It is almost over!

I realise that next Tuesday isn’t going to create a blank slate or anything but oh my goodness amd I stoked to close the door on 2007. What a crappy year.

Am I allowed to hope for better?

Seriously, who knew? I spent a half an hour this morning yanking pinfeathers out of a turkey’s butt. I also got the pleasure of squeezing feather bits out of the wings, much like how a person would squeeze the pus out of a zit, except without the satisfaction.

I’m a turkey virgin. Can you tell?

We are busy prepping for Christmas.

Here are some glimpses of what Christmas looks like at my place.

Paper Christmas stars for decoration

The tree

the presents

Christmas Crafting and Nativity

Happy Christmas to each of you!

Made myself a little Maggie fairy today. More info on the products will follow soon.

Three years ago today Maggie arrived. I honestly can’t believe it has been three years. She has gone from charming baby to silly toddler to very smart, creative princess Maggie the preschooler. The girl can identify her numbers from 1-10. She knows several letters and can recognize her name. She sings Twinkle, Twinkle and Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam and Puff the Magic Dragon. She is a lover of all things pink and girly, princess and Dora. She adores kitties. She spends hours each day coloring and painting- I literally can’t keep her in coloring books. She has worn out a magnadoodle in a year. She is the sweetest, most compassionate, silliest kid.

We had a party for her a few days ago. We had thirteen of her little friends from nursery there. They played playdough, decorated their own cupcakes and opened gifts. I wrapped up a small dress up set of jewelry for each of the guests to open during present time so there were no meltdowns. Maggie was absolutely enthralled with the bouquet of balloons I bought her- she carried them around for four days straight. She was a delight. She snuck cupcakes during the entire party, and then crashed so hard from the sugar rush afterward that she burst into tears surrounded by all of her new toys. It was so quintessentially three of her that I had to try very hard not to laugh at her where she could see me.

I am so blessed.

I received a letter in the mail today from Jonas’ school. It was yet another message requesting that I send in Jonas’ physical and dental exams and his immunization records. This one included a threat. Jonas will not be allowed in school as of Jan. 7th if these items are not delivered.

I gave them all of the information that they requested when I registered him back in June. I distinctly remember doing this because I thought it was a pain in the butt and it took me two trips to and from the school district office and the Pediatric Clinic to get it done right. I did this trip with two cranky children and got several dirty looks from the people in the office and was asked if I would like to come back another time without them, to which I replied, “No thank you,” because any other time would have required paying a babysitter or going through this again. Oh yeah. I remember this clearly.

So now I get to jump these hoops AGAIN due to someone’s incompetence.

This time I think I will bring my camera with me so I can take a close up picture of me handing these to someone in their office. Then I’m going to make the person sign a reciept stating that I had, indeed, delivered these. That way, when I start getting holier than thou letters from the school district again, I have some proof.

Are you shaking in your boots? I admit, there is some worry here. It is mixed with total shock at the fact that we haven’t already caught something. I am trying to figure out if we are being more sanitary around here, or if our immune systems have finally grown up.

We are being pretty careful with the hand washing. I know I’ve been soapy quite a few times and just the other day I hit Bath & Body Works for a few new Christmas soaps and antibacterial gels that are smell-o-riffic to entice the kids and I into frequent cleansing.

I had my five minutes of fame the other day. Did any of you guys see this MSNBC.com article the other day? It is all about hand washing- and yours truly is quoted. Twice. In these quotes I admit to both washing my hands on the fly with the anti-bac gels and not washing at public restrooms because “ew gross!” Lest you read that and think I’m completely unhygienic, I must explain. I figure that the less surfaces that I touch in a poorly kept public restroom, the better. I have heard the whole drill about using a paper towel to open doors and turn off faucets- but here’s the deal. Every time a toilet flushes it shoots a happy little spray of tiny drops of fecal matter with a twenty foot radius. This is why tooth brushes should be kept in a drawer and not on the bathroom counter, and toilets should be flushed with the lids down. Those “sterile” paper towels are covered in microscopic bacteria. So what’s the point? Get out of there and pull out your no water required hand santitizer.

I received an interested new publication lately. It is called the What To Expect Guide to a Healthy Home. It has a lot of helpful advice about basic home cleanliness and dispels a few myths about what is and isn’t sanitary. It is created by teh same people who brought us “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”. If you click on the link you can get a free copy.

Now, of all the germaphobic habits you’ll hear people discuss, there is one thing that I just could never do. Do you hover when you pee at a public restroom? A lot of people do, it seems, and I would love to know how they can clench their thigh muscles and release the bladder muscles. I. Can’t. Do. It. It is clench or unclench for me, germs be damned. The good news is that if you wipe any obvious fluids left on the toilet seats away, your butt and thigh area is pretty well protected as long as you take a shower later. You don’t touch the part of your body where the germs could get in to the actual toilet. It is much safer to sit, pee and flee, sanitizing after you’re out of there.

Something I am concerned about is how frequently my kids are washing their hands at school. I asked Jonas about this and he told me that they wash after going potty. I would be happy if they washed as they entered, before snack, and as they were walking out the door. Is that a totally unreasonable thing to ask? We all donated big bottles of Purell to the classroom at the start of the school year and I am totally willing to donate a few more bottles if it means less entries in the vomit category of my blog. So, would I be out of line to ask? How do your kids do it at their school?

And, now that I’ve confessed my hygiene quirks to you guys and the national media, how about some of yours? Anything share worthy? Any tips and tricks?

Do you ever come here and wonder what happened to the scrapbook posts? So do I.

The fact is, I lost my motivation. I started working in the scrapbook industry thirteen months ago. It started out as really fun. Then it became work. Now it seems that a lot of scrapping has become a means to an end, rather than an artistic outlet to enjoy.

Because of that change, and the fact that everyone keeps telling me to “take care of myself” and “cut back”, I have. I’ve allowed myself to do less- and it is weird. I have nothing pushing myself into the studio to work, so unless I have a project due, I don’t bother.

My creativity comes in spurts. I have a few months where I am hyper productive and then I have a few where I just run out, and I think that is natural and good. It is problematic when part of what you are paid for is your creativity. I am such a perfectionist that I feel if I am not giving 110% in every area I am slacking, and that I is really absurd.

So here I am. Busy, focused on non creative pursuits, chasing kids, baking stuff, and it is ok. Right?