Favorite List Ever!

We are quarantined. Oh, goody.

This is someone's (not mine) sick joke. Because now when I don't feel like praying for death, life will look rosy again.

Husband and the kids are on a Planet Earth marathon and I'm making lists. I think I've spent four hours making the Thanksgiving meal plan, shopping list, timeline, etc. My two weeks menu plan. To-do for the Relief Society Christmas Dinner. Christmas crafting lists. Christmas break activities. I use the little Post It note Windows program to post them all over my laptop. "Pinning" just isn't the same for me. I like my lists. It's my way of doing something without having to actually move or do anything.

My favorite list has been one I've worked on over the last couple of days. It might be my very favorite list of all time! It's my 30 Before 30. It's not a new concept. Anyone who is anyone has been there done that. That's kind of what prompted it. John urged me to come up with something special to do that was just for me. Everything that came to mind initially had to do with either something for the kids or the house. It kind of sent me into panic mode and on a mission. I'm still a somebody!

What I like about the idea compared to a bucket list is that there is a time constraint so the activities have to be realistic. Sure, I'd like to bike the Great Wall and bask in the Shire, but hello?! I've got four (that I know of) sets of braces to cover. And then there's the whole being the complete food source for a small human. It kinda cramps my globe trotting style.

And so...the countdown starts...624 days...

Go on a Llama trek

Swim with dolphins

Go paintballing

Snowboard at Lake Tahoe

Take a ballroom dance class

Make sushi

Ice skate in Yosemite

Go to Yellowstone

Handgun safety certification

Learn to play bridge

Start the TKGA Master Knitter course

Go to Studio 49 Retreat

Go indoor surfing

Take all my sewing machine classes

Practice yoga thirty days in a row

Do a mudrun type obstacle course/run

Ride in a hot air balloon

Spin from our bunny

Take all the kids on a bike ride

Have a sleepover with just my sisters

Do 30 Day Shred for the full 30 Days

Learn what all the numbers mean on my camera

Finish my Kelmscott sweater

Buy a really nice purse that does not have to double as a diaper bag

Build and plant my window boxes every season

Purchase something with my name or initial on it

Go to a concert

Get a really good tan

Start violin lessons again (Greatest regret of my life!)

Read Jane Austen's six novels

Fill 'er up.

This week has been brutal. I don't think I sat down for more than three minutes for two days straight, unless I was in the car. That is even more sad since I have a nursing baby. Thankfully, Squishy would nurse upside down if she had to. On top of the physical exhaustion that accompanies the running of our house, this week was especially emotionally exhausting. I can schlep kids, change diapers, and pack snacks all the live long day, but add to that the emotional needs of everyone and I'm left feeling like I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I am working on filling it back up.

Yesterday I thought she was calling to check on me because of my last post. Turns out she was just calling to check on me. God love her! Phone time with someone that "gets" me is...I don't even know how to explain it. But it is good. Then I spent the evening sewing with a chick I can like. I finished four rows on my quilt. Huzzah! It might be done for Christmas after all. Miss8 wrote me a love letter while I sewed that reminded me of just why we are doing this. Beezus told me a story that confirmed to me that while I'm not her "mom", she trusts me and I am her go-to. She knows she can count on me and that I'll be there for her. That's got to count for something. Husband brought me onion rings and a Dr. Pepper. He said he'd split it with me because I'm trying to limit my intake to once a week. He knew better and let me drink the whole thing. True love, baby. This afternoon when I called him and said I was hitting a brick wall he made me promise to take a nap. When I agreed he told me he was on his way home. I slept for three hours and woke up this evening in time for Family Game Night. He had fed them all dinner and was cleaning up the kitchen. I could not even begin to think of doing this without him.

I might run away for an hour tomorrow to have lunch by myself in the car, but a couple more onions rings and another Dr. Pepper and I should be ready to face another week.

Back in January I was heavy and uncomfortable at 36 weeks pregnant. My husband was on the other side of the planet and Erick was in arm restraints and being syringe fed after his recent palate surgery. He stood in front of the pantry one afternoon in pain and pointing at a bag of chips. With his arms stuck straight out he screeched, and cried, and pleaded, "Meeeee eeeeaaaat!"

I went into my closet and cried.

I thought, "This is the hardest thing I've ever done."

This is so much harder than that.

Parenting is some rough stuff.

Every mother should have a Hannah. Hannah is cute, and fun, and paints polka dot nails, and she has started coming once a week for a couple of hours so I can have an extra pair of hands, go to Parent Teacher Conference... or blog. She's out on the play structure right now painting Porkchop's nails blue and orange- like a dinosaur.

Thanks to Hannah I am now posting Halloween pics.

You should know that my dreams of a family coordinated Halloween almost died hard when I had to referee the cat fight over who was going to be Alice. I couldn't just say I was going to be Alice because I AM THE QUEEN and I did not want to have three Alice's. I know we could have, but that's not the point in coordinating the whole thing. Then Beezus wanted to choose her costume. A brown recluse. A brown recluse!?! You're killin' me. So a brown recluse it was. At least it wasn't something slutty.

So that's how it went down.

Halloween 2012. Brought to you by the letters "S" and "W" (for spider and web).