WELCOME SPRING!

Its the first day of spring! YEAH! We welcome you whole-heartedly!!

I know its still March...and it IS Kentucky...and we've been known to have hard freezes as late as mid April, so we are by no means "in the clear" for nice warm weather. However, its been a great week! The girls have been outside everyday after school until at least 6:30 p.m., with short breaks for dinner. Riding bikes & scooters, helping Bob clean the boat, jumping on the trampoline, collecting things from the yard in their buckets....I've not had to listen to Wow! Wow! Wuzbie! or any other Noggin TV show, for that matter, ALL WEEK! They SHOULD be completely worn out....They SHOULD go to sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow -right? Ugh...Beth has only fallen asleep before 9:30 p.m. one time this week. The other nights have been extreme battles...the first few nights because of her bladder infection...and that was understandable...but now she's been on antibiotics since Monday, so that shouldn't be an issue anymore, yet she is milking it to death...and in the meantime, she's killed every bit of patience that Bob and I have left!!

Anybody have any ideas of helping her go to sleep? Besides medicating...we've tried...didn't really help a lot! Yes - I'm one of THOSE moms! I'm not at all above medicating to help them get the sleep they NEED if they are flat-out refusing to sleep.

We're looking forward to another pretty weekend! I'm hoping to get the yard cleaned up - all the yucky dead stuff leftover from fall/winter needs to be gone! A lot of yard toys didn't survive the winter and they need to be gone too, so I can assess what new things we "need" for outside...which are always great Easter basket things! (buckets, shovels, sidewalk chalk, bug houses, etc.) I'd LIKE to head over to Target, too. I need Easter basket stuff....and I need to look for clothes for Beth - shorts and capris only. She has like 35 short-sleeve shirts in her closet, yet no bottoms! She needs at least 1 more swimsuit, too.

I'm starting to try to make some hard decisions about this summer. I'm thinking about taking the girls out of daycare this summer completely, or part-time. I'm considering a teenager or young adult that could keep them about 3 1/2 days a week because I'm thinking of letting them go to their daycare 2 mornings a week for socialization purposes only. I think they need some sort of social interaction with their long-time friends. I'm considering taking Friday afternoons off this summer, too....not sure yet...I'm still trying to figure it all out. Money-wise, this route isn't going to be any cheaper, just something different for the girls, plus Beth HAS to give up her nap prior to First Grade...a habit they DO NOT break at daycare. They are made to rest from 1-3p each afternoon....which is completley ridiculous for the kids getting ready to start First Grade.

It will all work out!