After taking one day to completely veg out in my pajamas on
the couch, I was so super productive
for the rest of the weekend. I know that I had planned on spending the day after
Thanksgiving putting up Christmas decorations, but I had forgotten just how pooped
I’d be! We had a great
Thanksgiving! I read my post, “Let’s Make Cookies,” to my mom the night
before. She laughed and said that it was
only half true…We used to storm the kitchen ON Thanksgiving Day while she was
cooking! She said she’d run to the
bathroom & let out a little, “God, why now???” scream, compose herself and then
let us tear the kitchen apart to make the cookies! Fortunately for me, my boys didn’t storm the
kitchen to make cookies, we did however watch a LEGO Star Wars parody and
although it was funny, I kept thinking to myself that I should be pealing
vegetables or something for the big meal.
I really need to work on that relaxing and sitting still thingy!
So, Thanksgiving went like this: We got up & got dressed. Scoffed down breakfast. I threw the bird in the oven. We ran our 5K. {Gorgeous day!!!} Returned home for meal prep! I was surprised that without pealing and
chopping everything the night before that everything was ready on time, but it
was. One more victory – I eliminated my
neurotic over-planning & prepping and everything turned out just fine. If only I would have known that the night
before…then I might have laughed a little harder at LEGO Chewbacca & his
antics with C3PO!
Still one for the win column!
We snuck in a Christmas Tree lighting with the Cub Scouts and saw Santa on Friday night.
We snuck in a Christmas Tree lighting with the Cub Scouts and saw Santa on Friday night.
Fully rested come Saturday, we headed to music lessons on
time. This is one place that having a
little check list comes in so handy.
Ever since I’ve posted the Saturday morning routine on the fridge
consisting of four simple tasks:
1. Eat Breakfast
2. Get Dressed
3. Brush teeth &
hair 4. Have guitar & drum sticks ready by the door
There has been little to no rushing around, nor has there
been raised voices (mostly mine) on Saturday mornings. It’s amazing what a little guidance and
clarity can do for a 6 and 9 year old!
At 9 o’clock, I just give them the nudge and they’re off and
running. Of course, the instant gratification of the kindle when they’re done
is super helpful too! Ok, helpful
parenting hint over – back to my awesomely productive weekend!
I took all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic –
bin by bin, box by box. I even rounded
up all of the stragglers that hadn’t made it back in to their bin at the end of
last season. I can’t believe it, but I
actually have a bin in my sewing room for random holiday decorations – it’s
like the land of misfit toys expect they’re just your odd silver star or plaid
bow that missed the train back into the attic.
The cat “Clark Griswald” himself into the attic stairs and
had himself a nice nap before I pulled the stairs down later that night!
As we unwrapped the goodies of Christmases past, I listened
to the "Oohing" and "Ahhing" from my boys. I
think the best part of Christmas is the reminiscing about the sweet memories
attached to each keepsake. The tiny
footprint reindeer to the handprint Santa.
To the ornaments picked up on a special trip or the photo in a frame
painted at preschool. Oh, the trip down
memory lane! I went through everything
and gave it the old “keep, donate or trash” song and dance that everything that
crosses my path has been receiving lately.
I’m not waiting for a special day to sort through the attic or turning a
blind eye on decorations that I haven’t used in ages and plan on never using
again. Sorry to all of you red, green
& gold decorations, but you’ve served your purpose here and now it’s time for
you to move onto greener pastures! All
boxed up and ready to head to Savers.
Clearly none of those handmade pieces slipped into the
donate or trash box. A little glue here,
a new ribbon there and they were good as new.
Of course, when I found the stockings that I made last year,
I had to set up my sewing machine because I never did the finishing top-stitch on
three of them…must have run out of time and said, “Good enough.” And if you’ve ever read, “If You Give a Mouse
a Cookie” you might be able to imagine what happened when I finished the
stockings. I proceeded to slice and dice
fabric for some wristlets and moved onto some table runners I started with my
mom last November.
Come Sunday Morning, I set up shop and had every intention
of working on a quilt that has been sitting on the proverbial back burner for
way too long. I’m great with a deadline
99% of the time, but when I miss a deadline, in this case because the baby came
before the due date, then I’m dead in the water. I gave myself a new end point, but fell
short because it was unrealistic to finish it while I was finishing up courses
and graduating. Anyway…months later,
many months later it is still not done! I feel ashamed – red in the face!
I set up the machine, put the quilting foot on and was ready
to go. I was, but the machine
wasn’t. Wrong needle for quilting and
no spares – wah, wah. What’s a girl to
do, when she’s ready to sew and her machine isn’t? Duh, start a new project! Onwards and upwards. I dug out the pattern for the tree skirt to
match the stockings. It’s not like I’m
lengthening my to-do list, I did finish one project and I’m only starting one
new one. It’s a “break even” in my eyes!
Did you set out your decorations after Thanksgiving? Make something new? Clear out the old stuff?
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