Busy, Busy, Busy

It says a lot about my life these last couple of weeks that when I type those words I hear the voice of Professor Hinkle from Frosty the Snowman. There are times when I get so busy that I actually encourage my kids to be couch potatoes. Frosty has been Elise’s favorite movie to watch when Abby is asleep and Ben and Emily are at school. One of these days I will be a good mom again, but for now I just really need those two hours of work time.

Blogging has certainly taken a backburner to everything else that has filled up my time these last couple of weeks. This is a random, catch all post/novel to make me feel caught up.

Last week it was my turn to teach preschool. I was excited when my name landed on Christmas when we were making the schedule. It added a little extra work to my already busy week, but it is always a fun time. They are cute, sweet girls. My favorite part was watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas with them. They had lots of funny comments. My favorites were “It’s not a square, it’s a rectangle” (said indignantly after the “first little house on the square” line), and then the comforting “don’t worry – his heart is going to grow” at the end.

Friday was Emily’s kindergarten Christmas program. She was really excited about it and did a great job singing all of the songs. We had a slow start and got to the school later than I had intended. After our Halloween parade experience, I thought I would be okay being 15 minutes early. Wrong! Apparently kindergarten programs draw a bigger crowd than Halloween parades. Luckily my mom was more on the ball and got there in time to save us a seat or we would have been on the back row.

Friday night we got to babysit Zack and Austin so Aaron and Heidi could have an anniversary date. Those boys are pure entertainment for my kids (and me). They are hilarious. They picked up some new skills while they were here involving ping-pong, lightsabers and doll strollers. The funniest part of the night was when Austin started tackling Emily. He is half her size, but he was determined and managed to take her down a couple of times. Then Zack decided to do the same with Elise. It was so funny to see their football faces and their great moves.

Saturday was our family Christmas party. We had yummy soup for dinner, a quality nativity reenactment, and the kids opened presents. We finished off the night with boys vs. girls Outburst and Mad Gab. We schooled them in Outburst and they squeezed out a win with Mad Gab. It was a good fun time.

Yesterday was certainly a day of rest. Abby started with a super snotty nose on Saturday, so my mom volunteered (after I asked her) to sleep over and keep her home from church since we couldn’t take her to nursery. It turned out to be the easiest babysitting job ever since Abby slept until after 1:00! She’s been missing naps lately and I guess she needed to catch up. She is a girl after my own heart. The best part of having my mom here is that Nate and I got to take a Sunday afternoon nap . . . hardly ever happens in this house. After dinner, we watched The Nativity Story (the 2006 hour and a half one, not the five minute church one) with the kids. It was a lovely Sabbath day.

Today is another exciting day for the kids. Ben gets to have a pajama party/read-a-thon. I was “the best mom in the whole wide world” and let him open his new Christmas Eve pajamas two days early so he could wear them to school. Emily’s class is having their Christmas party this afternoon. I get to go help them make a fun little Christmas craft. I’m hoping that the snow stops before then so I don’t have to shovel six inches just to go to the school. Right now it looks like a snow globe out my window.

Here are a few other random photos from the last week.