Let's review

It's good to see that people are keeping tabs on my challenges. I heard from people who could commiserate with me on my little self-control issue. Heard lots about the swear jar.

And of course, someone had to speak up and keep me honest about the cleanliness thing. During a chat with a friend today, she mentioned her messy house (or was it dirty house? Either way, it doesn't matter. I don't believe her for two seconds).

Anyway, during the chat, I noted that I've given up on a clean house. So she asked... "Did you give up on challenge 4, or whatever number that was?"

Damn. Oops. There goes another challenge - and another quarter.

The verdict is, no, I haven't given up on the challenge. I've given up hoping my house will ever look like it belongs in a magazine. But I will still strive to keep it as clean as I can. (I say as I sit at the kitchen table typing this at 9:15 pm, with all the dinner dishes still out!)

This whole discussion raised another good point: I'm less than a month into this project and I can't keep my challenges straight! Here's the quick reference guide to date:


1. I want to try to yell less at my kids. After Sunday's monumental failure, this has been going much better.
2. I want to be a better housekeeper. Covered this one already!
3. To buy or not to buy - for the kids. With Christmas approaching, this has been top of mind, but so far so good. I'm done shopping for them, and don't want to set foot close to a toy store between now and Christmas anyway.
4. Spend less time surfing and more time working between 8:30 and 4:30. Getting there. 'Nuf said. (OK, except to say "Ha, take that" to the friend who was trying to tell me house cleanliness was challenge 4!)
5. I will never, ever again swear in front of the kids. Admittedly I've been doing so much better at this. During my little meltdown Sunday night I said God Dammit in front of the kids, then spent some time trying to decide if it was swearing. Then I remembered I'd specifically told myself if I had to wonder, it probably wasn't good language.
6 a&b. Make a menu for at least a week ahead of time. Make a grocery list. And stick to it. In all fairness, I can't say I'm failing at this one because I don't think you can fail at something you haven't really tried. Although I've made the odd list, I haven't really tried this challenge yet. I'll try this weekend. Really.
7. You know what? It looks like I may have skipped 7. Special prize to the person who browses back through my blog and finds it if it's there!
8. Eat sweets and other forms of junkie snack foods in moderation. I found a perfect solution for this one: I've been buying these spicy new President's Choice designer chips - faves so far are General Tao and BBQ) - and you really can only heat a small quantity at a time! Problem solved for me!
9. Play outside For the record I haven't done that yet. But the grandparents did on my behalf, I figure that has to count for something.

Also wanted to update that the time-out plan is working swimmingly with my three year old. She's apologizing for bad behaviour before I say anything, she's been extremely cooperative two mornings in a row, and we avoided what would have in the past been a major tantrum tonight, with no yelling on either side.

But of course, my two year old has now chosen this exact week to become completely disobedient, and couldn't care less that I'm angry anymore. Oh, and time outs don't work with her still. One out of two. One out of two. One out of two. Yeah, I'll just keep telling myself that.