Fa blah blah blah blah

Warning: bah-humbug post ahead . . . positive updates to come . . . later. As I write, we have a low level sick-something-ness lurking in our house and I'm willing it away by eating cookie-mint ice cream and reflecting on some choices from the last week.

A couple years ago I read a great blog post about a "not to do list". On it, I put many things, including:

- Piddly craft projects (I long got over my insecurity at being a non-crafty mom)
- Sewing
- Roll out cookies
- Elaborate gardening

I am loving the liberation that comes from deciding I don't have to do it all - I don't have to do anything. I'm all about "being" (in theory - I DO love to DO also).

Since Advent is a crazy season with all sorts of "extra" things to do, I decided it would be a great time to do several things that I don't enjoy doing (please detect sarcasm). Like, piddly craft projects and roll out cookies. Some pictures below. Self inflicted torture is a great way to celebrate the anticipation of Christ. Oh, and don't forget the extra shopping (also something I don't enjoy) and the extra (self-inflicted) pressure of using all the awesome coupons that come out this time of year: Kohl's cash! Hallmark $5 off! $10 off at JCPenney! Free lip gloss at Bath and Body Works! These places are tricky. Or I am gullible and compulsive.

Sometimes I can exercise self control, discretion and wisdom - and turn away from these impulses.

Other times, I cannot. I am calling these moments "blahs" and I have several from the past week alone.

Blah number one: I become overwhelmed with the compulsion to make a lion mask craft for Judah's 1 year "Lion of Judah" party:

For all the time they took (cutting construction paper, curling it around a pen, gluing 2 rows of strips, cutting circles in the paper plates, taping sticks to the plates), they are not that cute.  I thought of these as an investment, if I'm careful they can last for a few birthdays, until Judah is old enough to say, "Puh-lease. NOT another lion party!"

How about this blah, using the cake ball mix that was given to us (which had, I kid you not, 18 steps - gave up at the point of needing to insert a stick into the unmentionable part of a gingerbread person who was small and hard to cut out anyway). I named these "cake blobs" (Karis called them "lick pops"):

The next blah I signed up for, making gingerbread men for church. It's for the children! Trevor left the house this morning to a frustrated me lamenting my lack of roll-out-cookie skills. He gently suggested I use more flour. WHY is he always right?! I hope the children don't mind burnt hands and broken feet:

They DID make the house smell so yummy. AND, they prompted this post. AND we got to have "tea Tuesday" with the casualties.

Yes, that's a popsicle with the tea and cookie. Consumed at 10:30 am, right after coming in from playing in the snow. Good memories.

By the way, LOVE this quote: "The scope for failure in the last step alone [of baking bread] is so great that in every society in which bread has featured, baking has been turned over to professionals from the earliest stages."
- Bill Bryson in At Home

Let's remember the need to make family holiday memories, which leads to another blah: going out in below zero weather in bad traffic approaching bedtime . . . to use a great coupon for Don Pablo's. You know, because going to sit down restaurants with kids at this age is always soooooo delightful. I think I maybe tasted the enchilada a little bit and Karis ate maybe two bites of her hamburger. Double blah that night was going to Bed Bath & Beyond to get re-usable K-cups with a coupon and a gift card that I had . . . and forgetting to use the gift card.

I'm wondering if it means anything that our Advent wreath is sitting empty on my table? I DID try to find taper candles (and then Trevor gently reminded me that Amazon Prime is a useful tool that I should use more often).

For the record, I DID use the Kohl's cash, and that was my last blah - I ended up misunderstanding the price of some Godiva chocolates and what I thought would ring up as "free" rang up as $17. So, I was THAT crazy coupon mom who asked the nice lady to undo the transaction and ring up only as much as would use up the Kohl's cash. She was gracious but I know she was trying. As were those in the line behind me.

I'm done, for now. And I'm smiling, really I am. I think this is all funny and growing and . . . from now until Christmas maybe I'll deny all the extras and instead read Mr. Willowby's Christmas one.more.time.

Baby Jesus, thank you for being born! Thank for this season when I can laugh and learn and that these things are all humorous and that my life is really this simple right now. Thank you for my children who are joining the journey and teaching me so much about living in the moment, embracing the burnt cookies, dancing around with lion masks, doing Advent reflections in dim light instead of candlelight. I am blessed and grateful.

And to end on some more positive notes:

Some random media: 

This is a good one

And so is this

Here are some more Advent songs, by a gal with whom we went to high school

And just because, this is the cutest thing. Judah is obsessed with this hairbrush and it's cracking me up. Gives new meaning to the Veggie Tales song "Oh Where is my Hairbrush". By the way, don't judge me, the socks fall off, okay?: