Two inches of success

Sometimes it's really hard to do life. I mean, sometimes you realize that every single place you look in your home there is another obvious example of a task left undone or, in my house, more like 10 tasks left undone stacked up on one another. At those moments everything feels overwhelming and it's scary to even try to look at a task list because the priorities are too confusing.

Today is one of those days where the mountains of undone tasks, disorganization, strewn toys, unfolded laundry, dirty dishes, leaking shower, broken van (and I could go on and on) all grew far higher than my normal tolerance level. Overwhelming, paralyzing, hopeless.

Me whining to Tripped Up Daddy: There's isn't even 2" in this house that doesn't remind me of something left undone or some other way that I'm failing.

Sunshine triplet at the very moment I said the word "failing": Mommy, look at my picture I drew! See it's me and you and Daddy. See the pink bubbles and the sun and all the tall grass?

Me to Sunshine triplet: This is awesome, honey. I love it.

Sunshine triplet: I love you Mommy! and she bounces off to her next activity

Tripped Up Daddy to me: I think you just got a whole lot more than 2 inches of proof that nothing you're doing could be called failure.

I don't think the interchange made it any easier to address my lack of organization and mountains of undone tasks, but it did remind me that my success/failure measuring device might need some recalibrating.

Healthy meals made simple with Wildtree freezer meals

I've written about the classic question "What's for dinner?" before, and at the Tripped Up Castle the answer always seems to vacillate between two opposites. It means either being really organized and pre-planning menus for weeks and weeks ahead of time or getting super creative with whatever's in the house. 

In my various attempts to make mealtimes easier, especially dinner, I've always been intrigued by the logic of freezer meals. It's like they're a mixture of the two ends of the organization spectrum. I love the relative ease of pulling out a partially prepared, frozen meal out in the morning and having minimal work to do for dinner that night. This suits my hectic lifestyle.

So, when a friend invited me to a Wildtree party event where we'd prepare 10 freezer meals using organic spice and seasoning mixes, I was all about it. In fact, the more I thought about the idea, the more I thought it would suit others, like my blog readers, too. 

What is Wildtree? 

Wildtree is a company that helps you answer these questions: What's for dinner? How can I make it healthy for my family? How can I make it in a short amount of time? How can I plan simple, quick meals and save money? Why and how can healthy food be delicious? It's a food company founded on the premise that food should be all natural, nutritious, delicious, and easy to prepare all at the same time. Wildtree products are made of all natural ingredients and have low or no sodium. They have no MSG, no high fructose corn syrup, and no trans fats. 

According to the Wildtree website: "Most of us do not cook from scratch anymore and let's face it - we are a sauce from a jar, soup from a can, chicken shaking generation. Packaged foods do make our life easier, but they are also expensive, loaded with fats, salts, and preservatives, and just not as tasty as homemade. Why not rediscover cooking & healthy eating the Wildtree way?"

The products range from taco seasoning packets to grape seed oil for cooking. You'll find spice rubs and blends that work together to make it easy to make any meal. At the upcoming party, I expect to taste some delicious food and learn new ways to make mealtimes easier in my house, like the "bag/freeze/marinate" method of one pot meals.

Can Wildtree help you?

If you live in West Michigan, or are going to be in the area on June 26, 2013, why not plan to join me, my friend, and others at a Wildtree party? We'll have a great time getting 10 freezer meals together and walk away with enough product to do another set of 10 meals on our own. (Not including the meat & vegetables that you bring with you to the event). In order to be part of the event, please visit my friend's website, click on email me, then tell her you want to be part of the June 26 Freezer Meal Event. It costs $75 for the product and you need to have that in place by June 12 to be included in the event.

I promise to attend the Wildtree Freezer Meal party and let you know what I think. I'll taste test the food there and then family test it later. You'll see at least one or two reviews of meals on the blog and of course I promise to tell the absolute truth - it either works for us or it doesn't. It still seems to be processed food, however, it seems like it's healthier processed food. So, you get the ease, convenience, and lower costs without the guilt of feeding your family unhealthy and artificial food. This could be good for the Tripped Up Castle - stay tuned.


*Disclosure: This post is partially sponsored by Jenna Michalsky as I will receive a discount on the Wildtree product required to attend the freezer meal party. Additional discounts will apply if readers of my blog also attend the party.

Embracing simplicity

I've had trouble with clutter my whole life. Holding garage sales, donating to charity, or simply throwing things away were difficult tasks for my parents too while I was growing up. I remember once, while helping pack my mom's kitchen for a move, finding a weirdly-shaped serving dish. The ensuing conversation shows how much holding onto too much stuff has been drilled into me.

Me: "Mom, what is this? I've never seen it before. Can we get rid of it?"
Mom: "That's a French bread server."
Me: "A what? Okay, so can we just get rid of it then?"
Mom: "Oh no, that was a wedding gift!"
Me: "Really, but we never use it. Can't we just get rid of it?"
Mom: "I've used it once I'm sure. You can't get rid of a wedding gift."
Me: "I'm sure they wouldn't even care by now Mom, who did you get it from anyway?"
Mom: "Oh, I don't remember.

BEFORE: Main floor play area - mid-day play time

I'll admit as an adult I've had an inner desire for my home to look like those fancy magazine photos or at least like my really organized friends' homes. In reality, it looks like someone vomited toys at my house, that and clutter of all kinds on almost every flat surface. It's not that we really ever wanted it this way, it's just how it seems to end up.

Angel triplet has a propensity to get into everything, pull things apart, and put everything into her mouth. I usually feel like I can't keep ahead of her. She is still a big "dumper" of toys, running from one bin to another to simply dump everything on the floor, without much functional play with any of them. Putting toys away after dumping is quite the challenge for her and usually requires someone to work with her, helping her by doing the activity with her hand over hand. Now add in a stubborn Sunshine triplet who simply doesn't want to either stop playing or needs her one-on-one attention to encourage clean up, plus a Princess triplet who just wants to wander around with various objects twirling them in her typical stimming fashion. When it's a 1 adult to 3 kids ratio, it's really tough to insist on the clean up routine. Often, you find yourself giving up and deciding to clean it up yourself after the kiddos go to bed that night. Unless, of course, you're too exhausted.

Too many toys, too much clutter and lots of dumping. It all leads to a great deal of stress. On top of that, the need for structure and organization is high with Princess and Angel triplets, even though it often looks like Angel is bound and determined to wreak as much havoc as possible. Tripped Up Mommy's natural spontaneous personality and overall cluttered approach makes it more difficult for them to order their own brains, body, and ultimately life. This is exactly the moment for intentional parenting - it's time for Mommy to get more disciplined and make things easier for them. Thanks to one of the girls' teachers, who recently spent 4+ hours with me in our house, we've made some HUGE strides in simplifying our upstairs play area. With   help from their teacher and Tripped Up Daddy's entertaining of triplets, we dug in and made a lot of little changes that added up to a huge one.

AFTER: Main floor play area - mid-day play time

Here's what we did:

1. Grouped like items quickly & put a bin together for odds & ends items that will be sorted later.
2. Reduced the total number of toys available by about two-thirds.
3. Purchased and labeled special bins where small toys can be stored.
4. Planned out new rules for the girls which included no dumping of more than one bin at a time. 
5. Created a workable plan for addressing toy boredom (switching out the toys within a planned time period).
6. Reduced the anxiety of "but where do I put all this junk on the top of a cabinet?" question by using a box to store excess clutter with the understanding it will be sorted at a later date.
7. Set up a plan of action that will make it easy for anyone (including Tripped Up Daddy, Lotte, babysitters, Grandma) to put the room back in working order within 15 minutes.
8. Took perfectionism out of the mix as much as possible 

After a week and a half of a cleaner slate, I've noticed it's a more child-friendly environment and everyone seems to be calmer. There's also more functional play from Angel and Princess triplets already.Yes, the Tripped Up Castle seems happier and less stressed. Plus, we only bought new bins so it was very economical as well. Who knew something I thought I couldn't do would help the girls so much in such a little amount of time? The re-design made a huge impact and gives me the courage to look at doing more simplifying in other areas of the home. Have you done re-works similar to this in your home or life? How did you do it and what were some of the obstacles you faced?

Just one more thing

Ever felt like that server at your favorite restaurant who manages to always add one more thing to the tray, no matter how much is on the tray already? Or, maybe it's more like "The Cat in the Hat" when he says, "But that is not all I can do, oh no that is not all..." If you've ever felt either way, than you know exactly where Tripped Up is these days.

Because working full-time out of the house and managing a "triplet & teen" household in the midst of a commuting marriage is simply not quite enough, I've also added a new writing gig into the mix. Tripped Up is now a local examiner for Examiner.com, and I'll be writing posts about child care and the surrounding issues. I think it fits nicely with my overall niche of writing about parenting anyway and, you know, what mother can't handle "just one more thing," after all, right?

It may be that I need therapy, it may be that I'm attempting to sabatoge my whole life, or it may simply be I really like to write, who knows. In any case, I'm open for you to suggest post ideas for the Tripped Up Life blog as well as my Examiner.com page.

Oh and the request for quick, easy meals and other miraculous time-saving ideas? Yeah, still open for that too. Although, I will say finding a meal planning/recipe building-sharing/shopping list site has really helped with the dinnertime organization. But there's always laundry, house upkeep, and so many other places that organizational tips could be utilized... So, send any helpful tips my way, I promise to try them out and applaud loudly when they work!

Five ways to get more sleep, even with triplets

As you can imagine, sleep is often in short supply at the Tripped Up Family home, and I'm certain it's the same at many other homes too. There are always plenty of reasons for why I don't get a full night of sleep, and as long as the coffee pot's working well in the morning I usually just push on through.

The sad fact, however, is that prolonged "sleep debt" does far more than make you desperate for a caffeine I.V. According to the National Sleep Foundation, it "can also lead to serious health consequences and jeopardize your safety and the safety of individuals around you. For example, short sleep duration is linked with: increased risk of motor vehicle accidents, increase in body mass index – a greater likelihood of obesity due to an increased appetite caused by sleep deprivation, increased risk of diabetes and heart problems, increased risk for psychiatric conditions including depression and substance abuse, and decreased ability to pay attention, react to signals or remember new information." That's some pretty serious consequences.

So lately I've been thinking about how to address the sleep deprivation at our home, and I've come up with five tactics to help us (well, mostly me). I'm thinking they may be helpful for others too:

1. Establish a real and earlier bedtime - That may not sound earth-shattering or brilliant, but if you're anything like me, bedtime is usually this phantom "when the work gets done" or when I'm so exhausted I can't move anymore time. Instead, set up a reasonable bedtime and then keep it - set a timer if you have to. The key is reasonable - as in allowing you to get a little closer to the suggested hours of sleep needed for adults, but still leaving room for your daily routines.
2.  Stop the "just one more thing" pattern - Do you suffer from "just one more thing-itis?" Common symptoms include making statements like, "I'm heading to bed as soon as I fold one more load of laundry," or "I'm calling it quits as soon as I finish this one last thing." Invariably, I always find "one more thing" to do after I've finished the first thing and it goes on and on. Instead, make a list of the non-negotiables that must be done before the end of the day. If you have time to get beyond the non-negotiables before your reasonable bedtime, great, if not, save it for the weekend, or better yet, delegate it.
3. Seriously evaluate your non-negotiables and learn to delegate - When you write down your non-negotiable tasks for each day, be honest. What really, really, really has to be done? While all of us would like a spotless home at the end of the each day, is it really more important than getting your needed sleep? (Remember the consequences of sleep deprivation - somehow a dusted bookshelf doesn't hold as much weight in comparison). Once you've come up with your list of "Must be dones," decide what you could delegate to your partner, an older child, the nanny, etc. 
4. Don't jump headlong into "the do more at night for a better morning" routine - Ever read those wonderful articles that tell you how to have a smoother morning? If you have, you'll soon see many of the tips involve planning ahead (which isn't a bad thing) and doing more the night before. Sometimes there are so many things to do the night before, that you could end up staying up far later than you should preparing for a better morning. While many of the ideas are great, be sure to consider any extra nighttime tasks when you develop your daily non-negotiables. I think if you get more rest, you'll begin to have more energy and perhaps can add more to your list, but at the beginning, just stick with those non-negotiable tasks.
5. 30 minutes to bedtime is not screen time - You only have a few minutes until that established bedtime of yours, and you haven't had much "fun" or adult time all day. Watching TV or browsing online (Facebook, twitter and more) seems perfect. Fair warning though, if it's too close to bedtime, you may get sucked into the "screen time vortex" only to pull yourself out of it hours later. And there goes the hope of a reasonable, established bedtime. Set your own limit for when screen time is just plain too close to bedtime to be managed well.

These tips may seem to simply be tricks you play on yourself to get to bed earlier, and perhaps that's all they are. As a person who loves spontaneity, I often find that I need to trick myself into some structure that's good for me, otherwise I'll be doing who knows what at whatever time and letting my sleep become the first victim of it all. Perhaps you're more disciplined than I, and if so, I applaud you. Maybe you have some even better ideas than I do, if so, I'd love to hear about them!