and on to december...

The girls are excited, today they get to start their "chocolate calendars", the cardboard advents with a little molded Christmas chocolate behind every door. They each get their own, which was unheard of back in the day, back when I was knee-deep in small children. On our wall calendar were the names of the kids whose turn it was...at one time, we had four calendars and three kids sharing each one, so they got a chocolate every third day, it was hard to keep track of, then one of the toddlers or maybe a sneaky six year old, would get a hold of one of those calendars, open every little door, and...eat all the chocolate.

Anyway...back then, there was no way I was going to buy 12 or 10 or even six of those calendars, so they had to share. Sometimes they would choose to do the "every day we each get a small bite" method. Oh my poor kids, they had to learn to take turns and share.

Now Char and Cam and Jon each get their own calendar. But I'm pretty sure they will share with Kap and Ev and Suze and Sonja K.

Yesterday I spent a ridiculous amount of time painting these little sign things, you know, the painted wood block things that are all the rage? I bought some ugly ones at the dollar store, painted them with primer, then yesterday used white pearl essence acrylic, then wrote words with glue and put glitter on them...also painted one of those cardboard-y advent things with the drawers for each day...I spend a few hours on this stuff, with so many other things to do, and I can't even say they came out excellent...maybe I'll take some pics of them later...but I can say this: I enjoyed it immensely.

I am a procrastinator. I woke up this morning with all my plans for the day. I want to make some low carb almond/coconut flour bread. (Yesterday I made some of those keto muffins, cinnamon, with some low-sugar craisins in a few of them...I ate them with butter and a little bit of no sugar added strawberry preserves...mmmm.) I also want to make two loaves of regular homemade bread, because we are having company tonight, and we are having two different crock-pot venison dishes that Paul is making. One has peaches in it, one has squash, I think. I know he cut up onions and peppers last night, and the kitchen counter looked like a murder had taken place. I used the kitchen table to make up a triple batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, and then baked just three pans of them so the girls could have some for school, and will bake the rest today. Today, when I do the other million things I have to do.

Anyway, I woke up this morning, and started to get things out to make some bread. Then I reasoned that it's better hot from the oven, so I shouldn't start it yet. And besides, Camille wasn't up yet, and she's the bread kneader. I need to do a thorough cleaning of the bathroom, and and and. But. I decided that it's going to be such a busy day, I should take advantage of the quiet of the morning first, because it's going to be a long time before I can sit and relax again.

The dogs have been out and back in, 8 paws wiped off (sometimes I miss Duke so much I start to cry), they are snoozing on the couches but one bad Sunny did destroy a random tree ornament she found on the floor. It's shredded up, waiting for me to clean up. The cats are fed and watered, sprawled out sleeping. The floors have been swept, the counters washed, and that's about it.

This morning, I found a little ornament I had set on a shelf on the wall behind the couch...in the kitten's paws. It's a little white squirrel ornament with a gold sparkly scarf (Suzanne laughed when I actually bought it for $2, but it's cute!), but somehow that kitten got that ornament down and was beating the heck out of it..as I took it away and put it back on the shelf, I realized: We have a kitten. We're getting a Christmas tree tomorrow. Dang it. Christmas trees are just giant kitty toys. We have had them tip over before, cats climb trees. We WILL tie it up, regardless, but still.

Anyway, I have so much to do, but I know I'll run out of steam if I start scurrying too soon. Or hmm, is that just one of my excuses? I think it's just that panic cleaning is more effective. And besides, if I clean now, it will be messy again later anyway.

Last evening, poor Jonathan asked me if we could please watch our friend's three/four month old puppy for the day before Christmas through the day after Christmas, he would get paid towards his trip! Um, no. I said no. That's a first, btw. I am not a "no" sayer. I usually say yes. Especially to a visiting puppy! And this is one adorable puppy. Margaret and Adrian have this puppy's sister. But guess what? Margaret and Adrian will be bringing their not-quite-one year old Bunny pup over, plus their little 3/4 month old pup here, on Christmas Eve, and have been invited to stay the night here, which will be fun...but add one more puppy to the mix, and this is where even me, who doesn't say NO, had to say no. It was hard. Jon was disappointed. He is trying hard to earn money for this big trip...Evelyn and Suzanne and Sonja, and Jon are going to Norway in the spring for a special conference, with activities geared toward youth. And earning money for this has been challenging...but it seemed like it would tip the scales here from crazy to just CRAZYYY>

Anyway. The kid have been wreath-selling and raking leaves and cleaning people's cars, and still have lots of money to earn in a short time period.

As you get older, you realize how with the passing of time, things that are such a big deal, will fade into memory with everything else, and therefore, you don't get so bent out of shape about things. Also, hopefully, you know for a fact that God does not make mistakes, and there is a huge comfort in that. You see that He has had His hand on situations, and on people, and that when you put your trust in Him, there is no shame, no disappointment. If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31)