Real Work vs. Real Work

So these actual “work” projects I suddenly have are seriously cutting into my blogging time. I am not complaining, well I am – a little. I really enjoy my work, but the timing is seriously really kind of crappy right now. I have two projects that essentially got handed to me today, and are due January 3rd.

It is a nice little break to go to the coffee shop and actually use my brain for some real work, though. Uh, let me rephrase that. I do real work, very hard work everyday. As every SAH (stay-at-home) mom will tell you, it is the absolute hardest job, it is very demanding, very physical, and always 24 hours a day. But, I can mostly do it with my brain pretty much turned off. The biggest workout my mind gets most days is trying to come up with a new bribe or compromise that I haven’t tried on Emma yet. So to actually be designing graphics, talking with adults about something other than our children’s eating and bathroom habits, and feeling useful…it is a nice change.

But, back to the sucky timing. I am starting to feel a little of the “Christmas stress” that I have been trying so hard to avoid. I still haven’t finished Christmas shopping, haven’t begun to even think of wrapping the gifts, and I am only about halfway finished on the calendars that I do for our friends and family each year. Do you think anyone would notice if their calendar was missing January and they got it for Valentine’s Day?

And honestly…I just want to go hang out at the park with the girls. The weather is beautiful – fall-like for everywhere else in the country – that nice sweatshirt or sweater, perfect-for-the-park weather. And the girls have really been into it lately. It is great for Emma, our little social butterfly. She makes a new friend everytime we go, and she basically runs herself silly. Addie has figured out that she can climb…HIGH. So she is just as fearless as E. She has also learned not only how to say “park” but points it out whenever we go by it. Just her wistful, longing look out the window as we go by, is enough to make me stop, even if it means we are late for something, or we put off grocery shopping (again!) in favor of a trip down the slide. (We are in desperate need of a grocery shop. Have been for about a week, now.)

So…what I should be doing, instead of sitting here complaining, is crossing something off of my to-do list so I can go to the park and continue my quest for a stress-free holiday. I guess I better get on it. *Sigh* How are the rest of you doing on your Christmas To-Do lists?

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3 more days to get your stories and/or pictures in for the Elmo contest! I only have a few so far so your odds of winning are really good!! Come on, put it on the top of your list of things to do!

Come here, girl. Good girl!

This is how Em and I spent our morning…trying to get Addie to sit in one spot so I could get a decent Christmas card pic.

Come Here!

Isn’t this the funniest picture? E. is such a great big sister when she wants to be. I had so much fun just letting them run around and chase each other while I snapped away. Now, I have 200 pics to go through and figure out if any of them will work. Gotta love digital cameras. One of them is just going to have to do. I’ll put up the leftover pics after I decide which one you’ll all be getting in your mailbox.

The Christmas attire did help with my grinch-y attitude, though. Tonight I’m going to finish calendars, I think that’ll help for sure.

Needed: Christmas Spirit – Please Apply Within

I should state as a precursor to this post, I ADORE where we live. I really love our place, would in fact want to buy it – if we were given the opportunity. I really love our neighborhood, even in the crazy preparation for the Rose Bowl parade which literally marches through our front yard, it is an amazing part of Pasadena. I am even kinda (not totally, yet) in love with LA. And those of you who know me, also know that LA was never on my list of “hot spot places to live.” So that is a pretty big statement right there.

But, as we were sitting outside at lunch today, (yes, outside – it is December 5th and it was at least 70 degrees) and I have to admit it was pretty nice, I realized it is inconceivable that Christmas is only 20 days away! Maybe I really do need chilly days, snow-threatening clouds, even an occasional snow flurry for it to really feel like Christmas.

Then again, I think part of the problem is I am really missing our family and friends. This past weekend my Mom was hospitalized and it is really, really hard to not be able to hop in the truck and be there in a few hours. I know J. and I knew what we were getting into, and I know in my heart that we made the right decision for our “little” family by moving out here, but it is very hard to be so far away sometimes.

Plus, Christmas is about playing in the snow with the nieces and nephews or all of the neighborhood kids; going to visit the mall Santa with our friends Kim and Lauren and attempting (sometimes for days!) to take our “Christmas Card” picture; going to midnight mass in our tiny, country church with my parents and walking out to a blanket of snow afterwards. Those are the things I am really missing right now.

My mission this week, now that we are healthy and well again, is to find my Christmas spirit. Not just “retail” spirit, but that really fun Christmas feeling. I do realize that this is going to be an amazing Christmas with the girls – I mean they are really able to understand what is going on, what it is all about. I guess I just need to kick my butt spirit into gear, so I can enjoy it with them.

Any suggestions or help in doing so are always welcome!

Recovery Mode

We are slowly digging ourselves out of the sickness hole we have been in this week. I feel fine, J. was fine as of 8am this morning, and both of the girls seem to be finally getting some color and easing up on all of the sick “outputs”. So, knock on wood, I think we are recovering.

Just in time, too. Em’s first dance recital is tomorrow evening. I missed the “dress rehearsal” on Tuesday but J. taped most of it so I could see it (and as insurance in case we all missed the real thing tomorrow!) and as I was watching her in her little costume looking all girly and sweet and doing the little routine, I got all teary-eyed.

What the *$#& ?!

I cannot blame it on hormones any longer – I’m way past being pg, post-partum, even nursing. I guess it was just seeing her in a different light. She has been the “big girl” for over a year now, but I still think of her as my baby. I mean, she’ll always be my “first baby” and that makes her a little special, right?

But as she was standing there, I saw not a baby, not a toddler, but just a sweet little girl. It made me proud – she looked adorable – but it also made me very sad at the same time. Just one more step towards the day she isn’t my little girl anymore. God help me the day she goes to preschool. You’ll all have to pick me up out of a puddle of my own tears.

Ballerina Em