12 Days of Christmas

I don't really get it. And I think that's okay. I hope it's okay with others. But from the comments I read on someone's organizing FB page, I'm thinking, probably not. So, we have the 12 days of Christmas, which, to me, is a song that I get mixed up all the time. For others, it's how they celebrate (and from the tone of their comments, it's how ALL should celebrate).

So, backstory. While I've been sick I've looked around and found some different organizing sites that appealed to me. Today while scooting around www.organizingmadefun.com I wandered on to her FB page and there was a picture of neatly stacked totes with the caption. "Done. Are you?" Now a good chunk of people either said, no, or mentioned that they don't take down their decorations until after New Year's or Epiphany but there were a couple who were outright nasty! One said something really snotty that implied that THEY were more family oriented because they left their Christmas crap up until Jan 6th and that the FB author was a show-off and not as "good" as they were because she'd gotten her Christmas decorations pulled down. I was shocked! Seriously! I know that there are people who forget the old adage "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" (which, if you've read any of my posts is kinda ME to a T, but I'd never get snotty on someone else's FB page or blog, geez!)  or the fact that they don't HAVE to say something if they don't agree with her. It's not like her salvation is in jeopardy because she *gasp* took her Christmas decorations down on Dec 27th! Aren't there other things to get hyped up about?

By the way, it's December 30th and my Christmas decorations are down, toted up (thanks to Meg) AND (thanks to Kenny3) stored in the garage attic! My house feels so open and, well, homey! I'm kinda in the mood to clean out a couple cabinets! Wait, what?! Did I say that?!

Pinterest "fun"

I’m not a cook by any sense of the word. However, I do have people who count on eating in the house and don’t really go for the “make a sandwich” thought. Course, I get sick of sandwiches, too, so I can’t really blame them. Since I really can’t stand making up menus and I really get tired of making the same thing over and over, I decided to do an experiment and told all the kids that our meals over Christmas Break would have to be Pinterest recipes. I set up a group board on my Pinterest account (http://www.pinterest.com/tootlyb/) and posted some recipes there. One child out of the four that are home posted a recipe…yep, A recipe. Maybe she posted two. But anyhow, 2 meals out of the 14 days of meals?  Looks like it’ll be Mom’s Choice as usual.

Problem #1…I’m sick. Really sick. We struggled through the first weekend of Christmas Break with takeout pizza. and what was in the house. I rallied on Monday and did 2-hour grocery run that almost took me out. What got me through was knowing that the troops would be ready to help unload the car and put groceries away. Only the troops were still asleep when I got home.

Problem #2…teenagers. Like I said before, the troops were all still sleeping when I got home at 11am so I had to unload the car by myself and put things away. Meg woke up at some point during the process and helped kinda put things away. The troops also slept in the next day so didn’t eat the breakfast I made. This happened the day after Christmas, too. Probably will happen with the casserole I’ve got in the oven right now. I’m starting to wonder why I’m making breakfasts at all. So far, they've not been teenager-y and been really sweet about trying the meals.

So far I’ve made two lunches, 3 breakfasts, and 1 dinner over the past four days.

Lunch 1…7 Can Chicken Enchilada Soup (http://www.highheelsandgrills.com/2013/12/7-can-chicken-enchilada-soup.html )  This was okay. I won’t make it again, though. I prefer Progresso's Chicken Enchilada Soup from the can, to be honest.

Lunch 2…Oven Baked Meatball Sandwiches (http://www.ziplist.com/recipes/671518-Oven_Baked_Meatball_Sandwiches?_szp=78232&_szi=28 ) This was easy and the family liked it. I will make sure to get regular size meatballs next time though. I didn’t check the package and got the humongo-sized ones accidentally and then had to cut them down.

Breakfast #1…Easy Monkey Bread Muffins (http://thefrugalgirls.com/2012/03/monkey-bread-muffins-recipe.html ) These were really good. I put too many biscuit pieces in each muffin tin and the recipe made way too much caramel-ish sauce so I'll have to make adjustments for that. It's also fairly time consuming because you have to cut the biscuits down and shake them in a sugar/cinnamon mixture before putting them in the muffin tins.

Breakfast #2… Pancake squares (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/241505598741810882/)  I’ve made this before. Super easy and, luckily, it warms up okay.. I left one third plain, put chocolate chips on one third, and blueberries on a third.

Breakfast #3…Breakfast Tater Tot Casserole (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/241505598741810883/ ) I use sausage for the meat layer and country-style hashbrowns for the top. Yummy! I made this for church one morning when it was my turn to bring breakfast for coffee hour. It's cooking right now and smells delish!

Dinner #1… (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/241505598741844628/ ) Dorito Chicken Casserole…I had this down for one of our lunch options but made it for dinner anyhow. The family liked it. I’d rather just have regular tacos or a taco salad, personally.

Today’s lunch is French Dip Crescent Rolls and tonight’s dinner is a Crockpot Pork Loin (which I need to got put together and get started). Fingers crossed!

Ending the year

December 26th?! December 26th?! How did it get to be December 26th?! I guess when you've been sick for over a week, time begins to slip through your fingers. I am still coughing and froggy sounding. After the unfortunate incident at Burlington with my digestive system (which I will not enlighten you about...I'm that embarrassed about it), I stopped taking the Mucinex DM and the antibiotic. I also decided yesterday that something had to give and realized that I really think that the coughing is from all the snot my sinuses are making. I started taking Benadryl every four hours. It's probably time for me to take it now since I can feel the snot sliding down my throat as I type. Gross, I know.

We survived another Christmas and I've ended Christmas thinking the same thing I have the last 20-odd Christmases...I want to budget throughout the year and not wait until I get a Christmas budget the week before Christmas. I want to send Christmas cards! I want to have thoughtful, interesting presents. Hubby has said that he's creating a budget for 2014 and I hope we can stick to it. I've already got what I want to do for Sandra picked out and have an idea for Mom as well.

I guess it's also time to start working up the New Year's resolutions I won't be able to keep. Those I'm kicking around:
1. blogging more consistently
2. being more intentional about my friendships
3. figuring out the job situation
4. weight and health under control
5. spending more time with the girls and being more communicative with the college kids
6. being more communicative with Daddy and Mom. Hate that I let so many days go by without contacting them.
7. being more intentional with my spiritual life...maybe journaling would help.

Guess I need to firm those up...but I've got a couple days. Ha! I guess I should add something about working on my procrastination issues to the list!

Bittersweet memories...

Time with my older kids is always so bittersweet. This past week was Thanksgiving. I had all the kids but D. home. Of course, if D had deigned to bless us with her presence, this past week would have been all about her so as much as it pains me to say it, it was probably best that she wasn’t here. I’m still praying that she’ll get all her issues sorted out and contact the kids and work through the conflicts.

ANYHOW, Big Kenny flew Lorie home as my Christmas present. We decided to surprise the kids with her visit. It was so funny when she walked into the house. Meg was sitting in the family room on her laptop and looked up and said, “Lorie! What are you doing here?” Apparently, that was very similar to what Lorie said to Meg when Mom flew her up to D.C. to make the drive south. Jo was in her room so I called to her to come to the living room. Lorie stood at the gate with her head popped around the corner so when Jo opened her bedroom door, the first thing she saw was Lorie’s smiling face. K3 was so cute. Big Kenny asked him if he wanted to go with him as he went “by work” and, surprisingly, K3 said yes. I guess he was that bored and wanted to get out of the house. That’s when BK told K3 that he was actually going to the airport to pick up Lorie. That child’s face lit up and he popped out of the couch.

I love that my kids love each other so much.

But all good things must come to an end. Lorie had to go back to D.C. and K3 had to head back to Point U. I know in my head that they’ll be back in a couple weeks for the Christmas/Semester Break and they be home for almost a month each. But…they’ll still have to go back. I guess that’s just this season of parenthood…watching my babies create their own lives separate from me. And that’s good. But when I hold my friend’s tiny baby it reminds me of own little ones (who aren’t so little anymore). I guess that’s why I’m going back to school. I want to be like my mom who, while she loves her family very much and does so so much for us (including driving up to Atlanta to be at her grandson’s performance), she has her own life. She’s busy with things that interest her. I want to be like that. I know too many people whose whole lives are wrapped up in their kids and I wonder, do they only see themselves as a mom? I love being a mom but I don’t want it to be my whole life or define me as a person.

And that’s bittersweet, too, knowing that things will never be the way they were.

And so it starts...

I really don't know why I'm surprised every year at this point. I mean, it happens EVERY YEAR! The inevitable "everyone cram as much as they can in to a small window of time" that happens before Christmas break and summer break.

Last week the ice was broken, so to speak, with Lorie's Work-Based Learning Awards Night. But that was Tuesday and I got to have a bit of breathing room. But this week? Monday is the Superintendent's Awards Program, tomorrow is the incoming student/parent meeting for marching band (and you'd think with Jo being the 4th to go through the program I could get out of it, right? Oh no! Jo gets to "meet" other new band members. So we'll go...humph!), Wednesday is church, Thursday I have a luncheon awards program for Lorie with the Rotary Club and Lorie and Meg have their Rockdale Career Academy Honors Night (AND, Dayannah comes home), Friday is Meg's Drum Major audition. Add in Tuesday and Thursday band practices for Lorie and Meg in preparation for some pep rally? And you can stick a fork in me...I'm done! And that's just one week. My May calendar is looking really full and about to get fuller, so I'm told, with some changes that may be coming my way.

Breath in, breath out. Cling to Dr. Pepper. And above all, just keep swimming!

Oh my aching everything

I don't know why I do it. I get these "great" ideas and sometimes, not very often, they actually come into fruition. And then I pay! And I usually pay good.

So it's Thanksgiving Break and I was determined that the Break would not be one be screen-fest where everyone spends the entire time on the computer or watching the Tube. First of all, not very "family" and secondly, everyone seems to get into a moody funk staring at a screen all day. That's not to say that tons of screen time has not been spent.

Anyhow, back to the topic at hand. Me being an achy mess. I've been talking about painting for awhile. With the exception of bedrooms and one bathroom, the major part of our learning space (kitchen, dining, family rooms and entryway) has been pumpkin colored. Well, technically it was very dirty pumpkin. So I took the bullet by the hand (don't think that's the correct phrase) and went and bought paint. I was going for a sage green (because I love those dusky, fall-y colors) for the entry and below chairrail in the dining area and then a cream for above the chairrail and kitchen. Then I was going to finally put up my piggy border in the kitchen. I'd only bought it 6-7 years ago...not that long ago as I fly. So the first day we concentrated on the green. I asked for a stepladder which none of the kids could find so I ended up cutting in the ceiling and top 1/3 of the walls on my tip-toes. (You have to be specific with my kids as there was a perfectly good ladder in the garage. My fault for not checking myself!) So now I can't move without groaning. I can sit, stand, walk, stretch, nada without a groan accompanying it.

But my entryway, dining area and kitchen look great. :) I think I'll try to con a kid into helping (read: do the bulk of the work) me paint the living room on Friday.

Spring Break 2009

How can it be that there is only one day left of Spring Break? It's kind of sad, really. We had such a good time at Disney. We don't usually do anything for school breaks. We don't go anywhere because of money and I'm too lazy to plan anything in the Atlanta area. I need to do better at that because I only have a few years left with all the kids still at home. As it is I'm feeling guilty about tomorrow. We didn't have a chance to go shopping for Easter outfits before the trip and no one felt like shopping this morning. Lorie's wearing an old outfit of mine, Meg's wearing an old outfit of Lorie's, Jo got a dress from someone at church and I ran to Dress Barn between big Kenny's softball games this afternoon after I tried on some of mom's spring dresses and didn't find any that fit right (darn it all). Plus, I haven't done a single thing for Easter baskets. Feeling kind of like the worst mom in the world right now, but then I have to realize that the kids are still on a Disney high right now. That should come to a screeching halt pretty quickly once they realize that there's no food in the house. But for right now, all is well in the world.

Thanksgiving Break

I've been sooooo looking forward to this Break. Then it got here. I knew I didn't feel well at work on Friday and when I got home...temperature of 100.4! Kenny went to a get together and told everyone that I was home with a 104 degree temperature! When he came home he was all "let's take your temp and then take you to the hospital" because everyone there told him that 104 was pretty high. They must have thought he was the worst hubby ever to have gone to a party and leaving me home sick! Got a good laugh out of that.

I've been between 99.5 and 100.7 ever since. Called today for an appointment and they were booked up until tomorrow morning. I'm sure I'll be all better by then!

Kenny and the kids have been upstairs (we live in my in-laws' basement) helping them get the house ready for my brother-in-law Rick, his wife, Mendy and their family, who are heading here from Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. They are repainting, caulking, moving furniture, and cleaning to beat the band. Luckily, I've been able to escape that and a lot of the kids fighting and horseplay because I've been bedbound.

I thought it was strep because of how bad my throat ached, but with my stomach and bottom issues, I'm thinking it's more of a stomach virus! Nice timing!