Sooner or Later…

I knew it. I just KNEW I was going to get sick. I avoided a full blown cold during the holidays, but eventually it will out.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I don’t mind being sick. I mind having to slug through the ordinary chores like playing taxi and grocery shopping and running to the post office and laundry and cooking. Just once I would love to lay in bed while the kids catered to me. That would be awesome! Not going to happen until the weekend, though, and hopefully by then I’ll be fine.

I’m l’exhausted, and thinking that passing out on the couch is a wonderful idea.

Ok, it’s always a wonderful idea, but this time I have a great excuse 😀

Yelling at Paper, and Why I Don’t Run With Scissors

I’m trying to be more involved in scrapbooking this year, so I joined a little club on Facebook that has been a lot of fun. One thing we do is card swapping: we all make a few of the same card and then exchange them. It’s fun, and amazing to see the amount of creativity on display, not to mention we learn new techniques and shortcuts.

Normally, this is not a big deal for me. Making cards is therapeutic, and I enjoy knowing that someone appreciates the effort put into it. But sometimes, nothing goes right.

NOT my room, but close enough. Courtesy of Carfter.org

I had purchased lovely heart embellishments, since we are making Valentine’s Day cards, and now I can’t find them. Usually I resort to doing my scrapping on the floor, since I don’t have a nice, large, comfortable table from where to spread the destruction. As I was looking for the little hearts, I realized that my precious Tonic™ scissors are missing. These are teflon coated and sharp, and I tell my kids to always put them back when done. GAH!!! On top of that, as I sat on the floor to cut the paper I needed with the paper trimmer (which I call Bladerunner™), the bottle of my favorite glue tipped over against my thigh, and as I moved, my thigh was attracting all manner of pieces of scrap paper laying about. My frustration knew no bounds this morning, manifesting itself as I screamed bloody murder to sheets of paper, who in turn were lucky that I couldn’t stab them with my scissors.

So, here I sit at the kitchen table, preparing another mess, and wondering if I could convince Hubby to get a new pub style table for the breakfast area so I could use this one for my scrapbooking. There is always a plan 😉

And So It Begins

A new year is upon us, and things are…. pretty much the same. Little One woke me up at 3 AM with a tummy ache, and the little dog decided to grace my newly-cleaned carpets with her *ahem* stuff. The coffee maker decided it just didn’t want to work until I had begged and coaxed and promised her a vacation (translation: I’m getting a new one and giving this one to my mom), and find that we are out of milk while looking for the creamer. Typical day around Casa de Aggie.

That is something for which I am thankful.

I quite like the normal. The humdrum of everyday living keeps me focused on the good things, and grateful for what I do have. I’m glad I don’t pine for things out of my reach, and happy to have boring, even when the kids complain about it. While it’s true that some would call it “being stuck in a rut”, I prefer to see it as being steady and constant.

And that is my wish for y’all in this coming year: to be steady and constant, and to look for happiness wherever you are 🙂

New Year, Better Me

No, not a new me. Forget that. That would entail plastic surgery and a dye job. Every new year brings many resolutions. Some are physical like exercising more, and eating better. Others are spiritual, and still some are emotional, like keeping in touch with relatives and making sure to communicate with family.

My friend Fly Over Here had a wonderful post about why she doesn’t make resolutions. I tend to agree with her: the future is always in flux, and we can’t plan too much ahead because of it. Sure, I want to see the stuff on my List of Things to Do Before I Die™, but I am realistic enough to know that I won’t be able to complete it. For me, it’s enough to have a list. Tying myself down to a goal like losing 10 pounds or reaching a 10 mile walking goal is unrealistic for me, when I really don’t want to do that. Making a priority of my family and making sure my kids have learned the right life lessons? Yes, THAT is a worthy goal, but one I keep to every day.

So, resolve to keep yourselves happy and thankful, even for the small worries and the rough patches and the sad tidings. Life comes full circle, and the trick is to make sure that you are happy when you come to the end of it.

As Hubby told me, Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “WOW!!!! WHAT A RIDE!!!”

So, Happy New Year, and many blessings to y’all!! 😀

‘Tis the Season

It’s that time of year again. The time when someone in your home will get sick, be it a cold or the flu. In this case, the someone is me. I have been fighting a cold for a while now, and in retrospect, I should have let it take its course so I wouldn’t be sick on Christmas Day. But I never claimed my hindsight was 20/20, so I have that going for me.

Today I have last minute shopping to do. That should tell you just how sick I am, because normally nothing would make me go to the mall this week. The way I see it, I got sick from someone while shopping, so I’m just paying it forward. I can be very charitable that way. All kidding aside (or mostly kidding), after shopping I shall be enjoying a hot toddy, featured today at H&B.

Then after that, I shall be imbibing (there really is no other word for it) Nyquil™. There is nothing quite like the nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine. Hopefully that will help me have a nice Christmas.

My future posts may be quite garbled, but that’s a small price to pay for comfort 😉

Two Simple Questions

Would you rather have $20 million dollars, or live an extra 20 years?

And, why?

Because It’s So Much Fun to Wait Until the Last Minute

I have a lot to do today. It’s Sunday before Christmas, and though I am almost done with wrapping, I have given up all hope of even going to the post office to mail stuff out. I reconcile myself with the thought that the recipients will be so thrilled to get presents after Christmas so that they can celebrate it again. It’s a weak excuse, but it helps to salve my conscience.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m usually done shopping for Christmas the February before. It’s the boxing up, and addressing, and actually dealing with the post office that’s a big sciatic pain. And having had several bad experiences with damaged items, I am loathe to go. But I will go, once the rush is over.

For now, I have to gather the kidlets and take them to the deserted mall. Afterwards I’ll take myself to the wine cabinet 😉

Weird Conversations, and Why I Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Talk Before I Have Coffee

I swear, sometimes it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. Last night I went to bed rather late, since Eldest was practicing her Parade and March stuff for ROTC in the kitchen, and right as I fell asleep I got an anxiety attack, so I laid in bed waiting for an hour for it to subside, thinking stupid existentialistic crap that probably solved the world’s problems, but I promptly forgot after dreaming about narwhals. Why narwhals? Because Eldest had been talking about them a couple of days ago. Crap like that just lies in wait to assault my REMs.

This morning I got up, and tripped over the little dog as I made my way with one eye open to the coffeemaker. You would think I could not screw that up, right? But noooo…. instead of creamer I poured lemon juice into my cup of coffee, not looking because A) the bottles are similar in color and size, and 2) the dog was barking to be let out. I’m hiding the bottle of lemon juice in the back of the fridge from now on.

So, I have my second cup with creamer, just in time to Skype with Hubby. YAY!! So, we talk about stuff going on over there and soon enough we are all, “Oh I miss you honey!” and “I miss you too!” and then we talk of how some stuff over there is so weird and suddenly for no reason I say:

I know! I just don’t understand why they (Muslims) would want 72 virgins. I mean, that just doesn’t make sense to me. I would rather have 72 hookers. They would know what they are doing, right?

And Hubby just looks at me with a lot of pity, because that part of the conversation had absolutely nothing to do why we miss each other. Or maybe it did, and I missed it. All I know is that today is a three pot of coffee day and I am soooo going to have a nap.

Color My World

I was struck today by a beautiful quote I read by the artist, Marc Chagall.

In our life there is a single color, as on an artist’s pallette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.

Most of us are concrete about such things as color. Leaves are green, skies are blue, clouds are white (around here, we prefer them grey!). But emotions, charged or subtle, have colors too. When we are sad, we are blue. When we are mad, we see red. When we are envious, we turn green, unless we have had too much alcohol. Then it’s literal and not figurative. But love? Is the color of love that deep dark red that flows through our veins? Is it the soft blue of a calm lake? Could it be the bright green of the new buds of Spring? Or maybe the blazing orange of a bonfire? Perhaps, the dark glowing umber in the smoldering embers?

Courtesy of Matus at Deviantart

The truth is, everyone sees the color of love differently, because love is not as easily defined as anger, or jealousy, or sadness. I close my eyes and try to picture what love’s true color is in my mind. And as the pallette of emotions drips its paints on my heart and soul, I come to the realization that love, true love, is simply colorblind. 🙂

Not Quite the White Rabbit

But as usual, I’m running late around here.

Today I have to clean the bathrooms and reorganize the unholy mess that exploded upstairs craft area before I go down to pick up my folks. Oh, and the pumpkin? It was too small, and the cardstock would not adhere well to it, so no Great Pumpkin™ for the table this year. It’s just as well, since we are having a turkey, a ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, cranberry relish, and three pies and a cobbler. There won’t be any room on the table to eat, much less decorate.

Oh, and I never shop on Black Friday, so I shall have time to make this:

Maybe…. as long as my mom is shopping with my sister 😀