*This post could alternatively be titled “preserving Monday’s sanity” (or Mommy’s sanity), but the abbreviation has a few too many connotations/inferences that I am not willing to admit to. I much prefer the ‘M’ alliteration, don’t you?

I work part-time outside of our home, Tuesday-Thursday. So I am home with the cherubs four days out of the week. But for some reason, it is always Mondays that get us. As previously mentioned, I’ve learned that if I don’t have a plan the boys come up with one (see picture to left…don’t be fooled into thinking that is a hug). It just seems like there are more battles, more messes, more tears, more tantrums, more TROUBLE on Mondays. Maybe it is because RRL has been home to help all weekend and we are missing him on Mondays. Maybe it is because I feel overwhelmed trying to get the house cleaned up after a busy weekend and get us all ready for the week of work/school/babysitters house. Maybe its because my kids just have the Monday blues. Whatever causes it, I’m definitely willing to take ownership for the fact that Mondays are rough (my attitude, my patience, my attention to what really matters) and I’ve decided to do something about it. Something small yet intentional.

I’ve started “Makeover my Monday” plans. Today, and for the previous two Mondays, I just tried to plan ahead for an activity or craft for the boys that is something we don’t usually do or haven’t done before. In the morning while we get our chores done, I talk to them about what we are going to do. This buys me a little time to get the laundry going, clean up the kitchen or tidy up around the house while they get excited. Then we do our “project” (as KJ likes to call it) when Lou goes down for a nap.

1) The first week we made our first ever (but definitely not last) couch/sheet fort to:

hide in,

read stories in

and play flashlight games in

…and as a bonus, invited a friend over to make and decorate cookies.

2) Last week we decorated pumpkins using things we could find around the house (construction paper, stickers, markers)

Note: I can neither confirm nor deny whether Cbug

colored on his face with brown marker during this

little project.

Aren’t the final results just the cutest things you have ever seen? KJ declares them to be “BEEEAUTIFUL pumpkins”. I concur.

3) This week we played with dried beans. We measured them, dug for buried treasure (which may or may not have been candy left from last Easter), and made roads for racecars. For the big finale we used the beans inside of paper plates as noise makers and had a dance party (see video below).

Thanks to Kendra V for the idea of digging for things in the beans. The funny thing about the “treasure dig” was that they were having so much fun, they found and re-buried the candy about 12 times before even thinking to ask if they could eat it. And we definitely covered our noise-makers in stickers. Mostly I like involving stickers in every project just to get to hear Cbug say “steeeeeeekers”

over and over. So cute!

This Monday “mission” is definitely still a work-in-process but has already been successful, I think, at giving the boys some time on Monday with my undivided attention (or at least a little less divided). Its been a learning process to figure out the timing to make it happen, what are reasonable expectations for their attention span, etc. It really hasn’t been so much about the what we do, as much as just that I have a plan and am intentional about spending some Monday time with them.

I would love to hear your ideas of things to do. I would prefer it to be something we can do in our home, with few supplies, and age appropriate for a nearly 2 year-old and a 3 1/2 year-old. Share your ideas, then when we try it I’ll share pictures and let everyone else know how it goes. I’ve also been posting a facebook status on Sundays saying what we’ll be doing on Monday so if anyone else needs “a plan” you can use ours or maybe get an idea of your own. Hope that helps if there is anyone else out there needing “An Extreme Monday Makeover”. Hopefully it will also hold me accountable to having a plan ahead of time.

Let me know your ideas!

ABL

So, Makeover My Monday hasn’t died.  Don’t worry (I know you were).  I just haven’t been blogging much.  This Monday, though…the one where I thought it would be a good idea to make a tree…this one needed to be documented.

For two reasons.
1) For the record: I could fit all of my craftiness in my pinky.
2) The end result really has been a blessing for our family.

As for #1- There is sort of a running joke in my family that my brothers and I were probably the only kids to EVER get kicked out of the craft cabin at Church Camp.  You have to know that the “Craft Ladies” at camp were some of the sweetest, most patient, creative ladies ever, and ladies who we dearly loved.  But they had to cringe when they saw a member of the B-family heading to the cabin during free time.  They’d never admit it.  But we knew.  You know the projects that “everyone can do”.  We couldn’t.  None of the three of us.  Ever.  Well, there was the one flower pot that was stinkin’ amazing…and I actually still have sitting in my kitchen window.  But I digress.  The point is, and I think I may have mentioned this once (or a thousand times) before…I am an accountant.  I don’t mean just by occupation.  I mean by heart.  I love rules, order, formulas, answers.  Not art.  Unless there is a pattern, or a website, or a formula.  That I can do.  (case in point- to make the batman symbol on the top of my birthday cake…which no one was going to see… I actually printed and cut out a pattern).  SOOOOOO- when I decided that Monday’s project should be to make a tree for our Thanksgiving leaves, I should have known we were all in trouble. 

Can’t wait to show you the finished product after we get all of the leaves up over the next couple of weeks. Maybe I’ll post the list or something of what each leaf says. But I wanted to go ahead and post the idea because it has been such a blessing to us and I thought other families might enjoy it, too. Thanks, Tallons, for sharing it with us!!

 

EVENTUALLY

-Family outing to the museum
-Daylight Savings Time Picnic

 

…are made to be broken!

So one thing I hadn’t factored into this whole “Makeover My Monday” business was that I might actually learn a few things about myself. Today’s lesson: A type-A accountant with a plan is sometimes dangerous and may completely lose sight of the goal to protect the plan.

Today didn’t go like I planned and I was definitely frustrated at first. It was my fault, I hadn’t really prepared ahead of time, but I had big visions of doing wonderful things for some veterans. I mean really, we even dressed in red, white and blue. However, the book I was going to get from the library was checked out, the lady we needed to talk to at the retirement home about visiting veterans was out today and to be honest, my kids were in no mood for my plans. So even though we did color some awesome pictures to mail to our favorite Lieutenant, Uncle D, that was pretty much IT for our the MMM:Veteran’s Day edition.

BUT MMM was never really about “the plan” right. The heart of it really was spending intentional time with my kiddos. right? So, even though my plan failed with a capital F…this Monday was still a keeper. With every ounce of determination I could muster (and it took a lot), I abandoned the plan, then left the laundry, the dishes and the grime sitting right where they were and headed out for some fun. We may not have given hugs and handshakes to veterans, but we sure did makeover our Monday!

We sat outside and watched

the recycle truck. (A big event

around here! )

We celebrated the earning of a Mack Truck (it cost KJ ten hard earned pennies).

Then we continued our celebrations of

KJ’s accomplishments with a lunch with

Daddy and playing for a long time

at the “adventure bridge park”

(as dubbed by KJ).

Now, you tell me that wasn’t a Monday well spent…even if it is still killing me that my plan wasn’t the best plan for today 🙂 We did have several “Monday” moments today (thanks to a certain almost 2-year-old testing his Mommy), but I loved that we also did a lot of laughing, playing, and enjoying this beautiful Monday.

Oh, and I do have to tell you about my “consolation prize”. So, when I said we didn’t get to meet any veteran’s today, I wasn’t entirely truthful. We didn’t meet any in the way I had planned, but a meeting was arranged, none-the-less. We went to Chick-Fil-A (shockingly) to meet RRL for lunch and “happened” to sit next to three ladies working busily on a project for their church. We soon overheard that they were organizing an effort to send care-packages to soldiers. I nudged RRL and he just grinned. He knew that I had been frustrated last night when I couldn’t really figure out a good way to get stuff together to send to soldiers. I definitely went over, met the ladies, heard about the project and found out how I could help. I also got to introduce KJ to one of the ladies who just “happened” to be a Vietnam Veteran, having served for 23 years in the army. KJ got to talk to her, tell her thank you and shake her hand. I don’t think he had any idea what was going on, but it was an awesome MMM moment for his mommy. Thanks Lord for that, and for reminding me that even a type A accountant can step outside the plan and be BLESSED.

ABL

oh, and PS- after all of our “unplanned” MMM fun, all three of my kids slept for 2.5 hours and I got a LOT done around our house! Three cheers for that.

When I started “Makeover My Monday” it was to try to keep Monday chaos at bay.  But there was also a side benefit.  I loved blogging about the day, and looking back on fun Mondays.  I loved remembering Mondays.  We’ve started having fun on Mondays again, now that we have a bit of a routine with our clan of children, and I’m looking forward to having more and more to tell about Mondays with them.

Some Mondays are like that.  Some are just better than others.

Like last week…

And just enjoyed watching our little bowlers.

KJ
all about the form…

and the follow-up which included a prayer and much rejoicing!

Cbug
shockingly, a more “gentle” approach. 

Watching sweetly and patiently until his ball reached the pins.

CB
More interested in the snacks than that bowling, but still happy to oblige when it was her turn.

Last week I explained a bit about my plan to “Makeover My Monday“

Today, we went on a nature walk.

I already had the idea to do a walk around our neighborhood but then I found a fun website with the idea to make it more purposeful, talking about your 5 senses. This was by FAR the best Monday project yet. My kids LOVED it, no set up or clean up, completely free, provides some exercise (especially for the nature guide) and it was even educational :). Even Lou loved being in the stroller outside. We couldn’t have better custom ordered the weather and it was so pretty we stayed out and about for nearly 2 hours. So fun!

God gave us

EYES to SEE.

We saw fall colors (at least various shades of green and yellow) and looked for “wild animals” in the “forest”. We watched the splash that rocks make and the saw the bright light that comes from the sun.

God gave EARS to HEAR.

We listened to the sound of the moving water,

the songs of the birds, the chirping of the crickets,

the sounds of an airplane and a train and our favorite…

the sound of an echoing hammer

(bonus that someone was working on their fence).

God gave us NOSES to SMELL.

We got to smell the flowers (mostly dandelions).

God gave us FINGERS to TOUCH.

We felt the tops of wild rye, the smooth rocks from the creek,

the coolness of the mud (not Mommy’s idea)

and the different textures of the leaves on the ground.

We also did some “feeling” before we left.

We felt cotton balls, sandpaper and pennies and

tried to guess what we were feeling without peeking.

Lou did lots of “feeling” the wind on her face and the sun on her toes!

And God gave us MOUTHS to TASTE. We made our snacks at home before we left as the nature guide for this activity was VERY certain that we would not find anything on this walk that we should taste!! While I was making the bag of snacks, I would put one item in their mouths and let them guess what it was (goldfish, marshmallows and M&Ms). I think this was their favorite part (thank you, leftover Halloween treats).

Some bonus activities that this nature guide might try to avoid next time:

-The smell of a nice large pile of doggy poo on our path

– Feeling how wet pants can get running through tall wet grass to catch a nature-exploring-escapee.

-KJ feeling the joy of a soaking wet slide (check out his pants

– Realizing that the leaf you think your two-year-old is looking at(with his hands) is really a decaying banana peel.

–Hearing your 3-year-old announce to the playground that he poo-poos in the potty.

-Knowing that there is no way that your boys didn’t taste some of what they touched!

But even with all of that…I wouldn’t trade these moments for the world.

Thanks, Monday.

ABL