Mondays

After a busy, tiring weekend, Mondays really suck. Brian had to get up early and go to work. I don’t bother setting alarms because with 5 young children; why would I need to?

My daughter woke me up at 8:30am. When do I ever sleep that late? When do we ALL ever sleep that late? Usually I wake Easton up at 730 to go out for the bus at 805. Oops.

So I quick threw in clothes and woke Easton up. While he got dressed and brushed his teeth, I toasted him up a waffle and packed his lunch and snack.

Luckily Pappy was home so I could walk Easton up to the school while the other 3 kids slept on!

I must have looked awesome dropping him off with my messy hair and puffy eyes. The other kids finally woke up at 915am! We had a nice lazy morning until I could drop them off away school at noon.

Then thank goodness, I got in a bit of yoga and a nice, hot shower before I had to pick them back up again.

Now everyone is back home. I’m ready for a nap since being awakened from a dream sleep. I’m wondering what we’re going to have for dinner. I’m hoping I can get my act together for tomorrow! But I’m also looking ahead to the chaos that comes with Halloween Wednesday, and the candy hangovers the next day.

Put this week down as a wash, I suppose. I can manage doing some wash and the minimum of cleaning to get through, along with some family Halloween movie times!

Pulling Myself Up

Due to various reasons that I’m not gonna unload on the blog, I’ve spiraled down into a funk.  Just a feeling of overwhelm, minus the motivation to do anything about it.  For me, this means being a lousy mom and a lazy person.  I feel fatigued, constantly tired, with a short temper and I make poor eating decisions.  Not good.  It just gets worse and worse until I get to a point where I finally decide enough is enough.

This time that point came when I realized I was ten pounds up!  After I had worked hard to get down to a happy place.  I started soccer, and I really wanted to be good again!  I wanted to be in shape and feel better all around.

So this week, I started dragging my butt out of bed at 6am.  Well, I snooze for like 10 minutes, but then I drag my butt out of bed.  I find a quiet place to be alone, which unfortunately happens to be all the way down in the basement, but it works.  I do my short yoga DVD, and miraculously, the kids are still asleep!!

I’m trying to make sure I drink lots of water, so while I’m doing that, I’m emptying the dishwasher and packing Easton’s lunch.  It’s nice to be able to focus on a task without fifty interruptions!  By that point it’s time to wake Easton up so I make sure he’s up to get dressed and brush his teeth, and then I go back downstairs to make coffee.  While Easton eats breakfast, I try to sit with him and so some reading from his poetry folder or go over his weekly word wall words.  It’s fun time with him and nice to get it done early because he certainly isn’t in a mood to do it later!!

After I take Easton outside and he gets on his bus, Brian is in the meantime making sure the other kids are eating their breakfasts and getting dressed.  I take this time to go do 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill.  I pulled or tore my calf muscle a week and a half ago in soccer, so baby steps.  It feels good to get moving.  I can then shower, Brian leaves for work and I feel better prepared to manage these 4 little ones.

In an effort to keep them from running amuck, and working on their educational skills, I’m busting out more board games and organized activities, as well as flash cards and workbooks.  They love this stuff!  And again, I feel happy knowing that I’m being a better mom and they are learning stuff.  It really helps to cut down on their whining, complaining and asking for snacks LOL.

As for my eating habits, I’m trying to follow a 21 Day Fix idea of a meal plan, incorporating intermittent fasting.  I’m hoping to feel better, and regulate my systems like my thyroid, circulation, hormones, etc.  I’m also trying to reduce inflammation and recover faster from these injuries and aches.  Thirty-eight is obviously getting up there to play competitive soccer, but I’d love to play as long as I can.  This is pretty much essential for keeping my mental health on track.

So there you have it – my plan to turn things around a bit, and find some order in this chaos.  I’m working on controlling the things I can control and letting the other stuff be.  A truly monumental task for a classic worrier like me, but nevertheless here goes.

So far so good, as I’ve started small.  Today is day 2 only, but the changes I’ve made are few and pretty mild so I don’t get discouraged.  Hopefully I can work up to bigger changes, but that’s another bridge to cross.

I’d love to hear what you guys are doing to bring order to the chaos around you.  How are you structuring your day?  What are you doing to take care of yourself better?  Give me ideas!