Successful days...

My good friend Faith has posted on her blog about tips to having a successful day... so I thought I'd leave some on mine! If you're a mommy, please leave a comment to your own blog on how you're a successful mommy! Together we can all become more successful!!

I came from a family of yellers. When you wanted someone's attention, you didn't politely go to find them and say "excuse me"... you yelled for them. And if they didn't respond with a yell, you yelled louder and louder til they finally heard you and screamed back "WHAT!?" With that said... I'm still a yeller. Much much better now, but still a yeller at heart. When at home, and I'm mad, frustrated, annoyed, I yell. I wish I could react at home like I always had company, but sometimes I can't help myself. I yell like a TAC. I wish I could always be one of those calm moms (like I am in public) who, when upset, speaks to the child smiling and in a low, semi-loving manner, whispers in their ear that if they disobey again, they'll have their limbs ripped off and fed to the dogs.

I'm not a morning person. At all. Nor do I drink caffeine. So I'm kinda sol in the mornings. I love my sleep, and I actually get a LOT, but I'm always tired in the mornings. So when Daddy is home, he graciously gets the kids breakfast before I get up. He's great like that. When Daddy isn't home to let me sleep in, I'll put cups of milk in the fridge, snacks at kids' reach, baggies of cereal, etc. ready to eat in the morning so I can lay in bed a little longer. When Monkey was just a little dude, I'd get him warm milk and cereal and fall asleep on the couch while he watched a movie or played in the floor. (Lazy aren't I?)

I home school the kids each weekday morning except Weds because we have bible study. Sometimes we'll have something else arise and we'll do them on Saturdays. Monkey doesn't like doing his work (see post below) and Mel loves it. So it's easy to get her to finish, and Monkey takes hours to do simple pages like drawing lines and coloring. Reading is the worst. He just doesn't care to read when I ask him to. He'd rather be stubborn. And we all know what happens when he's stubborn.

To make my day go smoother... hmm... what do I do... let me think some more....

Well, I try to get out of the house. Even if it's just a walk to the fruit and veg stand, it's getting out and expelling energy. I find that if I don't go anywhere, I have the worst days possible. The children drive me absolutely mad and by the time night rolls around, I'm ready to put them into bed before we've even had dinner.

For dinner, My new menu system seems to work quite well. I've taken 3x5 cards and printed out all of my regular meals on them. Then I put magnets on each card and stuck them on the side of the fridge. I also made day of the week cards and stuck them up there, too. That way, I have dinner planned out for the week, have meat thawed in the fridge, and have some sort of idea what I need at the grocery store or the market. I'll take a pic if you'd like to copy. I have yet to make the meal that is designated for that day, but it's working well nonetheless. It's been a week since I've had a mopey "ugh, what are we going to have for dinner tonight" night. And its easy to rearrange the meals and all of my recipes are right there!

We are very consistent. Those of you who know us know that we're really strict and like it that way. I think that's why our kids are so well behaved. Because we're consistent with our strictness.

I (try to) think positively (lots of times I fall short. Way short). I remember that every day is an influence I can have on my kids. Every day is another chance to make good memories or bad ones. Every day is a day to start fresh and be glad for what we have... our health, our home, our "stuff", our friends and family, etc. I remember that everything I do shapes these little people. I try to pray and ask God for guidance and calmness and patience and wisdom. And when I put the kids to bed at night, I thank God for my kids, and how wonderful they are. That even at their worst, they're really good kids. Really really good.

OK, off to karate. Reply with your own life!
hugs