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December 24, 2005

Kids 4 (and Counting) - Mom 0 (but Improving)

I wrote the following Thursday night. I’ll give a brief recap at the bottom:

I am on a train heading to San Francisco for a holiday party. At home, there are messes to clean, laundry to fold, and client work to do.

It is indeed a hectic holiday season, but I have paced myself pretty well.

This evening's entertainment will be a nice time to relax, but I can’t help thinking that it would have been a bit nicer on a weekend night. I know there is work to be done still for a client before tomorrow. The excuse that it is the day before the holiday weekend and my kids aren’t in preschool wouldn’t fly, even though I have a suspicion that this client is at a holiday destination rather than in the office!

The kids have been a bit rowdy, which isn’t surprising since it has been raining and they haven’t had preschool. I had bought the Cat some art projects to do, but errands and other messes got in the way of setting up the kitchen table with glue and other potentially messy products.

Yesterday, I put Splig in his crib so that I could take a shower. Although I usually wait until his naptime, I wanted to buy some double stick tape for our Christmas cards. I wanted the assembly addressing and stamping to occur ASAP and during the valuable naptime. However, I didn't want to go to staples with grimy hair!

After my shower, I heard the cat giggling. He ran into the bathroom, replaced his grin with a serious look and solemnly announced, “He made a big, big mess. I didn’t give anything to him!"

Splig was covered in diaper cream. The crib bars were covered in cream. The cream was from the bottom shelf of the changing table, out of Splig’s reach.

The Cat then admitted he had given the cream to his brother. “That was not a good idea?” he asked, explaining that he wanted to make Splig happy.

I removed Splig from the crib after cleaning him as best as possible. As I cleaned the crib bars and changed the sheets, I heard more giggling.

This time, Splig was covered in shaving cream. I put him back in his crib to clean up the fluffy white mess in the bathroom.

I forgot that the paper towels from my diaper-cream cleaning were on the changing table. Splig unrolled them waist-high.

I wanted to just freeze the scene, take a nap, and then return to erase the chaos. But the juggling continued.

Downstairs, Splig poured out a bowl of pasta. The cat smooshed a cereal bar under a plastic ball, mashing the jelly innards on the kitchen floor. Splig squeezed his bottle over his head, pasting his hair down with chocolate milk mousse. The Cat decided to play with PlayDoh (“I will clean it up, mommy!”)

Let’s just say there is still pasta on the floor (after several rounds of cleaning, then feeding and throwing) the cereal bar has been cleaned, but PlayDoh keeps popping up in unexpected places. And before I left for my various errands, Splig had poured out a bag of corn chips onto the carpet

The good news is that 100 holiday cards have been created, signed, addressed, and mailed (even the ones to Switzerland and Tokyo!) I have more to create, but the majority are done. (And the stack of unwrapped presents is now an impressive tower on the stairs and a pile under the tree.)

And the client for whom I am busily updating has been happy with what I have produced thus far. I want to give him "one last update" before the holidays, so will do some work this evening, but then I think I can safely enjoy the weekend before continuing the revision process

Today husband was home, albeit sick. I got my hair highlighted, ran to the office to pick up mail and distribute paychecks, and delivered a CD player to my grandmother so she can listen to some holiday music. it made more sense to stay out where I was running errands than to come home before heading out to the city, so I hung out at my parents house for a bit before getting on the train

I am heading off to a holiday party for the "young" alumni of my high school alma mater. It will be the first time I have been able to go, so I am looking forward to it.

I am typing on my Treo using a portable keyboard that husband just got. I believe Santa is bringing me one too, given the excitement with which I greeted husband’s: "I could type on the train! Or in those awkward 20 minutes before picking the boys up from preschool!" Indeed, typing this way is much easier than with the tiny phone keyboard.

It has been a nice productive way to spend the train ride. I will now be off to hopefully enjoy the party.

--

Recap written 12/24/2005:

The party was indeed fun. The walk there was a bit perplexing, as the map I was given took me a circular route to get there. Thankfully, I got someone to drive me back to the train station so I wouldn’t have to navigate the rather empty streets alone.

I saw some classmates who I hadn’t seen in years, sometimes up to about ten years. The alumni relations director bought me a beer, but I promptly spilled it on my nice new Nikon D50: not the way to start out the evening! Food and conversation were great and the time flew.

When I returned home, the atmosphere was not so merry. The house was still a mess and I saw that several clients had emailed me with updates. My brother had informed me that one employee would be leaving the next day, so I would have to do the final check and other termination procedures. Our accountant wrote that he was going on vacation, so could I please send him our backup by Friday morning? Meanwhile, I had a list of things that were supposed to be entered before creating the backup for the accountant.

Long night short, at 3:15am I finally made my way upstairs. 90% of my work had been done and the house was clean. (I should note that Husband helped me clean once the Cat had gone to bed. Also, Husband would like me to mention that the cake he baked for my mom’s 60th was made from scratch, as was the frosting: no box for that man!)

I did 5% of my work the next day, but the other 5% simply didn’t get done. In the case of one client, I will email him with the update Monday. In the case of another client, she didn’t call me back after I had some questions, so I cannot proceed.

Although I definitely have some items on my to-do list, I will push them aside until Monday so that I can enjoy the holiday weekend. I did the final five Christmas cards yesterday that will be mailed today. The Cat and I made some peppermint bark last night that turned out fabulously, so we may buy more chocolate to make more this afternoon. Then it will be off to spend Christmas Eve with eleven children and at least sixteen adults.

Merry Night Before Christmas!

Posted by karianna at December 24, 2005 10:38 AM

Comments

Posted by: Julie at December 25, 2005 06:00 PM