A full day at home

My husband took "my" car to see about having a recall item repaired. I feared his car would not house all three car seats so I told him to just leave then in my car. Me & the girls are having a full day at the house with no way to escape. So far so good. Last night I started decorating for Christmas and worked on it a little more this morning. I am at a stand-still until my husband puts the tree up. We baked oatmeal cookies, prepped tonight's dinner and did laundry. The girls did a great job of entertaining themselves when I was working on things that didn't interest them. Aidan did what she does best - sleeping. I am still in my pj's and would love to crawl into bed & take a nap, but instead I will be putting on my painting clothes to finish up a project I started months ago. I bought a table & chairs for the girls and rather than having it finished I decided to paint it. I have always favored neutral colors and would have probably painted it all white in our previous house, but since moving into this rental house and having every wall white I have started to crave color. The table & chairs are a combination of pinks & reds. So far all I have managed to do is paint the table, and part of the chairs. It is supposed to be part of E & As Christmas present, so I really want to complete it before we leave for Arkansas. Shouldn't be a problem if I could only rip myself away from the computer!
**The photo has nothing to do with the post - just haven't included one in a while. This was taken on a nature walk in FL over Thanksgiving**

Feel the buzz?

I am feeling it. The buzz of stress knowing there is so much to do and seemingly little time to do it in. Every year I do this to myself & every year everything gets accomplished. Why do I stress so much? Do I secretly enjoy it? Anyway, my family returned to TX yesterday and as I looked at the luggage piled up in the living room, stacks of mail from the previous week, toys & shoes strewn on the floor, "the buzz" set it and has been buzzing every since. Amid all the mail were the birth announcements that I ordered. I opened the package and discovered that I did not like them at all. I disliked them so much that I have scratched the whole endeavor. Our far flung friends & family will get a peek of our newest one in the Christmas card so I am scratching the birth announcements off my list. I did keep one to include in her baby book just so she knows I did try.
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Furniture. This is something that causes me stress as well. My husband and I don't see eye-to-eye on what we need, how to acquire it and what to do with it once we have it. In our 9 years of living together we have purchased very little furniture. We have inherited some, and brought some into the relationship that we previously & separately owned, and purchased some as a couple. Neither one of us like the idea of walking into a store, picking out a "set" of furniture for a room and buying it. We try to avoid conspicuous consumption and like the idea of recycling furniture. We also like 100% wood. I have begun to scout out pieces and have come across two great ones. One is a dresser for the girls room, and one is a beautiful oak dining room table. Both are sitting in our garage waiting to be tended to. I have decided to refinish both, but I have no clue when I will get to it. My husband thinks both are fine as-is and wants me to just leave it be. See what I mean?
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My family had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Really great. I wasn't looking forward to our FL visit ending. Now that we are back in TX and gearing up for Christmas I am looking forward to visiting my husband's family. I feel so blessed that I enjoy his family AND mine. I am a lucky girl. I can't wait for the whole gang to get together. I know it will be a blast. Now I just have to make it through the next few weeks and get everything on my list completed. No time like the present . . . better get started.

I am thankful for patience . . .

I often run short on patience. Very often. I have gotten better as I have gotten older, but I am still too short too often. My older & wiser sister, who is a mother of three, always told me that patience comes when you have your own children. Hmmm. Not sure she was right about that. I am finding myself snapping at Erika & Ainslee with some frequency lately. I justify it in my head by listing reasons that may allow me to be grumpy (lack of sleep, hormones, being tied to the sofa/ bed/ chair as I nurse . . .), but those are all excuses. I should be more patient with them. Today, to try an avoid any snappishness on my part I decided to avoid the car and errands that always ensue when we are all loaded up, and to hoof it. The girls and I went on a long, long walk through a couple different neighborhoods, past a mini goat farm where we stopped for a while, and then back towards home with one last detour to the park. It is something we should do more often. We tend to go to parks a lot but I usually end up sitting on a bench talking while the girls play. Not quite the same. So, during this season of thanksgiving, I am thankful for a healthy family, good friends, and patience (which I promise to strive for more of).

A quick HI . . .

I am not sure when I will figure out a schedule to check e-mail, read all with my fave blogs or update my blog with some more frequency. Twice in three weeks seems a little inadequate, but I will figure it out. Eventually. We are off to my mom's house this coming weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday so this may be my last blog for a while again. Thanks for your comments. It is so much fun to receive them even if I am a slacker & don't respond.

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So, for the past three weeks I have had my mom here or my MIL. HUGE HELP!! I haven't lifted a finger to clean or cook. I have received many, many meals from my MOMs group. What a life saver. The meals have all been delicious and it is so meaningful to receive a meal from each of them since I know they are busy as heck with their families. It is such a thoughtful gesture. I am trying to think of some fun way to reciprocate once I get the above mentioned schedule in place. As of yesterday we are on our own. I feel like I am on my own, since I have all three gals by myself all day, but to give credit where it is due, my husband jumps right in once he is home. He has been great.

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Yesterday was a blah day. I managed to get all the girls ready and we made it to church. While there I saw a little old lady, probably in her 80s, sitting behind me dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. She looked soooo sad. Throughout the service she kept dabbing and I kept wondering what or who made her so sad. I had to leave the sanctuary early to find the cry room since Aidan needed to nurse, so I didn't introduce myself, or say anything to her. I am awful in these situations 99.9% of the time, but I really think yesterday was a day I should have made the effort. Also in church they mentioned veterans and asked for all veterans to stand. It made me think of my dad, who served 30 years in the USAF, which made me shed a tear. The day I told him I was pregnant with his sixth grandchild was the same day he passed away. Now that Aidan is here, it makes me very sad that he isn't. I am so glad I told him and so grateful that he got to know Erika & Ainslee. I only hope that they remember him even just a little. Aidan has dark hair just like me & just like my dad. I like to think she got it from him just like I did. So, I was a little tired and sad at this point in the morning. I came home, we ate lunch, and I was ready to relax. As usual I did a load or two of laundry. All is well. Martin's watching football, I am reading, the girls are all sleeping and the hum of the dryer is . . . wait - why isn't the dryer humming? Because it is broken! The first load is partially dry and the second load is in the wash waiting to be dried and now NO DRYER. These are just the small, unrelated events that led to a sad, blah day.

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Today? Much better. A very kind man came and repaired my dryer before 10 am for less than $60.00. I was dreading the thought of dragging three kids out to to buy a new dryer. Now I don't have to! I also managed to get up and showered before my husband left for work. I took all three girls to the park, picked up lunch, and got them home & down for naps at the usual time. Yeah!! I think that is pretty good for my first day alone with my three children. I hope tomorrow goes as well or better!