My house has been much cleaner and my mood has been so much happier. I have learned how important it is to keep up with the maintenance and don't let it get too overwhelming.
I am getting better sleep at night, falling asleep easily and waking up easily, and feeling very well rested during the day. My kids are sleeping through the night again and even though I had to bribe Kalia and Annie to stay in their beds (major bribes- donuts, Reese's puffs, and these silly candy binky things, but finally it worked, and they stayed in their beds all night for 9 days in a row. Then the rewards stopped, and Kalia woke me up 3 times last night trying to get in bed with us. I promised cookie dough tomorrow if they stay in their beds all night.
Ella is getting a little sassy, but it's mostly still cute. I found a wonderful probiotic that has helped more than anything else. It's a powder called L. Reuteri, and I ordered it from vitacost.com. It seems to be allowing her to eat a lot more foods as long as she is getting that specific strain of bacteria into her gut. I am so grateful for it. She LOVES to say "No" and she says it with some real feeling. She is also climbing like a little monkey, and I can't hardly keep her from climbing up on the table and running across it. She is having a little vocabulary burst again and finally started saying words that I've been telling her to say forever- "Up" when she wants to be picked up, "milk" when she wants her bottle, and she started trying to sign "ow" or hurt, which is always good to know, with her tummy troubles. She also recently started saying "eat" (and signs it at the same time) and then she goes and chooses a jar of baby food and brings it to me. Three times in a row she chose the same kind- sweet potato and zucchini. Could she possibly have done that on purpose? She also very clearly said, "Help" the other day when she needed help. That was the first time (we've been working on the sign, but she decided to just start saying it instead)
She is down to one nap and so she goes to bed really early. Usually at 6:30 but one time it was 6. She is also trained really well around the pool. I can just sit in a chair and let her walk around, and even get in by herself at the stairs. She won't try to get in anywhere else, and she won't get off the stairs. Of course I can't take my eyes off her for a second, but it's nice to be able to sit in the shade. She is also a huge book-lover, and several times a time I will find her in her sisters' room sitting on the floor reading books. As soon as I sit down, she will choose a book, and turn around and back herself up right into my lap and have me read to her. Then she'll get up, choose another book, back herself up into my lap again, and start over. I have definitely noticed the vocabulary bursts corresponding with an increase in reading books. It's as good as the experts say.
Samuel is doing great in school and is ROCKING his prerequisites for his nursing program. He only has to take microbiology this summer, and might work as a CNA, since he just got certified to do that. He loves what he is learning and retains it so well. He starts the hardcore nursing classes in the fall. He isn't working, and his only real estate deal fell through, and his new one won't pay out for 6 months, so we are flat broke, if you must know.
This week my wallet and purse was either freakishly lost, or stolen from the parking lot of costco, or from my car. I don't know which it is, but it was beyond devastating to me. In my wallet was the last of our cash and about $400 worth of gift cards to places like CVS, Walmart, Kohls, and to the salon where I get my hair done. I can't explain what it feels like to feel like your very livelihood is gone, but it hurt like heck and I cried many, many tears over it because right now, those things are irreplaceable. I can't just go get new gift cards. I had been saving them for when we were completely out of money, and basically...that's right now. And now those are gone too. I have had a few promptings over the last few months to get all my gift cards out of my wallet, but I kept forgetting- and now it's my greatest regret. I guess the Lord will find some other way to take care of us, and I hope we're staying humble as we push on through our financial trials. I know that everyone has their trials, and not everyone wants to share what theirs are. Ours happen to be financial, as they have been for years. We are confident that these are the trials we need right now to humble us, and I don't think we can ever forget what it feels like to be "in need"- so I know this will help us be more Christlike when the tables have turned someday. In the meantime, we are trying to find a perfect job that will bring in just a little bit of money, and allow Samuel to continue with school, and let me stay at home to raise the girls. Things have always worked out before, and I know they still will, but I just hope that anyone who reads this, who doesn't have to worry about how they will go buy their kid a pair of shoes, will really appreciate what a wonderful thing that is.
Okay, onto happier things.
Kalia and Annie are out in the backyard swimming at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. They are amazing swimmers. It makes me proud. They can't mess up the house when they are out there, and they rarely fight out there either, which makes it my favorite activity. We are only at about 95 degrees down here, and so the weather has been great too.
But the biggest change that happened has been HUGE. MASSIVE. And totally unplanned and unexpected. A lot of things came together to make this happen, some conversations with friends, my favorite new app (My fitness pal) and now that my hip injury from Ella's birth finally stopped hurting...AND since I haven't been so tired all the time...I STARTED WORKING OUT!! And I don't just mean kind of started. I am ALL IN. I have decided to work out six days a week. I only rest Sundays. I've done it for 8 days and I am kind of obsessive about not missing a day. I am honestly afraid that if I miss a day, I will stop all together. I needed to be 100% in.
I am also counting calories for the first time in my life. I never thought I'd do it, but this app that I mentioned has made it SO fun, and I truly had no idea how much I was overeating. I have about 7 lbs of fat to lose (I gained it after I stopped nursing Ella, and I started eating ANYTHING I wanted, WHENEVER I wanted it. Bad idea.) But I really need to regain some muscle as well. So I just put a 7 lb weight loss goal into the app, and it popped out this certain number of calories, and it deducts them throughout the day, so I know how much I have left- and then when I work out, I get all those extra calories to eat- another big motivation to workout.
Good things are happening. Our diet is much healthier because I need lower calorie foods. Samuel started exercising on his own too, almost like he didn't want me to leave him behind. But most of all, the endorphins I'm feeling after working out a TRULY like a DRUG for my mood. I want that drug EVERY DAY. It feels so good. I love this change in my life and I'm grateful that we've had beautiful weather, since I've mostly been running and rollerblading outside, and the outdoors and sunshine and Vitamin D lift my spirits as well.
The only bad thing is that I haven't yet balanced my new workout schedule with my cleaning schedule, and the house started to go downhill. I can't clean, obviously, when the girls are swimming, and so I haven't yet figured out when is the best time to do it. It's okay though, I'll keep working on it.
Here's a smattering of pictures for the blog book. I forgot to mention that my sister Krystal and her family came down to AZ for a little vaycay. We loved seeing them and hanging out. There's a few pics from the super awesome children's museum.
