One Christian Mom: One Of THOSE Days

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

One Of THOSE Days

Have you ever had a day when you wish you could go back to bed, crawl under the covers and stay there all day? Well, today was that day. We had MOPS this morning, which we made it to, but I really just wanted to stay home. I am glad we didn't, because it was fun for myself and the children, as usual :) After I joined, another homeschooling mom joined as well. She has 2 older children (ages 9 and 11, I think) and one preschooler. The older kids were divided up to act as helpers for the younger children. Between the two of us, we have another mom thinking about homeschooling :) If you don't have a homeschooling group, create one, right?! :)

After MOPS, we came home and I fed the kids lunch. I just didn't feel like eating. They wanted to do art today, and as I don't plan school for MOPS days (every other Tuesday), I said that was a great idea. The kids (yes, all three of them) painted sculptures they made yesterday with salt-dough. They had a great time, and didn't make too much of a mess.

I have done the dishes, but other than that, everything is just waiting on me. I have paperwork that needs to get done, floor needs to be swept. Laundry needs to be folded. Well, it's not that much really, but seems so overwhelming when I am not on top of my game.

I suspect I am starting to suffer from sleep deprivation. My sons (both of them) are waking at night wet from stem to stern. The baby is going right through his diapers and needs to be changed from diaper to sheets. My 3 year old is wetting at night. He needs to be changed at night from underwear to "pee-pee pad" as he calls it. This is the greatest invention. It keeps me from having to change his sheets every night, I just have to wash the pad with whatever laundry I am doing that day.

I checked with my pastor's wife to see if this is "normal". She is such an inspiration and so knowledgeable, having raised 3 of her own. I am feeling more and more comfortable asking her questions, and she is always so willing to offer positive advice. She said that one of her children suffered from this, and it was easily eliminated. What she did was wake herself around midnight or 1 am to either change the diaper or bring the child to the bathroom. Once they go, make it a pattern that no talk is to happen, and you just walk them back to their beds and tuck them back in. She said sometimes, her child wouldn't even wake fully, so going back to sleep wasn't an issue. I may try this because it has to be easier to fall back asleep after changing a diaper and taking a kid to the bathroom rather than changing outfits of upset kids, stripping sheets off of the crib, etc. I will let you know what happens.

We are getting ready to go back to church. Every other Tuesday, I also have my Step Study, which is an extension of the Celebrate Recovery program I attend on Fridays. That makes every other Tuesday a busy day indeed! God bless!

One Christian Mom
PS - you can tell how tired I really am, I almost signed my real name. Boy would that have made hubby upset!!!

4 comments:

REAL ME said...: I promise we were secretly joined at the hip at birth. I also have had several sleepless nights, to-do as long as a football field, and had MOPS today and we also were tired. I had to push myself to go. My experience doens't sound as chipper as yours. This is a new group and I having a little hard time finding my place.

I hope you have a good rest of the day; September 22, 2009 6:46 PM
live4god said...: I am with ya in the tired dept sister:) Hang in there I will be praying for energy for all of us:); September 22, 2009 7:45 PM
Cassandra Frear said...: Hey, I've been where you are.

Have you tried naps? I used to lie down on the floor with mine in their rooms with the door shut and have them play next to me while I dozed -- I was so desperate for more sleep.

It WILL get easier. I promise!; September 22, 2009 10:42 PM
Courtney said...: DS would die if he knew I told, but he wore pull-ups until he was 7. At that point I was so sick of buying the dumb things that I did exactly what your friend suggested. It took about 6mos of training him to get up in the middle of the night, but he no longer wets. YAY! As for the other one... are you using cloth or sposies? I fine that a good OBV fitted and wool is a bullet proof combo. And we co-sleep so my baby nurses ALL.NIGHT.LONG and we don't have leaks.

I'm envious of your MOPS situation. I asked at our group if we could work something out for older HSed kids. They said no. :( So, since our group is at night my husband has to miss his prayer group once a month to watch the older kids so I can go to MOPS.

I hope you're able to get a great night's sleep and feel rested in the morning!; September 22, 2009 10:54 PM

Post a Comment

Frugal Tips

**Still under construction - please check back for more!**

Recently, a lot of people in real life have been asking me about my tips for frugal living. I have gained quite a few of them through the years as our family grows and the cost of living is skyrocketing. This list is ever growing, so check back for updates! If you have a frugal tip, let me know, and I will add it to the list, with credit to you!

TIP #1
The first thing I did was join The Grocery Game at http://www.thegrocerygame.com/. I think it's $10 for three months, but you can save way more than that. You do need to either live in a metropolitian area, or have access to the city's newspaper in order for it to work well. I have saved between 25% to 100% off of grocery items. This works best if you have no brand preference for most items. I only subscribed for the first three months. After that, you pretty much get the gist of the savings plan, and can do it on your own. It basically follows the sales at the stores, and the coupons in the paper. When the store has rock-bottom prices on the item in the coupon, it will tell you to use it. Sometimes the item is free!

TIP #2
Another GREAT tip that most people don't do is cut back on your disposable items in your household. I wrote a post on this sometime last week, I think! :-) I am not just talking about cups and plates, but also paper towels, napkins, even things like yogurt. For the paper products, just replace them with cloth. We bought dishtowels at WalMart for $5 for a package of 6, the initial cost is higher, but you will make that back in a month or two (depending on your family). We use those instead of paper towels. For napkins, we use dishrags, pretty ones! They were also inexpensive, and they wash well. When we have company we break out the "real" cloth napkins, it just looks nicer.

For things like yogurt, milk, etc - buy the larger items, then package it yourself in smaller containers. If you like to take yogurt to work, put some in the small tupperware containers from the large container. That way, you are saving money, and helping keep the earth cleaner by not throwing plastic away every day.

TIP #3
For those of you who have babies, CLOTH DIAPERS! Here is a great site for you to learn about them: http://www.diaperpin.com. There are forums there where you can ask questions, read about others who use them, etc. They also have a rating scale on how well the diapers work for others. I, personally, went with the cheapest option, which was prefolds with covers. You can get quality prefolds for $2 per diaper (if purchased in a dozen) and covers for around $9-$11 each. So for the cost of one month's diapers, you have enough to fit your baby for at least a year. Most people will have to buy two sizes over the baby's diaper-wearing lifetime, but it's still way cheaper than buying diapers to throw in the trash! Also, washing them is easier than you might think. Dump all solids into the toilet. Store wet diapers in a wet-bag or dry diaper pail or trash can. When you wash them, put them on a cold rinse cycle. Then add detergent (home-made, preferably, which I will talk about later) or about 1/4 the amount for commerical detergents and put on a warm wash, cold rinse cycle. Dry on medium in the dryer, or hang to dry! Which leads me to:

Tip #4
Hang-dry your clothes. I can hear it already. "But my complex won't let me have a clothesline!" OK, here are some remedies for that. The first solution is to have a folding rack that you can put outside when you dry your clothes, then take it in when they are dry. Since it's not a permanent fixture, most complexes will allow this. Another solution, which may take longer, is to put your clothes rack up inside near a heater (in the winter) or a fan (in the summer). It may take longer for them do dry, but it has never taken mine longer than a day to dry, and I do about a load a day.

Problem with stiff clothes when you hang? Here are two solutions. The first is to add a few tablespoons of vinegar to the rinse cycle in the washing machine. They won't be as soft as in the dryer, but they will be softer than if you didn't. The second solution is to hang them until almost dry. Then put them in the dryer for 10 minutes. You will never know they were hung to dry, and you will save 80 minutes of drying time in the dryer!

More Tips to Come!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

One Of THOSE Days

4 comments:

About Me

An Updated List of Blogs I Visit Almost Daily

Followers

Blog Archive

Frugal Tips