The kids are mostly recovered from WinterSickness2010. I remain in sinus misery, and am pretty shattered. Being a glutton for punishment, I’m on day three of “Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred.” I have to say I am surprised at how much push ups hurt me, apparently carrying children around IS NOT actually a work out. Determined to turn my MommyButt into something firmer by spring.
Been doing neat crafts with the kids these days. I forgot to take pictures of my version of April’s heart garland. Mine are hanging from pins stuck into one of our beams, I think I will string them and put them in the kids room. In a modified version of Maya’s heart craft, last night I stitched letters onto some felt and today the kids stuffed them full of wool and lavendar and Bob helped sew them closed.
After two weeks of quarantine, Bob went swimming today and tomorrow we’ll be off to play group with our newly bolstered immune systems. The kids are playing with their Haba bricks, making crazy creations.
But I just can’t win with Bob right now. I said to him just now: “super cool tower!” and he says “it’s not! It’s terrible!” Etc, etc. It’s not just that he wants to be contrary, it’s that he’s determined everything should be…terrible. Everything is in superlatives, the worst, never again, never EVER EVERRRR again in the whole history of the world will he build another block tower.
It’s also hard maintaining peaceful parenting when one child is hurting the other. (Though she clearly idolizes him, no matter what he does to her). And the LYING already… my goodness. The sibling cruelty… I am so tired of it already.
All of my 2010 seeds have arrived. I’m very excited. I’ve also finished our farm tax, which brought about some interesting questions like “can we write off firearms”. I discovered that this year the “containers and twine” category proved to be useful, and where to put custom killing.
We went on a great sleigh ride with our Amish neighbour into our bush the other day. They’ve taken out two years of firewood for us and we will have some extra to sell. If anyone local is interested, please email me.
Must go and entertain the kidlets and check on the leg of lamb (from our neighbour Israel) that’s cooking away.
My son is just about the same age as yours. We’ve been in the “no, never, I hate all that you like” phase. I’d like to say there was a solution to it, but we just had to ride it out. It passes. It still sucks when he says stuff like “NO, I DON’T LOVE YOU BACK” every once in a while but I just have to grit my teeth, say “well, I love you anyway” and hide my tears til I’m alone in a tub somewhere later.
Good luck! I’m intrigued by this peaceful parenting. My other son’s only seven months so the idea of sibling cruelty sounds like a serious pain. I never had siblings until I was eleven or so, so I asked around and the general consensus seems to be that brothers and sisters’ purpose in life is to torture each other. At least until adulthood, anyway.
Stay sane!
Awww! I cannot wait until Addie is old enough to play with her blocks and bricks. At the moment she wants to eat them. And her puzzles. And her crayons. And my flesh. It’s getting pretty tedious. Well done you on your farm tax. I am desperate to file my husbands tax return, but I can’t yet because we are waiting on my social security number and with that I can officially go on as a dependant and hopefully claw some money back for us. And just you wait, I am sure Meeps will give as good as she gets when she gets a bit older hahaha. me and my brother used to drive my parents insane with our fighting and bickering. Joy!
re: flabby butt. Have you ever thought about belly dancing? It’s a great way to feel like a sexy babe, and get in shape, especially if you practice the Suhaila Salimpour format, the glute exercises banish all butt flab with the quicknessssssssss…..
Good to hear you all are feeling better.
I’m on day 5 of the 30 Day Shred myself. It’s getting a little easier and I feel pretty good. I’m determined to be less flabby when I turn 30 in a few months.
30 day shred is HARD!!! i don’t need to be reminded how week my chicken wing arms are every day, thanks jillian. hope you feel better soon!
Ali – I took belly dancing classes in university (fit in nicely with the Womyn’s Center-ing, marijuana and art class motif I had going on) and loved it. I assume Suhailia Salimpour is video? I don’t know if I could do video for that, I sort of need Jillian yelling at me to suck it up. Ha.
Erika – yeah, I am definitely feeling like a weenie. Can’t wait to feel better though!
Jill – Glad to hear in two more days it ought to feel easier. Right now it feels like she is trying to kill me.
Alex – the eating thing still happens with Bob and he’s over THREE! I can’t believe what he puts in his mouth some days. Thankfully not as often as when he was a teeny one like Addie, I know that does get quite tiresome. I remember repeating: “DONT PUT THE CAT IN YOUR MOUTH” and realizing I had hit a new level of my life previously unpredicted.
Catey: Check out “Adventures in Gentle Discipline” or “Peaceful Parents, Peaceful Kids” or “Happiest Toddler on the Block” or “How to Talk So Kids Will Listen” or “Siblings Without Rivalry” for more about peaceful parenting. The “I DONT LOVE YOU” thing is still on a roll, waiting for that one to DIE. God. Being an only child myself, I had no idea what I was in for either.
My mother is Russian, and no stranger to expressing her feelings. She used to scream and cry if my sister or I ever said “I don’t love you”–we were mortified. She actually used to quote King Lear, with great dramatic emphasis, interspersed with sobs “OH how sharper than a serpent’s tooth is a child’s ingratitude!!”
Yikes! Luckily my boys never went through the no love stage. They are 12 and 14 and still hug, kiss and tell me they love me 10x a day. I dunno how Id react if J started. I’m sure I’d crumble into a million teensy tiny little pieces. So- goold luck with that one haha.
The sibling rivalry however, oye vey! when backs were turned kicking and pushing ensued. The “no I didn’t”s got old REAL fast and one of the only times our kids get into trouble for something these days is lying. Oh how I loathe it. Luckily they have learnt positive and negative concequence early on or I’d be in huge trouble right now with the teenies!
Just wait for the excuses stage, Ash. Those are plenty fun times!
Suhaila does have videos, and it’s not that fluffly sweet belly dance, it is no bullshit belly dance, just her warm up alone kicks my ass, in a great way.
As for the sibling rivalry thing, bear with it, my younger brother and I are about 2 years apart and we were vicious to each other as young children, but now we are very close and get along great. It passes, I promise.
i quit the 30-day shred after my first day of level three. it wasn’t even “too hard” i just didn’t feeeelllll like it anymore.
i suck.
Tell us more about this 30 Day Shred…….it’s been popping up a lot for me and I was wondering how good it is. Do you do it every day? And is there an accompanying diet?
I’m not even going to say anything about the sibling cruelty (been there, it left a lasting impression).
Natasha – Would it be terrible of me to quote King Lear, too? Ha.
Nicole – I have already heard some excuses, and they amazing. I can only imagine what I am in store for.
Ali – Will have to look into this ass kicking belly dancer!
Gillian – SO…. I am guessing by level three you aren’t doing the WimpVersion of the push-up anymore? Haha. Sigh. Moan. I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve worked out… and I can’t believe how much this is hurting me.
Ro – All I know is that every other MommyFriend has done the 30 Shred. Apparently the lady whose video it is does a TV show. You do it every day for 20 minutes, which is great. I can *JUST* manage to keep Meeps from mounting me for breastmilk while I am doing sit ups for that long! Ha. I am sure she has dietary recs, I don’t know what they are. My diet (the Dont Eat Shit Diet) really works for me. (As outlined in my “What Not To Eat” page). I know some people think the Atkins diet works great, but don’t we need carbs for our brain function and stuff? I sort of thought they were essential. Anyway. I like a diet that I can stick with mostly, and just generally trying to eat FOOD is one I can do.
PS should I just google about the 30 Days Shred, or is it something I have to pay for, like a course of DVDs?
Alex – It’s just one DVD, you could probably get one used cheap on Amazon or something!