New morning ritual?

I have been feeling very tired and stressed out lately (can anyone say moved to a new house?). I feel like this tiredness and stress has made me a less enjoyable person to be around, especially for my children (Mommy's grumpy and doesn't want to do anything). On top of this, I haven't exactly been doing well with Weight Watchers lately.

Interestingly enough, last week at WW, we were tasked with trying to find the free time in our days in which we could exercise. I think she really meant where can you get a few minutes like while on hold on the telephone or stopped at a red light, but I really took that to heart and actually sat down and drew out a schedule of my week to see when I could actually get some real exercise in. Now, I've never been an early riser and usually stay in bed until the last possible second, but I decided that if I got up an hour earlier than the kids, I could get in a bit of a workout as well as the hard sought after shower.

I'm a superb planner. I have lists and schedules for everything! When I start feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I get out the pen and paper and start planning a way to minimize that stress. So coming up with a "plan" for how I'll do things is nothing new. And usually I say I'll implement the plan at the beginning of the week or have another reason to put off starting. But last night, when I came up with the early morning exercise plan, I went online and found a workout video on NetFlix (we haven't yet hooked up our DVD player so I can't do one of my own videos) and had it all set up for myself this morning. And then I got up this morning and actually followed through with my exercise plan.

I didn't quite make it to the shower before Noah got up, but he watched Sesame Street while I showered and Liam played in his crib. It was awesome. I feel great, I've already gotten my exercise in for the day, and I'm hopeful that this will help me stay in a more positive frame of mind throughout the day. Besides that, my shoulders no longer feel so tight. =-) It is my goal to continue doing this every day, but we'll have to see how it goes on a day when there's preschool.

It's official.

Finally, we are completely moved out of the old house. Sure we're sitting around the new place with boxes everywhere, but there's no more moving or *gasp* cleaning left to do at the other place. Thank goodness! Now on to cleaning and organizing. If I didn't also need to also keep track of our family's schedule, I'd be in heaven.

Halloween et. al

Massive move on Saturday followed by a hastily planned birthday party for Liam (happy 1st bday little Boo!) and trick or treating completed the day. By 6:00 last night, I think we'd all just about had it. Noah refused cupcakes and absolutely would not trick or treat. I think that was part of it was because we hadn't really prepared him for Liam's birthday and he was pouting a bit. By the time we got home, Liam was crying for no apparent reason, Mommy was at the end of her rope, and Daddy had a tight lip (the closest he comes to losing it).

Somehow we all made it to bed in one piece and had a good night's sleep. So today I'm doing all the usual chores, just at the new house, and what should I discover? This new washer ROCKS!! It is so quiet I had to check it twice to make sure it was even on. Too bad the dryer doesn't seem to be drying the clothes. The skylights are an awesome conductor of rain sounds too. Finally, I live in a house where I can hear the rain. Perhaps it was growing up in the rainforrest, or perhaps I'm just weird, but I feel so calm when I can hear the rain and I sleep so much better.