O Christmas Tree

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Things I am looking forward to:

Decorating the tree with the kids
Cutting down ANOTHER tree in the mountains very near my house
Watching 25 days of Christmas movies
hot chocolate
stockings hung by the fireplace..for real this year
decorating the indoors
quilting
my family visiting
my friends visiting
baking
cooking snuggly dinners
eating said snuggly dinners by my fireplace
evergreen center pieces
working on my new year's list of goals
ashamedly discovering which goals I have not even gotten to yet
exercising with my husband
Santa parties
Christmas cards
writing our family Christmas letter
finding the perfect Christmas photo
Late night snuggles with The Man
attempting to beat him at who can do the most sit ups (I never win this game)
getting a new gold tooth-awesome- aarrr- piratey
winter jammies
Addison turning 4!!
and my kids saying, 'I can't WAIT until Christmas!' at least a million times between the five of them.

Yikes

Remember when I should be cleaning, cooking, prepping, and all the other necessary things you do before Thanksgiving?

SOOO much to do and not nearly enough time. So, I decided to blog.

Tonight is the big family talent show. My kids were totally excited to find out Sam and Addison have their own talent to perform. We will be video taping, so if anything amazing happens, I will be try to post it.

Also, I am totally ditching school tonight. I have only missed one other night of school. When Mike and I flew off to LA to be on The Wheel, I was a ditcher. What can I say? I am a loner, a rebel. There are things about me you wouldn't understand, things you couldn't understand, things you SHOULDN'T understand.

The Brewers Got Talent

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Come Monday

This post could have been about the Jimmy Buffet song, but it isn't. I DO love that song so, but instead it is about the craziness happening in my house right now on a Monday affternoon.

Right now, my husband is complaining of a belly ache

Right now, my littlest son is incredibly sticky because my husband has no boundaries when it comes to sweets and children, therefore, I came home to kids eating suckers carrying around their trick-or-treats bags minutes before the dinner hour

Right now, Isabelle is moping not just because I won't tell her what is for dinner, but because she is ten and this is what ten year olds do

Right now, I am not telling Izzy what is for dinner because she cannot talk to me with a normal tone of voice, so I am refusing her information until she can figure it out

Right now, Layla is upstairs wiping down her entire bathroom because shortly after I told her no to her sugar request, she began crying hysterically but claims it has nothing to do with the sugar and more to do with some problem that is 'too hard to explain'

Right now, my son Eli is on the verge of tears because none of his friends in the neighborhood are home

Right now, I am plotting in my mind a punishment for Eli and Layla that includes them writing the top ten things worth crying over where I am sure I should find sugar requests and friends not home to play with nowhere on the list

Right now, I am hoping to make it through dinner without yelling.

I have no time

And I will tell you why:

Began exercise regimen that I intend on sticking with (it's easier now that I get to watch my husband lift weights from across the room. oh my)

Applying for my substitute teaching license

Eighteen classes left until I graduate

Currently working on 100 hours of classroom observations

Leading the Toddler Room at church

Just agreed to take on a branch of the homeless ministry at church

The class I am in requires four chapters of reading and a paper to prove it each week. ew. I am not mentioning our real homework.

Trying to stick to my new routine. I am a little behind. Well, I am almost all the way behind. Love me through it.

Though I am not really homeschooling her, I have to prep and administer an hour of supplements for Layla Grace four days a week.

I have five kids and a husband I actually like.

Seriously Disorganized

I feel like I have had such organization for the last 5 years. Homeschooling has taken up a huge section of my day and now that my kids are in school, I feel lost. (Right now I also feel chilly) but I need to implement some structure to my days. Last year at this time, I would have a month's worth of menus planned, my homeschool lessons planned and prepped for a year's worth of learning, and so much more. Sigh. You know what the problem is? I have a clean house. DANG YOU PEOPLE!! Why do you have to put so much emphasis on cleaning? I need to go back to making lists.