Tuning Out to Tune In...Plus a Little Discount Code To Boot!

For those of my blog readers and Twitter followers who noticed that I have been M.I.A. for the last week or two, hope that all is well with all of you!

Things are well here too...I have not been under the weather, but actually, the opposite...have been very productive at focusing on my family and also getting things ready for our new school year!

Decided that in order to really accomplish things here on the home front, that I would have to tune out a little from all social media in order to tune in and focus on the needs of my household and most importantly, those living in my household...my sons and my Dear Hubby.

Dear Hubby has had to spend time out of town for training so the time that he has been gone, the original plan was that that would be a perfect time to get things done around the house, but the boys and I decided instead to take some time to just have a relaxing time together.

One of the highlights of our many unplugged days was going to a park area near my parents' home, watching the boys play on the playground and then, taking a walk along the nearby trail, followed by the boys going around the town square jumping in every single puddle that they came across, as long as there weren't people around who would have gotten soaked from their splashes!
It was truly one of the most fun, most joy filled days I have spent in a long time!!!
The boys had an absolute blast and so did I!

Well, following the hiatus in actually getting errands done and accomplishing projects around the house, we all came back to our home and then, it just seemed like a good time to get moving with the overhaul of the boys' bedrooms, and the playroom / classroom.
So, while Dear Hubby took the boys out and about each day over the last week, I went into over drive and plowed through the job at hand and got things ready for our upcoming school year.
We were able to give some items to some friends who have a little one and that felt great to be able to give them some of the boys' favs from their toddler days.
Then, we took four bags and a huge cardboard box filled with things to Goodwill.
Had some great items in there so hopefully, they will go to good homes too.

Well, am getting slowly back into the groove of social media.
Have not looked up my Klout Scores or my Grader scores, as I am sure that my hiatus from all social media will make my numbers with them take a nose dive. Was up at 61 on Klout and was at 95 on Grader and no doubt have fallen from their grace, as their algorithms don't know that life happens and sometimes, spending time watching your sons ride their bikes or splash in puddles or organizing homeschool materials or donating to a worthy cause means that there is not time left in the day or night to Tweet or write a blog post...not that I have not been lacking for things to say or comments that have wondered through my head while doing all of this though...

Happened to catch a couple of seconds of Octomom on The Today Show, and surprisingly, I handled it way, way better than when I first heard her tale...when the news originally broke about Octomom, I was trying to get over my  miscarriage
I was in the throws of depression from losing the baby and then, happened to hear and see all of the coverage about Ocotomom and was so totally devastated and really questioned the fairness of the Universe that this woman would bring eight more babies into the world with no real plan on how to care or provide for them and yet, if our baby would have survived, it would have had such a nice life here with us. We would have loved for Little Sis, our baby that did not get to spend time on Earth getting to know her brothers. We wished like anything that our Brynne Elizabeth could have been chosen to spend more time on Earth with us...but that was not meant to be...
During a momentary lapse of trying to commit to being unplugged, I caught a few seconds of seeing her on with Ann Curry.
It did not bring me to tears this time, as enough time has passed that I was not feeling like I did when the news first broke.
She certainly has her hands full and so do her older children who act like the responsible ones in the situation as they were the ones running after their little sibs trying to keep them out of harm's way...

The good thing is that this couple seconds of slipping up with my vow to be unplugged helped me to realize that life may not be fair, but it is what you do about your own life, your own day-to-day that matters most to your own children:

My sons were so totally thrilled when we spent the day literally playing in the rain.
To them, that was more important than any of the other things going on in the world...

So, sometimes, tuning out for a bit of time to be able to tune in towards your children and to really enjoy their company is key...other times, tuning out from social media to get jobs done around the home is the way to go...the last little bit of tuning out is for Dear Hubby and I to tune out to the world around us so that we can re-focus on each other and our relationship.
We have a strong marriage and love each other very much, but half of the time, we are far too tired to really enjoy each others company.
Yesterday was supposed to be the start of tuning in to each other.
We went to IKEA and dropped the boys off at Smalland, their playroom / babysitting area, for a whole 45 minutes. We have done this a few times before and normally, it gives us 45 minutes to enjoy each others company and to sit and have a little snack.
But yesterday, we had eaten prior to coming to IKEA so having a snack did not seem like an option...so we started to loop around, but Dear Hubby was so tired that he wanted to find a place to sit...he initially found a chair on a display and plunked down on that but it made me nervous to have him sitting on a display piece of furniture, so instead, we made our way down to the loading area of the store and voila! What do we see but two leather couches! Yay!!!

We sat down on one together. I had given some thought to each of us having our own sofa, but figured that we should keep some room in case people who were waiting for their orders to be filled would have a place to sit and wait. We sat and talked for a few seconds and then, it was lights out for Dear Hubby...he was sawing some serious logs!!!

As we were sitting there, at first, it did not bother me and was almost funny, as he had pretended to have a conversation with an IKEA employee about how folks can't fall asleep at IKEA and how he then would say to the young employee, Go get your manager...
Is he married? Yes? Does he have children? Yes? Since he is and he does, then your manager will know why I need a nap and want to sleep here at IKEA!!!

So I realized that Dear Hubby had mulled over whether or not he should actually fall asleep, but the sofas were comfy enough that he could not resist and fell sound asleep.

Along came a college couple who plunked themselves down across from us, all perky and happy and very touchy feel-y as they sat and enjoyed their hot dogs and cinnamon buns together...picture Disney's Lady and the Tramp sharing where the pups sit and share a plate of spaghetti only insert two happy, very involved with each other 20 somethings...giggling, sharing their morsels of IKEA cafe specialties together...

Oh, but the romantic moment was interrupted by the rather frequent, loud, and rhythmic snoring of Dear Hubby.

At one point, I finally felt the need to share with them:
My husband is exhausted as we have two young sons who have kept us super busy and we have also been doing all kinds of house projects , plus he had to travel for training, so this is what a tired daddy look like on a Sunday!

I shared this story with my buddy this morning and her comment was something along the lines of,
What great birth control for this young couple! 
They'll probably think about abstaining for a bit when they see how tired y'all  looked!!!
(So true, Honey, so true...) 

But really, enjoying things like sharing a hot dog or a cinnamon bun and looking very in love is what we all should strive to be, right? Dear Hubby and I do enjoy each others company but like was so blatantly obvious yesterday is that we are a little overly tired to really have that vim and vigor you do early on in a relationship...we need to work on getting that back though, so again, will still take a little more tuning out from social media time to be able to tune in to my wonderful hubby. 

Life is a work in progress and striking the right balance is so key...I really do love blogging and tweeting, and even on occasion, find it fun to catch up with folks on Facebook, and doing blog giveaways and Twitter parties can also be fun at times, but then, sometimes, there is a greater need calling me to spend time with my family and that is what matters most at the end of the day...

So hope that you will all understand that from time to time, I might take a break from doing regular blogging and tweeting and that it is probably because I am working hard at creating priceless memories with my boys and hubby, looking for some puddles to jump in or for a snack to share!!!

Happy Monday, Everyone!!!

On a happy side note: A nice little discount code for you from Laughing Star Montessori.
Susan is offering a discount to my readers and friends...


If you are trying to get ready for the upcoming school year and wish to order some lovely Montessori items, please pop by Laughing Star Montessori and use the code Sunrise in your order to get a discount from Susan. She and her son, Will, approved this code for my readers so please be sure to use it and also feel free to share this code with your blog readers or with your co-ops. A few people tried to use the code this morning and the system said it was expired, but I received the email from Susan this morning, so hopefully, they have the code working this afternoon...if you do not see a discount showing up, then you may want to call her 513-683-5682 or else email her.


We love all of the materials we have either purchased or have reviewed for Laughing Star Montessori!