I just finished reading "Secrets to Getting More Done in Less Time" by Donna Otto. It has encouraged me to get more organized, and my calendar/paperwork has been my first project. I have made progress, but it is a slow go. One of her suggestions is to take a day and write down how you spend your time every 30 minutes. The point is to find where you may be wasting time, or can manage it better. Yesterday was one of those days where I felt like I worked hard and yet accomplished little. So today, I have decided to document my day on here - to see where my time goes. And maybe some of you can help me by offering suggestions :)
7:30 AM - woke up. both twins were in the bed with me and one of them had wet the bed. They have been sick the past few days. We had gotten them to where they were sleeping in their own room all night, but after Ty's surgery, then me going to AL for a week, then them getting sick... they have been back in our room the past few nights. They start out in their room, but come in our room during the night. Well, one of them had wet the bed this morning, (the other one wet the bed yesterday morning). This is not normal for them, and I am guessing is due to all the stress from the past few weeks and them being sick.
7:40 Wake kids up and tell them to get dressed, then I get in the shower.
7:55 Come out of my bathroom into my room to get dressed and see that the dog is completely covered up with a blanket, think to myself "that is odd" then I see Ty hiding under the bench at the end of my bed and I ask him what he is doing then the girls jump up from the other side of the bed to scare/surprise me. (while I am looking for clothes after my shower) This brings me to another point... I have started reading the book "Loving our Kids on Purpose" by Danny Silk (I am about 1/2 way finished). My first reaction to the kids was "ha ha, ok your funny now go." But then I realized that they really were trying to play with me (granted not the best time) but I am really trying to change the way I think. I know I often miss opportunities to connect with my kids. I had no choice but to send them out while I got dressed, but I hope to find time today to play hide and seek with them.
8:10 - Breakfast for all kids and animals
8:30 - Turn t.v. on for Ari until I can get to her and do all her stuff.
8:35 - Start working on my list of TO DO things. Made 4 phone calls for medical appts. Spoke with one actual person and left messages with the rest. Made my notes on my Scheduling Appt.s page.
9:05 - Checked my email and sent some emails regarding medical stuff to 2 different people.
9:10 - Changed Ari's diaper, Madi changed her clothes, I filled her feeding bag and took off her pulse ox probe. Madi put her in her swing in the other room where Ty and La are playing.
9:20 - Took the sheets off my bed and started Laundry for the day. I have 2 loads that are clean sitting beside me right now. The washer and dryer are going. And I have 5 - 6 loads that are still dirty that I hope to do today.
(By the way, I got in around 11:00PM Sun. night. Mon. morning I had a DCF person here at 9:oo AM, clothes to put away, appts to make, things to catch up on etc. Tue. I had my hormone pellet appt. and that took all morning, and I tried to take it easy that afternoon. Wed. we had dr. appts all day - started at 9:00 AM and I got home at 4:45 PM. We FINALLY got to get together with Jen and Phillip that night :) Thur. I worked all day and felt like I accomplished nothing, and here I am today logging every thing I do)
9:30 cleaned the kitchen a little, got interuppted with a fight between the twins. Went upstairs to talk about using words and treating each other with love. (One thing that I have discovered, for instance... Lauren had hit Tyler because he wouldn't get out of her chair... I asked Lauren if she wanted me to hit Tyler. She looked at me really weird and said emphatically "NO". I asked "why", she responded "because it would hurt him and that wouldn't be nice" I said "That is exactly why YOU shouldn't hit him either." I told Tyler that he needs to listen to his sister when she is talking to him, and that he could go get his chair that matches hers instead of taking hers from her.
9:40 - got the kids taken care of, now the animals. The dog is growling at the new kitten because he is convinced that the kitten wants to take his bone away ARGHH.
9:45 - started this post. It is now 9:57 and Lauren and Madison are fighting over who made the mess in their room and who should clean it up. Lauren is also asking for a snack because she chose NOT to eat her breakfast. Snack time is at 10:00. Going to help with the girls, then get snack.
10:00 - had this conversation with Lauren mommy -"Why did you kick and knock down the toys that Madi and Ty were playing with" lauren - "Because I was hungry" mommy - "Why were you hungry?" lauren "because I didn't eat my breakfast" mommy "who's choice was that?" lauren - "mine" mommy - "then instead of being mad at me for not getting you a snack before it is snack time, and instead of being mean to madi and ty, who should you be upset with" lauren - "me" Then I was going to have her clean up the mess she made, but Madi had already done it, so I made Lauren help fold a load of towels before she could come to snack. While she was crying and folding them I went to her, hugged and kissed her and told her that I loved her and I just want her to be nice and loving. She hugged me back, said yes maam, folded the towels, and came to snack. :)
10:30 After cutting up apples, bananas, and oranges for me and the kids; eating, then cleaning up... I had Madi bring Ari to me so she can have some tummy time. I am also trying to fax some medical papers to 2 different nurses, but my fax machine is NOT cooperating... STILL working on that!!
10:45 - multitasking...faxing papers to nurse #1, giving Ari a breathing treatment, working with Ari on sitting up and reaching for a toy that lights up, Lauren playing with Ari too and starts counting to 100. We worked all school year on this, and she just couldn't do it. Today, out of the blue she counted to 118!!! YEA!!! Fax finally went through too :)
11:00 - had this conversation with Tyler - mommy "why are you crying" tyler "because I want to play the monkey game by myself, and Madi and Lauren want to play too" mommy "if they wouldn't let you play, how would you feel?" tyler "bad" mommy "do you want to make your sisters feel bad" tyler "no" At this point he starts crying more. mommy "do you want to play by yourself so that you can win" tyler "yes" mommy "you can't win ALL the time" More crying... mommy "your choice is to play with the girls, or go upstairs to cry" tyler without saying anything goes to play with the girls. Madison gets up and leaves to go play on the computer. Lauren plays for a few minutes, then leaves, now Ty is playing by himself just like he wanted.
11:05 - Laid Ari down for a nap after cuddling with her for a few minutes and seeing her beautiful smile :) And got papers faxed to nurse # 2.
11:10 - Posting here and Lauren says "I want to color with you mommy" I told her "I will color with you when I am finished here and I have put my papers away, why don't you go ahead and get the coloring stuff while I do this." OK.... She can't find crayons, has a meltdown and refuses to go look for them. She wants Madison to get them for her. SO I sent her to her room until she could stop pitching a fit and look for the crayons herself.
11:20 - Lauren decides to look for crayons herself, and we spent time coloring together.
11:40 - still working on appts., calling dr.s, figuring out what still needs to be done, etc. Going to switch over laundry now.
11:50 - talked on phone for 20 min. with my MFC nurse, finally feel like I am getting on top of all of the appts I needed to do. Yea!
12:15- did prayer doodles with kids (we each have a notebook and we doodle, color, draw, etc for someone or whatever God lays on our hearts while we pray for that person or situation)
12:30 - had kids fix their own sandwiches for lunch while I organized my drawer of kitchen utinsils and unloaded the dishwasher
1:00 - changed Ari's diaper, and got her set up in the bumbo seat on a blanket on the trampoline, so she can be outside with the kids. kids are outside playing. I am eating lunch - chocolate mini wheats cereal, my new favorite!
1:30 kids come inside. Put Ari in Bumbo seat on couch to watch t.v. Give kitten it's medicine and spray it with flea stuff (although no more fleas seen today).
2:00 - 4:00 clean kitchen, clean living room, continue working on laundry - I make kids help me with all of the work. Here is where I usually lose my cool. By this time of day I am tired and I start to feel like although I have been working all day there is not much to show for it. While I try to be intentional in how I respond to the kids in the mornings, come afternoons I admit I don't like how I respond to them. For instance during the past 2 hours Lauren grunted at me when I told her to do something and without even talking to her first, I spanked her and ended up screaming at her. I am not against spanking, and think it is an effective tool when used the right way; but I hate when I scream at the kids. I try really hard not to, but sometimes, I just lose it. Tyler also got a spanking during the past 2 hours, and Madison had extra work added to her chores.
4:15 Matt just came home and told me the house looks good. :) That always makes me feel better. I am going to take a break now because my stomach is killing me! I have been to the dr. and they say it is a nerve related pain, but they don't know where it is coming from. I was/am attempting to come off the med that the dr. prescribed for it, but after 1 week without it, I am starting to question whether I will be able to go without it yet.
4:30 A friend came by to bring some school things to Matt. So I visit with her for a few min. Matt left a few min. ago to go work out. I don't know how that is gonna go with him having 2 cracked ribs. He still hurts a lot!
4:45 A nurse is here to drop off paperwork and see Ari. We talk for a few min. about all the progress she has made. Ari is playing with her toys in her bed, laughing ... so I am NOT messing with her - lol.
Still to do today: fold all this laundry, order pizza for dinner (thank goodness Matt wanted to do that tonight, cause I just don't feel like cooking), put clean sheets on my bed, I still haven't played hide and seek with the kids like I wanted to, I still have tons of paperwork that needs to be done... BUT I am not doing anything right now. I am in the middle of a change in several meds and it has me off ballance. This time of day I am tired, I hurt, I feel overwhelmed, etc. SO... I am trying to start taking a little time for myself during this time of day, before I start the night stuff. Listening to Casting Crowns right now.
7:30 - Got Ari ready for bed and in bed. had some issues with the kids that i don't even want to re-live by typing it here... the twins were not great this afternoon to say the least. I got about 4 loads of laundry put away. Had the kids clean the kitchen after dinner (with a little help of course). Here's the thing... other than dealing with children, and doing laundry; I have NO idea what happened to the past 3 hours. That is the truth. I got up from my rest time about 4:45 and I just now sat back down at 7:30; and I didn't do anything other than doing stuff with the kids and doing laundry. Such is life I guess.
If anyone bothered to read all of that, bless you - LOL. I wrote this mainly for me to evaluate how I spend my time, and how I can make better use of my time. What I did learn is that I do pretty well in most areas until around 3:00 at which point I start to get a little edgy with the kids and I start to lose the drive to do anything productive. Then around 5:00 I have had it. I feel like crying, and I am pretty much spent.
One of the things that the hormone pellets I got earlier this week is supposed to do is to help stabalize my mood and increase my energy. I am SOOOO hoping that is true!!
Going to sit down and watch a movie with my husband now.
