Puppet show...cookies...latkes...Zoolights...paper chains.
I'm tired. And feeling really frustrated by a couple of projects I was really excited about but aren't turning out how I'd like them to. And while trying to get some craft projects done, I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Grumpf. Super grumpf. Better luck tomorrow.
Waldorf fair...tree...peppermint play dough...glitter houses...snowflakes.
And the process...
I made them clean this up. They didn't like it. Heh.
Baby is suuuuuper needy right now. He's acting like my other kids did when they were teething. Not likely at eight weeks, but nonetheless I can't put him down and he's keeping me up until about 1 a.m. every night.
And yet...
I'm more on the ball than ever: I'm being active with the girls, engaging with the baby, putting a home-cooked dinner on the table in a timely manner, washing diapers, keeping the toilets scrubbed. With my first kid I was blearily forgetting to put the bag out front for the diaper service by 10 a.m. Now I'm all "Sure, let's do a play date tomorrow after the puppet show at the library and we'll have a hot cocoa party and I'll do some cross stitch after I serve the kids lunch!"
I think it's partly just the confidence I have as a third-time mom and partly the diamond hard knowledge I possess that every single "little thing" I let go or put off until some fairytale quiet moment called "later" is going to rise up and destroy me. There are so many of them.
It's sink or swim. I'll go with a swim and a smile, thanks!
We're doing something a little different this year with the advent calendar by trying an activity countdown. It's something I saw for the first time last year and was enthused about. We're just not able to accommodate anything else in the way of toys besides the couple of gifts they get from their grands, and my girls have had pretty major issues in the past with the caffeine in chocolate (sounds ridiculous, but I've dealt with sleepless babies and tossing and turning little girls too many times to doubt the connection), so toy or chocolate advent calendars aren't a good choice for us. But advent calendars featured hugely in my childhood Christmases, so I feel like it has to happen.
I'm way into paper decorations these days, so I made a simple paper tree and glued on little paper squares for pockets. In each pocket is a rolled up slip of paper with an activity written on it. I also made some quick little paper candles, so once the activity paper has been taken out a paper candle can be put in its place. Should be pretty cute when it's all "lit up".
Here's my list of activities for 2012:
1st: Visit the Waldorf Winter Faire
2nd: Get the tree
3rd: Make scented play dough
4th: Begin a village of little glitter houses
5th: Make ballerina snowflakes
6th: Marionette show at the library
7th: Bake and decorate cookies
8th: Make latkes
9th: To be decided
10th: Family singalong
11th: Make a paper chain
12th: Make salt dough ornaments
13th: Decorate gingerbread houses
14th: See the tree at the state capitol building
15th: See the Nutcracker ballet
16th: To be decided
17th: Bake a gingerbread cake
18th: Fold Moravian stars
19th: Make seed cookies for the birds
20th: Family game night
21st: Solstice! Go on a nature walk and leave seed for the birds
22nd: Make cards for the family
23rd: Have a picnic dinner by the tree and watch a Christmas movie
24th: Candlelight sing at church and leave out cookies for Santa
25th: Merry Christmas!
***************
If you wanted to do something like this, your list could be whatever. I've focused on activities that I know my kids will really enjoy, but you could focus on deepening your faith, doing service, or just really simple little things like "have a hot cocoa in front of the fire". The point is, I think, to bring what's important to you in this season to the forefront.
It's a lot of work, to be honest (it doesn't help that the baby has begun to be wakeful and very needy for a few hours right after the girls have fallen asleep). Last night I was up later than I'd like making sure I had the recipe and ingredients for homemade play dough.
But!
There's nothing on there that I don't want to do with the kids, and I'm the sort of person that won't do certain things without a big push (for instance, I cannot calmly cook or bake with my children without serious advance notice). And, as is the whole point of the exercise, my kids are smitten. My oldest is stoked to pull out and read the little paper in the morning, and she's been quite vocal about how much anticipation she's feeling. And, for me, I get to do things with them that I'm normally too lazy to commit to, all to the strains of Sufjan. Win-win. Totally worth the effort.
I'm enjoying a little rennaissance at the moment. The here and now is pretty dope, despite some left hooks here and there.
When I'm happy, as I have been these past days (weeks?), and I mean "Whoa, I kind of feel high," happy, I get a little worried: Do I have high-fuctioning bipolar disorder? Am I mildly oxygen deprived? Do I have a tumor? I think the doubt comes from years and years of having not felt good. I'm feeling settled and productive and at peace. This can't be!
But I think (I hope) this go around it's just the result of postpartum hormones, which have always been kind to me, and my enormously pedestrian Happiness Project efforts, in particular honoring my need for a calm (read: tidy) space at home. The more I work the knots out of the tangled skein that is my home environment the happier (calmer, kinder, easier going, more engaged, more productive) I feel. I have a long way to go still, but we got through house and tree decorating so smoothly. I felt really excellent, with the music playing and the dinner promptly on the table and now with the dishwasher whirring.
Sometimes I marvel at the increase in self-knowledge and happiness I've experienced as I've grown older. When I was younger I think I pictured happiness looking something like this, a kind of idiosyncratic domestic bliss, but I couldn't figure out how anyone would get to happiness, whatever it looked like; it was like another country that I could see in pictures, but there were no flights, no trains, no buses, no roads.
But I guess you just put one foot in front of the other over and over and one day you find you're in another place.
I love Halloween. Love, love, love. It's my favorite. Not to minimize the problems (Hi there, business that prominently displays intensely gorey, life-sized horror mannequins along a vital thoroughfare! You guys are jerks!), but I had a bit of a rude guffaw reading the blog of a crunchy granola mum the other day who was ever so gently wringing her hands over the meaninglessness and commercialism of Halloween. I have personally found Halloween to be hugely community-spirited, and (besides the trick-or-treat candy we buy, which, as evidenced by our deeply religious neighbors' dark house and "No Candy" sign, is totally optional) actually refreshingly free of expense and commercial hassle.
Without buying anything, my kids and I enjoy looking at the decorations at Target and our grocery store, both always very mild, avoid the costume aisles (typically a bit of horror there), and give creepy movies, Halloween and party stores, and homes that prefer adult-sized scares a wide berth, and we've always found a few fun and creative activities to do that don't cost anything.
No new stuff comes into the house that isn't going to be ingested (and flagrantly poached by the parents, I'll admit), we have a great time carving pumpkins, we see our neighbors dressed up and giving a friendly wave and a smile from the curb as their kids come to our door, we drink cider and cocoa and admire whatever random doofy costume our oldest comes up with every year despite having purchased something specific.
So much fun, cranky kids who stayed up far too late and ate rather more sugar than anyone should, ever, notwithstanding. That does actually suck a little bit.
I refuse to call the end of summer until the actual end of summer (we still have 18 days!) but we made sure to get out and revel in the September sun as a family over Labor Day weekend. Speaking of getting while the getting's good, I need to make sure I have a couple of dates with my love before the boy arrives...
Monday was June 25th, which reminded me that Christmas is a mere six months away.
I'm not kidding! This year promises to be extra thrilling because, come Christmas, if all goes well, we will have been in the thick of new baby care for two months. I am going to get absolutely nothing done from about mid-October.
The line-up is a doozy: the big kid's birthday at the last call of summer, the new baby's birth sometime in the midst of the Halloween season, then the Christmas season, then the soon-to-be middle child's birthday in January. That's a whole heck of a lot of making if one is inclined to make things for such occasions, which I am.
I could completely let it go this year, which would not be a bad idea, but we have a tradition in our little family of one homemade wrapped gift and one wrapped book under the tree on Christmas morning; those are the gifts from Mom and Dad. I'd feel a bit sad to lose that. I'd also like the kids to have a little something handmade for their birthdays (and in one special case, the birth day). So the simple solution is to start making now. No big deal. A knitting and sewing summer sounds pretty rad.
I have a vision of woolly cardigans, dresses and matching dolly dresses under the tree, but I think I'm going to start with home-dyed playsilks (they will go in the stockings...good grief, three of them!). I have some purchases in mind for the gift-giving season, but obviously buying something six months out could be a recipe for disaster. But my kids (and the kids that come into our home) play with the silks all day, every day, in one way or another. Having the full rainbow (and then some) isn't indulgent, it's positively sensible.
And you get to strap babies to your baby's back, which is heart-melting. Sweet one.
I managed to make a couple of things for both of my kids this Christmas, so: huzzah! But I procrastinated, and ended up being rushed in the day or two prior to Christmas Day finishing things up. Which meant it was the perfect time to decide to make some lined drawstring bags to wrap the gifts in.
Last year my sister had passed along some remnants of Christmas fabrics she'd used to make pajamas for the whole family, including a couple of Hello Kitty prints, and I knew the girls would really enjoy them. We've done fabric wrapping for a couple of years now, and love it. It's actually very beautiful, simple to make and use and eliminates all the trash that's made opening gifts.
For the new bags, I used this lined drawstring bag tutorial and they turned out beautifully. They're lined, and have a double drawstring and a gusseted bottom, so they're very sturdy and they stand up well when they're filled.
There were paper tags with my kids' names on them, which I did a super duper job covering over in MS Paint.
The books we bought them fit perfectly in the simple fabric pouches I made last year (sitting underneath the new bags in the picture), and the handmade things fit in the Kitty bags. Just right.
Unexpected bonus: my girls stored their stocking loot in them after they'd finished opening the stockings and gifts. My older girl automatically popped all her stuff in her bag, which was a pleasant surprise. The bags kept everything together and they could carry them around or put them in their room or whatever and not lose anything or get things mixed up. Most excellent.
One of my goals for the coming year is to burn through my fabric stash, and I will be making more of these bags as birthday wrapping (if I was going to buy fabric for that express purpose, the Sarah Jane balloon print would be incredibly sweet), as well as some to use as project bags, maybe some to sort and store toys for the girls.
Simple and useful.
Whew. I finally finished up the gift for my big kid and have it blocking. I think another project for the girls is going to have to wait until after Christmas. I'm just not productive at night at all. Knitting and watching some TV is about all I can manage. Maybe some little handwork...not cutting pattern pieces. Ah well. I'm grateful to have kids who will be elated to find handknits under the tree. I hope that lasts forever and ever.