My Family of Snackoholics

my sweet snackoholics

I'm creating a small legion of snack obsessed children.  I've been cracking down, but I'm no match for this group. 

All of my kids are phenomenal eaters.  My 2 year old's church nursery teacher said, "I've never seen a child who can eat sooo much--EVER!"  And this is common remark I hear about my kids.  I've heard it at birthday parties, play dates, and restaurants; my kids always get our money's worth as they giddily make their way through the smorgasbord of snacks at The Golden Corral.

Even my picky eater, Evie, can hold her own. She is the only girl in her preschool, but her teacher just told me, "Wow, that girl can pack it in.  She always out eats the boys--all of them!"

And, thankfully, most of my children eat most vegetables too.   When I break out the carrots or barbie trees (broccoli) the kids chow down.

We've had numerous children over for lunch or snack time, so I know this isn't normal.  The majority of our visitors are cute little birds, picking at their food here or there.

Where are my birds?

I'm certain I have unintentionally created my snackoholics by my own extreme love of food and snacking.  My husband is a snacker too.  Currently, I am trying to encourage him to refrain from getting a bowl of cereal immediately after every dinner.  He is not too fond of my encouragement.  

My sister-in-law once told me she lets her eight children get snacks whenever they would like.  She says, because of this, they aren't so snack obsessed.  That seems a little risky for my bunch.

For now, until I come up with a superior plan, I will keep encouraging/forcing my apparently starved children to have one snack, maybe two and wait for dinner.

Grateful Mom Goal of the Day: Rid my home of unhealthy kid snacks.

Goal update, Day 2:  For my sweetness goal I gave my husband a shoulder massage.  As for my organization goal, with the under appreciated help of my baby, I did a quick fix for the fridge--that's more cleaning than organizing, but I'm counting it.

Every Day Goals: Do something nice for someone. Organize--anything! 

Ahhh...much  better

Life as a STASHER

I have a 5 year old stasher at my house.  Candy, gum, clothes, toys-- anything she deems takable, she stashes at various secret locations throughout the house.
 This morning my husband couldn't find his keys.  He asked Evie (the stasher) if she had seen them.  She said very coyly, "let me go check the van."   Evie came back with a collection of about 7 keys!  I'm still not quite sure where all of those came from.
Two weeks earlier I quickly needed to find $1.50 for my oldest daughter to take to school.  I said "if anyone can find me some quarters you will get a cool surprise." Evie quietly walked away and came back with a little pink coin purse full of about 5 dollars in change!  I gave her a marshmallow.

She's a stasher, probably a stealer too.

Update:  Day 1 was successful!  For my nice thing of the day I wrote my husband a sweet note and had my kids color it.  My organizing goal didn't get the grand kick off I had planned, but the silverware drawer is indebted to me for my efforts.

  Grateful Mom Goal of the Day:  Take inventory of the stasher's stashes. 

Everyday Goals:  Do something nice. Organize--anything!

My Oh So Needed Goals

Today, I'm going to shake things up a bit!  I'm getting a little crazy!  I need to make some changes so I'm starting here.  Just a couple of simple things really, but it's long overdue.

First, goal #1.  I need to be nicer.  That should be easy, right?  I think I've gotten out of the habit of being my normal darling sweet self.

 Each night at dinner we ask the children, "what have you done nice today?" This hasn't been entirely successful.  My oldest girl, Dani, will often scramble to give someone a hug before answering, "I gave a hug."  While my 2 year old, Mase, usually tells us about who he hit that day--but they'll get it eventually..I hope.

So, I'm going to set a better example for my family.  I'm going to start doing my additional nice thing for the day too.

On to Goal #2.  I'm a stay at home mom, who should probably get demoted, maybe even fired when it comes to keeping my home organized.  Baby #4 is not an excuse anymore.  Right now I would cringe at the thought of someone looking behind almost any closed door, cupboard or drawer.

So, I'm going to organize at least one thing a day (Sunday excluded).  I know truly organized people do much more, or maybe less, because they're so organized, but for now--baby steps.

  My plan is to stick with it for a year, but I'll start with a month and when I'm successful I'm having a celebration dinner (only for the organizing--I probably shouldn't get a reward for just being nice) with my husband at a restaurant of my choosing, within our budget.  I haven't mentioned this to my husband yet, but how could he not celebrate such an uncommon event.

Grateful Mom Goals:  #1. Do something nice for someone.  #2 Organize anything.

My husband--extra handsome as he unloads the dishwasher