Open to the public

Okay, I have succumbed to peer pressure and made this public again. (actually, it only took two people to whine about having to sign in (and you know who you are!) and one person to say they couldn't, and that was enough for me!) So you three are welcome!

It is the day before thanksgiving. We are having it down the street and then some family is coming over for dessert. All I have to do is buy some pies. Should be stress free, right?

So this is my idea of keeping it simple. Nick is off for the next four days. In order to keep it simple and provide a wonderful, loving, happy environment for my children here is what we need to do:
1. Thoroughly clean the whole house. There are parts of this house that have not been touched for some time now, and that is just inviting bugs and germs to come live with us.
2. Pack up all the nick-knacks around and get the 40 boxes of Christmas decorations down, decorate the house. I am willing to go light, but Taishauna will insist on most everything so it feels like Christmas. I specifically created traditions for her to have as she got older and had her own family. The only tradition I had from my childhood was Grandmas cookies and HUGE family gatherings. The family gatherings disintegrated so I created some (quite wonderful) traditions. I CANNOT take them away from her.
3. Rake the leaves. We raked the front clear on Sunday and now we have leaves covering every surface about 6 inches deep. Including the whole road in front of our house, our driveway, our porch and half our neighbors yard (who, poor things, don't have ANY trees.)
4. And of course provide for, care for, play with the children, so they have a wonderful weekend. This, in itself, is a full time job and then some. The transition that Johnley and Sammy are experiencing really calls for us to stop everything and just take care of them. The week is busy enough, with Nick gone and me babysitting, so a four day weekend with both of us off is a perfect opportunity to really give them some attention.

I know this is insane, but what do I give up? I have a strong argument for everything on the list, but I know, from experience, that it is impossible to do.

But the Christmas season is upon us, time to start expecting moms everywhere to become superwomen.

Right now I have to go feed the boys and begin the day long process of braiding T's hair.

It will be interesting to see how this weekend turns out. Will I be superwoman and get the first three items done, and fall short on the fourth? This is my pattern. Or will I concentrate on the fourth and let the others slide? Stay tuned....