long time no see.

whoa. december 7th was the last time i posted? not sure if anyone is still even reading, but i need to do a better job for myself keeping things up to date.

to put it bluntly, december has kind of sucked. i was so excited for my school work to be done so i could just enjoy going to work and having fun with the kids (students and my own). i couldn't wait to decorate and do fun crafts and watch movies and lounge.

but then i went to the dentist and things didn't go well. the girls both got sick and are both still on antibiotics. zane got sick. my mom got sick. we had men working in our basement for 4 days. there were too many little things to do that had nothing to do with family time, or holiday time, etc. we were stressed stressed stressed.

on friday afternoon, instead of being happy and relaxed that we were starting our vacation, zane and i went into crazy mode and started cleaning the house. we got things put back together pretty quickly and by saturday, everything felt better.

yesterday was all about family. we didn't do a whole lot of anything. i snuggled with the girls on the couch while zane was out playing basketball in the morning. we played with my new phone. we took pictures. zane made them a car out of a box (and nola was sad that it didn't actually move). i cuddled the girls during rest time since there was no heat upstairs. zane took a nap. he wrestled with the girls. we went food shopping and then got take out burgers for dinner. we watched "rudolph" with the christmas lights on and put some very tired girls to bed. we watched part of harry potter with a fire going and went to bed early knowing it was the kind of day where we took care of the most important business we could think of.

(within 5 minutes of sitting on the couch, i had both girls and the cat clawing for my attention and warmth ;))

today has been much of the same. we made a big breakfast with pancakes and bacon. the girls are napping and they're still in their jammies. there are train tracks all over the living room rug (that got a thorough vacuming this morning thanks to zane). almost all our clothes are put away, which happened as the girls were playing in a make-shift fort in the playroom upstairs. the girls both came to me at different times and said "mama, where's nola/avery? we were playing hide and seek and now i can't find her." (they weren't trying to be funny either, which just cracks me up).

we have turned a corner somewhat and it feels refreshing and reassuring. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!