Dear December

Dear December,

You are seriously kickin' my butt.

Instead of making merry and spreading cheer, I'm bogged down with stress and anxiety.

Yesterday I had acupuncture done for the first time.  I was left alone in a room with dim lighting, soft music, the burbling of a fountain, and instructions to relax and rest.  Seriously?  I layed there for 30 minutes obsessing over all the things I wasn't getting done.  Cursing the fact that I was wasting precious time by laying there. 

Immediately before the acupuncture, I had my regular, twice a week, 45 minutes of physical therapy with the Pilates Nazi, to deal with my neck and back issues from the car accident.  Again, time I could have used for 1000 other things.  I don't know which of the two is the culprit, but today I feel like someone beat the crap out of me.

Last night, instead of going to bed at 9:00 when I was an hour past feelin' it, I stayed up until after 11:00 working on a meal plan for dinners, appetizer ideas for upcoming functions, treat options for holiday baking and corresponding grocery lists.  By the time I drug myself to bed, all I could do was lay there and think about how exhausted I was.  And how many things I didn't cross off the to-do list.

Now, December, as if you weren't throwing enough in my direction, you dealt me a doozy last night.  After dinner, The Kid says to me, "I wish you could have a day where you didn't have to do any work.  A day you could go without cleaning or cooking anything and could just relax.  Then we could have the whole day to just play.  Wouldn't that be fun, Mom?  That's what I've been using all my tunnel wishes for.  For you to have a day of no work."  He's five.

It's pretty amazing that I wasn't a hormonal, pregnant, emotional, heap of crying mess on the floor after that.  Of course, now, I can't stop thinking about it.  And posing the questions with obvious answers. 

Which will they remember more fondly?  Clean dishes, folded clothes, and vacuumed floors?  Or laughing over board games, bundled up bike rides, stories on the couch, dancing like idiots to Jackson Five's greatest hits, and quiet moments of snuggles?

Yes, the answer is obvious.  So why is it so hard to stop?  To sit down?  To ignore the chores?  To block out the to-do list?  To just be still?

Yes December, in addition to sharing all of the things the other months have to offer, you come in with a handful of birthdays, Christmas gifts to purchase and make, parties to go to, treats to bake, and errands to run.  And you are kickin' my butt.  And my kids notice.  And I have no doubt that Baby notices too.

So I'm making a conscious effort to breathe.  To be still.

Exhaustively yours, 

Mindy

Frosty The Snowman: A Kid Lunch

It's Friday again.  With all the other stuff goin' on, I tried to make today's fun lunch as simple as possible without skipping it all together.

For The Kid, I did a bagel with cream cheese, carrot nose, olive eyes and celery mouth.  A small container of diced fruit, carrot sticks and snowflake crackers.

For The Girl, I did the same snowman with the addition of an apple hat.  Carrot sticks below him and some more sliced apple on the side (not pictured).

Here's The Girl's lunch:

Here's The Kid's school lunch:

Enjoy your weekend!

Operation Shared Bedroom: Part 3

There are no words to describe how elated I am that this part of the project is done.  Technically, it only took me two days, but I've been thinking about it every day since buying the fabric.

I have no tutorial or in-progress pics.  When I make something like this, I literally throw everything out on the floor, sketch out what I want my end result to be on a piece of paper, and then start cutting.  Because I've made duvet covers before, I wasn't going in completely blind, but again, I'm not very good at following directions when it comes to sewing, so I just go for it and figure it out along the way.

Since I was trying to make it look similar to The Girl's duvet cover, I wanted to quilt the middle section.  I use the word "quilt" in the broadest sense of the word.  The fabric I used for hers has all different shapes and sizes of what looks like patchwork, and I originally wanted to do that, but patience is not my strong suit.  I wanted it done and I wanted it done fast.

Here's the gist of how I made it:

I cut 10" squares for the middle section.  Yes, if you want your finished squares to be 10", you should add on your seam allowances, but that would have involved more thinking than I wanted to take on.  So I sewed together 20, 10" squares.  Four across, five down.  Once that was together, I attached a 4" solid border around the outside, using four long, skinny pieces of fabric I already had.  Then I literally dug through scraps and found things that would fit to do the edges.  They're approximately 10" from the border to the edge and mixed widths, depending on how big my scrap was.  I just layed them out until I had enough to make it the size I wanted, big enough to fit a twin comforter.  I did it so that the top and bottom match and the two sides match, rather than completely random.

I had a big piece of fleece that had been on The Kid's bed as a blanket and it was big enough to back it, so that's what I used. He likes it because it's so soft and I like that it was free. 

I put a hem in the bottom end so that the opening for inserting a comforter would look finished.  I left probably an 18" opening centered in the bottom. 

Clearly this is the worst descriptive or directional post ever written, so I'll just show you how it turned out.

Here's The Kid's new duvet cover, spread out on The Girl's bed for the sake of getting a decent picture:

Now all I need is the bed to put it on!

It's a comin'.
Oh, and a finished room to put it in.
Slowly, but surely.

Oh - before I go - I know her room is pretty much a gutted construction zone, but I couldn't NOT put at least a little bit of Christmas in it.

So here's some Christmas in The Girl's room - don't mind the four-by-fours:

Tons more projects to come.....