A Mother's Daybook

Enjoying - Getting back into our routine

This is the first term that I'm doing a more structured schedule to help me balance my 1.5 new students and so far I'm really enjoying it. Week one went really well despite one of my kids spending a day throwing up. Week 2 has just begun but Craig is gone on a business trip for part of it and we've had a bunch of snow so the kids are spending more time outside than usual so I'm okay with a partial week. I actually don't normally have an issue with deciding that something is more important than school if I think its worthwhile (2 hours of real physical movement and outdoor play in the winter - worth it!) but then I have a hard time letting the checklist go later on in the day. But today I was able to let it go and not try and cram 2 extra hours worth of work into the afternoon and we ended the day with a reasonable amount accomplished and good attitudes!

But as much as the kids (okay, one specific will be left unnamed kid) moaned about starting up school, I can tell that we are all really glad to be back to normal. I love Advent and our more relaxed schooling, I love Christmas and free days and fun...but I really love our regular routine and early bedtimes and no screen time and full days and the calm (lack of bickering!) that all brings with it.

Also Enjoying - Bedtimes

We've always had pretty early and firm bedtime with nice bedtime routines. But Norah's schedule got really messed up somehow over the holidays. Like going to bed at 10pm. Or waking up at 3-4 am. She was a mess. Overly tired and testing boundaries. And Jude often wakes up around 4 am but as long as I nurse him back to sleep, he's fine. If I'm trying to wrangle a 3 year old, he has time to wake up all the way and I want to cry because then I'm up with both of them. We did just a few days of Melatonin to help us get her back on track but also changed up our bedtime routine a bit and increased the calm down period in the evenings. It's all working. She's been off melatonin for over a week and still doing great. And I'm actually enjoying our mellow evenings as a family. Coloring and games and reading more picture books.

Listening - The Mary Poppins Returns Soundtrack

This is not my choice of music (not that I mind it. But my kids saw the movie with their grandparents over the holidays and our now obsessed with the soundtrack). I feel like I'm in a bit of a musical slump. I loved having all the Christmas music playing but now I can't seem to come up with anything to replace it with. The great thing about Christmas music is that its easy for me to go back and forth between listening to and ignoring as needed. I find a lot of other music is good for one of the other but not both. It's a conundrum. Suggestions welcome.

Gearing up for - The 90 day Hashimoto's Protocol (modified)

The modifications are concerning the diet part because 1) I'm nursing and that is first priority and I think her diet is overly restrictive for a nursing mom. and 2) I've already done some of those restrictions (like gluten free) with no change for my thryoid. Despite it being a "90 day" protocol, I'm easing into it because I often have very strong reactions to changes and I want to be able to pinpoint if anything goes wrong (or right. I should be thinking optimistically!) But I'm excited to try it right now because I feel like I'm in a place where I actually have the energy to put some of these things in place. So for me the biggest dietary change is no sugar/trim healthy mama diet along with the Protocol's supplements and lifestyle changes. I've read the book, ordered what I needed and now need to read the book again. But I'm giving myself two full weeks of no sugar before I start adding other things. I've really got a sweet tooth so cutting out sugar is hard but forcing myself to do that before I start this is a good motivation.

Missing - Walking

I started the Mutu Program right after Thanksgiving and I'm slowly chugging along. But this week, due to the 10+ inches of snow we've gotten and Craig being out of town for business (gets back tonight. Yay! I survived with four kids all on my own!), I haven't been able to walk. I didn't dislike walking when I started, it was just a challenge to make it happen, but now I really really miss it. Podcasts and audiobooks have helped although I think just having an hour to do something, anything, without being interrupted, feels nice. I'm not sure how I'll fit a walk in Wednesday because that's the one day the indoor track I use on bad weather days closes early and there is still quite a bit of snow to try walking outdoors but I'm going to try anyway because I just want to get moving again. I think Lizzie misses it too.

Watching - Kim's Convenience

My aunt recommended this because she knows I love K-dramas. I'm a little annoyed at Netflix for not recommending it even though I've even watching K-dramas on Netflix! I mean, facebook can hear me tell Craig I need toothpaste and start showing me ads but Netflix can't figure out I'd like a korean comedy? Lame! But I'm glad she did because it was just what I needed. It's short (good for sneaking in an episode before bedtime), funny and sweet.

Also Watching - Tidying Up with Marie Kondo

I wrote several posts about her book while my pregnancy self was decluttering and waiting for Norah to make her arrival. I liked her then. I like her now. She's just so darn cute (and it may seem like an odd thing to call a grown women with a bestselling book and a highly successful business. But if you watch the show, you'll realize that is the word that fits). I don't usually watch tv while the kids are awake (I'm strict enough with screen time that if they are watching, its because I need a break from them :-) but occasionally I'll let us all watch some Great British Bake Off so when I put this on instead, they were all annoyed there was no baking but I was happy because they didn't like it and went back to playing. And watching baking shows when you aren't eating sugar is too hard so I'll probably stick with this for any weekend daytime watching for a while.