Feeling the holiday time crunch....

I suppose I am not alone in feeling like the days are slipping by and there is still much to be done! I spent most of today shopping, since I am by nature a procrastinator......something I struggle with all the time! I got about halfway through my list and need to go one more day I guess to finish up. It won't be tomorrow though as we are getting SNOW and it is supposed to turn to freezing rain and sleet. So tomorrow will be a good day to stay home......hopefully the kids have school or I won't get much done here either!
Today after I came home from shopping, I finished setting up our 30 gallon aquarium that my neice Lisa was nice enough to get for us. We had a 10 gallon but 2 of our goldfish are about 4 inches long so they were needing more room. Now they'll probably grow to be a foot long!! But I am NOT getting any larger of a tank, they can go swim in the river if they outgrow this one! Anyway, the tank looks so nice now that it is done and it is so relaxing to listen to the water burbling and to watch the fish.
I finally started putting out my winter decorations (did I say that i was a procrastinator?). I have lots of snowmen and keep getting more all the time. I love them!! The more the merrier! I want to finish that stuff tomorrow and then get started cleaning the upstairs a little bit. I think I'll need to start with a scoop shovel! Thomas' 6th birthday is January 2 and we are going to redecorate his bedroom for him. He is still in a toddler bed and it is either time to cut holes in the foot of it or break down and buy him a big bed! So that is on the calendar to do sometime between now and new years! He wants a John Deere room so it shouldn't be too difficult as there are John Deere things everywhere you look. I have ordered the pictures for the walls and his bedspread and curtain. Now I just need to get some decals and the bed and we will be ready to get it done! I can't wait.....it'll be cute!
Sarah participated in a holiday piano recital on Saturday. She played very well and I was so proud of her.....it takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a roomful of strangers and play a piece. How well I remember when I used to have to play in them. There are 170 music students at the center and only 30 were chosen to be in the recital, so I thought that was a nice confidence boost for her.
Our Christmas plans are for the family to get together here at our house for brunch at 10AM. Some have to work 3-11 so it made dinnertime pretty rushed. Hopefully this will work out better. Then later in the day we will go to Jeff's brother, David's, for a sit down meal with all the trimmings. Always lots to eat it seems! We will go Christmas Eve to Jeff's dad's family for a meal.
My folks are planning on coming out over New Years, so we hope the weather holds out for that to happen. Jeff's half-sister, Honesti, is getting married on New Years Eve, so that is on the agenda as well. We will have New Years dinner here at our place for the family. Lots of saurkraut so we will be healthy, wealthy and wise for the coming year! We are looking forward to having Shannon Meyer overnight for our special meeting visit on the 29th. So, as you can see, the schedule is pretty full between now and New Year's! Somehow I'll have to fit work in there as well.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday!

Ever been to a paddle party??

Today started out with grocery shopping.......this after my poor, almost 6 year old, son told me yesterday "Mommy, don't you CARE if your children STARVE!!?" after looking for a snack. So I took it that the cupboards were bare......at least in his estimation! Of course, we certainly do not look the part of the "starving Fuller's" by any stretch, but we musn't let the children go hungry, so off I went to fill the shelves. To the tune of.......a lot, lets just put it that way! I wonder how people afford to have a big family because just the 4 of us is expensive....and I shop at the discount stores! But anyway, my children are no longer "starving" and my husband is no longer opening the cupboards and closing them in disappointment.

This evening I went to a "paddle party". I told Thomas I was going to a paddle party and he kind of looked at me funny......didn't sound like much of a party to him!! I could just picture what his little mind was thinking :) Once I told him what it was, well, he wanted to go along of course. So I told him it was a "girls party" to which he told me it "wasn't fair", so I offered to put him in a dress and fix his hair up in clips and ribbons so he could go as a "girl" but he soon decided that he would stay with daddy and do whatever "guy thing" they were doing this evening. So, Sarah and I went off to the party. It is a Princess House party where every guest is given a paper plate paddle with a number on it. They auction off PH items throughout the party for 25 cents to a dollar each and then draw for whoever gets to take it home. I ended up winning a serving platter for 50 cents, so I was happy with that. And we had a lot of laughs so it was a fun evening.

Now it is bedtime. Tomorrow I work 3-11 and in the morning I have to can the venison that Jeff has ready in the basement refrigerator. My jars are ready to go. I would do it tonight but it is about a 4-5 hour project so I think it will have to wait til morning.

Trying to clean the house while there are children in it is like.......

Well, today I am trying to make some sense out of the mess my house has gotten into! It looks like a bomb went off here......literally! I've cleaned out a few of my cupboards and got rid of stuff I don't ever use because I don't have the extra space. Now I need to go and clean my laundry room and do some ironing.......but why am I here instead?? Why is it so easy to do everything else except what we SHOULD be doing??

I have decided that trying to clean your house while your children are at home is like trying to rake leaves on a windy day, or shovel your sidewalks during a blizzard! I feel like I am doing nothing except chasing my tail (if I had one, that is). I have to stop every 10 minutes, or less, and referee between my children who are arguing over who has the most meatballs in their spaghetti-o's, or who gets to be the teacher vs the student, who has the most of the whatever they are playing with at the moment. This is the stuff they never tell you in pre-parenting 101..... And yes, as you can tell, I am having a frustrated mommy day! I love my children, would give my life for them........but there are times when I really question my sanity.........am I alone or are there other mothers out there who relate??

Anyway........breaktime is over and my pile of ironing is calling......"sigh".... as are the kiddo's......wonder what the fight is over this time??

Well, we made it home from Ohio safely, although there were a few times that we were a little nervous about the roads. It's always a comfort to know that you have friends along the way in case you need them, but we were glad this time to not need to call them :) We got home in time for Jeff to get ready to go hunting, so that was the important thing! I had to go in to work 11-5 Sunday night and then again from 3-11 Monday, so it left little time for anything but sleeping. Today I work 3-11 again, so maybe the laundry will get done sometime.......

Jeff didn't get a deer Monday which is always a disappointment, but today is another day! He did see a nice one but couldn't get a good shot at it. Maybe today will be his lucky day.