Seriously. It isn’t Friday yet? Really? I swear this is the longest week. Ever.

Every year about this time, I get all amped up and make it my mission to figure out how I can simplify our lives. Live more simply. Really appreciate what we have and what the holiday season could really bring to us, instead of the stress it usually does. Rarely do I find any sort of success, but I’m having a go at it again this year. I’m really going to try.

First up…on Monday, I turned off Facebook. Oh. Yes. I. Did!

I realized I spend far too much time reading status updates. There are some “friends” that I will genuinely miss seeing what they are up to, and I will check in on them occasionally – but maybe once a week or so instead of several times a day.

And not only that, I just wiped my GoogleReader clean, too. It is clean – zero unread blog posts. I realized that there is no possible way I was going to ever get to read all of the posts, I was so far behind. So I’m starting fresh. It is very liberating. Don’t worry, the downsizing of computer time will not affect my blog. Much. Well, I’ll still strive for a few posts a week, let’s leave it at that.

Every single day someone shows me, or I find, a new craft project or something that we can make in our Workshop, and I want to just make them all! I have all kinds of handmade gift ideas rolling around in my head for nearly everyone on my list…I’m just hoping that I get some of them done.

Thanks for all of your kind words about our Two Birdies excitement. We are furiously creating for the Holiday Boutique on December 4th, and I figure anything *extra* that we don’t sell we’ll post in our etsy store. I may put some photos up there next week and see if we have any interest, especially in the supercapes and such. I’ll post when we get something up there.

I’m getting a little something from my wishlist next weekend, too, a sort of early Christmas present to me. We are finally getting a family photo (or two!) taken. My lovely blog friend, Rose, has kindly squeezed us into her hectic schedule and she is going to shoot us on the beach! A real photo of the four of us has been on my list for about three years now, so needless to say, I am beyond thrilled. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with and to also meet her in-real-life.

I was trying to take some photos for a friend last week for her Christmas card which is what led to the impromptu concert photos in her kitchen from yesterday. For those of you who asked, they were belting out the Taylor Swift song, Love Story. The girls have loved that song for quite awhile now, and we taped SNL when she performed it a few weeks ago. Emma saw it, and…well, she now has Taylor’s “moves” down (Oh yes, Christina! The hips and everything!) and thinks she is a rock star. Yes, she is six. *Sigh.* Julie did get some video of it, I’ll have to try to get it from her. It is pretty priceless.

Meanwhile, when Addie isn’t spending all of her time cracking us up, she is on the hunt for “churkeys.” There is one of those blow-up turkey lawn decorations down the street from us and while we were driving past it the other day, Ad screamed, “Ahhhh!! Mama! Did you see the churkey?” I swear that is how she says turkey…churkey. I have to get that on video, too. It’s so cute. So yeah, I do drive a little out of the way just so I can hear her little voice pipe up, “There the churkey is, Mama!”

Speaking of “churkeys” we got a new stove. Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin pie and the start of Christmas baking! 4 working burners, two oven racks and an oven that really heats up to what the dial asks it to? It really is the simple things that makes this girl happy, I tell you.

Now, why do I think of a million things all week long that I can “just put into the T&T Thursday post,” but then I can never remember any of them when I actually sit down to write this? Ah well. There is always next week.

Happy Only-One-Day-Away-From-Friday Day!

Another week. Another Thursday.

I’m actually starting to really miss my blogging time. I miss writing and capturing the girls and their antics through words and photos. My miserable and sporadic posts are certainly not due to lack of blog fodder. At least twice a day I think, “that would be funny blog material,” but most days I’m patting myself on the back for getting a shower, shoveling some food into the girls, and getting everyone chauffered where they need to be, when they need to be. I just don’t seem to be able to find much “extra” time anywhere. Anybody figured out how to make more hours in the day yet?

No need to answer that, I know I’m only saying what everyone else is feeling, too.

So, let’s see…what do I need to throw out for this Thursday?

Not to detract from the importance of Veteran’s Day, (big thank you to all the veterans out there!), but holidays in the middle of the week really stink.  All day yesterday it felt like Saturday. The girls didn’t have school and J. took a day to be home with them which was all well and good, except, well…there was no Sunday. Now we are smack back in the middle of the workweek, except it just feels out of whack. It just doesn’t feel right.

The day off for everybody did afford me three whole hours to really work on crafts to sell at the holiday boutique, which was a beautiful gift. My lovely husband took the girls to the place I like to call “hell on earth.” Chuck E. Cheese. The place gives me the jeebies. But oh, how those girls love that place. So Daddy obliged them, treating them to cardboard pizza and head-splittingly loud arcade games for hours on end. And then, as if the three hours of peace were not enough, he also brought me home a peppermint mocha. Mmmm…heaven.

Besides yesterday, I think we are all recovering from last weekend a bit. We had the most exciting Daisy meeting, possibly ever. Let’s just say it will be very difficult to top, and all the meetings from here on out are going to seem incredibly boring, I’m afraid.

It was one of our Daisies’ birthday and her dad happens to be the fire captain, so after our already packed meeting, look what pulled up to our house…

And…we all got to ride on the truck. I’m not really sure who was more excited about riding in it, the girls or the Moms. And, the firemen were so amazingly patient and kind – it really was a very fun day.

We have a field trip and a service project planned for next month, lots of planning and coordinating going on for that, but man our troop of girls is amazing. They are giddy about every part of being a Daisy and that makes it all so worth it.

With all of Em’s many activities, I feel like Ad just gets dragged along most of the time. So I’ve been trying very hard to make an extra effort to plan fun stuff for Addie and I, and arranging extra playdates for her, too. I cannot get over how much she has grown up in the past few months. She says the funniest stuff and cracks me up most of the day. And she reminds me so much of Em after Emma had started preschool. Little.Sponges. She is very quick-witted and smart. The other day we were in the car and she was being crazy, so I said to her, “Addie you are a goof! G-O-O-F!” And without even a moments’ pause she said, “No I am not, Momma! N-O! I’m not!”

I know I’m missing a million other things, but I’m also missing parts of MadMen, we only have two episodes til we are all caught up. I’m dreading the last few episodes because I’m so addicted. What will I do for my fix?

Happy Thursday.