Parenting at it's best

My DH is gone away on business for the night. Somehow I got it in my head that tonight was going to be super productive. You know, so I could prove to myself (read:husband) that I can be productive on my own, with 3 kids, on a work/school night. Cause that kinda stuff matters to me in a twisted/self defeatist way. But instead I find myself eating any junk food I can find, and hiding playing words with friends (twohandsfull is my user name if you want to play) and watching d2 destroy my clean basement and colour on himself with marker. Yes, this is exactly the night I didn't want to have. But it is 7:40 and hopefully the kids will be in bed soon and I can try and salvage this evening. I still have lunches to make and a shower to take. And I really want to shovel the ice off our driveway. Any bets on which of those I'll actually do :)

I am also playing Chess with friends with my 10yo. Except I don't know how to play chess. Which is terribly embarrassing when your kid tells you you're in check except you don't know what that means. I think I need to google chess tomorrow.

Back to life, back to reality

These last two weeks have been pretty wonderful. Even though I had to work for two days last week. Even though the kids got a bit bored and annoying now and then. It was such a nice, quiet, restful reprieve from the CRAZY that was December. I had myself worked up into a right tizzy in December. What with shopping for Christmas, planning D2's birthday and planning for a family dinner. I didn't realize I had over done it until the morning of D2's birthday when I woke up with such a headache and  I felt nauseous. And I felt that way most of the day. I managed to fake being okay during his party but I didn't eat a bite until supper. It appears I did a good job faking it too. The next day during Christmas dinner with my MIL I commented on how much better I was feeling and she had had no idea I had been ill. It is amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.

After all was said and done D2 had a wonderful party. We spent a lot of time with family and felt the warmth and love of the season. I really do love Christmas. Even if I am glad it only comes once a year :)

And tomorrow is back to routine. Alarms set for 6am. Lunches planned. Tomorrows dinner already in the crock pot and ready to go. I want to be more organized food wise from now on. But then that is a resolution I make regularly. And break regularly too.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday as well.

PS click on the title of this post and you'll be treated to some Soul II Soul (circa 1989). I still love that song!

On Saturday I attended the Prince concert. I am a huge fan of Prince so you may be surprised to find out that I both loved and was annoyed by his concert. Or maybe you aren't surprised, this is Prince we are talking about after all. One hour into the concert he proclaimed "Thank You very much and good night Ottawa" and I just about lost my mind. WHAT. One hour. You have to be kidding. Of course he came back. 3 times he came back. But I was annoyed. Why didn't he just play. Sing, play guitar, dance, that is what I came to see. Not to spend time begging him to come back out. Not to have him play snip-its and medleys of songs. Play man, for Gods sake, play.

Doesn't he know that I am one of his biggest fans. That I spent hours when I was a young teen dreaming that his tour bus would drive through my blue collar town. That he would stop, see me and proclaim I wanna be your lover . I would resist and he would beg, telling all about what my life would be like If I was your girlfriend. That he would whisk me away in his little red Corvette to Minneapolis where I would be his muse and he would spend his days telling me I was the most beautiful girl in the world . And his nights telling me he would die for me. We would go crazy and dance in the Purple rain.

Oh to be 12 years old again. I guess my image of him was changed slightly after the concert. I still think he is an amazing performer, genius song writer and musician. But he is human, not a god, just a man but still one sexy MF. That doesn't mean he won't find his way into my day dreams again. You never know when he'll come through Ottawa see me and beg Take me with you!

The big blue box

I have a friend who works at IKEA and she always referred to it as the big blue box. Now it is the bigger (way bigger) blue and yellow box. It is kinda crazy how big it is. Over 5km if wanted to walk every isle, which I didn't. But at last nights preview event (which I am so happy to have been invited to) I had a chance to walk the store and take it all in. Ottawa had the smallest store in the country and now we have the biggest. There are so many products that we haven't ever laid eyes upon it was overwhelming. I already have future visits planned to get a closer look at lighting fixtures and couches. So many couches. All the display kitchens (all 29 of them) had me drooling repeatedly. If only I had an unlimited bank account then I would be all set. There are many reviews floating around the blogosphere today. Dani wrote a great one here. But one thing she forgot to show was one of the most important parts IMHO. The play room. Check it:

Isn't she a beauty. You can't see it from this photo but the ball pit is on the left side at the end of the room. There is room for many many children in there. The only problem is that the 45 minute limit means you'll have to run through the store to get through it all in time. 

I only had one other complaint. I had no cell phone reception in that giant box. I think it would be worth it for IKEA to have a cell phone transmitter on their properly. Really, how many times have you stood in front of a table and took a photo and tried to e-mail it to a friend, or tried to call your spouse to ask which colour of LACK table did he want again??? 

I can't wait to get back in there and spend some time and a bit of money. There is a plush elephant that has my kids name all over it :)

Thanks IKEA Canada, I had a great evening.

Tackling the mess

I couldn't take it anymore. It was stressing me out. It was stressing my husband out. And when he gets stressed I overcompensate by pretending I am not stressed, which is STRESSFUL. It is a vicious cycle. We were snapping and nagging at each other. So I put it out there. Lets take 2 days (I would rather a whole week but I can't swing it with work till after Christmas) and purge. We will both stay home and work all day. Go through bins and get rid of junky old toys. Get rid of all the extra suffies. Put all the DVDs and video games back in their cases. Shred/recycle old papers. Organize our filing system. Work towards and agree on an ongoing action plan to keep things in order after we are done.

Well day 1 is done and it was great. We focused on the basement. After we were done we had all the toys organized, 4 medium sized garbage bags full of crap, one large box of toys to donate (already gone) and another box of toys for me to organize for the consignment shop. It feels good. I am able to relax tonight. Usually I am jumpy in the evenings. I want to relax but I feel guilty and stressed out. It isn't relaxing to be surrounded by a mess of toys. Now, I can breath. I watched a movie without feeling bad about it. The kids took toys out to play with but since things are organized we were able to put everything away in a matter of minutes. LOVE IT.

Tomorrow we tackle the main floor living room, dining room, entry and if we have time the basement storage area. I definitely see another two days off out my future. We needed this. For our sanity.

Gentle giant

Today we went shopping for winter boots for my 10yo. We had his feet measured before we started just to be sure of his size. I already knew his size but I keep hoping the previous person was wrong.

My 10yo wears size 8 mens. On a practical front it is hard because mens shoes are far more expensive than children's. And on the emotional level I can't get over my son having grown up so fast. He isn't taller than me yet but I expect he will catch me if not surpass me in the coming year.

He is my first born, my baby, and he can pick me up and carry me across a room. My head knew this time would come. My heart wanted it to take a bit longer. Thankfully he is still my loving caring D who isn't afraid to hold my hand or kiss me goodbye at the school kiss and ride. I cherish every moment I have to enjoy my gentle giant.

Fail

So I failed on NaBloPoMo. I completely spaced on writing yesterday and didn't even think about it until this morning. I have to admit I am a bit disappointed but it isn't as if I spent the day sitting on my butt eating bon bons. It was a very busy day and I forgot. Oh well. I will continue on from now till the end. I won't beat myself up about it.

I am super excited about going to see Twilight Breaking Dawn tonight. Yes, it doesn't take much to entertain me. Just a little eye candy and some fromage ;)

That sore throat I had on Saturday has thankfully passed because I do not have time to be sick. Not even close.