"I find tinsel distracting."

Last week while waiting in my van, I quick-snapped this photo of Mimi; the way she was carrying her backpack just cracked me up. I knew instantly she's been watching how I carry my purse.

Also last week, my friend Michelle had a craft night and I was way too tired to do anything but sit on her famous chaise and make a list. My head is clattering with holiday miscellany: baking I want to do, baking projects with kids I want to do, my craft ideas, crafts with kids, ways to infuse this next month with a daily dose of spirituality, traditions I want to make sure to perpetuate, menus, scheduling...I did a Brain Drain and felt much more in control. And I do love a good list. This is just a dumping session; the real lists will be categorized and prioritized. I can't wait for holiday baking! Let the sprinkles fly!

Here are a few cozy corners I've been working on.
Above is the entry table.

Here is the balcony.
I need to acquire some photography skillz, obviously.

I've been adding Christmas touches here and there for a week and it's just about done, on the inside, that is (ahem, Mike...anytime...) I really want to get the outside lights up on my entry arch and turn them on, just to annoy Kate, who is bah-humbugging all over my bliss. Every time I open facebook, she has added a new snarky comment directed at us jolly pre-season folks in Who-ville. So.....

...Happy Festivus, Kate! xoxo

Deck Me.

{Secret Note to Self: This post shall take no longer than 10 minutes to write. No more 90-min long posting! You will be finished by 11:30pm or you will run 15 extra punishment minutes tomorrow morning. In the cold.}

Below is the non-secret portion of today's post.

As of three days ago, I have begun decking the halls. It is a compulsion for me to begin the minute after Halloween is over.

I admit that as I answered doors to trick-or-treaters (a grand total of 3--story to follow in a coming post), the Christmas storage bins were waiting in the wings--brought up from the basement but hidden behind a closed door.

I have been secretly listening to Christmas music since the first chill in the air. I have been grinning-and-bearing my way through Halloween and will now reward myself with lights and glitter and garland and (cue the Sesame Street Grover Voice).....sprinkles!
Sweetie Jack was given a candy cane to keep him satisfied and subdued while Mimi & I dove into the frenzy. This was Mantle Decor, Day 1. I've been dreaming up a white & silver mantle, so I started with a huge silver frame and added a white feather boa. The frame has been in my basement Frame Stash for who-knows-how-long (that is an interchangeable term for "approximately how long I've been married"). The boa was from Mimi's chicken halloween costume 3 years ago.

While impatiently waiting for a socially acceptable time to Deck the Halls, I've been avariciously reading The Nester. She opened my eyes to shopping the house and using what you have to decorate, so I've been looking at all my stashes with new appreciation.

Below: I added lights and a few jars filled with white snowball-y looking ornaments. This is all stuff I had from my Endless Christmas Bins.

Mimi has been waiting all year to decorate this little white tree. Well, actually not. As my fingers were typing that sentence my subconscious self remembered the day in June I found Mimi & the cilantro-partner-in-crime decorating the tree with all my blown glass candy ornaments. *&$#@!%!! Seriously. With an fair amount of broken glass on the cement floor.

But she got a second chance and did a good job. {I am now 8 minutes past my deadline. Crap. Why can't I be a fast writer?}

I'm pretty sure she's got visions of sugarplums already.

Here is the mantle about halfway into the process.

The candy cane sugar rush did not deter Jack from going to bed. Here is the little mama about to take him upstairs. Isabelle loves to put him to bed, snuggle him in, arrange his blankies just so around his face, pet his feathers and say goodnight to him.


A day later, I added the mirror--also from the basement. Everything is just kind of thrown up there, but it sparkles so I like it. I'm going to do a fun candy theme on the upstairs mantle where the kids congregate, and I'm not sure about the mantle in my room. I'm just glad we are here in this house to see another Christmas, so I'm having fun making it cozy. We've got a tenuous grip on life with even more tenuous finances. I plan to drown my sorrows in sprinkles.

{20 minutes past the deadline...I'm going to be so sore tomorrow from punishment minutes.}

***Edited to add: Post finished at 11:55pm. Dangit.

Deep Thoughts Inspired by "Toy Story."

• Slept in...until a time that will not be divulged. It's too decadent.

• Saw the "Toy Story" double feature with Isabelle & Mimi. I suspect I enjoyed the movies even more than the girls did; I was that one embarrassing loud-laugher in the theater. In my defense, though, I must state that I have loved "Toy Story" since Max was just a little tyke. That was ten years ago! Whoa.

Lately, Jack has been reclining in his high chair with a bottle when he needs some down time--and what does he watch?...."Toy Story." He LOVES it. I so clearly remember Max doing the same thing; he'd lay down in a floor nest, sip away at a bottle and stare at Woody & Buzz, mesmerized. That was ten years ago, but i can recall the memory so clearly; Max's solid little toddler-body, his fuzzy hair, even the baby-smell of him. It doesn't FEEL like it was that long ago. The memory of him as a little baby is so clear, and yet all of a sudden I've blinked my eyes and here we all are in the Middle Growing Up Years. So I've been a little disoriented today. Where has my life gone? It's speeding by faster than I ever dreamed it would.

(Those 2 bumps are my feet.)

• Took Jack outside to play in the cul-de-sac while Mimi busted her bike outta training wheels! (My approach to training wheels is basically the same one I use with potty training: Keep the safety device ON until the kid is doing it themselves anyway and the training wheels/diaper are a moot point.) I can't believe I didn't get a picture of Mimi's Freedom Ride. Dangit. I was too busy circumventing all the various dangers Jack posed to himself out on the open sidewalk. And in the street. And on the hill. And in the mud. He had a grand time throwing rocks for an hour straight.

(I can't believe he actually keeps these little shades on.)

• Continued my frenzy of decorating for Halloween. I am an abysmal home decorator, but I like to throw things up for holidays. Cozy.



• Picked up the house while Baby napped, Mimi played at a friend's house and Mike took Max & Sis to guitar lessons (THANK you, Mike). A quiet, clean Pine Sol-scented house....it's like Spa Mom.

• Played around with my blog HTML, trying to beautify my template, ending the session with words I can't repeat here because my kids read my blog.

• Oversaw the evening cleanup in the girls' room. Total pigsty. I'd already used my daily quota of adult language while at my computer, so I couldn't even mutter obscenities under my breath. It took them 1 **darn** hour, but Mimi & Sis did pick up that pigsty.

• Put everyone to bed and played around on Photoshop, attempting to learn that **darn** program, and used up tomorrow's quota of obscenities. Sigh.

The kids have had Thursday & Friday off from school for Fall Break and we have planned one activity per day around which to base our vacation. Thursday was "Toy Story." Friday we will go up the canyon to a park. Saturday I want to decorate Halloween sugar cookies with the kids--an excuse to break out the sprinkles! Sunday we will chill and have a Game Night in the evening. (Translation: After church, I will drop into bed for a 3-hr nap and then we will have Game Night.)

Even though I'm wondering for various reasons, none of which I have the energy to go into now, how life could possibly get any more stressful--it's a happy life.

Goodnight.

Sprinkle Glutton

In the past week, I've received two sprinkle-oriented gifts.
Oh, the delight!

My friend Kara gave me this apron for my birthday, the most perfectly Me Item I now own. And another friend, Christine, gave me this adorable shaker of sprinkles as a present for her birthday. (Yes. The girl gives presents for her birthday. Love her.)

This afternoon, I hauled the kids and some of their pals to "Up" and was pleasantly surprised. I'd heard it was sad and thus had a bad attitude. I mean really--who wants to see a sad, depressing cartoon? But I loved it! It wasn't sad, it was meaningful. I was taken in by the symbolism throughout and also the hilarious dogs! The dogs reminded me of something straight out of The Far Side.



I kept wanting to hear Puddy (Seinfeld) to be a dog-voice, though. Anyway, I was thoroughly charmed. And I loved the ending. Strangely enough, I found myself thinking deep thoughts of...life's transience, the overall journey of mortality, aims to enjoy more fully those I love, and how to just be more of a fun person myself for those who are stuck with me.

I've also been watching North & South at night when the kids go to bed. Ohhhh, it's a goodie.

Oh boy, that man can smolder.

Mike's been working long hours and I've been alone at home into the wee hours. The other night I was settling in for a long night of watching the special features of the, ahem, above smoldering-hot movie when I heard the CREEPIEST SOUND downstairs! The kind of sound that makes your neck-hairs prickle and your heart take a great bound in your chest. I proceeded to self-talk myself and pry my fingers out of the couch cushions and JUST when I had re-settled myself I heard that dang noise again. I actually began to make mental exit plans from the house. I kept thinking it sounded like a toy whose batteries were dying but the creepy part was...it that wasn't a sound which belonged to any toy WE own. I was so creeped out.

The 5th time I heard it I began frantically texting all my fellow insomniac friends--the ones who it wouldn't humiliate me too much to text at 2:37am--so at least someone would know what happened to me when I disappeared due to the killer in my house. I even called Mike and woke him up (he didn't laugh at me 'til morning) and he talked me through the house as I checked locks and every little room. I kept thinking that this is what the stupid people do in scary movies; they go investigating, talking themselves out of their fear, while we watch in the audience and go bonkers, knowing there's a killer waiting behind the shower curtain, and scoffing at their stupidity for not just running out of the (scary) house as fast as they can go!!!

After repeated attempts, Cecily texted me back with some mood-lightening jokes and Kate answered with an immediate, "I'll be right over." I didn't even equivocate. I was that scared. As Cecily said, everyone needs a Kate. She stayed 'til the dawn's early light & I love her forever.

Click here to feel my pain.

...(raising my Diet Coke in a good-luck toast)...Here's to hoping Mr. Marbles doesn't scare the CRAP out of me tonight!

(and if he does--will you come over, Kate?)

Elf Crystal, At Your Service

{coaster}

Wednesday night I met up with Kara for our unofficial holiday tradition of dinner and then me acting as her elf, helping with her Christmas shopping. Every year we just sort of find ourselves convening during the holiday rush and before I know it, there we are, shopping again for her five girls. I imagine we'll be doing it years from now when we're old(er) & feebl(er).

As it was, we were mocking the sensible shoes we already wear. ("They absorb the heft, they don't launch the heft!" HA! Favorite quote of the night. Possibly of the year.)

We had our favorite-ever pizza at CA Pizza Kitchen, pear gorgonzola, then shopped, then dessert. I think my sleep-deprived self bored poor Kara to tears, but our friendship has survived worse. The next day I awoke sleepy (out late), but happy (good time with friend). It took me a while to get out of my groggy state & then I spent some time with my little kitchen helper making tiny tea party cakes and then bread.

{tiny cakes}

{soup}

Earlier in the week, baby got to help put up the little tree in the girls' room; the kids & I were cracking up at him laying perfectly still, entranced by the lights. He was utterly relaxed and immobile and remained this way for well over ten minutes!

And no, that is not a real tiger tail. Just in case you were alarmed.

Thursday we made paper chains and christmas tree cards to send for Grandma's wall at the nursing home. My mom circulated a schedule for our family to do a "12 Days of Christmas" for Grandma, assigning each of us a rotating day. I wish I were better on my own at doing little things like that for my two grandmothers. I definitely think this should be a New Year's Goal for me. I have very good intentions, and very little follow-through.
Please take note of Max's hat, which I bought for him the day before during my elf duties. He loves it and seriously does not take it off. I caught him sleeping in it tonight. Sleeping! In! It!

He made this little modeling clay tea set for Mimi and told me it was her Christmas present. Upon realizing it was not actually clay, but plastitak (that sticky goo used to stick stuff up on the wall), he said it could just be the prototype. How does the kid even know that word?

{Tea Set Prototype}

Our Thursday ended with this happy plate of cookies left on our doorstep! I love getting doorbell-ditched with treats! We gobbled them.

And because I know you're thinking it...here is a closer look at one of my most favorite things in the world:

{delightful.}

Tuesday Tell All: Collections

I don't really have a collection...it's more of a problem.
The word "collection" implies some sort of artful assembling of beloved objects. When I hear "collection," I think of objects found through travel--perhaps a collection of silver spoons from every place visited--and things carefully found throughout the years...things that truly represent an aspect of who a person is. I think of interesting assemblages, prettily displayed.

Me, I just really like sprinkles. And I don't collect them; I hoard them. I don't carefully accumulate them with forethought. I grab them off store shelves with the arrival of each new season and holiday. And then I throw them into a plastic bin with the other sprinkles of that season. Valentines! Spring! Halloween! Christmas! Any season! At least they are organized, if not displayed.

I really like cake platters, too--but that's another story.

Bah Humbug to St. Patrick's Day

It is without shame that I state for the record that today I sported no green garb. I didn't whip up a festive green dinner. I didn't speak in brogue. There was no sighting of miniature green leprechaun footprints winding through my house. I did not color the kids' breakfast milk green. I went to help in Isabelle's classroom and when a cute little 1st grader pinched me, I glared at him.

I don't even own any green sprinkles.

What can I say? I'm Scottish. Bring on the haggis.

This blatant disregard for festivity is very unlike me. I love holidays! I love to build anticipation and celebrate and bake festive desserts! It just never enters my mind to do so on St. Patrick's day. I'll redeem myself at Eastertime.

Then again, maybe not; I don't even have an Easter dinner planned. Nary a course. Me! The compulsive list-maker, party-planner, food-whipper-upper, grocery list queen! No Easter food!

I always seem to lose my personality sometime during my 3rd trimester. I walk around like some sort of hollow-eyed zombie. So I think my usual personality is gone for now...not to be recovered until sometime in July. Maybe.

Wordless Wednesday

Cage Match

This is for matchboxmom & hotmama! (see comments from the Wordless Wednesday post) You only need to watch the first 35 seconds. Pop the popcorn!

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Not Alone

Well, well, well.

What do you think I discovered whilst on a wee jaunt to visit Mique's blog? I discovered that I am not alone in my obsessive-compulsive hoarding of hobby accessories! Here I have been the target of mockery, fun and games for my small little collection of sprinkles, when all the while Mique has been harboring a secret affinity for ribbon.

Oh, you are so busted.
So I ask you, dear blog reader, which of us is more obsessive? I think you know the answer. It rhymes with "tricky." (squeek? who said squeek? not me.)