Thursday, November 10, 2005

A couple of updates.

For my four loyal readers...

1. I am much, much better today. Baby decided to be up from about midnight to the 2's in the morning - I'm surprisingly chipper considering. Rather than sit and mope, I made a plan of action to get things straighted up around the house. Yes, one could say that by sitting and reading blogs I'm not getting anything done, but the dishwasher and laundry machine are running. The baby is sleeping, and I need some quiet time dammit.

2. My husband is hoping to be home by 11 pm Friday. Much, much later than anticipated, but at least he's coming home.

3. The guy and daughter from New Orleans I wrote about in October? They just moved into a duplex here in town. He's found a job in his trained profession (mechanic); one of the ladies from church gave him her husband's no longer needed tools, so that he would have them for work. His daughter is enrolled in preschool and is starting to settle in. The gal that took them in watches the little girl during the day. Another call for household goods went out, and people responded.

4. My new trick with the boy - when I ask him to do something, I make sure I have his attention, ask, then count to 5 (in my head), and ask again if necessary. I've found that he just needs a couple minutes to get moving. Much less stressful than taking it personally and loosing my cool because he doesn't do it 'right now'. I'm really not a complete hardass, sometimes my expectations get out of whack.

Time to go put the clothes in the dryer.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You got me motivated to get to work cleaning up. It is comforting to see someone else with three kids and the main caretaker which is a rather sick way to be comforted once I think about it. If you can do it, I can!

Thank you for sharing.

Erika

Gretchen said...

It's not sick - that's why I write it - so others know they're not alone. Allows me to get out whatevers bothering me and hopefully move on.

Anonymous said...

Soooo glad you are better today!! What'd you do with your free time last night? I thought about you out tooling around and was jealous.

:)

Megan

Julie Marsh said...

G, I'm sorry that DH was not home for your anniversary. So much going on with you guys, and you are keeping it together so well.

I think I will try your technique with Tacy. I'm pretty sure my expectations get out of whack, and I KNOW I'm a hardass.

Anonymous said...

So glad today is better. I too wondered how you spent your evening last night......hope your anniversary "reunion" tonight is a good one (wink wink).

Anonymous said...

Gretchen, thanks for the updates! I had wondered about the man and the little girl and my heart warmed to hear positive news. I am sad J was not able to be home on Thurs, but that he was there a bit early on Friday. Happy Anniversary, btw! And love the technique used with R. Need to employ that with N.

Teresa