LET IT SNOW!!

It snowed today. No more than an inch or two, but it was the wonderful wet, easily packed variety. Perfect for snowman building!! The girls and I had a great time making three snowmen. A and G have been in and out all day. And Murray is a real snow-loving dog. He has been having fun shoveling it with his nose and rolling around it.

M has just about got all the trim up in the living room and dining room! Yay! We're just under the one year mark. Now if we can just get time to paint the stairwell, we'll be done with that project officially.

Got a couple of the Christmas goodies done today. However one entire batch of candy cane cookies took a dive off the counter (with a little help) and was a total loss. I am over it now, but for about an hour I was ready to call off Christmas--at least the goodie making part of it. Oh well. Guess we'll try a different kind tomorrow.

One Day Overdue

M and I have been having conversations over the past, well, really month about how hectic and crazy things are and what we can/should do about it. So we decided that we should try to list out all the weekly chores and daily activities and see if we can figure out where the time is escaping to. Well, after he got all the stuff that we HAVE to do daily (like get dressed, fix meals, homeschool, etc.) he showed me that if we really manage our time well I would have an hour free in the morning and then possibly two hours before it was time to start dinner! Wow--three whole unused hours in the day (please feel free to read in your own sarcastic tone. . .)

Actually hearing that put things in perspective. No wonder I feel like my days melt into a heap of "got nothing done again". Because in reality how many days actually go according to plan. That spare hour in the morning gets sucks into cajoling the oldest to do school or changing diapers or getting snacks or (gasp!) checking email.

So we listed all the chores that we (read Princess Diaries) would like to get done weekly and set it up in Outlook. Yesterday I managed to knock two things off the list and make some Yule Kakka and was feeling kind of heady. Today when I check the email a list of chores pops up each with the caption of "one day overdue"! I need to change that setting right quick. I wonder what happens if I don't get to any of them this week. Hopefully it recycles weekly--so that by the time I finally clean my bathroom it won't say 90 days overdue!

R's Christmas List

Well our littlest sweetie, who has no idea what Christmas is or why her older sisters are so excited about it, has a list of her own! I asked her (after asking her older sister) what she wanted for Christmas and she answered without hesitation, "NEW SHOES"! Not only new shoes, but pretty new shoes! Very cute. So we will be finding a pair of pretty new shoes for our youngest . . .

Today R succombed to the stomach bug that has been plaguing our family for the past couple of weeks. I was hoping that she was going to avoid it, since G had recovered by Wednesday, but no such luck. Looks like I'll be missing church . . . again!

And to go back to Christmas again, after a shopping trip Friday, we just have one gift left to purchase for M's family. What a relief to be done with half of the shopping. My goal was to have the gifts done for his side and ready to ship by Thanksgiving and it is looking promising.

I am trying to pare down my Christmas goodie list to something a bit more realistic. But I must say I like my old stand-bys too much to let very many go in order to try some new recipes out. Hopefully I can include the older girls in the goodie making more this year and that it will keep their interest so we can get more done!

So It Begins

"Sues at?"(who's that?) "Why mommy?" are two new phrases that Miss R has perfected over the past week. You know the phrases that are so cute to start out with that you answer them carefully, making eye contact, really looking at what the kid is pointing at. . . then after the second day you glance and then just pick a name that will satisfy her curiosity. However this third one of mine is one sharp cookie I must brag. I glanced quickly at what she was showing me, saw it was a picture with Disney princesses on it, so I just randomly picked one to answer "sues at Mommy?" while wrist deep in raw chicken. And she starts yelling "no Mommy" "Riel, not no white" (Ariel not Snow White). I didn't know she knew the Disney princesses by sight! I knew she recognized "Cinderawla", but not the others. I guess the Disney indoctrination starts earlier with each subsequent daughter! So it begins . . .

Snaggletooth No More

A's Christmas list has a new #1: her two front teeth! The first tooth hung in there a LONG time, until finally she let me give it a gentle tug and out it came. (Her poor gums are still in recovery from that one!) And then after eating an apple just a few days later, her second front tooth went from kinda-sorta loose to snaggle tooth! It was hanging in there at the funniest angle, but she wouldn't let us take it out. We were calling her "snaggletooth", "snag", and any other deviations of it that we could come up with. She finally decided on Saturday night that I could help it out--whew.

She looks so cute with them missing. A bit vampire-ish at times, but still cute! Here are some pictures of her and Halloween, if you run your mouse over them you will see captions:

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