I Miss My Kids

Thanksgiving break is already over. I don't have any pictures to post. I didn't even take any pictures. We had nothing planned. We did not have any appointments. We just went day by day and did whatever we wanted. Through those nine long days I realized that I miss my kids. It was so great to have Colin home. The boys actually played pretty well together. The weather was nice enough that we could go outside. We raked leaves, put up the outdoor decorations and just relaxed. Colin did not really want to do anything special so we played a lot of wii, made crafts and were just generally lazy. On Sunday night, Colin was upset about having to go back to school. To be honest, I was upset too. I didn't really want either of them to go back. With Camden, it's a little easier since he is not in school that many hours. However, Colin is gone every day from 9am-4pm. You throw boyscouts into that and I feel like I don't get any time with him. When he is home, I just want to snuggle with him. Of course, he doesn't want much to do with that.

I am looking forward to Christmas break and even more than that, summer break. Going into the Thanksgiving break I really felt like we needed to make the most of our time. I figured we would go to the zoo, the museum, the park...I had all of these great ideas. It turns out, the kids just wanted to spend time at home. I couldn't have asked for anything better. I can see now that they are growing up so fast. I miss the preschool days where we could go to the park in the morning, have a picnic and then come home and do crafts together.


Realistically, the two of them still drive me crazy sometimes. I am exhausted by the end of every day. I wish I had more time to myself to get things done around the house. It seems like my "to do" list is never completed. Since I'm a bit "type A" (all you haters, no comments please) I have a hard time with the disarray of the house, the unreturned phone calls, the check book that has not been balanced for 6 months, the floors that need mopped, the laundry that needs folded....you know the list goes on and on.

However, I am thinking ahead to next fall when both kids will be in school full time. I am sure I can find things to fill my day but I already feel very lonely about this prospect. I don't really want a full time job or even a consuming part time job. I want to be able to volunteer in their classrooms, to join PTCO, to be here every morning when they go off to school and every afternoon when they come home from school. Again, I know I can find things to fill the day. Storage rooms to clean, photo albums to finish, errands to be completed. But I just feel lonely even thinking about doing all of this. It feels empty. It feels unimportant.

I'm going to go hug Camden now.

Nothing Special

There's not really anything special to report here today. It seems that when I have a witty moment or a great picture, it gets pushed aside because of some disaster/melt down/ issue/mealtime... I guess my family eating IS more important than me blogging.

Halloween is over and the kids had a great time. They each collected a full bucket of candy and donated a good portion of their goodies to a local dentist. Said dentist gave out $1 for every pound. Six dollars later, we drove to the Humane Society because the boys wanted to donate their new found money "for the puppies and kitties". Sometimes they just amaze me.

Speaking of puppies and kitties. Right now we are dog sitting Scooby and Pele the cat. It drives me crazy to sit here and work while I listen to the dog snore in the back ground. What a life. Right now she's curled up on the couch looking very snug. She's not supposed to BE on the couch but moving her does no good. She just hops right back up. Listens about as well as the kids sometimes.

And on to the kids. Our activities have slowed down considerably. Football is over. BMX racing is over. Swim lessons were full so we'll have to wait until next session. All we have right now is Colin's boyscouts. That keeps us busy enough for the moment. Did I mention that he sold $1,100 in popcorn? He had the 5th highest sales of the entire pack (80+ boys). Not bad for a six year old boy that did not get a lot of help from mom and dad. He asked to go out nearly every day and sell. Who could resist buying from this kid?

He also took 3rd place in the Rain gutter Regatta. Not sure what the point of the whole thing was, but he was excited so we were excited for him.

I'm finding it hard to fill my afternoons with Camden. It seems that my work is slowing down so that is good. The tv is on more than I would like. He still loves to do crafts and make crazy creations but there is always a huge mess if he is left unsupervised. He does a good job of "cleaning" but it's never quite clean. The mop usually needs to be brought out and at the very least the broom.

He starts gymnastics today so that should help with our boredom. We're pretty sure that next year we'll go ahead and put him in full day kindergarten. If we did half day, I would just have to find more activities for him in the afternoon. He'll be one of the oldest in his class anyway and I think he is ready.

It's snowing today. There's not much snow on the ground. It has just been dusting all morning. Of course the boys use it as a great excuse for hot chocolate. I can't say that I mind. After all, I make enough for me too.

Just last week we were in short sleeve shirt raking leaves outside. We have had a stellar fall season this year. This is really the first cold day we have had. The fact that it is Nov. 11 and it's the first snow is pretty amazing. Last year it snowed the second week of October and never let up. Here's to the nice weather we are leaving behind.

On a final note, as I was getting dressed the other day Camden made this comment to me, "Mom, you are so 1980's." Now where in the world did he get that from?!