Mama J = Slacker

I am sitting at my computer listening to Val scream her head off upstairs in her crib, and M barking like a seal in her bedroom. It is one of those days...

I've had a lot of lattes as of late

Val is at the tail end of a cold, and M at the beginning and was diagnosed with croup at the doctors today. Speaking of the doctors, we have been to the doctors office four times in the last four weeks due to illness! Four times! Val had croup, then they both had strep, and now M has croup and Val is at the end of a head cold/getting all four incisors at the same time. Good times.

We can't seem to shake the illnesses in our house. For months at least one of us has been sick - I have been in some state of sick for over a month now. I think it is largely due to the fact that we have been housebound for about 4 months now here in New England due to this insanely cold weather. Our home is like an incubator for the flu virus - coughing on each other, sneezing in faces (kids not me) and wiping snot on various surfaces. Oh and constantly swapping spit by drinking out of each other's drink vessels.

Needless to say M is home from school again today. I bribed her with a trip for ice cream (even though it is about 30 degrees outside) so that she would go lay down in her room for a while and hopefully take a nap. Val has been sleeping terribly lately so she is a cranky mess and is refusing to shut her eyes. Mama needs a break (and some more caffeine) - a break to start crossing off the 100+ items on my every growing list.

I sat down today and made a list of the things I need to do - things I have been putting off for days/weeks. On my personal to-do list I have 15 things, but on my decisions for new house I have 79. 79 decisions that need to be made, over the next 3-4 months, pretty much by me, as Hubs doesn't really care when it comes to design/look of house. Not a terrible position to be in, I know, as I spend pretty much all my free time looking at ideas on Pinterest or in catalogs and magazines. Tough life I know!

Did you know that there are almost 40 different shades of the color white? Neither did I.

But I am not writing to complain about having to choose paint colors, I am writing because with all these superficial decisions that have become my life as of late, things are being put on the back burner that shouldn't be, like, my every day responsibilities.

Sure the kids are clothed, and fed and cared for, but I am phoning it in when it comes to dinner preparation - I think the kids have eaten more mac n' cheese in the last few weeks than ever before. Hubs and I have fallen off the wagon when it comes to eating "clean" and have ordered out more lately than we have in the entire past year. The time that I should spend on meal planning and preparation I am literally either on my iPad or my computer looking at house related ideas.

My house is a pigsty and I actually have multiple laundry hampers full of clean clothes in there that I haven't emptied in over two weeks. And about a week and a half worth of dirty laundry that is spilling out of the two hampers in front of my washing machine. There is stack of mail and bills on my desk that is about two feet high - I should probably go through it, but then I would be taking up precious time of looking at cabinet knobs online!

In the next few months I will be adding selling my current house onto my list of responsibilities, which will be another interesting adventure. I don't look forward to having to keep the house spotless for showings and driving around with kids and dog in tow during open houses, etc., all the while Hubs is insanely busy and traveling much more for work these days.

I have let the blog fall by the wayside. I seriously had big plans for 2014 - a redesign, both of content and of the layout. I had plans for giveaways. I have a list of kid crafts I wanted to try and and recipes to review, with plans of doing at least one of each of those once a week. I had blogger events I wanted to attend. But what little free time I have these days I have devoted to attempting to stay in shape (or get back into shape - I am not sure what shape I am in!) or doing things for the new house, which I never thought would take up so much of my time.

I still plan to write about some of the creative decision making for the house, and even poll you lovely people on some choices. Thought it might be cool to have some external opinions on things like room layouts and paint colors.

I apologize (again) for slacking in the posting, and hope that you, my dedicated readers, will stick with me over the next few months during this crazy adventure!

I can hear my mom now - "stop typing and go put away your laundry!"