Gulp

New post brought to you tonight by Coke Zero.

Sadly I haven’t run since Thanksgiving morning, and I’m not sure you could even have called it running even. More like a jog a little, chat and walk a little, pretend to run again, chat again. You get the picture. It was a beautiful day however and I was in great company all day. (You know who you all are) I got to see some friends, meet our newest cousin-baby and spend time with some of my favorite family. Dinner was great and the berry pretzel salad with pomegranate sprinkled on top was even better. I had lots of help in the kitchen and we all were stuffed at the end of the day, so success all around.

All was well until Geoffrey turned into a little seal later in the evening. Moms, you know that cough… croup. No fun. Dr. appt. Friday early a.m. confirmed it, and my little man was officially in trouble for making our house-guests high-tail it out of our house. (they have a newby too and didn’t want her to catch anything) I can’t blame them. I wanted to leave too! He’s out of the dog house now though as Jake outdid him with inconvenient illnesses. Seriously guys. Don’t you both know I have a house to run and Christmas to plan/make/survive? Help a motha’ out!

The babies. Miss Zadie and Maxwell chilling on Thanksgiving. Five days apart and fast friends already.

Speaking of Christmas; the kids and I are heading up to the frozen north early again this year, so I have opted not to put up the tree thatIdon’tlikebecausethelightsareapaininmyrearandfluffingitbites. Obviously I’m getting a lot of grief from the kids on this one, but the thought of pulling that monster out of the attic and spending 3 days making it look beautiful in between nursing my baby every 2 hours, (still!) making and cleaning up after millions of meal and snack times and trying to do anything else and then leave 10 days later only to come back and take it down over 2 days (because that’s how long it takes me to do everything these days makes me want to boycott the holidays all together.

The house is going to get a wreath on the door, a nutcracker on the ledge and then the kidlets can decorate my 1o year old’s silver bedroom size tree instead. I’m such a scrooge, but I’m also totally okay with the title this year. I’ll of course make up for it next year and do lots of extra. . . stuff. I haven’t really been that up tight mind you, just way too busy. We have already consumed many containers of hot cocoa and Christmas music and movies have been playing almost non-stop. The holiday projects haven’t even been started, but I finally have some lists and plans so it will happen soon-ish.

Star wars pancakes thanks to Maxwell’s namesake and his sweet wife for the molds. They will get LOTS of use. (and thanks for having this photo up for me to steal. I seriously just found it! perfect timing. miss you guys. hi.waving.)

I really should be doing some of that instead of sitting here, but that’s what happens when I am hopped up on caffeine instead of natural energy. My body just wants to sit, but my mind is literally racing. I quit caffeine and carbonation years ago so a little goes a long way now. Earlier tonight I was simutaniously editing photos from the summer on Flickr, stalking on Facebook, doing a little blog surfing, perusing YouTube for some 80’s songs (after being reminded of some great bands during the blog surfing) and of course, nursing too. It’s easy to do all that stuff one-handed, but commenting, responding to emails and writing anything is not so easy, so sorry if I seem absent to those I usually converse more with. Promise I’m checking on you and am happy when you are sharing in your respective social media choices.

I have to keep reminding myself that this life sucking (no pun intended) portion of my life will quickly be gone and a different kind of busy will again take it’s place. Just like it has the 4 times prior. Bittersweet really. Lately I’ve struggled remembering my pre-child bearing existence. Between my church calling and being a girl scout leader, I get to hang out with lots of single girls ranging in ages from about 6 to 17, and it seems to be getting harder and harder to recall what I was like at those ages. Maybe it’s because I’m more than double all of their ages. Jake was nice(?) enough to point out on my birthday that I am now half way to 72. Thanks? I’ll be sure to do the same for him in May…

Now, because it’s 2:30am and I am clearly just rambling, I need to put myself to bed. Wish me luck getting everyone up on time today. TGIF!! Seriously. Night night.

You know that I’m wishing for a full nights sleep, right? Geoffrey is wishing for cake. He loves cake. Who are we kidding? It’s Geoffrey. He loves all food!