What Works and What Doesn't, Part 2

I really enjoyed all the feedback from the last time I did this type of post, so I decided to do another. Here's a bit of what works for us:

Having the microwave set on silent. The last two microwaves we have had can be turned to silent. It often leads to confusion when people try to use it and it doesn't beep when they push any buttons, but I love that it doesn't incessantly beep when it's done. The screen reads something about the food being done and the noise of the microwave running is over, so it's obvious to me, but not blarring through the entire house. I randomly discovered this feature when we were living in my parents' basement and Jon had just been born and was sleeping in the same room as the microwave. If you'd like to try this, see if your microwave has a custom settings button or look up it's manual online and see if you can figure it out. Any time our power goes off I have to reset mine, but I gladly push 4 buttons and enjoy the lack of beeping!

Friends that have pools and are generous to share them with us!

This has been great for so many reasons. I'm just going to list a few in no particular order:
1. I get to work on my tan. :)
2. I get to hang out with other moms while my kids hang out with their kids.:)
3. My kids are becoming better swimmers all the time.
4. I love pools and spent most of my childhood summers in them, so honestly the summer doesn't feel like summer without many lazy days by the pool. (although the days are less lazy when you're taking care of 3 kids in the pool, but still!) :)
Much thanks to Carolyn, Debbie and Aaron, and Sandy for sharing your pools with us this summer!

Zofran

This one mostly falls under what works, but could fall into the other catagory a little bit, too. Zofran has allowed me to consume food for the past two+ months when this wacko pregnant body wanted to boycott food entirely. The thing I have really loved about it is that it takes away most of my nauseousness as well. And really who wants to feel nauseous 24/7 for months on end? I have been able to cut back on the amount that I'm taking and I'm so glad because the downside of zofran for me is that it makes me extremely constipated--sorry if that's TMI, but if I hadn't had a friend mention that to me, I would have thought I was going crazy. Anyway, I now just take 2mg a day--way better than the 16 mg I was taking daily just a month ago. I tried to cut back more and felt like puking all morning. I didn't ever actually get sick, but if my kids hugged me, it was all I could do not to get sick. I don't really want to live like that. So...for now, the low dose is working for me.

What doesn't work for us:

Finding out who wins an Olympic event before I've had a chance to watch--seriously, not cool!

Here's a random problem that I could use some input on:
Jon would read books ALL DAY LONG. Sam, who is starting to read but isn't at all proficient, wants to play with Jon ALL DAY LONG. How do I find a balance here? So far, I let Jon read for a bit and then ask him to be kind and considerate to his brother and play with him for a while or read aloud to him. I'd love to hear some feedback from others who have been there and done that with their kids or just suggestions if you don't have kids. Help!

I'm sure there's much more that's not working around here, but that's all that comes to mind and I want to update on the previous post a bit, so I'll stop there. Feel free to share some ideas for the next What Works and What Doesn't Post. :)

Updates on previous post:
Will now understands that the toilet is a no-no. With the exception of one day when Abby babysat and he decided to throw several matchbox cars and a couple magazines into the toilet. Sorry, Abby! Since then he's done great--I hope I don't have to update that anymore!

Sam's voice has switched, most days, from being a baby voice to a silly/crazy voice...not sure why the boy doesn't want to just use the voice he's been given, but...for the most part, there is definite improvement.

Laundry...well, we haven't really made much progress here, but we have diagnosed part of the problem. The washer that came with this house is small. It doesn't hold much. I do an average of 2 more loads of laundry a week than I did before and while I know that the kids are growing, it's summer time and that shouldn't be the case. You know it's bad when even your husband recognizes that you're doing more laundry than ever before. In fact, on our date the other night, he surprised me by taking me to Lowe's to look at higher capacity washing machines--swoon! what a man! ;) I was totally surprised by how seriously he's taking my chore and actually found it quite sweet that he is ready to take action (sooner than later) to come to my rescue! Seriously, I don't think I had complained that much--I hope--so way to be observant, babe!