Last thoughts on stopping writing

On April 23, 2014 By JillIn Mommy Musings3 Comments

For the past four months I have written many posts, 55, to be exact, and clearly, I am a bit of a thinker. Those of you who know me intimately are probably laughing- a bit of a thinker is the understatement of the year. I am downright OCD.

AND I APOLOGIZE TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE HAD TO HEAR ABOUT STOPPING WRITING, STARTING WRITING, WHAT THIS BLOG SHOULD BE ABOUT, ETC…BLAH, BLAH, BLAH pretty much since I started writing- I can see all your faces and I promise – no more blog talk.

A friend of mine was like “Well you write because you feel better, right? Your just venting, getting it out, right?” Someone else suggested it gives me a sense of purpose.

This blog has done neither, but I have found that I like sitting down and writing. Writing focuses me and makes me feel like I am doing something other than park, playdates, and playdough. The comments from readers are nice too. Makes me feel connected to the outside world.

So I am just going to keep going with the Girly Reports until I don’t feel like writing about mom stuff anymore. I will write about whatever, the boring, the silly, the adventures, but keep my anxiety “issues” for another blog. Contact me if you want find that blog.

I don’t want to “emerge” anymore as my previous blog description stated. I just want to complain about the annoying, share the good stuff, or maybe confess that I drank a lot of wine and housed four pieces of pizza because I was so stressed out – And finished it off with some chocolate!

Life is hard enough, right? I’m closer to 40 now – I think I am pretty much cooked in the changing personality department and learning about myself and quite frankly, who cares!

So I leave you with this picture—I wanted to be mad but she made me laugh!

How to make kid’s odd behavior work for you

On March 28, 2014 By JillIn Lists, Mommy Musings, Uncategorized3 Comments

My girls are strange. I am going to make it work for me…

1) Scared

“The kids are going to love these,” I thought to myself as I picked up a bag of smiley fries. I am always looking for creative ways to present food and this was a no brainer. I couldn’t wait to serve them up.

“AHHHHH,” Ari screamed when she peeked through the glass oven door. Her eyes wide and rimmed with tears, she clung on to me with dear life. “Scared,” she whimpered…

I couldn’t help but laugh and then I realized I could seriously use this to my advantage. I took a picture of the scary smiley’s, got it developed, and blew it into a life size poster. Next time I need some privacy, I will simply tape up the smileys and go into my room of choice. Voila – nobody’s gonna get me in here…

Always comes in handy to sleep with tools

2) Love of tools

Perhaps we went to Home Depot a few too many times but Arianna is simply obsessed with tools. Everywhere I go, there are screwdrivers, nuts and bolts, hex wrenches, and nails…teddybear who? She has even been sleeping with these comforting metal friends.

Strangest thing, right? The more I thought about this, I realized that this was quite a money saving situation. “Hey kids, want to get a treat!” We’re going to the hardware store! Never mind toys, nails and washers are like 25 cents a piece.

3)Obsessive

Ever watch one of those cop shows or movie thrillers where one of the characters is a major psychopath. His hideout has a wall completely filled with people’s eyes or something like that.

Imagine my horror when I picked up my cell phone, went to look for a picture, and ahh- hundreds of pictures of Ruby!

And, as if that wasn’t enough, hundreds more of this magnetic doll. My goodness, obsessive child I have!

Ok, let’s make this work for me, I thought to myself…clearly, the girls love taking pictures so next time we’re bored, we’ll take pictures of anything, our stuffed animals, other people’s mailboxes, odd holiday decor on neighboring houses…we can develop them and create photo albums. You can find cheapy albums at the dollar store. They can have their own collection of 100 pictures of “Mr. Bear, Stephanie, the unicorn, and whoever else.” Leave it off my phone!

4) The banana situation

For the past two weeks, Arianna has been asking for a banana- Gia eats one as often as she can – she is part monkey, I swear, always climbing on the counters and eating them. I figured little sis was just following in her footsteps but it turns out, she just enjoys peeling them and throwing the peel and the banana in the garbage! I thought it was just a one time thing until I noticed she was doing it every day.

“Ari, why are you asking for bananas when you don’t like them?” I asked.

“I like phone,” she says…

girlsbanana — Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Ok – so the girl has a thing for peeling bananas, she just likes to peel…this is really going to come in handy for me- I see a future full of silver surprises – “Come on Ari, put the toy doll down,” I have a treat for you. Flash her an aluminum wrapped anything. I’ll just regift from my own house!

So happy to get this present.

“Oh, Mommy, present, present, for me?”

And the amazing present…

“Wow, this is awesome, a new ball,” she said excitedly…I literally just picked this up from the basket of toys in our family room.

Anyone else have any kid’s odd behavior to share?

Snack less

On March 23, 2014March 24, 2014 By JillIn Health eating, I need a glass of wine, Mommy Confessions, Mommy Musings, Sugar and Snack Less, Uncategorized4 Comments

Gather the horses, sharpen the swords, get all your man power together to guard the castle door. Hold it strong and steady— I am starting to wage a war against the SUGAR MONSTERS and other offenders like the SALT SNATCHERS.

This mom is sugared out, chocolate out, and frosted out…the circuits in her brain are firing as fast as firecrackers… “marshmallows, oreos, sprinkles, cookies, treats…”

Its been bad, Ari has been talking in her sleep saying “I want chocolate,” and waking up saying M&M’s. Gia wants a donut practically every time we leave the house, my closet is jam packed with junk, and my car is so crunchy with crackers, the bugs have been salivating at the idea of getting in!

Ok, that was gross. But seriously, I don’t know how it’s gotten to this. I used to be the healthiest person. I was a Health Science major in college, I taught spinning classes, and I used to annoy the hell out of friends and family by talking about food and nutrition.

I think it started when I began going to play dates and I saw all of this junk food in people’s houses. I remember this one mom who fed her daughter a chocolate frosted donut for breakfast. Other moms had closets full of cookies and sugar cereals…their kids seemed fine, and I slowly slipped away from my strict dietary rules (I just had one child at the time as well). Month by month, I slacked more and more and found it easier to just say “yes” rather than deal with the howling.

Get out the violins…oh sorry story, poor Jill, swept under the sea of sugar and never battled the waves of whipped cream! So here we are, my kids are 4 and 2 and I need to fix this. Snacky nanny 911 to the rescue!

One other embarrassing secret I need to admit. I am struggling with the snacks as well…oh wait, that’s no secret! I write about this all of the time…I think I have eaten the past…um, really embarrassed about this, like twenty…thousand bags of goldfish and of course Cheez its. I always buy them for the kids and end up on the couch with my wine, munching away! I am such a cliché! Doesn’t every health and fitness magazine say, don’t eat on the couch, in the dark, mindlessly watching TV or when you’re tired and stressed.

Ok, so it’s me and the girls starting fresh, and trying to get better at eating better, like less snacks, more meals…I will be brainstorming ideas to get us on the path less traveled by Mr. Goldfish, Mrs. Donut, and Ms. Cookie. Stay tuned for my weekly report of snack less, smile more…and please no judgment people, I am a work in progress. Not striving for perfection here, like last week when I endured the MOST HELLISH trip to the pediatrician’s office with my little one who screamed and thrashed like a scene from my bloody Valentine…we got a donut after and I had a BIG GLASS(s) of wine.