OPAM

One project a month. I have seen that on a couple of blogs and think it is a great idea. I have been struggling to keep my house in order. I get the basic cleaning, laundry, picking up toys kind of thing done. But when it comes to the deep cleaning and organizing, I tend to be hit or miss. So my new goal. Take one room a month, (pair a bedroom and a bathroom since the bathrooms are easy organizing wise) and go from top to bottom. Including, steam cleaning carpets, washing baseboards, reorganizing and cleaning out closets. It seems a little less overwhelming than trying to do it all at once. Maybe once I get through round one, it will be easier to keep up on it. We will see. I will keep you posted.
Husband requested our bedroom be the first room. So along with our bathroom that is the goal. If anyone has any good ideas for cleaning shower doors, I would greatly appreciate it. I just cannot get the soap scum off, not to mention the yucky stuff on the bottom. I might just have to buy a new one and start over. :-)

When did my 5 year old son become a teenager?

Last night I was telling son to get ready for bed. He takes a loooong time to get ready for bed. I usually have to threaten and give him a countdown, etc. So, last night I was telling him to brush his teeth, get his jammies instead of lying on the floor naked after his bath. He said to me "whatever". Whatever! When did he learn that word and how to use it properly in a disrespectful, dismissing way. He said it just like a teenager would.
Husband wasn't surprised that he has picked up attitudes from daycare. But I was. Of course, after his time out, he couldn't even remember what he had said. So I guess there still is some innocence left in him. It's a good thing we still have a few years before he actually is a teenager. I feel I am barely surviving this stage.

Men are from Mars...

I will start by saying I have a pretty great husband. He stays home one day a week with the kids, he helps with laundry and picking up and even cooking occasionally. However, sometimes he just doesn't get it. Granted, I am only home with the kids by myself 2 days a week. I work 3. I need that balance for my mental health. On weekends, we generally do things as a family or husband and I might do something while the kids are with grandma or nana. Until recently that is. Husband and friend bought a canoe together. Which is great. I want him to have hobbies and to do things with friends, that is not a big deal. He also has a Bible study 2 saturday mornings a month. Again, I want him to study the Bible with other men. When he doesn't canoe, he plays basketball in the morning with his friend (he needs to exercise) Here is my problem. In the last 3 weeks, he has been gone a lot. On Fourth of July, he was gone several hours playing basketball with said friend and installing an air conditioner in another friends apartment. Then saturday he had Bible study and he had also talked about going canoeing with his friend. It is great that he has stuff to do, but what am I doing while he is out having fun? I am home, with the kids. Doing the same thing I do during the week. Yes, I could take them somewhere but honestly it is a lot of work taking my three kids somewhere with just me. Or even with a friend. So he wouldn't go canoeing with his friend b/c I made him feel guilty about it and we decided to go to a lake and go canoeing as a family. Well, our youngest daughter got car sick on the way there and threw up everywhere so we had to turn around and go home. So that outing failed miserably.
Then last weekend, I finally convinced him to go canoeing and he did but again was gone for half a saturday. This weekend. He had to work for a few hours today. I knew that. What I didn't remember is that he had Bible study this morning (2 hours), then he has to drive to Salem and work (5 hours) plus we are adding his mom to our cell phone service so he decided to leave early and do that before working since he would be in Salem already. So again, here I am on a saturday with the kids feeling stuck. Here is the kicker. When I try to explain to him how I am feeling. What does he say? He says "it sounds to me like you resent your life". Aaagh. Now as a women reading this, is that what you heard? Because if it is, let me know. That is not at all whatI was implying. I love my kids. They are my life. I cannot imagine not having them. They melt my heart all the time. But I need a break sometimes too. How hard is it to understand that? He just doesn't get it.
The good news, my mom is coming to save me and let me go off by myself for a little while to recharge. Thank goodness for moms!

Allergies

My son has an allergy to peanuts. We figured this out a few months ago after eating 1/2 a peanut butter cookie and then have a reaction to it a couple of hours later. He doesn't like peanuts or peanut butter, so avoiding them for him is not hard. Except for the fact that tons of stuff have peanuts, peanut oil, or have been processed in plants with peanuts. I bought some mint chocolate chip ice cream never thinking I needed to worry about it. You guessed it, made with peanut oil. Oh and if I have a craving for a candy bar. Do you think I can find one without peanuts (b/c we aren't even supposed to have that stuff in the house)? No except for maybe plain hershey's chocolate. Three muskateers, kit kats were two that should not have peanuts in them or even the possibility of a peanut but they do. Frustrating.
Anyway, that is not the point of this story. Yesterday, as far as we can tell, Son had nothing at all even remotely close to eating peanuts of any kind except maybe a few Junior mints in the early afternoon. But I am pretty sure I checked the label. Last night about 10 he woke up coughing, running nose, feeling like he was going to throw up, and had bloodshot eyes. The same reaction he had after eating the cookie. He even said he needed medicine like when he ate the peanut butter cookie. So he obviously felt the same. We have no idea what could have triggered it. It was hours after eating. Fortunately, Benadryl stopped it from progressing. But it is scary. Scary that he has this allergy and it can hit him when we aren't even sure why. Now we are starting a journal for when he has these reactions. To see if there is a common theme. Hopefully, he won't have anymore. But we will keep his Benadryl and EpiPen close by just in case.

Update: 21 day challenge

So it has been 14 days and I have been doing fairly well on my daily Bible reading. I have only missed 3 days in the past 2 weeks. It helps to have some accountability, even just writing it down here. So hopefully I can keep it up.
Now if I could just exercise that much, I might be in better shape physically. But I guess being in shape spiritually is more important.

Anniversary

I said I was going to talk about our anniversary. I will keep it short but Adam completely surprised me the weekend before our anniversary. He showed up at my work on friday afternoon and said he was my new patient and we were taking off to the beach for the weekend. He had worked it all out with the moms and my job and even packed for me. I was completely blown away. Amazingly enough, it was the weekend where we had 100 degree weather and it was beautiful at the beach. We had a great time.
Next year it is my turn (he does odds and I do evens) and apparently I will have to come up with something good.

21 Day Challenge

A friend recently tried a 21 day challenge to make herself healthy...drink more water, eat fruits and veggies and cut out caffeine. I already to 2/3 of those (I really should eat more fruit and veggies!) so I am going to do my own challenge to better my spiritual health. My goal is to actually read the Bible every day. It really shouldn't be that difficult but I just cannot seem to motivate myself on my own. On a good week, I might do it 3 days but the days I read the Bible go so much better.
So, now it is written down, for anyone to see. I will check back in with my progress.