My TV Lineup.

This week fall programs started back up. Here's my quick take so far. (I know you were just itching to find out)

Monday:
House - still in the DVR, I usually wait to watch this with Paul. It's the end of baseball season so I need to wait until he's ready.
Lone Star - meh. Kind of a slow start. Reviewers loved it, I think it could become really fun to watch. It tanked in the ratings so it might not last long.
The Event- still in the DVR. I hear it's good. I'll get to it soon.

Tuesday:
Parenthood - love it. The cast is fabulous. Some of the females are a bit whiny, but it's a good time.

Wednesday:
Survivor - I've been watching it for so long that I can't seem to give it up. Last season was the best in years, this season isn't looking that good. The old versus young thing is kind of strange. But you have at least two looneys so maybe it could be fun. Seriously, who brings 1600 shoes to Survivor?!
Top Chef Just Deserts - not nearly as good as the original. All the males are whiny and pathetic and the girls aren't much better. I don't like watching people cry on reality tv it annoys me. Man UP!
Undercovers - haven't watch it yet.

Thursday:
Bones - Still in the DVR. the books are totally different from the show but both are fabulous. I do think the show has declined in recent seasons, we shall see if it can recover. The books are intense and technical, where the show is light and fun and a bit technical. I like both sides
Grey's Anatomy - after last seasons finale, I felt the open was a bit weak.
Private Practice - haven't watched.
Project Runway - don't like the ads for the show. It's a false sense of dread or something. The show itself is okay. I don't know why but I liked it better on Bravo. And Tim Gun looks sickly anymore (not that it matters).

And that's a wrap. Those are the shows I watch and record to watch. Currently Paul and I are working through Sopranos on DVD.
We also love How I met your mother, and will catch up with that on DVD. We look forward to checking out Boardwalk empire.
Also I like Weeds, Dexter, US of Tara, and Nurse Jackie. All of which air on showtime so we wait for the DVDs.

Is it a lot of tv? Yes it is. Do I care? Not really. Do I need it? Nope. Could I live without it? Yup. But I don't have to, this is my entertainment.

My time to relax.

When I was growing up television was very much a part of our lives. There was one in our living room, one in our kitchen and one in my parents room. It was on a lot and every night we'd have our shows to watch. Mornings was cartoon time, afternoons I don't think we had it on. Evenings it was the news followed by our shows we liked.
When I was a teenager my dad and I would sit and watch the darker shows together. X-files, Homicide, Law and Order. My sisters and I used to drive my dad crazy with 7th Heaven which butted up against monday night football (we wouldn't relinquish the main tv until after the show was all the way done).
When we were young there were 3 tvs in the house and some nights they were all going. One person would be huddled in the kitchen watching their show, one of my parents might be hiding in their room (we never went up there) and then the main tv would be going. In our house it was first come first serve (Unless my dad wanted to claim his rights). Now my brothers and I are out of the house but my two sisters live there. They each have a tv in their room.
(disclaimer: even though we watched a lot of tv I still remember being very active kids)
When Paul and I got married and moved in together we decided there would be no tv in our bedroom. Right now we have two televisions. One in the living room and one in the kids playroom.
The kids watch a little tv in the morning while I'm getting ready for the day (but not until they are dressed and ready to go). In the afternoon they get a movie (this replaced nap time) to help keep them calm and give them rest. There are days when they do watch too much tv and then there are days when it might be on for 10 minutes.
Clearly I don't come from an anti-tv camp. I do want it controlled by I am not against it. I think a bit of tv is harmless. For the kids, it sparks their imagination bringing characters to life. When they watch television they do calm down for a bit. This is good because my kids don't nap but still need a break, and they aren't smart enough to just sit and relax when they are tired. When my kids are tired they fight and get rammy.
I will say it now. I will fully admit it. I am a tv junkie. I have a DVR and it's loaded with shows. Tonight Grey's Anatomy airs its latest season and I can't wait. I know how pathetic that is. I get it. But it has become my escape at the end of the day. I put my kids to bed and I can sit for an hour or two and relax in front of the mind numbing shows.
I watch shows that have no redeeming value. I have a full line-up of things I want to watch. And the shows on premium channels? That's what netflix is for.
Feel free to judge me. Feel free to think less of me. I'm not apologetic.
I read books too. And again most of them are embarrassingly bad. Some are dirty. Most are thrillers. I don't read romance books, but I do read romantic thrillers.
I read them fast. And I am capable of going through a book in a day. I have read all of the Harry Potter books and a few of them while taking care of a newborn. I remember propping the book on the corner of the couch while holding baby and feeding with a bottle. Yup I am that kind of mom.
I can let a book get in the way of child care. But I haven't. I get obsessed. And I am fully aware of it.
These are my vices. My tv and my books.

Staying organized.

I don't pretend to have it all together. That would be lying. I do like to think that I have most of my life organized.
I've been running a household of 6 for four years (with the help of my husband). In that time I think I missed one doctors appointment. No bad, right?
My mother-in-law has a clock in every room. This used to make me laugh (who am I kidding it still does). Clocks are everywhere. She always knows what time it is. It turns out that her clocks are my calendars. In the kitchen I have three calendars up right now.
Calendar 1 - is on the side of the refrigerator. This one contains the meals we plan on eating for the week. We typically go food shopping on Saturdays. I have never been all that good at shopping with kids so we wait until the weekend when one parent can go with one child. So our food planning runs from Saturday to Friday. Friday night Paul and I mull over what we want to eat for the week. We consider what food items we have in the house and what is on sale. Most of our meat we buy in bulk at BJ's and that plays into what we are going to eat for the week. When food planning we consider the weather for grilling options and nighttime activities for early and easy meals. We frequently find ourselves putting the same things on the menu so we will regularly pull out the recipe books for new ideas, but with picky eaters we have to be careful about having too many adventurous meals in one week. (We don't cater to our children's pickiness but we also won't cook them out of dinner every night)
Calendars 2 and 3 are white boards. One is this month and one is next month. In the old house I had one white board mounted on the wall and attached was a paper calendar that showed the upcoming month. In my new house I have not found a good place to mount my calendar on the wall, so it sits on the kitchen desk. As part of a housewarming gift my mom got me a new one because the older one is kind of gross looking after years of use. For now I am using both of them when I figure out a good hanging place I will get rid of the old one and go back to my former system.
My white-board calendar is ridiculously organized. It's color-coded. Every person has a marker and I even went as far as marking the markers with the initials of each person. Everything goes on these calendars. Sports practices/games, doctors appointments, special events, even when the bigger kids are buying lunch. It's a rainbow of reminders, and I look at it all the time to ensure that I know where I am going and when.
My other calendar is my iphone and that too gets updated regularly. I have reminders built in so that while I am out and about I can't forget about certain events. My iphone also has tons of alarms programed. Alarms to get the kids on and off the bus, and the younger ones to and from pre-school. I am a very forgetful person so I set alarms for daily things so that I don't forget.

Staying organized is key to my success. It's not just keeping everything written on calendars. It's putting things away in places that make sense. It's sorting through the kids clothes every season (separating out the things they have outgrown from the things they might be able to wear again next year). From there I can see what they need versus what they have too much of.
It's getting a routine down and sticking with it. My kids bring a lot of papers home from school, daily, and I need to stay on top of all of it. I recycle completed assignments after reviewing them. I keep some art-work but not much. I hang it for a while then take it down when more comes home.
I respond to papers immediately rather than thinking I'll get to it later. Inevitably piles of papers show up places. On counters and desks and tables. My daily goal is to eliminate those piles as much as humanly possible.
The more I take care of these things the more I can relax. Clutter makes me stressed. And so being organized eliminates this clutter. I will say it again. I don't pretend to have it all together. I am the very real life model of Forgetful Jones. My house isn't even all that clean and uncluttered. There are still sewing materials out from a hemming project I did last week. But I still try to keep most everything as organized as I can. In my own imperfect way.
My daily goals include- not being late to an appointment and not forgetting something important (today I forgot to defrost the meat for dinner).
I am imperfect, but I'd like to think my system helps me overcome that.

if i post it here maybe i'll do it.

Things I'm going to talk about soon:

1. How I stay organized (I know you care).

2. Joshua asks me if I miss him when he's at school. Do I?

3. My escape.

Getting Back into it.

August 30 was the first day of school for Catherine and Stephen. I was really looking forward to this day for a lot of reasons. The biggest was the change in seasons. I love when the seasons change.

Lots of people ask me how I do it. Do what? Handle 4 kids? First, I never really thought four kids was all that much. Four in three years? Well that is a bit much. But honestly, it's not that hard. In the beginning it wasn't a picnic, but it didn't take me long to figure out how to make things work.

The key to my success? Routine.

It's all about setting a routine and sticking to it. No matter what. Who doesn't love a predictable pattern? Babies (at least all four of mine) do so much better when they have a routine. And, as my kids get bigger the same still holds true. Routines make life easier.

The summer routine was fairly relaxed, and most definitely flexible. After a while the routine does get a bit boring which is why I love it when things change.

And they have changed big. It's school time and the routine is far more scheduled and less flexible.

Allow me to give you insight to my current routine.

Monday through Friday Paul's alarm goes off at 5:30, he's usually kissing me goodbye by 6:10

My alarm goes off at 6:10. I wake Catherine up at 6:15 and then get in the shower (Stephen wakes up on his own while I'm in the shower).

6:40ish I am dressed and downstairs. I get Catherine and Stephen in their seats for breakfast.

While they eat I pack lunches.

7:20 we go outside to wait for the bus.

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday after the bus leaves it's time for Joshua and David to get ready for pre-school (David is usually up and Joshua is usually still in bed).

After they are dressed we all have breakfast.

8:30 my phone alarms to tell me it's time to get ready to leave.

9:00 I am leaving the boys at the front door of the school

On Mondays I will volunteer at the school. Wed and Fri I will go to the gym and run any errands that need to get done.

11:30 is pre-school pick-up time. After that on Mondays and Fridays we will go home and get things done around the house.

Wednesdays its rush home have lunch and head back out for Joshua's speech therapy at 1:00.

3:10ish Catherine and Stephen come off the bus. They come in and must go get into play-clothes right away.

Catherine must be at the desk by 4:00 for homework (Stephen is free to play unless he gets any work to do).

Tuesdays and Thursdays are cross country nights. Practice starts at 6pm. Our normal dinner time is as close to 5 as possible. These nights we try for 4:30. I take Catherine and Stephen to cross country. Paul stays home with David and Joshua. They clean-up dishes and toys and are in bed around 7pm. I get home no later than 7:30. We do showers and bed.

Every night after dinner is clean-up time. The kids must clean-up the playroom and the backyard before bed. We do our best to get the kids in bed by 7. 7:30 is the latest.

Our kids don't nap. They haven't in a long time. The trade-off is the early bedtime. It looks chaotic, but it really does work, and most days life runs smoothly. I love this time of year because we are so busy. I love getting things done day after day. I love watching Catherine and Stephen come off the bus full of excitement (sometimes not), ready to tell me stories. Catherine loves to share her homework with me. Both of them love to tell me the things they are learning and doing at school. The best part is that it never happens all at once. Their stories come out throughout the afternoon and evening home. Stephen is likely to come home today and tell me about something he did last week. You just never know what you're going to get.

Having just David and Joshua home is becoming a fun experience. They too go to school (only for a short time), and their stories are just as fun. For them, it's a brand new and exciting experience. It's the first time in their lives that they are away from me (other than sleepovers at grandparents).

This time of year is great. And I promise that come May I will be counting down the days for this season to end and the summer vacation to begin. I love the change. I love the growth. I love the business. But eventually this schedule will become my enemy, it will be taxing. I will be tired of the running and be ready to rest carefree in the breeze of summer vacation.