NaBloPoMo - check!

72. Post on this blog every day for one month

Well, I did it...I forgot to publish three times, but I wrote every day on the NaBloPoMo theme...

And that was the hardest part - writing to the theme. There were days when I'd already posted once, twice, eight-six times, and I didn't want to post again...but I did!

I'm not sure I'd do it again though. Or maybe I'd do it at a time when I was having trouble writing...I have a backlog of things to post about because there was so much going on in my blog world I was getting overwhelmed...and who wants to read eighty six post from me in one day? I sure don't!

Cookies

She asked. Nicely. Then she patted my cheek and said "They're my favourite" so how could I say no to my kid?!?!

So we have cookies at our house. Please come eat them.

Please.

Penultimate

One more day and I'm done...

It's been a challenge...but I've done it...I'm not sure if I'll do it again...

Unproductive

After my super productive night last night, I felt like I was very productive at work today.

But tonight? Not so much.

I got J into bed, load some laundry into the machine (and promptly forgot about it) and did nothing.

It was kind of nice.

But now I need to strain the broth in the stock pot, do the dishes, hang the laundry, make lunch, and get breakfast ready...in, oh, twelve minutes.

When I am going to learn to do the chores first and do nothing later?

Rain

I've had a busy and productive night...tackled a few piles I've been ignoring, made muffins (need to make more...the bananas on the counter look very sad), did some chores, all to the sound of rain falling.

I love the sound of rain...except when I need the weather to be dry. But tonight it was the perfect accompaniment to a night of work...All this work organizing our home is going to pay off...because it will mean that hopefully sometime in the near future, instead of listing to the rain while I work, I'll be listening to the rain, curled up on the couch with my book and a cup of tea!

Sold

We've been sorting through stuff and making piles and tossing stuff...because, almost three years after we moved in, we're ready to get our living room organized. J has been helping me put stuff in the garbage and the donate pile and has been fine with that. She even picked out some of her toys to donate.

But today we sold a piece of furniture. It has never fit well and most recently was a source of stubbed toes for all of us because it was IN THE WAY.

J helped us carry it outside to the lady's car and said goodbye. But tonight, at bedtime, we had a long conversation about why the lady took our stuff and how it was something that J really, really, really liked and how we were eventually going to get some great new stuff to replace it and no, the new stuff was not going to have a special treat (read: food) in it, but maybe it would be a place to keep toys. And the whole time all I could thing was, "I can't believe someone actually paid real money for that piece of junk..."

I wonder what else people will buy...

Frazzled

I can't wait for the sick winter to leave our house. I have high hopes that it will happen soon since it's finally spring! I spent two hours putting J to bed and went straight to bed myself. I was anticipating a long night. Looks like I might be in for it. I just spent 45 minutes settling her again...and realized, in the nick of time, that I hadn't posted today!

EDIT March 17 @ 8:22 am: And didn't post or even save this last night...just closed the computer. Talk about frazzled. Thank goodness for auto-save!

Viral

I lost track of the number of days I've had to take off work or work from home since January a long time ago. This afternoon I got a call to come get J because she was sick...again.

And we spent a long time at the doctor's office.

And she still has a virus. Maybe it's the same one. Maybe it's not. But she just needs fluids and rest. And she can go back to daycare on Monday. But our weekend plans are thwarted...we were having our Stewart cousins over for dinner, but the doctor said no way to babies with no immune system hanging out with J....sigh...

Weekend

Tomorrow is the weekend...I'm so glad. This week has felt so long...it hasn't been a bad week or a week of sick kid or a particularly stressful week, it just feels like it's been dragging...

Our weekends have been very full lately - I'm looking forward to a slower pace this weekend - J only has lessons on Sundays now...I think we will avoid the double header of toddler activities in the future!

Scattered

My brain is.

My kitchen is.

My laundry isn't. It's nicely folded but I can't put it away because the small person who lives at my house is currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor right up against her dresser.

My office is. But it's getting better.

My bedroom is. And it might be getting worse.

I need more hours in the day and more days in the week....

Browsing

I have a terrible browsing habit...I've been wandering the real estate website again...when I should be doing other things: sleeping, washing the dishes, tidying my house.

We're not planning on moving anytime soon. But I keep getting sucked in. I don't even know what we could afford, but it's nice to dream.

I'd like an extra bedroom. I'd like a yard for J to play in and for me to plant a garden. I'd like a driveway and maybe even a garage. I'd love a den or office for our computer. I'd love two extra bedrooms.

But I like our little place and we're working to make it home...I don't think we'll be moving before 2012 hits (and apparently that's when the world is ending, so why move before that?!?!)

Routine

As we come out of the cycle of illness (AGAIN!), I am reminded (AGAIN!) of how much easier life is when we follow our routines.

Mornings are smoother. We usually get out the door on time. And we often have time for a quick story or two before we leave the house.

Meals are smoother. Doing some prep the night before and sticking to the plan makes it a lot easier to come home and get dinner on the table and into hungry tummies quickly.

Bedtime is smoother. We stuck to J's routine while she was sick as much as possible, but when the other routines are in place, bedtime is less drawn out. Tonight J even told me when she was going to bed - a whole 15 minutes earlier than I was going to suggest. But I'm not going to argue with that!

The laundry pile doesn't turn into a monster, capable of devouring a full-grown human. I'm in panic laundry mode right now...at our house that means trying to do four loads a night - two that hang and two that can go in the dryer. That means counting the number of items that go in the hanging loads to make sure we don't run out of room on the racks (I miss the Blue House with the laundry lines in the basement and no rules against moving the rack outside when the weather is nice)

Mommy is less cranky. Because the house is tidier. There are fewer arguments. There is more sleep.

And on that note, I'm going to try to go to bed - I messed my own routines up tonight by falling asleep when J went to bed...

Spring

Spring has sprung and it looks like Mother Nature got the memo. Sunny skies, mild temperatures. No rain. We've got an afternoon trip to the playground planned and we're taking sidewalk chalk with us. Because it won't melt into the pavement...it's dry!

Our house is disheveled looking...we're not really spring cleaning because I try to be on top of that kind of stuff, but the pleasant weather is a motivator to get the house organized and sorted. Maybe because it hints at the lovely weather to come and I don't want to spend my summer inside, organizing. I want to spend it outside, playing.

Spring is my least favourite season, but I love it and I'm glad it's here. And maybe, just maybe the various bugs that have visited our house this year will take the spring hint and leave...winter is over. No more sickness please!

Cupcakes

My husband decided to bring a treat home for all of us tonight...

Just because.

And we loved our treats.

Except...well, it's long after bedtime and a certain two year old is still singing at the top of her lungs...we're pretty sure it's a sugar rush...

But I thoroughly enjoyed mine and am now heading to bed leaving Alex, bearer of the lovely treat, to look after the sugar monkey...

Foggy

The day after a migraine, I wander around with a migraine hang over. How bad that fogginess is depends on how bad the migraine was.

So.

Today I'm tired. I want to be in my bed. I need more sleep. I feel a bit foggy, but I'm functioning.

Which means it wasn't that bad.

I wasn't nauseated and didn't vomit yesterday. I could eat this morning. I don't have a lingering headache today. I'm tired but not crabby. I'll likely be tucked into my bed by about 9:00, maybe 9:30 tonight. I don't have the shakes. My eyes don't hurt.

It's all good.

Mother nature, please try not to have any more mood swings for a while...my brain will thank you...

Migraine

Brutal.

Debilitating.

Not conducive to blogging.

Acceleration

I don't talk about work much here...there are all kinds of reasons for that.

But things have changed dramatically this week. In a good way.

If you put all the little pieces of the puzzle that I've been dropping all over the place for the last year together, you've probably figured out that there was a bit of a shake up about a year ago (hello, no posts in March 2010, but I'm making up for that this month) that resulted in some major restructuring and a number of the people in my department being laid off.

I ended up in a new department. And for the first little while I didn't know what to tell people I did when they asked. Because I didn't do a whole heck of a lot. But in the last three days we've gone from zero to 120...we're in high gear and moving fast...and it's just going to get faster. I have three big projects sitting on my desk and I'm ready to get them done.

And I'm so excited! I love the way my job has evolved. I'm tired, but I expect that...every time I start a new job, I find I spend the first month exhausted as I adjust to the new routine...and somehow having less time to do things has made me more efficient. Working hard all day means I want to come home to a relaxing house...so I'm super motivated to organize everything so that life can be as smooth as possible the moment J and I walk through the door before dinner.

Fixation

Don't ask me why, but I have this one thing on my mind and I can't get it to go away. I keep trying to write something interesting and my brain slides back over to that fixation. It's not very interesting. I don't want to write about it. It's not important. But it won't go away.

So I'm going to bed.

Goodnight!

Insomnia

Someone at my house has insomnia.

And it's not me.

And it's not Alex.

But someone's insomnia means we're both awake too!

Our delightful toddler was awake from just after 11 until about 5 this morning.

She wanted to eat breakfast and go to daycare.

She had a sore finger, thumb, tongue, ear, elbow, nose, eyelash, baby toe, belly button, you name it. The sore spot changed every three minutes too.

We rubbed her back and gave her a quick cuddle and left.

We ignored her.

We rocked her.

We sang to her.

We moved her to our bed.

We moved her to a makeshift bed on our floor.

We closed her door and let her scream.

We closed her door and let her play.

We closed her door and let her read.

We gave her water to drink.

We gave her a snack to eat.

We tried to get her to put her jammies on.

We spoke quietly.

We whispered.

We didn't speak at all.

We shouted.

We pulled our hair out.

There were tears.

She lay on a makeshift bed on her floor.

She went potty eight-seven million times and after the third time exclaimed with surprise "Nothing came out" every time she went.

She figured out how to get out of her crib.

Then she demanded that we go RIGHT NOW and get her a big girl bed that she could climb out of that wasn't "dang-ger-us"

(not necessarily in the order above and we tried some things MORE THAN ONCE)

And then, then she passed out. I woke up at 8:30, 2 1/2 hours later than normal, to find a toddler was taking up 5/6 of the bed. Which left Alex and I with 1/12 of the bed...each. We were both hanging on to the edge of the bed for dear life.

I am a mean mom. I made her get up and have breakfast and go to daycare.

You know what I found out? She's not the only one at daycare to have given her parents massive grief last night.

I hate you, time change.

Change

I'm okay with change. Most of the time. Really.

But not this change.

This is a change I hate.

I DO NOT LIKE the time change...

UGH...

I hated the spring time change before I had a kid - I didn't mind the fall change so much...that extra hour of sleep is nice - I don't like losing an hour. Now that we have J, both time changes suck! She either wants to stay up all night and won't get up in the morning (that would be RIGHT NOW) or she gets up early and is ready for bed before dinner is over (that would be in the fall)

We're less than a day into this and I already hate it...I don't envy the daycare tomorrow - 12 kids who think it's too early for a nap sounds like not much fun to me!