TGIF + a little video

12/04/2015
There are much too many dangerously addicting foods that I overly delight in come December. Peppermint white chocolate hershey kisses. Peppermint mochas. Peppermint bark. Cheese spread and crackers. (Smokey bacon! Port wine! Pimento! Seeeeeaafood!)

My sister and I meet for lunch every Tuesday. We like to browse the thrift store and then grab a cup of coffee, maybe a sandwich or a taco or a hot dog if we have the time. This go around we walked to great harvest and got a cup of ibis coffee for a cheap buck.forty-one! The trick is to bring your own creamer. (I brought peppermint mocha, surprise, surprise.)

Wednesday I took a longer lunch break and used it to go for a quick little jog in the snow. A man passing me on the trail asked, "how do you not slip and fall when you run in this?!" and I stupidly replied, "I just run very carefully!" I don't usually run outside in the winter time. I also hate the treadmill so typically I just lose my running game in the winter and get it back when Spring hits. There was one time in college that I was determined to not lose my running game during the winter, but that determination ended when I slipped and fell in front of a group waiting on the aggie shuttle and so. But it's been years since that happened! I have moved on! I'm trying something different this year only, it's still early in the season so I don't know, let's not get our hopes up.

On my run I realized there is a huge perk to running outside in the winter time: it feels perfectly leisurely. In the warm weather I don't have any excuses, so I am always running very determined-like. I'm always focusing on my pace and if I'm not speedy enough I feel like a failure. Sometimes that mind set takes the fun out of running, you know? But when it's snowy and icy you have a real good excuse to take it easy! You can jog softly and stop often and still feel like you've accomplished something large, because you have! You just ran in subzero temperatures in the snow! You're a crazy person! It makes running fun. And it's so peaceful! Most people aren't out there and I always find such peace with deserted roads and parks and trails. Also, it gets your blood pumping so that you don't feel perpetually cold and that's the real perk of it! (A good argument would be: you can also avoid feeling cold by staying inside and sitting by a fireplace, and so there's that.)

While this is a lovely time of year with the holidays, it's also terribly hard. Dan is in a line of work where the Holidays mean a lot of overtime. I mean it could be worse right, he could be a UPS driver or an employee of the post office! Now that's some holiday overtime right there. Just last Sunday we passed a mail truck delivering mail. I had to do a double take because it's Sunday, what is happening here?! But as it is, Dan works late nights and late weekends and some times, when I'm feeling especially dramatic, it seems I could empathize well with life as a single mom.

But there is always a silver lining, amirite? The pay is great and who doesn't need some extra money around the holidays? So I'm just over here not complaining, mind you. It's just. Dan and I together, we are kind of like a well-oiled machine. I take the kids to daycare, he picks the kids up from daycare. I bathe the kids and make sure teeth are brushed, he takes out the garbage and does the dishes. I walk the dog, he cleans up the dog poop. When he's around I feel motivated and energetic. Nowdays, I take the kids AND pick the kids up, I bathe the kids AND do the dishes, and mind you, my work is busiest this time of year too, and I'm working what is a full time load in only part time hours. So by the time Dan comes home Beck is long asleep and Jace is cuddled next to me in his pj's while handy manny plays on the television and it's all that I can do to close pinterest and pull myself up off the couch because I'm exhausted. And then I remind myself that he also just worked twelve straight hours, so don't complain woman! It's not easy for either of you! And it's really not. But we get through it every year, don't we now?

Speaking of the holidays, have you seen the barnes and noble commercial with Lady GaGa and Tony Bennett? Favorite.

It has been coming up often in conversation lately with Dan and I how much we will one day miss this stage of life. We particularly try to bring that fact up anytime we are in a moment that causes us to complain about this stage of life. Like when we recognize how many things we could buy with the amount of money we pay every month for daycare. (hint: a getaway cabin in the hamptons!) Or when we are tied down to nap time for any and all plans that we schedule. But the thing is, our boys are perfect. I suppose that's the right of every parent to proclaim but here I am, amidst the clichés. THEY ARE PERFECT. We are in this perfect stage right now where Jace and Beck are becoming such good little friends. They entertain each other and play together and both of them thinks the other is the just the best thing. Not to mention that they both think we as their parents are the best thing and I have this suspicion that might not always be the case as they get older, so I'm just soaking it all up.

I was scrolling through pictures the other day when this realization hit me with such force that it all but knocked the wind right out of me: my boys are growing up! It's not as though I didn't know that, but sometimes I am in denial about it I suppose. As my eyes filled with tears I had to talk myself out of a full blown panic attack. Breathe Meg. Just breathe. Change is beautiful but change is also hard, and it's moments like that where I am really reminded how much I am going to (already!) miss my baby boys. Immediately following my almost panic attack I sat down at the computer and compiled a video because that's the key! I have to have a million pictures with a hundred million videos, because they are my way of traveling into the past. And ultimately, I put together this video so that when it all gets so very exhausting and draining I could come here and watch the video to remind myself that hey! one day YOU WILL MISS THIS! They are perfect! There there now, have yourself a good cry.

So it's Friday now and as per the usual, we are ready for it! Today I am cooking a turkey and tonight we are attending a silent charity auction, tomorrow we are going to party at a Jazz game with my office (we have killer seats! we have the best work christmas parties, I tell you what) and Sunday we are considering (still considering!) a very large venture to go kayaking in the freezing cold! Wish us luck and I'll keep you updated.

Happy weekend to ya! Get out there and get you some! And also, stay safe!

Video time!



*if you can't view the video from your device here is the direct link: http://vid962.photobucket.com/albums/ae106/megscroft/EF2FAA51-9AB3-462A-80E8-0F398AAD36C2.mp4

Sappy mama moments, over and out!



xoxo

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