Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Procrastination Kills.
This year, I completely blanked and could not come up with ANY ideas for gift giving. I was at an utter loss. I always intend to have these spectacular, perfectly appointed, deeply moving and personal gifts. Usually it ends up with a handmade card with a handpicked giftcard in its belly. Bummer. In the craziness that has been this year, I completely forgot my intentions. Now... I'm scrambling.
I have the usual purchased fare, I even think some of it will be appreciated, but the hand touch that I adore just wasn't there. There was no heart. Some of those gifts, though beautifully and tastefully wrapped by moi, are screaming at me from the tree: "YOU GRABBED ME WHILE YOU WERE IN LINE TEXTING PEOPLE!", "No one ever EVER wants socks.", "You only bought me because that wretched woman in the next aisle was looking for me, and you were feeling competitive.". SHUT IT GIFTS.
I feel guilty. No... I feel gggggguuuuuiiiiillllltttttyyyyyy. (
Now, with mere days away until the Festive Throw Down, I'm scrambling. Yes, everyone has a present. Yes, they all match my tree (that no one will see) and they all have an individual complimentary bow, and cute little tags. Woo hoo, I accomplished something, but why can I never feel that I did what I set out to do? Why do I forget that last year, on January 2nd, I vowed to take my monsters to a paint your own pottery store and put them to work in a mock-sweatshop of clay? Where is the heart?
So I went to the local craft emporium, and I think I've purchased just the right amount of heart. Now it just has to be assembled. I will probably be chained down for the next few days, crafting my heart, swearing, and then drunk sewing/crocheting. I know there'll be tears, feelings of inadequacy, and probably lots of fires, but I'm going to pretend that the saying "it is the thought that counts" isn't just what people say when they gift you boxes of crap. Will it work? I have no idea. Will it turn out as planned? Oh absolutely not. Will the intended recipients ever see what I will spend the next 48 hours of my life slaving over? I'm betting a big fat no. If the positively fugly hat I fashioned last night is any indication. But maybe it will make ME feel better. Like a present to myself. I may still only give them the gift certificates, and Christmas Blend coffee beans, but I'll know that at home, I have an absolutely horrendous tea towel with mutated images of my childrens' hands stitched on them.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Feigning Festive.
It is that time of year, (And I won't say "again" because, frankly, it only comes once in a year, so it can't be that time of year again in this year, but I digress...) and I'm battling inner turmoil and an inability to properly embrace the impending holiday season. I'm in a frosty funk, if you will.
As the mother of two small boys, you'd think I'd be positively brimming with spunk and inspiration. Please people, in theory, this is MY kind of holiday: lies, bribery, bending the purpose of the season to fit my will. It was tailor made for me. But I can't get there, not yet. I've been Kringle-blocked. No tree up (which is good considering there has been no "fall decor down" session.) no redundant viewings of Elf, no plotting and ploying my insane gift wrap scheme for the year. Nada. What in the butt has happened to me?
As a means of invoking the holiday spirit, I've come up with a logical (for me) game plan, and because I love you... whoever you are out there.... I'll share it with you:
Step One: Establish Proper Holiday Smell.
That's right folks. That says "smell". As the proper word escapes me, and I'm far too lazy to google it, I'll say that I am an Odor Whore. I am scent obsessed, and I can't set the stage without the proper odiferous gesso being applied to the blank canvas. (I miss you Bob Ross!) So, I know you were all fretting, but have no fear! I have found the ever-ellusive best scent of the season. No real shocker that it is by Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day as I'm fairly certain I've been implanted with a microchip that requires me to do their bidding. It is an adorably simple glass jar, petite and sweet, filled with the most delicious Orange Clove scented soy candle in the world. It is positively delightful. I'm not sure what sort of James Bond technology has been put in there, but it is absolutely mind erasing. I completely forget that I have eleventy-seven other things I should be doing aside from sniffing a freaking candle like a huffer.
Step Two: Lay the Scene.
This one is proving to be much trickier. It isn't that I don't want the proper festive decor to both invoke the mood and ram in the fact that I am a good Martha Stewart drone, it is just that I don't want to CLEAN up enough to actually set the stage. Not only will there be furniture-moving involved, as this is a new house with an untapped tree-friendly layout, but I'm fairly certain that I've discovered my children are fully aware that there is only one of me cleaning, and two of them destroying in tandem. Also, WHY is it that uncleaning is so much faster than cleaning??? That is for another day. This also requires the husby to come home at a reasonable hour and cooperate in unearthing the decorations... which I'm fairly certain are strewn all over this house like Christmasy Easter eggs. I've seen some of the storage area combinations our moving company came up with. If the extra bathroom giblets are stored with the excess kitchen gadgets and my wedding dress, I can only imagine where the Christmas tree will be. Plus... I'm plain dreading the moment Niblet Number 2 discovers the glory that is undressing the tree.
Step Three: Bake Tons of Crap.
I love to bake. It is no surprise, I enjoy it... and it's fruits. But more than that... the BEST facet of this holiday tradition: Thinking about making other people fat. Yes, I'm that deep. I'll take a tiny bit of pleasure in the caloric-laden bites others will consume thanks to me. If I can't get skinnier... I'll make them all heavier. It is a simple joy. I also adore coming up with tedious little treats that look cute in cellophane bags. I don't even care if they taste good. I'll come up with anything that looks like Christmas: Marshmallows in chocolate covered top-hats, coconut covered snowballs, jingle bells dipped in chocolate because.. really, there is no good way to make a chocolate jingle bell that LOOKS good, and it really is an under appreciated niche... and they are sure to throw Dr. Grandma D.D.S. some work to make up for any lame gift I may give her.
Step Four: Make Christmas Cards.
This one is really bugging me this year. I used to hand make cards. It would take HOURS, and I'd be in that sort of glorious, delicious pain that says "yes, I've hammered 700 grommets into paper for 8 hours and no one will notice or care, but I AM HAPPY". Now, I choose to exercise my Photoshop muscles. Unfortunately, they aren't core muscles, and they're out of shape... so I'm behind... and the price of postage is daunting.
Step Five: Select the Holiday Fashions.
This one is a real road block this year as, suddenly and inexplicably, I sort of don't care. I got the boys cute lil matching outfits... and I am contemplating just dragging something from the bottom of my dresser drawers that I haven't seen in ages (as my husband has an unreal talent for packing things SO tightly into those drawers that you'll never see the stuff on the bottom again. I'm not certain he hasn't squished them right through the bottom of the drawer and into an alternate dimension), throwing it on and calling it a statement. I don't feel cute. I don't have the budget for cute, and today I have the first blemish I've had in months so I am sure it will never go away and only continue to grow exponentially erupting into a full-fledged parasitic twin by Christmas, complete with fully blinking eyes.
Step Six: Project Gift Wrap.
This one usually gets me all amped up in a big way. I am uber compulsive about my gift wrap, carefully selecting the colors to compliment my tree, the perfect paper for Santa to use, the coordinating bows and different ways to adorn the packages... I've even embossed gift tags before. This year, all I can think is "When in the frig am I going to have time to wrap gifts, and how will I hide the scotch tape from the kids?". Also, I'm seriously lacking in hiding spaces. So, for now, those gifts are stowed away in my car... (For all you would-be burglars out there... unless you have a dire need for environmentally friendly, somewhat novel children activities, and whatever random bits I got for a steal on black Friday, I'd avoid it.)
Step Seven: Enlist Proper Sidekicks.
For me, this is the simplest and most effective of all of the steps. Homemade cocoa and Buttershots... heavy on the Buttershots, and Burt's Bee's Peppermint and Honey lip balm. May be chintzy, but these are my holiday must haves. And I drink the cocoa nearly as much as I apply the balm... so I walk that fine line of ingesting enough spirits to be spirited and tolerable, and not getting so drunk that I forget that I was alive during Christmas 2010.
So... It is time for me to push through my Bahumbugs and soldier on until the spirit slaps me in the face. I'll make the traditional cocoa, and we'll trim the tree and hang the coordinating stockings, and the Elf on a Shelf will watch over us with his creepy, almost sadistic smile, and I'll get there... eventually. For now, I'll snuggle with my red glass full of white (because it is SO MUCH BIGGER), sit on my fanny, and make my list, check it twice, and then burry it under the junk mail so I can do what I do best: procrastinate.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Perspective is Key.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Making, yes MAKING, your own laundry detergent.
Quick tip O' the day: Clean Commode
Friday, April 30, 2010
Welcome to the Jungle
I honestly want to blog more, but current format doesn't fit into current brain processes, so I figure it is time for a change. Words are the beginning of action... in theory! Feel free to hold me to this on Facebook. I need interweb mothers telling me to "Do my Homework".
As a leap into this fancy new methodology I'm going to do something I'd never normally do in public. I'm going to let my brain ramble and show ya what I'm working with. *Spoiler alert* This will preview a future (hopefully) post. I KNOW, SO exciting ( to my tiny subscriber list) but I can fool myself!
I've been thinking of this post for weeks now. Why I should've been born in the Victorian Era. Sounds odd, I know, but trust that there is a rhyme and reason. As I'm plotting away, my mind wanders, and this is how it goes. You may want to look away now, as this might be a bit "Being John Malkovich" and you can't get these moments back. Also, if you know me and like me, you may realize that there is an iceberg of crazy under this hair... you typically only see 10%.
I should TOTALLY be Victorian. I was practically built to use a corset, and thus, a fainting couch. The mere idea of a fainting couch is cute and all that, but to get the vapors from the tiniest bit of manual labor and then require the use of said fainting couch (In The Parlor... CUTE) appeals to me on a deeply intense level. Society wants me to look skinny, but gave me the bustle so I can put the 'ass' in massive, so I can't possibly clean the house today or I'll pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain, so..... *I need coffee*. Thank you LORD for giving me the foresight to get that french press!!! Now I don't have to drink 8 cups of coffee in an hour to prevent waste and that burning roast smell! I can progressively drink 12 cups of coffee in 3 sharp bursts thanks to this lovely fellow! I LOVE YOU FRENCH PRESS!!
The batteries on Huddo's Laugh and Learn chair are dying. It is a slow and creepy death. I've never heard "This Little LIght of Mine" sound so melancholy. When finished with the crayon's rendition of "La La La La" (If you have this hellish child's toy, you totally understand) in a LOW SLOW voice... it is straight out of the Tim Burton's worst nightmare. I love watching Hudson dance. Neither of my children is equipped with any rhythm... but he wiggles his hips in the most endearing way... I hope he never dances in a club. Though, to be fair, if I keep to my plan of forever helicopter parenting my boys, he'll never leave the house to go to a club. He'll stay home and we'll keep our couch dates, and watch HGTV, DIY, and FLN, my three favorite letter channels, and eat gourmet popcorn and give facials. Who needs daughters?
I need to go to Walgreens today. That requires a shower. And Makeup. I have a new outfit but I need to hem the jeans. What am I going to put the boys in? It looks like rain, but not cold rain. What the hell is "cold rain"? Why did I just think of that?
If I were Victorian I, or one or both of my children, would probably be dead. Probably from Cholera. Do people still get Cholera? Did I hear that someone had Cholera, or was that a dream? My dreams are so vivid, it is hard to tell. Remember that dream where Jared and I went down the hill in the rolling bar chairs from my old house, and the bathroom door was halfway up the stairs, but at regular 2nd-floor height so you had to climb in. Weird, yes, but in my dream all of this was perfectly normal. Wonder what that all means... probably a tumor.
Yes buddy, I'll get you water, but I'd be happier about it if you'd ask instead of the current, rapid-fire squeals of "WATER!". "WATER MOMMY". Is the stuff in the dishwasher clean? Meh, I'll run it again for good measure. I need to make the bed.
Scooby Doo needs to get lost. Not the character, but the DVD's. I'm about over listening to the portable DVD player in the background. I don't want him watching tv this much, but he screams when I turn it off. It isn't the screaming I mind... it's the whole now-I-have-to-entertain-you thing. It's like a freaking security blanket. He doesn't even watch it, he just checks in to sing the song at the beginning and the end.
What band IS THAT? It sounds like one of those popular bands that I hate and don't get why anyone likes. I know it isn't Nickelback... I hate them enough to recognize them, but it is something like that. Did the Hubby ever download that Ting Tings album? I asked him to do that months ago! I also asked him to fix Huddy's crib. He never listens....
I'm hungry. Well, I'm not hungry but I want something salt..... I get it Hudson! You're angry! I'd still realize you were upset even if you didn't crawl ALL of the way over here, pull your chubby self up using your talon-like nails on my feet, and wail in my face. You're tonsils look clear. I want soup. That's it. That's what I'm craving, soup. And strawberries. We need groceries. I don't want to get groceries. I love Target, but I'm not looking to spend $300 today, so I can't go there to get groceries. I wish we had a Whole Foods store. I wish I cooked more. I wish I had a self-cleaning kitchen and self-eating kids. Wait, would that mean my kids would eat themselves? Hmmmm. I'm going to invent something. I'm going to invent something to make my life easier and richer. What that is, I don't know. Hud is crawling into a tiny space and growling. I think he is more like a mean cat than a baby. He prefers to eat off of the floor, he growls and hisses, he's moody, and .... wait, what was I saying???
*End Scene* There's a glimpse. A few moments of uninterrupted crazy to justify the lack in cohesive blogs. I'm not going to make myself create "perfect" (heh heh) thought out blogs any longer. I'll come, pop in for a sanity break, and post a tidbit of whatever I feel like. I'll try and share more pics, make it more personal (um, yes, it can get more personal!), and more versatile. Maybe I'll even go in a direction?! DIY, tips, ideas. Yeah, that's it. We'll see what this mess will morph into. Thanks for bearing with me and letting me be flawed and scatter-brained! I'll try and do what I say... what was I saying?......SΩß≈zaHBN
Friday, March 5, 2010
State of the Union
My vocabulary is inhibitive. I fear there are words out in the universe yet to be unearthed that would succinctly explain the current "status quo" at household, but as they haven't been discovered... I can't simply write "Felquib" and be done with my blog entry, so here it is folks!
Moving. This blogger is moving, and while it in no way actually affects my blog (thank the good LORD some addresses are permanent!) it will affect my blogging (Verb: it is what you do!). Roughly 3 weeks ago it was thrown to me that my hubs would be getting a new job. Yippie! Um, but the new job is in a new city... three hours away. Boo hiss. At the time, the powers that be at said corporation providing current and future income prospects had intended for my life partner to begin in two weeks. I informed my life partner that there would be a termination to our partnership if he were to up and vacate in 2 weeks. Extended to 3... it isn't looking much brighter folks! My husband departed yesterday to the song of screaming children and the tough facade of yours truly. I'll admit to you only (shh, don't tell) that I'm certain I 80% miss him. It isn't that I DON'T miss him, I absolutely do, but I more miss the HELP! Let us paint a picture here of our situation as it is...
House. Our decrepit dwelling is rapidly deteriorating around us. I should rephrase this, as we are prepping this shack for a quick sale. "This charming family home is seeking new management. Look at the yard! What a beautiful yard! OH, and do you like deer?? We have them coming out of our ass! Look at the pretty wall, the cobblestone pavers, the large wooded lot... *look away from the house... do not look at the actual house...* and have you SEEN the neighborhood?". In short, we've got some work to do, and when I say we, I mean I. Contractors and I do not mix well. I'm an A-type personality. I like order, I like honor, I like promptness, I like direct thinking and actions, I like hygiene. See how this poses a problem? I also like my savings account, and to that aspect contractors are like krypotonite. Some may know that last spring we had a bit of a home mishap. Well, I suppose you could call the porch literally sliding off of our house a "mishap". Cut to the fact that I, at the time, was pregnant, and our lovely city chose that moment to tear out our entire street and give me the use of a GOLF CART (yes, that's right) for the last 14 weeks of my pregnancy. Unless brick masons dig golf carts, there would be no porch repair over the summer months. Fast forward to July... baby born, 2 weeks later road is done and golf cart is removed from my sight before I bitch slap it. Now I'm strapped with a new born and ZERO desire to deal with home repair, let alone bathing and teeth brushing. Here we are, in the throws of winter and I still have this ugly scar on the face of my home. Bids go out, bids come back... money is being pried from my death grip and snuggling up warm and cozy in the pockets of a lovely local renovation company.
Our garage door went on the fritz, so my hubs ordered the part. Correction, he ordered 2 parts at the suggestion of the manufacturer. Let's just cut the preamble and get to the part where none of it was ever fixed. I shelled out more clams and waited for my install call. Apparently the independent contractor is a total douche nugget (yes, that is a technical term adults use in casual company, I'm on the phone with the people at Webster now...) and thinks nothing of pulling random times out of the air and then not even bothering to show. And he has my $300 garage mechanism in is douchey truck. After many calls to Home Depot (who I still love, I just am launching a campaign to have them fire this contractor) he came on a Sunday afternoon and we now have an operating garage door as opposed to manual lift technology (get out of car, lift garage, etc.). This did not happen without several lies on his part, the accusation that I'm a ditzy ninny with no aspect of how to work a new-fangle telephone doohickey, and the inability to understand a simple conversation. I will hunt him down and key his car later, when things settle.
Carpet is expensive. It is expensive, and it requires moving furniture and cutting and dust and filth. All of my least favorite things. I place my order and promptly bend over for payment. "OH, and the specific flooring of choice will be here approximately 2 weeks after your husband has abandoned you and your two small children ma'am, so you'll be emptying your home and removing your current floor covering and underlayment yourself in the twilight hours assuming your children ever sleep. Will that be cash or check?" Check. I try not to plot how to off my husband on the drive home.
PACKING. I typically enjoy packing. It is mindless, mundane, I can be as OCD as I care to be. I caress all of my belongings, mentally cataloging, lovingly packing away for safe keeping. My idea of heaven, as I'm awesome at solitary tasks. How solitary can a task be with kids and a dog following you around, popping packing bubbles, eating newsprint, and bumping you with their tail as you handle all of your Tipperary and Waterford crystal. By the way, that last one was the dog. I had all tails removed from my children. Not only do I have to pack an entire household, but again, I'm doing it alone. Sure, I can make roughly 400 lists about it, but those lists don't do heavy lifting, and they don't move all heavy boxes to the garage, nor do they wrangle children. Stupid lists. I'd love to call my friends and have a perfect Sex and the City moment where we drink copious amounts of wine while packing my literary awards and Manolo Blahniks, but in reality my house is a disaster and I'd hate admitting to anyone the state it is in. If I drink wine my baby cries, and I've never won a literary anything other than A's on book reports.
Home purchase. We found the perfect home. Honestly, it is just the right fit. That being said, it is roughly a mere $20,000 dollars more than I wanted to spend, and we'll be rocking a double mortgage and accessorizing with a swing loan. How en vogue. Also, guess who will be handling all of the details such as hook ups, hiring movers, signing the paperwork, dealing with the miniscule details that come along with the move? Moi. Oh, and let us not forget the parasites that are ever in tow.
Husband. Gone. Working at a new job he is, as of yet, unsure about. Many uncertainties and unknown variables lurk around the corner and while he needs/has my support... I'd be lying if I wasn't more than a tidge peeved that he gets nights of uninterrupted sleep and he'll be walking around for a month without other people's food or slobber on his shoulder. We are that corny couple that is only apart a day or two here and there. This should be interesting to see what life is like a month apart.
So. That is the state of life as of this moment. The blogs will be spread out for a bit. They'll be more frantic and less technical... yes, that is possible. There may be an increase in swearing and a decrease in sanity.
*Edited to add*... the plague has hit me. All the denial in the world won't wipe away this rudolph nose and sexy smoker's voice. I asked someone last night why the Universe thought now would be the appropriate time to throw all of this at me to which she replied: "Why would you assume the Universe is thinking of you."
Touche.