Tuesday, December 11, 2007

In Captivity


Here sits our lonely tree. I broke down and bought the mondo octagon gate due to one very busy 18 month old who will remain nameless. I thought I was outsmarting his roadrunner-like pace and super-stretchy-arms and whatever super-hero qualities he seems to be hiding from me, but to no avail. Super busy baby can climb inside of the gate, but that was before discovering that he could slide the gate to reach his own new private collection of ammunition (Christmas balls) to throw at the great big green target (afore mentioned tree in captivity). Did I mention my right eye has a twitch?

roadrunner with super hero powers

Every year since having the three musketeers, I have tried to make tree trimming night a fun family night together, in hopes of creating the same magical memories I had with my family as a child. This year was especially exciting for me because Bailey and Jake are old enough now to really remember this Christmas. We had decided to put up our tree the night before we left to Utah for thanksgiving so that when we got home it would be shining in all its Christmasy spirit and glory when we returned ready to start our Christmas season. This year I had grand expectations, and just a little bit too much on my plate it turns out.

As if packing for a trip with three small children (okay, just taking care of 3 small children) isn't chaotic enough, I wanted to finish getting packages together to take to Utah with me (which included baked goods and candies), I had started this whole 12 days of Christmas project to do with my 30 or so 8-11 year olds at church (which for starters included 6, no kidding 6 hours of cutting tags with my Cricut cutter) and of course I wanted a clean house for tree decorating night so we could get out the video camera and take pictures without toys and laundry running amuk (Carter loves to drag laundry all over, and socks, lots and lots of socks). And maybe this still doesn't seem undoable, but there are no words to fully explain the storm that brewed in my head.

Not to sound like I think I am the greatest, but I am often pretty impressed with myself when it comes to multitasking and time management and get frustrated when it all doesn't work out how I planned. Well, I think the motherboard in my brain shorted out. It got fried. Too many details for one mama to keep up there. And I was so sad that our fun night didn't go as planned. For one thing, the kids ran around for close to two hours repeatedly asking me if they could put the "ordnamets" on the tree yet. You see, I was making batch after batch of lollipops, and various other stuff that I must have blocked from my memory. They were so patient. We finally got to the decorating part, and promised that we would all have a sleep over party in the living room that night by the tree. We were supposed to drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, sing Christmas songs, and read a Christmas book. Together. Well, the kids did all of it, minus mom and dad, who were running around in the mess of it until 12:30 that night when Bailey came into our room and asked for probably the 20th time if we were going to come in for the sleepover party now that the movie was over. Yes, Bailey, we will be there in a minute. We are liars. They fell asleep, and so did we in exhaustion - in our own bed. Bailey was so, so disappointed in the morning when she woke up and saw we never came in. I feel so bad! I ruined her tree night memories, and what's worse, she will remember for reals this year!!!

Our little devil

Our little angel

My personal super hero. Isn't he handsome? even lying there under that tree, rugged and taking charge. He should have his own calendar. Sorry ladies, this ones all mine.


I really did it to myself this time. I literally have walked around in a daze until this past week, that is one reason I haven't posted in so long! I know that I cannot be everything to everyone and still have fuel left over to put in my own tank. I definitely paid the price this time for trying to "do it all." I am learning through my own life lessons, that it is okay to set limits on what you can do with your time. I just had a real reality check this time around, and in the future, I plan to do things differently.

4 comments:

Kendra said...

Jenny, I love reading your blog! It's so fun to see your family! Thanks for sharing your ups and downs. This one really struck me because I totally know how you feel with having to learn what can and cannot always be done. I have literally told myself time and time again that I WILL NOT be obsessive about some things in my life... not that you are, just knowing people in my family who are a little obsessive about things has convinced me it's not worth it! My stress level goes way down if I remind myself to take on less.... so maybe my sink is full of dishes(hey, I don't have a dishwasher okay) and so what if I ALWAYS have unfolded laundry at any one location in my house at all times? Anyways, you are such a great mom! It's amazing how forgiving kids are isn't it?! Give your kiddos a kiss and know next year will be better!

Shelby said...

I can totally relate to this kind of craziness! I'm always trying to do fun things so that my kids will have good memories, and sometimes life just gets too crazy. I'm always stressing out about moving on to the next fun thing, and I have to constantly remind myself to stop and enjoy the moment before it's over. Let me know if I can help out with anything!

tricki_nicki said...

You and I were created from the same mold. I'm really trying this season to not let the craziness pour on me all at one time. It's taking careful planning but it seems to be working so far!

Jenny said...

Hey I hate feeling like I have lost control and yet I am always feeling this way. I try so hard to do more and be better than my childhood that it ends up just being crazy I need to lear to say it's okay if I don't do it all. Calgon take me away and lets try harder tomorrow. Ya in my perfect world. I know we are all great and super moms lets just hope are kids remeber the good and not the twitching. I think your great JC.