I was actually contemplating putting this site on hold for now.  I’ve been posting a monthly meal planner on here for the past few months and lately I’ve been feeling pressured to get on this site and get that done!  Towards the end of the month I feel somewhat stressed to get busy and get the planner done and posted.

So instead of completely putting this site on hold, I think what I’ll do is just take a break from the monthly meal planner for a little while.  One of the reasons that I don’t want to put the site completely on hold is that when I was working on a site for a client, I came across another site which gave me some really good ideas for this site.

I know, I already have quite a few ‘ideas’ for this site which have not yet materialized, but maybe this will motivate me to put more of an effort into scheduling my ‘work time’.

Which ties in nicely with the ‘job’ I just started.  My newest clients only requires me to work 3.5 hours a week with Monday and Wednesday being the two days that I work those hours.  And being as I normally have approximately 2 hours (on a good day) to work, I will have to start scheduling my other client obligations around the set schedule of my latest client.  Which hopefully, I can schedule in some time every week to work on this site.

I think my biggest problems with scheduling is that I keep my schedule in my head – I don’t write it down.  Like my MROL for example – my daily schedule is in my head – no where on paper, same with my weekly chore schedule – all in my head, not on paper anywhere.  Which if it were on paper might come in handy if my darling husband felt like he could help out with the weekly chore schedule – then he would know what needs to be done.

The only real schedule that I have down on paper is my monthly meal planner, and honestly, as much as I like having a meal planner on my calendar in my pantry, I rarely follow it.  I did at first, however the past few months I just take ideas from it.

Anyway, if there was any sort of routine for this site, it is now officially ‘Out the Window!’  Here’s to starting fresh!

I’ll see how the next few months go but lately I’ve really been feeling like I should put this site on hold or possibly even take it down for now, at least until I can dedicate more time to it.

Normally the most that the kids & I are away from home (running around – in town) is 3 days a week, including Mass on Sundays.  However since the beginning of December we have only been home ab0ut 2 days out of the seven!  Yikes!  December was packed full of Christmas parties and Christmas preparations and January has been packed full of specialist, dentist and speech therapy appointments!

I’m exhausted & the kids are exhausted!  Is this ever going to end?!!

Every time I give him a consequence for his actions (losing a privelege) I always think “What privilege can he lose that I am going to follow through with?”  Like for example, if he is misbehaving and we have an upcoming event, I could take away the privilege of him attending the event – but is that something I’m going to want to do – not attend the event?  Or do I really want to take away his toys or ground him from playing outside etc.  I guess my problem is trying to determine which privileges he’ll lose.  I guess I just have to start being a little more creative in chosing privileges and consequences.

Well after potty training a boy and a girl, I would have to say that girls are easier.  However, that being said I also had two completely different approaches to potty training each child.  So you might say that either girls are easier or I’m just getting better at it.

I guess that’s the thing with parenting, some tasks get easier because you as a parent are getting better at it.  I keep telling people that my third baby was the easiest so far and they always tell me “No, you’re just getting better at it so it’s easier.”

Any way back on topic, as soon as my little girl made up her mind that she was going to pee in the toilet, she was done wearing diapers.  She kept asking to go in the toilet for about a month, so I would take her.  The real turning point though was when she asked to put on ‘real’ underwear.  I always gave her the options – diaper or underwear.  (And by underwear I mean the training underwear.)  One morning I gave her the options as usual, she said no to both and went to her dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of ‘real’ underwear.  That was it she was done training.  Surprisingly, even through naps and most night times, she wears underwear and doesn’t have an accident.

Now with my son it was a completely different story.  He was basically potty trained before his first birthday, I think around nine months.  However I went back to work and he needed to be in someone elses care during the day and had to go back into diapers.  When he was 18 months old, I was back at home full time with him and tried to get him back to peeing in the toilet.  This was however quite challenging as I had a newborn and was breastfeeding frequently.  It seemed like every time I would get the baby latched on, he would need to use the toilet.  It became quite frustrating for me.  But I was determined to get him out of diapers not matter what.  Looking back I don’t think he had made up his mind that he wanted to use the toilet, it was more me pushing him.  Which is probably why it took about 6 months to get fully trained.

So I guess all in all I can’t really tell you if girls are easier than boys, although it seemed that way.  I guess I’ll have to let you know how my second daughter potty trains and if we ever have another boy then see how that is compared to the first boy.