Insomnia

It’s 3:14am, I have a cold, and should be sound asleep. This sinus headache seems to want us to be partying, so here I am, surrounded by Kleenex, blogging away.

Being sick when you have two small children and a husband to take care of is no fun at all. The other night, I thought I was coming down with the full-blown flu, but luckily, it has turned into a nasty cold. Lesser of two evils, right?

Honestly, though. When you’re a mom, and you’re sick, there are no sick days. Life must go on, and little people can’t take care of themselves. Well, if they’re five going on twenty-five, they THINK they can take care of themselves, but they can’t. Anyway, I’m just really thankful for Trader Joe’s, who made it possible for me to fake a home cooked meal in a total of 6 minutes. Teriyaki chicken, fried rice, and green beans. Thanks, TJ’s!

Moving on.

Yesterday, I had the rare privilege of time alone with just Ava. She got out of school on Wednesday, but Davis had his last day yesterday. Now that she’s in school five days a week, I just don’t get that much one-on-one time with her except when Davis is napping. I had forgotten how EASY she really is. Sure, we have lots of drama, but I can take her places, or go out to lunch with her, and we both really cherish the time together. We started our morning with a trip through the Krispy Kreme drive-thru, then proceeded to the mall for some more Christmas shopping. We only had one dramatic moment: I had promised that we could go to the Disney Store and Build-a-Bear, and we worked those stops into the middle of the rest of the shopping. She loved it, and I was impressed that she didn’t even ask for one single item. Once her stores were done, though, her feet suddenly hurt SO bad, and she felt that she could hardly walk another step. I called her out on being fine until her stores were done, and she said, “I knew you would say that!”

We made it through the drama, though, and ended up having a great time.

I’m finally starting to feel a little sleepy again, so I’ll sign off here, and leave you with our Christmas card photo:

Brrrrr…..

Like the rest of the country, we are in the midst of an arctic blast here in NC. Here’s photographic evidence:

I had to make a run to Old Navy the other day to get winter accessories for the kids. Ava, as you can see, loves her new hat, scarf, and gloves. Now, I bought gloves rather than mittens thinking that it would be easier for playing. Her class actually goes outside in these frigid temps. What I didn’t realize is that 5-year-olds struggle a bit when it comes to getting their fingers correctly placed into gloves. And by “a little”, I mean a LOT. Our already-hurried mornings are now delayed a couple of minutes more by this winter gear, and particularly the gloves. Next time, we’re back to mittens.

The little guy has mittens, of course, but he won’t wear them. In fact, I can’t even get them on his hands. Luckily, we spend most of the time indoors or in the car, so it’s fine. He is excellent about keeping the hood of his coat on, so I take comfort in knowing that his little noggin is warm.

The other apparel problem I’ve encountered (besides the fact that I have nothing to wear) is that I don’t seem to have a very warm coat. However, those nice folks at Lands End decided to put just about all of their outerwear on sale AND offer an additional 25% off, so I ordered myself a down coat. I’m sure I will look something like a marshmallow in this:

It looks warm, though, and for now, that works. I mean, if it’s 30 degrees and it’s not even officially winter, I’m going to need something, right? And seriously, after all discounts were applied, I think it was like $38. Bargain.

My other issue with the chill is that it has completely zapped my motivation for all physical activity. Running outside? Nope. Too cold, and I don’t have appropriate winter running clothes. Gym at 5:30am? No, thanks. Don’t want to drive there in 16 degrees. So you see? I will apparently become morbidly obese should this weather continue. Obviously, I MUST find my workout mojo again before this happens.