How bout a couple of quick, quick takes?

1.  Didn't get much sleep last night.  The Peanut came in around 1 am and slept with us for the rest of the night.  He was mumbling something about "finishing the show" and trembling.  I couldn't tell if he was scared, cold, had to pee or was just really tired.  So I sent him to the bathroom thinking he would go back to his own bed after that.  No such luck.  He came back and decided to cuddle up right next to me.  On my pillow.  With my blanket.  Did I mention he has taken up a snoring habit?  My position on co-sleeping hasn't changed.  I still can't sleep with someone touching me.  Or kicking me all night long.  Needless to say I did not sleep much at all for the rest of the night.  I did ask him several times during the night if he wanted to go back to his own bed.  Especially after I finally dozed off for a few seconds and was woken by him saying "Mom!?  Was that poop??"  Um... What?  "Never mind."  Really?  I am supposed to go back to sleep after that??  He was content enough to remain.  And then this morning he woke up and asked how he got into our bed.

2.  After all the work I did de-hoarding the house so it would be easier to clean and prepare to host Thanksgiving, we have decided not to host Thanksgiving.  I thought it would be nice to take a little vacation for once and mainly, I don't feel like cleaning.

The bad news is that I will still have to clean for Christmas.  I really should get started on that now.  Procrastinator.

Totally linking this up with Theme Thursday "prepare" if Cari ever posts it. Ahem. ;)

3.  My husband turns 40 on Tuesday.  Being a loving, considerate wife, I planned on having a big party for him.  I am also a terrible procrastinator and an even worse planner.  Needless to say those plans never came to anything and it seems we will be doing exactly nothing for him.  Because I am the worst wife ever.  So, if anyone has any suggestions on how to do something super special for him on a $0 budget and four days of planning, I'm listening!

4.  I am on tsu now.  I just can't seem to help myself.  I have to join every social networking site out there.  It's invite only but you can click on my invite link if you want to join or you can follow me if you are already a member.  It seems to be catching on.  Mainly because you can make money using it.  Still figuring it all out myself.

5.  I swear the Peanut was just singing the Mr. Ed theme song.  He says he was just randomly singing "of course of course" but it sounded just like Mr. Ed.  I, of course, had to You Tube "Mr. Ed Theme song" and the Peanut insists that it's nothing like what he was singing.  Totally was.

Then I got sucked into the You Tube vortex and ended up here.

Conclusion.  I watched way too much TV in the 80s and 90s.  The only show on that list I didn't watch was #15.

6.  After watching this yesterday, my kids can't stop singing "I've got a butt."  Totally should not have let them watch it!


7.  As a continuation of my 31 Days of De-hoarding series and self motivation to continue the de-hoarding process, I started a new link-up.  Take It Out Tuesday.  Every Tuesday I will be de-hoarding something and inviting you to join along.  I will also be keeping the link open all week so bascially you can de-hoard something any day and join in.  Also, if you aren't a blogger but still want to join, feel free to just take a picture and tweet or Instagram or Facebook it with the hashtag. #takeitouttues  Because I like things nice and easy.  You're welcome!

Now go check out some more Quick Takes at Kelly's!


*This post may contain affiliate ads.  Read my full disclosure here.

Welcome to Take It Out Tuesday!

I should probably have had this done yesterday so I could post it early this morning but...

Procrastination.

Late to my own party.  Bad I know.

Here you all are, waiting all impatiently for me to get my act together.

I promise to do better next week.  Hopefully.  Maybe.

This week I actually tackled Mount Baby Clothes.

Here’s what you need to know about the sale:

When? 8 a.m. (EST) Wednesday, November 5th until 11:59 p.m. (EST) Monday, November 10th (or until 18,500 bundles are sold).


What? 75 eBooks plus eCourses and more, PLUS over $160 worth of bonus products you’ll really use!


Where? Purchase the bundle HERE.

How much? Well now, that’s the best part. The entire package is worth over $1,140, and it’s yours for as little as $34.95. Sweet deal, right?

Want to know what’s included in the bundle?

Of course you do!

Ya'll know how much I love the last minute, right?

On Fridays we host "Family Night" which is when the family all come over for dinner at our house.

Which obviously means that every Friday afternoon, the dining room table looks like this.

And the living room floor looks like this.
Believe it or not, that entire mess was made today.  In less than an hour.

The Culprits

So, the quick scramble to go from before.

To after.
Totally kidding.  That's a picture from Thanksgiving.

See?  I can clean.  When I really have to.

Linking up with One Hot Mess (is that my kind of link up or what???) at The Fike Life.


*This post may contain affiliate ads.  Read my full disclosure here.

I have to really hand it to myself this year.  I finally have this whole Advent thing down.

Most years I am still trying to clean up the mess after Thanksgiving.  I have all these grand ideas of all the Advent traditions we should take part in.  It just never works out the way it appears in my head.

Last year I finally got somewhat prepared.  I finally printed out all those Jesse tree ornaments and cut them out AND laminated them.

I went out to the bookstores after Christmas and scored a couple of Advent books on clearance.
The Advent Storybook has a story to read each day leading up to Christmas.  Haven't started reading it yet but we will catch up on that.

The Story of Christmas book has little minibook ornaments that tell the Christmas story.

This year.  This is my year.

Check it out.

We have not just one, but TWO Advent wreaths.
An Advent calendar (thank you Target dollar spot.)
The Nativity scene is set up awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus.  (The Jesus has actually been missing for years but I always put in a little bundle of cloth on Christmas and no one has noticed yet.  I really should get a new Nativity set!)
And in the whole spirit of Advent's theme of waiting.

The Christmas Tree is being slowly set up.
This progress has taken three days already.  We could probably drag it out until Christmas if I try hard enough.  A branch a day or something.

Once we get it up we can start putting the little book ornaments on it each day...
For now we just hang them on the lower branches.

Yup.  As you can see, I have it all together.

Oh, you wanted a picture of the Jesse tree?  Um, well it's still in a closet somewhere.  I'll get to that.

Waiting remember?

And my crowning achievement?!

The best St. Nicholas feast day celebration yet!

I know it might be a bit of a cop out, making my glorious return (you know you missed me) to blogging by participating in a link up.

But I just can't resist Cari's linkups!

Back in April or May or sometime around there, I stopped blogging because my computer hard drive failed.  Then my husband came to my rescue and gave me an iPad for my birthday.  Sadly I didn't get right back in the swing of things so my brother stepped in and replaced my computer hard drive.

That's right, no more excuses.  I have been away far too long.

Is that enough self shaming for you?

How about a little finger pointing?
Yup, went to all the trouble of getting creative like with the frame and everything but didn't bother to make her change out of her pajamas.  What?  You didn't realize those were pajamas?  Nevermind...

Oh, and speaking of shaming...

The linkup closes in 14 hours so I figured I would start writing my What I Wore Sunday post.  On Tuesday. Also I missed last Sunday.  Wrote half a post but didn't finish in time.  So technically I am a week and two days late...

I blame my husband for being on vacation last week.  I was way too busy not being busy with him to blog.

Right.  Clothing.

Remember "Once Upon a Time" when I used to write funny posts?

Right.  Neither do I.

You are probably hoping I am about to write a funny post.  Sorry.

Instead it's going to be another one of my boring "my house is a mess and I don't want to clean it" posts.

Because that's what I do when I am looking for something to do other than the things I am supposed to do.

Today I bring you a list of 7 things I need to do today.  Exciting right?  You are totally on the edge of your seats.

1.  Clean the house.

Big surprise there.

Tomorrow is December 1st.  And I am under the deluded fantasy that I will somehow clear out an area big enough to put a Christmas tree up.

This is the corner we put the tree in every year.
But now I have a desk.  And a sewing machine table.  In that corner.  Yup, they're there.  Under all the clutter.

I am terrible at planning things.  Truly terrible.

My husband is a planner.  He always needs to know what the plan is.  Whenever his sister and I take a trip to the mall to hang out and browse, he asks us our plan.  We always answer the same way.  We "plan" to hang out and browse.  It drives him crazy!

I should clarify something.  I am terrible at making active plans.  When I do plan something I usually leave some really important part out or go way overboard on tiny unimportant details.  It all falls apart.  Which is of course why I don't like to plan anything.  And I am lazy.

I am really good at making passive plans.  By that I mean that I simply expect things to go a certain way without any direction or interference from me.  It should just happen.  You know?

Drives my husband crazy!

Perfect example.

Tomorrow I will have my 20 week ultrasound.  Long before I even got pregnant, I came across the idea for a "gender reveal party" on Pinterest.  Complete with a cake revealing the gender when cut.  Genius!  It seemed so perfect.

On Thursday we did something I have been promising my kids we would do all year.

Dye Easter eggs!

Now, I know what you're thinking.

Wasn't Easter over a month ago?

No.

That was simply the beginning of the Easter season.

See, my friends.  The Catholic Church in her infinite wisdom set the Easter season to last from Easter Sunday through Pentecost Sunday.  Pentecost Sunday is this Sunday.

That's right.  Catholics get to enjoy not just one day of Easter but an entire season!  50 whole days to celebrate Christ's glorious Resurrection.

The Church did this for a couple of reasons.  One being that Easter is the highest feast of our faith.  Easter was the pinnacle and fulfillment of Christ's ministry.  His defeat of death.  Our salvation.

After all, even Christ extended his ministry past Easter Sunday.  He could have told his apostles everything they needed to know before his death, but instead he stayed after his Resurrection.  He could have appeared once, said "Hey, I'm alive." and gone right up into Heaven.  Then the Holy Spirit could have arrived and just given everyone whatever knowledge and understanding they needed.  Instead, Jesus hung out for awhile.  Let it all sink in.  "No really, I'm alive."

The other reason, obviously, is so that I can procrastinate.

If you guys are anything like me you flipped your calendar over to April and were greeted with quite a shocking realization.

One of the biggest holidays of the year is less than a week away?!  How could I be caught so unprepared?

Never fear!  It's under control.  Jenn and I are here to help you celebrate.

We had so much fun last year, we decided to do it again!

That's right.  It's almost time for the second annual...

Here are a few writing prompts.  Get creative!

-How are you celebrating No Housework Day?

-What do you do instead of housework?

-Tell us about that time you tried to clean something and it backfired on you.

-How did you become a Domestic Goddess / Domestically challenged

-Share your housekeeping/organizing tips and tricks

-Confess your mess…be brave and show us pictures of your messy house

-Tell us your most/least favorite chore

-Why you hate/love housework

-How to you make housework fun (or at least bearable)

-Do your kids help with the housework?

For the Domestically Challenged

Do you hate housework, are you no good at it, or are there simply just not enough hours in the day to do it all?  You’re not alone.  All over the country non-domestics just like you are sweeping the cobwebs aside (figuratively…we don’t sweep for real, silly!), stepping out into the world and declaring, “I hate housework!”.  We’re walking right past our piles of organized chaos and confessing to the world, "I am Non-Domestic" and “I have better things to do than dishes.” Join us on Saturday to link up any of your domestically challenged blog posts.  Show us what you do instead of housework, how you plan on celebrating No Housework Day, or tell us about that time you tried to clean something and it backfired on you.

For the Domestic Goddesses

If you’re reading this while wiping your computer screen with a special cloth…you probably need to declare a holiday more than any of us (put the cloth down and back away, you weirdo!).  Can’t take off a day of cleaning?  You might feel like you don’t belong here, but you couldn't be more wrong, my friend!  You are welcome to link up any of your housework posts…make us feel guilty and show us your tips, tricks, and lovely organized closets.  We’ll call you a show off and give you a ;) winky to your face and then we’ll probably talk about you behind your back…but seriously, you’re totally welcome to link up!

Start planning how you’re going to celebrate No Housework Day (or if you’re a non-domestic...procrastinate and try to come up with something at the last minute ;) ) and then meet back here at Non-Domestic Mama or at Coolest Family on the Block on Saturday to party! 

It was Thursday.

My mom-in-law was coming out on Saturday to celebrate her birthday.

This gave me two full days to paint the homeschool room and clean up the mess.

Thursday to paint.

Friday to clean.

Fool proof plan.

So, I pulled all the furniture away from the walls, pulled out my painting supplies and got started.

 I started with primer.
 Giving the walls a nice, consistent, even coat.
 With several breaks to kiss owies, serve emergency (I'm starving) snacks, and take the princess to the potty.
 As you can see, I consider it of utmost importance, to keep the primer coat from looking sp lo tc hy .

 At this point, I received a call from my husband, informing me he was on his way home from work.

5:00 already!?

That's ok.  I have all evening to finish painting and then all day tomorrow to clean up.

Him:  "Did you take the trash out this morning?"  (I had forgotten to take the trash out on Tuesday)

Me:  "No, today isn't trash day."

Him:  "You're kidding right?  Today is trash day."

Me:  (laughing to myself and speaking in an ever so slightly condescending voice) "No, honey.  Trash day is Friday not Thursday.  Sometimes I get confused too."

Him:  "What day do you think it is?"

Me:  "It's Thursday."

Him:  "It's Friday."

Me:  "No, it can't be Friday because you didn't do your podcast last night."

Him:  "It was cancelled this week.  Today is Friday."

Me:  "Please tell me you are kidding!"

Him:  "Nope."

I then turned around and took one look at my house.

First of all, I'm going to make it very clear that I am a messy person by nature.  My husband is a messy person by nature.  We are both pack-rats.  I can't organize to save my life.

It's important that you understand this so the following doesn't come off as some kind of excuse.  I'm not trying to say any of this is actually responsible for my messy house.  Only that when you combine two messy people who collect and treasure clutter and then add other challenges to that mix, well, you end up with my house.

And when I say other challenges I think we all know who I am talking about.

Yep.  I'm pointing at you Pipe Gremlins.

But I am not going to cower in fear any more.

It's time to take a stand.

For the time being, the water is staying where it belongs, you know, in the pipes.  That is, aside from the bathtub leak.  But we have fixed that problem by not using that bathtub.

Ha!  Take that Gremlins!

The furniture is staying where it belongs along with clutter keeping to it's designated spaces.

So, I have decided to reclaim my house.

A long long time ago, before the first attack, I had plans.  I had ideas.  Things were happening.  I was painting trim and horrible brown posts.  I was arranging furniture in certain ways.  I was getting creative with what I had.  Heck, I was even scrapbooking!

Then came the Gremlins.  There's just something about having all your living room furniture stuffed into your dining room that suddenly takes the focus off the little bit of trim that didn't get finished.  You know, when you were interrupted by your son making a mad rush to the bathroom, only to return and find the curtains had been painted by your daughter.

Somehow that just fell to the background.

And let's be honest.  I gave up.  I just didn't care anymore.  Really, what was the point of finishing the trim?  Nobody would ever notice anyway because no one would ever be invited over to a house they could barely walk through.  Even if they did there were plenty of distractions.  "Why is your daughter's dresser in your dining room?" would probably be asked before, "Why is there a strip of green painters tape under that trim?"  And so that tape stayed there for well over a year.

Not to mention the fact that, when you have just spent thousands of dollars on fixing water leaks, that $20 curtain rod becomes a bit of a strain on your budget.

Finally I am giving up on giving up.  I've had enough of living my life according to the rule of the Pipe Gremlins.  Which pretty much says, "If you attempt to improve your home in any way, we will create another disaster to derail you."

I'm taking the risk.  Tempting fate.  Risking the wrath of the Pipe Gremlins.

I should be doing the dishes.  They have piled up again.  Instead I stare at the massive crusty pile and wish them away. But they stubbornly refuse to clean themselves.

I should be cleaning the living room.  It has been overrun with all the things that belong somewhere else but somehow creep back in when I'm not looking.  Then I turn around and am greeted with a scene from a horror movie.  I should be putting all the things back where they belong.  I should be scolding my children and making them put the things back where they belong.  But I lack the energy to follow them around pointing out each item and explaining in detail how and where it should be.  Instead I watch and listen to my children blissfully playing. Totally unaware of the chaos that surrounds them.

I should be writing a blog post.  Something insightful, or eventful, or charming, or witty.  Instead I stare at a blank screen as the words refuse to form themselves.  My head swirls with tiny snippets of thought that flee like butterflies from my net.

As you all know, (because you all religiously read my blog whenever I randomly decide to post something) I have been working diligently for the past couple of weeks days on and off yesterday (evening) to clean and organize our "homeschool room" so that we could officially start our first day of school today.

Moved the dresser out.  As you can see it made a HUGE difference...

Moved out and collapsed all the empty boxes.

As you can see THAT made a huge difference.  See?  FLOOR!!

Finally organizedish.  No, don't look over at the other side of the room!

 Today we woke up bright and early at 9ish am.  I know.  It's a miracle.  My kids actually slept in on the first day of school.  One of the perks of homeschooling.  I can consider it a good thing to sleep in on the first day of school!  So, after a nutritional well rounded breakfast of toast and cold hotdogs  (What? That's what they asked for!  It is too nutritional.  I put cream cheese on the toast so that's three whole food groups right there!) around 9:30ish am, we began.

As will inevitably occur, when one has a three day weekend, with oodles of time to do things, like blog, and read blogs, and blog some more, the internet decided to go down.  It seems it decided it deserved a vacation, just as much as the next person/artificial intelligence.  Which of course left me staring at the little blank icon at the bottom of the screen, willing it to come back on, as I futily clicked the refresh button, repeatedly.

Refresh? No.

The cable company promised to get right on it.  They would schedule us for Wednesday.  Wednesday?  It was only Sunday!  What to do for an entire 3-4 days without internet or cable?!?!?

Refresh? No.

There was only one obvious solution.  Start honing my Angry Birds skills.

Oh yeah.  I got it!  Doing my happy dance!

Remember the shelf I wanted so badly?  And the day I told you I was working on "a project" but wasn't finished yet?

Well I can't say I am entirely finished but I am going to just tell you about it anyway.  Because I know how you have all been holding your breath waiting and I just couldn't keep you in suspense any longer.

So, the shelf I wanted was a little more than I wanted to pay.  I considered getting the four tier shelf for $70, even though I really wanted the $80 five tier shelf.  So basically I just kept wishing.

Um, so . . . I might have a problem.

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting a whole lot this week.  Or more likely you didn't notice until I told you just now.  I like to tell myself that the 5 billion people who secretly read my blog but don't want me to know about it so they don't make comments or show up in the stats . . . those people really miss me when I don't post.  And the 25 or so people who are actually subscribed to my blog really miss me when I don't post.  And the 5 loyal readers who like to boost my self esteem by reading everything I write and commenting with encouraging and witty things.  They REALLY miss me when I don't post.  That's what I tell myself. :)

Anyway I got off on a bit of a tangent there.  What I really came here to tell you is this.  I have several blog posts in progress.  I have about 10 that have gotten to title stage.  That is where I have written a title and saved it as a draft so that later I can fill in all the awesomeness that is right now just sitting in my brain untapped.  Such exciting titles as, "The Refrigerator Elf" or "Insert Title Here."  Ok, that second one wasn't real . . . yet . . .