Crazy Days of December (An Impromptu Thursday 13)
Posted on : 17-12-2009 | By : Amber | In : Me, Myself and I, The Whole Shebang, Thursday Thirteen
Tags: thursday 13
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No month seems shorter, flies faster and disappears as quickly as December. It’s a month filled with fun and joy and full of things incomplete, projects undone and plenty of things put off until January. Or at least, that’s how it is for me – maybe you’ve got it all together!
Every night I go to bed and I lay there thinking, “Oh and that’s got to get done and this hasn’t been finished and I’d better get this done…”
We’ve officially passed the halfway point of the month, there are only 7 days til Christmas and THIS is what keeps running through my brain (It just so happens I thought of 13 things! I didn’t have to try very hard either. So here’s an impromptu Thursday Thirteen for you:)
- I haven’t mailed Christmas cards. Or written a Christmas letter. Or at the very least taken a snapshot of the kids in front of the tree and emailed a Christmas greeting to friends and family.
- I leave for my mom’s house in 3 days and I have a lot of housework that I want to get done before I go – not to mention the packing.
- Weeks ago the kids and I bought supplies to make an ornament ball wreath and these three tree decorations, but we haven’t done either one of them.
- I have taken pictures of the decorations I do have up, but haven’t uploaded, edited or blogged/facebooked them.
- In fact, I’m pretty sure there are pictures on my camera nearly a month old, and more on my computer older than that, that haven’t been edited and shared on Facebook.
- Speaking of a month ago, I bought a box of hair color when I was down at my mom’s the last week of October AND IT’S STILL IN THE CABINET. I’d really like to get that done soon – somewhere between not getting gifts wrapped and not blogging and not getting craft projects done.
- Oh – And the presents? I still have a few small things to pick up but haven’t been able to go shopping without the kids. My mom doesn’t know it yet, but I’m planning on doing that after we get down there.
- I have two presents wrapped and under the tree, but there are a few gifts in my bedroom that haven’t been wrapped yet. Need to do that before we go, so that I’m not transporting unwrapped gifts in the car. Too risky!
- Of course we’re still doing school, too. I don’t want to take a break right now because we’re going to take a break next week. While we’re down there we’re going to do some fun things together with our extended family, but I’m taking a little bit of school work and hoping they can do a few things during downtime in the first half of the week. One thing I learned from Thanksgiving was to include an off day at the beginning of the next week for recovery.
- We’re taking family pictures at my mom’s and we’re all supposed to have shirts in certain colors and I have no idea what we are all going to wear.
- I also have no idea what I am making/bringing for the Christmas meal. But I’m sure my mom is going to let me know when I get there!
- I wanted to purge the kids toys and clothes some before Christmas got here and take them to the women’s shelter. At this point I’m wondering if that’s going to happen – perhaps on Saturday?
- Oh! And my mother-in-law wants to pick up some clothes for my husband for Christmas and my husband wants me to go with her — did I mention I’m leaving in three days??
I need two of me. Or four. Four would be better.
I don’t want to stress out, and I’m not yet. But I know me and I know that by Saturday I will be stressed out from all the things that haven’t been done. Not so much the craft stuff, but the present wrapping, the packing, the cleaning… That’s the sort of thing that’s gonna get me.
And I was hoping to get some blogging done and some bloggy maintenance done while I was down at my mom’s next week. You know, year end posts, and I have finally upgraded wordpress on half of the blogs (because there are seven installations and the automatic upgrade that has always worked stopped working – of course.) But the week is filling up with lots of stuff to do – and that’s a good thing. It just means less down time pecking things out on the keyboard. Oh well!
Yes, Christmas is going to be here in a flash and there will be more pictures taken, more chores to do and so on. Next time you blink we’ll be in January and I’m going to have a to-do list the size of Mt. Everest!
Do you feel inspired? I’m trying to draw you in and get you to read about these thirteen blogs I admire.
– I’ve always wanted one of these! It “BEATS” the heck out of a hand mixer. (Ar, ar.) The fact 
that you add attachments just makes it even neater. I really think I’d use it and I don’t think I’d mind the kids helping so much if all they had to do was dump it in. I think.
- Just one of the many attachment packages. Just think, if you get this it’s like having a mixer and food processor all in one! I’m sitting here thinking about how much faster it would make taco prep! We eat tacos quite frequently and all the shredding of the lettuce and cheese and slicing of the tomatoes and onions – oh my! This would make things so much faster.
- Okay, okay, definitely a one (or in this case two) use item. Typically I like multi-functional items, but as much as I like coffee.. yeah, I think I’d like to have one of these. At least I hope I’d use it. Hmm… perhaps I should borrow one first. Anybody?Anybody?…
– Okay I KNOW I’d use one of these. I’d definitely like to have one of these
as opposed to just an ice cream maker because you can make sorbets and frogen yogurts healthier and lower fat than ice cream. (Notice I said CAN. I’m sure you can also fatten up frozen yogurt with delicious add-ins, but let’s pretend for a moment that we’re being really good and healthy.) My kids and I go through a ton of popsicles during the summer and though their cheap, I think I’d much rather make something with real fruit in it to cool off with instead of frozen sugar water. Still, in the meantime, I’ll keep stocking up on those frozen sugar-cicles.
– Now these are neat. A friend of mine has one (not sure what brand) and she was telling me about using all kinds of vegetables from their garden along with other fruits to make different juice and their kids were loving it. Imagine sneaking in some extra green and yellow veggie by throwing in some carrots or zucchini? Love. It.
– This one is a bit more practical since I’m low on pantry space, and it would really be nice to have more room. It would also be nice to have two pantry spaces, one for everyday items and this week’s dry goods, another for extra and overstock goods. It sounds nice in theory right? Still, the place where I’d put it is currently occupied by a baker’s rack that belongs to my landlord. So until the day it goes back to her, I guess I really won’t have a place to put one of these.
- Okay, another one I hope I’d use. Ideally, I’d have a garden. Of course, garden’s work better if you actually water them, and I think it would be easier to have a garden in the ground (rather than a container 
garden) because they dry out quicker. But IDEALLY I’d have a garden and I’d use this for all sorts of canning goodness. Salsa, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, etc. Or at the very least I’d travel to a U-pick farm and stock up on lots of fruits and veggies that way. But seeing as how my garden is not thriving (again, the whole water thing) and I have yet to attempt to can anything (some things you can can on the stove top in a hot water bath)… this one is still a bit hypothetical.
– How cool is this? Oh, come on… think about it! You don’t have to touch that trash can? The kids would love it. Do you think it would encourage them to actually throw their trash away? One could only hope. And hopefully I wouldn’t be finding all sorts of things that didn’t belong in there, tossed in by a 3 yr old just looking for an excuse to use it. The product description says it uses little enough battery that the 4 D cells can operate 10,000 consecutive lid openings – how long do you think it would take my kids to hit 10,000??
– I’ve always wanted a pot rack. I think it makes a kitchen look professional and “gourmet.” Perhaps I only want one so I can create the illusion of gourmet. You know, the cooking is pretty standard, but hey! look at that fancy pot rack hanging there – doesn’t it look special? Hm, perhaps this is a topic for another post: “My gourmet cooking skillz or lack thereof.” I’ll get right on that.
– Another one I’d really use. Great for buying bigger packages of meat and sealing them into smaller packages. Or what about when I prepare extra pancakes and throw them in the fridge for toaster pancakes later? And I could do the same with cookies and brownies and muffins – Oh my! I like the sound of this. For some reason, I’m feeling a little hungry now.
– My mom is laughing at this one. My mom would laugh at anything that has been “as seen on tv.” Mom. Really. I would use this. Think about it in a less one dimensional sort of way. It’s not just for brownies. Like cornbread? Like the crust? Imagine each one invidually, completely crusted. Yum-O. And those brownies, banana oat muffins, and cookies I’ll bake up, seal with my vacuum sealer and toss into the freezer for later in the week? How about individual and easy to cool and freeze baked treats? See this one and the last one can go hand in hand. Okay mom, you can stop laughing now.
– I already make tortillas. WITH MY ROLLING PIN. Don’t get me wrong. It works. But 
Y’ALL. I think a press would really make this a whole lot easier, don’t ya think? I’ve seen some really nice electric ones but at the very least, a handpress would at least speed things along. (I’m a little slow with the rolling.) But the results are so worth it. Homemade tortillas are much better than storebought. Really, you should try it.
– Why hadn’t I thought of this before? I mean, I’ve thought about getting a tortilla keeper for the tortillas but I’ve never thought about using them for pancakes. And waffles, too! That’s a great idea. Everybody would get to enjoy hot tortillas or flapjacks. Suhweet!
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