TigerFIT

I’ve been really busy the past few days, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been slacking in the kitchen. I’ve come up with a few recipes and snacks so I’m gonna share them really quick.

First I have to start by saying 

THREE KIDS = VERY TIRING!

I haven’t given enough credit to those little monsters, how many messes they can make, how quickly, how much laundry they accumulate, and HOW MUCH FOOD THEY REQUIRE. Wow, I’m tired.

I’ve set a few domestic-y goals for myself, but whether I can reach them and stick with it, well, we will see…

1. Have an empty kitchen sink every night and a full, clean dishwasher in the morning.  Walking into a kitchen without dirty dishes sure takes a lot of the overwhelming pressure and stress away.
2. Keep my kitchen countertops clean and free of junk.  My house has a circular design (let me tell you how much fun it is trying to chase a 2 year old who needs a diaper change around the circle- He always outsmarts me!) Having the circular design automatically turns my countertops in the kitchen into a drop off zone for anything and everything. Again, walking into a kitchen with clean countertops makes me less stressed and more willing to work and play in the kitchen.
3. Do a load of towels every night/ keep up with the laundry  I’ve never lived anywhere with humidity before. I cannot believe that if I leave my laundry in the washer for more than an hour, a mold/musty smell starts to linger on everything. I’ve done the same load of towels about 6 times because I can never remember to go upstairs and put them in the dryer. If I could keep up on the towels every day, it would make the laundry room a lot less smelly.
4. Keep the main living areas clean, free of toys, and VACUUMED every night before I go to bed. I use to do this every morning, but I had to be quiet because the baby is the lightest sleeper I’ve ever met, and I really cherish the 20 kid-free minutes I have in the morning before they start waking up at 7 am. I started cleaning all this in the evening, and it feels SO good to walk downstairs and have a clean, semi-clutter free, vacuumed house.
5. Get the kids to bed by 9 pm and figure out a frickin schedule for the baby.  Moving into this house has been hard.  The kids were use to their own rooms, and it really helped when it was bed time. Before we moved, I had them in a nice routine, complete with naps and kid-free time at night for mom. But staying in hotels for about 2 weeks on our way out here really threw that all off course. The then 18 month old Little Red learned to climb out of his crib to the point where it was a life-threatening situation to leave in it, so he went to a toddler bed (nightmare) and the then 4 year old stopped going to bed at 9:30 because he didn’t have Pre-K out here (it took the school district 4 months to enroll him) so his bedtime turned into my bedtime. Also, my mom came out here with me to help because I was pregnant, so it was exciting to sleep in grandma’s room and not their own beds. Lately I’ve been putting them in their room, reading some books, then shutting the door and making sure they stay in. They whine, they cry, they come up with every excuse in the world (I didn’t put my toys away, I need to brush my teeth again, etc.) but finally they go to sleep.  As far as the baby, I don’t remember how to get a baby into a nap routine. He seems to be up ALLLL DAY and won’t go to sleep unless he is nursed to sleep, which can be cumbersome when I am trying to do other things. Also, I’m paranoid about him rolling over in the crib and not being able to roll back over. You’d think this was my first baby. They somehow survived though.

So those are my goals. I think if I can accomplish those things, it will make my life a lot less stressful, which will hopefully aid in my weight loss and lifestyle change. Does anyone have any good routines, parenting tips, or household strategiesI that make their life easier? I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment!