The really fascinating details of my life, or not

Things are getting done around my house and it’s making me feel so much better. A little more in control. Here’s where we’re at.

1. I bought a new tip for my iGo charger to charge my cellphone. An iGo charger works with any electronics so when you buy new things (or lose other chargers) you can just buy a new tip fairly inexpensively instead of a whole new charger. But wouldn’t you know it, as I was pulling out my husband’s laptop last night there was my charger, all tangled up with the laptop cords. Oh well, the tip will work with our iGo car charger and now I have a car charger for my cell phone.

2. My iPod charger arrived. My husband ordered me a great little retractable one from ebay for $4. Perfect.

3. My charging station I ordered from overstock.com is on it’s way. When I’m home we’ll always know where are cell phones and ipod are. And where their chargers are. No more searching through drawers for the right charger or misplacing them.

4. We bought some Christmas gifts. We bought two more nephews Christmas gifts last night and picked up a few toddler games for Ella at Target last night for $4 apiece! Christmas sales are going to be awesome this year it looks like …

5. We have a consultant on whole-house humidifiers coming today to our house. We have been through so many humidifiers and we get so sick of filling them everyday. Otherwise our house is so dry. We wake up with sore throats and headaches. A whole-house humidifier sounds so dreamy right now. Anybody have one of those? Apparently it connects to your water heater or something so you don’t have to refill it all the time.

OK, I may be a dork, but I’m so relieved to take care of some little things and big things that have been bothering me lately. Now if I could just figure out why my dishes are coming out cloudy from the dishwasher again! I thought it was the new detergent I was using last time this happened, but I’ve been using the same for awhile. Do I need rinsing agent, dishwasher cleaner? It’s always something isn’t it?

Help needed: Maid and caterers

The holiday stress just hit me. Today. Not so much the gift buying. We have knocked three off my list. And while we still have a good dozen to go, half of them are kids – and we like toy shopping. And I think we have some ideas for the adults. I even have a couple dates planned to go shopping with my mom. So not really worried.

It’s the hosting that’s giving me a knot in my neck.

I had my good friends come this weekend. One came for about 3 days with her son and the other came with her family of five for dinner on Sunday night. It was really fun. They make having three kids seem easy. The oldest, at 4, seems so much more mature than a toddler. Then the nearly three-year-old seems to play with her or by herself and then the little baby is so content letting anyone hold him. The two-year-olds, now they were another story. Constantly fighting over toys. And let’s just say I’m really, really glad crayon comes off a flat screen television and off of walls.

And we had company last weekend and we have several more gatherings we’re hosting this year. The cleaning is a big part of the problem. It’s so hard with a toddler. While I’m cleaning the living room, she’s messing up the kitchen. While I’m cleaning the kitchen she’s messing up the living room. It’s ideal to do it during her nap, but I do actually have some other things to take care of daily like my job, laundry, oh yeah, and we like to eat too.

And it’s not like I’m trying to be Martha Stewart either. I’m not aiming for a perfectly clean house these days. I just don’t want 3-inch dust bunnies, piles of dishes or rings around the toilet.

So how do people get through the stress and still be hospitable? I’m thinking there are going to be many lists, which I’m sure my wonderfully nice husband will help me with:) I’m thinking I may need to go get that free massage I won a few weeks ago, even if I have to drive 30 minutes. I’m also thinking I may need to rent a movie that I like and shut the bedroom door and watch it, uninterrupted. And I’m not going to break my budget either… I’ll ask people to bring some items.

And maybe I need to just focus on some things I’m thankful for. Maybe that’s really why Thanksgiving comes before Christmas, so we don’t lose ourselves in the madness. Hmm … sounds like a good blog topic to me.

What is up

I’ve kinda been in a blog writing rut. Not only have I not been in the mood to sort out the various thoughts in my head and things we’ve been doing lately and put it into something that makes sense, but I’m I was also starting to wonder if it really matters. Will anyone really care that much if they don’t have my blog to waste five minutes of their time? I’m seriously not searching for compliments, just thinking out loud here. But then alas, my friends have been blogging and I’m so happy to see what they’re doing and how their weekend was and what they’re out buying … So, OK, I think it must mean something. Also, I kinda forgot until just now how therapeutic it is.

So anyway, I’m back.

I’ll follow up a little on my nephew’s visit last weekend. He’s four so he’s at that age where they talk a lot (at least he does) and they say very funny things sometimes.

First he told me that he wanted to sleep in Ella’s crib with her. Uh, no. That would be a little crowded. And I’m not sure there would be any such thing as sleep happening. Then he said he would sleep in the guest bedroom and he assured me that if he heard Ella wake up in the night he would go make her feel better. Sweet! Where was he a year ago when I needed him?

At one point while we were making cookies he said “I like staying the night with you and I sure love Ella!” That was very sweet. Although later on he told Steve that he should be at work.

Anyway, it’s Thursday now, it’s already time to get ready for this weekend, in which two girlfriends from highschool and their families will be coming over for a visit. Very fun. It’s a little crazy but it seems like every weekend we have plans for a while.

In other news I have this list of things I’ve been procrastinating on and my goal is to to really knock them out this weekend and next week.

Here’s what they are:

1. Order new iPod charger.

2. Order new charger for Shark vacuum.

3. Find charger for electric toothbrush.

Seriously, where the hell are all my chargers?

4. Buy charging station to put iPod and phones in so at least I won’t lose those chargers again.

5. Take pants to be hemmed because I’m short.

6. Find scarf I decided I don’t really like and return. And maybe buy myself a treat for cleaning Steve’s bathroom for him.

7. Return carpet samples and order carpet! Yay. Goodbye imbarrassingly dirty carpet.

Just a tease

I really don’t feel like blogging just now. I’ve already spent way too much time on a computer today. I will post this really cute photo though. Cousin Grant stayed the night with us and it was really fun. He and Ella have become pretty good buddies. Here they are having toast in the morning.