Christmas countdown pressure

Can you feel the pressure?

I like list, I like to give the illusion that I am organized, a gifted multi-tasker, that I can handle anything. This year I am failing!!! I cannot believe that it’s December 1^st this is the most unprepared I’ve been for Christmas EVER! I am not even close to being ready for my kids to rip open gifts in just 24 short f-ing days. I certainly haven’t bought or taken our annual Christmas picture to display how much the kids have grown. I usually take this pretty seriously especially since I certainly don’t develop, print, buy or whatever many pictures of the kids throughout the year, this is the BIG one, the one that tells all the family both distant and close, “look hey, I kept the kids alive, they look good and hell they are even growing up”. 

I think what has me the most stressed out is that I had a master plan for Christmas this year. I had decided this was going to be a Christmas that they would actually appreciate more after the day itself more so than tearing open packages they would soon forget about anyway. Sadly my master plan required a lot of preparation on my part, and as the days quickly pass, my progress gets nowhere the stress of it all builds and BAM! I am still struggling because now I’m acknowledging the stress, it’s a vicious cycle. 

Seriously my kids ask for very little, legos, a video game or two, some dvds, and other random odds and ends. I mean in the grand scheme of things they didn’t ask for much. My master plan involved fixing up their TV room, a new TV, stand, and a blue-ray player, a futon to replace the 1970’s gold-ish couch that eats everything that gets near it and some shelves for storage and organization since I’ll be discarding the giant and ancient entertainment center that serves as a storage area for clutter, trash and dust currently. Fine, I’ll admit it; once I put it into writing I see the “master plan” was more for me than for them. Less clutter means less cleaning for me. The creation of their TV room was for me too, less cartoons I am forced to sit through, and not having to watch them play the Wii was nice too. Maybe if I spent less time on Pinterest I would have time to get it all done….

Pinteresterrific

Pinteresterrific

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem, fine I’ll admit it. I have a problem. I’m addicted to Pinterest, when I am home I check it frequently. I don’t always repin the things I see but I do look at it more frequently than I do my email, facebook, way more than twitter (I often forget I even have an account).

I have tried to justify my addiction to myself by telling myself that there is useful information on Pinterest, crafts, recipes, ideas that I will eventually need to know. Deep down I know the truth, I am nowhere near motivated enough, nor do I have enough free time (because I use all of it on Pinterest) to actually accomplish any of these “project ideas”.  There is some truth to my justification there really is useful information on Pinterest and really it is far more interesting than facebook. 

I knew however that I had a real problem when my loving husband decided he now wanted a Pinterest account. I had now spent enough time on Pinterest and discussed it so much with him that he took notice, found an interest in Pinterest, and my heart jumped a little beat because now he and I could share the Pinterest love. That little spark of excitement in my heart was a wakeup call, or at least the thing I needed to recognize the fact that it has become an addiction. All I’m promising is to recognize the problem, I have no intention of giving it up. After all, it is really full of useful information.

Holiday Spirit?

Christmas has officially thrown up in my house as much as it ever does. We are not the overachieving family; we don’t even put up any lights outside. I reserve our decorating to a small confined area of the house that takes about ½ the time to take down as it did to put up. I do follow the tradition of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and in that time I like to have holiday music going in the background and it is ever so much more happy if the weather outside is below 80 degrees (pretty nice for Florida). 

This year it was like pulling teeth to get the kids involved. The teenager did her duty with dignity and the right amount of kissing mom’s butt to appease her. The boy and the little one were not remotely interested in getting the tree up. Internally I was thinking “whoa” is this the sign that my young ones have stopped believing? Has the magic of Christmas left my home? I’m not ready for that reality! I mean I’ve joked about it for years but now that I’m on the cusp of this thing, this non-magical, no longer being able to frightened them in to good behavior by the mere mention of Santa’s name, no longer able to look at their innocent little faces and see the twinkle of Christmas in their eyes (okay maybe I’m exaggerating here), the love of Christmas will be reduced to “here mom, here’s my list”. 

I mean seriously what is wrong with this picture “the teenager” appeased me but not my 11 and 8 year old!?! Is this the twilight zone? I think at this point I’m the bigger kid than they are. I love the old movies and cannot wait to watch White Christmas and It’s a wonderful life. It’s pretty bad when my loving husband can see the look on my face, take pity on me and leaves the Christmas music on for a full 30 minutes after walking in the door just in an attempt to make me happy. 

In my head we should be some damn corny movie from back in the day. I want the whole shebang and I don’t think I should have to settle. I want the house that looks like a damn magazine spread, with the music playing in the background and the roaring fire, the dancing in our living room for no other reason than that we are so taken up by the feeling of the season it overwhelms our desire to do anything else. Is that too much to ask? Really? Okay I’m delusional, but it makes me smile so it’s harmless enough.

Black Friday

Every few months, I think more and more about writing blogs. I say to myself that I am finally going to commit and then the next thing you know it’s been 9 months since I last logged on and gave it a real whirl (no wonder I have no readers). Here’s my second attempt in 2012.

The holiday’s are here and black Friday madness ensued last night, I have yet to turn on the TV today to see how many people were trampled or shot, all of this fun to save that 30% on the item you really didn’t need but it was such a great deal you braved the crowds anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I love the black Friday madness and for many years I braved the crowd in search of the same saving’s. 

For me (and maybe I’m alone here) black Friday prepping is good fun, you get all the sales ads, and store maps when provided and you map out your plan of attack. It’s like prepping for a pirate attack on another ship; this is real strategy in play here. My girlfriend and I would look at the times the sales started, decide where we needed to be when and then divide our lists and conquer the store and meet up at a rendezvous point and sort out the booty. Last year, my husband decided he needed more excitement in his life (HA! He wrestles crocodiles and handles venomous snakes for a living) he wanted to go with me in lieu of my girlfriend. We had some friends keep an eye on the kids and out we went, he loved all the action and was super psyched by the madness he saw. 

Last year in our local Wal-Mart super store there was a near beat down over some 600ct sheets, and this year had the same. These women are pushing and screaming and cursing in the most colorful word selection I have heard in many years, the F bomb was dropped so many times in those 1-2 minutes that I felt like I was watching a Quentin Tarantino film.  I heard but steered far away from some commotion over a GPS unit, the line was half the length of the store. What amuses me is that the stores get away with causing this chaos.

 In years passed there was semblance of organization, the workers would pass out tickets for the amount they had in stock and when they ran out of tags the end of the line would usually disappear, meaning that you didn’t have people pushing and shoving and screaming and trampling each other over that 89$ GPS unit. I am also in shock that the sales now start as early as 8pm, I mean on the one hand YAY not having to wake up at 3am to get your shopping on, but on the other hand, way to cut into the family time superstore madmen. I personally did the least amount of shopping in my history of black Friday and managed to only be out for a total of 1 hour and spent 30 min of that hour standing in line to pay. Online shopping is so much easier.

As my kids are getting older, I am finding that the need to black Friday shopping is diminishing. I have great, amazing, wonderful kids. I know every mother believes that about her own children, I am not delusional they can be little butts a lot too, and believe me I am the first to admit that. My kids rarely have a giant massive Christmas wish list. They do not ask for a lot and as they get older they as for less. The items on my children’s wish list these days rarely provide an argument for me to brave the black Friday crowds; they are never the things on sale or not a sale I can’t find online. Of course I will regret posting this by next year because they will suddenly “have to have” some ridiculous list of items and I will be back out there beating people down to get them.

First of many rants

What the hell is going on in the world today? Really, I am trying to figure this out.  I am not sure if it is because I am getting *ahem* older that I am paying more attention, or if the world is really changing that much and it's all rearing its ugly head this election year. There are so many of them I don't know where to rant first.

I am not a political genius, I wouldn't even venture to say that I am politically well informed (yes I realize the irony) but I am trying hard to understand why the government is so hell bent on telling us
 A. what we can and cannot do with our bodies
 B. who we can and cannot marry (they get the licensing fees regardless of sex)
 C. what should and should not be covered by insurance companies
 D. what does and does not constitute a slut.

Really the list could go on and on. I saw today an article about a Republican Senator spouting about single mothers causing child abuse by not being married, REALLY!?!? How on earth does the blame not fall on the father's as well for starters. Also, are we going to begin charging them with child abuse? Sounds crazy right, but at the rate the insanity is spreading it doesn't seem all that far off. 

What's even funnier to me is, the government is extremely vocal about abortion and the evil's of it , they don't want women to take birth-control pills, they don't want anything other than abstinence only sex education in the schools and NOW they want to blame the women for being single-moms too??

Is this some sick sadistic not so passive aggressive punishment  women had coming to them for that evil women's liberation movement. Is it a ploy to beat us down, and force us back into the kitchen and out of our dastardly free thinking ways. Is it because *GASP* women starting expecting equality in the house as well as outside of it?

I am so perturbed this election year, I'm not sure how much more campaigning I can handle.