Anyway, I just had to share my pretty scene before I dove right into a recap of last month. Here goes...
Sometime towards the end of October I got it in my head that it was time to do a deep cleaning around here. (Let's just pretend some of this is done more often than it actually is, shall we?) After finally convincing myself that I was never going to have the time to do it myself, I scheduled a window cleaner to come out and do the inside and outside of all of our windows and the sunroom. I think I did most of them a few months after we moved in and I had someone do just the sunroom about 18 months ago, but nothing had been touched since. I took down all of the curtains and sent them to the dry cleaners or washed them and then dusted every blind slat and window sill. I stripped the beds including the mattress covers and bed skirts. I flipped mattresses and vacuumed crevices. I wiped down the tops of armoires and picture frames. I pulled out everything from the china cabinet and cleaned all of the glass. It was fun...for the first few hours. After that it began to lose its luster and I began to lose energy. I powered through the bedrooms and most of downstairs. I have not yet dug into the kitchen or the basement, but I thought it was best to save some of the fun for a future date.
Side story: The dry cleaner accidentally ruined two out of the five master bedroom curtains. The good news is I hated those things, so it wasn't a huge loss. The bad news is that they had been discontinued, so that meant hunting down new ones, which is never a quick thing for me. I forced myself to stick to four stores and brought home six different options before settling on one. Hours of ironing and hanging (and making returns) later, I absolutely love the new ones.
In addition to a deep cleaning and the first-world problem of curtain selection, I did a small local consignment sale at the beginning of the month. Most of what I sold was home decor that I'd been holding onto thinking I might put on a yard sale. I finally let go of that idea and figured I'd probably get more money at a consignment sale anyway. It turned out to be worth it...most of it sold and I got a nice payment to put towards Christmas shopping.
In the theme of cleaning up and cleaning out, we tackled a lot of nagging tasks that have been on our to do list for a long time. David switched the hot and cold water lines to where they should be in the basement, I finally replaced some photos in frames around the house, I touched up paint in various rooms, we cleaned out our nightstands, David hung up some new frames I'd switched out, and I cleaned out files in the office. I knew once Thanksgiving hit, all of this would go to the back burner until, well frankly, after Luke's birthday in February.
Now lest you think this month was work, work, work, here's some fun stuff we did:
- We took the kids roller skating for the first time! They were very nervous at first and both used a pvc "walker" on wheels (where were those when I was learning?!) David was a master from his hockey playing days of course. Me on the other hand...well I'm still very, very shaky. After I realized I couldn't keep both myself and Luke upright, I changed back into tennis shoes and just helped him. They did really well and by the end, Audrey was just holding David's hand.
- We celebrated my nephew's 4th birthday at a Monkey Joe's-type inflatable place.
- David and I had our date day that I wrote about here.
- With the help of our small group, we packed lunches for a local Habitat for Humanity crew and delivered them. (Actually, poor AJ had a terrible UTI, so she stayed back home with me while the boys and the group went to deliver.) We wanted to actually work on the build, but couldn't swing it this semester. Hopefully in the future.
- AJ had her weekly Good News Club on Mondays. They had a little Christmas party at the end of the month since they break for the month of December. In all honesty, she has not been loving it the last month or so, so I'm not sure she'll start back in January. I think she's just so done with school by the end of the day that staying in that building for another two hours isn't very appealing. We'll enjoy the break and then reevaluate.
- She and David went to All Pro Dads, which she does absolutely love. The group meets once a month in the school cafeteria on Friday mornings, eats breakfast, and has a guest speaker talk for a few minutes who usually guides them through a discussion question or two. She adores the one on one time with David and I love it because it's an easy way for me to make sure they're having that special daddy-daughter time without having to remember to put it on the calendar.
- Other school happenings: We celebrated Luke's teacher's birthday, I volunteered at Audrey's school (painting 23 little hands to make turkey prints - shew!), and I volunteered at Luke's school helping the Thanksgiving feast. (By the way, I spent about $20 total on food I sent in for their feasts...two kids in school is no joke.)
- We continued small group and finished out the semester with a party on the last Sunday (more details below.)
- David went out of town for four days. So this isn't a fun thing, but I did dive into organizing geek-mode and hammered out several projects while watching Hallmark movies, which is a thrill for me.
- My mom came out for a visit and we got to celebrate her birthday a little bit with gifts and lunch.
On Thanksgiving itself we went to David's Aunt Pat's and celebrated with his mom's side of the family. We ate ourselves silly and then began working our way through the desserts (which outnumbered the sides!) It was a gorgeous day so after lunch we spent awhile outside letting the kids walk around the neighborhood lake. Luke even reeled in a fish that Uncle Keith caught for him. David's paternal grandmother came by with his aunt and uncle for a few, so we had both of his sides represented. Everyone had a great time and we reluctantly piled them back in the car to trek home. We decorated our tree that night though not to the Macy's Tree Lighting like we usually do. They moved it to the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving this year and, though I set the DVR to record, it did not. Instead we cranked up Alabama Christmas and then just found a YouTube video of the song they sing for the actual tree lighting to watch during our grand finale angel lighting. Cheesy, but tradition is tradition.
David's mom's side of the family - Thanksgiving 2015
That Saturday we drove out to Villa Rica and had lunch with my brothers and their families. It's the first celebration I can remember where neither of our parents were around, and it felt a little off. Of course, the kids make enough noise and distraction to keep everyone entertained. The chili my sister-in-law made was delicious and the cousins loved playing together. Audrey and Luke even warmed up to Murphy, their golden retriever, which was big considering they were both near (or in) tears at the beginning of the visit. We visited a few hours and then went home to finish up the house.
David, kids, and me with my brothers and their families. We worked hard on doing a nice,
posed picture so we could gift them to our parents for Christmas.
Sunday was church and then a little more party prep. Our group came over late that afternoon and the kids went outside to enjoy the warm temps with the sitters while we began a murder mystery party. (As one does with their church group.) We did find a clean version online (besides the whole MURDER part) and assigned each person a part. Everyone really got into interrogating each other while stuffing their faces with delicious potluck appetizers and desserts (score for being "imperfectionist" enough to just ask people to bring food. Thank you, thirties.) After about an hour and half, we gathered around to make our guesses and then listen to the audio file reveal. A few got it right, including David. I blamed the assistant when in fact it was the event planner. Figures. They're always one step away from snapping. We brought the kids up from the basement for pizza and playtime before sending everyone on their way around 7:30. We tucked the kids in their beds and crawled into our own, breathing huge sighs of relief. It was a ton of fun and it was really awesome to have the house clean and decorated before December 1st, but it was also exhausting.
Our small group at the end-of-semester social
The next week was right back into reality. I have made a commitment to give swimming another try, so I woke up crazy early that Monday to hit the nearest indoor pool which is 17 minutes away. I told myself that the gauge of whether it was a success would simply be me going, which was good, since I sucked at everything else. WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR ME?! I don't know. I get the mechanics of breathing, I just cannot seem to DO it. I spent the majority of my ten measly laps just holding a kick board in front of me and working on breathing patterns. But whatever, man. I was there at 6am. Exercising. In a bathing suit. Grace.
Audrey and Luke were honestly ready to get back to school and see their buddies. I know I've said it before, but I'm just pleased as pie that they love school so much. I felt sad dropping them off, but the influx of holiday to-dos offered more than enough to distract me. More on all that in next month's recap, of course.
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and that your Christmas season is off to a fantastic start! Remember to make time to truly enjoy some fun stuff with your family!
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