Simplify

Thanks to my finally sitting down to read Daring Young Mom, I am now attempting to simplify my life.

I know for many of you that might cause you to think "What is she talking about?" I implore you, if you are feeling like a whirling dervish, or that you only see your beloved and/or children in a blur of motion as you shuttle between your home, car, and various drop-off points for activities, READ WHAT THIS WOMAN WRITES.

Now that I have praised The Daring One for today, I shall enlighten you my readers (if there are any of you out there not already doing this...):

The Daring One has undertaken to simplify her life over the last 2 weeks. First, she took out musical stimulation, and listened only to classical music. Obviously, this can be tailored to your own preference and you can listen to anything without words, or, to nothing at all. One of her readers mentioned that in the silence in her car, she has her best conversations with God. I was inspired, and have actually not had the television on in our house for the entire day. And yes, we were home during this time. :D Seriously though...she brought up a good point in her reflection at the week's end for this - she was amazed at the thoughts there were to think. Which, of course, got me to thinking (ironic, isn't it?) about what my stimulation overload was due to. I have thought long and hard about this, mostly in the middle of the night, while everyone else sleeps, and my mind whirls. Generally, my mind whirls along the path of "all that I have to do", and it was tough to stop that track, and keep to thinking about what is making me "all hepped up on goofballs", as my good friend Chief Wiggum likes to say.

I have decided that my attachment to certain television entertainments is keeping me from spending quality time with my munchkins...and wasn't that the entire reason I decided to stay home with them in the first place? To insure that someone else was NOT raising my children, and instilling in them things I don't want instilled?

SO - in addition to no music with words at our house, or in the car when I'm the only adult, there will be no television while the children are awake during the day. This means that Captain Chaos will have to get along without Playhouse Disney for 2+ hours in the morning while I "do housework" (which really means read the newspaper, have a second cup of coffee, putter in my kitchen, straighten and tidy the house). It does not benefit him to watch that much television at one time. While it is cute that one of his Matchbox cars is missing a piece, and he said "Oh, Mommy! Handy Manny on a phone a fitz it!", I am saddened that he did not think of his Daddy and the large set of skills and tools that could have been called upon to fix said car.

I am trying to catch up with the folks doing this, so will be working on the Audio Detox for the first half of the week, and the Not Multi-Tasking at Meals the second half.

This is a ginormous issue for me...I am the one who does the cooking, and sets the table, in an effort to have dinner waiting for BB when he arrives home from work. If, for some reason, he does not get home until after 6pm, I have usually fed the children, and am ready to gnaw off my arm when he does. On nights he is not home, I can focus on what I am eating, not inhaling my dinner, not getting up 87 times during said meal, and, not focusing on the children and their table manners, or lack thereof. On nights when we actually get to eat dinner together, however...it is a different scenario altogether. I am up getting refills, tissues for Tiny Princess' snotty nose (honestly, the girls has been congested since she was 5 months old, darn those teeth!), telling Captain Chaos to use his fork/ask for help/not talk with his mouth full/stop turning his cup upside down/stop banging his fork on the table/stop putting his fork in his ear...you get the idea. It drives BB insane that I cannot complete a sentence or thought, let alone that I often stop what I'm doing to do something else, and then something else after that until around 9pm I'm wondering why the leftovers are still on the counter...

Here are my goals to work through the remaining days of the week, and then, I shall recap what I've done, and how I've fared etc., etc:

• NO TELEVISION unless it is my workout video
• NO MUSIC in the car or house
• HAVE EVERYTHING on the table for meals before we sit down, and only focus on eating my food. If the children need to be tended to, I shall do that first, and then feed myself afterward when I can focus on me
• TURN OFF THE RINGERS on the phones during mealtimes in the evenings. We have an answering machine for that very reason, why do I insist on leaping up from the table to answer a call that is most likely a pre-recorded message from some politician?

The Daring One has asked us to come back at the end of this week and share our "in a pinch" meals that we fall back on when we can't/won't make a trip to the store, or don't have anything planned. Funny, but when I read that, my mind started pulling up recipes like a madwoman, thinking of all the things that I cook "in a pinch"...