School Soon, Ugh!

As we near the end of the summer, it occurs to me I haven't blogged a whole lot this month. It's not a big deal that I haven't, but a lot has happened.

 We started to cloth diaper the baby. That's right you heard me cloth diaper. It's absolutely hands down the best way to diaper a baby. I've found it actually a TON easier then disposables. I'm sure everyone wondering how this is possible. Well for one, there isn't pee diapers in the diaper pail anymore. Yeah we have diaper pails for the cloth, but it's different and they are downstairs in the laundry room. The garbage doesn't stink like dirty diapers anymore. Poop gets flushed, the cloth gets rinsed and sprayed and tossed in the diaper pails in the laundry room. If we are out they get put in the wet bag till we get home. I wash every night and she only goes through about 6 diapers a day, 7 if you include her overnight one. I have to tell you I don't miss spending money on disposables, nor do I miss changing them. The biggest way I realized this was Kaylee's doctors appointment this last Friday. They have you take the diaper off to weight them, and then put it back on. Then when the doctor comes in he opens it up to check her stomach and hips and stuff. I didn't have to change her simply because the cheap ass disposable tabs wouldn't open and close that many times. It was awesome.

The kids went and spent some time with their father this month. They had fun, but now it's time to get back into going to bed early in preparation for school to start Wednesday. Fall is for sure on it's way.  Days have been cooler, and some of the leaves in the back yard are turning the faintest of yellows and reds. It feels like year after year this happens sooner and sooner.

I go back to school September 12th. Shortly after that my loving hubby goes away for a few days on business. Let me tell you me starting school the kids being back in school and miss fussy pants, it should be a fun few days (NOT). We will manage though, we usually do.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else new that's gone on. I don't think there has been, so that's it for now.

THAT'S IT!!

This week has tested my patience. I'm not sure if it's because it seems like they are on an anti-listening rampage, or because It feel's like I do everything. The truth of the matter is, it could be both. I don't like repeating myself, I never have. I also don't like being being told someone will do something, and having that person not follow through. With Tyler turning 11, I'm backing off nagging him about things. I'll remind him a few times throughout the day, but that's it. As he get's older he needs to learn to self motivate. If I'm always up his butt about doing things and pushing him to do them, he'll never learn to do them on his own. He'll always require someone telling him what to do. Tonight we sat down and talked about this. Now, for anyone that knows Tyler he's always had a bit of a giggling problem. This can be frustrating when you are trying to be serious with him. We discussed three things both kids need to work on. I'm tired of having to yell, and they are tired of me yelling. Now, let me explain what happens. I calmly ask them to do something (more then once mind you) then I bring out the loud voice. I don't like to, but it seems to work. Sometimes even then it takes natural consequences kicking in for them to realize that I'm not being unreasonable in asking them to stop. Oh, have I mention I hate these ages? Well I do. To give you an example, all three kids were sitting on Kaylee's puzzle mat in the kitchen. Julie and Tyler were putting blocks in their mouths and spitting them back and forth at each other, making the baby laugh. Well after a few minutes, I asked them to stop. They didn't of course. Then I asked them again to stop, because someone was going to get hurt. They again, ignored my warning. Before I got a chance to raise my voice Julie did it again, and hit Kaylee square in the face with the block. She was made to sit on the step, for not listening. We talked about it, she apologized to Kaylee and was let up. So tonight we talked about the things that needed to change around here.

We decided,
     1. They need to listen the first time.
     2. If they say they are going to do something, they need to do it.
     3. They need to do one thing around the house to help out each day.

These things seem simple, but we'll see how it goes. We will be following up in a week to see how they did the previous week. I will teach them self discipline, self motivation, and follow through. This is a daunting task that I swear I'll accomplish even if it turns every last hair on my head grey.

We also talked about the things they are missing. Reasons why they are acting the way they are ect, ect. I would post all that, but I will not publicly post their thoughts and feelings, because their feelingst are not mine to post.

Will update to let you all know how it goes.

August Already :\

Here we are a couple of days into a new month. Big shopping is done. Food prep and freezing is finished. I ended up with too much this time, so I'm making a batch of spaghetti sauce for my MIL. I made banana bread, and a cheesy beefy spiral pasta dish for lunch. Starting tomorrow it's laundry and cleaning time. Our family made a few changes for this month. The first we started clipping coupons. I already shopped the flyer, but I figured coupons couldn't hurt either. I'll get the Sunday paper every week and save the ones for products we use, then next time I go shopping I'll have between a month to two months worth of coupons saved up. My goal? is to save us half of our grocery bill by shopping the flyer and coupons. This time I saved us a little over 20% on our groceries. Not too bad, for a first time coupon clipper. The second thing we've changed for this month is we started cloth diapering Kaylee. After going on vacation with my family and going through over 60 diapers in 9 days, I decided that was too much money to just throw away. She is currently still wearing a disposable at night (a cloth solution for nights is in the works). The only other time we put her in a disposable is when we go somewhere knowing we won't have time to change her. For instance I went food shopping with her, to avoid a possible leak through she wore a disposable. We've only had two leak throughs since starting her on cloth diapers, and I chalk both up to inexperience. As with learning anything new, there is a period of adjustment, but it seems to be working for us so far.

We had an awesome time on vacation, was happy to be home, but sad it was over. Everyone had so much fun. I can't wait for the kids birthday party in a couple weeks, so I can see my family once again.

I still struggle with my patience sometimes with the older two. Part of this is because they have taken a liking to arguing when they are told to do something. I'm not sure where they got the idea they can negotiate when they are told to do something, but it weren't from me. Also we have a rule here, that they don't eat in the living-room or walk around in the kitchen while eating. This saves on messes, or at least keeps the mess in one general location. So we've had to struggle with the enforcement of that rule lately, to the point we've caught them sneaking food into the living-room. I know that pushing the boundaries is a normal part of being a kid. I learned in my parenting class in college that kids do it to make sure they are still safe, because kids need and want rules. I totally understand this, but enough is enough already. It also could be their emergence into the pre-teen years, also something I am not exactly looking forward to.

We keep on keeping on. Jon is working a lot these days with his second and third jobs. I sure am glad he likes what he does or he'd be crazy with all the work he takes on. Kaylee is working on learning to walk, a milestone I'm in no hurry for her to reach. The other two are enjoying being kids, and taking pride in pushing my buttons. As the summer presses on, it comes to my attention how quickly this summer has flown by. Soon it will be packing lunches and backpacks and back to school they will go. Then it's back to school for me as well.

So we'll enjoy the 3 weeks and change we have left, and be thankful when it's not raining or snowing.