Lessons learned this week.... and some pictures

1. Teaching your preschooler to like your music is a REALLY good idea (sooo much better to listen to than "The wheels on the bus."

2. Of course, even Feist can get old after the millionth repeat (Ashtyn loves the "counting song" as she calls it).

3. It might seem like a really good idea to put wheatgrass in your smoothie (I grew some for Easter decor), but it's not. Learn from my mistake and stick to wheatgrass shots or something, but don't ruin a smoothie with it. Of course, eventually I did manage to mask most of the flavor with enough ingredients and Ashtyn DID eat it....

4. Filling your kitchen sink with bubbles and letting your preschooler playing with them and empty Easter eggs = hours of entertainment.

5. EVERTHING gets really wet when you do this.

6. This one is really important: CHECK TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO DIAPERS IN THE PILE OF LAUNDRY BEFORE YOU PUT IN IN THE WASHING MACHINE. Trust me on this, you won't even begin to imagine the mess it will make if you do not. You know that weird absorbent beady stuff? yeah, it gets everywhere. And you know how diapers are all soft and cottony? yeah, that gets everywhere too. My black shirt didn't come out of the wash so great.

7. It's OK to eat lunch at 10 AM and again at noon. It's been my routine for a week now. Forget just snacking at 10, a full lunch is much more satisfying.

8. Being a mom of 2 kids really does fry your brain. completely. I can't believe all the stuff I forget now.

9. Murphy's law of children sleeping: if your baby decides to miraculously sleep through the night one random day, your preschooler will wake up instead.

10. Murphy's second law of children sleeping: if your baby decides to miraculously sleep through the night one random day, it won't happen again and it will be promptly followed by the worst night of sleep ever. (Poor girl wasn't' feeling well though, so I can't really blame her.)

11. When you finally reach the 6-week mark and are OKed to exercise again, don't overdo it. I pulled a ligament in my abdomen running when I was pregnant, and when I went running the other day I discovered that it is still rather weak. Now I can't even sneeze without pain let alone go running again. Who ever heard of a stomach injury from running????? seriously....

12. As if I needed to say it, but attitude is everything. I've learned to use my excited happy voice when I tell Ashtyn, "We're going to have a snack before breakfast! Here is a box of cereal, eat some of that and I'll fix you breakfast in a minute" when really I'm starving, and the baby needs to eat, and Ashtyn is hungry and deep down inside I'm cringing at the thought of handing my child a box of cold cereal for her to eat while she sits on the floor. Not my idea of an OK start to the day. But alas, so much better when I put on a happy face. :)

13. Did you know you can cook a spaghetti squash whole? You don't have to hack through it with dull knives until you are red in the face. You don't have to scrape all those seeds out and try to cram it into an appropriate size baking dish and wonder about whether or not to cover it and how much water to put in it--you can just stab it a few times with a knife and chuck it in the oven? Awesome. Made life SO much easier the other day. :)

Anyway, that's just a few of the wonderful life lessons I've learned this week.

Also, I've decided to change my personal mantra from "live in the moment" to "it is what it is." It seems to be therapeutic for me--it helps me realize that really, I can't control everything, so chill! It is what it is. Makes enduring diapers in the laundry and cheerios from the box for breakfast so much more endurable.

Also, it helps that I have really cute girls and husband that really wants to help (despite being gone pretty much always):

Moments like these make it all better: