Archives for November 2006

Instead of gifts for his birthday, my mom’s husband has sent us all a letter asking that we donate to a charity, hug a child, pay it forward, do random acts of kindness. Since I hug kids every day (and will gladly continue to do so!), I’ve been really searching for a charity that I want to donate to this holiday season.

In the most recent issue of Parents magazine, I found a link to The Charity Navigator. It’s pretty informative, and has the charitable organizations broken down into categories for easier searching.

It really reminded me, as we move forward into the holiday season, that this season is about giving – and it was uplifting to have someone say, “I have been so greatly blessed in my life – do me a favor by sharing that with someone who needs it.”

So – I feel like I’m on a mission and I’m excited. I have been researching different organizations, and trying to decide (if I could, I’d donate to all of them, but we’re sort of on half an income until Hubby gets a new job). Any suggestions?

1. Hubby got laid off from his job on Monday. His boss is basically struggling to keep the business afloat, and is cutting professional staff. Needless to say: drama, stress, chaos. Hubby has been home, and job searching – but it’s difficult to get used to. (He has a second interview already on Monday afternoon – so happy thoughts, please?)

2. Pumpkin appears to be teething AND cutting from two naps to one. Joy. No sleep for anyone.

3. Endless appointments for the kids and myself – if it’s not dance class for The Princess, it’s a trip to Stepson’s school to see him get an award (which we actually missed – got stuck in traffic – got to the school in time to see him briefly – and see that ExWife has a nasty bumper sticker, basically calling my husband “stupid” on the back of her minivan – REALLY classy).

4. Construction on our house is in full swing, and it’s hard to think with all the noise (You would think that would have something to do with Pumpkin not sleeping, but until recently, she’s taken two long naps daily amidst the ruckus outside).

So, I’m slacking… but I’ll try to be better.

I’ve resisted posting over the past few days about how Hubby was out of town on business and I was home, manning the fort with the two kids by myself. Figured, generally, not a fantastic idea letting the internet at large know I was home alone… So I waited.

I was on full time mom duty for three and a half days, three nights, and last night, after Hubby came home, I slept so hard! I really needed to turn off my ears, turn off my brain and just SLEEP.

Actually, it wasn’t that bad, wasn’t that stressful holding things together on my own. As I work from home and Hubby works a lot (even when he’ s home, he’s often working), I’m used to shouldering a good deal of the parenting weight. However, when he’s here, it’s the mundane stuff that I really miss – such as taking his turn flossing The Princess’s teeth at night, or changing a diaper or two (especially the messy ones). That is not to say that Hubby “does nothing” around the house – he IS a very active dad. However, my control freak tendencies dictate that I tend to “just do” a lot of things around the house, as I am very particular.

I missed having an adult to talk with at the end of the day. I would tuck the girls in and call Hubby at the hotel and chat at him about the stupidest stuff, because frankly, a four year old and a 15-month old just DON’T CARE about everything I care about.

One of the most interesting things to me is how quickly, though, I managed to adjust to doing certain things on my own, and one of those things was cleaning. By no means am I a “neat freak”, but my biggest house quirk is that I hate a messy kitchen. Can’t stand it. While Hubby was gone, I was on a clean-kitchen-crusade, and my kitchen looked GOOD. Never was there a stack of dishes in the sink (ugh!) – it went from the table into the dishwasher. If a pot was used and needed to be washed by hand, I washed it before the food hardened to the pan. How much easier! And to have a clean kitchen? Well, it felt pretty good.

This morning, Hubby let me sleep in until 7 (when I awoke on my own). I came down the stairs, walked into the kitchen, and was just blown away at the MESS. Papers littered the counters, dishes and an empty milk carton sat in the sink. Unable to help myself, I said, “Boy, I can tell you’re home!” Hubby said to me, “Why? Because the dishwasher is emptied?” (This is one task I delegate to him often – I hate to do it — but really! As if? As if I just left the dishes in the dishwasher for three days? That I needed him to do it?! Sheesh!). “Um, no.”

So – the good news is, Hubby is home. The bad news is, my house is a mess. I guess it’s a trade off. I’m really glad he’s here.

Pumpkin apparently has a new hobby. That hobby is to find anything laying around the house – and to throw it in the trash. This is a fairly recent development, and one that I didn’t really find out about until today. I was in the living room, and heard The Princess crying in the kitchen, “Now I’ll never be able to brush my hair again! Ever!”

Turns out, Pumpkin had thrown The Princess’s hairbrush in the trash. Luckily, as I had just taken the trash out this afternoon and put a new garbage bag in, I knew the trashcan was empty (save for a cracker box), so I took off the lid and fished in…

And I found the brush.

And a spoon.

And two bowls.

The girl’s been busy.