Propping up my eyelids with toothpicks...

I’m pooped. I should be in bed but tonight is our weekly watering night (thank you, city of San Antonio and your restrictions) and only from 8 to 10pm. So I have to stay up and move the sprinkler around. Avery is at an off-duty job until 10 anyway, so I’m going to try to stay awake until he gets home.

We’re getting our windows replaced in two weeks!!! You have no idea how thrilled I am about this. We have old, single-pane casement windows on our home. Half of them are painted shut, two are cracked, and several don’t have screens. But in two weeks we will have double-pane windows with screens that we can open…and just in time for the nice fall weather!

Today was my grocery shopping day plus coffee at my in-laws. I really enjoy getting out of the house but boy am I exhausted by the end of the day! Or, by 5-o-clock, I should say. The kids watched two VeggieTales videos this evening just so I could pick up the house in peace and get them straight to bed afterwards. Yes, I know I’m a bad mother.

Grocery shopping was successful though. I’ve been gradually trying to incorporate healthier food into our diets while still staying under budget. Things like cutting out high fructose corn syrup, buying more organic produce, and cutting out processed foods. This week I went to three stores and came home with this:

Target: $18 for lunch meat, Coke, Annie's mac n cheese, and ice for the cooler.
Sprouts: $20 for eggs, produce (minus bananas and lettuce), and trail mix.
H.E.B.: $47 for the rest of the produce and everything else pictured.

I haven’t even been couponing much recently because I don’t really have time for it. Plus the coupons for produce and organics are few and far between. Still, I used four coupons for this trip (guac, napkins, mayo, and Oxiclean) plus a $5 off total purchase at Sprouts. I mostly focused on shopping the sales. Aside from the wipes, trail mix, cheese, Triscuits, bread, tortillas, and C-Boost, everything I bought was on sale or I had a coupon for. The mac n cheese, oranges, apples, green onions, milk, and eggs are organic.

Tomorrow we’re having homemade fish sticks for dinner with the cubed potato/sweet potatoes that Jess recommended on Facebook and leftover broccoli. I have to remember to start dinner by 4 though because AWANA starts at 6-o-clock and we’ve been having a hard time getting out the door on time.

Well, that’s all the time we have for today, kids. Remember, God made you special and He loves you very much. Goodbye!

(See? I told you we watch too much VeggieTales!)

Long overdue

My kids are growing up too fast. I never thought I'd say that because, honestly, seeing them reach new milestones is fun and exciting. But now that they are developing personalities and characters of their own, it's more apparent than ever just how important my influence is in raising them to be strong, confident, and God-honoring individuals. And frankly, that is a terrifying realization.

Shiphrah started Cubbies this year. Memorizing verses is a breeze for her but adjusting to a room full of three and four-year-olds has been a challenge. I think she might actually adjust better if I wasn't in there with her, but I didn't realize that until I had already committed to being a leader.

Kirk is our "problem child" right now. He's becoming increasingly stubborn and obsessive over getting his way. He's actually taken to saying "I don't want to behave!" or "I don't want to be good!" repeatedly when he's upset. We're struggling to come up with a good discipline structure for him. Last night something was bothering him and he cried/yelled/whined/screamed until 2:30 in the morning. Avery practically had to spank him to sleep because he kept yelling his demands "want juice, not water!" "leave door open!" "don't want to behave!" "don't want to go to sleep!" It was a frustrating night, to say the least. Avery finally gave him a vitamin and having that in his mouth calmed him down enough to fall asleep. This morning he was cheerful up until Avery got home from his off-duty job. Then he threw a fit about having to eat lunch and wouldn't stop screaming until we put him to bed for his nap.

Ronnie is your typical toddler...for a boy, anyway. He gets into everything and wants to do everything his big brother and sister do. He wears me out! He's still not sleeping through the night but usually only wakes once and goes back to sleep easily once I nurse him. He's still nursing three to four times a day, mostly after naps and at night. He's probably going to give up his afternoon nap soon but right now I can still get him to nap for about an hour around 3 or 4-o-clock.

I'm surviving, but not really able to focus on anything other than the kids these days. I try to do some extra cooking or cleaning at night after they go to bed but then I'm terribly exhausted the next morning. Still haven't figured out a really good schedule that works for all of us yet.

Trying to get back into blogging a bit though. Mostly for my own benefit...I've missed it. :)