Pucker up. Watch for slime.

I got this as a gift ?last year. I told a friend that I didn't think I had ever seen mistletoe, and so as a kind of joke she got this for me. I thought it was funny. Then I read the package. This just isn't your ordinary, run of the mill mistletoe.

It's "Grow Your Own" Mistletoe. What's not to like about that?

The second thing of note is how it's a "great way to get that holiday smooch you've been hoping for." 

This will be funnier later.

It's also interesting to know that it grows to 600% of it's size. So how big is that exactly? (For the record, mine didn't grow that big, but maybe it's because it's a year old.)

Thirdly, "As your toy grows it may distort in shape. This is part of the fun." Really? So now, it's large, soggy, and distorted. Let's not forget fun! Good, distorted fun. Ahhh....

Finally, the part that kills me... "The slimy, icky, texture is normal and harmless."

Did they really just put "icky" in there??? 

So now this Grow Your Own Mistletoe is large, soggy, distorted, slimy and icky. And of coarse harmless and fun. Good stuff!

What I haven't quite figured out yet is... how do you hang it? Remember, it's slimy. And do I really want to risk standing under it? Makes ya wanna reach out and smooch somebody with all that slimy, icky-ness, huh?

**Thanks to P for this humorous gift. I have giggled a lot.

Maintaining Innocence

Our tree. Smells so good.

We're almost there. The hurried errands, the last minute buys, quick trips to the store for forgotten laundry soap. Then, meals will be eaten, family moments made. Soon it will all be quiet, and calm. Visions of sugar plums dancing in heads. Or something of that sort. I can't wait. 

As a mom of many littles, moments of quiet are few and far between, and it seems I'm constantly trying to force out those moments instead of embracing the noise. But soon... I will embrace. Young or not so young, we all have eager anticipation of noisy family gatherings and Christmas morning madness, of finding out what Santa brought, and seeing little faces light up. 

It's a magical age to be young and full of wonder. It can be a little sad when the mystery of the Man in the Red Suit is debunked, an end of innocence, in a way. As George recently turned eight, we're getting close to that, and someone at school told him Santa wasn't real. He brought this up at supper one evening. I quickly whisked him off to another room, away from sibling ears, to have a chat about it. Ok, so now he knows, but don't spoil the fun for other kids who still believe, I told him. It's magical and exciting pretend fun, so play along. He asked if he could tell his cousin. I told him I'd get back to him on that. 

Eventually he did tell his cousin, who wasn't in the least bit interested in believing it. at. all. and many arguments ensued. We actually had to "separate" them and not allow them to hang out for a few days. Funny thing is, apparently George really wasn't sold on it either, and has since decided that Santa is in fact real. I know he's still questioning it, but he's just not quite ready to give up that magic. And that's just fine with me. I'll be happy to keep him my little boy for a little while longer.

Nothing important

I don't really have anything important to say, no great story or moving message. Just a bunch of little, dumb thoughts.

Like... 

I am thinking of making a mini-movie of my baby's feet. Because they're so darned cute, and soon he'll be walking (REALLY SOON) and those cute little feet won't be crawling around my living room anymore. I just love looking at his adorable, curled toes. I'm enamored with how he'll sit on his knees, little toesies sticking out the back. Little round balls of munchkin yumminess.

Arguments with your spouse can be really good for your house. (The bad part about marital spats is when you have to apologize to your spouse for your bad attitude and selfishness. :P) The other night, while I was a pouting brat upset, I put the kids to bed and tackled my "green room." Den? Sitting room? Whatever you call it, it needed some love. Well, my whole house needs love, but I want to put the Christmas tree in there, and I needed to clear a space for it. So while hubby was playing guitar at a neighbors house, I was emptied the room of the smaller furniture, rugs included, dusted, rearranged, and scrubbed the floor on hands and knees with a scrub brush. It has an old wide-planked wood floor that we painted, but it's pointless to wash it with a mop, as evident my the disgusting dirt paths left where rugs didn't cover. Couldn't hardly clean a room and just sorta wash the floor. I was in the midst of this when the Kong walked in at 2AM. He was shocked to 1. find me still awake, and 2. to find me cleaning. I still have a few things that need new homes, to clean off the desktop, and a load for recycling and thrift store, but it looks much improved, a place you'd want to be. The furniture arrangement, and some de-cluttering, helped a lot.

The couch had been under the window, the corner tv stand next to the brown bookshelf.

That couch, while it may be old and the fabric not what you'd choose, is the bomb. It's a Flexsteel, for starters. We got it for $25 at a rummage sale. The fabric is durable and the couch is comfortable. Kong has take many a nap there. All she needs is a couch cover. Yeah... I'll get to that. Eventually. Maybe.

One frustrating part about doing that level of cleaning is that it makes you realize just how badly you need to repaint. Walls and floor. sigh.

This brown bookshelf is NOT the prettiest thing we own. The problem is... it provides some much needed, very functionally important storage, something we seriously lack. By moving the couch to the middle of the room, it created a nicely defined seating area, while still leaving a path to the bathroom (door on the right). By moving the corner tv stand to, ahem, a corner, I was able to actually center the bookshelf on this wall. It may seem like an obvious thing to do, but it made a huge difference in the not-so-ugly-anymore factor. Also, this bookshelf is what you see through the large picture window. A little decluttering (and as I look at this picture I can see already that a storage box has gotten stashed on top of the books. erg.) and yay - eyesore no more.

I wanted to do some kind of Advent activities with the kids. It's December 5th and I haven't started yet. sigh. I have such great intentions and such HORRIBLE implementation. Hello, chore charts and allowances, math facts and reading time? Ugh.

I signed my two preschoolers up for ABCmouse. There was a free month offer so I tried it. It's great. Cheeks loves it. (Boots hasn't had a turn yet.) She has enjoyed the learning games and winning tickets. Just don't set it up without your kid thinking you can go back and set up their avatar. Yeah, that doesn't work. I had to delete each kid and re-add them. Of coarse, you figure that out after sitting  for 20 minutes with a wiggling, impatient child on your lap. But the end result is fun! And learning!

Since I wrote that first thing about the feet, mere minutes ago, Huggyface has taken a step. He takes, usually accidentally, one step, now and then. He also does pretty well at standing on his own, he ever tries to do it, which is so totally cute, and I'm pretty sure yesterday I saw him try to stand up on his own in the middle of the floor.

Cheeks is really into asking why. And... reading the letters off of... well, everything, and asking you what it spells. All these questions could get annoying but I started asking her what she thinks the "why" is, and the letter thing is great because you see her letter knowledge improve and her excitement for early reading.

Ok. School's out and sibling rivalry has begun. Thus ends my blogging. Hopefully I can feed and divide to diffuse further argument.

You Never Know What You're Going To Get

We are ending our first stretch of the years scout/school fundraisers. THANK GOD it's over. Two kids, selling two different things each. EEK!  Last year Koko's order form got lost. Yeah, that made me crazy sweat. And it was lost right at ordering time, so I had to guess what people ordered. I just have to say, God was totally all over that as I ordered stuff with amazing accuracy, completely blind. Sure I ended up with some extras and some shorts, but for the most part, I was right on. Which is simply amazing.

This year, despite my absolute best intentions to prevent disasters, still proved to have it's own share of complications. sigh. Oh well. I finally got to the point where I decided to fix what I can, write a check for the rest, and .... let     it     go. (mumble grumble $91 later for $30 of popcorn. Ok, I'm done.)

With Girl Scout Nut Sales and Cub Scout Popcorn Sales, we had to hit up lots of people. (I tried not to get anyone twice.) They both did great and hit good goals, so their scout pack/troupe should not be disappointed. Koko definitely showed more confidence this year over last year, and George just knocked my socks off with his eagerness and preparation. He took the initiative to put his scout shirt on without me even telling him to, got his things all ready. I coached him just a bit on what to say and what to do, but for the most part he took off and did it himself. At church, I wasn't even by his side; he did it all by himself. Made me so proud. They both do. But now.. the delivery.

Since daylight savings time is now in effect, I was just not quite as eager to go around in the dark to deliver, so the last few days have been a flurry of "get it done." Last night we finished up the popcorn. Tonight was nuts. (haha. You know, nut delivery night. teehee)

You just never know what you're going to get going in to people's homes.

We knocked on the door of one customer's home. I remembered it was an older, ahem, gentleman's home. When he opened the door, I just about dropped my jaw. I told him we were there to delivery the nuts and how much it was. He closed the door and went off to get the money. It took all my reserve to not die of giggles, but I knew I needed to keep my calm. Little girls do not easily recover from giggle fits. So as we're standing there alone, Koko and I, in his porch, I asked Koko, "Was he naked?" "Yes," she replied, incredulously, and started to giggle a bit. I grabbed the canister of nuts and pushed her behind me. He came back to the door, still sort of tucked behind it so I couldn't really see him, we enchanged nuts for money and then we bolted. Once outside near the car, she busted out laughing. I asked, "so he was naked? Did you see his... weiner?" "NOOOOO!" she replied. "Oh, so was he wearing underwear or something?" "Yeah, but it looked kind of girlish."

LOL

Oh. my. word.

And this is why you should always accompany your child on these sort of things. 

You just NEVER know what you're going to get.