Monday Flylady Blessings - focus makes fabulous

... Lack of focus ... lately, lack of focus ... So 15m to get in touch with it ;)

I know I am tired, but I do have to open my new CJ ... get myself a cup of tea, and try to let the first wave of exhaustion pass by ... Ok still feeling very very ready for bed, but the tea and the pamper show of Diane gave me that little push I needed to open my CJ!

1. Check calendar: Ouch! Tomorrow first swimming lesson of Dd? Lets check mails ... Ok that was a close call ... I hope that will work out fine as I also have a dentist appointment on the calendar, but no time? Very smart! Ok lets, check if I have dentist phone number to call in tomorrow!
2.  Prepare lunch ... do I have to? Ok first 15 m are over ... in Flylady fashion I can reset for another 15m ... and an extra cup of tea to soften the pain.Go!
3.  What's for dinner? Crockpot curry ... Ok, no defrosting needed, and can still change into my mac and cheese, because we had chinese sunday ... Will see how timeshedule with dentist works out.
4. Load washing machine ... done it already ... now that's fun :)
5. Fold and out away clothes ... not all of it ... but going to be nice to myself and call it a day.
6. Lay out clothes ... I'll do that before crawling under my clean sheets :)
7. Clean up after dinner ... lucky ... dh covered that :) just a few things left.
8. 5m home rescue ... maybe while going upstairs, but a lazy version for sure ... thinking my bbr is kinda long by now.

Ok, this ain't babystepping it ... I had a smaller plan for this lol ... But still happy that I pushed a little... and I certaily will love it in the morning!

Sunday? Family fun! -FIL

Sunday the kids had their second performance of the musical. Well second for dd, ds was sooo exhausted that I had to put him down for a very very long nap. This time it was DH side of the family that came to the spectacle. I still find it very difficult to entertain my in-laws. Dh family and mine are very very different in almost every single aspect. Which has great advantages too lol, because my family is far from the P*pictureP*ness lol. But still, I find it so hard to open my heart to them, even after all these years ... And I feel so bad about it. Recently I even had my first words with my MIL about something silly, but still ... I know that although I still think she didn't treat me with enough respect at the time of the incident ... I surely helped a lot to create the possibility for it to happen. Luckily I don't find DBIL and his girlfriend quite as difficult to accept in my heart.
But I try ... babysteps ... but I try. Ever since DH and I had our kids, his parents would leave before dinner and would turn over offers to stay over. Before we had kids we would have gone out to a restaurant, but they couldn't understand at first that it ain't easy to take babies/toddlers out for dinner, and certainly not at nights (before school). When it got through, DH and I were very surprised that they decided to just leave before dinner, going to a restaurant alone(they are fixated on Chinese food!), or with DBIL and his girlfriend. DH still suffers from it and that breaks my heart. Even invites for Christmas seem to become difficult. So yesterday, as they were starting their take of rituals ( they stay till the restaurant opens lol) ... I started suggesting to get take away. DH backed up and DFIL was in, DBIL and his GF gladly accepted, so DMIL had to give in ... well we had a lovely time ... at least I had, don't know if DMIL still prefers a restaurant). And DH was so happy, he got out of his way searching for all kinds of foods and drinks to offer the family! ... I know I'm not without blame here ... but how can a mother not see the efforts from a son, and see that she is hurting his feelings ... even if she does it(?) for the good reasons (that's what I try to make DH believe) like giving us the time to put kids to bed early, or saving us money, or time .... I think I will never understand ....

Saturdays blessings - St Nicholas a Musical and St Nicholas again

DS, even with an extra car-generated-nap, very tired an v e r y impressed :)

DD, always more aware of the public than of her performance lol!


That's not the "real" Saint, the title of the Musical: "Who becomes the thirteenth helper". St. Nicholas discovers a toy-thief on the roofs while going out to give the children their toys. He uses all his wisdom to wake his conscious and transform him into one of his helpers.

The real deal! (With trembling feet! No kidding!)

Where is DS? He only defrosted after a few more hours ... but still wasn't very keen on letting his picture taken with the saint!

So blessing the family wasn't to hard this saturday lol. And for the presents from the Good Man. I'm afraid, there are some more to come, because very strangely, the Saint leaves presents over at family members houses too ... sigh. But for now I only have new bedding (Princesses and Cars) which I can't have washed quickly enough lol. A jewelry box, with magic wand opener. A puzzle and a small car. Please let the Saint be modest with the rest of the toys!

Foodies Friday - Menu plan and (one of )the 10m food-on-the-table-miracle recipe

Saturday

Chinese chicken, rice and veggies

Sunday

Ham&cheese macaroni

Monday

Free freezer day: Chili sin carne

Tuesday

Slow cooking fun: Indian curry with fresh salad

Wednesday

Fish wit ricotta endive sauce and cauliflower,

Thursday

Quinoa with green beans, tomato-based veggie-ricotta sauce and falafel

Friday

Leftover Friday

Ham and cheese macaroni - the lazy way

Being a she I once stood in front of a package of lasagna, fresh cut courgettes and no idea how to combine the two. I had a cup of ricotta left in my fridge ... and why not? I mixed the ricotta cheese with milk till I had a white sauce. Used it instead of bechamel (bechamel always has lumps because I always get sidetracked while making it) ... and I never ever tried to prepare any other version of cheese/ white/ bechamel sauce ever again. It's quick. It's low fat. It's she-proof .... and it's yummie. So now you know my little secret on all my ricotta based sauces ... and in this case my 5 -10m (depending on pasta cooking time and how quick you get the water boiling) food-on-the-table-miracle. Cutting up the ham and fixing the sauce, is so easy and quick. You have time over to clean up, fix an extra salad and set the table before your pasta is cooked :)

Now that's what I call comfort food! And when DH calls in he's late for dinner ... or a kids play-date runs out ... under the grill with lots of extra cheese for extra yuminess and extra twisters-time :)

Toddlers thursdays - chores

Did you help out doing chores when you were a kid? I didn't ... not in a routine way. My DM(mother) was a p* BO ... the idea of doing something any other way of the "right way" would totally freak her out lol. So I did almost nothing except for some rare close to mothers day moments.
I would like my kids the value of a common "home" where everyone shares responsibilities to bless the house in their own way. It's beyond a doubt, that as long as my routine are still this premature ... it's hard to expect them to have rock solid ones ... especially because their routines depend greatly on mine lol. But at least they start to get the idea that ...

1. after school: we change shoes, hang jackets and bags, wash hands
2. before bed: we pick up toys for one song (thanks Flylady and Housefairy), wash and brush teeth, have a story, drink some water ... go to bed
3. in the morning: wash and brush teeth, get dressed to shoes, eat Bf, take meds

You can imagine how proud I was when yesterday my DD4 was explaining our routines to my DM who is staying over to help me out while DH is away on a business-trip :)

Wordless wednesday - Waffles

What an idea to try and make a pic of the first waffle being eaten ...

Lifestyling tuesdays - pampering

Well , DH is on a business trip this week, so no gym tonight ... sigh. But, hey I will push myself upstairs, do half an hour on my bike and then ... then, I will indulge for a rare luxury since I became a mum ... no no, no quick shower tonight ... I will take a luxury bath, with candles, my bath pillow and ... silence :)

One of my lifestyling missions, is to reduce medication for DH, DK and me. Some time back, their was a new law which made it possible to demand the producers of medicine to make their meds testings public. Well, I don't hear a lot about it any more, but apparently there is a whole black list of seemingly harmless meds that are quite commonly used with very high risks. Now I know that there are committees watching out for our health, and that they have their own tests ... but still ever since I saw those articles in the papers my view on meds have seriously changed.

Still the small colds and aches can't all be beaten by a healthy lifestyle with lots of sports, fruits, veggies and limited sweets and fat ... especially since I tend to forget about the enough sound sleep part ;)
So I try to find some natural remedies for the most common problems at my house:

1. stuffy nose: fennel! (Not suited for small kids in concentrated versions!!) Leek, celery ... they all tend to help. I make fennel-apple pie for kids. Or give them some honey with added fennel oil. Leek-celery soup ... Or the sliced onion next to your pillow. Really works and I don't need no tests to tell me that it's much healthier than those nose drops you can buy at the pharmacist.
2. cough: herbal chest creams, but the biological reform version. They have special ones for small kids too. Mint tea with honey. Mint sweets. Raise the head of the bed.
3. sore throat/disinfectant: roman (wild) camomile flowers. Make tea with the flowers with lots of honey. You can also use the flowers for painful red eyes (after you poured some boiling water on it and let it cool down a bit.)
4. nausea: ginger, in tea, raw, cooked and in sweets.

Well I wish I could restore my voice by some miracle plant ... apparently the camomile can do some good ... but especially the staying silent .... not good at it at all ;/

Monday Flylady Blessings - control journal (CJ)

A few months back, I saw my fragile and premature routines slipping through my fingers and alongside my path the flylady train was riding slowly, reaching out my wings I somehow managed to lose. How could I have fallen off again! And before jumping back on I realised that I would have to lower my pace. Maybe I would lose some wagons of the train now and then, but hey as long as I could stay on board it would be an improvement right!

So I let go of my p* and thought about a smaller objective than the official babystepping. I planned before I started playing. What would bless my life most right there and then. Not the official monthly focus, daily mission, first babystep ... I needed to adapt the system before I would drawn in my feelings of being overwhelmed. It was laundry. It took me until today to adapt my routines to a new balance. Not a P* one but one that no longer suffocates me. I will be still working on it to get it to a subconscious routine, a routine that is set so solidly that not doing ii would be unnatural ... but hey ... lots of one-loads-a-day ahead to help me obtain my goal ;)

Then I added another wagon. The swish and swipe, which rescued my bathroom from the chaos which had set in at a speed I couldn't have thought as possible! And as an extra boost leaves me with an enormous feeling of control. I just love knowing by bathroom and toilets are clean ... and with almost no effort at all. Only making sure my supplies are in place seems to be the "hard" part, and still needs some better coordination.

Then I realized that many of my problems, as warned by the Flylady, are rooted in a bad evening routine and a bad attitude. Si I tried to address it. And as with the other wagons, they are not yet steadily fastened to the flylady train. I started by being very firm about the laundry. Making it in a 15m ritual, adding some folding and putting away after loading the washing machine. Well not as firm lol, but more like an activating idea that I should not let it grow out of control, making sure that somehow through my day I would start "seeing" the other laundry babysteps and just DO it lol. And as a last chance doing it while the kids are dozing off after their bed-night routine.
And lately many pieces of the puzzle started to come together in a very intuitive way, my evening routine is becoming better and better ... I still give in some nights to Princessy and call it a day before my BBR is finished, and sometimes my daily routines get messed up by out of the ordinary activities, blowing me and my premature routines of my feet. But still ... my home is making me feel good lately ... the guilt and the p* drive have become less prominent ... my wings are getting stronger ... and the Flylady voice is whispering that I'm doing just fine.
And now? Well last week I was doing some shopping at one of my favourite places. And I was wondering if I could treat myself to some new supplies, knowing I have whole room of unloved binders, notebooks, pencils and papers ... I gave in to a new simple light blue binder, pretty paper with pink and green flowers with tab-sheets to match. I decided right then and there to redo my old and hardly used control journal. Now it is time to get some routines on paper. And to start some time-management. I already realized that my computer time had to be restricted, and managed to free up some much needed time. Now I have to see how I can divide it over family, home and school. And my control journal will help me :)

Sunday? Family fun! ... well we tried lol!

We planned a trip to an amusement park, but they rented the place out to a firm ... so that part of the fun passed us by. Luckily DH soothed the disappointment for the kids by entertaining them with wii games! Very lucky indeed, because I had a very hard time letting go of my anger towards the managers of the park because of their lack of informing the public about the park being closed all day ... grrr ... on top of that my cold has worsened and I hardly have any voice left... very strange sunday it was ...

Saturdays blessings - Swimming

I had been planning a swim for quite a while now, but somehow we never made it to the pool. Silly because, these swimming outings are so treasured by the kids, they really make their day Some periods DS will ask at least once a day when we will go again ... really makes me feel guilty that I don't seem to do it more often. But I put both children on the waiting list for the local swimming school ... so that frog is eaten :)
So yesterday we were all blessed with some loving family movement, further I concentrated on the continuous battle with the fast growing Mt Washmore. It is still a fight, but a very civil one lol. I know, that I can manage the never-ending laundry story, although it is a lot of daily work ... I can do it!
And finally a nice ending of my day: my outing with some friends I made during my recovery at the hospital. We went to an Asian wok restaurant. Where they served all kinds of Asian foods. We had a lovely time ...

... one downside: a bit of a cold, no voice ... must be the swimming in combination with the chatter ... aaah can't bless everyone or everything lol!

Foodies Friday - Menu plan

Friday

Leftover Friday

Saturday

I'm out with friends for some Chinese food. DH and kids are eating the take away version ;)

Sunday

Planned a trip to an indoor amusement park. So I'll give crock-pot chili a try.

Monday

Free freezer day: carrots with mashed potatoes and veggie burger

Tuesday

Spaghetti bolognese. Fresh.

Wednesday

Red cabbage with sausages and potatoes.

Thursday

Spinach, rice, fish gratinated with cheese in the oven.

Toddlers thursdays - getting them dressed

This is the first year that DH is taking the biggest part on him for getting the kids launched. Before, I was either home or the few days I had to go to work, we would launch one kid each. Now they both have to go to kindergarten, and I'm working mornings so DH gets them ready for school.

He does a wonderful job, even with his morning temper lol. But one thing I can't trust him to do is chose the kids clothes. Even when I lay them out beforehand, he manages sometimes to mix up DS and DD clothes ;/

Now laying out the clothes in good Flylady tradition is part of the evening routine ... and one of my big time challenges, both for myself as for the kids. As the gentleman pointed out with the problem of getting up early: "Fire your early morning manager", well my " evening manager" is risking his job too. Do I have to sum up his excuses? Lol. The tiredness? The five more minutes in front of the computer? The OMG now it's really time to get to bed, lets forget all the rest?

Anyway, although far from the well-oiled routine machinery. I know found a system that seems to work for me. I use these organizers you see on the picture. That one is from ikea and really cheap. But I got mine as a free gift with the groceries I bought. I would prefer two small chests with cute little tagged boxes ... but for now this will have to do.

Each "shelf" is a day, and I put all the clothes in there for each day, whenever I'm in there room to put away the clean clothes. I don't know where I stole the idea.... but it works wonders for me!

Wordless wednesday - AP: Walk the walk

Lifestyling tuesdays - Paying it back / forward

Paying it back and forward ... but it doesn't have to be soething big at all! Doesn't it!

One of the things I want to change hugely is my way socializing skills. And by that I don't mean, the skills to talk for hours on the phone with friends, having a chat over a nice cup off coffee with a colleague, having family over for a meal ... I mean the part where you somehow show in words or action that you care for those who are having a rough time.

Cause there again my inner she steps in a lot. Not that I'm indifferent, or unwilling ... but there always seems to come up some kind of stupid reason NOT to do certain things.

NOT sending a card,because I didn't send it of right away ... and the message became "dated".
NOT going on a visit because I could be intruding in private sphere of people.
NOT making some kind of meal, because I made huge unmanageable plans.
NOT making a call, because I only had a few minutes to spare ...
NOT helping out someone I don't know, ... because I don't ... know them.

I could go on. Nevertheless, .... whatever excuse made ... it is almost always the worn one. Caring for other people: I have to step up, not only talk the talk ... So guess what this flybaby has for a AP task Wednesday?

Monday Flylady Blessings - Twisters

When I first found Flylady more than 5 years ago after googling some SOS organizing searches, I pretty much mastered crisis cleaning. Followed by a period of intense babystepping myself to routines, but after a while getting sloppy and falling off the wagon till another chaos aha moment kicked me right back on again.
Although many routines don't seem easy to master ... the falling-off-jumping-back-on routine has become easier lol! Especially thanks to my many flybaby-twittering-twisters. They keep me motivated, inspire me with all kinds of blessings, offer advice when going through rough patches ... But most importantly they all have such immense personalities! They really bring laughter in my days! And when mummy is happy ... the house gets blessed. I join in on T(op)O(f)T(he)H(our) reporting about what we managed to get done in an hour time ...and in the meanwhile enjoying a little coffee-machine-chat (as Diane would say) :) We share our P(lan)O(f)A(ction/ttack), which is so important for me, cause most days seem to roll by, and without one it's so easy to let the she in us take over control! We share recipes. Get all excited about watching a movie (together). Start funny projects like making sourdough starter from scratch ... I love my flybaby twisters :) Thank you all for being there!

Sunday? Family fun! - perspective

Sunday was quiet. Our friends that would have come over to go for a swim, couldn't make it. There 3weeks old baby caught a dangerous virus and both mother and baby need to stay in hospital till she is out of the woods. What awful news ... puts all my dilemmas right into perspective! So we all were a bit worried and stayed in for some calm activities. Kids played nicely and we did some more activities out of their magazine.

Later that night I wen to visit my friends at hospital. Heartbreaking, such a poor little one hooked on all those tubes. But I'm under the impression that the doctors have it under control, so that's a relief...

Saturdays blessings - S

The S from Stress was requesting my attention on Saturdays balancing acrobat' s act. The juggling of fun and blessings doesn't come natural to me. Till suddenly I had a flylady whisper ... ok not so sudden ... and ok I might already have had lots of hints pointing in the direction of a possible solution ... but somehow some messages are hard to digest. The sinking in process is time and energy-consuming and the bricks of truths somehow get pulled back up to the surface ... waiting for a new AHA to start sinking in AGAIN! Lol!
Anyway for my stressfreesaturdayfunandhomeblessing I need the S from small. I just need to see the bigger picture through the small pleasures. I love my timer for breaking time into manageable sessions varying from 5m to 15m, sometimes in sessions of 45m or an hour. They are very concrete. No escaping the buzzer. Both rescuing us from Princessy and the inner hyperfocused cleaning/organizing/creative banshee ;)
But why love the Small Slices of time, but whenever it comes to my children, food, my relationship with dh, schoolwork, fun activities I tend to get stuck in the all-or-nothing-trap. All my dreams tend to be big, bigger, biggest lol. I don't have to explain the becoming overwhelmed-guilt-self pity -chocolates-in-front-of-telly-syndrome I guess ...
So up till now, after being energy-deprived due to being ill, I tried to overfocus the fun with the family I wouldn't allow myself anymore to give in on family life because of work Or better because of my perfectionist views om what a teacher should do, or what a principle may expect from my work. I would put my health, my family, centimes first. Weekends are family time. But somehow this focus ended up putting my health last because I started to neglect my schoolwork, plan and play for the home-blessings ... bringing in the Stress ...
No my family, my kids don't need whole day outings to the coast, theme parks etcetera every weekend. Small pleasures can make a child's day. Small gestures can put a smile on dh face. And I guess the end result won't be small at all if I manage to keep these insights in mind!
So yesterday I first had a session of poor-ole-me, because there was "lots" of home to be blessed and "only" an evening outing to my school for dinner. Luckily I remembered this kids-magazine subscription with lots of fun activities. Small fun activities. Easy activities. Up till now I had procrastinated about using them. Because I first wanted to scan the magazine for re-use. Because there were some activities which needed special materials. Because I only had a few minutes to spare. Because I didn't have t... Hit me hit me hit me lol. Actually please don't, who knows I might forget what I (hopefully) just learned :)
So I gathered the kids and asked if I would read a story (mostly I only read a bedtime story) ... they were thrilled ... Ok no lets burst the pictureP*idyllic scene ... dd was thrilled ... ds saw the story and though about all the other books we have and started to get them out of the chest lol ... anyway I read for about 5m and both kids were happy! I could go on with my home-blessings. After some time I did another activity with them: 10m! "When will we do the next one?" I was dreading the question for quite some time. But she accepted my answer, that first I had to work a bit and that I would join her in a bit for another activity.
At the end of the day, my house wasn't picture P*, the resume of the day wasn't impressive ... but I certainly was impressed by my new love for the Small :)

Foodies Friday - slowcooking fun + menu plan

Still very excited about my new toy in the kitchen. My first dish was a succes, so I hope that I can keep the slowcooking fun going :) So lets see what I can try for next week!

Saturday

While the day before, I went to the school fundraiser to help out. Today the family and I will be going to do a little sponsering ourself. We will have a variety of cheeses, meat, and sweet cooked or marinated fruits ...and of course nice desserts to chose from.

Sunday

We will have friends over, but they didn't specify if they will be joining us for dinner. They are kind of picky when it comes to food (they have a strong taste for junkfood lol) but I hope we can pleaze them with tomato, salmon, mozzarella brushettas. And I will make brownies for dessert.

Monday

Free freezer day: I will thaw some spaghetti bolognese.

Tuesday

Potatoes (making extra for wednesday menu too) with leek in ricotta endive sauce with falafel.

Wednesday

Fishsticks with carrots-mashed potatoes mix, and fresh salad.

Thursday

Rice, tomato based sauce, peppers, carrots, chervil and porc in slowcooker :)

Friday

Leftover friday

Toddlers thursdays - toys&the holidays

("part" of the boxes for charity)

I love buying toys for my kids. I could wander around toy stores for hours and hours, finding endless things that could brighten the lives of my kids. And so I'll admit... My name is flybabyf and I'm addicted to buying toys! :/

But that wouldn't be so bad if I were the only one. But the T(oybuyers) A has multiple members in our family .. no wonder that my first holiday cruising mission was to attack the toy chests from the kids.

When I saw the advert a few weeks back, where we could put toys in shoe-boxes to be donated to poor kids in the eastern of Europe ... well I new this was my chance to get rid of lots and lots of the untouched toys. The ones that they had outgrown, or just plainly didn't care for. The little stuff I gave while potty training them, or when I was trying to teach them a new routine.

We spent aaaaall of yesterday afternoon, decorating shoe-boxes (kids) and going through heaps and heaps of toys ... before finally every toy had its place and every place had its ... pheeew ... no longer had its toys :)

DS still doesn't have a clue what will be happening with the toys in the boxes. That was easy ... but DD didn't object to letting go lots of her toys. Don't know if we are ready for more and new toys yet ... but at least we hit a lick at a s... :)

PS: Was difficult but let dk do the decorating their own way and managed the desire to step in and help them make it prettier lol!

Wordless wednesday - Crockpot/slowcooker "christening"

Vegetarian tajine ... tried, approved ... and sadly second to no leftovers ;/