Alright, let's try this again

Ok, after many months of, once again, not blogging, we'll try it. My goal is to keep this as our family diary. We'll see how it goes.

Right now if our life we are in the middle of outage. This is a special kind of hell where both parents are tired and the kids are very stressed out. This has meant a lot of dinner and a movie nights (since Daddy's never home anyway) and some behavior problems. Ben is gone 5:45 am until 7:30 pm Monday - Saturday. That means he makes it home just in time for bed and is so tired he can hardly see straight. I started a support group for the outage on Facebook, Families of Cooper Outage 2012, which had given us some things to do to fill up time without Daddy. So far, we're keeping busy. We are all ready to have Daddy home, though. Hopefully it ends before Thanksgiving! Eventually, we know it HAS to end - right?

I am reading a new parenting book that I really love, Parenting With Grace: A Catholic Parent's Guide to Raising Almost Perfect Kids by Dr. Gregory and Lisa Popcak. I've learned a lot and I haven't even made it to most of the "good stuff" and techniques. I'm really hoping to address behavior issues that have come up with Celia. I'll post to see how it goes.

During outage I have been doing disposable diapers, but the cost is SO HIGH that I may go back to cloth and darn the consequences. We are sharing laundry with 3 guys downstairs, so laundry time has been really hard. The renters are temporary during the outage, but 2 of them work nights. I'm sure they love trying to sleep during the day below us, but I can't do a lot about what my girls do. They are already stressed, I don't want them walking on eggshells!

Allie is finally napping. YEAH!!! As you can see, now I can do the blog again. YEAH!! And I can do dishes in the afternoon! YEAH!

Celia is potty training, which is getting closer. We now venture out of the house with undies on occasion. Mattie disparately wants to wear undies, but she also plays in the toilet if you don't watch her like a hawk. She also plays in the toilet when you are watching, I'm just better able to stop her. I've been holding her off because I just don't think she's mature enough, but we may just do it. I put her on the potty usually at least 3 times a day, but we may give her more time in undies. We'll see. Uggh, I hate potty training more than I hate diapers. I really don't mind diapers that much!

So, things to keep updated - potty training, outage, new parenting ideas, and, oh yeah, I'm job hunting. I'm looking for something to do from home, you know, during my spare time. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I can find something workable soon.

In conclusion, let's hope blogging sticks this time!