Decisions, decisions

I am a mom constantly struggling with parenting decisions.  Minor and not-so-minor.  For instance, I am always worried about the kids watching too much TV, but I know I don't want to be a "no TV" family, so I just randomly announce "no more shows" or get fed up without notice.  Same with eating healthy food. We don't have a lot of junk around here, but sometimes I just push and push the fruits and veggies, and then sometimes it seems so futile.  I mean, if they're eating, why sweat it so much?  But, alas, at times, I do sweat it way too much.  And how to deal with toddler tantrums?  I don't want to ruin the kids' self esteems, but sometimes total dominance and behaving like a furor seems like the way to go.

Not very consistent, you see?

Well, tonight, Matt is working late, as he has been a lot, and let's face it, the whole family is exhausted.  Beck skipped his nap today, which he has only done like 3 times in his life, and that after dinner spot needed to be filled, so I declared "movie night!" to which Ramsey replied, "what's movie night?"  This comment is a close cousin to when Matt took the kids through the McDonald's drive thru about 6 months ago and Ramsey asked "what's a drive thru" and was very confused about the whole window thing.  Why I am totally shielding these kids from some of my fondest childhood memories?  I did lots of movie and TV show watching with my parents (my most vivid memories of childhood in fact) and I remember how CRAZY excited I was when we went through a drive-thru on special occasions like roadtrips.  So, here's the announcement: I'm chilling out a little.  Still going to eat healthy foods, still not going to be glued to the television, but a little less controlling.

AHHH.  Movie nights are going to be more frequent around here. See below for the number one reason:

Cuddles.  I cannot believe how cuddly these guys were.  I guess I don't sit still as much as I should.

They were also lovin' on each other.

Even my little cake had to cuddle in with me.  This is getting rarer, she is growing up so quickly I can't believe it.

Cuddling, to the point of smothering.  I seriously chase around my kids all day, every day, vying for a kiss, smooch, hug, cuddle, or sniff, and have about a 50% success rate.  With this movie going, I could barely breathe and I was loving it.  Nobody was arguing, crying, or screaming--it was just QUIET, and very smoochy.  We watched some animated version of Tom Sawyer, by the way.  It was okay.

Onto the next decision I can never make: am I going to get really serious about housekeeping, or just keep on as I am?  I am a decent housekeeper, decent at clutter-busting but not as great on deep cleaning, but I can see that I have this opportunity to take it to the next level, but can't seem to commit.  By the end of the week, especially after the kids' preschool on Thursday and Friday mornings, piles of stuff start to really clutter up the counters.

I love the kids crafts from school, I can't help it (they call them creations).  I have a drawer for them, but they somehow gravitate to this part of the kitchen.  They are also hanging up on the windows and in their rooms.  I thought I would be able to be more hardcore about throwing things out and keeping only a few, but it is tough!  I'm more sentimental than I realized.

I am decent about going through the mail and immediately throwing out the undesirables, but even the desirables pile up.  They like to live next to the stove even though there is a little cubby for them very, very close to this very spot.

This island counter can be a real doozy.  Maybe the problem is too much counter space?  Haha--I never thought I'd be able to pull that card.  Keys, purse, water bottles, channel changers, etc, love to camp here.  

I know, I know, everything should have its place and you should avoid putting things down in a temporary location.  So why can't I just decide to implement the strategies that I know work?  There are all kinds of excuses, but the reality is, deep down inside, I don't wanna.