The Mommy Challenge: Week 2

Slow Down

This weeks challenge was to slow down. Now, I had to ask myself "How does one slow down when there are 3 kids, 1 mommy, and a daddy that is working 6 hours away & is gone all week?" Well, I took baby steps and started slowly....Instead of rushing the kids out the door without any warning in the morning, I gave them a good 5 minutes of "We are leaving in 5 minutes, be ready to go!" And you know what? It worked! I wasn't cranky, the kids all got to the car on time without anybody crying and the day started better. I also had to slow down when it came to the grocery shopping and didn't get all crazy with my lists and running from store to store with a list of the best deals. I stuck with Safeway and didn't go until later in the week. It worked out pretty well, I still got some good deals, & I didn't rush the kids through the store. I also got all of the laundry done in one day in order to prep for a possible out of town getaway (which didn't happen so the perk was all of the laundry was done before the weekend!). The kids help put there own clothes away & instead of having them put it away when I wanted it done, I waited until they had some down time & then asked them to put it away, which also resulted in less whining & fights. I learned a lot this week! The new things happening in the Remacle house are to give the kids some warning before we leave instead of expecting them to be ready to go when I am and to also ask the kids to help with some of the chores when they have down time instead of wanting it done right that second....the chores will wait for a little bit and the kids will be more apt to help without all of the fighting and whining.

The Mommy Challenge: Week 1

Eat Dinner With Your Kids

So, I guess I should give you a little history of what I am doing here. I found this challenge on Pintrest (No Way! LOL) and thought this would be a good thing for our family, and for me. It's a mini challenge for you to strengthen your relationship with your kids one week at a time. Her blog is called Live a FabuLESS life and is pretty neat with lots of great ideas. Her first challenge is to (obviously from the title) eat dinner with your kids. And oh boy howdy, did she get some criticism on this one...apparently people can't fathom the idea of not sitting down and eating as a family. However, as a mommy who has three picky eaters, and a daddy that doesn't get home until after 7:00 if he is able to come home at all, I have to poo-poo those critizers. We made it a general rule to eat together on Sunday nights and when Ray is out of town I do my best to sit down and eat with the kids. And when Ray does come home, I feed the kids and cook dinner for us while they are eating. Thus, I get to hang out with them and cook at the same time. I did learn some new things this week...for instance if Sean could pick any animal that he wanted to be he would a cheetah because they run fast. And since Ray was out of town for this first week of the challenge, I was able to actually sit down with the kids several nights & of course our Sunday night dinner with Ray (which was delicious by the way!)

As you can see, we don't get to formal for dinners! This was taken on Thursday night....