0
This is our last dance, this is ourselves under pressure
Posted by Slowplum
on
1/04/2007 09:23:00 AM
Stupid alarm radio.
Hold on to your bootstraps, this is going to be a long one.
Last night I took down all the ornaments from the tree, in order to wrestle it down into a box this morning. Only a few things are left to take down from the whole holiday thing. Considering what a slacker I was last year (I waited till two weekends after Epiphany, for Pete's sake) This is pretty good. I would have been more than happy to take it all down between Christmas and the New Year like I usually (with the exception of last year) do, but with all the construction and stuff going on in the basement the house was a little too chaotic for it. Everything is almost restored to order, just in time for the kids to head back to school.
S went back to work this week from a nice long holiday, on afternoon shift which worked perfectly with babysitting arrangements. My parents come home from Portugal tomorrow - the kids can't wait and frankly neither can my parents. Kids are probably going to end up having a "sleepover" this weekend as my parents will want their full time and attention. I tried to talk my mom out of it - I mean come on, they'll be jet-lagged and just come home, they don't need my rugrats underfoot - but there's no talking sense to a stubborn Portuguese woman once her mind is made up.
C has another playday with Z, as does K & T. C is going to go watch Z play her violin - this will give C a little more exposure to it, which will help in the decision-making process on whether or not to put her into lessons. She'll get to meet her potential teacher as well, which is a bonus.
I'm thinking of setting up a food schedule, cafeteria style, to try and maintain some order with both my groceries and my tendency to hem and haw in front of the fridge for twenty minutes each evening. It would have to be flexible in some ways. Maybe a bunch of cards I can just draw like from a deck, and for that week/weeks I've got menu figured out, it's just a matter of pulling whatever for that day and that's the luck of the draw. I don't know. This requires more thought as I don't want it to turn into a "aw man, meat loaf night again. I'm going to eat at so-and-so's" because that really sucks. And I don't want to be the one saying it, hahaha.
We got that 100 dollar deal from the butcher again - 5 lbs boneless/skinless chicken breasts, 8 lbs burger meat, 5 lbs sausage (whatever kind you like - we normally get honey garlic and damn it's good), 5 lbs roast (we have them split into two 2.5 lb roasts), 5 lbs smoked pork chops, and uh, I think that's it. Usually it's 3 lbs bacon and 5 lbs burger meat but they let you substitute things for other things - it's really nice. That may not seem like much, but if it doesn't, you aren't paying attention at the grocery store. That's a TON of meat for 100 dollars, tax included. It comes in big box. It generally lasts us 2-3 weeks. Not bad, considering I married a barbarian of a man and have a bottomless pit for a son. Also, it's fresh meat and supporting a local business.
I feel like I'm hungover or something, but I haven't had a drop. I hope I'm not coming down with something. Knock wood, we've all been pretty healthy lately. I attribute that to the kids actually using the damn waterless hand cleaner I put in their bags, and my more vigorous attitude toward wiping down the light switches and door knobs twice a week. Thank you Mr. Clean magic wipe thingies. (They're also excellent for taking out crayon!) Well, the fact that I've now grown accustomed to all the new germs coming into the office probably helps too. I managed to completely bypass the last round of influenza that went through before Christmas - I partially attribute this to my absolute refusal to get the flu shot this year. My kids didn't get it either. Last year we all got the shot and we all got really, really sick. So this year I said to hell with it and skipped getting it done. Call me crazy but it seems to have worked in my favor, so you naysayers can go jump in a lake.
I'm almost finished knitting my Dalek. My sister-in-law has already called dibs on it, but since it was a prototype model anyway, I'm fine for that. I need to get a decent grey yarn to knit another one in... hmm... this may require a trip out of town as there is nowhere decent to get yarn here anymore. Had I any sort of brain for business, I'd open up a Stitch N' Bitch shop, where you could buy yarn/sewing supplies, but there'd also be an area for ladies to come in and drink coffee/tea and nibble on biscotti while bitchin to each other and creating things. With a little play area in the corner if they have kids. Ah, well, a girl can dream right? Maybe some day.
The doctor convinced me to try the whole weight watchers thing, as it would probably help along the damn pills I have to start taking again to take care of some issues I've been having - and no, not mental issues, har har. I'm at a point where I'm not really caring all that much about my weight - I mean, I'm used to it, right? And I don't want to go into this obsessive downward spiral again where I stop eating or whatever, or overexercise and hurt myself in the process. I don't know, this whole points thing is a bit funny. I tried to explain it to C & K and then they were all "How many points is my cookie? How many points is my milk?" like it's a game and they're trying to see who gets the better score. Which is really funny, actually. I explained to them that they don't need to worry about points, and all that, because I make sure they get healthy meals, and don't eat too much; I have been neglecting myself, I have made some mistakes regarding health when I was younger, and I am trying to fix that, and this is one way to do it. (Sorry for the run-on sentences.) K very sagely nodded and said "You're too big for your mommy to take care of you, so you have to take care of yourself mom". I didn't really feel like getting into the self-prescribed martyrdom that all mothers go through - making sure everything/one else is ok before looking after themselves. I just agreed with him.
Ok I guess it's time to go. Maybe later I'll talk about what really happened over the Christmas break. I'm just too tired right now.
Hold on to your bootstraps, this is going to be a long one.
Last night I took down all the ornaments from the tree, in order to wrestle it down into a box this morning. Only a few things are left to take down from the whole holiday thing. Considering what a slacker I was last year (I waited till two weekends after Epiphany, for Pete's sake) This is pretty good. I would have been more than happy to take it all down between Christmas and the New Year like I usually (with the exception of last year) do, but with all the construction and stuff going on in the basement the house was a little too chaotic for it. Everything is almost restored to order, just in time for the kids to head back to school.
S went back to work this week from a nice long holiday, on afternoon shift which worked perfectly with babysitting arrangements. My parents come home from Portugal tomorrow - the kids can't wait and frankly neither can my parents. Kids are probably going to end up having a "sleepover" this weekend as my parents will want their full time and attention. I tried to talk my mom out of it - I mean come on, they'll be jet-lagged and just come home, they don't need my rugrats underfoot - but there's no talking sense to a stubborn Portuguese woman once her mind is made up.
C has another playday with Z, as does K & T. C is going to go watch Z play her violin - this will give C a little more exposure to it, which will help in the decision-making process on whether or not to put her into lessons. She'll get to meet her potential teacher as well, which is a bonus.
I'm thinking of setting up a food schedule, cafeteria style, to try and maintain some order with both my groceries and my tendency to hem and haw in front of the fridge for twenty minutes each evening. It would have to be flexible in some ways. Maybe a bunch of cards I can just draw like from a deck, and for that week/weeks I've got menu figured out, it's just a matter of pulling whatever for that day and that's the luck of the draw. I don't know. This requires more thought as I don't want it to turn into a "aw man, meat loaf night again. I'm going to eat at so-and-so's" because that really sucks. And I don't want to be the one saying it, hahaha.
We got that 100 dollar deal from the butcher again - 5 lbs boneless/skinless chicken breasts, 8 lbs burger meat, 5 lbs sausage (whatever kind you like - we normally get honey garlic and damn it's good), 5 lbs roast (we have them split into two 2.5 lb roasts), 5 lbs smoked pork chops, and uh, I think that's it. Usually it's 3 lbs bacon and 5 lbs burger meat but they let you substitute things for other things - it's really nice. That may not seem like much, but if it doesn't, you aren't paying attention at the grocery store. That's a TON of meat for 100 dollars, tax included. It comes in big box. It generally lasts us 2-3 weeks. Not bad, considering I married a barbarian of a man and have a bottomless pit for a son. Also, it's fresh meat and supporting a local business.
I feel like I'm hungover or something, but I haven't had a drop. I hope I'm not coming down with something. Knock wood, we've all been pretty healthy lately. I attribute that to the kids actually using the damn waterless hand cleaner I put in their bags, and my more vigorous attitude toward wiping down the light switches and door knobs twice a week. Thank you Mr. Clean magic wipe thingies. (They're also excellent for taking out crayon!) Well, the fact that I've now grown accustomed to all the new germs coming into the office probably helps too. I managed to completely bypass the last round of influenza that went through before Christmas - I partially attribute this to my absolute refusal to get the flu shot this year. My kids didn't get it either. Last year we all got the shot and we all got really, really sick. So this year I said to hell with it and skipped getting it done. Call me crazy but it seems to have worked in my favor, so you naysayers can go jump in a lake.
I'm almost finished knitting my Dalek. My sister-in-law has already called dibs on it, but since it was a prototype model anyway, I'm fine for that. I need to get a decent grey yarn to knit another one in... hmm... this may require a trip out of town as there is nowhere decent to get yarn here anymore. Had I any sort of brain for business, I'd open up a Stitch N' Bitch shop, where you could buy yarn/sewing supplies, but there'd also be an area for ladies to come in and drink coffee/tea and nibble on biscotti while bitchin to each other and creating things. With a little play area in the corner if they have kids. Ah, well, a girl can dream right? Maybe some day.
The doctor convinced me to try the whole weight watchers thing, as it would probably help along the damn pills I have to start taking again to take care of some issues I've been having - and no, not mental issues, har har. I'm at a point where I'm not really caring all that much about my weight - I mean, I'm used to it, right? And I don't want to go into this obsessive downward spiral again where I stop eating or whatever, or overexercise and hurt myself in the process. I don't know, this whole points thing is a bit funny. I tried to explain it to C & K and then they were all "How many points is my cookie? How many points is my milk?" like it's a game and they're trying to see who gets the better score. Which is really funny, actually. I explained to them that they don't need to worry about points, and all that, because I make sure they get healthy meals, and don't eat too much; I have been neglecting myself, I have made some mistakes regarding health when I was younger, and I am trying to fix that, and this is one way to do it. (Sorry for the run-on sentences.) K very sagely nodded and said "You're too big for your mommy to take care of you, so you have to take care of yourself mom". I didn't really feel like getting into the self-prescribed martyrdom that all mothers go through - making sure everything/one else is ok before looking after themselves. I just agreed with him.
Ok I guess it's time to go. Maybe later I'll talk about what really happened over the Christmas break. I'm just too tired right now.