In order to get over my gloomy months, I have started to get myself more active indoors. I told My husband when I was pregnant with #3 that I needed to have a way of working out inside. I wasn't going to join a gym and drag 3 kids across town especially in the snowy months because it would be more stress than ANY workout is worth. So, I told him that I wanted to get Wii Fit. I admit that I have missed 2 of my "scheduled" workout days because I have just gotten overwhelmed and the kids haven't given me a moments rest, but I have been doing very well otherwise and I have TONS more energy, and I can even say that I'm pretty happy most of the time, and I am able to find more patience because I feel good. I started out on the light workout because I wanted to give my body healing time, but I have already lost 3 pounds in the past 2 weeks, and I feel my muscles working more and more.
The second thing that I have done is joined flylady.net. I am kind of a fanatic at times when it comes to keeping my house clean. I don't scrub the floors or make sure that every corner is clean every minute of every day, but CLUTTER drives me crazy. I am constantly following my kids around cleaning up the toys that get spread around the entire house, and I find that I spend ALL day cleaning up. I had heard a few things about fly lady, so I figured I would look into it. I like that she breaks things up into small tasks and really when you look at what they suggest, you are able to have a clean house in less than an hour a day. I find that I don't stress my kids out by constantly cleaning, but I am able to let them play and then I can make a game out of cleaning everything up in 15 minutes. I was able to straighten my entire house in 15 minutes today! WOW!!! (Again, I didn't vacuum or scrub, but it looked presentable and I was okay with that).
The final thing that I have done in order to relieve some of my stress is join e-mealz. I was worried at first because I have a husband who is picky when it comes to food. He doesn't like certain foods, and he doesn't eat left overs. After having my kids, I usually don't ask for meals because half of the time he doesn't like them and I end up making him something anyways. So, I was a skeptic. But, I'm always looking for easy, and it only cost $5 a month so I figured I'd check it out, and so far, I LOVE IT! Every week, I can pull up a pre-made menu for the week (7 meals), and it comes with the shopping list to go with it. So you take your list to the store, buy those ingredients and *Badda Bing* you are ready to cook for the week. I am one of those people who would plan out a schedule and then go shopping and it would take me so much time to get things planned and decide what to eat etc... so now it just takes me the time to go to the store. I just started this week, but so far we have liked every meal that we have tried. My husband has called them all "keepers", which coming from him is a great compliment. The other best thing is that ALL of the recipes are simple and have very few steps to complete them. These would be perfect meals to teach your kids to make for the family and they have sides too etc... very nice!!
So, those are the things that I am doing to simplify my life and make things run a little smoother. I love that it gives me more time for my little kiddos.
