All in a Day's Work

Wowza! So I see (from the picture featuring some snow) that I haven't posted in a while. Life has been a little busy for aaaaaaah the past few months I guess. Whose life isn't busy, but I guess the blog has slipped WAY low on the priority list. This is mostly due to the fact that sleep took on a major priority since Sweet Potato suffered from ear infections nearly all winter and was a screaming beast MANY a night. We finally got tubes in the first of June and life has been much, much better since then.

About two weeks ago I had a day when apparently I felt like a Super Mom and decided to sign up both of my children for swim lessons at a local fitness club. Sweet Pea is in the "Swim Without Your Momma" class and Sweet Potato is in the "Mommy Gets to Put on a Swimsuit and Get in the Pool With Baby Even Though She's Lily White" class. Both classes are at the same time so I thought, "How perfect is that?" I envisioned lots of happy, happy, joy, joy splashing time. It's been alright, but MAN if it isn't crazzzzzzy trying to get 2 little ones to the pool, in the pool, and then dried and dressed after the fact. It's a bit of a circus.

Today, we timed it just right to get to the class like two minutes before it started - to minimize baby wrangling and inpatient children. But back that train up, because come to find out Sweet Pea's teacher was "sick" - last minute sort of thing. As mothers do, I went into fix this shit quick mode.... what am I supposed to do with my four-year-old while I'm in the pool with her brother? I threw a life jacket on her and told her sit in the pool on the steps (I was about 4 feet away). Talk about cranky britches.... the director and the life guard got all feisty cause they didn't approve of having her in the water (they'd rather she sit on the bleachers -yeah like she'd sit quietly for 30 minutes on the bleachers at the pool, real safe). Pardon me, but I think that I paid (paid you a lot of money) to have 2 swim classes right now, like together, and YOU don't have a sub available to supervise my kid, and I'm not blowing 2 swim classes because you don't have a plan B (which you should because I have a feeling this happens a lot).

Sweet Pea was quite content (and safe) to sit IN the pool and watch Sweet Potato and me bob around for 30 minutes. We managed to get everyone dried and dressed without incident and we EVEN managed to swing through the farmer's market. Voila!

Just a Note

Hubby-Man attempting to coerce Sweet Pea into a snowmobile ride.

If you look closely, you can see the "Fat Chance Dad!" look that she's giving him.

Sweet Potato is actually 10 months now so this is a month or two old,

but he's essentially just as cute.

This past week has been one of both hell and heaven. We started the week out with baby pukes and refusal to eat - Great fun! After four days of much laundry, job juggling, and sleepless nights, Sweet Potato was right as rain. Thank God. The week ended on an upward swing. Thursday I went to Kindergarten Open House for our preschooler. I was so excited that I would've puked! I can't believe she's old enough to begin Kindergarten.

On Saturday, Sweet Pea, Aunt A., and I went to Disney Princesses on Ice (a Christmas gift from Aunt A.). What a fabulous show! I'm not sure who loved it more - Sweet Pea or me? The lights, the costumes, the skating, the Disney songs that have (by nature of having a girl) permanently lodged themselves DEEPLY in my brain. Personally, I may have subconsciously just been REALLY excited to get out of the house and do something too.......

Hubby-Man tackled out taxes this year via Turbo-Tax. It took him a bit longer than estimated, but they're done. Our normal tax guy dumped us this year because he decided to retire. What a bummer - he was good and cheap, AND had a mucho comfy recliner to hangout in while we waited for him to complete our taxes.

Our computer is run painfully slow and the mouse is acting wonky. May be time to upgrade before too long.

Spring is just around the corner and I am frothing at the mouth. I heard birds tweeting in the morning and it made it seem even more real with the time change. I can't wait to bust out the bikes and bike trailer for the little man.



Why I Don't Like Winter

I don't like winter for the following reasons....

It is messy
It is cold
Sick kids
Constant runny noses
Higher utility bills
Slippery roads
More sick kids
Being stuck inside with an infant paired with a high energy preschooler
Cold sheets
Filthy salty cars

The ONLY redeeming factor this winter has been the sunshine. We usually don't get so lucky.

Anyone else hate winter?

Upon Reflection - Revised

Oh ... and that new (new to me) furniture that I was getting today, for the finished basement, wouldn't fit down the basement stairs. For realz!!!!! The Hubby-Man and father-in-law tried and tried, but it just wasn't going to happen. Basically trying to shove a really BIG square peg into a round hole. BUMMER! I was really looking forward to having something to sit upon in my basement. Guess we'll have to get out the bag chairs again.......

Really, didn't people in the 50's (that's when our house was built) need couches in their basements?

This is just one more thing that you can add to the list of "complications" that go hand-in-hand with living in a older home.

Man..... I really wanted some couches too.

Dear reader, what furniture, decorating, remodeling "complications" have you had with your homes?

Upon Reflection

As we edge closer to the ending of another year, and a decade, I was briefly reflecting upon things that were new this year.

- We have a second child, a son.
- I am finally an aunt, I have a sweet little nephew.
- Joe refinished our basement (and we're getting some furniture for it today).
- We bought a new vehicle (which I luv, luv, luv)

Dear reader, what were some of the new things for you this year? What big changes occured in you life?

I'm Not Super Mom

Funny that I should feel compelled to write this today as I have just begun 12 days of blissful Christmas vacation, but.... an event has sparked the anxiety within me and I shall henceforth vent.

I am not Super Mom. I know many women that are Super Moms. They work full time, bake, provide nutritious hot meals, volunteer, find time to workout, attend multiple social events and still devise solutions to solve world hunger. That is not me.

Personally, it is all that I can muster to keep my head above water from week to week just getting to work every day and taking care of my family. I'm not sure if I'm not motivated enough, smart enough or strong enough to manage all of the things that the World expects me to do, but I know that I am doing the best that I can at this moment in time. Pardon me World if I choose to focus on my children, my husband and I squeak my friends in there from time to time ;) Pardon me if I refuse to over commit my children and my family.

Yes, I should be more committed to work events. Yes, I should volunteer and share the MANY blessings that God has given me. Yes, I should say "yes" to everyone who needs something done. Yes, I should be both a mom and a saucy super model. Yes, I should be able to juggle "life" better. But again... that's not me.

Having kids is HARD! Working full time with kids is HARD! Trying to be a good mother, supportive wife, dutiful daughter, fun time friend, devoted employee, and still have time for me is REALLY HARD. The catch is..... that I wouldn't give up anything in my life. I love having children and really love the Hubby-man. My family is wonderful, but it's just flippin' HARD.

And so I acknowledge that I am not all that, and I know that I can't be all that. I am doing the best that I can and I refuse to be pushed into more than I can handle. So if that makes me a slacker, or lazy, or difficult, or unsupportive... so be it.

Does anyone else feel this way?

The Heart of Childhood

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

By Francis P. Church, first published in The New York Sun in 1897. [See The People’s Almanac, pp. 1358–9.]

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.