ugh

I don't know if I'll have any menu this week.  I have been sick, working like crazy, cooked Thanksgiving dinner and today am trying to catch up on all the to-do stuff I missed while working and being sick.  Yesterday I didn't do anything.  Ok, one load of laundry and I re-heated Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner.  That's it.  I decided the only way to get better and be more productive was to rest rest and more rest.  So I did. :)  I'm feeling much better today except my to-do list is getting longer!

We managed to get a lot of Christmas shopping done.  We won't decorate for a few weeks though.  Because we get a live tree, we hate to put it up too early and have any more of a fire hazard that necessary.  And FG is actually considering NOT putting out lights this year because of the energy waste!  I told him we don't put enough out to really matter and we don't run them very long.  Bah humbug on him!  Now the ridiculousness that goes on down our street is a different story.  ENORMOUS waste of energy!  They adjoining street makes the news and the paper every year.  It's cool to look at but really, the entire street of Griswold's trying to outdo each other is a bit ridiculous.  Not to mention the horrible traffic.  We have such a quiet neighborhood and I love that I can send my kids out to ride their bikes without hovering.  So inviting so many people to traipse through the neighborhood makes me uneasy.  At least it's not on our street.

A HUGE deal for me this year, which is probably not helping my Christmas Spirit, we are postponing our Sweets Party.  WAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  We simply could not pull it off this year either financially or find a day to do it!  Dec. 26 seemed odd but it was the only free Saturday.  Soooo, I decided to postpone it to Valentine's Day, well, around V-day.  So I'll still get to make sweets but I'll have to approach it very differently as far as decorating.  I'm currently taking requests from family members on what cookies/sweets they still want me to make for Christmas.  I'll still do Christmas brunch like I always do too.  My baking will just not be as manic and stressful as years past.  I just can't believe we are not having it.  Even the year I was very pregnant with DS we had a small one!  It's been 14 or 15 years (long time, can't remember exactly without looking up the old invitations).  The only year we missed completely was the year we moved into our first house on Dec. 20, 1996.  Couldn't pull it off that year either. 

Now, the laundry and house and children beckon.  If only my sinuses would tone themselves down.  The swelling is killing my head!

Allow me to remind you that you are not the only person in the world

Warning: This could get a tad bit snippy!  But If I don't get it out here, I will get it out where it isn't appropriate.

This holiday season is an interesting one for me.  I have never worked in retail before.  Now I am in the throws of it - working in retail at a toystore before Christmas.  YIKES!  This past week was a killer. I haven't been around anywhere online - not on here, not on Facebook, nowhere! 
Our little toystore had a big sale this past weekend and I worked both Saturday and Sunday.  Our prices are slightly higher than the Wal Mart we share a shopping center with but as my boss says, "Wal Mart won't wrap for you."  And they don't help you the way we do either.  So this past weekend I felt like I wrapped 1,000 presents.  The amount of sales we did, I damn near could have wrapped that many!  It has to be the biggest weekend of the store's year in sales.  I'm just a very part-time employee but my bosses don't make it a secret of what the sales are. 

So here is my little PSA and reminders to all of you out shopping this holiday season!  For the most part we had very nice customers. 

• BUT, your being unprepared and running late does not constitute and emergency on my part or the part of any other customers. 
• You being ill informed of a sale, does not mean I will stay late so your wife can rush down 5 minutes after closing on the last day of the sale. (I had a guy texting his wife to let her know about our sale AT CLOSING time because he stopped in with his daughter to pick something up.  This was on our last day of the sale.) 
• I'm sorry, but you will have to wait in line like everyone else. No, I won't just sneak you in and "ring you up real quick" or "wrap this up now because the party started 10 minutes ago". 
• Yes, it IS in my job description that I must verify large bills so please don't give me a dirty look as I hold your $100 bill up to the light that you are using to pay for a $3.20 purchase.  I'll do it to the next person as well because I've been told to.
• Sure, we wrap presents for you and we do an awesome job but your presents will have to wait in line like you did because all those people in line wanted wrapping done as well and it takes longer to wrap a GIANT box or 15 presents with different requests than it does to scan a few barcodes and run a credit card.
• You should be HAPPY I'm asking for your I.D.!  Please don't get annoyed that I am making sure they match.  You'd be even more pissed if someone stole it and was using it to spend $600 on toys for THEIR kid.
• Yes, I CAN hear you making those snide comments to the person in line next to you.  I really am going as fast as I can.  If you don't like it, go to Wal Mart where the lines are long, no one will help you select a great toy and they certainly won't wrap it for you.
• Every customer is equal.  Sorry to burst your bubble but I'm not kissing your ass because you spent more.
• Would it kill you to smile? 
• Just because we haven't been able to get over to the sign and click off the "OPEN" sign does not mean it's cool to walk in 20 minutes AFTER we close and browse for awhile. 
• Really? You seriously want to make a Birthday Box when there are 10,000 people in this tiny store?  It's absolute imperative that you fill not one but TWO boxes TODAY when the birthday party isn't for a few weeks? (I know the woman who did this. She does not work so that's not what would restrict her.  Oh, missing 5 minutes of a nap time would kill her though. She's ultra scheduled and ultra "all-about-me-and-my-kids". You know the type that thinks that the seas should part because SHE HAS A CHILD!)
• When a postcard is sent out clearly stating that the sale excludes certain items, please don't argue with me. I will probably get fired over your $5 discount if I give it to you.
• When a coupon states that it cannot be used with any other sale, then don't present it to me on the day that the entire store is on sale.  And don't get snippy with me when I politely tell you I can't accept it with the sale.
• Other people can hear you and the way you speak to your kids.  WHY do you bring them to a toystore and then get mad at them when they ask you for things?!
• Please don't let your kids run wild in the store and destroy displays. 

So I'm asking you all this shopping season, PLEASE be kind to those around you - other customers, the staff working ANYWHERE (Hey, I wouldn't want to be at Wal Mart either!).  When I've done Black Friday shopping, I've always gone into it with the attitude that NO item is so important that I can't be nice to people.  I walk through the stores with a smile on my face.  I've encountered some nasty, crabby people on those shopping trips and I wonder what they think when I respond to their scowl with a smile?  Remember that yes, at least our store does really appreciate your business but we are still people working there and helping you. We have our own families as well. If we are not completely happy and upbeat, maybe remember that we have been hunched over a counter wrapping presents until our fingers ached.  Maybe the customer before you was particularly nasty to us and we have feelings too.  Maybe we haven't had time to pee or even get a drink of water in the past 5 hours.  Even though we use a cash register, it is still mentally draining to continually type, check, confirm, speak, repeat, repeat repeat for hours at a time all while hearing the comments, seeing the looks....  As I told FG when I got home on Sunday night well well past closing time, it is just mentally and physically draining to be that "ON".  We're climbing ladders, getting down heavy boxes, carrying akward items, wrapping, wrapping, wrapping.

Ok enough complaining. I'm back at it again today then I'm cooking Thanksgiving tomorrow.  The store is having another sale on Friday and I'm working that as well as Saturday day to cover for someone who wanted the day off.  I am just hoping I survive this holiday season!

Children's Responsibilities

I've posted about it before but The Retro Housewife's post made me want to talk about it again.

Supernanny is coming to my town and looking for families.  We are FAR from perfect but there have been a few times that FG and I will have watched the show and chuckle.  We look around at our staightened up house, knowing that the kids are tucked into their beds.  Whether they are sleeping or not, they are in their beds and we are able to relax and wind down from work/parenting for the day.  No, the house isn't spotless and YES the kids do get up for a drinkofwater/hug/scaredofthefunnynoise/changemymusiccd/anotherdrinkof water but it's certainly not the crazed evenings we see on that show.  Heck we've seen our own friends have to go through it!  They have to lay down with their child to get them to go to sleep. Their child simply refuses to go to sleep.  Their house is a mess of strewn and discarded toys. They are stressed whenever they have guests over. 

Maybe it's just the neat freak in both FG and I.  My mother laughs because when I was a teen, you couldn't see my bedroom floor.  Her rule - no dirty dishes in my room.   If I wanted my clothes washed, they had to be in the laundry or they didn't get washed. My parents just shut the door because I was the one who had to live in the mess.  Now, I make my bed every single day.  I cannot leave dishes in the sink (unless they are air drying - that I can handle). I must wipe down the counters.  Dirty clothes go into the hamper immediately. Shoes get put in their proper place. Towels get hung up to dry immediately after use.  I am sure when my kids are older, their rooms will become like mine and I'll impose the same rules my mother did. Until then, they follow MY rules.

Before we added on the playroom to our home, the toys were in the front room of the house.  As soon as my son was old enough to help, he was responsible for putting away his toys.  I would say about 18 mo. he was really helping.  Prior to that, the concept just didn't register.  But I helped him and at the end of every day, before heading up for our bedtime routine, we put away his toys.  Same with his sister.  Every night, I would have him help put his dirty clothes into the clothes hamper.  Once he got a big bed, I made it for quite awhile.  As soon as he was able to handle it, he was responsible for it. 

Now this is how our day goes:
Morning:  DS gets up, brushes his teeth, makes his bed and eats breakfast.  Then he goes back to his room to get dressed for the day. His PJ's get put neatly on his bed (at this point, they wear them a couple of times in a row. I don't require them to fold their pjs, just not throw them on the floor).
DD doesn't have to get up as early, nor is she on a time restriction yet because she is in afternoon K.  But as I type, she's upstairs making her bed and getting dressed.
After school they empty their backpacks. 
Jackets get hung up.  Mittens get put back into the basket near the coat rack.
Shoes are taken off and put either on the stairs on by the front door.
After homework, they put it in their backpacks so it's ready for the next morning.  I can totally see DS misplacing his and we have so little extra time in the morning.  It's better to just take care of it as soon as he's done.  If it's library book day the next day, they are gathered and put into the backpack too.
Dinner is a family affair.  FG helps me clean up. The kids bring their dishes to the counter by the sink as soon as they are finished and before desseert.  DS takes out any recycling that I leave on the counter for him and one of the kids feeds the dog dinner.

We give them a warning time of when they need to start picking up their toys. We have one of these which I will sometimes use if they aren't motivated to pick up.

I have used that for many other things as well - counting down video game time, dinner time (I have VERY slow eaters!).  It's nice for procrastinators like I have to get a warning to kick their little butts in gear!

After they pick up toys, they go upstairs and get ready for bed.  They both put their dirty clothes in their hampers, hang up any towels that they use when cleaning up etc. 

Don't let me fool you, this isn't all wine & roses.  It doesn't always go smoothly and there are certainly protests.  Part of these things are considered their chores and they get allowance for it.  But some things have been taken off the allowance table.  Bringing their dishes to the sink and putting their dirty clothes in their hampers have been replaced with bigger things like wiping down the bathroom counters once a week or vacuuming the carpets and/or kitchen floor.

Another big part of the routines of our day is to benefit DS.  Because of his SPD, he does better with routine. He can function well knowing what is coming next.  It takes big effort on our part as parents.  Sure, it would be faster for me to put everything away and keep it all organized.  But the time I spent in years past showing them that if you put the Hot Wheels cars away into their boxes instead of leaving them in a pile, you have a better time playing with them later.  If you put all the puzzle/game pieces back into the box where they belong, it's ready when you want to play it again and there's no crying that you can't find what you are looking for.  DS has a big problem with losing things.  He doesn't like to lose anything so he freaks out over losing the smallest of insignificant items.  If he's lost something it's devastating to him.  So by teaching him how to care for things and put items away in a proper place, he knows where to find them the next time.  Because his motor skills are also affected, it gives him a sense of accompishment as well.  He can handle doing tasks that he sees adults do easily or other children do as well.

I also belive I'm benefitting them for later in life.  Now that somethings have become routine to them, they won't struggle with it when they are out on their own.  I'll eventually teach them how to do the laundry from sorting to washer settings to drying and ironing.  I have already started with teaching them how to cook.  My parents taught me these things at an early age as well.  When I met FG, he was still living at home and his mother didn't let him learn to cook or do laundry.  I joke that he simply moved from his mother's house to mine.  She isn't maternal or the type that wants to dote on her children.  She is the type who just wants it done her way and only her way and it's easier to not spend the time teaching these things. Thus FG is not allowed to touch the laundry and when he has to cook, it's not natural for him.

So while it is nice for me to now not have to pick up toys or trip over toys, it would have been faster and easier for me to just handle it when they were smaller.  Now I don't have to spend as much time showing them certain things which leaves more time to teach them other lifeskills.  It all falls back on my personal belief that it's my job to raise adults, not overgrown, needy children.

Menu Plan Monday - Mild Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas!

First I'll give you this weeks' menu, the recipe and then I'll post about my fabulous weekend.  That way, if you want to skip it, you can do so easily :)

• Sunday - Roasted whole chicken, twice-baked mashed potatoes, roasted acorn squash w/ brown sugar & butter, tossed salad, crumb topped apple pie.
• Monday - Mild cheesy chicken enchiladas *, rice, tossed salad
• Tuesday - BBQ Pork Ribs, roasted broccoli,  noodles
• Wednesday - I work.  Soup & grilled cheese
• Thursday - (yay! FG is now home on Thursdays! First time in the 15+ years we have been married!)  Beef Roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, veggies
• Friday - Kids are spending the night at my parents, FG and I will figure out something to do.
• Saturday - Not sure yet. I work all day and we're having a big pre-Christmas sale.  We're already busy at the toystore.  Multiply that by 10 with a sale for Christmas.  I'm going to be exhausted.

*Mild Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

2 cups cooked chicken meat

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 - 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 - 1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 can mild enchilada sauce

flour tortillas

Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the chicken, onion, 1 cup cheddar cheese and 1 cup sour cream. Set aside.

In small saucepan, heat 3/4 of the enchilada sauce with remaining cheddar cheese and sour cream (each to your liking).

Spread remainder of can of sauce onto bottom of baking dish.

Distribute chicken filling evenly among tortillas, roll up into enchiladas and place, seam side down, in baking dish on top of enchilada sauce.

Once cheese is melted into the enchilada sauce, pour over the top of the torillas in the baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 - 30 minutes until hot & bubbly.

 

 

Now onto my great weekend!  We had no plans.  Oh heaven!!!  We spent a great weekend together as a family with some friends mixed in.  It was wonderful!  We played games and I taught the kids how to play Clue.  It was one of my favorite games as a kid.  I grew up playing LOTS of games.  My mom's family (6 siblings) all played games. They still do.  When I met FG, he said that was one thing he really really liked about my family.  I grew up on family vacations playing card games, usually for money, with a lot of extended family.  We vacationed in a place with no tv and would spend 2 weeks there.  No video games, no tv.  Just a lot of family in little cabins all in a row. We fished during the day and played games or had campfires at night.  So while I try very very hard to not wish my kid's childhood away, I get giddy when they are finally old enough for real games.  (Candyland doesn't count.  BORING!).  DS really liked it. Which is about right because he's almost 9.  Even 5 year old DD got into it.  She needed help because she can't read yet but she did her best and tried to match up the words on the cards with the words on her clue sheet. 

Back to the weekend.... the kids also look forward to "leaf day" every year.  FG uses the blower and blows them into a pile and the kids play in them then they help Daddy bag them up.  So Sat. & Sun they played like crazy in the leaves and then Sun afternoon helped him bag them. 

Sunday I spent about 4+ hours in the kitchen and we had a yummy dinner.  SMA came over as he usually does. 

Both FG and SMA said I made the best pie I've ever made.  That is funny because lately I've been struggling with my crust.  So yesterday I winged it.  All of it. The entire pie.  I didn't measure a dang thing. I made the crust by instinct.  I made the filling by dumping and just looking at it.  I made the crumb topping by feeling it.  I never measured anything.  The apples were still a tad crisp, not mushy, the crumb topping was perfectly crunchy and the crust was flaky.  Who's the FG NOW? ha ha ! 

I saved the chicken carcass and the innards.  Right now I'm making stock.  I used up the last of what I had frozen so I'm taking advantage of having the leftovers and some time.  I threw in some veggies, garlic, salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf.  It smells wonderful!  FG and SMA both gave me funny looks last night as I was cleaning up and putting the rest of it into a pan.  The meat for the enchiladas I pulled off last night and shredded it right there.  Now the stock is simmering and it will be so wonderful to strain and cool and freeze into 2 cup containers! 

DS is doing really well lately too.  He worked hard and got an A on his very first research report!  I helped with structure and spelling, he did all of the real work himself.  He even typed up the cover of the report and put a picture from the internet on it.  He listed his resources and just overall did a great job!  I'm glad the teacher recognized that he's in 3rd grade and he turned in 3rd grade work.  He told me some kids had theirs bound with fancy covers.  While we could have done that because we have a binding machine at our office, is that really a 3rd grader doing it?  A staple was fine with a printed cover sheet and blank back page to complete it.  He also spread out his work (with my enforcement!) and I'm hoping to have him not be the procrastinator that his mommy is.  So while I could have knocked out his report in 1/2 hour and included way more facts and references, it was clear that he did the work and learned the basics of doing a research report in the first place.  I'm proud of him.  I also think our basic routine of life is helping him lately.  He's been eating more, trying more foods, sleeping well, doing GREAT in class and seems genuinely happy.  Of course, I always wait for the other shoe to drop and him to go off on some horrible tangent. But so far he's doing really well and I'll take it as long as we can!  I think I'll reward him soon with another playdate with is "BFF".  Maybe we'll do something like take the boys out for pizza or something like that.  As tough as it is to have a kid with SPD have a best friend with ADHD, I want to keep his self-esteem up and foster the good friendship they have.  Even his teacher commented on how much the boys care about each other.  I think they just understand each other.  They are both victims of being social "outcasts" and a bit different.  While in the past, everyone has seemed to like DS, he's never had a true good buddy.  It's made a big difference in his life this year!  So I'll suck it up, hold onto my sanity as best I can and take things in small doses.  I can survive a couple of hours dealing with both of them for his sake. 

Now it's Monday. Back to school/work/bedtimes/homework/packing lunches/meeting the school bus/volunteering in class.....Hey, maybe we'll get mail today so we can finally pay ourselves!  It's on the verge of comical at this point!

 

Menu plan, eh, Tuesday

What a busy weekend last weekend! Yesterday was, just very interesting. We were having a great "normal" day until the evening. Then some crazy stuff happened. Since it didn't happen directly to me, I can't really share. But man, what a trip of a night!

As I was cleaning the house yesterday I was trying to figure out if we've fallen into a better routine or if I've just gotten more used to the craziness. I think a little of both. I've been fairly consistent with doing the big house cleaning on Monday. Work Wednesday night. etc. etc. Nothing is set in stone but it's a teeny bit more routine than the chaos things have been. We did move our work office and let me tell you, THAT is throwing a huge wrench in things! Things like mail. We haven't gotten business mail in so long and it's about the time some of our usual clients pay us. Soooo, no money has come in in weeks. Literally NO MONEY. My biggest problem has been lunches for DS. I hate packing his lunch anyway. Add to the mix that he's had issues with misplaced lunchboxes and their contents (like his thermos that I use almost daily, the Ziploc containers that I use almost daily...) there's not a lot of options right now to even send in. Oh well. I hope as soon as we get the mail it will be like a nice windfall! (yeah right, keep dreamin sister!)

So here's this weeks' menu:

• Sunday - SMA brought over pizza. (DD and I went to the Disney Princesses on Ice in the afternoon. No time to cook a nice dinner. And SMA can bring food to us once in awhile!)
• Monday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans (DS ate 3 helpings of green beans. Weird! They were the French style which I grew up eating. I usually get them the regular kind. He said he loved the French style and kept asking for more. Who was he?)
• Tuesday - Maui Chicken over rice*
• Wednesday - I work, FG can fend for himself and the kids
• Thursday - Pork chops w/ apples, buttered wagon wheel noodles, veggies
• Friday - Spaghetti (I still have homemade sauce frozen)
• Saturday - Homemade pizza & garlic knots. Maybe BBQ Chicken pizza if we have leftover chicken from today.

* Maui Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 tablespoons oil

14 1/2 ounces chicken broth

20 ounces pineapple chunks in juice

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 clove garlic -- minced

1 medium green bell pepper -- chopped

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Brown chicken in oil. Transfer to slow cooker.
Combine remaining ingredients. Pour over chicken.
Cover, cook on high 4-6 hours
Serve over rice.

Source: "Fix It & Forget it Cookbook"
NOTES : I add a bit of powdered ginger to the sauce before cooking.

H1N1 vaccine or "Swine Flu"

I got my kids vaccinated yesterday. I didn't wait the 6+ hours in line at the Heatlh Dept. I did a little research and called the clinic run by the nursing school at the University. They had them. I could make an appointment. It would cost me $20 each for an administration fee. Fine by me to save an entire day! Money is tight but time is money too. $40 is not going to make or break us. Two sick kids and most likely a sick Mommy would. Again, the time is money thing.

So I got my kids the nasal spray. I have had excellent luck with them staying healthy getting the live virus vaccine for the seasonal flu in the past. Even my ped told me last year that the percentage of kids coming in with flu-like illnesses was drastically different if they got the nasal vaccine vs. the shot. Basically, the live virus offered them much better protection. And I don't have to have them freaking out and hating me because they got a "poke" as DD calls them.

I know this is a controversial issue. My thought was that there is a chance, however slight, that a healthy child could die from getting the flu - seasonal or H1N1. I haven't heard of anyone dying from the vaccine. I would hate myself if I risked it. If the horrific happened to my kids because I felt they "have good immune systems" I would literally die myself. So it wasn't much of a question in my mind. As DS said yesterday, "Ha ha! I now have a force field against the H1N1 virus!"

They'll get the seasonal nasal mist in a month. There needs to be a period of time in between both nasal mists. My mom, an RN and very involved in the vaccination clinics in our town, told me that the H1N1 is hitting now anyway and the seasonal flu is due to peak later - like January. So she was relieved that I got them vaccinated in the order I did (will).

That's another thing I told her. Dad's poor health is not something I want to risk either. He's around the kids quite a bit. If he got anything from them and it would be much much harder on him than anyone else. Again, not a risk I am willing to take.

Side note, I am giddy at the fact that I don't have to leave my house today! Pathetic. But I am in my comfy clothes and happy that I have an entire day. It's "Take Dad To School Day" which also means "Dad takes DD to Kindergarten in the middle of the day!" I still got up, showered and put on make up and did my hair. I made DS's lunch, packed up his backpack, got DD ready etc. But I don't have to run out and do anything. If FG doesn't stay in DD's class the whole time, they can take the bus home. I plan to get some work done, get some more laundry done, do a few chores, make some cookies (? Maybe), and most likely make Breakfast for Dinner because we are out of waffles. (I make my own frozen waffles. I make a giant batch, wrap each one in plastic wrap and put them in a big Ziploc. I haven't bought frozen waffles in years and no one has asked for them either.) Since I didn't sleep well last night, I'm hoping for a little nap too!

Productivity!

I had one of those great "productive days" yesterday. I managed to get what seemed like a gazillion things done before 11 am. I relaxed in the afternoon because I had cleaned the house and didn't feel like I had to jump up and get anything done. FG came home and asked why I was making dinner at 4:30. I wasn't planning to eat before 6, I was just getting a good start on dinner! I loooove mashed potatoes that are "twice baked". I have started making them with a bit of cream cheese and yesterday I used half and half (because I had it and it needed to be used up). I whipped the heck out of them and they were sooo yummy! I usually do them like that when I make them well before dinner, that way I can bake them in a buttered pan instead of mashing them right before we eat them. I guess that's why I was making dinner at 4:30. But it also allowed me to get a good jump start on the dishes. I had most of my prep dishes washed, dried and put away before I even put the pork chops in the oven! My whole day was like that and it felt good. I don't know why I can't do that every day. I have decided that I need to work on being more disciplined. My biggest problem - this damn box! I stayed away from it all day yesterday. I didn't sit down in the morning with my cup of tea and prattle around the internet. Nope! I really must limit my time on the computer in order to have that good feeling of accomplishment I had yesterday.
Today I am on here because I'm doing laundry and I need to do some work for the business. I cleaned out my inbox, responded to several messages that needed attention and checked in with my online friends. After I post this I'll go switch the laundry and then read some blogs. It feels good knowing that I'm not procrastinating and whittling my time away.
We have teacher conferences this afternoon. We'll see if I get dinner done as early as I did yesterday! All I know is I really need to try. It makes my evening much smoother with the kids. Discipline baby. I need to use some tough love on myself!