It’s wake up time!!

Since my boy started high school, the funny episodes in the morning have slowed down considerably. It could be because hormones are turning him into a younger, male version of me, i.e grumpy, doesn’t do well in the mornings, hates sunlight… you understand.

I feel that I should illustrate the point.

A typical morning consists of me getting up only because Baby J is threatening to break glass with her good morning shrillness (to be fair, she doesn’t actually do this. She actually babbles quite sweetly in her cot for a bit and then says an enthusiastic ‘Hi!’ when she sees me. But the potential for shrillness is always there, at the back of my mind kicking me into action because at 5am that will hurt.)

It’s then all about the morning tea and coffee, which as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, sometimes involves a game of rock, paper, scissors but recently not so much as I just do it because I’m up anyway  - and I get brownie points

Then it’s onward to the deep dark depths of the boys room…

In his wisdom my darling husband decided that we needed to get our son a double bunk. That means it’s a bunk bed the size of a double bed. Uber cool for boys, utter crap for mothers. The main issue is I can’t physically get to him to drag his behind out of bed. He capitalises on this by hiding just out of reach (yes, I have poked him in the ear and tickled his nostrils before in an attempt to break through sleep fog. It doesn’t work, but it was fun to try. He has now subconsciously counteracts this by being millimetres too far for me to reach him without physically climbing the ladder – which is obviously not going to happen.)

A typical dialog will be like so.

“Morning!” (voice filled with sing-song-hate-inducing-carefully-cultivated sweetness perfected over time to elude the audio block that the male species uses to filter out most female voices)

“Iiiiiiiiit’s wake up time!” I say with gusto!

Nothing. Then amazingly.. ”mmmpftmmmppphumftah”

“What was that, dear?”

“Why? Why now??” says a voice from the bunk tower.

“Er, because it’s time to get up. You have school and you need to get ready.” I say helpfully.

“NOOO! COME ON, REALLY?” He bellows, and then because that took every last ounce of energy he’ll follow that with.. “I’m coming, I’m coming. 5 minutes…”

20 minutes later I’ll venture in again. By this time I’m not a happy bunny and it’s always the same three things that have ruined my day…

1. Oh no – he does NOT get to sleep in if I can’t
2. Damn, I forget to go call him again after 5 mins
3. I do not believe I actually thought he was going to get up.. IDIOT!

“BOY! I swear if you don’t get up now….” I start, when I get the classic line.

“Muuuuuuuuuuum, you don’t UNDERSTAND! You don’t know how HARD it is to get up. It’s not FAIR!!!!!’

It’s at roughly this time that I go to my happy place. And of course so does my son….

Kicking the junk food addiction

OK, so I admit this may be a little more difficult to kick off the uber healthy eating plan then previously thought. It feels like I’m kicking an addiction. I honestly am struggling to get through the day without having some little bit of utter junk. It’s pathetic. The mind is willing and all that.

Yes, that’s why I haven’t posted anything since my ‘in support of real food‘ post. In short, I’ve not practiced what I preach – yet.

I did also say I’d be honest about cheating. So yeah, I’ve not yet gone one day eating only real food. The weakness seems to be sweet stuff. I’ve not had bread in days, fizzy drinks, nothing particularly fatty, but I have had a Crunchie, some awesome nougat from the market down the street, and there was a box of chocolates I forgot about that of course I came across and merrily sat and polished off the lot with my son while watching movies. It was awesome, but totally counter productive. Oh and I was lazy the one morning and had some sugary cereal and last night I ate a stack of Jaffa Cakes. So, my bane is my yearning for sweet stuff.

It dawned on me however that as with any bad habit you are trying to kick, it boils down to breaking the routine that puts you in the situation where you are giving in to the habit. For me, that means totally mixing things up and making an effort to totally overhaul my routine. The blessing is that I now have the freedom to do that.

Yes I know it’s Friday, and yes it’s a weird day to start a new routine, but I ask you this – who would want to start a difficult task which needs every ounce of willpower on a Monday? Aren’t Monday’s bad enough as it is? Friday is just full of positive energy and can-do attitude. In my mind, the perfect day to make a positive change in life.

“Never put off until tomorrow what you can change today” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Worry wart

Sometimes when things start going wrong, I tend to get my motherly knickers in one massive knot. I’ll almost always end up feeling like I should have done something better, quicker or sooner. It’s that horrible thing called responsibility, and the sickening feeling that you’ve let the most important people in your life down.

The biggest issue with this way of thinking is that it very quickly spirals out of control until you end up beating yourself up not only for your own mistakes (damn, forgot to get milk, didn’t do the washing last night etc) but you start second guessing everything you do and start doubting your own decisions.

This morning, after a good couple of weeks of sleepy badly, waking up worried about something, and generally spending most of every day feeling slightly sick, I woke up and decided that’s enough now.

Call it an epiphany or whatever, but I worry about little things because the big things in life are sorted.

I found my soulmate over 10 years ago.
I have the most wonderful son.
I have parents who love me.
I have a sister who loves me.
I have lovely in-laws I don’t fight with.
I have a brother-in-law who thinks I’m good for his brother.
I have rocking friends around the world.
I have a job.
I have a brilliant holiday coming up.
I have excellent health.

My worry stems from getting screwed up about small blips in my life. I have no business being worried.

And as for being better, faster and more sorted? Yeah, I’ll get there. Maybe.