Life ... It's How You Live It.

All I can smell around here is the Jasmine. It is so beautiful. It covers the back fence on our "tuscan patio". This is the first spring that we've lived in this house and the first time we've seen it in blooom. It is glorious. Every time I open the window in this office, the smell just wafts in. It's not overpowering, just subtle and very soothing. Can you smell it ??

I've been making a few changes around here over the last couple of months. I like the results I am seeing. I'm sure I told you about our new nighttime routine. That is STILL working so well ! I'm thrilled.

Another change I've made is going to bed earlier. I had found myself in a pattern of not going to bed at the same time as Rory which left me staying up WAY too late. I'd be on facebook or reading blogs or playing games and the time would just get away from me. All fun stuff, all stuff I still do, but MUCH less now. And I'm in bed by 9:30 at the latest during the week. It's not that much later on the weekends though ... if we try to watch a movie, I inevitably fall asleep !!

I've made myself a basic morning routine that I've been able to stick to quite well. I get up at 5:00 and do my computer stuff until 6:30. I like getting this out of the way first ... otherwise, I'm wondering about it and distracted until I can get to it. Email and facebook are how I communicate with most of my family (since they live on the other side of the planet !) and I just love waking up and finding notes from them !!

At 6:30 I sit down with the rest of my cup of coffee (stone cold by now !) and my Bible. The kids are not usually up yet. But if they are I have them get a book or go do some coloring so the house is still quite quiet. I read until I'm finished. We don't have to leave the house until after 8:30 so I'm usually left with at least an hour. Since lunches are already packed, I just have to get them out of the fridge. I try to empty the dishwasher, water the garden, sometimes I do a load of laundry, make the bed, that kind of stuff. Oh yeah ... I also shower and get ready ! It really is so nice to not have to run around like a crazy lady. And you know ... I'm not grumpy either. You might think that I would be getting up that early, but not so. I love the slowness of our mornings ...

I decided too that I needed to NOT be on the computer as much as possible when my children are awake. I've really started making an effort to do stuff with them after school. I've only just started that this past week and I'll tell you, it has made a huge difference. Coupled with not letting them watch TV during the school week, I've seen incredible changes in both of them. What sort of stuff do we do ? Well Monday we sat at the dinning room table for a couple of hours writing snail mail (watch your mailboxes, I put FOUR letters in the mail to some of you just yesterday!) and playing with Alia's new spotz machine that she got for her birthday. Tuesday I took them to the toy store to spend Alia's birthday money and the money they got recently for washing/vacuuming the cars. Then we came home, put all the toys together and played. I can't tell you the last time I sat in the toy room and played with them ! It was fun. Wednesday it was raining and they hadn't watched the weekly movie they rented last week before I decided no TV. So ... I let them watch that. Yesterday we had some friends over for a play. Today ... well, Rory is usually able to come home early on a Friday afternoon so hopefully we'll get to do something fun with him !!!

It works well to spend an hour or two hanging with them. Talking. Just being together. I still have time to cook dinner while they are having baths and getting themselves ready for bed. After dinner, it's pretty much brush teeth and head towards bed. 7:30 is their bed time. Not their start to get ready for bed time ... but their in bed, lights out, done talking, going to sleep bed time. That leaves Rory and I two hours before ours ...

ANYHOO ... my computer time is up for this morning ... I've actually gone a bit over this morning writing this ... but that's ok. I do have the ability to be flexible too ... BUT, I am going to get off NOW.

Chow.

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{routines n junk}

There are not many things in my life that can't be fixed with a hot bubble bath.
Add a candle, even better !

Last night, my brain was getting away from me. Thinking, planning, thinking, planning ...
and I couldn't keep track.
I had a headache too. I think because I didn't drink enough water.
And perhaps a bit too much sun ?

Anyway ... I needed to get the stuff out of my brain and onto a paper.
But I also needed to get rid of the headache !
SOLUTION :
hot bath, bubbles, candles, pad of paper, pens !

15 minutes later
my brain was still
my headache was lessened
and i was off to pack the lunches for tomorrow ...

I'm going to show you but I wanted to tell you all about my new night time routine.
I've always hated doing the dishes after dinner.
Ok, ok ... I always hate the dishes.
But especially after cooking dinner.
I cook dinners that take a bit of effort ... sometimes a lot of effort.
I do it because I love it.
But to have to do the dishes after has always been so discouraging.

A couple of months ago, Rory started doing the dishes after dinner !
Just out of the blue, he suggested that I have the dishwasher emptied before dinner
and he'd take care of the cleanup after dinner.

I'll tell you what ... it is wonderful !
I wake up every morning to a shiny clean kitchen and I didn't have to clean it !!

One thing that Rory has always hated doing is packing his lunch.
We've tried different things but really ... he just wanted me to do it ! :)
I don't mind doing it but the problem always was that I would be too tired after cooking
and then cleaning up to even think about packing lunches at night
and he leaves WAY TOO EARLY for me to do his
in the morning.

So ... this week, I started doing all of our lunches, at night.
And it works wonderfully !!

There's no scurrying around in the mornings anymore !!

And I pack much healthier lunches this way !

Here's the whole lot so you can see ...



I made a big fruit salad at the beginning of the week. It lasted three days.
This is the first time I've done that, I'll definitely be doing it again.
It was so easy to just grab the big container and scoop it into each of our boxes !

I also try to incorporate as many leftovers as possible.

Here's the kids lunches for tomorrow ...
The spaghetti is leftover from earlier in the week.
The foccacia from last night's dinner.
They have fruit salad,
"greek" salad ... it's just tomato, kalamata olives, feta cheese and yellow bell pepper chunks,
a hard boiled egg, and a yogurt.



My lunch is similar to the kids, except I'm having leftover spaghetti with the leftover sauce.
And I'm having crackers instead of foccacia. And no yoghurt.

Rory needs a much bigger lunch.
He works loooooooooooooong hours.
He has lasagna that I pulled out of the freezer.
A ham sandwich.
The tomato/lettuce are to put on the sandwich at work.
(I keep 'em separate ... who likes a soggy sandwich ?!)
Fruit salad, hard boiled egg, crackers, and a bar.



And here we are ... all stacked up in the fridge, ready to go in lunchboxes in the morning !

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[orange, glorious orange}

this week has found me up at 5:30 every morning
(and in bed by 9:00 pm !!)
rory has been bringing me a cuppa in bed
and i stay there toasty warm under the covers
drinking my coffee and reading my bible
the kids wander in later ready for a snuggle in the big bed
they bring their books

the other morning alia pulled back the curtains
to open the door for the cat to go out
and exclaimed
"mommy !! the sky is orange !!"

of course, i grabbed my camera ...

glorious. isn't it ?

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