Category: personal

her own bed

Well, Meredith sleeps in her own bed now. Sort of. I say that after two good nights and one disaster. This is how it went down:

We talked about it a lot on Saturday. I told her what our new bedtime routine would be (bath, brush teeth, read books, sing songs, say prayers, lights out – we have been very lax about the bedtime routine in the past) and I tried to be very straightforward about the fact that she sleeps in her own bed now. Not: if you sleep in your own bed you get a reward! Just: this is where you sleep now; you’re a big girl. She whined about it a little, but not much.

Saturday night she got a 103.2 degree fever, but I decided to push through with the plan anyway. I did skip the bath because she was overtired and not feeling well. (By the way, she was fine the next day.) But we did the rest of the routine, and then I turned a white noise app on. I didn’t lie in bed with her but I sat on the floor next to the bed and she was asleep in, oh, five minutes. (There were two wakeups that night; the second time I just brought her to bed with me.)

Sunday she cried a lot more about it during the day. But we stuck to the plan and she was asleep in less than two minutes. (That night she came to bed with me at 1 a.m. because her wakeup coincided with Liam being awake and fussing, so I couldn’t get up to put her back to sleep. Husband and I later communicated about that and he will be putting her back in her bed if that happens again.)

Yesterday she took a late nap and wouldn’t fall asleep; I had to let David take over the vigil and I don’t know what happened except that she came in my bed at midnight and I was too tired to get up with her. So we are regressing day to day, but I’m not giving up!

It’s most important to me that she go to sleep in her own bed. I actually don’t care much if she comes to my bed in the middle of the night or early morning. But I really want to reclaim the evening, and this is the first step. I think once we get this down we will let it settle in for a couple of weeks and then think about Liam.

The heat is relentless. Is it where you are, too? Our air conditioner is broken yet again. Such a bummer. We push forward. We go to the park anyway. We fill up the kiddie pool. We also stay inside a lot. We watch TV and we do crafts and we pet the cats and we visit grandparents and we go to book club and we play silly games.

August 4, 2015
around here

I’m not sleeping well. It’s been a problem for awhile now. The combination of Meredith staying up too late and Liam waking up all night (because if he’s not sick, he’s teething) is getting to me. Sometimes I feel like my whole life would be perfect if only the kids would sleep in their own beds and I could get a decent night’s sleep.

How would you tackle it, if you had a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old who have slept in bed with you all their lives? And you have gone to sleep at the same time as them that whole time? And your 1-year-old still nurses at night? And the crib and the twin bed are in the same room? Because I need a plan.

Other than the sleep issue, we are chuggin’ along. We’re basically in hibernation mode because the heat is unbearable. The kids have watched more Daniel Tiger than is probably healthy. We had a friend and her son over for a mid-week dinner – something we rarely do – but it was so great. All the toys were suddenly fun again, like they were playing with them for the first time. Really they were just showing off. Meredith talked in detail about all of her birthday presents, and Liam was hamming it up playing Peekaboo and carrying the cats everywhere and just generally being crazy.

I’m a few weeks into a weight lifting program, and it’s going well. I’m sore all the time though. I’ve also been going to yoga once a week consistently. Once I get the routine down a bit more, I’m planning to add running back into my schedule. Do any of you have a Fitbit? I’ve had it for work for a year (we have to wear it to get lower insurance premiums) and it’s not nearly as motivating to me as I expected it to be. I rarely make my goal of 10,000 steps per day no matter how many challenges I join. My father-in-law routinely hits 20,000 steps per day and it’s kind of sickening. Obviously, the Fitbit works for him.

I joined Snapchat. It makes me feel like an idiot/a hundred years old, but I persevere. The username “kapachino” was taken (WHO ARE YOU??) so I’m “kapachinoblog” over there. Also, when I first signed up someone was already using it under my email address so that was weird and I totally commandeered their profile. Anyway, you’ll probably see mostly random stuff of my kids and cats if you follow my story. (Is that the right lingo? I don’t even know.) Also, Periscope. Are we doing Periscope now?

I have some fun plans this weekend. A social gathering for quilters on Instagram, dessert with a friend, and book club. I also started cutting fabric for Meredith’s quilt this week, so maybe I can make some progress on that. I sort of set up my week in the life album and I’m getting excited for that project.

Let’s discuss: how to get my kids out of my bed, Snapchat, weekend plans.

July 31, 2015
around here // worn out
I’m reporting to you after what felt like a very long week, and rarely have I been more grateful for a 3-day weekend with zero plans.

Liam was sick with fever for two whole weeks. What started as a virus led to an ear infection and then to a stubborn sinus infection. I mean, 17-month-olds barely even have sinuses, but whatever Liam has wasn’t very happy. You can imagine that he also wasn’t sleeping well and was pretty fussy.

Thanks to incredible support from my mom, mother-in-law, and of course my husband, I only missed one day of work and went in late another day. It’s stressful because I have already been “verbally warned” about unscheduled days off at work even though I’m doing the best that I can with a son who has been sick literally ten different times in the past half year. Obviously, I am so grateful that his illnesses aren’t major and that I have a job – and my director is so understanding, she even hated to give me the warning but she has to be fair. So that’s been the undercurrent of life lately – classic working mom probs.

Some other stuff I’ve been thinking about…
- Establishing a solid strength training routine
- Meredith’s 4th birthday party – it’s just for family (25-ish people) at the park. What’s the cheapest way to feed everyone (no grills)?
- A good night’s sleep…I daydream about it.
- Ice cream. I want it all the time.
- How to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible.
Alright, let’s have a great, restful weekend and meet back here on Monday. Sound good? Okay!
July 3, 2015
LIGHT : june
I’m continuing on the fairly positive path I started on at the end of April regarding my journey with the word “light.” I’ve pretty well recovered emotionally from a rough couple of months before that, and now I just have to keep the over-achiever in me at bay.

When I look at each area of life that I’ve been focusing on – spiritual, emotional, physical, relationships, and creative, I see that there are a lot of positive things happening in each one, but also progress to be made. Right now I’m choosing to focus on the positive.

This month was a writing-heavy one, kind of like a mid-year reflection. It was a helpful exercise.

I looked back at the action items I wrote down a couple of months ago, and I was pleased that I had made some progress. I was also pleased that they still resonate with me, even though I acknowledge that I won’t be accomplishing as much as I expected.

I really liked the last couple of questions in this exercise; they asked what one specific action I’d take this month to move forward, and also what three things I’d like to accomplish before the end of the year.

What I did this month was to choose a mantra from a Bible verse that I can recite to myself constantly to bring the focus back to my word. 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” And my new mantra is walk in the light as he is in the light.

The three things I want to accomplish by the end of the year are:
1. Have a solid workout routine involving strength, running, and yoga.
2. Actually clear guest room of items to be donated.
3. More prayer: alone and with the kids.
Here are the monthly reflection cards for May and June:

Halfway through the year and I still feel very connected to my word!
June 29, 2015
what we splurge on

As we are working on our family budget and getting serious about paying off debt and saving money, I thought it would be worthwhile to examine what we want to include that might be considered a splurge. These are things that we could cut out if needed but at this point in time are still important enough to us to account for. Here is what I came up with:

1. Air conditioning. We live in Houston and it is H-O-T. I can’t sleep well at night unless the house is cool, and David can’t be in the house at all if it’s too hot. We definitely keep it cooler than many people would but it’s huge for our quality of life.

2. Daycare activities. We pay a little extra each month for Meredith (and Liam, when he gets to be old enough) to do the “extra” activities at daycare. When Meredith was younger it was a weekly music class, and now she is doing Phonics. I personally don’t care if she learns her letters in preschool or not, but she really enjoys it and she definitely is learning.

3. Family outings. We’re talking small stuff like frozen yogurt, rides on the mall carousel, and the movies (with Meredith or date nights). These kinds of things aren’t necessary but they are so fun for us that it’s worth it, although we have cut down on the frequency.

4. Clothing basics. I don’t do much clothes shopping, but when I buy something for me it’s going to be good quality and versatile and preferably ethically made. I rarely (almost never) buy new clothes for the kids – we do hand-me-downs from friends & family as well as thrift stores when needed – but I do buy them new high-quality shoes. They wear pretty much the same shoes until they are worn out so it’s a good investment.

5. Gifts. Our extended family still does gift exchanges for birthdays and although we don’t go insane with the spending, we do still spend more than is probably necessary.

Other than that we really try to cut out all extra spending, although it’s a work in progress! What does your family splurge on, and where do you save?

June 24, 2015