Sleep training

In the last month it FINALLY clicked! Both kids now stay in their rooms until 8am every day! Woo-hoo! We have these monkeys, see ... they are amazing. You set them at night by putting their eyes closed and they "wake up" at the time set for them in the morning. Genius! There was many a morning when I had to send them back to their rooms after asking them, "is your monkey awake?" Now when Josiah wakes up he grabs his rocking horse out of the hall and goes back inside until his monkey wakes up. He sometimes wakes up as early as 7am ... but he stays in there until he's allowed out! Elizabeth sometimes wakes up @ 7:30/45 and she uses the bathroom and climbs back into her bed. I feel like I can finally enjoy my mornings!!

I would say that the monkey works best with children who are closer to 3 ... they just don't seem to "get it" before then. There are other sleep training clocks out there and they probably work just as well. We just happened to settle on this one! As a parent you aren't off the hook once you purchase something like this ... you have to do the work of training them to stay in their room ... pointing them back to the clock every time. Also, if your child currently wakes up @ 6am every day you can't expect for them to stay in their room until 8am just because the clock says they should. You must start with reasonable goals with your child and work toward a time that gives you and your child peace!

You can check out all of them HERE at Amazon.com. Our monkey clocks are about half way down the page - and remember the clock is NOT a toy, do not be fooled into allowing your child to carry his/her monkey all around the house - it WILL break!!

Feeling Productive

Today is exactly how I would like to see my Monday's go ... not that it was a perfect day but I was able to accomplish a lot and enjoy myself in the process!

Alarm went off @ 5am ... finally pulled myself out of bed and 5:45. Clothes on, out the door and on a mile run. I think my eyes finally opened about 3 minutes into the run :) Back home to do some push-ups, stretch and wash my floor. Shower. Drank a nice cup of tea while I read the Word - those Proverbs can really hit home! 8am kids started to stir ... my day is here and I am ready!

This was the first 3 loads of laundry ... I ended up doing 6 loads - yikes!

I even hung extra line to accomodate for all the clothes I was drying ... this was the first round

While I was waiting on clothes to wash and dry I decided to make some pillowcases out of an old sheet.

Aaaah! Finally made it to the last load! (I think it was around 3 pm or so)

I was finished making 5 pillowcases and a handful of napkins shortly after dinner ... in the background is the remainder of the sheet not yet used.

It's 9pm ... I have a load of jeans in the dryer and these clothes on my couch ... I'm going to spend some time w/ my husband and then take care of these in the morning!!

Oh - and I dusted and vacuumed the whole house (minus the livingroom). It was a very productive day!!