Encouragement, Please?

Boy, I really feel like I have a lot of things on my mind lately.

The most frustrating thing for me right now is my weight. I have put on about 25 pounds In the last 18 months or so and it is really frustrating me! It seems that no matter what I do, my weight just keeps climbing. I bought a bunch of new clothes in the spring to fit the larger me...and now, some of those clothes are too small! What is wrong with me? ARGH!!!

I have been doing Weight Watchers (WW), of which I have been doing off and on for the last 20 years (yep, my weight has been a life long battle for me) and no matter what I do, I am always hungry and constantly eating! I easily surpass my daily points by evening-time. I know part of my issue is stress! I am very much a stress eater and can't quite get this under control.

I try to attend WW meetings, which always help me in my weight loss journey, but my favorite WW leader only teaches Saturday classes. Saturdays are days that Kelly sleeps in in the morning and then I always feel guilty leaving him with the kids when I could have gone to another meeting during the week when I didn't have the kids. ARGH...more excuses, huh? YIKES...what's up with me?

I have also tried to fit exercise into my daily routine, but it is very hard. When I am working, exercise just isn't an option. I need to commit to fitting it in on my non-working days, but other things seem to take priority. I would love some encouragement around this issue!

This afternoon we also have our appointment with the neuropsychologist and that has been weighing heavily on my mind. I guess my biggest fear is how Kelly will 'take' this information. And, what exactly will she tell us? I can't help but reverting back to the thought that Carson's behavior is because of my parenting...even though I know there is 'something' bigger going on with him. I'm sure these are all normal mommy fears...what does Carson's future hold for him...and us as a family? Only time will tell....

Also, we will be doing some testing of Logan to see if he will qualify for the developmental preschool program when he turns 3 years old (YIKES...October will be here before we know it!)

Our rental house has not had much activity since it went on the market in July, so my hopes to be able to pull the kids out of daycare in the Fall just isn't going to happen. So, I have moved onto 'plan B'. I will continue to work 2 days a week and will cut the boys' daycare days to 3 days a week to help conserve our savings as much as possible. This will give me a day to do errands and appointments by myself so I can focus my attention on the boys the rest of the week. That's my plan at least, we'll see how it works out.

Both boys will be transitioning to different classrooms in the Fall...and that just stresses me out as well. That means I have to educate another set of teachers on what makes my boys tick. It means another set of conference meetings to trouble shoot Carson's behavior in this new environment. And the one teacher who I thought would be teaching in Carson's room will not be there. She was someone who I felt understood Carson. Hmmmmm.....so much to think about! I know we will get there...it just feels so painful when there are so many changes...and I am the one who orchestrates it all! On a positive note, in Carson's classroom there will only be 9-10 kids at the most for a while. This is a very good thing...a smaller classroom will immensely help Carson from being overwhelmed by all the classroom commotion that a larger class size brings.

The boys have been constantly bickering and it makes our time together very frustrating, to say the least! Mealtimes are the worst! We have tried separating them, yelling, etc., but nothing seems to make it better! Logan has taken to constantly getting up at dinner time, so we are always yelling "sit down and eat your dinner" and finally last night, resorted to strapping him in his baby seat again! He's not a baby, why are we having to do this? Despite that, he still didn't eat his dinner! ARGH!! Maybe we should try some positive reinforcement this evening. Maybe a sticker chart for achieving our mealtime expectations? Ideas anyone?

On Sunday, I tried tackling Logan's potty training again! He wore his undies and every 20-30 minutes I put him on the potty and in return he got 2 chocolate chips (gotta love good 'ole bribery, huh?). He really did well! He peed every time I asked him to (and a few times in his undies as well). I didn't want to push the issue too much, so at nap time, I put him in a pull up...he woke up from his 2.5 hour nap completely DRY! WOW...that's impressive Logan! I think we will continue to tackle this issue next week while we are camping with nana and papa!

Yep, you heard that right, the boys and I are going camping with my parents, who have come up from California to take all the grand kids camping (my sister and her girls went last week and my brother and family went a couple months ago). Our turn is next week and we are very very excited about this! They have a fifth wheel, which is my kinda camping...out in the woods, but not too dirty 'cause you can clean up with the wonderful fifth wheel amenities! The boys are going to have so much fun, I'm sure! I think we will re-define the word "dirty", that's for sure! They are such great adventurers, so I'm sure they will be in heaven! Perfect time to learn about peeing in the bushes, don't you think?

We decided to rename grandma and grandpa Mitchell, because the boys were constantly getting confused when we talked about grandma and grandpa...they would say, "You know mom, the ones with the trailer" (Mitchell's) or "the ones who go golfing" (George's). So, they decided to name grandma and grandpa Mitchell "nana and papa" instead. We will have lots of time to practice their new names next week!

So, I better get off this computer and get to work...I have carpets to clean! Have a good one!