Vacation was wonderful.
Honestly, it was more of a “staycation” and stay and cation I did.
Scott redid all the plumbing in our house this past week. He also used his new Christmas gift-a smoker to make us dinner twice.
I, on the other hand, staycationed.
And as I surveyed the house this morning, boy did it show.
With Scott plumbing all week, I actually had a reasonable excuse for my laundry neglect.
Only 2 days till Christmas and my to do list today looks like this.
Clean bathroom- scrub toilet, scrub sink, scrub tub and tile (I write each individually so I can feel more satisfaction when I am done by crossing off 4 things instead of one) Clean guestroom- My parents always say, don’t worry or stress about cleaning up for them. And I appreciate the fact that I can keep things real and not stress out, but… I think I need to clear off a place for them to sleep, don’t you?
I was feeling pretty good about myself this week. Got a little boost of energy with week 12 and began to tame this household which I had slacked off on over the first trimester. Finally, I can leave the guest bedroom door open as well as the master bed room. I even cleaned out the van which had reached its height of total messiness, threw away all that trash crammed in around the car seats and brought in the plethora of coats and shoes which were strewn all over the floor.
OK, so Halloween was 6 days ago, and I gotta tell you this circus mom has had more than her fair share of the loot. The kids are doing quite well with an occasional piece after a meal here or there. Mom on the other hand seems to go for the candy bowl come nap and bed time and she rarely stops with one. The other morning when the kids came out to the living room my son spotted a few candy wrappers sitting on the couch.
Remember my confession back in May about my hefty library charge? I am happy to report that I’ve actually gotten much better about returning library books since then. And no, it’s not because I’ve stopped going to the library. Sure, I’ve paid an occasional fee here or there, but nothing close to the $42.09 I paid back in May. Perhaps they won’t be naming the local branch after the circus family after all.
As I’ve returned to the classroom these past few weeks (though in a very different atmosphere), I can’t help but reflect on my years of teaching prior to becoming a stay at home mom. I was blessed to teach for 3 years at a small, Christian school. I learned a lot and grew from the experience. I honestly think it shaped the way I parent today.
That being said, I can’t help but reflect on the single.
In the interest of keeping it real and not pretending to be something I am not, I feel the need to come clean.
Remember how excited I was when my 2 year old was wearing underwear at her 2nd birthday?
Yea, I believe I received many a pat on the back and comments of “You’ll have to come potty train my kid.”
Well, I must come clean and say for the past few weeks she has totally regressed.
**Updated Below!
Once we finally departed, the kids were ecstatic about our camping trip this weekend. As we were preparing to leave, my son already started talking about the very, important rules of camping, as he’s discovered them over the years.
And the number one, most exciting rule is that **
camping is messy!
**
This one cracked me up, because while it is true, to hear him talk you would think he grew up in a house where he was never allowed to get dirty.
I am a home body. Truth be told, I can go a good four days of staying at home before I go stir crazy and need to get out and about. And as a home body, I love, LOVE days where we go no where and just stay home all day. These days don’t happen all too often, maybe about once a week. Because, my kids LOVE to go out. Even if it is grocery shopping.
As much as I like to think I am not, I am a city girl. My “garden” consists of 6 plants in a square patch on the side of my house. We get our eggs in a carton at the grocery store and our milk in gallon jugs just down the aisle from the milk.
So, I try to give my kids farm fresh experiences as much as possible. It takes a bit of driving, but seems like a small price to pay in my book to give my kids prior knowledge experiences.