Mondays...

...something about this beginning of the week ritual has me split on the line between high-flying ambition and absolute laziness. But, nothing like a healthy dose of reality working a shift in the local ER to make one seize the day (er, ambitiously...week). With the vast hodge-podge of cough and runny noses, to the local drunk making the slurred curses at you, somewhere in that arena you begin to find a sense of motivation you need to get through the week. Don't ask me why, or how, but today even with our wintry day flashback I found the strength to get through our first week back from spring break. Maybe I'm completely nuts...we do have a whole four days left to go.

Then again, it could be the quality time Mark and I were able to spend with our kids this weekend. For starters, we have brought back fragments of our youth with getting our whole family new converse throwback shoes. Yeah, that's right, we went retro baby!

Also, we're totally diggin' the helping jar that has become our kids' newest reward/incentive. Every time they do a certain task (cleaning up rooms, putting dishes away, helping out with laundry, etc), they get to put a cotton ball inside our helping jar.

When the jar is filled we do a fun activity as a family...trips to the movie theater, skating, bowling- anything else we can come up with as a fun out of the ordinary activity to get them motivated. Highly recommending it, as we have a cleaner house (ah-hem, ignore the dirty floors), and more helpful kids in the making. 

Now, onto health-related things (this is shaping up to be a fairly productive Monday), because of our family schedule, and all of us going off in different directions during the week, we've started flopping meals. Lunch has become dinner, and dinner lunch, then Sundays we have breakfast for dinner. Confused yet? We are trying out the whole philosophy of having your larger meal toward the middle of the day. It's working out quite nicely, though it has been an adjustment. I find my evenings I don't feel quite so tired after dinner because I have something really light to eat....

like a salad...

then a nice hot cup of tea...

It really works quite well (for us at least), so maybe it's worth a try. It makes sense to have your heavier, heartier meal during the time of day that you need the most energy. In the evening you don't tend to need as much food (energy), and eating lighter makes you less likely to want to lay on the couch after having your last meal of the day (not like any of us do that). 

Well, we'll see how this week shapes up, but I'm hoping for the best. Embracing productivity, positivity and other -tivities that make the best of an interesting start to my week. Nonetheless, if you ever do have to start your Monday off going to an ER (as a patient that is), you don't have to tell the nursing student to "F*** off" when she tells you to have a nice day. Just sayin' :)