Life ... It's How You Live It.

All I can smell around here is the Jasmine. It is so beautiful. It covers the back fence on our "tuscan patio". This is the first spring that we've lived in this house and the first time we've seen it in blooom. It is glorious. Every time I open the window in this office, the smell just wafts in. It's not overpowering, just subtle and very soothing. Can you smell it ??

I've been making a few changes around here over the last couple of months. I like the results I am seeing. I'm sure I told you about our new nighttime routine. That is STILL working so well ! I'm thrilled.

Another change I've made is going to bed earlier. I had found myself in a pattern of not going to bed at the same time as Rory which left me staying up WAY too late. I'd be on facebook or reading blogs or playing games and the time would just get away from me. All fun stuff, all stuff I still do, but MUCH less now. And I'm in bed by 9:30 at the latest during the week. It's not that much later on the weekends though ... if we try to watch a movie, I inevitably fall asleep !!

I've made myself a basic morning routine that I've been able to stick to quite well. I get up at 5:00 and do my computer stuff until 6:30. I like getting this out of the way first ... otherwise, I'm wondering about it and distracted until I can get to it. Email and facebook are how I communicate with most of my family (since they live on the other side of the planet !) and I just love waking up and finding notes from them !!

At 6:30 I sit down with the rest of my cup of coffee (stone cold by now !) and my Bible. The kids are not usually up yet. But if they are I have them get a book or go do some coloring so the house is still quite quiet. I read until I'm finished. We don't have to leave the house until after 8:30 so I'm usually left with at least an hour. Since lunches are already packed, I just have to get them out of the fridge. I try to empty the dishwasher, water the garden, sometimes I do a load of laundry, make the bed, that kind of stuff. Oh yeah ... I also shower and get ready ! It really is so nice to not have to run around like a crazy lady. And you know ... I'm not grumpy either. You might think that I would be getting up that early, but not so. I love the slowness of our mornings ...

I decided too that I needed to NOT be on the computer as much as possible when my children are awake. I've really started making an effort to do stuff with them after school. I've only just started that this past week and I'll tell you, it has made a huge difference. Coupled with not letting them watch TV during the school week, I've seen incredible changes in both of them. What sort of stuff do we do ? Well Monday we sat at the dinning room table for a couple of hours writing snail mail (watch your mailboxes, I put FOUR letters in the mail to some of you just yesterday!) and playing with Alia's new spotz machine that she got for her birthday. Tuesday I took them to the toy store to spend Alia's birthday money and the money they got recently for washing/vacuuming the cars. Then we came home, put all the toys together and played. I can't tell you the last time I sat in the toy room and played with them ! It was fun. Wednesday it was raining and they hadn't watched the weekly movie they rented last week before I decided no TV. So ... I let them watch that. Yesterday we had some friends over for a play. Today ... well, Rory is usually able to come home early on a Friday afternoon so hopefully we'll get to do something fun with him !!!

It works well to spend an hour or two hanging with them. Talking. Just being together. I still have time to cook dinner while they are having baths and getting themselves ready for bed. After dinner, it's pretty much brush teeth and head towards bed. 7:30 is their bed time. Not their start to get ready for bed time ... but their in bed, lights out, done talking, going to sleep bed time. That leaves Rory and I two hours before ours ...

ANYHOO ... my computer time is up for this morning ... I've actually gone a bit over this morning writing this ... but that's ok. I do have the ability to be flexible too ... BUT, I am going to get off NOW.

Chow.