Our Thanksgiving

Ah. Thanksgiving.

Tuesday evening, I realized that Thanksgiving was in two days and I needed to get my act together. I did my first of four "last trips" to the grocery store for ingredients, finalized my menu, and started making a plan and time table for cooking/cleaning. I spent a lot of Wednesday cleaning and prepping. By the end of the day I had a decently clean house and all but one of my dishes made.

In fact, the stress didn't hit me until 1:30pm Thursday afternoon. About the time Demand protested her afternoon nap. (The first time in a long time) If she didn't sleep, fine, I wasn't going to fight that battle, but we did need her in her room for a minimal two hours just so we could get work done. Around the same time, Mr. Sloth was having some issues with the turkey which pushed back grilling time. (more on that later) and I kept realizing not only what I hadn't done yet, but I realized a lot of little things I hadn't thought of that needed to be done.

Around 3:30pm (a half hour to an hour before guests were to arrive) is when we really kicked into gear. I had to let Demand out of her room. That's when I discovered her most disgusting diaper. Half way through changing the diaper I decided the best place to put Demand was the bathtub. Perfect for everyone. She's staying clean and out of the way while being entertained. This allowed me to do my hair,makeup, get dressed and pick up the playroom. (Before I get concerned phone calls you can see Demand fully (and hear her at all times) from her playroom..actually, most of the upstairs.

Meanwhile Mr. Sloth was downstairs cleaning and managing the turkey. Everything came together, and we were ready before guests came. (It helped that they got lost and were later than expected)

Since all my dishes were done or waiting to be cooked through I just had to wait and follow my time table (which was a great idea by the way!) Mr. Sloth however kept hitting road blocks...a lot of them. From having a roasting rack too high so he couldn't close the lid, to having the wheel fall off the grill. One thing we really had going for us was that the kids were entertained up in the playroom and no one was really hungry. Around 6pm, after seeing pink juices from the Turkey, we decided to eat all the other dishes while the Turkey finished in the oven. Mmmmmmm, why don't I make this food all the time??? Sadly, after stuffing ourselves some of the guests had to leave, before the Turkey was ready. Mr. Sloth was frustrated.

But...

When it was done, it was the most fantastic turkey ever. No really. It was. Demand who chose to throw back sparkling grape juice rather than eat during dinner LOVED the turkey and kept coming back for more. In fact considering some of our guests had left, we made a big dent in that wonderful Turkey.

After a long day filled with fun with cousins and no nap, I actually saw Demand grab a blanket and climb onto the couch. You don't see that too often around here. The rest of our guests left and Mr. Sloth put Demand to bed. She was more than ready. She grabbed her new snowflake pajamas and brought them down to Mr. Sloth. How's that for a hint? I did some cleaning while she went down for the night and then Mr. Sloth took over. I would have helped more if baby Valentine wasn't staging a protest over the days events.

By 9pm the kitchen was clean, just in time for company again. Yep, we weren't done yet. It was time for our annual viewing of "A Muppet Christmas Carol" with friends. It's no surprise that when the movie ended at 11:30pm, I was more than done. And off to bed I went.

It's now 8:43am and Demand and Mr. Sloth are still sleeping. Eh, I guess the longer they sleep the longer the kitchen will stay clean.

I can eat pumpkin cheesecake for breakfast, right?

Jesus Cake!

With the Holidays approaching very quickly Demand has been learning a lot these days. The last two weeks at Bible Study she's learned about Thanksgiving, although when I asked her what we do on Thanksgiving she only says, "Cookie Pie". Hmmmm, I don't recall that being on the menu.

Speaking of which I am hosting Thanksgiving this year. Mr. Sloth is grilling the Turkey and in charge of the gravy. (He's rather excited) After other food is assigned (assuming Mr. Sloth calls his family members) I'll be in charge of various potatoes, stuffing, cranberries and bread. One super-bonus is that we have two ovens! Sidekick will of course NOT be using his oven that day and actually since his fridge is almost always empty we're thawing the turkey in there as well...assuming Mr. Sloth buys a turkey soon.


Apparently the day after Thanksgiving we're having another Thanksgiving with the same family, but honestly I'm confused. The day after THAT we have Friends Thanksgiving. This will be our third year to gather with friends and eat semi-traditional turkey-day food and pretend to be adults for once. Needless to say I'm going to be sick of turkey and fixings by the end of the weekend.

We're gradually teaching Demand about Christmas. She knows the Holy Family. She knows that Jesus' mother is Mary and Jesus' foster daddy is "Jophus"(Yes, Jophus.) Next I told her that Christmas is Jesus' birthday to which she promptly exclaimed. "CAKE!!". So up until yesterday if you asked her what Christmas was she would say "Jesus Cake!".Yesterday, I finally got her to respond with "Jesus' birthday". Although you can't blame her she associates birthdays with cake and presents. I think she'll be pleasantly surprised Christmas morning, even if there is no cake. (By the way I'm not opposed to doing birthday cakes for Jesus, but some people in the Sloth family thinks is silly.)

I briefly told Demand about Santa Claus to which she exclaimed, "PRESENTS!! I go Gramas house get presents". Nothing gets past her. Last night she saw her first Christmas lights. The garden store near us was all decked out and Demand thought it was fantastic. She's going to love the Christmas Season.

I've made pretty good progress with Christmas planning/shopping, thanks to my Holiday Control Journal. Demands things are all picked out and half of them have been bought. I found some super deals at Menards, including a doll house with all the furnishings for $24. One hiccup we've had with Christmas shopping is the 5 birthdays within three weeks in our family. That's not counting the birthday we forgot. We have birthdays on Nov. 23 & 25 and three, count em three birthdays in December. (four siblings, one niece) I honestly did avoid a December baby for this very reason. We can't afford it!!!

We know the holidays are going to come fast and as soon as Christmas is over it's countdown until baby comes. Yikes!

Our Weekend

Saturday was Mr. Sloth's morning off. He slept in and then went to the gym. He ended up calling me at 11am, wondering if we could go to lunch. Could we?? Of course! We decided to try the pizza buffet down the street. It was great, and again a fantastic solution for Demand she had a few bites of pizza, few bites of pasta, some broccoli, and some tomatoes. For only $7/person it's a great deal. I also managed to gorge myself on orange sierra mist, it was fantastic.

After filling up on unhealthy food we all needed a nap and then I was off to get groceries. I extremely surprised to find that my longer than usual grocery list still only cost me $40 at Aldi (have I mentioned I love that store?). Then again I had a few things to buy at Target that more than made up for the savings at Aldi.

For dinner, Mr. Sloth made homemade mac'n cheese. It was divine. How can you go wrong with pasta, cottage cheese, sharp cheddar, sour cream, bacon and panko bread crumbs though, right??

Sunday we went to the earlier Mass. Our parishes have wicked early, early, decent, mid-day Masses, we usually go tot he "decent" hour one, but yesterday needed to go to the "early" one. Demand knew her friend was going to be at this Mass so as soon as the closing song was over Demand started asking, "Where's M? Where's M???" Little did she know that Miss M knew very well where she was. Those two are a hoot to watch. While I gorged myself on Church doughnuts, Mr. Sloth brought Demand over to meet the visiting priest. He was from Africa and sitting alone, probably because people can rarely understand what the African priests are saying. Afterwards Mr. Sloth asked Demand if she met a priest, she said yes.Then he asked if he was nice, she said, "Yeah. Nice dress." (Snort!)

Our next stop was the Children's Museum seeing as it was Free 3rd Sunday. We were going with Demand's friend and her family. It was the busiest I'd ever seen the place and it really wore on my patience. Demand has fantastic patience. I was boiling on the inside. I understand children are children and will take things, cut in line, etc, but WHERE ARE THEIR BLOODY PARENTS!!??!

For dinner Mr. Sloth made burgers stuffed with bacon, cheese and other goodness. Demand loved them too even though she had already eaten a big dinner by the time they were doing. Then it was off to bed for Demand because she was starting to show signs of illness. Sure enough she woke up at 4:30am coughing and crying and apparently with a fever. I told Mr. Sloth weeks ago that I can't help her anymore when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She mostly just wants someone to lay on the floor next to her, but this pregnant lady can't lay on the floor anymore. So, Mr. Sloth is in charge of middle of the night adventures until Baby Valentine makes his/her appearance. I woke up around 7:30am and Demand was just standing at the gate in her doorway, obviously still sick. I asked her if she wanted to watch TV on the couch and she said, "Yeah, ok" so quietly. Poor thing! We spent the day trying to rest, but a sick Demand means lots of cuddles for me, so that's fun.

I've written enough, later I'll share some of my Christmas shopping joys! ;)

This week in pictures...

 

In this picture, Demand had managed to prop her blinds open so she could have light in her room during naptime. You can see her asleep on the floor (in pink) with her head in the sunlight. You can also see the blinds propped on the crib.

 

Demand decided she wanted to get in 1/2 her monkey costume from Halloween. You'll also notice she is wearing winter boots and is in fact pantless.

 

Here's another wonderful picture of our resident monkey!

Raising the Bar....er Grill

Remember how Mr. Sloth and I switch Saturday mornings off? You know, every other Saturday you have the morning to do whatever you want while the other watches Demand?

Well we've added another exciting twist to our weekends. Mr. Sloth is now in charge of dinner on Saturdays and Sundays. It works great for both of us since he's often frustrated about not getting to grill more (or even just experiment with cooking more) and I'm quite content cooking five days a week. So far it's worked out great. Mr. Sloth gets a little excited about experimenting and tends to spend the same amount of money on two dinners that I spend on all our weeks meals, but he's getting better as the weeks go by. I think he's really having fun with it and looks forward to the adventure every week. Plus, it's nice for me to not have to cook on the weekends. Our lunches are usually left overs, free for all, or we eat when we're out and about on a Saturday.

Our Saturday mornings off are still working out well. Although I believe Mr. Sloth is working the system a bit. Even though you get first dibs for house vs. car when it's your day off, he gently pushes to have the car on my morning off so he can go to the gym and drop Demand off at daycare (or in some cases he uber-cheats and takes Demand to his mother's.) This past Saturday was my day and everyone slept in until 9am which means they weren't even out of the house until 10am (not much of a morning). Luckily, I was in an organizing mood and after sending him to pick me up a fancy coffee, I just lounged around the house piddling with whatever fit my fancy. (Is piddling a word or just something my parents said??) I think I cleaned my desk, organized two linen closets, listened to MY music (not Veggie Tales) and planned some Christmas stuff in my Holiday Journal. It was nice...while it lasted. This Saturday I think Mr. Sloth's plans are the same as my weekend off...he sleeps in and then heads to the gym.

He's totally working the system.

Pain in the neck

This has been a very, very long week.

Monday was going great until 1pm when all of a sudden I got the spins; seriously dizzy, nauseous, and sweating.(And no I had not been drinking.) After talking to my doctor and realizing it wasn't serious enough to come in for I just had to push through. It was nap time, which I thought worked out well, but Demand had other plans. I've been napping with the door open so in case Demand breaks out of her room and I don't hear it on the monitor there's a chance I'll here in the hall/playroom or she'll even come in to find me. I thought I was being clever by leaving the gate in the doorway and closing the door. Demand opened the door, no problem. Met with the gate she decided to take police action and charge through the thing. All I heard was crash, "whoa", "mama?". By the time I got to her room (remember I had the spins) she had left the scene of the crime. I called for her downstairs, and a minute later a happy toddler in monkey footed pajamas came trouncing upstairs carrying a number 8 UNO card. (Why a number 8 UNO card? I don't know, it's a toddler thing.) Mr. Sloth ended up coming home to help me finish the day. He took Demand to the gym with him so I could rest and fight what Mr. Sloth believed was a sinus related issue. It ended up lasting over 8 hours, basically until I went to bed.

Tuesday I woke up with what I thought was a large crick in my neck. It got worse as the day went on and after Demand went to bed I realized I was in some serious pain. I couldn't sleep all night it was so bad, and woke up Wednesday with it again, only worse. Wednesday morning the pain that ran down the right side of my neck and spread halfway down my back was twice as bad as it was the day before. I'd never had upper back pain that hurt to walk, lower back, yes, upper back?? No. I had limited use of my left arm and no use do my right arm. Mr. Sloth had to do my hair for me (Thank goodness we decided that a Father of a daughter needed to know how to make a ponytail!) I was heading to the chiropractor anyway, thankfully. She definitely helped, and after some ice and a nice long nap I was starting to feel better. (It was a muscle spasm by the way, due to either time of year or fighting a virus) Demand even kissed my neck after she saw me with ice on it (Boo-boo? she asked)

I was felling normal enough by dinner to teach CCD. Thank goodness it was an easy night with only Confession and a test on the schedule. However, can I just say that after teaching seven 9th grade boys every week, I am definitely hoping for a baby girl! And here are a few questions, when do boys/men stop saying everything that comes to mind and what happens if they actually keep their feet on the floor for more than two seconds? Do they implode? Do their feet stick to the floor? I mean I don't want to force them to keep their feet on the floor if it's going to cause them physical harm. I just need answers. And of course just walking into Church for confession had at LEAST 4 of them tripping. Tripping on the floor, on the kneelers, on themselves. It blows my mind.

This morning I woke up feeling much better. I still couldn't do my own hair (and let's not talk about the last time I washed it) but I can now look both to my left and my right and I can even lay down and get up without wanting to scream.

I've managed to keep the house decently clean while physically incompasitated. I've kept up with laundry and basic straightening up. The only room to really suffer has been our kitchen. There are dishes that have been dirty for days but every day we manage to clean up enough to run and empty the dishwasher,which is better than nothing. Mr. Sloth has been fantastic, and if he is sick of helping his ill wife he's done a great job of faking it! Way to fake it Mr. Sloth!

I think I earned my weekend this week.

Fall pictures

I'm sure you want pictures by now. Mr. Sloth took these a few weeks ago during my morning off. He took her down the street to the giant nursery that was having a fall festival. Demand saw cows, horsies, pumpkins, lots of good stuff.

(New post after the pictures!)

Looking for Control (in more ways than one)

Yesterday was Sunday and after 10am Mass we decided to splurge and head to the buffet down the street from our house. It was a most wonderful decision. One of the best part was that we didn't have to pay for Demand but she ate more than she ever has at a restaurant since she could eat whatever she wanted and however much she wanted. And this pregnant lady wasn't shy either. In fact, only Mr. Sloth didn't pull his weight.

I had three waffles (note that each waffle was only 1/4 size) eggs, bacon, sausage, two helpings of hashbrowns, fruit, orange juice, some of Demands cake and french toast sticks....it was delicious. Mr. Sloth took Demand home while Obscure waited for 'the pregnant lady' to finish. I didn't even feel full...until I got home. Although maternity pants are fantastic for buffets, the body can only stretch so much. I mean my body is already at its brink and then I ask it to make room for five pounds of food. For the first time in my life I ate a big enough meal that I wasn't hungry for hours. It wasn't until 7pm that Mr. Sloth and I thought of eating again. Amazing!

Today I'm making a big push in the potty training department. I am most definitely the laziest potty training instructor ever, so if Demand ever uses a toilet regularly it will be a miracle. My timing is of course off since Demand has no interest in sitting on the potty today. I have her in big girl underwear to encourage her, but she seems resilient.

Another "Demand" development is that she learned to open doors yesterday. It happened during naptime. She was in her room, I was in our room,and Mr. Sloth was on the couch (luckily). He said he was laying there and she just came down, when he took her upstairs to change her diaper and found me asleep her realized I hadn't let her out. I knew it happen sometime, but it was nice while it lasted. Guess we'll be stocking up on safety doorknobs this week.

I've recently become re-obsessed with organizing and cleaning again. I think it's from "the Duggars" there's nothing like a family with 18 children and a perfectly clean home to inspire you! I've done some fantastic purging of closets and I've really cleaned up my desk or as I like to call it, my procrastination corner! Timing couldn't be better because I'm starting my "Holiday Control Journal". It's a Flylady method of getting organized for the Holidays. I did it last year and loved it. You spend most of November planning, budgeting, buying gifts, etc so that by December 1st you can enjoy the Holidays instead of stress about them. She also stresses that you/we keep the Holiday simple all around, keep gifts simple, decorations, baking, entertaining, etc. So if you're a stress ball during the holidays or if you have a tendency to spend too much but not realize it until January, I highly recommend using her "Holiday Control Journal".

A bit of a catch up...

I sit on a throne of lies!! I promised Part 3 (I believe I even wrote part of it) but then so much kept happening I never had time to catch up with everything. Ahhhhh!! Snowball!!

So I figured, as I sit here watching the election unravel (and wishing that I could drink right now) I thought I would at least update you a little bit.

So.

Demand was a monkey for Halloween. Since we started trick-or-treating early she was the only one in the neighborhood, so she didn't quite understand what was happening but she was ok with it. She only lasted forty-five minutes but ended up with a full bag of candy. She had been sick with a cold for two days and my mom had triple booked us for the day so she was already exhausted. She was more than willing to be done though, which was nice. She didn't even want to eat all of her candy because she was sick. She had most of a popcorn ball and a sucker and she was satisfied.

We've recently been pushing the potty training issue a little more. Sometimes she gets really determined to go to the bathroom just so she can get candy.

Otherwise our recent days consist of

Mornings: running errands like, heading to doctors/chiropractors appointments, gymnastics, Bible Study, heading to the gym etc.

Afternoons: me getting larger and fighting Demand to nap (although the two are not related, but both happen everyday)

So our days go by fast. In fact I'd like our schedule to be a little less packed. I haven't decided if Demand is going to take gymnastics next semester. With baby coming I might want one or two days when I don't have plans. Right now I think Fridays are my only free days, but if it's truly a free day we usually end up having a play date.
On the other hand it might be nice for Demand to have something where she still gets all the attention.

You are now somewhat caught up on the Sloths. Until next time...