Whoa, Wednesday!

Say what, Wednesday? By 5:40am, the boys were jockeying for positions next to me in bed, Nutmeg was slinking around trying to crunch on any plastic or cardboard packaging he could find, T was snoring lightly, and the day has pretty much resembled that mayhem ever since. We delivered many teacher gifts, I had a lovely cup of tea with a dear friend, the next few hours are blurry, I picked up the boys, got the Kleenex box (Lucite with a hinged hood; "I am SO proud of my tissue box and will NEVER wake you up again, Mommy."), made the Creature Power Disks, laminated some of them, went to the market, did something else, and spent nearly a half hour driving 1.5 miles home at 6p. My road rage reached epic proportions, and the boys ate dinner in the car. Boo! I just informed T that I would be sleeping in the basement tonight, thank you very much, and am here now desperately longing for my chapstick but otherwise happy. We'll deliver the last few gifts in the morning, I'm to work the craft-making fair for three hours and apparently am in charge of the pomander station (I had to look that up; it appears to be a sort of clove-infused citrus ornamentation), and then hell will have to freeze over before I don't go get a pedicure.

I managed to make the ugliest dinner salad known to man and, as such, refuse to show you the picture of it. It was kale salad with tomatoes, feta and stuffed grape leaves alongside, plus fresh bread, some hummus and some blood orange olive oil. Tasty but wow was it an ugly plate.

Look at the cute jar toppers I got for gifts this year (from myownlabels.com)!! Love!

Motherhood serenity prayer

Yesterday Ol woke me at 4:40 with a booger-removal 911, and again this morning at 5:20. In addition to later going to the Container Store to pick out an exciting Kleenex dispenser that I will insist he start to use rather than coming into my room to access mine AND reminding me that at the ripe age of 4¾ he absolutely can blow his damn nose, I, tired-as-get-out Em-i-lis, am putting this prayer for afternoon serenity out into the ether as we have an after-school craft planned. Crafts and my children aren't the smooth types of experiences Moms of girls get.

Oh goddess of tired Mommies, Please grant me the serenity to appear joyful when hand-laminating Wild Kratt Creature Power Disks this afternoon with the boys... The courage to repeatedly exclaim how totally cool It would be if one could truly "Activate (fill in the animal) Power"... And the wisdom to take periodic bathroom breaks So as to ensure regular intervals of deep breathing restoration.

Whole Foods One Day Deal, funny story, misc

Tomorrow's One Day Deal at participating Whole Foods is a good one: Parm (as in -igiano Reggiano), aged at least 24 months, will be on sale for $9.99/pound versus the usual $19.99/pound. Between friends, I'd buy a few wedges and just keep them in the back of your cheese drawer. This stuff saves forever and is good in SO many ways. I spent the day unsubscribing from various websites and listservs. Honestly, it's all just too much. I love the environment and 99% of animals, but I simply cannot save it and them all and so left several orgs whose emails, in truth, I never read. A real political junkie, I am, nonetheless, bored and disgusted as get-out with our Congress; they set and/or break records for inaction, self-absorption and complete ineptitude on a daily basis these days. So, a few of those groups lost me too. And seriously Angie's List?! Let me go! I don't want to get emails from you anymore. So, I set you as spam today because you refused to honor my request. Boo!

Earlier today, I finished up a big piece of writing- thrilling but bittersweet. When I completed my honors thesis senior year of college, I felt the same way: ecstatic to have it done and simultaneously aware of just how much I'd miss it.

Tonight we're having spaghetti alle vongole -T is making it for me!- and I gotsta be honest, I'm hitting the sack not long afterwards. Lots of cooking to do tomorrow!

As a parting gift, I leave you with a story from one of my best pals: her youngest child, a daughter, is equal parts precious and feisty. My friend and I often commiserate about all that is in store for us as parents of her sweet cha-cha and my Animal House-Oliver. In any case, during bathtime my friend asks her daughter, who is all up in her (own) private parts, "What are you doing?" Little one replies, "There are adventures in there!"

Ain't that the damn truth! Hah!