Well.  It has been a long while since I have been around here.  It is interesting to see a couple of people peek in almost everyday anyway, even when I give them no reason to stop by at all…for over a month!

This “Holiday” Season has come and (almost) gone and I haven’t felt much holiday spirit at all.  Teaching three classes and caring for three children and shuttling said children to each event had proven to produce brain overload.  And then…THEN!  As I was clicking around furiously one night searching for something to procrastinate with  (where were all of you then?) I resorted to clicking on things that I usually don’t click on, and ended up on a whole new blog.  That was riveting.  The stories were not for the faint at heart, but were told in such a way that I wanted to keep reading.  That is HUGE, because usually anything that comes remotely close to abuse of little girls sends me screeching into next week because I always put my own daughters in that place.  If you have ever read Bye, Bye Pie and read the comments (which I tend to do intermittently because it could be a full time job keeping up over there) then you may recognize a fellow commenter Siren.  I randomly clicked on her link and was ensconced in her lovely writing and her brave, brave life for two weeks.  She is an amazing young woman.  If you have two full weeks to fill, then I totally recommend heading over there to read her blog from the beginning.  Be sure to find a comfy spot to sit though, you will be there a while.  Perhaps not as long as my slow reading self, and perhaps you are not so obsessive that you NEED to read every. single. post.  whether you have been on a “forum” or not, but I am so glad I did it.  (My family, however, may or may not be as glad as I am, although they may be glad I have finally finished!)

Anyway, Christmas was good here in Minnesota despite not having any snow.  We had to sing “I am dreaming of a brown Christmas” just so we would feel like our dreams came true.  I did a little Christmasing (I know, that isn’t a real word) the weekend before finals but most of the preparations happened after December 16th.  I was a flurry of activity even if there were no flurries to keep me company.  (Not that I minded.)  Instead of wrapping gifts this year I took the easy way out and cut that corner:  I used gift bags.  My whole family uses gift bags and I am a saver so I have A LOT of bags that I have saved through out the years.  I can’t believe how fast and easy the wrapping was this year.  My sister did all the shopping for my parents and aunts and grandma (so I am indebted to her for life now) which might be why the wrapping seemed easier as well.  Our Christmas cards were sent out on December 23 and 24, so they were late, but done.  And the cookies?  Well.  We finished them up the night before we needed to deliver them to teachers.  Everything was rushed and compacted into one week.  My kids didn’t seem to mind.

We, as you know, celebrate with our own little five person family on December 23.  We had homemade lasagna for dinner in the dining room and then opened our presents.  Katie and Sarah got sick and were taking turns looking miserable.  (Thank goodness it was NOT the stomach flu.)  It was a low-key night.  Christmas Eve we trek on over to my parents house for the night of chaos.  My mom literally had a garbage bag for each kid filled with crap.  These garbage bags were decorated with Christmas scenes, but still:  garbage bags.  They had a blast.

Santa came on Christmas morning and then Jeff’s parents came over for dinner Christmas evening to once again open more presents.  I was so glad when we were done so we could start putting stuff away.

But Sarah and Katie were still miserable.  Katie’s fever was not going away and Sarah’s cough was getting worse.  The doctor’s office was closed on Monday so we went in on Tuesday.  Sarah had bronchitis and Katie had pneumonia.  We got medicine and spent the rest of the week in our pajamas.  Nicholas had Hockey every day last week which that was the extent that I was out of the house.  I was the driver.  (This went well with my sitting reading a new blog.)

Jeff and I skipped our annual dinner out on New Year’s Eve, but all of us made it to midnight this year.  We had Chinese food for dinner, played games and watched a movie.  We saw the ball drop and then waited another hour for our local countdown.  When that was over it was right to bed, and it was very anticlimactic.

Yesterday, Nicholas had a game so we had one of his hockey buddies over and then took a road trip to the game.  They won and Nicholas scored a goal!

Today we are doing our New Year’s celebration with a fire in the fire place, party mix and snacks and a variety of meat balls for dinner.  We are also having play dates all over the place because the kids go back to school tomorrow.  I find out tomorrow what my schedule will be, and if I still have any classes (enrollment is very low) I go back to school on Friday.

Wow.  This re-cap is fast and furious.  Sorry.  I need to start making the party mix!  I promise I will work on getting caught up with all of your postings next!  I hope you all had a great holiday!  Happy New Year!

xo

Roses.  They are my favorite, and yes, I know that I am original.  When I was at the grocery store this week, and I was there a lot, I couldn’t help notice these gorgeous colors.  Perfect for my table, aren’t they?  I keep looking at them and going over to bury my nose in their soft sweet petals.

I hope all of you had a wonderful thanksgiving.  We had a turkey:

And a Katie on the side, so it seems.  She is the only one of my kids that will actually eat the turkey.  It is safe to say, that none of my kids really enjoy the food of Thanksgiving.  They are unlike their parents, and most of America.  I love Thanksgiving.  Love.  It is the only holiday that is left alone.  There doesn’t seem to be much commercialism about this wonderful holiday that is all about gratitude and family.  The time is what is celebrated, and the people, and our blessings.

We host Thanksgiving for Jeff’s parents.  My sister is in town, but she and her family host her in-laws as well.  My parents are in California for the month of November.  I can’t remember how long we have been hosting, but I think it is around four years, maybe five, so it seems to have a routine to it now.  I cook.  I make the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, fresh green beans, and the scalloped corn.  I slice the apples and wash the grapes (the globe grapes that are only around for the holidays, yum).  I make the caramel dip and arrange the cheese platter.  I put the crackers in a basket, decorate the table, make sure we have drinks, gravy, olives, gross canned jellied cranberries.  I break open the crescent rolls and roll them up and try to remember to put them in the oven.  I buy the napkins, and the paper plates for the hors d’oeuvres and the pie.  What I don’t do:  TURKEY.  I leave that to our resident expert, who happens to be my husband.  He is outstanding.

We have several traditions on Thanksgiving.  The first is that we stay in our pajamas in the morning.  I begin early barking orders for the people under 40 to clean up their junk that has spread itself around the house.  They sit and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and color their “Oh you turkey” coloring contest that the Minneapolis StarTribune does every year.  Jeff runs to the store to buy two more papers so each kid gets one.  I bring the card table upstairs and put out a jigsaw puzzle.  Then I get to work.  I try to do as much as possible before Thanksgiving.  This year I had little time, so I only got the mashed potatoes, stuffing and scalloped corn done ahead of time.  I began with the sweet potatoes and went on from there.  This is the first year that I had everything done (including getting myself ready!) well before my in-laws arrived.  I actually got to start on the puzzle!  It might be because Sarah wanted to help, so I had her set the table, and snap the beans, and make place cards.  She also wanted to put out the Thanksgiving poems, so I printed them for her and she cut them out and scattered them on the table.

It was a lovely day.  The food was good, and all went well.  We have so much to be Thankful for.  What a brilliant idea to devote a day to gratitude.  I just want all of you out there to know, I am so very thankful for you, you and your friendship.  You, and your insightful posts that make me a better person.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Well.  We have been in denial here in the upper mid-west.  It is rare not to have one quick snow that sticks for a few minutes in October, and if not common, it is at least possible to begin our winter before Halloween.  My birthday is November 12, as you all know.  I only remember very few times that winter HADN’T started before my birthday.  This is another one of those years.

When I was little, really little, like before Kindergarten, I remember it snowing for the first time that year on my birthday.  I was sitting by the French doors in the living room, my face turned upwards to see the fat sticky snowflakes falling down to the grass.  I remember telling my mom that God gave me a birthday present!  And every year after that, I wished for that same present.  But it always came before my birthday.  This year, was no different, except that Katie and Nicholas now wish it for their birthday.  So when their day came and went, I thought maybe….but no.  Yesterday it was 50 degrees and I chose to walk outside to my car from my office.

And today….Winter.

It is snowing fast and furious.  Like someone has been blocking the door and then right when winter decided to throw itself against it…opened it at the last second.  Sarah shoveled that entire patio that is pictured up there, and now…you wouldn’t think she shoveled at all.  Look:

And I swear I just took that last one.  The first one I took right before I started typing this post.  I am glad I don’t have to go out today.  Tomorrow will be a different story though.  I need to go and gather the fixin’s for Thanksgiving.  Good lord.  I have SO MUCH TO DO.

Sorry I totally blew the whole post every day in November thing.  I just can’t.  I really did try.  I am still fighting the battle of the bugs, which is fun.  But, it is also life.  I know it really does take two weeks, I just really didn’t want it to take that long.  Wish me luck as I try to get my house ready, get my grades up to date, plan out the rest of the semester, while doing sheets, and heads, and cleaning daily.  UGH.

How are all of you?  Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?

So, it is my birthday again.  I think this might go down as the worst birthday EVER.  But let’s start with the good things:

1. I slept well for the first time in a week last night.  I didn’t wake up and cough for two hours.  I just slept.  Yay!
2. Facebook friends have been so kind to my non-facebook self.  I hardly ever, ever go on facebook anymore, so I have missed more birthdays than I care to admit.  Yet, all of these wonderful wishes filled my inbox today.  It really made my day.
3. Yoga was wonderful this morning.  She focused on opening our hips today, which is my strength, so I felt strong, confident and competent.  There are other classes where I feel the opposite, but my hips are already open…(Huh, did that sound as bad as I think?  If so, I am not as slutty as it sounded.)
4. Nicholas got his haircut.  He had hockey and had to miss his last appointment.  We were ready to use his head as a mop.  Now you can actually see his eyes.
5. I had a lovely lunch from a mom & pop deli that is by our hair-cut place.  It was yummy.
6. I got to go out to dinner at my all-time favorite restaurant:  Piazza’s.  When I was little, my parents used to take us to a restaurant downtown Minneapolis called DiNapoli’s.  It was my favorite.  I always went down a large staircase to the bathroom which had a sitting room attached to play when we went there, and their Baked Mostaciolli was delish.  As I grew up, I decided to taste their Manicotti…I fell in love.  When Jeff and I started dating we continued to dine there as many times as I could get him to go.  It also became my birthday restaurant.  When I was in the hospital after the twins were born Jeff drove downtown and picked up manicotti for me and we ate a picnic in my hospital room.  So, when they closed DiNapoli’s several years ago, I was heartbroken.  So much so, I went right up to the owner to tell him how sad I was.  He informed me of his brother’s restaurant in Golden Valley.  We checked it out, and it has the SAME food.  So my birthday dinner lives on!
7. I got another gift card to the apple store to add to the ones I am saving for a laptop!
8. I got Godiva chocolates!  YUM!
9. Sarah made me a very sweet card.

And now for the bad:

1. Jeff had to work this morning, so no special breakfast, which is our tradition.
2. Had to go to Dance and to get kids haircuts, and to pick up Nicholas from hockey…run….run….run….
3. At the hair-cut place, Nicholas was finished, and Katie had her hair washed when the woman who has cut my hair since I was 3 years old says to me, Meg….as she is combing Katie’s hair.  I knew before she said anything else:  LICE.  AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
4. I spent an ungodly amount of money at Walgreens buying lice crap.
5. I spent the time in between the non-existent haircut time and picking up Nicholas treating kid’s with NIX, and NIT PICKING.  Not to mention LIVE BUG PICKING.  EWW.
6. I spent the time in between getting Nicholas, and Jeff getting home treating kid’s hair and NIT PICKING.  All three kids had live bugs, but Katie is the one who is really infested.  Poor kid.  She was so embarrassed and sad.
7. After dinner I have spent my time doing laundry, making up beds, and ITCHING MY HEAD.  I don’t think I have it, I have had everyone check it, including my gal who cuts our hair.  I am STILL ITCHY.
8. Tomorrow will be more of the same:  Clean….Clean…..Clean…..Kids shower, Nit Pick….Nit Pick…..Nit Pick.
9. I still haven’t gotten those damn tests corrected.
10. I am tired and I want to go to bed, but I need the towels to be ready and hanging up before that can happen.
11. I am still coughing!!  UGH.
12. So there.  Next year has to be better!
13. Nobody sang to me.
14. I didn’t have cake.  (But it was my choice.)  It was Katie & Nicholas’s cake.

I am so overwhelmed.  And tired.  And did I mention overwhelmed?  Because that is what I am,  Overwhelmed!

Everything else seemed to get done, if not well, at least completed.  I am still not feeling well, and I am so sick of coughing.  Ugh.  It is exhausting to cough all of the live long day.  I wish it would just go away already!

Today is a special day.  It is Katie and Nicholas’s birthday.  I cannot believe that they are already EIGHT.  Geez.  That just seems so BIG.  They loved their presents and all of the special food that was prepared just for them.

I can remember eight years ago just like it was yesterday.  Waking up thinking I wet the bed, but really my water had broken.  Gross.  Waking Jeff up,  calling the Doctor, calling my mom to come and stay with Sarah and my dog Ralphie.  Going to the Hospital, and knowing what to expect.  A luxury after being a rookie.  Waiting in triage being all cocky…I knew my water broke!  I had done this before!  Sending Jeff home to get my pillow.  (My mom was SHOCKED to see him!)  Getting my epidural, and feeling awful.  Why that nurse put my bed at an angle so my head was lower than the rest of my body I will never know.  It just made my diaphragm go numb so I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  When they finally put my head up, I was fine.  The Doctor hanging out waiting for those twins to stop fighting.  They were racing to get out, and they didn’t understand the concept of one baby at a time.  They never stopped fighting, so into the OR we went for a C-section.  Seeing Katie for the first time…oh, my goodness.  And then seeing Nicholas (one minute later)…bliss.  Nicholas was only half-baked so he went into the special care nursery and I went into recovery and Jeff went with Katie to get her bath.  Everything was such a whirlwind then with family visiting, the entrance of Katie, and I never got to the special care nursery.  I still feel guilt about that.  They brought Nicholas to me in an incubator.  I got to hold him for about five minutes before he was taken by ambulance to another hospital where they had a NICU.  I didn’t see him again for four days.  I can’t even really believe that.  I wouldn’t be able to leave my EIGHT year old alone in a hospital for four days.  But what was my choice?  Jeff went to the hospital to see him every day, but he had to be in both places.  With me recovering from surgery, and Katie with me….oh, it was hard.  Plus, he was in the hospital for two weeks.  And, yes, we left him.  It boggles my mind now.  Boggles.  And the guilt.  It is thick, and it will ALWAYS be thick.  There were such long days with Katie sitting in her car seat, and Nicholas in my arms rocking him at the hospital.  I couldn’t drive, so Jeff would drop me off, drop Sarah off at his parents, go to work, and then pick us all up after work…except Nicholas.  He stayed.  It breaks my heart.  We are so lucky that he is fine and healthy with the exception of a little chronic lung disease and a touch of asthma.  And they are both so precious.  We are so blessed.  I am glad they are eight.  And I am so proud of them.

Baking cakes

Buying presents

Baking scones for breakfast tomorrow

Planning their party

Work

Correcting Tests

Planning next unit

Must be done with both by 10 AM tomorrow

Kids activities

Play practice

Hockey practice

Rescheduled haircuts that were supposed to happen today

Blog

Missed yesterday

Went to bed at 9:30

Can’t stop coughing

House

Is in shambles

Starting to get to me…I can ignore a lot

Time

NEED MORE!

What is on your mind?

I already miss daylight savings time.  It gets dark so early now, which is just depressing.  The moon is bright and big right now so that is a plus, I don’t know if it is waxing or waning.  At least there is some light in the sky.  It just makes me want to go to bed.  Now when we are running hither and yon it will be in the dark.  Sarah auditioned for a part in the high school play last week and got a part.  Our busy schedule just got bumped up to light speed, but she is over that big old moon out there.  It is a wonderful opportunity for her as well, and I think she will love it.  At least I hope so.  The production is It’s a Wonderful Life.  We need to watch the movie so she can see what she is going to be immersed in for the next month.  I am just amazed at all the things my kids have access to that wasn’t even on the radar when I was a kid.  It is so hard to limit them.  My rationalization is that it is only one month of CRAZY.  We can do anything for a month, right?  Sarah is in the school play for her school too, and that production will be on Dec. 20.  So she has practice for two different plays, which equals out to play practice Monday-Thursday.  Then on Friday she has some Math Club thing.    Tuesdays she goes to play practice after school, I drive the twins to choir, then drive to school to get Sarah, then drive back to choir to drop her off.  And then, of course, there is dance on Saturday mornings for the girls and Hockey on Saturday and Sunday and usually once during the week for Nicholas.  I haven’t even mentioned Scouts which all of my kids are involved in….GEEZ.  I don’t know how I have time to work!  Thank goodness the play business is short term.  The rest is do-able.

I had a pretty good day today.  We went over the prologue for The Book Thief in class.  They were supposed to tell me who the narrator is for the book.  It was so difficult for them.  I am not sure how they are going to do on this test.  It is making me nervous.  How are they going to get through English Comp. if they can’t make inferences?  And, I can model until the cows come home, if they don’t have the background knowledge, they aren’t going to get it.  It is fairly depressing.  We’ll see how they do on the test.

I can’t believe we haven’t had one snowflake fall here yet.  Not that I am complaining.  I am enjoying the mild weather.  I just hope we don’t have to pay for it later.

I am just babbling, so I think I will end my blah, blah, blah, blah.

Here are all of my accomplishments:

The rubric that was created to aid in my correcting

I also updated two out of three gradebooks on their online webpage.  And I have been fielding emails from students all day too.

I am so excited to get right back to it!  I just needed to post before it is tomorrow.  I am *almost done* with my correcting.  Then I can enter the grades for the last class!  Whooo Hooooo!  I wish there were more than one Sunday a week.  No other responsibilities, just work.  Catch up.  Feel relieved to get all that stuff back to the students.

Hope your Sunday included SOME fun.  What was your biggest accomplishment?

Today is windy, the trees that have been holding on to their leaves have given up hope, and the skeleton fingers of the others wiggle their tips at you.

Today I am tired.

Today I went to yoga,  and:  ouch.  I am tight.

Today I went grocery shopping so we will be nourished for dinner:  summer squash, onion and potato tacos.

Today I was the first one up, and had to sneak back to my bedroom with the dog so we wouldn’t wake anyone else.

Today lacks motivation.

Today Sarah and Katie had dance, and Nicholas had hockey.

Today I left the two girls alone while Jeff drove me to pick up my newly fixed car.

Today my muscles are sore.

Today Jeff and Nicholas went to a boy scout event and Nicholas got to shoot a bb gun.  I don’t like it.

Today the air seems warm, it is almost 60 degrees F.

Today my throat is scratchy and sore, but I still feel okay.  I hope it doesn’t blossom into real sickness.

Today I wish I could curl up with a great book, like one of the National Book Award finalists, instead of with papers that need correcting.

Today, the time is slipping quickly away.

Today is the last day of day-light-savings time.

Today Jeff raked the entire back yard.

Today I sent my kids to the park by themselves…which freaks me out.

Today I meant to get so much more done than I have.

Today I want to feel loved.

Today I have been craving music.  I have tuned into The Rolling Stones, Billy Squier, and Alanis Morrisette.

Today I wish my friends still all lived close by, like when I was a kid.

Today I have seen beauty in the leaves swirling in the wind.

Today has potential.

Today has been a pretty good day.

How is your day going?

Jeff and Nicholas are on a double date with one of Nicholas’s hockey friends and his dad.  They are on their way to the Gopher Hockey Game.

The girls are down in the basement playing loudly.

I am sitting in the dark with the light of the computer reflecting off my cheeks.

My brain is full.  I have so much to do this weekend, yet I have no motivation to start.

I am excited that I have scored two courses for next semester, and I am planning on doing some personal research as well, but this semester seems like it is flying by so fast…I can’t keep up.

Sometimes, I like to create the perfect life in my mind.  Do you ever do that?  Do you ever think about what it would look like?  I think the only difference from that wish to reality is that time would not be a factor, and possibly I would not need sleep.  Or, is that the same?  I suppose if time was as slow or as long or whatever as I would like it, I could sleep too.  So, let me revise:  Time and unlimited energy.  There.  Perfect.  Oh, and the $$$ to do stuff I want to do, since we are living in fantasy.  That would do it, don’t you think?  Then I could do all the things that go undone, and still have time for writing and reading, playing and working, knitting and crocheting, visiting with friends and working on my house, and maybe even being more creative.

I like to build the perfect house in my mind too.  This is a complete fantasy, because if such a house existed it would probably be structurally unsound, and impossible to build.  Plus, I don’t like HUGE houses where I can’t hear what my kids are doing, but there seems to be a room for every whim in my fantasy.  I can take whole car rides and plan away…where the pool would be, what kind of pool house it would have to accompany it.  Where the orchard would be in our yard…how to plant the raspberries so you could reach all of them without losing and arm to the prickles.  How the attic would look…. Oh, it is such a great escape.  I know that I should write down some parts of the fantasy that are not so outlandish…believe me there are parts that are outlandish…self cleaning KITCHENS, for example.  But I should write down the rational ones.  Maybe some pieces could come together to make my life a little more of my ideal.

What are your fantasies?  (I am only interested in the non-dirty variety here…so get your minds out of the gutter.)  I want to hear what your perfect lives would look like.