Rough start!

Today wasn't easy. Nicky and I had the hardest time. My girls aren't home so they haven't started the water challenge yet. I savored my last few ounces of juice as long as I could and then moved on to....water, blah. It's just so plain. I've been avoiding it and think I may be a little dehydrated because of it. Nicky is not happy. In my mind, I thought he'd be easy. I give him water all the time. It didn't dawn on me until today that he doesn't actually drink it. He pours it out and plays with it. He also puts it into his mouth so he can spit it on people(nice, huh?). Mack and I have been....disputing(arguing about) him giving Nicky liquids other than water when he wakes at night. I suspect I'm getting less than truthful answers from Mack about what goes in the cup to...keep me quiet(read: shut me up) about the cup. He just wants to go to bed, lol. Mack now works most nights and I have more control over his cup so things will change! We had a HUGE battle tonight over water in his cup. He wanted 'oakmill' which is soy milk in Nicky speak. I told him it was all gone and gave him water. He finally settled when I gave him *my* water. His wasn't good enough some how. So far so good I guess. I'm already struggling and I'm not one day into it. I swear, I have no will power.

The challenge

I hate water. I will drink it sometimes but normally I get water for the kids and drink juice. I'll even have a soda if juice isn't available. I don't even like soda(with the exception of Blood orange Italian soda, YUM!!) but I prefer that to water. When my older kids were born, they got juice as babies because I actually listened to doctors back then. I had to teach them to like water as toddlers. I decided I didn't want to do that with Nicky so I gave him no juice as a baby but as he got older I gave him sips of mine. Bad choice, he's just as bad as the others were. So, no more juice in our house. I don't want the same thing to happen with Aaron. Nicky has decalcification of his enamel(his enamel didn't form properly while I was pregnant so he has next to none on his teeth)) and we're trying to save his adult teeth by removing as much sugar as possible from his diet. Also, it would save us money. We spend a lot on juice. So, today is our first day. I have a little juice here, I'll finish it but no more is coming into the house. Is it sad that this makes me nervous? lol My mom never pushed or even suggested water. I've never been a water drinker and this isn't my first try at this. It's probably my 25th try over the last few years. I obviously failed before, I'm hoping to have better results this time. So, off we go! Lets hope I beat my previous record at least. I've lasted a whopping 3 days in the past LOL.

Too busy to blog

I've been so busy that I've let my blog fall to the wayside. Aaron is crawling everywhere! It's hard to get anything done with speedy getting into everything. If he were just a few inches taller and a little more steady he'd give Nicky a run for his money. He's finally eating. Butternut squash and zucchini are his current favorites. It's funny how he went from thinking food was gross to scarfing down full bowls in a week's time. He's also taken to crawling around the kitchen floor in search of wayward cereal. I'll have to put the baby gate back up.

I'm really missing summer. It's barely over and I'm so sad it's gone. Today it got dark at 5pm. That is just wrong. There just aren't enough day time hours and it seems to have happened more quickly this year. On the upside we have to Y to help us through this year! In past years we got less active and were stuck inside. This year, we have lots to do. The kids are loving swimming lessons! They are learning so fast. By the end of this class, I'm confident some of them will be able to swim the length of the pool. I'm glad I finally got them in lessons. Having kids that can't swim makes me nervous.

My soap. Oh, how I love my soaps. I have many to make for the holidays. I cut 4 pounds, I'm curing another 4 and I have 8 pounds in molds. I finally got the simple swirl I wanted to try! It looks beautiful and I can't wait until it is cut. I think I'll try the more complicated method tomorrow. I'm no longer as impatient as I was so I think it will go well. My soap will have a new look!

My other ventures are going well. I'm nearly done with the birth class requirement for my doula training. I finished the semester with and A and a B. I'm a bit disappointed about that. I'm sure I'll get over it and will do better this term.

The kids are all stuck to the computer lately. Between Starfall and their math games, they seem to keep pretty busy. Chris is focusing on building. He wants to start making miniature houses(NOT doll houses). He's interested in haunted houses and log cabins. I think the older three will got houses to build for Chrismas. I'm excited to see what they create.

Never as planned

Yesterday was supposed to my clean up day. My house is a HUGE mess and it really needed some attention. I know I wasn't feeling great and the kids had stuffy noses but I was determined! I got my living room exactly how I like it. I cleaned the front closet that is my husband's designated dumping area. I'm not sure how he decided to make that closet his personal black hole. Things do no disappear in there forever, contrary to what he seems to think. That is when I got tired and the cough got worse. I sat down and decided to hang out with the kids. It wasn't all bad. We had a good time. No one even asked about the TV! We played Tangrams and Rush hour. We read books. Chris did some of his co-op assignments. We talked. I don't regret that but I really wanted a nice clean house. Is that too much to ask? I suppose it is. It is driving me crazy. I need to learn to relax more. I know my house will never be as clean as I'd like it to be for many, many years.

Today I'm not even going to try. I'm less well than I was yesterday and the kids...I have no desire to struggle with them in this state. Maybe my husband will help me tomorrow though I expect him to be tired after working almost 30 hours this weekend. Hmmm, I think I'll take a nap and dream of a clean house. That may be as close as I can get.

Following the trend

Since it seems a few people have posts on Obama's recent award, I think I will post too. I found a link a few hours ago on facebook and it seems as if even those who like this man(and I do like him) agree he shouldn't have gotten this award. I don't understand. He has some nice ideas for peace. That is great and I hope they actually lead to peace but no one has ever won this award for ideas that haven't actually made a change. I think he got this award because of who he is, the first black president. Again, I think it is great we have come so far but that has nothing to do with this award. If he keeps getting all this positive attention for being a black president he won't be remembered in history for what he accomplishes. He'll be that black guy who didn't do much but was handed things just for being black. I really hope he makes his term great so he can live up to this award and all the attention he is getting.

Bad word

Did someone say.....nap? I have learned over the past few days that this is a very bad word. Nicky never, ever wants to 'need a nap'. It's perfectly fine to 'want to go to sleep', to 'need some sleep', to 'be tired' or to even get 'put to sleep'. However, he never needs or wants anything to do with a nap. Nicky will actually wake back up to give you a dirty look if you utter any phrase with nap in it. I'm not sure why naps are negative. It reminds me of "Honey, I Blew Up the Baby". Remember that movie? The 20 foot tall toddler would throw a fit at the very mention of the word nap. This must be something that comes in the toddler handbook because I don't think I've ever used this word negatively. Very interesting.

Busy, busy!

I haven't had much down time. I decided to blog at group and had a great something for my blog. I can't remember what that was for the life of me. I should probably get a few more than 6 hours of sleep if I actually intend to use my brain.

We've been so busy! I've been all alone for the last two days and they have actually been pretty productive. I'm not sure what it is about husbands, or my husband, that prevents things from happening when they should and pushes the clock forward so it always seems as if I'm late. We started yesterday with co-op for Chris. Being the completely unorganized mom that I am we went to get lunch so we would have some later. I dropped some off to Chris after his first class. We also got a new puppy for Nicky. After Nicky's car incident I always let him wear puppy when I'm with the kids alone. No way can I chase him, or dive into a busy intersection, while wearing Aaron. Our old puppy had a broken tail(read: leash) so we went to replace him. Now we have two puppies! They are such good friends that they share a tail. Nicky adores them both and I can keep what little sanity I have left.

After we got Chris some lunch and worked out our puppy problems we went to tour the Naperville YMCAs. They are both very nice. I think Kroehler will be most visited by us as it seems the pool at Fry has a serious design flaw. I'm not sure if they know the pool has a window that faces into one of the fitness rooms. Now, if all the visitors had great bodies, no stretch marks, no fat, this would be a wonderful set up. Unfortunately, I have had 6 children and I am not a member of that elite, hot body club. I do not want extra people staring at my fat thank-you-very-much. I really think they should have thought that through. I'm sure those extra few moments of thought would be greatly appreciated by myself and anyone else who isn't currently blessed with a hot bod.

After the Y, we picked Chris up and headed home. I needed down time as I was really tired by then. The moment my butt hit the couch, my husband called to be picked up. Out the door we went! I got him home and remembered all the class work I'd neglected. The end of last week was a disaster that I shall blog about another time. I settled in for a long night of work. Everyone else had a movie night and got to watch the movies I wanted to see. This responsible thing isn't much fun.

Today was just as busy. We got Mack to work and headed back to the Y. Chris got his fit pass and can use all the machines. Not that he does much more than machine hop for fun, it's still nice to have a buddy to exercise with when he feels like it. The Kroehler Y is nice because it's set up in such a way that I can hear Aaron through my work out. I can also look in on my kids from above without them knowing with very little effort. Very nice!

After the Y we headed to group. I got ridiculously lost. I somehow ended up in Bolingbrook while trying to get from Naperville to Plainfeild. I was helped by a helpful, but clueless, 7 11 attenedant who sent me on my way via a street that doesn't exist on the street I was on. My 10 year old, bless his heart, somehow knew the general direction we should go in and saved the day. I called ahead to a friend who confirmed I was heading the right way. We arrived after having driven 1 hour and 15 minutes on a trip that should have taken maybe 30. I should make being lost my hobby. I do it all the time when my husband isn't with me. Not that he doesn't get lost, he is just very good at convincing himself he knew all along when he lucks up on a familiar street.

We also went grocery shopping. I love doing stuff with all the kids by myself. Not sure why, it's pretty difficult and would be much easier if I went alone. It was a decent trip to Meyers. We really went to kill time. It was Meyers or sit in the hot car for an hour and wait for Mack. We arrived to pick him up just in time with good stuff for the next few days and snacks, too! I was on a roll today. I'll just try to forgot how lost I got so I can say it was a perfect day.

I guess that's all. I'm planning a calm day tomorrow. Mack gets off at 1:00 which kills any plans for homeschool group. We'll have to miss apple picking. Hopefully, I can get some stuff done and spend some time reading and cuddling with my 6 favorite people.