Monday Mayhem - Bring on a new week

This past week was insanity. I chalk it largely up to Brad having been gone for 4 days last week and then having 2 meetings in the first half of the week. Add in soccer practice and our produce day and it made for a very insane first half of the week.

Add in the following factors (AKA the bad stuff):
*Garrett hit a classmate at school on Wednesday. Grounded for the rest of the week. No TV, no friends, no fun to be had at all. As most moms tend to do, I took it personally that he would make such a bad choice. Sigh.
*I saw a dog get hit by a car on Wednesday during my run (you really have to know how much of a dog person I am to get why this would be so upsetting to me) . . . we stopped to help, and hopefully the poor thing is recovering well. Of course, I couldn't bear to let my dogs out of my sight for a couple days . . . logically, the entire thing shouldn't have affected me as much as it did, but I'm in this weird stage where I am terrified of losing my dogs and that really didn't help.
*Brad has been sick
*The boy refuses to sleep in his own bed after midnight, which means I haven't slept well in days.

The good stuff:

*Downloaded a chore chart from Motivated Moms on Monica's suggestion, hoping that will help me with the whole balance thing. Because if there is one thing I am TERRIBLE at its cleaning my house.
*Coffee and a nice chat with Shelah on Friday, because darn it, it had been that kind of week for us both.
*We had to break out a lot of the 3+ Discovery Toys this week for Summer. Little girl is getting big, which is both sad and super exciting. Here she is doing the Busy Bugs.
*My boys made me a wicked cool butcher block cutting board. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT (and Brad made the bread too!)
*Girls Night Out at the Winery. There was a lot of dancing involved, which made me a happy camper!!
*I managed a 20 mile week, and with all of the insanity, I can say that in the fitness department it was a REALLY good week. 2 short, relatively fast runs, yoga, a long bike ride, kickboxing, zumba, and two FABULOUS weekend runs on Key Biscayne.
*The weekend runs on KB get their own bullet point--14.5 miles in 2 days. A gorgeous sunset on Sunday to help me get all nice and centered for this week. Explored some of the trails in Crandon Park on Saturday, saw a spotted eagle ray jump out of the water, and just generally let go for a couple of hours. Absolutely beautiful weather. I honestly have NO CLUE how I remained sane before I became a runner. These two weekend runs have made me feel all nice and centered and ready to tackle whatever comes next.

I am so very glad to be starting a new week. I really hope it is better than the last one.

Monday Mayhem . . . On a Thursday.

Yes, it has been that kind of week. I am not even sure why. Potty training is my new excuse for the chaos. It throws a wrench in the already insane schedule we have going on. We're home more, and yet swamped. Oh, and it has been C-O-L-D here. Cold enough for me to want to go into hybernation. This morning it was cold AND rainy, which REALLY made it hard for me to bring myself to get out of the door.

What we've been up to . .

We put up Christmas lights on the outside of the house. Garrett had SO much fun helping Daddy with this. He then spent the rest of his time measuring bricks/beating on them with his little tools. Garrett and Daddy also did a craft at Lowes on Saturday.

We've baked a LOT of goodies. I was so behind on baking that I had a fridge full of veggies, so we've made muffins galore. Garrett took a huge container to share at school, and of course the container came home empty :-)

We've had the neighbors over a lot to play. Garrett is all about his buddy Xander here lately. They've fished together, hung out together after school, etc. etc. etc. My kids went to their house on Monday so I could go in a little early to work. Summer has gotten her play time with Ava too. Its so funny that they both have their little best buds now. Garrett also got to have a picnic at the park with his little friend Alex (who he has told me he is going to marry). Her birthday is Saturday and if you were to ask Garrett, it is going to be THE social event of the season :-)

Work is insane for all. My boss is on a cruise again which means I have to hold down the fort. Brad is traveling for business again next week. This has been a bit annoying for me, since I really wanted to go on our cruise for work this month and also because Brad is going to be gone over his birthday. Garrett has been talking for a MONTH about the cake he wants to make for his daddy, so I'm not sure when we're going to be doing that.

We went to Homestead's first Farmer's Market on Monday. It was small but fabulous. Garrett enjoyed picking out starfruit and tomatoes to devour. Kid loves his starfruit and tomatoes. You would think I would have told him he could buy all the candy in the candy store when I told him he could pick out his OWN tomatoes and fill a pint sized container.

Garrett has teased me a lot about his Christmas program for school, which is tomorrow. I can not WAIT, its going to be so cute!

We've shopped, we've wrapped, we've sewed, and my boxes are started for family. We've played Christmas music, and Garrett and Summer walk around the house singing Jingle Bells, which is pretty hilarious, especially when its Summer.


Eclipse came out on DVD, and of course I had to rent it and watch it once (okay, maybe a few times). Stupid addicting Twilight Saga. I was less annoyed with the parts they left out this time around, but I still was sitting there going over what they ACTUALLY said in the book during the whole movie. Clearly I've read the books way too many times. Or rather, listened to them at work. Whatever. So now I'm back to thinking the big-screen version of Breaking Dawn may not completely suck. I have 11 more months to change my mind on that.

I read an intriguing, yet incredibly disturbing book called "Wintergirls". Its a YA book about a teenager dealing with a self-destructive lifestyle. Like so many things I read (including Twilight), it was just something I pulled off our library's audiobook database. As I said, it was very disturbing and also sad, but a definite page turner. It was interesting to see the battle with food from such a very different perspective. I recommend this one for anyone looking for a good read.

And, last but not least, did I mention it has been cold?? Freezing cold, in my book. I am not sleeping well because its cold. Summer is not sleeping well either because SHE is cold, so I spend half of most nights in room rocking her huddled under blankets (where we both sleep better) while the boys enjoy the beds and the heated blankets. I HAVE been running in the cold. 14ish miles so far this week. But only because its the only thing keeping me sane. I've been exceptionally thankful for the heated seats in the Yukon. Otherwise I may not be able to convince myself to take Garrett to school in the mornings. Oh, and coffee. Coffee has REALLY been my friend this week. I realize I'm a baby and it gets so much colder elsewhere, but I'm just not meant for cold weather. Our house was in the low sixties today. Just not okay, lol. I'm over it.

Holy cow, now that I've written down what our week has been like, its no wonder I'm exhausted and grumpy and completely burnt out. On a daily basis, I have trouble remembering what I've accomplished in the previous days, so writing it all down (and jogging my memory) makes me realize HOW MUCH STUFF we've done this week.

I'll try to update in the AM with video and pictures. Just too tired to bother right now.