It’s official. No school for 2 weeks. Yea!!

Our week is packed with fun filled holiday activities, family coming to visit and lots and lots of snow. No doubt our Christmas will be white. I took this photo of Jeremy shoveling this very morning and it’s still falling!! Can you hear the excitement in my voice? It was almost unbearable to send Jeremy off to work today. Drats to being a grown up. We are going to try to hit the slopes as soon as possible.

We all love the snow at our house. Even my dog. He loves rubbing his belly in the newly fallen snow. For some reason I love watching him trample around like a puppy in the fluffy fresh snow. He looks like such a goof. I imagine that his progenitors must have been some kind of cold weather mushing type dog.

This year we went and check out the Candlelight Christmas festivities at This is the Place State Park. It turned out to be pretty cool. They have a couple of reindeer, a live nativity with sheep wander all around, fun little activities and crafts for kids, dancing fully equipped with fiddlers and carolers and a Father Christmas to go meet.

I admit I am lacking in my history of Christmas traditions because I had to go look up “Father Christmas” because that’s what they were calling him there. I wasn’t sure if he was synonymous with Santa or if that is what the pioneers had called him. Because, really, I have never seen a redheaded Santa and was wondered why they chose such a man to do the job.

I have to laugh a bit at this photo because it looks like Father Christmas is trying to force Emma into eating his candy cane and she looks a bit silly about it all with her arms tucked inside of her coat.

Isaac apparently doesn’t like to make eye contact with anyone, including Father Christmas. He never even looks me in the eyes but for a split second. He looked oddly uncomfortable on this redheaded Santa’s lap but I was surprised at his request for a glow station. I had never heard him wanting one. Gosh, I hope Father Christmas comes through for us.

So on to more exciting Christmas adventures. Happy Holidays!

No more gloominess here. We’ve had some fresh snow and even some blue skies. I’m feeling overall better, if any of you are wondering. We did, however, replace the gloom with a fresh round of stomach bugs and viruses. How fun, yes?

Emma spent a day and a half home with the yuckies. Poor thing couldn’t even hold down sprite. As soon as she was feeling up to it she started demanding a craft because what else is a girl to do when she stays home a whole day from school. I was having my turn with the stomach bug so I couldn’t quite whip up a Christmas miracle but we did mange to decorate our whole house with snowflakes. White paper and scissors were the only supplies I could really muster up enough strength to get out.

I’ve decided that I’m an awful photographer, at least with my current point and shoot. If I recall high school photography class I didn’t do that well there either. I, of course, blamed it on the camera then as well -a 18 year old SLR of my dad’s. Ha.

The bright sun made some fun shadows this morning. It inspired me enough to even bother getting out the camera.

So here’s to getting better, enjoying the ever changing weather and getting even more closer to Christmas.

Ya know, it’s funny… I wrote my gloomy post and then the next day the blue sky was peeking out from behind thin clouds and the sun decided to make a presence for a while. Luckily, I was actually outside long enough to feel some warm rays shine down on my face. Felt good and cheered me up a bit.

But, I will admit that I’m still struggling with some female, roller coaster emotions. Aint it great to be two X’s! I am wondering why the tiniest, littlest, itty bitty thing can set us off? You know how it happens, don’t you? When we get upset about something and then we wallow away in despair over every other thing we can think of?

I could be crying over spilled milk (I’m talking about a whole gallon dropped on the floor) and then while I’m on my hands and knees cleaning up the milk I see how dirty it is under the stove. I could then begin to think about what a failure I am at house cleaning and how on earth would I find time to move the stove and clean underneath it. That could bring on a whole new flood of tears. Which in turn, would bring feelings of inadequacies about motherhood and what a crummy wife I might be.

That thought could bring me to the thought that I better defrost the meat for tonight’s dinner, “I should at least get one thing done today,” which actually stops the tears for a minute. It is not until I walk into the bathroom to throw away some tissues from blowing my tear filled nose that I look at my red blotchy face. I might, just then, look closer in the mirror at my wet brown eyes and start wondering who the heck I am and why can’t I just get a grip. This then would cause me to hunch over the sink and look away from the mirror because I don’t like watching myself cry. Gosh, my chin would look mighty funny all crinkled up like that and pretty close to ugly. I certainly don’t want to be ugly. “Who has seen me cry like this?” I might think. This of course would then make me flop down on the toilet seat in a sob of tears. A whole new flood of thoughts about my many imperfections could then ensue. It is perfectly natural to then have the thought about running away. It of course would only be until I was appreciated again and then I would come back. But then I might think that everyone would be just fine without me… after all, I hardly bother cleaning anyway.

At this point, there would be a little patter of feet coming up the stairs. Of course I would be needed at a time when I would want to be alone. But then, in the tears, I would remember how dear those little ones that need me are and that I would never want to leave them to someone else. I would realize what a ridiculous thought of leaving was and try to clean myself up a bit. Sniff, sniff, blow. I would look in the mirror and think “Get a grip, girl!”

The footsteps would then approach mid sniff and I’d hear, “Mommy, what’s wrong?” With all that sweetness there before me, I’d for sure grab the little one and hold them on my lap. That thin soft child hair would brush my cheek and make me think about the jewels I have before me. Questions about why it’s so hard to be the steward over these little people would baffle me. “Everyone else seems to have it together.” I’d breath deep to keep the burn in my eyes down but my chest would begin to heave again, the tears would fall out onto that golden hair and I’d squeeze the little one tighter. A concerned little face would look up because something wouldn’t be quite right. “Does Mommy cry?” It would then be time to control the emotions. I would blow my nose one more time, try not to look in the mirror, swallow down the attacking sob and head out to fix that dinner.

Without the milk, of course.

gloom·y (glm)

I can’t seem to shake this awful feeling of the yucks that I’ve had lately. I’m getting mighty sick of it. I made a great big list of why I feel depressed and it was so pitifully ridiculous I had to delete it all. There was no way I was telling the world how nonsensical I can be.

But I have to say that there is something in writing things down, getting them out of the system. Don’t cha think? It’s similar to talking to a girl friend or your momma… it does give me a little “pick me up” or help me get things into perspective.

I can think of a lot of reasons for my state of depression but it’s pretty easy to point up at the sky and blame it all on the weather. I think I’ve seen a blue sky once all month. This picture was taken the day before thanksgiving and not the best example… but do you see the white fluffy clouds? Now do you see the line of gray smog hanging over the city? The gray is all you can see when you’re down living regular life. Ya, we call that inversion around these parts and it can make winters long, ugly and cold. Not my favorite thing. If it’s going to be cold I want it to be snowing!

So now that it’s the weekend, I’m hoping I can cheer myself up and brighten up this next week a bit.

Here are six reasons that Leah is a Lil’ Stinker:

1. Leah loves running after after Emma and Isaac and making them scream. She has learned to growl a ferocious growl at them that makes them scream and laugh even louder. So the kids have made up this game where they yell “Poison Leah” and then they run around the house trying to not get tagged by Leah. When she gets close enough to tag them they’ll yell “Leah alert, Leah alert!” and then they’ll scatter all over again. She loves it. She loves the kids screaming when she comes near.

2. Leah is way to independent. She’s been getting into everything these days. It’s driving me nuts-o. Every time I turn around she’s pulling something else out. Right now she’s on the hunt for her sippy cup.

3. She wont leave anything in her hair. No ponytails, no pigtails, no barrettes. She’ll immediately be pulling them out as soon as I turn my back. Thus… she is always looking a little… uncared for.

4.Let’s talk about this quarter length jacket. Oh wait, it’s not quarter length! It’s just a 6-12 month size. Shoot. Well, maybe it’s her parents fault that she’s such a lil’ stinker.

5. Leah is obsessed with markers. Markers go straight to the mouth, belly and arms. Somehow her big brother and sister can’t seem to keep the markers up and out of her reach. Maybe they’re lil’ stinkers too.

6. My wireless computer mouse missing. I think I know who’s taken it. I even cleaned the whole house last night. Erggg. This lil’ stinker doesn’t seem to know that I’m trying to get my 2011 template calendars done this week.