Mondays

Do you dread Mondays? I love them. Especially after a long weekend like this one has been. Having all five of us at home all day makes the house very disorganized and even when we all do a quick pick up here and there, the house just needs a break sometimes! So on Mondays I literally spend the entire day putting the house in order. I do all the dishes, all the laundry (and try to fold and put most of it away), I clean out the fridge of leftovers, make my grocery list, go grocery shopping, and just generally put things in their right places – this last job can take hours alone. And of course whatever else I see needs to be done. The result – a tired me at the end of the day, but it’s worth it because then I have minimal work the rest of the week. I finish putting the laundry away on Tuesday and then don’t think about it again until Friday or Saturday. The rooms are easy to pick up when they start out somewhat in order.

Today I also squeezed in an hour to make a receiving blanket for a baby shower gift for a shower I’m going to tomorrow night. Luckily Lily took two long naps today so I was able to get a lot done.

For some reason I have a different kind of momentum on Mondays. A couple weeks ago I decided to go to playgroup at a museum instead of doing my usual Monday routines. It was extremely detrimental to the rest of my week! Although I did wash all the laundry, I didn’t get it all folded and put away even a week later. I was behind on the dishes constantly, and my house just felt like a depressing mess all week. So I definitely avoid doing anything fun on Monday mornings. Do you have a similar routine on Mondays or is it a different day of the week for you – Saturdays, perhaps? I think Mondays work best for me because I’m kind of a control freak and so when it’s just me and Cam and Lil at home I can reconquer the house again on my own.

I think I will sleep well tonight. Happy Monday to you.

Family of Five

On Thanksgiving we had my uncle Travis take some pictures of our little family of five. Nothing professional – just a few quick snapshots to document that we are indeed a family of five! (Plus something to put on the Christmas card this year!)

Second favorite picture:

Avery looks great. Merrick and I look decent. Camryn and Lily are a little stoic but overall not bad. We actually got Lily smiling in one picture, but the rest of us didn’t look as great:

I suppose I could try some photoshopping skills to get her smiley face in the first picture, but I ended up liking this pose/shot best:

Kind of cute in sepia too:

Anyways, it’s official. We’ve got a family picture of all of us! If you’d like a Christmas card from our family, let me know in the comments and I’ll email you for your address.

It’s beginning…

… to look a lot like Christmas!

Yes, we put up the tree today. I think this may be a record for the earliest Merrick has let me put up the Christmas tree. But it seems like this Christmas season is just going to fly by for some reason and I just can’t wait for it to begin!
We thought about forgoing our traditional star atop the tree and instead placing an angel on top….

… but we figured the star was a safer bet. :)
We also started a new tradition – Elf on the Shelf. Have you heard of it? It’s kind of big right now and super fun for kids.

You buy the book and elf doll, and when you name your elf he gets his magic and he turns into a scout elf for Santa, always watching the kids to see if they’re naughty or nice. He goes to the North Pole to report every night and then returns to a new place in your house. Sometimes the elves do silly/mischievous things! We’ve done it three days now and the kids love it! Avery came up with the name Doodle for him and we liked it. I’ll do a post soon showing some of the places he’s shown up each day. It’s a fun idea and not too late to start this tradition in your family for the holiday season. :)

I hope the beginnings of your Christmas season are great too!

Wiped Out!

Wow, I'm exhausted! The past few days really wore us out. On Wednesday I did a bunch of prep work for Thanksgiving dinner. Thursday morning was cooking and getting everyone ready to go, then we went over to my aunt and uncle's home from about 12-7pm. Yummy food, football and movies, lots of coloring for the kids. It was great. When we got home and put the kids to bed we then had to figure out if there was anything we wanted to buy on Black Friday. Most of the stores opened at midnight this year and since part of Merrick's job is checking out Kohl's competitors on Black Friday, he went out to observe and join in the madness! He was gone from 12-4:30. He called and texted a few times to give me updates, which I was barely coherent enough to understand. There were a few doorbusters at Target I wanted him to grab for me and that involved him standing in the world's longest line from 2:30-3:30am! Poor guy.

I got about 6 hours of sleep and then Lily woke me up at 6:30. She went back to sleep luckily but Avery woke up a few minutes later so I was up. I got dressed and told Avery to wake up Daddy when Lily woke up and I left to go do a little shopping of my own. I went to JoAnn Fabric, of all places, actually. They were having a killer deal that was perfect for a project I'm working on. I got 3 1/3 yds of snuggle flannel fabric for $5. Plus a few other things. Sweet deal. And it wasn't even too busy. So I was back home in an hour and everyone was up but Merrick was ready to go back to bed. So he went back to sleep for a couple more hours.

Around 1pm I decided to run down to the mall to get some $15 jeans from Old Navy. I knew it would be crazy there and it was! The store was a mess, I barely found the size I needed, and I had to wait in a 20 minute line to check out. But it worked out. I probably should have shopped some more at the mall but I was tired and Lily was going to be hungry soon so I just went home. And I was sooo exhausted then! When I put Lily down for a nap at 3:30 I slept for an hour too.

I felt better after that but guess who fell asleep watching TV at 7:30pm? Yep, Merrick.

All that baking and eating and shopping wears me out. Does it wear you out too? I'm sure glad Thanksgiving is on a Thursday so we have a long weekend to recover! Hopefully I'll get some good rest tonight so I can gather the energy to decorate for Christmas tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was full of food, family, and Black Friday planning! Merrick just left to go shop. Kinda crazy but he kinda has to for work - so I took advantage and sent him off with a wish list! :)

Have a good night and happy digesting all that yummy turkey and pie!