Rich got home yesterday. It's amazing how much more relaxed I am today with him being here in Oklahoma, than I was yesterday when he was in Chicago. He went to work this morning, so I'm still alone with the kids and they are getting tired of being inside, but I'm mentally better than I was yesterday. :)

Ice Storm Havoc and whines

This is just my whiney post... I know it could be much worse. We could have lost electricity, had to huddle up near the fireplace and I might have had to entertain the kids for days on end by myself.

But we didn't loose power-a fact of which I am extremely grateful. I've been able to use tv and movies and music and computer to help me entertain the kids for the past four days that we have been cooped up here in the house. The kids have been pretty well behaved and cooperative when they could have been cranky and irritable- so that is another blessing.

We were able to cook dinner, bake some cookies and do some fun stuff.

Rich was supposed to get home on Saturday, but the storm made him reschedule flights till Monday. Yesterday he got to Chicago and then got stuck there when they cancelled his flight after they had sat on the plane for 2+ hours. Hopefully he will get home today, but he doesn't even get a direct flight today. He has to fly down to Dallas, and with the way this ice storm has been going, who knows if he'll get stuck in Dallas today and still not make it home.

So... we wait and see. At least there is no school today. I didn't think the roads would be driveable and although the kids ride the bus, I don't like sending them to school on the bus when I myself am stuck in the house because our driveway isn't cleared yet and I wouldn't be able to get them if they got hurt or anything.

So I'm just sitting here and letting myself whine for a few moments... and then I'll go and face the day and try to find some new activities for us to do today.

Well it's been a while since I put anything on here. Rich has been out of town this week, and was supposed to get home tomorrow afternoon, but we are getting ice right now that is supposed to continue through the weekend. I doubt Rich will make it home tomorrow- I'm not expecting him to make it home till Monday with the forcast we have. If he gets home ealier it will be a pleasant surprise.

The kids went to school today, so I have a few more hours of quiet and then it'll be me and four kids for the weekend. I've got the house stocked with food we can eat, the fireplace is ready to turn on if we need it for a heat source, the cell phone is charged and I even plugged in the gameboys for the kids so they would be charged up if the power goes out and I need something to occupy them.

Now hopefully the power won't go out and we can just stay snug and warm inside the house.

One Day at a time...

So yesterday I had a great day. I got up early when all the kids were awake at 6:45 am and we ate breakfast and everyone was dressed and I made lunch for the kids to take to school, and they were ready 20 minutes before the bus came. Then after they got on the bus I got shoes on Alyssa and Angela and we went to the Y. I exercised for 55 minutes on the elliptical and was feeling good. Then I stopped at the store on the way home and took care of some returns/exchanges I needed to. We came home and had lunch and I played with the kids... it was just overall a good day.

This morning didn't start out as well. I didn't sleep well last night, when Angela woke up at 2:30 am I was a zombie and just brought her into our bed and when she woke me up at 7:30 am I could not just wake up. My head was stuffed up and I was sore all over. The kids were sluggish waking up and getting ready for school and we had some mishaps and while I had done some laundry, apparently I washed the wrong stuff because the clothes that were needed weren't clean so that caused more frustrations. I'm so sore from my workout yesterday that I decided I probably overdid it since it had been a few weeks since I had gone to the Y, so I'm skipping the Y today and I'll get everything ready tonight to go again tomorrow. I've just spent the morning feeling down and just not motivated to do anything.

But I can change my day around... I logged in here and saw the comments on my last entry and it gave me some motivation to turn the day around and make it better... So I'm going to get working on getting the laundry caught up, and clean up the pile of toys that just got piled in the corner when we cleaned the carpets Monday... it's a start and we'll see if that spills over into motivation to do something else... :)

New Year

Well I don't really make New Years resolutions, but I do have a few goals that I think I am now mentally ready to take on the challenge for.

1- My goal is to get a little bit better about my housecleaning. It's not horrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired. I want to teach my children this year to help with some weekly chores and I want to change our attitudes towards cleaning. Instead of it being the dreaded chore I want to get us into the mindset of just doing it quickly and getting it over with instead of procrastinating till it's a bigger and tougher job.

2- My second goal is to get back to exercising regularly at the Y. I've slipped these last couple of months and really haven't been going. I really can't afford to pay $60 a month at the Y and then not go and get any health benefit from that money. So I'm going to just take it slow and steady and build up my stamina again to exercising daily monday through friday each week.

3- My third goal isn't to diet persay, but to just make better food choices. I cannot give up sugar completely and sweets and I know if I tried I would just binge and would not be successful, but I am going to try to cut back on snacking on junk foods and try and find healthier alternatives for my "grazing" that I do during the day. I'm in and out of the kitchen so much feeding my kids that I need to have healthier alternatives that apeal to me to eat on during the day.

Yesterday Rich cleaned the carpets in the whole house and I think that will really help give me a kickstart on my housekeeping goal. It's so much more gratifying to clean a room and vacuum it on a regular basis when the carpet looks and feels clean instead of having stains all through it. Hopefully I'll be better this time keeping it clean than I was last time.

We have had a pleasant Christmas vacation/winter break from school. I know I was a bit apprehensive about it, but the kids have been relatively calm and fun to play with. There have been a few incidents of fighting and whining, but it hasn't been to bad. Tomorrow it's back to the school schedule.