Monday, December 16, 2019
It was a school snow day today. I am not going to lie, having my seven-year-old, Mika, home completely wrecked my plans for the day. I had waited in eager anticipation all weekend for the opportunity to edit the video of my speech from Wednesday and post it on YouTube to share with others. One of my friends had also given me a test copy of her reading my first journal page on video so I could post that on my YouTube channel.
Both videos mention my imminent death so I could not play either of them out loud with Mika home and able to hear the words. I was also planning to wrap Mika’s Christmas presents today. Such is life. I will move those tasks to another day and finish uploading and scheduling the rest of Mika’s LEGO Friends Advent Calendar videos to her YouTube channel today.
I decided to take advantage of Mika’s unexpected day off to have her start sorting her toys so we can begin moving them into her room. I am allowing Mika to do the first cut. She gets to choose what to keep and what to give away. Mika is giving away a couple of troll figures because she thinks they are creepy. We sorted two large storage buckets and ended up with about one third of one filled with give-away toys. We were able to toss a few broken toys, however her keep pile is still too large.
I plan to let Mika do the first cut through all her toys before I make a final cut and start organizing and allowing the sorted toys up to her bedroom from my lower-level great room. Mika is not a very focused child so cleaning (and every other task) takes much longer than it should. The first cut sorting of Mika’s toys is our project for the holiday school break, which starts Friday.
I confess, I am a mean mom. I am going to use Christmas to leverage Mika into getting her work done. Mika will get to unwrap her presents on Christmas morning; however, I will not let her open the presents until she finishes the first cut of all her toys. I know that may be cruel and unusual punishment, but we have five days before Christmas to get her toys sorted. If it takes longer than five days, Mika has been asking for breaks every 10 minutes or playing with each toy as she sorts it. Both scenarios are common occurrences.
I am also a mean mom because I have a house rule that holiday presents may only be opened one per day. That means if Santa brings Mika five to ten presents and she gets another 10 to 15 from family and friends, she opens presents well into January. I do the same for birthdays. I am pretty sure Mika may still have unopened presents from her last birthday. (I know we still have a do-it-yourself bath bomb set from her birthday.)
It will be interesting to see if Mika will be allowed to open a present on Christmas day or if it will be January before she gets to start opening and playing with her presents. I am hoping for the best because I want all her toys moved upstairs so I can start getting my stuff cleared out of my great room in January. I am looking forward to finally getting some of my mess out of my house, not just other people’s stuff.
My piece of advice to you is to look on the bright side. Yes, I did not get to do some tasks I planned today; however, I got an extra day to do Mika’s big holiday break project and I finished work I had planned to do tomorrow. Count your blessings whatever form they take.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.
It was a school snow day today. I am not going to lie, having my seven-year-old, Mika, home completely wrecked my plans for the day. I had waited in eager anticipation all weekend for the opportunity to edit the video of my speech from Wednesday and post it on YouTube to share with others. One of my friends had also given me a test copy of her reading my first journal page on video so I could post that on my YouTube channel.
Both videos mention my imminent death so I could not play either of them out loud with Mika home and able to hear the words. I was also planning to wrap Mika’s Christmas presents today. Such is life. I will move those tasks to another day and finish uploading and scheduling the rest of Mika’s LEGO Friends Advent Calendar videos to her YouTube channel today.
I decided to take advantage of Mika’s unexpected day off to have her start sorting her toys so we can begin moving them into her room. I am allowing Mika to do the first cut. She gets to choose what to keep and what to give away. Mika is giving away a couple of troll figures because she thinks they are creepy. We sorted two large storage buckets and ended up with about one third of one filled with give-away toys. We were able to toss a few broken toys, however her keep pile is still too large.
I plan to let Mika do the first cut through all her toys before I make a final cut and start organizing and allowing the sorted toys up to her bedroom from my lower-level great room. Mika is not a very focused child so cleaning (and every other task) takes much longer than it should. The first cut sorting of Mika’s toys is our project for the holiday school break, which starts Friday.
I confess, I am a mean mom. I am going to use Christmas to leverage Mika into getting her work done. Mika will get to unwrap her presents on Christmas morning; however, I will not let her open the presents until she finishes the first cut of all her toys. I know that may be cruel and unusual punishment, but we have five days before Christmas to get her toys sorted. If it takes longer than five days, Mika has been asking for breaks every 10 minutes or playing with each toy as she sorts it. Both scenarios are common occurrences.
I am also a mean mom because I have a house rule that holiday presents may only be opened one per day. That means if Santa brings Mika five to ten presents and she gets another 10 to 15 from family and friends, she opens presents well into January. I do the same for birthdays. I am pretty sure Mika may still have unopened presents from her last birthday. (I know we still have a do-it-yourself bath bomb set from her birthday.)
It will be interesting to see if Mika will be allowed to open a present on Christmas day or if it will be January before she gets to start opening and playing with her presents. I am hoping for the best because I want all her toys moved upstairs so I can start getting my stuff cleared out of my great room in January. I am looking forward to finally getting some of my mess out of my house, not just other people’s stuff.
My piece of advice to you is to look on the bright side. Yes, I did not get to do some tasks I planned today; however, I got an extra day to do Mika’s big holiday break project and I finished work I had planned to do tomorrow. Count your blessings whatever form they take.
Until next time,
Susanne
Please check out my GoFundMe page.