I Want That Mom

Amazing
A visit to Sprouts with my girl.  She's so fun to go grocery shopping with, because she will talk to me and ask me about the items I'm getting.  Of course, there's also a few "I want that" comments here and there but I can usually persuade her out of it or convince her to get something else.  She also gets a lot of random compliments from strangers about how dang cute she is, but I'm convinced it's because she's so small yet talkative with this tiny little voice that is adorable.

Awful
Took a whirl through our January actual expenses and figured even with the increase in income, we're increasing our monthly loan repayments and have quite a bit of fixed expenses.  We did decide to look into bundling our cable and internet because after the contract period, the costs really shot up sky high for DirecTV.  I'm also determined to save on our grocery budget which is all the food we buy but also anything at Costco, Walmart, or Target... so a lot of diaper costs and toiletries go into that monthly cost.  We're pretty good about eating what we buy, but I guess the goal now is not to go crazy when I go to the Chinese super market or Trader Joe's.

Amusing
I started this recap on Wednesday, but it is now the end of Thursday, and after having spent all day with four kids on my own, without help, I am exhausted.  I have no problem asking for help or paying for help, I am not the mom who does it all on her own, far from that.  But my MIL is out of town and we tried to do everything with just me today.  We did have help with rides for some of my kids, but we made our way to sports classes, gymnastics, and dance.  My kids also spent about 2-3 hours watching TV or playing with the iPad or iPhone.  I'm not sure how life is going to be once it's just me with four kids, but I'm looking forward to the day when Cooper isn't nursing every 2-3 hours.  It's really not so bad when you feed a bunch of kids at the same time, you just make more, but when you have to nurse one and then feed three others, it's a juggling act.  It almost makes me consider pumping and feeding him from a bottle.  Almost.