As I write this my amazing husband is painting the family room. So far he has painted the powder room, kitchen - including ceiling, dining room, and primed the living and family rooms. Its a big job, nay a huge job, considering we have very high ceilings in the living and family rooms. After nearly eight months we decided to finally make this house our own. It looks awesome so far, and I can't wait for it to be done, as I am sure Matt would agree.
We travelled back home for Christmas. We drove. It wasn't too bad. We were fortunate to avoid any really nasty weather and were even able to do it in one shot on the way home. It took about 16 hours and we arrived home about 1 am, but it was so good to be home. On our way to Chicago we stopped for the night somewhere in Iowa. Those couple hours in the evening in the hotel were the roughest of the trip! Margie is insane anyway, and when you factor in the fact she is in a new place and has been strapped into a car seat all day...it wasn't pretty. I would much rather just drive straight through then spend the money on a hotel and then stress the whole time we are there about interrupting the other guests. It was a great visit and I miss my family something fierce, but it was also good to get back. After ten days of being surrounded by family, late bedtimes, lots of fun, new toys, lots of treats, and just general overindulgence, the kids needed a bit of reprogramming. We are settling back into our "normal" routine.
Since October I have been working a lot at my part time job. Its retail, so obviously it was quite busy for the holidays. Now that the holiday season is over and my hours are cut back, I am considering whether it is worth it for me to continue working. Its barely above minimum wage and I put 25 miles on the car everytime I work, plus the fact that Matt and I are literally doing a kid hand off a couple times a week is really making me consider quitting. Most days I like the job well enough, but I don't know that it is worth it; the upheval of our schedule, barely seeing my husband, the guilt I have when Lily refuses to get in the car and Margie tells me "Mommy no go work!!" We will see. I always feel bad quitting a job and most of the people I work with are pretty cool, and they are short staffed right now since most of the employees are college kids and the turn over is ridiculous. I mean really, I just want to find a job that pays well and I can work from home a couple hours a day when it fits my schedule. Is that too much to ask? (Yes, I know it really probably is!)
Anyway, life is just chugging along in the Groves' household. Lily is still rocking kindergarten. It is just so crazy to me to watch her learn and navigate new friendships and develop independence. She still says she wants to go to "city college" as opposed to "sleep away college" but she is definitely starting to develop some independence, which is of course a wonderful thing, yet hard for this mama to cope with as well! She wants to take karate, so we are looking into that. Man, it is an expensive hobby though! I need to keep looking but the places I have found so far seem pricey! We just started reading The Little House series together. Lily loves them and Margie even listens a little. Margie is very into reading stories before bed, which I love. I love to read and really want my kids to be the ones that I can't punish by sending them to their room because they would actually love the time to read alone. That was me and I hope they will be the same.
Margie is just a crazy little girl. She is so happy and giggly and snuggly. She is into everything and is so high energy. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed for a few months but still crawls into our bed at some point every night. We keep her door closed until we go to bed and then crack it open when we go to sleep. I'm not sure what would happen if I left it closed all night, but I am pretty sure at some point she would be banging on it to get out. I just tell myself she won't be sleeping in our bed forever, while simultaneously loving every snuggle. Margie talks up a storm and tries desperately to keep up with her older sister. It is so fun to watch them together. For the most part they get along really well, though I spend a good portion of my day breaking up squabbles.
Aside from working and trying in vain to keep up with housework and laundry and grocery shopping and meal preparing and all the million other tasks, I am still trying to run when I can. Santa brought me some cold weather running gear which I try to put to use as much as possible. The weather here is goofy. It is seriously 30 one day and 70 the next. I'm not complaining though. Well, I guess I would complain about how dry it is. Our humidifier runs constantly and I still literally see sparks when I pull back my fleece blanket. Its unnerving. The other night I pulled back the blanket so Margie could climb in bed and a second later she aske what's that smell? Matt said the same thing and I said it smelled like burnt chocolate. While Matt went to check out the house, I noticed the smell seemed to be coming from my shirt. I checked in the morning and didn't find any singe marks or anything, but I seriously wonder if a spark singed my shirt? All I know for sure is it is so freaking dry and my hands and feet are suffereing!
So this has been all over the place. I will end with the promise to post more. Maybe this time I'll follow through....
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