From Tears to Joy

Meet Jacob. He can go from this....



to this, in mere seconds. Exhausting...but the upside is that he definitely can't be ignored...and he was back in bed by 10:30...



A friend asked me yesterday when I found time to shower. I had to think about it, this morning I laughed. While I was showering, the kids who were supposed to be playing downstairs nicely were banging on the door, crying. Something about he stole this and she did that. I'm not really sure. I believe I shut off my hearing off for about 10 min in the mornings. Long enough to shampoo, and condition my hair. I even let the conditioner sit on my hair for 5 whole minutes. Madeline sleeps through the whole thing. That is how I find time to shower.

The kids obviously weren't affected to much. They were playing very happily when I was done.





I was also asked how I find time to cook healthy dinners. Simply..I prepare. I always have 5 or 6 meals in the freezer for the frantic days that don't go so well. When I make a spaghetti or lasagna I double the meat and season half for tacos and freeze. Its easy to thaw and serve. A shepherd's pie is doubled for another day. I always have spinach in the house for a quick salad. Our favorite these days is spinach salad with strawberries. I feel less guilty when pizza is served with a spinach salad. When I do a roast it is divided, some is shredded for a future roast on buns dinner, some cut into pieces for a stew. I do a lot of prep in the afternoons, I cut the veggies and take care of the meat. I have no guilt about serving eggs on toast once in awhile when we're busy or when Drew has a meeting to head out to after dinner. Every week when I do groceries I figure out a meal plan until the next grocery day. I remember when I started doing this it was a lot of work, now its simply apart of making one meal to be thinking about the next. It happens when you have 5 mouths to feed. And to be prepared is really the only way to do when you have a baby whose fussy time is dinner time.

Speaking of fussy time, its hard to imagine that something so sweet looking can cry..



I had all intent to post a picture of her screaming, but one picture of a screaming per blog entry is enough :)

Well, I have much cooking and cleaning to do...so Happy Friday!