustrating as he seems to know that he does something wrong, but yet it's almost like he does on purpose to be defiant!!! But today, after we had a talk, we went outside and drew on our driveway(with chalk!) and played with bubbles. Then we took a long bike ride and stopped at our neighborhood park. After that we came home just as Jackie and Chris were coming home too (piano and ballet) and Julien turned around and said - mommy that was a fun ride!! Awwwww my son/baby/cutie petuties ... I just enjoyed that glance he gave followed by the hug and kiss and I thought to myself, right NOW I'm the luckiest person on this earth!!

Oh what a day ... running around!

Thursdays are just CRAZY!! Crazy I say!! I run out of work to get Jackie (whom my wonderful neighbor Irma had her) and got her (got to eat a bit of Irma's cooking ... fantastic may I say!) then off to piano. Bur FIRST ... Julien needed to be picked up.. YIKES. It is 5:45 PM, piano class is at 6 and still I needed to get Julien. Somehow I made it without any accidents (Phew) I had to slow down a bit though when Julien joyfully says "I like going fast mommy" Hmmm slow down girlfriend! So I did.

Piano was good (I think) then to ballet where by DH met us with dinner (Yay!) we hogged a corner of the ballet studio and plopped ourselves down for dinner without Jackie who was dancing. Jackie is doing great with her practice! She will be dancing to - Diamonds are a Girls Best Friends - I think sang by Marilyn Monroe. I need to get her outfit fitted here soon to see if she needs any alterations. Her show is over Memorial Day weekend.

Then Chris left with Julien mid ballet class and Jackie and I made it to Kroger for a quick run (a quick run nowadays runs me $110.00!!!) Incredible. But we got at least breakfast stuff which we needed. Then came home and did a whole kitchen cleanup! We have new countertops(granite) which I kept hearing how we can't hurt granite from the vendor. Well ... you can't hurt it but you CAN fade it! We had left an aluminum pan sitting overnight (which may have had a bit of moisture) and left a BIG faded circle. It looks weird. I hope it just dries away.

Now I'm looking at our calendar and somehow we are fitting in Yoga! I'm so excited, I haven't been to yoga in Ages! It's nice to pair up with someone and go - my yogi friend (Jen) and I will be comparing places to do Yoga. One time we'll go to my studio of preference (Yoga on High) and another day we will go to her studio of preference (Goodbodies). We shall see. Her studio already gets props though since it's way closer than YOH.
Today when I was walking into the office, (btw our campus is fantastically landscaped!) it looked like a scene out of a meadow! Everything looked sharp and crisp, odd being that it was foggy. I took my time walking in, since I was enjoying the morning smell, the morning air and the morning newness! LOVE IT!

I enjoyed my day today because of that morning walk (from the parking lot to the building) was fantastic! I also enjoy listening Jackie play piano - which she amazes me every time I hear her! Also seeing Julien all covered in chalk playing outside and those goodnight kisses!

Ok - gonna get a book and fall asleep reading!!! Tonight is - Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Going to start blogging more

We'll see how that one goes! But I think it's good to let it out! Sort of keep a virtual diary plus it's good to put things in perspective, and I tend to do that when I write.

Anyway, so today *Wednesday* was an uneventful day (thank goodness!) Sent the mother's day card to the MIL - signed by Jackie with 4 pics of the kids. (1 per grandparent!) I had also sent my mom her card a while back (since it takes longer for her to get it). I hope they enjoy them as the gmas like to send cards this way! I felt productive regarding keeping up with those responsibilities!

Home life is good. I have made a mental list of things I need to get going here and one of them is to make dinner time easier so we can enjoy our time outside on nicer days. Soooo I ordered Schwans meals! I saw them the other day on the Apprentice and thought to myself ... I can order those and give it a shot! Unfortunately, I had to pay a bit more so they leave them on freezer bags as I can't really guarantee that I will be here for the delivery.

Jackie did not have soccer practice due to the rain (which I'm glad because that's one less possibility of her getting sick). In the meantime, Julien's school just sent a note saying that a lot of people were coming up with Strepp (riiighhhttt late news there as I knew at least of 4 families that had it over the last 3 months!) I don't know about that school sometimes. I can't wait for the summer as we are getting a sitter for the kidos! YAY! We love the girl we are getting - she rocks, she's cool and super sweet with the kids!!

I need to do something about Chris' high blood pressure. Less sodium is the key. But MAN that's hard! A tablespoon of anything has about 500mg of sodium!! What's up with that? And for a low sodium diet they recommend like 2500 mg a day.

I just had the best mango I have had in a long time! It was juicy and ripe and orange! YUM! Enjoying the simpler things in life! A nice ripe mango!

I hope to have a nice evening and enjoy couple time with my hubby as we watch Lost sans commercials (thanks DVR!)