Husband = knight in shining armor

Just took a couple weeks off from the self-improvement to just survive life.  Do you ever just have weeks where you are gasping for air as chores, to-do lists, kid activities and lack of sleep seem to try to drown you?  During weeks like this I find myself looking at the clock every 10 minutes from 3:30 until Blake gets home.  I usually call him around 4:45 and ask “when will you be home?” with the hopes that he will say, “I am getting off early today.  See you in 10 minutes!”  Of course I am just setting myself up for disappointment because he never says that.  He usually says, “I should get home between 5:15 and 5:30.”  I don’t know what happens to my kids, but around 5:00 they get very difficult.  They start fighting each other or making a weird mess.  The dinner starts to need my full attention around this same time and the baby wants to nurse.  5:20 rolls around and my cortisol levels are at a steady climb.  At 5:30 I am usually nursing the baby, trying to stir the dinner and telling the dogs to stop barking in the yard.  I keep thinking “Blake, please come home and save me!”  Sometimes he does.  Sometimes 6:00 hits and I am almost in tears.  Usually something bad has happened like the dogs started licking the dinner, the 3 year-old had an accident or the 5 year-old just dumped a bunch of sand out of his shoe onto the clean floor.  All of these things I can handle but for some reason when they happen during the time I expected Blake to be home it amplifies the severity of these problems.  So this week’s habit is going to be a challenge to me.  I am not going to count the minutes until Blake gets home.  I am going to just ignore the clock and think more positively during that witching hour.  Sometimes I think about how the wives or our service men are some type of superhero.  They will be my inspiration this week.

Easy Pee-sy Bathroom Cleaning

I remember the days when I would collect everything I needed to clean the bathroom.  I had to find the toilet brush, the toilet bowl cleaner, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, broom and mop.  I wised up and got a container of disinfectant wipes, toilet bowl cleaner (Method brand so it is safe for kids – just in case) and a toilet brush for each bathroom.  Before I had this most recent baby I realized that it takes about 45 seconds for my shower to warm up so instead of standing there with my hand in the stream wasting that precious time I could grab a disinfectant wipe and either wipe down the toilet and swish it with the cleaner and brush or I could wipe down the vanity area.    I would even use a wipe on the floor once a week.  My bathroom was always clean and I never had to take time out to clean it.  Well, since this newest member joined our family I have dropped the ball a on this because, let’s face it, I am lucky to get in a shower at all.  So this week I am getting back in the habit.  No more standing there like a naked water feature.  As for the other bathrooms, I will try to get back to doing a quick one-minute wipe down every day because we know how 5-year-old boys can be.  Do they dance and pee at the same time or something?