The must-do holidays in my house are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. At Thanksgiving, there must be turkey. At Christmas, there must be a tree and stockings. And at Easter, there must be baskets. (And apparently dyed eggs. My beloved insists, even though nobody really eats them. Whatever.)
So, naturally I got the eggs and forgot the dye. Have the basket makings, but there are serious deficiencies in the preparations, considering the other holiday must-do: make the front of the house look like it is not inhabited by feral creatures. (Which of course it is, but that's kind of embarrassing.)
Up sides: daughter cleaned the front bathroom! And she is picking up egg dye! And the food appears to be under control! And the cool cousins are coming over!
Also, we only need to clean to cool cousin specs, not MIL specs. Still, some dust bunnies and a considerable load of cat fur will soon go to the great beyond. Surely I can get my act together by tomorrow noonish...
Being a time of families gathering, we're opening the Brigadoon early, in case of emergency (or mundane) whine or antiwhine needs.
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ok, ok, ok. tell me if this is normal. beloved is not only over-supervising the cooking of boiled eggs, but in the course of feeding the dogs, HE PUT A DOG DISH UP AGAINST THE PAPER TOWEL ROLL so it would be easier to pull a few off. ew ew ew.
my standards for cleanliness are not the highest, but really, a dog dish? [no worries, that roll of PT is now in the garage.]
I dunno, I got griped at by a complete stranger at an Easter party today for letting the Baboos play in the birdbath water. We washed hands before we ate, sheesh.
(PS I did not have a particularly good time at the party).
W: Holy Week is hard on preachers' kids.
oh, the poor baboos!
the previous freakout is because i was deftly switching between food prep and disgusting cleaning tasks, and that roll of paper towels was my insurance of moderate sanitation. all better now!
I think we're all allowed to have our own germ issues and think other people's are weird. Like I hate having the inside of the fridge be icky and my mom hates having the stovetop be messy. For me, the food I am going to eat might touch something icky. For her, inside the fridge,w e can't see the mess, but on the stovetop everyone can see it.
AW: I am not in HS and while there is some FB gameplaying (over unbloggable issues with friends/frenemies), if I were 20 years younger, I would have a much harder time talking myself out of FB gameplaying in reply.
W: FB and in real-life gameplaying. Fireplace!
oh, good grief (to the gameplaying by people old enough to know better). Sorry, Sarah.
my cool cousins showed up 1.5 hours past the appointed hour for dinner; snacks were scheduled for 2 hours earlier, which i thought left room for their terminal lateness... there was some marital tension. the dinner was very nice, though; we really like them! they're off to a passover dinner with her family now, and probably late for that.
we can all agree on gameplaying. bleah, sarah. xoxo
1.5 hours late? Wow. You are a great hostess to get through that smoothly.
I did the big reveal on the waterpark hotel trip this morning. Kids are very excited! Yay! Anti-whine!
yay, have a great trip, sarah!
things were tense around the lateness of the cousins. i had my own family ready for company 2 hours ahead of the mid-afternoon feast (snack time), and stressed we needed to have dinner on time because they were going elsewhere later. my husband wanted to just eat without them, causing me to burst into tears, causing him to huff off. festive, no?
my favorite cousin and his wife are just delightful, but they have a real problem with time. they actually are functioning adults with jobs, so i don't understand this. (the same thing happened with christmas brunch -- 2 hours late. they were late for setting up their own wedding, even though they themselves had laid out an elaborate timeline.) maybe i need to call the same day and remind them of the time, check on estimated time of departure? but that's stupid -- i don't helicopter my own kids that way.
Maybe you can tell them kindly that you really enjoy having them over, but that it creates stress for you to plan your meal around them being there at a certain time and then have them show up an hour-and-a-half to two-hours late?
You love them, you want to see them, please can they help you want to invite them again, because really?
it is a sad week when the host spends this much time whining about dinner, which no matter what is not going to be the end of the universe. so, i'll just shut up except to say, thanks, liz!
W: the Birdbath Incident of a couple of days ago was eclipsed by a Walmart Toilet Incident. Really, Sweet, WHY do you need to put your hands in anyone's toilet, much less the one at Walmart?
AW: spent most of the day wrapped up in a book. That hasn't happened in...forever.
W: got two voter registration cards in the mail. Not the first time this has happened. Went to the local courthouse to check it out (in the basement--shudder), and no one in the elections office. Is this a big deal? They are exactly identical, same voter number and everything.
Oh my.
Sorry for nasty part-goers, icky dog food, terminally late albeit lovely family, game-playing by people who should know better, and general holiday stress.
Me?
I'm on Day One of Sabbatical! YAY!!! (Y'all were right, the day finally arrived, just like you said it would)
AW: I conducted worship barefoot yesterday. It was so awesome. And so appropriate - when one stands on holy ground, one takes off the shoes.
AW: I slept through much of day one. I also finished a book I started reading months ago. I'm going to like these next few months. Yup.
AW: massage tomorrow.
W: ......................I got nuthin'. ;)
yay Sue!
yay Sue! It seems so far away for so long, but the sabbatical is here!!!
KathyA - I'd say they just don't quite appreciate the effort you're putting in. Can you have open house type events with them, instead of holiday meals? I have a few sets of friends like this. With one, I add 2-3 hours to her planned ETA. She did shock me once by arriving only 30 minutes late. I wasn't ready at all!
Whine: the treated water (I think it is saline, as it doesn't smell like chlorine) is making me dry. And the pillows are small and flat and they don't give you enough to double up. Seriously, that's all I got. yay!
Enjoy, Sarah! (unfortunate pillows notwithstanding)
oy, esperanza! the toilet adventures are so old skool! by which i mean, this is an experience widely shared but not often spoken of. and a reason to carry hand sanitizer in the purse.
sue! you go, sister! love that you preached barefoot, and that you are on the blessed sabbatical.
sarah -- hooray for the super getaway! woo hooo! if you have another night, call down for more pillows. :)
Yay for sabbaticals and get-aways!!!!
:) Neighbor Lady
My whine is some people did some stoopid and foolish things that were national newsworthy that are now causing nasty effects in my own work place even though we had nothing to do with the incident that has so incensed pundits of all stripes. people asked me at church on Easter Sunday for cryin out loud!
Sending peace and blessings to a minister friend who Sue reminds me of who put on an amazing Holy Week despite losing a dear lived one last week.
I'm thinking of boycotting drunk Seder next year with relatives. It seems to get worse every year. Even Younger Son started chastising the hosts for not paying attention to him reading his Haggadah parts. He normally doesn't notice that stuff.
Hugs to all of you with complicated family relationships, potty adventures, and youpi to bright shiny well deserved sabbaticals.
"drunk seder" has got to be award-worthy!
so sorry, miranda, about the whatzits that drew national attention. (something of a relief that "its not our fault!" is the appropriate and true response.)
thoughts for your minister friend, doing good despite her own loss.
well, i emailed my cousin to explain the angst about lateness, so we can be in better communication going forward, because we really love them. had a lovely chat with my fabulous aunt, who thinks they need to learn one way or another -- and she explained that they were really freaked out about the invite from cousin's MIL, which only arrived after MIL heard we had invited them, so oy. layers of family angst! perfect for all holidays!
Whines: fruit flies. pinkeye and ear infection (Sweet). Refusal to use the potty at school (Mini).
AW: wow, is it easier to parent them one at a time. Sweet and I have had a pretty good day together (after a string of terrible, horrible, no good...well you get the idea.
Oh Esperanza - pinkeye always wins every award in my book. Having it is horrible. Taking care of people with it is horrible.
W: we're home now, suffering from post-vacation letdown, exhaustion and bedtime is still 2 hours away. Hmm, maybe 2 hours isn't so bad.
Think good thoughts for my little buddy Waylon tomorrow (3 yo w/nasty cancer). He is getting his main tumor removed. It has shrunk by about 60%, which is very good news. Still a long way to go w/intense chemo, radiation and possible stem cell transplant (they harvested his own cells for this).
((( waylon ))) i'm so sorry. this is a lot for a little guy to go through. xoxo
((Waylon)) sending healing thoughts.
W: don't wanna.
W: they can, too, make me.
Waylon is done with surgery--they were able to get all of the tumor, and were also able to save his kidney. Thanks for the good thoughts...
Also sad for a friend's daughter, who had a stillborn baby yesterday and is in ICU. Too much.
oh, esperanza. yes, too much. xoxo
Oh, how painful.
((((((Esperanza)))))
Prayers for Waylon and your friends whose baby passed away. So much hurt.....
And you know that thing where you say "if you do that one more time Imma turn this car around?" Yep. Turned those strollers around and we didn't go to speech therapy (which she loves). Grrr. Bad start to the day. It has improved, somewhat. We just played a hilarious game of Hide & Seek
oh, esperanza. i really did pull the car over when "gay" jokes erupted amongst the boys in the back seat, and they got the full lecture. and etc.
if one has limits, one has limits.
Way to go kathy!!!!
And yes, I too am one of those parents who actually said, "Do I really have to stop this car? Because I can assure you, you do NOT want me to stop this car?"
Never had to do it, but I said it. I think my crazy eyes scared the daylights out of the boys, because I remember they stopped doing whatever they were doing (probably slapping or hitting one another in the back seat) We had/still have a no violence policy in our house. There was a brief period when the boys did not think the rule extended to the van.
Crazy-Eyes let them know otherwise.
I didn't have to bring out the Crazy Eyes too often, but they did work....
finally finished this thing that [silly me] i expected to finish monday. gah! anyway, there will be awards in a while.
My Crazy Eyes are broken, evidently.
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