Thanksgiving

We are finishing out the Thanksgiving weekend here at the Breiding house.  It is Sunday afternoon.  Everyone in the house is napping, and I am sitting on the couch, by the fire, trying to stay warm and get birthday stuff ready (Yes, I know it is over a month away, but it will be here before you know it).

We had two Thanksgivings this year.  Last Sunday, our friends from Houston came to visit.  They have a little boy who is the same age as Maxwell, so the kids were super excited about it. In fact, when they left, they both wanted to know if he could come live with us and be their brother. For that dinner, I went all out.  I got up at 5 a.m., stuffed the turkey and got it in the oven.   I made everything from scratch, including the cream of mushroom soup in the green bean casserole, and the dough for the crescent rolls.  And, I made pumpkin ice cream tartlets for dessert.  It was big and delicious.  So, we started eating turkey every day last Sunday.

Then, Thanksgiving got here.  Well, you can't skip the day without having a celebratory meal, so, my husband smoked a turkey.  I made an asparagus casserole, and we ate the Stuffing-flavored potato chips our friends left behind.

So, it's been a week, and I've made turkey empanadas, turkey salad, turkey casserole, turkey nachos, turkey melts, turkey sandwiches ... you name it, I've made it with turkey.  And, I still have at least a quarter of a turkey left.

But, I'm not complaining.  It is just pushing my creativity up another notch.

I am thankful that my husband has a job that allows me to stay home and come up with creative new ways to use turkey after thanksgiving.  I am thankful that my kids eat more than just the bread on thanksgiving day and every day.  I am thankful that when I made turkey casserole, both of my children told me how delicious it was.  I am thankful that my house is part-way decorated for Christmas.  I am thankful that my Christmas shopping is almost done.  I am thankful that my wonderful husband makes me warm fires and hot tea to keep me warm on these cold Texas days. I am thankful that, even though I wake up every day feeling terrible and I don't want to get out of bed, I do get out of bed and have two wonderful children to push me through each day.  I am thankful for so many things, but mostly I'm thankful for have Jeremy, Jade, and Maxwell.  They are my reasons for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!

When it feels like nothing is going your way

I'm sitting here on a Thursday afternoon, wondering why I feel like this.  I am down ... really down.  The only thing I can think of is that it has been a bad week.

First, this is always an off week, with daylight savings time ending on Sunday.  Everyone's schedules are all off.  Both kids and the husband are both up way too early every day and that throws off my schedule.  I can't comfortably get my daughter ready for school and prepare myself for the boys, when they are both up before I leave to take her.  My whole day is thrown askew.

Next, my daughter is testing me, or feeling needy or something because on Tuesday, she decided she wasn't going to do what she was told.  So, when I took away her kindle because she refused to put her clothes away, she screamed at me.  I'm not talking a little yell, or her typical humph.  She outright screamed and cried because I wouldn't give her the kindle.  When she would calm down, I took her favorite toy away, and that just made her scream even more (which I expected, but I'd hoped she would see that I meant business and wanted her to stop screaming).

Wednesday wasn't an easy day, but at least there wasn't any screaming.  My husband's volleyball game was canceled, though, so my quiet relaxation time was disturbed.

Now, here we are on Thursday, and this time it was my son's turn.  After a long day at school and waiting for his nap until after we picked up his sister from school, we came home to read stories and finally nap.  I read his first story just fine and he sat in his "I'm really tired" position.  When I went to read the second story, he kept interrupting me.  When, the third time, he said "I don't want that story, I want this story" and I told him to stop and listen or he wouldn't get any story.  He again interrupted that he wanted a different story, so I stopped reading and put him in bed.  At this point, he sat up and screamed, a blood-curdling scream.  I told him to lay down and go to sleep, and he continued to scream, for 30 minutes, until he finally fell asleep.  He wouldn't listen to anything I said, he just wanted to scream.

So, I'm sitting here.  The screaming has stopped and he's napping peacefully with his little butt in the air.  Jade is playing school with her mini figures quietly on her bed.  I have applied for my 5th job this week (about my 100th this year).  I've gone through the mail and all the school papers.  and, I have about 20 minutes before I have to get up to make dinner.

I want to cry, but seeing what time it is, I know that my daughter will be in here very soon begging to play with her kindle, which will probably lead to her screaming at me when I tell her no again.  I want to bury my head under the covers and just go to sleep, but I have to get up to make dinner sooner than I could fall asleep.  I just want to hide somewhere where no one can scream at me, or tell me that I did something else wrong, or tell me I'm just not good enough.  I want to run away to a place where everyone loves every meal I cook, and I don't have to fight to get one kid to eat their meat and the other kid to eat their vegetables.  Just like every other stay at home mom out there, I want to feel loved and appreciated.

Here's to hoping that tomorrow is a better day, or at least next week is a better week.