Indigo Girl

Delicious Ignorance

I walked to our neighborhood diner this morning with a former coworker I hadn't seen in forever. She has been working Monday through Friday 8-6 and I've been working every weekend. Finally our schedules meshed and we went out for breakfast. It was really nice and I wonder how long before it is mundane to have the weekends off.

I spent a few hours finishing up my continuing education credits before I renewed my nursing license today. I went to the Y. A organized the bookshelves and gave the girls a tutorial on the proper, neat way to take a book out of the bookshelf and return it to the bookshelf. We took down the Christmas decorations. The girls played outside and came in for hot chocolate. Harry and his cohorts are heading to the Department of Mysteries in The Order of the Phoenix. I texted with a friend. I put away laundry. I made flounder piccata (using tilapia), roasted red potatoes, and asparagus for dinner and everyone ate seconds (and thirds in some cases) enthusiastically. I know next time I make THE EXACT SAME FOOD the girls will eat NOTHING, but I'm enjoying this current situation.

Downton Abbey is starting up again next week and I, along with a million others, am very excited! My only problem is that it's on at 9 pm and I'm an old lady who is asleep by 10 pm now. Oh, and we don't have a DVR. I will have to power through the first episode (two hours long) and then I should be okay. We can always watch it online, of course, but we'd have to be careful of spoilers.

I've never naturally been a morning person. I'm much more likely to stay up late reading a good book, but I like my new schedule. All those years of reading articles that talk about sticking to a sleep schedule - even on the weekends! they advise earnestly - and sighing because how can I do that when I work night shift? Now I can! I wouldn't necessarily choose 10/6 as my times. I think I instinctively lean closer to 12/8, but my wake up time on work days is 5:30 and I don't want to get too far off that. Even when I "sleep in" until 6:15, I still get so many things accomplished by 8 am. It feels good. Who knew that the secret to getting things done in the morning was to go to bed earlier?! Go figure.

My job is going so, so well. There is still a ton to learn, but I've been deemed "able to function independently" and am officially off orientation. I still go around with a low level of anxiety, worried I'll majorly screw something up, but so far so good. My preceptor gave me a bottle of wine to celebrate and a few coworkers took me to a bar after work on my last day of orientation and hazed me into doing a lunch box shot. It was nice. I'm too cheap to be a bar regular, but I'm trying to be political and go out for a drink occasionally.

It's my first day "on my own" on Wednesday. I'm not really on my own, because each procedure room has a team of three, so there's always someone to answer my questions, but still: I'm bringing treats so that if someone is getting annoyed with my questions or if I mess up, I can shove a rice krispie treat into their mouth. "Your ignorance tastes delicious, Linda!" they'll say happily.

Bullet Points

I have too much to say to use paragraphs, so Let's Catch Up Bullet Points it is.

• Christmas was great. We had a lazy day of pajamas, delicious food, and a sing-a-long to The Sound of Music. We had our traditional pancakes and bacon, plus pumpkin spice bread, chocolate peppermint bread, and a successful experiment: Grandma's Naughty Cinnamon Balls.
• My favorite present is the new laptop on which I am currently typing. My last one was at least five years old and making loud whirring sounds when it decided to work. This is the second laptop I received this Christmas. A bought me one and I had to return it because I'm apparently incredibly picky about mouse pads. I felt like I had to push hard to scroll down and despite all the adjustments he made, it was so difficult/distracting that I finally gave up. My new one responds to my lightest touch.
• E's favorite presents were Lego Harry Potter for the wii and an electronic diary that will only open to her voice. 
• L loves her new electric blanket (um, so do the rest of us - it's big enough to share!) and Clue. (I forgot how much I like Clue. Recommend.)
• C is playing with her Melissa & Doug cake and her gumball machine (from the grandparents). 
• A got warm running clothes and some books.
• For the last few years I've thought that I need to help each kid choose gifts for the rest of the family, but I hate shopping so much that I keep putting it off. I don't want to Christmas shop, so I certainly don't want to do it an extra three times! Maybe next year.
• I didn't send Christmas cards this year. I seem to be on an every other year pattern.
• We saw a library program on sled dogs and the Iditarod. It was very interesting and now E and I are saving our money for a sled dog team.
• My Saturday morning before Christmas step aerobics class had Christmas music and jingle bells to put on each of our shoes. It was festive - I loved it! I imagine I would get sick of the jingling after a while, but right now I wish I always had jingle bells on my shoes.
• C has been asking to get a pixie haircut. We compromised on a very short bob and if she still wants a pixie at the next haircut, I'll bring her to my stylist (usually the girls get their hair cut at Great Clips) so it's done well. Part of me is worried it'll be too short and I don't want to deal with the upkeep, but most of me shrugs and says, "It's just hair." It's a big change, though, so she'll have to still want it in another two months.
•  I read Gone Girl and hated the two main characters with a red hot fiery passion of hate. I finished it only out of spite. Now I'm enjoying a set of kids books that a friend gave E & L: Dealing With Dragons.
• L used her looms to make a hat and a flower for a little baby we know. She, E, and I got knitting stuff for Christmas and A's cousin is going to teach us the basics.
• We made gingerbread houses from a kit and it went okay. Then my kids ate them. GROSS. I don't know what those kits are made from, but they don't strike me as edible.
• Last night we went to a scavenger hunt at a nearby rec center and stayed to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol. I'd never seen it before, but it was really cute! I'm going to add it to our Christmas movie rotation.
• There is finally enough snow and we went sledding today. Everyone is big enough to steer around wandering little kids and also to drag their own sleds up the hill. I had made chicken noodle soup in the crockpot before we left, so we came back to deliciousness.
• E and L have been asking for information on people A and I used to date and the story behind how we met, fell in love, and got married. Tonight, they asked us to tell the story again and A told them a variety of versions:

I worked on farm and mama lived there, too. She would ask me to do things and I would do them immediately and tell her, "As you wish."

I was a chalk artist who sometimes played in a one man band. There was this nanny that I saw around and I liked to be around her and the children she watched.

I was older and the local abbey sent a nun to be the governess for my seven children. I was strict and formal at first, but she soon won me over.

 

Randomly Doing Christmas Activities

I am not a One-Christmas-Activity-Per-Day sort of person. I've found that when I do that, it loses its meaning and becomes one more task that I work to cross off each day. We are picking and choosing our seasonal activities this year and it's working out nicely. I'm making a mental note for next year!

I brought up the Christmas books when we decorated our tree and those have been getting read. We've watched Elf and How The Grinch Stole Christmas and I bought A Christmas Story because somehow I made it to adulthood without ever seeing it. We made snowflakes one afternoon when we had time. L and I will make pumpkin bread and peppermint bread for brunch with my in-laws. We've been practicing for the Swedish Lucia concert and it's finally happening tomorrow. We're going to an orchestral concert geared toward kids tonight and a live Nativity on Sunday.

Each night at dinner, we light the candle (soon to be candles) in our Advent wreath and then after dinner the girls take turns opening our Advent calendars and we read a relevant Bible passage. This year E and L are learning to navigate through the Bible and reading for us. We've been doing this tradition since E and L were in preschool and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Two days after losing her first tooth, C lost her second. I was wiggling it to see how loose it was and dislodged it slightly. She started crying, but decided to be brave enough to let us pull it out. (Hilariously, as soon as they heard crying, E and L popped up, each with a stuffed animal for C to clutch for comfort.) The tooth fairy left her six feet of bubble gum and she's quite pleased. She totally fits the All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth song now!

Tooth

This morning, C said her mouth hurt, so I poked around in there and found shark teeth! Just like E! Her lower left tooth is super loose - if I could convince her to let me, I could pull it out tonight. The right is loose, too, but not as much. I feel like 5 years and almost 3 months is early to lose a tooth for a developmentally average teether, but here we are. Luckily, this is a great time of the year to buy Tooth Fairy presents.

L wants to learn how to knit with two knitting needles. I kind of want to learn, too. There's a knitting shop in our neighborhood that offers lessons and as someone who is not super coordinated, I think official lessons would be a good idea. Then I have some knitting friends (plus YouTube) who could help me on a case-by-case basis. The lessons cost $55 (total of six hours of teaching time) and I wonder if I could take the class and then teach L what I learned? I'd rather not pay $110 for this, but I'm not overly confident in my teaching ability either. Maybe SHE should take the classes and teach ME.

We were watching the doggy day care at PetSmart today and there was a basset hound we referred to as Bingo. The doggy name/breed board said that it was actually a female named Bailey, but whatever. Then L asked what those bags were that were hanging down off the dog's butt and I said, "His testicles and scrotum." She said, " . . . but it's a girl?" and then I was at a loss. Fat pads? I don't know why a supposedly female basset hound had something that looked like a scrotum. Hermaphroditic basset hounds are not my thing.

Now I am writing this at the end of the night. After dinner, A took E and L to baton lessons and C and I packed lunches, made tomorrow night's soup, and read a bunch of Christmas books. She had agreed to let me pull her tooth tomorrow and then I said, "I'll carry you upstairs if you let me pull your tooth tonight!" Laziness won and she is minus one tooth. There was only twelve hours between parental notification and extraction. It was barely hanging on, I swear. 

I'm Not Mature Enough To Be the OAA

Saturday morning I went to the Y while A took the girls to their Santa Lucia rehearsal. Then I showered and took over as the Oldest Available Adult (OAA)* and he went for a run. The rehearsal was boring for me and I had a trashy romance novel to read. The girls stuck it out, though, and we have the official performance next weekend.

*This is from The Penderwicks in which the children refer to the OAP (Oldest Available Penderwick) as the person in charge when their father isn't there. It charmed us so much that we use it regularly, like when I was explaining to E and L what to do if there is a mix-up and my FIL does not pick them up after school one day. I said, "You are the OAMs and you need to make sure you stick together and with C. Do not lose each other!"

Then we dropped our children off with Karen and Juanito where they spent the entire afternoon/evening doing Christmas-y things. My reports were scattered, but they made a snowman out of Rice Krispies, played countless (it seemed to me) games, told jokes, watched a movie, made ornaments, made a picture of him/herself into an elf, etc. I think Karen is insane, but I love her anyway and not just because she gave me and A six child-free hours to ourselves.

I wore my cute leopard print skirt and felt totally self-conscious at first, but then I thought, "I may be a mom, but I don't have to dress like a MOM if I don't want to! I can be a woman! I'm on a date!" We saw Argo and I spent most of the time trying not to throw up from the stress and tension. Seriously, it was really, really good but it's the kind of movie I'll only enjoy if I can cut the tension by already knowing the end. I didn't know the end (even though it's a true story of the 1979 Iranian hostage situation) and that made it terribly stressful for me. I'm thankful the hair and clothes were available for occasional distraction.

Then we went to a super fancy steak house. It's the kind we'd never go to if I didn't have a gift card; the kind where you have TWO servers and a leather armchair; the kind where you order your side dishes a la cart . . . that sort of place. Definitely not our M.O. It was delicious, though, and we enjoyed every minute. 

Today I got up, went for a run, and came home to take over as the OAA while A went for a run. We went to church where there was a scrumptious fuzzy and bobbly-headed baby in front of us. I fluttered my eyelashes at A and requested another one, but he laughed and said I'd have to wait for our daughters to grow up and provide one.

We ate lunch and went to get our Christmas tree. Here's a picture A took that is not half-bad even though we are blocking the entire tree. We decorated it and got out my many, many Nativity sets. I may have a problem. The girls love to play with them, but it seems like the Nutcrackers keep holding Mary hostage. 

 We started our Advent calendars yesterday - I have one with chocolate, a magnetic one that slowly adds Nativity scene pieces, and a Christmas tree with velcro ornaments. We lit the Hope candle on our Advent candle wreath and talked about hope versus despair. I feel like maybe - maybe - this will be the first year that E and/or L really get it, not on a superficial reciting-what-we're-taught level, but on a real, gut level, they'll start to understand what Christmas is about.