Things Never Quite Slow Down

Thanksgiving is again upon us.

I was walking my son to preschool for the afternoon and I started thinking of all the things I have been doing lately and it occurred to me that I hadn't written in some time. And then I had a complex about the whole thing because obviously no one has noticed. But, that's ok.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the entire month of October was devoted to Halloween costume construction. It was THAT crazy. My mother had given me a sewing machine on my 29th birthday because I had expressed interest in sewing. I then sewed a tiny little simple square curtain for my oldest daughter. It took about a month. I had grand ambitions, life got away from me, we had a third child, we moved and now-light bulb moment- I have space and time for sewing. So what do I do? Three years after the fact, I dust off the machine and in typical Jenn fashion, I minimize the time and effort it takes to sew a costume. I'm not a stupid human being. I can follow instructions and I like fabrics. Ergo- I can sew a costume. I figured three weeks was a good stretch of time. Someone should have slapped me with the reality stick right then and there, but my three weeks of sewing and figuring out the wonderful (and by "wonderful" I mean downright "insane and completely and unnecessarily complicated") world of costume sewing. The whole entire time I kept thinking, "How in God's name do the contestants on Project Runway sew entire grown up outfits in less than 24 hours from conception to finished product?!"

Anyways, with the help of my ever patient mother and many nights cursing my own stupidity and stubbornness, I sewed a Dorothy costume for my sweet One Year Old, made a slew of glitter stars for our Oldest who thankfully already had a pink dress suitable for Glinda, and my husband constructed a Tin Man to beat the band for The Little Man. We copped out on ourselves and did the Scarecrow with things we already had and a bale of hay and I bought a cat tail and ears to be the Cowardly Lion.

So that was seriously a month long project. That along with celebrating TEN YEARS of marriage (I KNOW! I cannot believe I have been married my whole adult life because I feel like I am just NOW considered a certifiable grown up!) and various other home projects including painting chalkboard paint on the kitchen doors and having showers done after four months of "tubbies", add school and church events and it's been a blink of an eye.

We now turn our eyes next week to hosting Thanksgiving in our very own home. (Let me just make an aside right here that I am literally typing this directly after searching and reading the Epicurious turkey tutorial and had to calm myself down on the weighty matter that is creating an iconic turkey dinner and upholding all manner of holiday traditions spanning three generations and three separate branches of family. No pressure. My husband has come to the conclusion (which I very much appreciate) that no matter what happens it will be a fabulous and funny story and it will be fun because we are such fun people (aren't you glad you know me?!). Sweetest. Man. Ever. But should things go awry and everything burn and or fall on the floor or become tainted by any manner of awful-nesses that can go wrong, I will place all blame on him for having such faith in me. Should things go right, however... Ha!
All kidding aside, we are so excited and are literally spending every day up until Thanksgiving in cleaning and prepping and listing and having jolly fun whilst doing it as is our custom.

And then it's onto Christmas. And now I must go in search of more coffee to fuel the rest of this wonderful year of complete bliss and fulfillment that has been 2012. We are so blessed.

A Day in the Life

Twenty four hours. 

This time tomorrow, my wonderful husband should be walking through the front door. It will be glorious. 

Today just seemed behind the curve before it even began. My son, once again, kept up with Midnight Madness and I lingered in bed probably a little too long, but it was still early when I made the executive decision to put myself first this morning. Yes, I put myself first, I was "selfish" if you will, when I decided to take time and wash up. Yes. That's what I did. I didn't take long, but everything went down hill from there. Maybe it was due to my terrible selfishness and neglect of the children and dog that I was being punished with the craziness that was today.  

I leapt out of bed and decided, "No! I will NOT stink today! I am going to wash up and get ready FIRST!" and so I did. The dog yelped and whined the entire time. My son barged in and had to be shouted at three times to leave before he left the bathroom. He did this twice. The Little One wailed in her crib while the crib squeaked in rhythm to her jumping up and down. I jumped in and out and dressed and put my make-up on in record speed and with a revolving door of interruptions. Adjusted the children's clothes, threw some cereal at them as I fed and ran the dog out and of course, like the pied piper that I am, the older two followed me. Once back inside, the baby was still screaming of course and needed to be changed. The older two already standing downstairs bickering over something inane. In efforts to change a poopy diaper as efficiently and quickly as possible, it ended up in heap on the floor at my feet with a squirmy poop smeared child in my arms. Managed to clean that up, grab some cereal and milk for the little one to eat in the stroller on the way to school. And off we ran. 

Dropped off the First Grader and ran (and when I say "ran" I really mean just kinda walk as fast as I can) home to pop the younger two in the car so I could make an appointment. Got in the car and everyone settled and something wasn't right. I didn't quite understand that the car hadn't started until I had it in reverse and nothing was happening. I turned the key again and it just made an "I'm trying" kind of noise and that was that. The battery was dead. This I was able to surmise because my son has the ridiculously terrible habit of touching everything and anything that he shouldn't be touching and had turned all the lights on in the car for the bazillionth time. My dad had to pop on over to give me a jump and I was forty minutes late to where I needed to go. Wonderful. 

Was able to make it back home in time to get everyone a proper lunch after their rushed breakfast and then off for Little Man to be dropped off at pre-k. What was that? Did I briefly hear the sweet sound of angels sining in the distance? No, it was just the beautiful serene sound of QUIET because the Little Angel goes right down after drop off for a nap without a peep until it's time to pick up! 

So, coffee was chugged while dishes were washed and in a moment of insanity (I blame the sudden caffeine rush), I figured homemade cheddar biscuits would be a great treat for the kids to go along with their chicken soup for dinner. They are surprisingly easy to make... Don't know if that's such a good thing being how it's mostly butter and cheese... But they taste great! Whipped through rooms straightening and pulling out pjs and clothes for tomorrow, had a few more sips of coffee, dragged the dog back out and had to wake up the baby to go for pick up and drag out a huge pile of library books. After pick up we were meeting with friends at the library. The highlight of this completely crazy day. So after a quick coffee stop at Dunkin Donuts, we were off. 

Library fun was had by all,  got home, heated up soup, homework was completed with minimal whining (I'm being generous by saying "minimal" because it wasn't) and puzzles were done and then food was eaten and by then, whining and nonsense had hit a peak and Mommy needed everyone instantly in bed. 

So, that occurred as fast as I could humanly manage it and here I sit. On second thought, it was a good thing I got myself washed up this morning because if I hadn't, I'd still be stinky and would definitely NOT want to get up and do all that right now... 

Tomorrow is a fairly empty day and my husband comes home. And there goes the angelic chorus once again...