My daily schedule has been going pretty well, I think. Remarkably well. But it is pretty tiring. I hope I get used to it! Yesterday afternoon I had the Curtis girls (11:30-4:30) so that definitely made things a little harder. Liberty just turned 3 and she is in to EVERYTHING and is not very obedient yet. So basically I made them stay outside almost the whole time except when they watched a batman cartoon and when we went upstairs to my room to play with legos. I'm so glad we have the trampoline now.
I had a little "incident" with Joseph, though. We had just gotten home from school with the girls, and I told them they were to all play outside while I made lunch and then I'd bring it out. Well, Joseph has lately been in a VERY contrary mood, and he immediately said he was tired and wanted to go inside. So I told him that was fine, if he was tired he could go inside and lay on his bed for a while. Well of course that is not what he wanted to do. He got pretty smart-alecky with me and when he wouldn't make a choice I told him I would choose for him and I carried him upstairs to his room. I told him whenever he was ready to go outside and play he could do so. Well, this was the beginning of a few rounds between me and him. He came down from his room and I carried him back up and told him if he came down again he would get a spanking. He came down so I carried him back up and gave him a spank (I do NOT spank hard, by the way-- I actually despise spanking with all my soul, but when he won't stay in time out I'm not sure what I can do). Then I went back down to continue making lunch, and soon I hear a big crash upstairs. I go up and he has dumped out a big box of legos all over my bedroom floor and scattered them everywhere. So he got another spank and put back in his room. I go downstairs again. Then I hear some loud banging up stairs. I had locked all the doors up there so he couldn't go in and destroy any more rooms, and so he was kicking the doors with all his might. I took off his shoes and put him back in his room. This time he stayed until I finished making lunch. As I went outside I called up to him that I had lunch and if he was ready to eat he should come down. And in just a minute, down he came, happy as can be, sat on my lap and ate lunch. Phew! Crisis over. I think the key was that I remained perfectly calm and cheerful the whole time. I didn't get mad at him and I told him how much I didn't want to spank him but if he kept getting out of his room, that is what he would earn. I also tried to help him separate himself from his grumpy mood. I told him, "You've sure got a bad mood! I hope you get rid of that bad mood soon!" As if it were a cold or something. My intention is to get him to NOT identify himself as *being* angry, but instead to recognize that he is a happy, good boy, temporarily being controlled by this feeling and that he can get rid of it. Anyway, I guess it worked for the time being.
One more note on Joseph. When he gets in these moods, his favorite word is "Nothing!" So when I ask him if he wants to go upstairs or go outside, he just spits out, through clenched teeth, "Nothing!" Anything I say to him, his response is "Nothing!" It's driving me just a bit crazy!!! But on the good side, Joseph was so sweet almost all day today (little rough going to bed, but not too bad, really). He plays with Moses so well. He likes to get Moses to say things, so he'll say, "Mosey, can you say_____?" And Mosey will dutifully parrot it back to him. They both think it is hilarious. AND, he volunteered to help me fold clothes, although I suspect it was really a ruse to get to stay up later...
The boys are really into s'mores now, since New Years Eve. A couple of days ago they invented a new kind-- graham crackers, marshmallow, and sliced banana! It was actually really good! And they invented it all themselves. They made me one and one for Ben, including slicing the bananas themselves.
And while we're on the subject of food, I MUST share two fabulous recipes with you. I'm serious try these!!!
Key Lime Pie
1 reduced fat graham cracker crust (find these in the cake mix section)
1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk
8 oz. fat free cool whip
1/3 cup key lime juice (around here at least you can find bottles of key lime juice right next to the bottles of lemon juice-- and key lime is different than regular lime).
Blend the condensed milk with the key lime juice until well mixed. Fold in cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Freeze until set (4 hours?).
1/8 pie is 4 WW points, or roughly 200 calories, and very low in fat. I'm totally serious, you can NOT tell that this is a reduced calorie dessert. It tastes EXACTLY like the real thing.

Banana Cream Pie

1 reduced fat graham cracker crust
1 1/4 cup skim milk
1 package sugar free, fat free pudding (banana cream, vanilla, your choice)
8 oz. fat free cool whip
Slice the banana and lay slices at bottom of pie crust (or you could dice up the bananas to add to the filling).
Whisk together milk and pudding mix until well combined. Fold in 3/4 of the cool whip. Pour into pie crust. Top with remaining cool whip. Put in refrigerator or freezer to set up for a couple hours.
Again, 1/8 pie is 4 points. I made this for Ben on his birthday and he was a big fan. The best part was that he could eat a BUNCH of this pie and not feel guilty!

Ok, last thing. I'm taking this online photography course and my first assignment is to take an abstract photo (meaning the subject is not readily identifiable) concentrating on composition rules. The focus of the photo is supposed to be composition, NOT the subject. So I took a bunch today and here are the ones I narrowed down. I have to choose one to submit. Based purely on your instinctive gut-preference (and I'm talking aesthetics here), which do you like best? I asked Ben and he chose one because he said it was symbolically cool. But that's not what I'm looking for, I'm asking which one is most interesting, most pleasing to look at.