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I'm in a funk--how do you keep motherhood "fun"?

Whenever I find myself in a mama funk (which is very, very often ;) I just try to shake things up a bit.  My biggest resources are holidays.  Having something to look forward and something to help the kids get excited makes this whole stay-at-home-with-the-kids-and-clean-the-house thing a whole lot more bearable.  So, I celebrate holidays whenever possible.  Sometimes that means adopting holidays that aren't "officially" mine. (but whose counting? ;)  Mardi Gras is a perfect example of this.  It's soooo not really my holiday.  I wasn't raised in the deep south, I'm not Catholic, heck, I don't even like to get drunk and flash strangers.  However, after a couple of trips to Mobile, Alabama to visit my sister and her family, I fell in love with the holiday.  I decided to make it mine.  Now, to distract myself from the post-christmas doldrums, I have Mardi Gras celebrations to plan and look forward too.  I've made it my own.  If there's not a holiday coming up, then you make one.  Plan an end-of-school party or a first day of Summer party.  Now, when I say party, I don't mean an actual party (I avoid real party-planning like the plague), I mean a dancing, sugar cookie-frosting, theme-food celebration with just me and the kids.  Something small, but something to look forward to.  My new thing is printing off the free 16x20 subway art from eighteen25 to help celebrate with (it also prints off fine in a 8x10 size).  Nothing makes me feel more festive then seasonal decorations :)

Hope that helps!

I want to know how the devil you are so thin when you've had 4 kids so close together? How much weight did you put on with each pregnancy and how did you manage to get it off (eating and exercise habits etc.)?

First off-I feel like a brat for even getting this question, let alone answering it.  Hence I've been putting it off for.ev.er.  Just so you know.

In short...I forget to eat, mixed in with a dash of genetics, I suspect.

To more fully answer your question, though:

I gain anywhere from 35-45 lbs per pregnancy.  Ezra was my biggest gainer, followed by Georgia's pregnancy.  I suspect that with each pregnancy I get a little more stressed and busy, so I eat a little less.  Also, with Ezra I had hoooorible morning sickness.  At first it made me lose weight because I couldn't keep anything down, regardless of what or how often I ate.  Finally, at about 23 weeks, I started to be able to avoid throwing up if I ate small, consistent meals.  Unfortunately, I had to do that almost constantly, hence the large weight gain.

As for getting the weight off...that's a little tricky to answer.  I do try exercise, but I don't get around to it very much and it's fairly sporadic when I do.  I've had some dietary restrictions while nursing 3 of my 4 kids due to suspected food allergies.  With Ezra and Oak I was off dairy from about 2 months old until I weaned.  Georgia I was off dairy, soy, and nuts (yes, it was as horrible as it sounds).  That definitely aids in the weight-loss, although I still manage to squeeze a fair amount of non-dairy sugar into my everyday diet :P.  With Scarlett, though, I didn't have any restrictions and the weight was a little slower in coming off, although it all did eventually.

Honestly, I think my biggest weight loss aid is my ADD.  I've long suspected I have ADD and as I've researched it and watched one nephew after the other being diagnosed with it, it's just confirmed those suspicions.  With my ADD, I just simply forget to eat.  I get distracted trying to feed the kids, check my email, clean the kitchen, and rotate laundry all at the same time.  When one is trying to do all those things at once, there's just not room to squeeze in lunch.  When I do eat, it's something I grab and stuff in my mouth as I'm off to something else.  I can't tell you how often I start to make myself lunch and don't remember to return to it for hours.

Sorry, I'm really not much help.  The older I get, the more I'm trying to eat better and exercise more consistently.  When I had Ezra, I just wanted the weight off.  Now, I just want to be healthy.