Woohoo What a Night
Posted on: November 22, 2008
Finally, for the first time EVER in 11 months, and no I am not exaggerating, my son has slept in his crib all by himself without waking until the morning. I am so belated I am pretty much shouting it from the rooftops. If you are a mother that has spoiled your child or wants what is best for them and tried all the “methods” with no success, then you will understand my excitement.
Although it was not easy to get him down at first. Every time I put him into his crib after he fell asleep in my arms he would wake right up. So, finally I just left him in there and any time that he stood up at the bars, I would give him two kisses, say that I love him, and hug him until he dropped back into the crib. After only an hour of that, yes it was very painful and difficult to do, he finally fell asleep while I was hugging him and I gently laid him down. He was out for the count, poor thing. I laid right down, because I was already exhausted myself, and didn’t wake until 8:30 this morning!!!
What a great night. No back pain, crooked neck, or little foot jabbing my stomach or back. Not that I don’t miss his little face first thing, but waking to my husband’s was just as nice.
Do you have a success story about your kid(s)? Share it with us.
Getting Ready To Move Forward
Posted on: November 21, 2008
This morning we had an intake appointment to get my 11 month old son into day care. I opted to send him to day care, because I feel it is important for him to learn how to be social with other children and adults. Also, a couple of bonus perks are that I can get some things done without him around the house and errands, and I can also adjust to not always having him around and letting him be with other people.
I have been very attached to him since birth, which makes getting things done practically impossible. He has only had to be watched for no more than a combined total of 4 hours away from me and only by my mother. So, I know it will be a hard change, but necessary for his social development. Also, with another one on the way in April, I definitely know me and him have to “cut the cord.” I feel horrible about it, however I know that the benefits outweigh my insecurities and fears. My husband agrees that I need to let him go now or it will never happen.
This is been a really hard subject to come to grips with that the time would come, and now that the time is here I am crumbling with fear. I am welling up as I type this out. He begins on Monday of next week, and his regular schedule will be Monday through Friday 8:15 to 3:15. I know those are long hours, and I can always shorten them. However I know it will be a good, educational, and cultural experience for him.
Please let me know that I am not alone in my fears. Share your story with me below. Also, if any veteran mothers out there have some advice (especially in my hormonal state) of how to cope and deal, help me please.
Accuracy of MagPie
Posted on: November 20, 2008
- In: Twitter
- 3 Comments
So, I have been hearing a lot about MagPie recently and a few tweeps I have talked to are testing it out. I went on and saw that I could make €8.50 a month, which is $10.65 in my country! Not much, but that could buy me one cross stitch kit that I could sell for $25 or more. Definitely worth it.
However, I finally convinced my hubby to sign up with Twitter and join me. Then he heard me talking about MagPie and he decided to take a look. Now for comparison purposes, he only has 2 followers and I have 30. So, I was telling him that the estimate they give him may not be a lot, because he has no followers really. Then he typed in his Twitter name is stared blindly at the screen. I went over and looked and it said that he could earn €67.53 a month!!! What?!
So, now I want to open this up to your opinion. Are you a MagPie? If so, what was your estimate and how many followers do you have? If you have been a MagPie for some time, have you ever received an actual payment to your PayPal? Let us know.
Reasons to Declutter
Posted on: November 19, 2008
I am going to get started on my category of decluttering here on Mama Knows Best. So where is best to begin… well, at the beginning of course. So, let’s talk about the motivation behind decluttering, because if you don’t have any motivation to do it then you are not going to move forward in your efforts.
Personally here are my top reasons to declutter:
1. Cleanliness: The main thing that starts my husband and I wanting to declutter is when we look around at the piles that begin to accumulate. At one point, it was so bad that we could not see the floor of our bedroom, because I had so much clothes spilling onto the floor (and that was the clothes I wore, because the clothes that no longer fit me were in my drawers). So, emptying out my drawers and donating all my old clothes gave us part of our bedroom back. Major motivation.
2. Company: Of course, a quick way to get us into cleaning mode is to invite some guests over. This is another reason we would like our place to stay decluttered, so we can invite others over or be prepared for unexpected guests.
3. Lost items: It is much easier to find everything when it all has a place and everything is in its places. Also, if you don’t have as much then it’s easier to find something you need. What is the point of holding onto a lot of sentimental garbage or “things I may need” if you can’t find what you need when you need it? Exactly.
Now, when you are bogged down by the opposite ideas that hinder your motivation to declutter, think of your strongest motivation instead. Such as, pretend someone is on their way over in an hour… and GO!
What is your top decluttering motivators? What tends to hinder you about decluttering?
Finally the results…
Posted on: November 19, 2008
It is finally officially tested, checked, and confirmed… I’m pregnant! Yay! Numero 3.
I just got back from the doctor’s and they were able to guesstimate that I am about 20 weeks along. Unfortunately the little muffin in the oven was not very cooperative, so they could not say with 100% confidence if it was a girl or boy. However they are going with girl, because they are “pretty sure.”
Either way, it is ecstatic news. So, by (hopefully no later) than April 10th of next year I should have another cute little bundle of joy wiggling around this place. Thankfully my son is almost a year old, so he won’t be too young or too much of a handful (oops hopefully I didn’t jinx that).
No Spend Month Philosophies
Posted on: November 18, 2008
I have been reading a lot from Small Notebook today and yesterday, and she has some amazing tips, tricks, and ideas. Today I want to talk about the “No Spend Month” and the different ways this can be approached.
I am not sure where this philosophy started, however I do applaud all that it stands for. No matter who you are, if you are single or married, have kids or not, you can try this for one month and see where it gets you. It is easily adaptable to any situation, income, or family size.
Rachel from Small Notebook decided to challenge her family of 3 to only spend $250 in one month. That’s $250 for groceries/eating out, gas, clothing, coffee, household necessities, and entertainment. (Rent, insurance, bills, health costs, work costs, savings, and investments were not included in the $250 limit.) She rounded out the month by spending only $218! She made sacrifices where they could be made, i.e. groceries instead of Starbucks.
Then in a newer posting by Rachel, she shared Carly‘s story from back in October about how Carly decided for her sociology “personal change” project she would give herself a “fun allowance.” She decided to limit herself to $10 per week for “fun money” and then cease spending for the rest of that week. For the first week, Carly decided to spend her entire $10 on a lunch with coworkers, and they planned the meal weeks in advance. Carly discovered that she felt good about spending her money on something she was looking forward to. Right away that is a major discovery in my mind, because this is ow we all should view money and spending. That is the purpose of No Spend Months.
No Spend Months were probably invented to make the debt-crazed and the frivilous spenders realize what the true value of a dollar can be. Instead of living paycheck to paycheck or buying whatever you see (oh I’m sorry “need”) while you are in a store, you really have to think about it first.
You should keep your allowable spending very minimal. If you do not think that it is possible to set a budget like Rachel did for the month, then start with the smaller “fun” budget of $10 like Carly did. Then once you think you can stick to that, start shortening your other expense budgets until you can “see” what kind of a monthly budget would normally be for you. Then for one month, shorten that semi-dramatically and see how much you can save. Whatever money you have left (or have saved) put directly into your savings or emergency funds.
Did you try one of these methods? How did it turn out? Do you have any other ways you have tried, and were you successful? Tell us your story.
Decluttering
Posted on: November 17, 2008
Well, I am always on the look out for tips, tricks, and ways to help me declutter. The problem that I always come across is that I live in an apartment in a major city on a low income. Lots of things that do not lend themselves to help me out in making our limited space cleaner and relaxing. We do not have the option (yet) of moving to start anew, nor can we buy loads of bins to separate and organize the clutter, nor can we just shove everything out onto our lawn and hold a large yard sale because we have no lawn (we barely have enough on street parking around us).
So, we are stuck in a cramped apartment, stubbing our toes whilst we try and move around, and all the while becoming more and more aggravated with ourselves.
The reason for this post was supposed to be tips that I have found to help others in my situation, but unfortunately I cannot find any. So, now this post is to ask all those out there in my fellow parenting, organization, and decluttering blogs for help.
Do you have any tips, tricks, or ideas to help someone in my position declutter for their family’s sake?
Tweet, Tweet
Posted on: November 15, 2008
That’s right, I have begun to tweet on Twitter. I have always heard it’s a hot ticket with bloggers. So, check me out here.
Is anyone else out there on Twitter? If so, post your name here and get yourself out there. Also, add me “mama4kids” and get my network growing.
Daily Achievements
Posted on: November 15, 2008
Well an update on how last night went… Hubby didn’t come to bed until after 11:30, oh well. And baby stayed asleep in his own crib until almost 2! Yay! I could have put him back into his crib after he fell right back to sleep, but so did I :[ So, oh well, maybe I can remember if it happens tonight.
As for how today went, we had another full plate day planned. It started with applying for heating assistance, then a little bit of layaway Christmas shopping, and finally ended with girl scouts. Not a lot of things, however there was a lot driving, traffic, and waiting. So, needless to say we had donuts for breakfast, had to buy lunch out of our XMas mone :(, and ate the leftovers from last night for dinner. My poor baby was so pooped that he fell asleep at 7:30 and has been out like a light ever since (it’s now almost 11!). I didn’t even get to give him a bath because he was so tired. I even had to put his PJs on him while he was half asleep (it was really funny actually, because every time I sat him up his head flopped onto my chest).
Well, that’s it. Short and sweet.
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