I almost did it...again

Today I'm sick. Well, sort of. I think today I'm on my last day of being sick. It started Saturday morning with the dreaded scratchy throat and I've had a little bit of a cold every day, but mostly at night. Why are colds so much more horrible at night?! Why?!

Anyway, I've tried to be very careful not to touch people, or breathe on them unneccesarily. So if you've seen me, no worries. I think I probably didn't infect you. Except maybe the people sitting around me at the Radiohead concert. I totally infected them while I blew my nose all night. But since the amount of nose blowing was probably in direct correlation to the pot/cigarette smoking (shame on all of you! There was a pregnant woman sitting two rows in front of me who could do nothing but sit and absorb it all! And don't tell me you didn't see her, in her lovely lavender shirt! FOR SHAME!), I have no remorse.

Plus, it was Radiohead. I didn't have many options.

Anyway, today is, I've decided, my last day of this cold. And, as with most last days of colds, I'm starting to feel the upswing of energy. But despite that I solidly resolved this morning that I wouldn't go crazy and start cleaning every corner of the house, go to the gym, bake 2 loaves of bread and fold Mt. Laundry. I ALWAYS do that to myself on the last day of colds. I get sick of being sick, and I'm tired of staring at the house that won't clean itself. And breathing through my nose is kind of a novelty! It, at first, feels so good to be up and moving.

Until I've done too much, that is. And I NEVER realize that I've done too much until later that day when I'm a sick, crying mess.

And today, I almost did it again.

Until I didn't. 

Whew! That was a close one.

p.s. I think I'm totally going to be a blogger again. For real this time. I mean it!

Email

This is the email that I just sent to Chase.

Subject: Would it surprise you to hear...

...that while I was baking Sophia decided to steal the cap to the bottle of vegetable oil?

...that after I was done cleaning and couldn't find the cap, I left the uncapped bottle of vegetable oil on the counter in hopes that the cap would show up. Because putting it in the pantry, of course, would have been dangerous. Someone would have definitely found it and spilled it there.

...that after I was done cleaning, I went to check my email and ended up checking Facebook (only for a minute. I'm definitely getting better)?

...that while I was checking email and facebook our youngest daughter climbed up on the step that was next to the kitchen counter (Sophia was helping me bake)?

...that she discovered the oil and attempted to drink it, resulting in an oily spill all down the front of her shirt and all over the floor and counter?

...that the shirt was so completely soaked in oil I had to cut it off her body?

...that I remained calm through the entire situation?

...that our baby now smells like the pantry, but has unbelievably soft and smooth skin?

A coincidence? I think not. **Edited.

Saturday night I had a girls' night with a few good friends. We gathered to watch the Miss America pageant. While we talked I found that a few of my friends have been heavily involved in pageants. The friend who was hosting was actually Mrs. Wisconsin in 2007 and competed in the national Mrs. United States pageant!

Now, I've never given much thought to pageants. I knew that a lot of them offer scholarships and community service opportunities. And I knew that, as long as you stayed away from the trashier ones, it was usually good, clean fun.

But as we were chatting, the subject of platforms came up. Not the platforms that you wear on your feet, but the platform that each contestant has; what she plans to work toward during her reign as Miss or Mrs. whatever. And I was SO impressed with what I heard. My friend, Mrs. Wisconsin, had a platform she called "Less Viewing, More Doing." She went all through the community, to businesses and schools, promoting TV Turn-off Week, and the idea that we need to unplug our electronics and get plugged back into life. I immediately fell in love with this idea.

And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Like everyone else in the world, I've slowly devoted more and more time to things like Facebook and blogging. At first it was so novel. How great for me, being so far away from my family and friends, to be able to easily keep up with their day-to-day lives and activities. What fun to be able catch up with people I haven't seen since high school or college, and watch as they get married, have kids and travel.

But somewhere along the way this lovely little gift has started to weigh me down. If I post something on Facebook I find myself checking back in multiple times each day to find out if anyone commented. And, since I happened to be there anyway, I would take a few minutes and scroll through everyone's status updates or new pictures. And, sure enough, little by little, I was robbing myself of precious time that could have been spent so much more productively! And I knew it was happening. I could feel it happening. But it was also very easy to rationalize it. "I'm a stay-at-home mom!" I'd say. "I need to feel contact with other sentient beings, because if I hear one more Barney song there's a good chance my brain is going to explode." Or, "I think my friend/sister/acquaintance is having a bad day. I should really check up on them."

And really, there's nothing wrong with those arguments. To a point.

Yesterday, while sitting in Sunday School, we were discussing the Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life. In this vision there is a description of a mist of darkness that confuses and disorients people, ultimately leading them away from the Tree (away from God). As we related this mist to our own lives, a few people made comments. They called the mist a "distraction" or something that made it difficult for us to accomplish what we set out to do. Another congregant pointed out that the mist never takes us anywhere. It's only purpose is to keep us from the staying on the straight and narrow path that returns us to God. The mist offers us nothing.

And again, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Do you ever get the feeling Someone is trying to tell you something?

**EDIT: I want to point out that I'm talking about something that's really affecting ME right now. I can't speak for other people's habits. Also, I don't plan to abandon FB or blogs anytime soon. I have too much extended family to keep up with. I just want to put some serious limits on it and cut back. Like, only checking FB after the kids are asleep, or only checking it once/day. I don't know yet what is going to be the right answer, but I know I need less of it, and quick!

I'm still here

I'm still here. I am. Sometimes I have these enormous breaks in my blogging, journal writing, or whatever, and I don't really know why. I think it's probably more a habit thing. When I'm actively writing it's almost as though my brain is set in blogging mode. When things happen each day I feel like I'm writing captions on each moment and squirreling it away in my brain for a new post.

But when I get out of the habit? I don't know. It seems like nothing sticks in my brain. Even though I know I've been busy - fun busy and tedious busy - I couldn't tell you what I've been up to.

I blame it on the holidays. Things really went south blogging-wise right around Halloween.

But now it's 2012, the year that the world will either end, or a Mormon will become President of the United States of America. Or maybe that's what some people are referring to when they say the world will end. Who knows?

And let me tell you, this year will be a doozy. There is my new adventure: teaching piano. And then there is the on-going adventure: home renovations. And the best adventure: being a wife and mom to the best people on the planet (and I'm even including Miles in that, even though he has decided he'd rather not give up tantrums).

For now let me leave you with a few pictures of our wonderful Christmas together. We stayed here in town and kept it relaxed. I missed our trip to see my side of the family, but it really couldn't have been a better holiday. I hope everyone enjoyed theirs as well, and here's to a hopeful, happy, healthy 2012!

Breaking Bella

Okay, so after some semi-public ribbing from my supahcool niece about my Thursday night plans last week, I have some things to say. So listen up, Tay.

I like the Twilight books/movies. I'm still not entirely sure why. I haven't been able to put a finger on it. I mean, I've been a book snob since I was five. And a movie snob since high school. Twilight is so out-of-control BAD in both book and movie form that it really makes no sense. But at the same time I JUST LOVE THEM, OKAY?

I'm not going to act like I'm too cool for Twilight. When have I ever been too cool for anything? (Except in high school. But all high schoolers are too cool for, well, I don't know. Everything but air and water.) It's starting to seriously grate on my nerves when I read about women who went to the movie, but are too cool for the movie. Um? How exactly does that work? Just admit that you love it too, okay? JUST ADMIT IT.

Now, as for the movie itself. It was pretty okay. I loved it and it was okay. There were parts I wanted to cringe because of the cheese, and parts where the cringe was because of bloodyicktasticalness (hello, bella's blood all over Edward's face for like 25 minutes?).

But for all the stuff I didn't like about it, there was just enough that I DID like about it. First, let's talk soundtracks. Twilight has always done a good job with music. But this go-round they brought back some oldies at just the right moment - like during the wedding scene when we heard the Iron & Wine song "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" originally heard during Bellward's prom dance? I thought that was so money. Carter Burwell's original Lullaby made a reappearance (re-a-hear-ance?), too.

Beyond music, I thought there were some great cinematic moments. The best was Bellas' transformation scenes...Hard to describe since I've only seen the movie once (for now), but I was pretty impressed...

And hi. Kellan Lutz. In this movie. How can you not like...?

At the end of the day, I don't think it's going to break your cool-o-meter to like Twilight. So maybe we can all put on our big girl pants and our capes and fangs and get along, okay?

Also, read here. I like how Nat (the sophisticated New York lifestyle blogger) puts it.

Halloween

I just gave Haley her very first ever taste of a Reese Peanut Butter Cup. She responded by demanding more immediately using grunts, pointing, trying to crawl over me to get to the package and by generally acting like a cave baby.

When I shook my hands to sign "all done" she cried, whined and, finally, turned her back to shun me.

I know how she feels. I feel the same way after a PB cup has gone bye bye.

And as I sat down to memorialize this, my daughters first of many PB cups (if she's like me, anyway, which she appears to be), I realized I totally skipped All Hallows Eve in my memory keeping.

Oops.

Let's just say it wasn't a really stand out year. Trenchy was complete just days before Halloween and I didn't have much time to decorate or cook halloween related meals or anything fun. We just trunk-or-treated AND trick-or-treated, which I think i should get bonus points for.

So here are the few measly pictures I managed to scrape together.

This is a post-trick-or-treating photo op I was scrambling to get. The first thing you'll notice is carpet. And no trench.

The next thing you'll notice is cute kids strung out on high fructose corn syrup, and lots of it.

Cameron was the new Captain America, not to be confused with Captain America 2009... Miles was Thor. This was serendipitous because his BFF showed up in the EXACT same costume. Sophie was Cinderella (first princess costume ever! Thank you for finally picking something girly, Soph.) And Haley was Snow White. But only for Trunk or Treat. Mommy and Haley stayed home, cleaned the house and went to bed early on Halloween.

I hope for a better Halloween next year:) I expect that we'll still have construction at that point - we're thinking floors and counters will be fall of '12? - but construction by choice and construction by force are two totally different beasts. Just ask my sister, her overflowing toilet and her three kurdish boyfriends.

So on a funny note (funny odd, not funny haha...what's funnier than kurdish boyfriends and overflowing toilets?), while my house was undergoing major surgery I somehow got all into crafts. Like, I spend time looking at CRAFT BLOGS and planning what will go on my MANTEL for the upcoming holidays. This is so weird to me. And yet, so fun. I've been having a blast. I'm still a complete newbie. I haven't made anything out of this world yet, and don't plan to, but it's fun nonetheless. And moms need fun every now and again.

 

Ghosts made of my children's foot prints? Sign me up.

 

This looked a lot fluffier/prettier before the construction crew drilled two access holes directly underneath it, completely covering it with concrete dust. Que sera.

This is a gray yarn wreath. It looks lavender in the pic, but it's a better gray.

I made those apothecary jars...you can tell because they're crooked:)

Turns out...

Turns out that once you get your house back after not having it for two months, you don't really care that much about the cracks. They're almost pretty. It's kind of like stretch marks. I hate them at first, then ignore them and hope they go away, then I almost appreciate them for what they gave me. So while I don't really APPRECIATE the 1000 stress cracks all over my ceiling/drywall, I appreciate that I have a house that keeps me safe, secure and warm/dry/cool. Those cracks remind me that there are so many people out there struggling with problems so immense and soul-draining. House problems, while annoying and money-sucking, are NOT soul-draining. My house may be kind of broken, but my family is intact and my happiness is whole.

So it's time to put the Trenchy Talk to bed. I'm sure I'll post lots of "after" pics (once I discover my camera cord). I know I sure as heck am going to post pictures of my kids sitting right in the middle of our living room tonight. But I'm officially OVER IT. Trenchy can't keep me down!