Stuff...

I have lots of "stuff" to say on my blog...it's been a while since I've had time to post anything besides pictures!

I feel like my house is always a mess and I'm always putting away "stuff", giving away "stuff", cleaning "stuff", throwing away "stuff" and yet I never make any progress... What is the deal with this? Does anyone else feel this way? Is this an un-avoidable issue for those with children? Maybe I should not let it bother me so much, but sometimes it just...you know...makes me feel a little bit crazy! Like the fact that b/c Jadon's been sick this past week I have literally spent days bleaching and cleaning all his toys...like his hundreds of little cars and trains that he totes around with him. I've put away a ton of his toys and he hasn't even seemed to notice, so can I just get rid of them? Currently all he cares about are his wooden railroad tracks and trains, but tomorrow it might be all about cars or building with his Lincoln Logs. If you have any insight on my issues with "stuff" please feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear what you think!

I won't discuss the "stuff" coming out of Jadon's nose this past week, but you can get the picture when I say we've been through about 5 boxes of tissues in the last 7 days. It was weird, he was really acting fine, no fever, playing, active...but coughing a lot on Tuesday and Wednesday night. He went to the Dr. on Thursday (couldn't get in on Wed.) and had fluid in both ears, so a double ear infection was on the way and bronchitis. He's on antibiotcs now and they gave us a script for a steriod for his cough. The steriod (like Dimetapp) made him literally insane. He turned into a different child, so needless to say 3 days of that was enough for all of us! Hopefully this round of antibiotics will kick whatever he has and we can go on to being healthy again!

When Jadon doesn't feel good all he wants to do is watch T.V and movies. He is SO into Curious George right now...I'm going to start dreaming about the man with the yellow hat! Yikes!!! But we did manage to mix it up a little bit one night and we watched The Polar Express movie with him for the first time. He is way into trains right now, so it was super exciting. He loved the parts when the train was flying up and down the tracks and when it was "slippery" on ice. He was yelling at the movie "don't you know you are supposed to stay on the track!!!" Hysterical! He was also especially moved by the magic ticket in the movie, how the little boy lost it and then found it again. The magic bell...oh that was the topper of excitement! A few days later, he saw in a Target Toy Catalog a picture of The Polar Express book. He totally was going crazy and when I was able to magically bust out my copy of this book from the boxes of books aka "stuff" under my guest beds...I was Mommy Hero for the day. One of my most favorite students ever, Dani, gave me this book for Christmas one year. I read it at my "Milk and Cookies Night" for my students and then gave them a special bell. Jadon wants a bell really bad...so maybe a special ringing bell will be in his future very soon!

Currently I'm packing "stuff" to get ready to go to Lake Havasu for the Thanksgiving Holiday on Wednesday. We are all looking forward to seeing The Atlanta Shufelts and everyone else too! Jadon is so excited to go to Grandpa John's...he wants to go NOW! He's mentioned going to check out Denis's tractor and can't wait to play with Luke. I'm excited because I love cooking for Thanksgiving and trying out new things. Here is the link to the recipe I'm going to test out... Apples, Bourbon, Butter, Sage, Maple Syrup & Bacon. I'll be sure to report how it goes over with the crowds in Havasu. I used to make a pumpkin dessert each year, but I'm not sure if/what dessert I might make. There are so many options out there its hard to pick!

I have like a million magazines to look at, but I couldn't wait to look at my December Martha Stewart. The baking, decorating and homemade gift thoughts going through my head are insane. I'm currently wishing I had a mantle to decorate with stockings, a staircase to do this with and time/energy to make these and these for everyone! I'm such a sucker for everything to do with red/white and candy canes...I saw these personalized M&M filled ornaments and I think I might have to add that to my to do list as well. Its hard to realize that Christmas is actually coming when we are still wearing shorts here in AZ....oh well!

Missing my Mom over the Holidays is really hard and one of the things that we used to do together was make plans to decorate the table. I have a lot of fun memories of pouring over magazines searching for the perfect centerpiece to re-create or trying to decide on which linens, candles and china to use. A special dessert was the same thing... I couldn't help but think of her when I saw the December of the Month Dessert in M.S. Magazine this year...Chocolate-Coconut Charlotte. I made something similar to this many years ago.... The Pistachio Charlotte that I slaved over for 2 days. I think Mom and Duane were the only ones who truely appreciated this labor of love... I found the cake plate that I gave her for her birthday one year in storage and I know that it needs to have an amazing dessert on it at some point this Holiday. Its been amazing, sad, challenging and dusty to go through the "stuff" in all of her storage boxes, but I've found some treasures in with all the trash to add to my "stuff".

I think that is enough "stuff" to talk about for one blog! Thanks for reading and I hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!