All Systems Go/What is Working Now

Ok.  So I briefly considered just letting my status updates on Facebook be my blog a la Anne Lamott, but just realized you have to have like however many friends to get an official PAGE and that's what she has...  Hmm.  Still deciding.  Until then, we'll stick em here.  But.  I am known for my happiness to "change the system" as my husband will attest to.

For instance.  Right now the kids are in beds with books.  I have gone through several versions of nap times, and several have not worked and, so, today's version:  Pre nap time milk in a cup w/ some sugar free Torani's Vanilla or some other bribey thing to put in milk.  I know.  Not so healthy.  Artificial sweetener, etc...For a while we switched to Truvia and vanilla extract and maybe we'll go back to that.  Anywho.  My kids are used to "sweet milk" before bed and its just a little somethin somethin as we like to say in our best Kevin Spacey voices.  Sidenote:  Kevin Spacey is really hot to me.  He is so freakin smart that he's hot.  And, after watching Charade, with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, last night, I'm thinking he actually kind of has a Cary Grant-ness about him.  Like, the shape of his face and the deep wrinkles in his cheeks or something.  Sidenote concluded.  Back to nap time routine syn-op.  So.  Post milk, I say to them, "Ok guys, you have 10 minutes starting now to read books in bed and when I come in and kiss you night night (or day day,since its nap, right?) I'll get your books from you.  This will be a fast nap, I promise.  When you wake up, it will be tea-time, not dinner.  (My kids are pretty much living meal to meal, you will learn within minutes of a)reading my blog and/or b)being around us.  They come by it honestly.  Apple doesn't fall far from the tree and all that.  Anywho.  So they read books and that gives them a sense of getting to read books (ha!  if i had an editor, this would have had to go) and also time to notice if they need to use el baño, which Berea is doing currently!  Its a win-win.  So, if you're not writing these brilliant ideas down, well, at least my husband is getting prepped for his Saturday with them.  Final addition to the system:  telling them that if they go to sleep now they can wake up for tea and a snack (fruit) and if not, it will probably be dinner time when they wake up and they will miss tea.  So, obviously we aren't opposed to food bribes around here.  #whatworks

Just started doing "Tea" yesterday, at 4, what I've heard is England's tea-time.  I think it does us all good.  To enjoy something over time.  I encourage kids to be mobile with theirs and find a project they're working on while they sip.  Our projects right now are kind of just sitting there.  We started modpodging stuff last weekend and we've all grown bored of looking for more pictures to cut out.  And I need some elastic for that adorable piece of .71 fabric to turn into a mommy strapless halter and a Berea-dress.

Another new system I'm trying today:  cooking for dinner at lunchtime.  Done it before, trying it again. I am excited to declare:  bankruptcy!  Just kidding.  NO, actually, excited to announce that I am PLANNING on starting back at the Career Academy of Hair Design, aka the purple roach motel, that I will be learning intensely and thoroughly how to cut hair so my friends can come hang out and get their hair and nails and toes did at the same time.  Not JUST at the PRM, also, at wherever I work, hopefully one day a really clean, slightly small, all brick and one chair, best-music-selection-in-town establishment.  That's the dream, folks.  Sprayed my hair with hairspray today and again got excited about how much I love so many aspects of what I will be doing.  Why did you quit, then, you might be wondering...let me run and get the chicken off the George Foreman (we keep it outside) and I'll get back to you on that.  I'll probably go ahead and eat my lunch first, actually.  You should check your email or something.  Ps, I'm very much considering deleting the PRM comment, but I'm also kind of over editing the crap outta everything I think/say in public, so you're gonna get this one. But, please still come and see me there and please don't tell anyone.  They are all very nice people who work there.

One little dude is not sleeping, yet.  Boo.  I don't think he got tired enough from all his Lego Rocket-building this morning.  We have tried letting him not nap, and by that I mean sustaining his desire to not nap by allowing books in bed, etc.  He is kind of annoying from 5pm-7pm when we do that.  But if we got em to bed right at 7-8ish, we could endure annoying.  What happens post-annoying is pretty unbearable, though.  And we are often up til 9 or 10, those summer evenings.  Its just so freakin pretty out.  Last night we went to Koala Park while Jesse got his hair cut by the lovely Joni.  Anderson asked if he could swing on my "Wap" and that was pretty sweet.  Our faces zooming in and out on each other and all around.  Pretty thrilled little boy, actually.  Kept saying to Berea how fun it was, like it was a roller coaster he was trying to get her to ride.  She ended up wanting to and I got to have the same thing with her.  She's a little less reckless with her fun, but she eventually held her head back and felt how that feels.  So.  Maybe no naps are no bueno for now.  But, when hair school happens in the Fall, I won't be seeing him except from post-Tender Care 11:30pm, until leaving for school at 1:30...and then, after 7:30.  Which, I'm sure after all day apart, we'll want to do a longer evening together...Ahh!!  Scheduling around naps...this has been my life and will continue to be for only a little longer...Berea badly needs hers, still, though.  When we skipped naps altogether for the sake of an earlier bedtime, for about 2 weeks or so, we could've just popped in a CD of her crying right around 3pm until 7pm and it would've sounded the same.  Hmmm...WELL I've had my lunch and got some energy and always hate stopping life in the middle of the day for naps, anyway, so I think I'll set the little dude free in the yard while I mow.  Don't think it'll wake Berea.  You KNOW I will keep you posted on what happens next!  #laptopsinthekitchennow  #kitchencounteristhenewstandingdesk

Sidenote:  I realize that most of what I am writing is rather mundane and minute and probably another m word, just pick one, but this is as much my life/more my life than any of the 'big ideas' that get me writing sometimes...i've decided to sacrifice my desire to #saysomethingamazing and just #saysomething.  And you know, I think I will just post it to FB.  Next time, tho.  Also, one day I will be more writer-ish and edit this crap, but for now, I'm just gonna throw it out there and let it stink to high heaven if it does.  Heaven...won't that be fun??  I was just talking to my local best friend Lori about how we might get more Chronicles of Narnia in heaven.  And also that I hoped Audrey Hepburn is there and that we can at least be acquaintances.  If she's a shop owner, I'd like to come into her shop and talk for an hour and admire her dresses and wonder if she actually likes me or ever eats.  In her movies, every time she's about to eat, her food drops.