Two Reasons to Start Posting Again...

Owen and Eli.

They turned two less than two months ago and we are in the depths of power struggles, tantrums and control issues. The biggest issue we've been dealing with lately occurs every night at dinnertime. They hate their highchairs/being strapped down but they don't want to sit in a seat like a big boy. They have suddenly become uber-picky eaters too. They will literally put both hands over their mouths to block the food while they shake their heads back and forth in refusal. The infuriating thing is that they have to be hungry!

We're trying to figure out how to handle dinnertime without turning it into a power struggle. If they won't eat, do we just take the food away and make them go to bed hungry? Should they go straight to bed or be allowed to play? Should we give them their dinner at breakfast until they finally eat it? I don't want to be super stubborn about this, but I will not make toddler-popular dinners for them just because they won't eat what we're having. I want us to enjoy eating dinner together and right now, it is not an enjoyable time.

Please tell me that we're not the only ones with picky eaters. What do you do? What strategies have you tried that have worked or failed? What's the hardest you've ever come down on your kids over a power struggle issue? I know that trying to force them to do anything makes them 100% less likely to do it - so what are my options? Comment Comment Comment!!

Getting the Hang of This

I'm a newbie at this whole couponing thing, but my purchases tonight at Kroger sealed the deal for me to keep plugging along. I got:

• a gallon of milk


• 2 Gillette body washes


• 2 family size packages of pudding


• a container of Pampers wipes


• Dawn dish soap


• All laundry detergent


• Resolve Spray n Wash refill

... and only paid $10.65!!

I've been using SouthernSavers.com for help on the deals and coupons of the week at two of the local grocery stores and have really been seeing a big difference in the bottom line. My biggest hangup with coupons has always been that I felt that using coupons would tempt me to buy things that I wouldn't normally purchase, but that hasn't been the case so far. The trick is to use the coupons with sale items, not on full price (and over priced) items. I'd love to hear any success stories you have with couponing. What websites do you use for help? What strategies have you found work the best? Are you a CVSer? (I haven't been brave enough to try this one yet!) Share your tips!

Don't Mind Me... I'm Just Nesting

That's right. 23 weeks and already nesting. It's like I can't get things clean enough. Already this morning, I bundled up the two bags worth of garbage overflowing in the kitchen, took out the recycling, scrubbed the floor around the garbage can, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, washed and folded two loads of laundry (including crib sheets), put new sheets on both cribs, vacuumed the entire upstairs, used the vacuum attachment on both bathroom floors, Clorox wiped two highchairs, put all of my and Charlie's clothes away and took all miscellaneous toys back to the boys room that had walked all over the upstairs.

And it's only 11:36am.

I wish I could stop there. Yesterday I cleaned out my sock and underwear drawers (why is that such a feeling of accomplishment?!) organized my spice rack and refilled all the jars to the tops, wiped all the lint and extra detergent off the washer and dryer, organized my Tot School supplies and cleaned out both travel toiletry bags. Are we going on a trip any time soon? No.

I have big plans for my afternoon too - sweeping and vacuuming the downstairs, rotating toys, figuring out how to disassemble my double stroller to wash the seats (any ideas?!), make dinner, walk to Aldi with the boys, organize and file ideas from my parenting magazines and scrapbook. It's like the energy is never ending during the day and every time I look up there's something else calling my name. I was actually fantasizing about carpet powder this morning. You know, the stuff that you sprinkle on, vacuum up and it leaves your house smelling wonderfully fresh? I need to have it!

I know that nesting is normal, but when I looked back on this post, it was only a week before I had the boys, not 17 weeks! Oh my gosh, only 17 weeks to go... but there's so much to clean!

What weirdo nesting actions have you caught yourself doing in the past? Please tell me I'm not alone!

Almost Famous

"Parents, we have little paparazzi following us wherever we go. Little eyes and little ears are taking photographs and recording conversations. Everything we do and don't do, everything we say and don't say, every core value that we give to them - they are taking it all in. What are your children seeing in your life, in the way you parent and discipline them?" - Kid CEO: How to Keep Your Children from Running Your Life (by Ed Young, pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX) I read that and thought, "Wow, this is a huge responsibility - and one that doesn't go away for at least the next 18 years!" Though none of us are perfect, some parents still desire perfection from their kids. How can that be if they are just taking in what we are doing?! My problem has been in not modeling to my kids. I wouldn't say that the things I do and say during the day are wrong, but I'm not making the effort to do and say the things that are right. I (and Charlie by extension) have fallen into the pattern of thinking that the boys are just babies and they wouldn't understand what I was telling them anyway. By thinking this, I have neglected the very early stages of teaching them big and small things - from animal sounds and how to wave bye-bye to how to fold their hands and pray at mealtime and bedtime. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." From that, I gather that we are supposed to be diligent all the time. Have you ever thought about this? I would love to hear your reactions to the quotes and also your approach in modeling life to your kids. And if you have any stories about something your kids caught you doing and repeated, that would be fun too : )

Laundry Day

I get a sick satisfaction about doing laundry. I love taking a pile of clothes, making them smell good as new, folding them up and putting them away so they are no longer an eye-sore in the corner of our bedroom. The problem though, is that now that the boys are eating everything in sight, I have a lot more difficult stains to deal with.

Here are two things that I have found help:

• Have two piles for laundry - one that needs to be stain treated and one that doesn't. Usually the 'stain treated' pile is ALL of the boys clothes, but it still saves me from having to sort through them later (or worse, not realizing that something needed to be treated before washing it and ruining the article of clothing!)
• Put the kids in the tub IN their clothes! After dinner, if the boys got especially messy, I'll throw their shirts in the tub with them to rinse out many stains immediately. Just hang them over the shower rod to dry. Rinsing them out while they are still fresh eliminates some of the need for stain treating chemicals.

I'm looking for tricks to get out set in stains. I washed one of Owen's shirts and realized that the stain didn't come out before I put it in the dryer - what can I do now?

Do you have any tricks to make laundry day more successful? Share your strategies!