Midnight Meanderings

I am waiting for my FTP system to upload all my work for the day. My husband is asleep snoring on the couch, and James Bond is playing on the TV. I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open, and yet I know it will still take me a good half an hour before I can wind down and fall asleep once I am laying in bed. I used to try my best to read my scriptures in the morning, but now I grab my wonderful i-phone and just read my scriptures on there while I try to go to sleep.

Last night, at 2:30 am to be exact, I read from this past April conference's talks. A few of them really caught my attention. There was one concerning Mothers and Daughters, and another one about how mothers need to teach their children. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day activities and schedules that it can be really hard for me to remember that I am responsible for teaching my children.

Does anyone have any good tips/ideas/links to good baby/toddler teaching ideas? I literally have no time to research it myself unless I want to stay up until 3 - which I don't want to do. I hear Elena stirring in the other room, so I hope this FTP system hurries up so I can go in.

Also, again - any good tips for keeping the house clean? My friend told me to make it a priority to do the dishes every night before I go to bed, but... It's 2 am and I don't want to spend another 40 minutes cleaning dishes from the day. I would do them as soon as I am done using them, but I really don't see how. It's lucky that I can squeeze in time to even make breakfast, lunch, dinner - little less get my kids to be patient enough with me to spend time cleaning up. I really do believe keeping up with kids and a house is a full time job. SERIOUSLY! Working/Student moms are seriously incredible to me. I only work maybe 20 hours a week and I am barely keeping it together.

I actually hired a cleaning lady to come and clean our apartment last week. It stayed clean maybe 4 days. Now its back to what I consider chaos to be.

I HATE laundry. It is even worse than dishes. It always consumes everything. It never is done. Either they are all clean and don't get put away, or they are all dirty and I have to clean them. I also am one of those horrible people who cannot put clothes that I have worn in the dirty clothes if they aren't actually "dirty", but if I put them away in the dresser it wakes my baby up - so soon my "clean" clothes become piles in my room, which my husband likes to add to, and before I know it we are living in a crazy laundry pile bedroom. Ugghh.

Yay, my blogs finally posted. I am signing off for the day. Good night. I don't think I will wake up to my 5am alarm clock... (sigh)

Swagger Wagon - Dedicated to my niece Siena

Random Questions

Do you ever wish you could take sick days from being a mom? I do.

Did you go ever go through an awkward anti-social stage when you got married? I did. When does that go away? ... I'm still in it.

Do you ever miss your single days? Not because you wish you made other decisions or you would want to change anything - but you just miss that time of your life and the friends that you had and have since lost? Or the fun you use to have? I do. I miss roommates, dances, and old FHE brothers)

Do you ever spend minutes just watching your baby sleep because you think she is so beautiful? I do.

Do you wish sometimes you didn't eat so much chocolate and craved healthier things, like watermelon? Mmmmm. I do.

Do you ever feel really lucky with your choice in marriage partner after seeing how some of your friend's marriages have gone? I do

Does anyone else have a problem with going to bed early? UGH! I do.

Do you ever get downhearted when people tell you to your face that they think your child is behind other children his/her age? I do.

Do you ever miss your Independence? I did, but I think I'm getting more of my independent streak back.

Do you ever wonder why your husband chose you out of the hundreds of other people he could have chosen? I do. I feel lucky to have him.

Do you ever wish you hadn't wasted so many journals and notebooks writing about old crushes and lame dating disasters? I do.

Do you get tired of doing laundry on a consistent basis? I do.


Do you get excited with every new achievement your children do? Like more excitement then you've ever felt before you were a parent? I do.


Do you feel content with your life and your choices? I can say I do. :)

Random thoughts at 2 am

So my daughter (who will remain nameless - though I only have 1, so you should know of whom I speak) does not like to let her mother get sleep. I have made her skip naps, I have allowed her to take long naps, I have tried to let her just deal with being placed in her crib when she's tired, I have tried keeping her on a routine (Ie - Eat, Activity, Sleep), etc. So far? Nothing has worked very well. She does now get tired around midnight, instead of 3 am, so that is a great change. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (ie-Jack) I cannot do work during the day unless they both take naps at the same time. Meaning? I still go to bed at 3 am, but instead of a baby causing the issues it is because I cannot keep up with my workload otherwise. And because Elena is teething (or is out to get me) she wakes up as soon as I climb in to bed, and its another hour and a half struggle to get her to go to bed.

The conclusion? I feel like staying in my PJs all day, I have dish rags from three weeks ago still hanging out on my sink turning gross colors, and I am both emotionally and physically drained. The good news? I now have help with writing the blog articles (Thanks to an amazing sister and mom) so hopefully once Elena starts sleeping better, these sleepless nights and going to bed at 4:30 in the morning should all be a bad nightmare.

Tonight I felt like a little kid. I hid under a blanket while she got side-tracked with James and I slid off our bed, crawled to the door, and snuck out. What mom does that? It was midnight and all she wanted to do was crawl around the bed and I knew James wasn't getting any sleep, so I went back in and got her and she fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms. I put her in her crib and have spent the past few hours playing catch up with my blog articles for TK Online Solutions.

Now, before I traipse off to bed, I have some things that have been on my mind the past few days. I tried to lay down in bed but they were still on my mind - so I am going to quickly blog them to wind down. With out further ado, and in no particular order, here are some of my random thoughts.

-I have shaved my legs successfully for 67 consecutive days as part of my goals for this year. I don't know if I will make it to day 68, since I would much rather sleep than shave my legs since I never got around to taking a shower today. Ugh.

-Why is it when you take the time to put on make up, cute outfits, and actually style your hair that your husband seems to be completely oblivious? And yet, when you haven't showered, you aren't wearing makeup, and you feel slightly embarrassed for going out in public in the mess of an outfit you threw together he cannot seem to stop telling you how amazingly beautiful you are. I do not get it. I would think it would be the other way around. This happens to me on a consistent basis. Does this ever happen to anyone else?

- I am getting a little obsessed with my vacation planning. It usually stops being so exciting when I stop to realize that I will have to get in a car with Elena again...

- I wonder if James would let me get my bangs cut, even though I made him swear last year to never let me get them again. I really, really hated them - so I don't know why I constantly keep going back to wanting them.

- I miss my old roommates, but some days I miss my old FHE brothers more. Is that weird? While I understand why we are no longer as tight as we once were, that does not mean I don't miss them.

- I think Mr. Darcy from the newer version of Pride and Prejudice fits the role much better than Collin Firth in the BBC series. I love Matthew Macfayden's portrayal. Seriously. He still pulls off the pompousness that Elizabeth is seeing, but he also shows his true character at the same time so those of us who know how Mr. Darcy actually is can see another explanation to his behaviors.

-Speaking of Jane Austen men, I really like Captain Wentworth in the Masterpiece version of Persuasion. Amazing. And Mr. Knightley in the new Emma? So cute. I am so glad that James got me that version of Emma for Valentines day. It always seems like the actresses they choose to represent the heroines have some form of quirk that bothers me (bulging eyes when they talk, overbites that are enormous, etc) but they have done an excellent job picking the men of Austen, I think.

Ok I think this shall be enough thoughts for one night. Elena just woke up. I guess no shaving of the legs tonight. Maybe next year. :)