Random Thoughts

Well, I think it's safe to say that winter is here.

While most people are counting down the days until Christmas, I'm keeping track of how many days there are until we start gaining more minutes of daylight.  Seventeen days!  Winter's not my thing, but scarves, boots, slippers, and green tea keep me going.  Even with those perks, I still occasionally shout out, "You're ruining my life, Ken Siemek!" when I watch the weather forecast during the nightly news.  If I know for sure the kids are sleeping, I might even add an expletive or three.  This week I might just have my first meteorologist related outburst for the season.  Maybe it's time to crochet a new scarf...or hibernate.

Instead of pulling an all nighter Black Friday shopping, I stayed up until 3:00 am playing cards with family.  Although I missed my annual night away with my cousin, we made up for it when we caught a P!nk concert and a night out a few weeks ago.  I'd do that over shopping any day!   In fact, I went out without children three weekends in a row during November.  Ooh la la!  Look out, social life!  Now it's back to weekend reality...attending birthday parties, kids' activities, and falling asleep when I attempt to watch any movie.  And I'm totally ok with that.

Harry Potter fever has hit our house.  I started reading it to J months ago, and I finally finished.  Apparently, reading aloud makes me sleepy, which impedes reading progress.  J couldn't wait for me, so he's well into book five already.  J and E watched the first movie (while Steve and I fell asleep), and neither of them could stop talking about it.  Fans!  In fact, I think E might even have a little crush going on. We've decided that we'll watch the movies as I finish the books.  Some highly trusted HP fans encouraged us to take it slowly with the movies because they get a bit scary.  Sounds like a good plan to me.  Plus, I can't imagine the first movie will get old to J & E anytime soon.

Even though I didn't do the Grey Thursday (Can't we just call it Thanksgiving?) or Black Friday outing, I'm pretty much done with all my shopping.  Next thing: making cards.  I love receiving Christmas cards, but sending them out takes a little more organization than I'm normally capable of.

 Something about motherhood has utterly destroyed my organizational skills.  After nearly eight years, I'm kind of over it (most days).  What I'm not over is that my baby boy is nearing the age of eight.  Along the lines of letting go, I was recently having a conversation about how you have to move everything up a level when your baby starts pulling himself up along the furniture.  I added, "If you just move all of your stuff up a level while simultaneously lowering your expectations and standards, you'll be good.  That's the kind of balance that is necessary for survival." 

I was hoping for a mega Cyber Monday deal on the camera I've been eyeing.  No such luck, but the patient search will continue.  I haven't had a consistently well-functioning "real" camera for a few months now.  When I do purchase one, I might have to take some time off work so I can make up for lost camera time.  There's just something about manually adjusting the settings on my camera that makes me so happy. 

I'm so thankful the delicious little oranges are back in season.  I haven't had to deny E's hourly requests for food lately.  Now she's just helping herself.

J has twelve school days left until the holiday break...not that I'm counting down or anything.  Ok, maybe I am.  It will be great if I have some activities planned for break.  It will be even better if I don't though...unless a PJ day and movie picnic are considered activities. 

I'm all out of random for now.  Good night!