Yet Another Letter

Dear Dick's Market,

I accept your gift of an eclair and cake slice but now, your cake is added to the list of temptations. Do you really think that is fair?

Licking the crumbs,

Megan

A Letter

Dear Dick's Bakery,

Shame on you for making the best chocolate eclairs on the face of this planet. The same eclairs that remind me of my youth when my mother worked at the White House Reception Center and would bring us leftover mints, nut cups and those chocolate eclairs with peach colored flowers piped on them. Mmm...those chocolate eclairs. Oh my memories of the White House Reception Center.

Lush carpet (was it green?), the cascading steps for the bride's entrance where I pretended I was the bride, the dumb waiter, Aqua Net on the shelf and the fastest dishwasher on the face of the earth downstairs in the stainless steel kitchen. And eclairs. Oh, the eclairs! No temple mint, nut cup or trip down the stairs could ever compare to your creamy, sugary, chocolaty goodness.

Do you see what you have done Dick's Bakery?? Do you understand the depth of the temptation that you now present to me? Shame on you. Or should I shame the sweet girl at work that brought them for her crop night class. The same girl that taunts me with her homemade goods and Spinach Artichoke dips. Just one glance at those eclairs and it was all over for me. Memories flooding, my taste buds yearning for the tickle of chocolate. Going to work reminds me of those chocolate eclairs.

Don't you see what you have done Dick's? Shamelessly flaunting yourself to a sugar addict with fond memories. My only defense was that you weren't too close to my house but now you have gone and opened up another store just minutes away. My defense is weakening. Oh the shame. Shame, shame, shame.

With my regards,
A Sugar Addict

Megan

PS: I'll see you Saturday night.

Argh!!

I'm grumpy and I'm tired and tired and grumpy. By golly, my children need to go to bed without complaining, getting up a billion times, running around, rearranging their rooms, making birthday invitations, jumping, having tea parties, going to the bathroom yet again, running downstairs because they really need something, dancing, chasing the kitty down, getting another drink of water, etc, etc, etc!! In fact, here's one coming down now! Yippee skippy!

I've done all that I can think of. Reading together, prayers, baths, winding down time, asking nicely, having charts, blah, blah, blah. There's nothing nice left for me to do. I hate to yell, but somehow, I end up doing it every night. Arrgh.

Jake and Mia go to sleep after 9:30pm, often later, every night. Sam! Oh SAM! He doesn't go to bed until after 11pm and doesn't reward me with sleeping in. Why? I. need. my. time. Please. Pretty, pretty please.

Fighting the Winter Blues

This winter has seemed to be extra gray and gloomy. Snowing consistently and not melting away in between storms. Yesterday, as I was walking to a neighbors house, I was struck with how quiet it was and how ominous the crows sounded. There are a lot of crows here right now. Dozens fly away when we open the front door. It's strange that they evoke such a dark feeling. The combination of the gray days and the crows just feels even more depressing. Everyday, I keep struggling with the overwhelming feeling to do nothing. Not clean, not do laundry, not make breakfast/lunch/dinner/snacks for my family, not get dressed. No motivation for anything. Except shopping.


I really, really want to shop for anything and everything. I think it's because the excitement of something new and fresh and shiny. The hopes of finding the deal of the day and dreaming of all the usefulness this "stuff" will bring to my life even though it's just more clutter for me to take care of. My mind turns to bigger items. New sofas, bookshelves, rugs, and pretty accessories. For example, while window shopping last week, I found the perfect wool rug for my front room at Target. Then this week, that same rug is on sale for 40% off! Oh how I really want to buy that rug!! It's even harder knowing that it is seasonal and will be gone soon when they replace the Global Bazaar with their outdoor stuff. It's so hard to ignore it.


In attempts to keep my body busy and create that new and improved feeling in my home, I have been cleaning out closets and drawers organizing the messes that I have made never assigning a place for anything after moving in. Understanding better the uses I want for our limited closet spaces. But it's not making me any happier. Yesterday, I found myself laying on the floor feeling blah. Thinking about taking a nap when I decided to make myself do something. I needed to move my front room around to perk it up and see if I could get it to feel right. The front room has never gelled for me. Thanks to some help from my neighbor friend, we pushed heavy furniture around to every possible configuration, carried a very heavy shelf up from the spare room, dug out pictures that have not been hung up and created a slightly improved space. It's a good start. I am happy to have some pictures on the wall and thinking about what pictures I would like to print out to update them.

Obviously, there are a few problems. Like the drapes being a good eight inches short or the lack of frame on the print that I taped to the wall anyway. I still need to find some matching fabric to add the length and the frame I want is $50 not including the mat. Ooo!! That means that I need to go shopping! Or, I could move the chair a few inches to the right and cover up the fact that they are way too short and spray paint the wall. And you know what would be really great in front room? That new rug from Target

Snow Day

I like it when it snows like this. Where we can snuggle in our warm house and watch Daddy shovel the driveway. Mia hadn't been feeling to well so I settled that we would stay home for the day watching lots and lots of movies (Mia), folding mounds of laundry (me), teaching Sammy to go down the stairs, and dipping grilled cheese sandwiches in hot tomato soup while watching the fat flakes fall.

My most favorite thing after a big snowstorm is the bright light that fills the house when the sun comes out. It finally inspired me to paint the yellow tiled windowsills white. Only in the front room of course. I wouldn't want to go too crazy. And, I cleaned out the TV armoire. I know, crazy.

After school, I dropped the kids off at the babysitters and went to work. It's fun to work at a scrapbooking store because you get to scrapbook sample projects for the store. Often, there is a little stack of supplies in the front with a note that they want a layout and two cards or a mini book or frame. It's really nice to not worry, within reason of course, about how much money your project is costing. It wasn't too busy last night giving me a good chance to really look at the new papers and embellishments thinking about a Valentine swap that I need to get cracking on. I think that I have an idea of what I would like to do. I wasn't planning on doing a traditional paper Valentine, but there are so many pretty papers out right now.

It just felt like a good day yesterday. Things were done that needed to be done for a long time. It was quiet and not stressful. My favorite kind of day.

How quickly the routines get destroyed

Here it is a month or so after school let out and our routines are completely blown to smithereens. The kids have been going to bed at 11pm - sometimes later! I have been going to bed no sooner than 1am. Then we all sleep in the morning too late. Mia got up at 11:50am once!! Almost noon!! She's not a teenager.

I miss those old routines. I miss my quiet time and my (sometimes) clean kitchen. I miss getting up and getting things done in the morning. It's just soooooo hot! I don't ever remember feeling so thoroughly hot all of the time. Just a little effort sends me into a red, sweaty faced mess. I think that my kids miss the consistency because they sure are ornery.

Long, drawn out, hot muggy swamp cooler, unproductive days of summer.