Keeping Today

An Official Scrapbook Expert once told me that you should "start where you are."  That is, begin with chronicling the present, do not first attempt to catch up all those years that you're behind in your photo albums.  Work on now, keep today up-to-date and then little by little - if you have energy remaining - go back and remember what has fallen behind.

I don't scrapbook anymore.
But I think it is advice that can carry over to blogging, right?

So, let's forget the last several weeks of my bloggity blog silence and just chronicle today.  Maybe tomorrow, if I have energy remaining, I'll give a presentation of our just-passed Christmas Break.

Today something incredible happened.
I created a lengthy to-do list.
This is not that unusual; I love lists, and I always make them way too long.

Today's List included typical near-the-end-of-the-week stuff: laundry, cooking, bathrooms, dusting, sweeping, blah, blah, blah... Today's List also included holidays-just-past stuff: move the Christmas Shrub to the porch, carry boxes of ornaments to the attic, gather up all the Christmas books and nativity scenes, etc. etc.  To state the obvious: Today's List was too long.  By 10:30 AM (half-way through my most productive hours) I had only checked one item off.  Incidentally, that item was already complete when I made my list.  List confession: sometimes I purposefully include tasks that have already been accomplished just so I can have at least one check mark. 

I {heart} checks. 

In all forms. 

But I digress.

Back to Today's List:

It's done.

Full of checks.

Incredible.

Hey, that wasn't digressing after all.

I {heart} checks.  On lists. In the mail. Tiny little checks on tiny little dresses.  Big "buffalo" checks.  I {heart} them all.

And I {heart} typing {heart} instead of finding a little symbol to show my affection.


I think I need a fancy pair of shoes to click in celebration.

Or maybe some shiny new teeth to giggle through.

Because you know I'm clicking and giggling all over the place on account of all those check marks. 
They're unprecedented.

Making Christmas Happen

Drip. Drip. Drip.

It is raining here. And leaking here.  And so much not feeling the Christmas season here.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about Christmas.  "It's up to moms to make Christmas happen," she said.  She's right.  Who shops, wraps, bakes, addresses, crafts, decorates, and remembers the hard-to-give-to people?  The Mom.

This Mom needs some help.
I feel overwhelmed, and I picture my brain as one of those grabbing booths with little slips of paper swirling out of control.



 On each slip of paper is a task that I must complete to make Christmas happen for our family.  Christmas Card Pictures. Wrap Teacher Gifts. Sew Children's Stockings. Decorate House. Shop for Gifts. Bake Cookies. Pick out "Christmas Outfits" for children.  Am I missing something?  Oh yes. Jesus.  What do all these Christmas things have to do with Him?  I usually love this time of year, but right now I'm beginning to feel grinchy... and what kind of attitude is that for celebrating Emmanuel, the most amazing event in all of history? 



These are my children, watching a Christmas movie last December. In the matching pajamas their Super {Christmas} Mommy made for them.  Super Mommy has temporarily moved away; we're hoping she'll return when the baby is weaned.  She didn't leave a note, so we're not sure.



My prayer this morning (and yes, for the rest of my life, but let's get through this morning first, OK people?) is that I will have wisdom and courage to discern what really needs to be done, and what can be done away with.

Maybe I can get it all done.

Maybe I don't need to. 

I cannot allow "making" Christmas to ruin Christmas for my family.



And Now... I need to figure out what to do about the leaky window and the flooded basement.  Oh yes, the basement: where all my sewing stuff lives.