It's back to work after a long week off. I'm not gonna be "that mom" that says that I loved every second of the kids fighting because they're together 24/7. I'm also not gonna be "that mom" that says that it was a grit-your-teeth experience to have that much time off with my kiddos. It was a pleasant mix of both with more good than bad. Here's a summary of my time off.....
CONS
*The Arguing....dear God the arguing....Kids that are together 24/7 with "nothing to do" fight damn near constantly some days.
*Plumbing issues. Being without a second bathroom for a couple of days sucked....bad. Knowing that poo was flooding our shower was disgusting and I'm thankful there was a second bathroom to use. Water spilling out onto the bathroom floor each the toilet flushed....grrrr
*Inconsistent sleeping schedule made me nuts. Because I'd nap during the day, I wasn't sleeping at night...which made me nap during the day....which made me not sleep at night. Vicious circle.
*No money coming in (from me). No work means no money and that sucks.
PROS
*Getting to spend much-needed time with the family. Yes, some of it was just cuddling up watching a movie or cooking dinner together. Regardless, spending time with my family in a completely unadulterated fashion rocked! I say it all the time...if I could be a stay at home mom and still afford to live comfortably, I'd do it in a heart beat!
*Plumbing issues got us a new toilet that doesn't require the courtesy flush...and the floor and shower have never been cleaner after being scrubbed.
*Sleeping in and naps. Yes, I still woke up at 5:00 half the time...but the rest of the time I slept in. I napped if I was sleepy and it was wonderful.
*I could get my errands accomplished without freaking out. I could move at my own pace.
*Christmas Eve and Christmas....nuff said.
*Saved gas money and didn't have to deal with traffic.
*Didn't have to think about dinner all day. I could cook when it was time to cook.
*Mellow Mushroom....we went on a date night there and it was SOOOO delicious. My favorite!
*Catching up on house stuff. I finally got to do all the house stuff I was wanting to do and it was fantastic!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Week 17
I am currently sitting in my armchair watching football but I'd like to paint you a couple of pretty little pictures....
FIRST, let's paint a picture of what my morning was like. This morning, I woke up cranky. I didn't sleep well last night and I was exhausted. My ears are having issues with the current pressure front coming through and I was a real grouch. I needed coffee and some food. So I showered and fixed myself a cup of coffee on my new coffeemaker. After consuming that and the breakfast that my love fixed me, I was actually able to function. As soon as that happened, I managed to dust the entire house, vacuum and clean our bedroom, fold laundry, and do about a dozen other things. I was on a roll.
NOW, let me paint you a picture of what happened when the game started. No, it wasn't my team at all but it's week 17 and well, I could make excuses but it's week 17. That says it all. If I was playing Fantasy Football, it would be go time. Last year, I was so far ahead in the FF league I was playing in that I didn't even care....okay that's a lie. I cared but I was certainly not worried in the least because I knew I was a shoe in. But I digress....
The game started and I was in the midst of scrubbing things. Immediately, I'm down for the count. I have no ability to focus anymore. I'm like, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?!" No one is even watching with me. My fiancé is cleaning the garage and the kids are all playing in the new snow and I'm watching the game by myself. And that's not the worst part....the worst part is that I now have three games going BESIDES the game on TV. I have a game going on my laptop, one going on the tablet, one on my phone and the one on the TV (thank you NFL Sunday Ticket and ESPN gamecast). My love calls this "geeking out." LOL
I got a lot done but I have written productivity off for the day. After all, tomorrow I have to go back to work and I deserve a day off, right? LOL
FIRST, let's paint a picture of what my morning was like. This morning, I woke up cranky. I didn't sleep well last night and I was exhausted. My ears are having issues with the current pressure front coming through and I was a real grouch. I needed coffee and some food. So I showered and fixed myself a cup of coffee on my new coffeemaker. After consuming that and the breakfast that my love fixed me, I was actually able to function. As soon as that happened, I managed to dust the entire house, vacuum and clean our bedroom, fold laundry, and do about a dozen other things. I was on a roll.
NOW, let me paint you a picture of what happened when the game started. No, it wasn't my team at all but it's week 17 and well, I could make excuses but it's week 17. That says it all. If I was playing Fantasy Football, it would be go time. Last year, I was so far ahead in the FF league I was playing in that I didn't even care....okay that's a lie. I cared but I was certainly not worried in the least because I knew I was a shoe in. But I digress....
The game started and I was in the midst of scrubbing things. Immediately, I'm down for the count. I have no ability to focus anymore. I'm like, "DID YOU SEE THAT!?!" No one is even watching with me. My fiancé is cleaning the garage and the kids are all playing in the new snow and I'm watching the game by myself. And that's not the worst part....the worst part is that I now have three games going BESIDES the game on TV. I have a game going on my laptop, one going on the tablet, one on my phone and the one on the TV (thank you NFL Sunday Ticket and ESPN gamecast). My love calls this "geeking out." LOL
I got a lot done but I have written productivity off for the day. After all, tomorrow I have to go back to work and I deserve a day off, right? LOL
Saturday, December 28, 2013
The Tree is DOWN!
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, Almighty, I'm free at last!
Okay, that's a little dramatic but I am feeling that excited about regaining my living room with the Christmas tree gone. I think that because we set up the tree early, we were all kind of "over it" right after Christmas ended. The tree was starting to get dry and blah. It wasn't smelling as pretty. On top of all of that, it was taking up an entire huge corner of the living room.
I started the task of undressing the tree this morning before the kids got up. I could potentially let the kids handle it but I'm incredibly anal retentive when it comes to organization and such and I just couldn't leave the job to someone who would carelessly sling the ornaments into a box. I wanted them labeled, packed carefully and protected until next year's festivities.
My first freakout occurred when I realized that some of my "balls" were missing. I had four complete packages when we put the tree up and suddenly, I was missing three ornaments. No, that doesn't sound like a great big deal. What IS a big deal is someone stepping on one that falls out of the tree as it's being carried outside. If you've ever stepped on a piece of glass, it's painful. If you've stepped on a Christmas tree ornament, it feels like a tiny knight is down there stabbing at your foot with his sword relentlessly, mistaking you for a flesh colored dragon. No one seemed to know what happened to the ornaments and insisted that none of them had gotten broken.
My next freakout occurred when someone tried to sit in the midst of my organized chaos. I had piles going and someone kept trying to sit in the middle of my piles and "help." Now, again, this is not necessarily someone else's battle. I am the one with the anal retentive tendencies. Organization is a fun thing for me, believe it or not. In fact, if I had the money to invest, my house would be far more organized than it currently is. It'd probably look like the Container Store. But I digress.....
The third freakout occurred when the tree did not seem to want to "let go" of the ornaments. I'm somewhat convinced that the tree just knew what was going to happen to it. It was clinging to the ornaments, screaming "Please don't let him chop me up!" Okay, that's a bit dramatic. The fact is that the tree was dying and the branches were enveloping the ornaments making it VERY hard to locate and rescue said ornaments from the tree of doom.
The fourth freakout occurred when I tried to remove the lights. Man alive, if I thought that the ornaments were bad, I was about to lose it over the lights. I was trying to carefully untangle the orange and blue lights from the tree and they were mangled around the masses of clingy dying tree branches. As I fought to untangle them, my allergies were thrown for a loop and I went into an aggravating sneezing fit that about threw me over the edge.
Finally, I got the tree stripped down and it was time to go for the door. Now, even though this tree was dying, that fat bastard did NOT want to fit out the door. Again, I'm imagining this tree fighting for survival, freakishly strong as it battled to stay in its roomy corner. As my fiancé got the tree out the door, I looked down at the thick blanket of needles on the floor and realized that I was either going to have to clean up the forest floor that was now my living room carpet or just let the squirrels and critters come in and live Snow White Style. I moved all the furniture and vacuumed my way across the living room only to discover that it was time for a rearranging party.....and then spent the next forty five minutes trying variations on organizing my front room to best suit our décor.
I tell that tale to say that the tree IS, indeed, down and that the living room is MOSTLY assembled back together. It's starting to look like a house again, which is both depressing and gratifying. Here's to next year's festivities AND the clean up.
Okay, that's a little dramatic but I am feeling that excited about regaining my living room with the Christmas tree gone. I think that because we set up the tree early, we were all kind of "over it" right after Christmas ended. The tree was starting to get dry and blah. It wasn't smelling as pretty. On top of all of that, it was taking up an entire huge corner of the living room.
I started the task of undressing the tree this morning before the kids got up. I could potentially let the kids handle it but I'm incredibly anal retentive when it comes to organization and such and I just couldn't leave the job to someone who would carelessly sling the ornaments into a box. I wanted them labeled, packed carefully and protected until next year's festivities.
My first freakout occurred when I realized that some of my "balls" were missing. I had four complete packages when we put the tree up and suddenly, I was missing three ornaments. No, that doesn't sound like a great big deal. What IS a big deal is someone stepping on one that falls out of the tree as it's being carried outside. If you've ever stepped on a piece of glass, it's painful. If you've stepped on a Christmas tree ornament, it feels like a tiny knight is down there stabbing at your foot with his sword relentlessly, mistaking you for a flesh colored dragon. No one seemed to know what happened to the ornaments and insisted that none of them had gotten broken.
My next freakout occurred when someone tried to sit in the midst of my organized chaos. I had piles going and someone kept trying to sit in the middle of my piles and "help." Now, again, this is not necessarily someone else's battle. I am the one with the anal retentive tendencies. Organization is a fun thing for me, believe it or not. In fact, if I had the money to invest, my house would be far more organized than it currently is. It'd probably look like the Container Store. But I digress.....
The third freakout occurred when the tree did not seem to want to "let go" of the ornaments. I'm somewhat convinced that the tree just knew what was going to happen to it. It was clinging to the ornaments, screaming "Please don't let him chop me up!" Okay, that's a bit dramatic. The fact is that the tree was dying and the branches were enveloping the ornaments making it VERY hard to locate and rescue said ornaments from the tree of doom.
The fourth freakout occurred when I tried to remove the lights. Man alive, if I thought that the ornaments were bad, I was about to lose it over the lights. I was trying to carefully untangle the orange and blue lights from the tree and they were mangled around the masses of clingy dying tree branches. As I fought to untangle them, my allergies were thrown for a loop and I went into an aggravating sneezing fit that about threw me over the edge.
Finally, I got the tree stripped down and it was time to go for the door. Now, even though this tree was dying, that fat bastard did NOT want to fit out the door. Again, I'm imagining this tree fighting for survival, freakishly strong as it battled to stay in its roomy corner. As my fiancé got the tree out the door, I looked down at the thick blanket of needles on the floor and realized that I was either going to have to clean up the forest floor that was now my living room carpet or just let the squirrels and critters come in and live Snow White Style. I moved all the furniture and vacuumed my way across the living room only to discover that it was time for a rearranging party.....and then spent the next forty five minutes trying variations on organizing my front room to best suit our décor.
I tell that tale to say that the tree IS, indeed, down and that the living room is MOSTLY assembled back together. It's starting to look like a house again, which is both depressing and gratifying. Here's to next year's festivities AND the clean up.
Post-Holiday Ramblings
I have come to the determination that if it isn't one thing, it's another. I sometimes feel like no matter how far ahead I get, there's always gonna be huge obstacles that get thrown at me. Yes, that's right, I feel like the obstacles aren't just laid in my path where I walk up on them and have the time and energy to figure out how to best approach them. Instead, the obstacles are chucked at me at full speed and I'm left to make a quick decision to either dodge or attempt to catch the obstacle and wrangle it to its weakest point.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining here about my life. I'm not the "woe is me" type. Yes, I have my bad days, but (in general), I prefer to be optimistic and look at the bright side of things. The great news is that things could be worse than they are. The bad news is that it doesn't make the obstacles that are before me currently any smaller to think that way.
Listen, I'm not gonna sit and pretend like luck is gonna save my ass. To be honest, I think that there's a lot to be said for God blessings, luck and karma playing a part in people's lives. I'm also not gonna be as head strong as some and say that you make your own luck. Ummmm no, you don't. You can put out all the positive in the world and still get back negative. You can do your very best day after day and you're still gonna have sacrifice in some area of your life to gain in another. I think it all comes down to balance and positive thinking. Worrying is like a rocking chair (or so the expression goes).
Think positive and move forward.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining here about my life. I'm not the "woe is me" type. Yes, I have my bad days, but (in general), I prefer to be optimistic and look at the bright side of things. The great news is that things could be worse than they are. The bad news is that it doesn't make the obstacles that are before me currently any smaller to think that way.
Listen, I'm not gonna sit and pretend like luck is gonna save my ass. To be honest, I think that there's a lot to be said for God blessings, luck and karma playing a part in people's lives. I'm also not gonna be as head strong as some and say that you make your own luck. Ummmm no, you don't. You can put out all the positive in the world and still get back negative. You can do your very best day after day and you're still gonna have sacrifice in some area of your life to gain in another. I think it all comes down to balance and positive thinking. Worrying is like a rocking chair (or so the expression goes).
Think positive and move forward.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Post Christmas-Day One
Despite my best efforts to lay in bed all day and relax (since the past 3-4 days have been pretty well non stop cooking, cleaning and entertaining kids), I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I tore apart and reorganized my closet, cleaned my bedroom, reorganized all the gift wrapping supplies and craft stuff, and organized the boys' rooms with all their new stuff. Now to attempt to relax
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Christmas Eve
It's hard to believe that a few years ago, Christmas was so different for all of us. My amazing fiancé was celebrating his last Christmas as a bachelor. He had no idea what was coming. He had no idea how much his life would change so soon. I was celebrating with my kiddos and doing my best to get by. I had no idea that I'd move across the country and get engaged to the man of my dreams just a few short years later. I was miserable living in a place that I hated and wanted..no NEEDED a change but wasn't sure how it was gonna come to pass. If there's any doubt that God moves in mysterious ways, you could just look at our lives and see that.
Fast forward to 2011 and the kids' first Christmas in Colorado. We were living in a little apartment and I was working 50+ hours a week to try to make sure bills were paid. We'd scrimped together enough to get some stuff for the kids but it wasn't much. We relied heavily on the blessings of others to help us get by. We were so blessed and yet had so little. We were terrified of making ends meet but we were doing it by the grace of God. It was a hard year but God provided.
Fast forward to 2012 and our first Christmas in our current house. We were scrimping by again after having just moved. We were struggling with other issues but God was providing yet again. We had to use a fake Christmas tree but we were happy nonetheless. We managed to get some of the wants and needs and decided that we'd deal as we went.
Now this year: We are being blessed enough to take care of plenty of the wants and needs. We got a nice, fat fluffy Christmas tree and we've been building up our collection of Christmas goodies little by little. We're engaged and the kids are getting way too big for their britches. It's insanity.
So what am I hoping next year looks like? Well, hopefully they'll be a wedding by then and we'll be in a better place financially, physically and mentally than this year has brought us (surgery, job changes...so much stress for the year). Ideally we'd be debt-free with four healthy amazing kids that are doing great in school (and activities), us with steady well-paying and great jobs, and looking forward to the many blessings God has in store.
Merry Christmas Eve!
Fast forward to 2011 and the kids' first Christmas in Colorado. We were living in a little apartment and I was working 50+ hours a week to try to make sure bills were paid. We'd scrimped together enough to get some stuff for the kids but it wasn't much. We relied heavily on the blessings of others to help us get by. We were so blessed and yet had so little. We were terrified of making ends meet but we were doing it by the grace of God. It was a hard year but God provided.
Fast forward to 2012 and our first Christmas in our current house. We were scrimping by again after having just moved. We were struggling with other issues but God was providing yet again. We had to use a fake Christmas tree but we were happy nonetheless. We managed to get some of the wants and needs and decided that we'd deal as we went.
Now this year: We are being blessed enough to take care of plenty of the wants and needs. We got a nice, fat fluffy Christmas tree and we've been building up our collection of Christmas goodies little by little. We're engaged and the kids are getting way too big for their britches. It's insanity.
So what am I hoping next year looks like? Well, hopefully they'll be a wedding by then and we'll be in a better place financially, physically and mentally than this year has brought us (surgery, job changes...so much stress for the year). Ideally we'd be debt-free with four healthy amazing kids that are doing great in school (and activities), us with steady well-paying and great jobs, and looking forward to the many blessings God has in store.
Merry Christmas Eve!
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