December 11th

Oh, I'm giddy thinking that tomorrow is 12-12-12! I must remember to document what I'm doing at 12:12 on 12-12-12. :)

It has been a long day. I'm tired. Maybe that is why I'm tiredly giddy.

Ok, the day started off at 4:03am when I got some text messages from Amy in Kentucky. I completely don't mind because usually I either a) don't have my phone on, or b) the volume is down. But I had the volume up so it the alarm would wake me up at 4:45am so I could make it to the Y by 5am. And c) I always love hearing from Amy.

Yes, I went to the Y at 5. Had to get my walking in today and that was the only time I could go. There was a guy there waiting to get in at 5, too. He had on an Illinois sweatshirt. In my groggy state, I said, "Go, Illini". He asked if I was an Illinois fan. I said that we had gone to graduate school there. He asked, "Chicago or Champaign?" Champaign, of course. I think it surprised him to find an U of I grad in our little town.

I walked and watched ESPN Sports Center for the first 30 minutes. Krish is really into football right now and I figure it would be good for me to catch up on all the teams and current players so I can understand who and what he is talking about all the time. Seriously, he talks about it all the time. Then I switched over to King 5 for the morning news. I think in the next 30 minutes they repeated the same information at least 4 times. If I go that early again, I've got to find something else to watch. I don't think I could read that early. Maybe I'll try though. There is definitely a group of people that are always there that early and they have their routines. I think I was on one of "their" treadmills. Ha! Sorry, buddy. But there are 3 empty ones on the other end of the row. By 6:00 the cardio room had almost emptied out. Everyone off to work, and I was off to get home by the time Miranda left for Jazz Band.

When she left, I decided to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for Merek. I had some coconut oil in the cupboard. It was a whim purchase a month or two ago and hadn't been opened yet. So I looked up how to use it in place of vegetable oil. Easy-peasy exchange. I just had to melt it in a saucepan first. The only difference in taste in the muffins was a slight hint of honey (which there was none of in the recipe). The kids liked them and now I only have 1/2 c. of coconut oil left.

The boys were all up by 7am. I told them they had to take showers, do their chores, and practice their recital pieces before they could eat. Aren't I a mean mother? We usually eat breakfast around 7:30 so doing those things would keep us about on schedule. Plus, it woke Lina up by 7:20 so she wasn't rolling out of bed too late like usual. How we are going to deal with the middle school schedule with her next year is beyond me. That child cannot get to sleep at night and would sleep until 9am everyday if I let her. She really has never been a good sleeper, even as a baby. I think she doesn't sleep very soundly at night so by morning she is exhausted. We are going to have to figure something out for next year because 6am is going to be awfully early for her.

Sometimes I marvel at the process of thought. When I got in the shower this morning, the hot water felt so good and I wanted just to stand there in the heat. But I realized I needed to hurry and get ready to finish up the kids lunches before they left for school. And I thought about people in the 1800's who didn't have hot showers very often, if at all. And how they didn't have an hour to exercise each day but they didn't really need to because they had to work so hard just to live life daily and do all of their chores that they stayed physically fit. And I thought about all of our conveniences of today and how we are so busy yet we have so much less to do physically than they did. And that maybe with all of our conveniences we should spend more time doing things for others. And not always so worried about ourselves and how busy we are that we can't get things done like clean the house, and do the laundry, and plan and cook meals, and play with our kids. That led me to thinking about my New Year's resolutions and that I really want to start thinking about them now and planning. For the past year I've had several instances of inspiration that have told me the same thing over and over. Sometimes I've listened and changed things. Other times I haven't--and they were changed for me in a way that led me to the place I was supposed to be. It's so fascinating to me. And how thankful I am for Divine intervention.

Long tangent there . . . ok so kids off to school, Merek and I prepped for the mommy co-op preschool at our house today. Only the two other boys came over for preschool today. The two girls were not here. Our letter this week is "P". We read some Christmas stories, colored some pictures, did a maze, ate mini-pumpkin muffins, created with Play-doh, played a planet game, and read a story with puzzles.

Merek went to his other preschool after that and I went to get my hair cut. Brad's work holiday party is this week and I wanted my hair to look good. I hate the cut. Too short and too many layers. I will never be able to get it to look right for the party. And then to top it off, it was pouring rain when I left so the cute way she styled it wasn't so cute once I got home. I may have to wear it up for the party. We'll see. This has happened often enough that I should know by now layers do NOT work for me. Long hair with a blunt cut is the best hairstyle for my lifestyle. Or maybe I can just shave it all off.

I stopped by the library afterwards to pick up some books that Lina had put on hold. One of them was Roald Dahl recipes from his books. She was very excited to see them when I picked her up from school. The other two books are for the "Battle of the Books" they have between the district's elementary schools in the spring. I'm so happy that she is reading them and is planning to be on a team. This is the girl who has been below grade-level reading since first grade. She has begun to devour books and I'm thrilled to see that.

After getting the books, I went home and sulked on the couch and watched last week's Survivor episode (what was that I was saying about being too busy and having too much to do?). Miranda arrived home, told me about her day, and started on her homework. She had a temple trip this afternoon with her youth group from church so she wanted to get as much done as possible beforehand.

(Merek just woke up coughing and screaming. I went up there to check on him. Motherly instinct said to take him to the potty. I did. He peed, a gallon. Now he is tucked back in bed. Hopefully that will be it for the night).

I was elementary school carpool pick up today. Got the kids, and the neighbor boys, and Lina's friend. They are going to be singing a duet at the recital on Saturday so she came over after school to practice. Miranda popped popcorn for them to have for a snack. We practiced the song. They sound sweet. Then I worked with Bird on his violin piece for the recital. Meanwhile, I put Krish to work emptying the dishwasher and doing his homework. Merek entertained himself by using at least 1/2 of a post-it notepad to decorate the entryway. The post-its were neon green and he used a red pen to scribble a little bit on each one. He lined up a row of post-its on the lid of the piano as I was practicing with the other kids. And then he decorated the door to the garage where all the Christmas cards are hanging. He felt like he was really contributing with his artwork. It was lovely.

Peyton arrived for her piano lesson. Her recital songs sound terrific. I'm so proud of her. She is very busy and doesn't have a lot of time to practice but she has got the songs down. I'm so happy she decided to give piano another try after a two-year hiatus.

I drove Peyton and Audrey home and then picked up pizza for dinner. It's all about convenience. Ooops, there it is again! I ate a piece of pizza. And two parmesan balls. And a slice of stuffed cheesy bread. Ugh. Walking, walking, walking tomorrow. While I was gone, I asked the boys to collect the garbages for me and take out the trash bins for tomorrow. They are so good at that job.

Bird told us that in their HOLIDAY acrostic poem, Henry had shared "Dinner with the Jarocki's" for their Christmas celebration. Bird said his teach was happily surprised that we had dinner with them. It's a tradition. We've had dinner with the Smith's every Christmas for, hmmm, since we've lived here maybe? I can't remember but I think it is almost every one.

After dinner, while Lina showered and the boys did homework, I read Merek his library books. Froggy's New Babysitter is not my favorite. Mouse Mess is fun. We also read Horses! Then Brad gave him a bath while I read with Bird and Lina fixed my hair up "all fancy". Krish worked on his IXL. We got them all to bed around 8:30pm, about when Miranda arrived back home. She had a little bit of Science to finish up and then went to bed, too.

Brad asked if I got my hair cut. I pouted and cried a bit. I just wanted it to look good for his party. He was so nice and said he likes it. (What else is he going to say?). He is a good man. He gives good hugs.

He got the Santa letter all printed out for tomorrow and hid the present. The Elf on the Shelf is resituated as well. The kids left their wishlists in the mailbox on the tree tonight. We'll see what wishes come true!