I'm digging deep these days, friends. This is my favorite time of year. I love to decorate for Christmas, shop for gifts, gift wrap, make Christmas treats, watch Christmas movies, listen to Christmas tunes. But this year-- try as I might-- I'm finding it hard to be in a celebratory mood.
I've continued listing my Gifts each day, working on channelling that Attitude of Gratitude that normally comes so easily to me. What's not to be thankful for, after all? We're all healthy, we're paying our bills and still have a roof over our heads and food in the cabinets, no one's in jail (that we know of), El Pres and I both have jobs. But forgive me while I rattle off my frustrations of late.
Budget blown to smithereens. It all started around Thanksgiving, when the boomerang came home and the schedule ramped up. Extra mouths to feed + very little time to plan and cook = budget disaster.
Sleepless nights and days where I must be 100% on my game -- preschoolers don't care if you only got a couple of hours of sleep.
Boys that cannot seem to seal the deal academically. Since Thanksgiving, my days from 4pm on consist of managing and micro-managing their academics-- prodding, reminding, proof reading, communicating with teachers, reviewing and quizzing. Here in the 11th hour, I'm not hopeful, even after all of that. Most of this is a disaster of their own making.
Add to these frustrations this crisis: Roof rats.
Yes, 3299 is infested. These little nasties came in through gaps in our roof line and have made themselves at home in the attic and the basement storage areas. I discovered them (or evidence of them) when I pulled out my Christmas decorations. You know, the ones I love to deck the halls with? Since that day two weeks ago, I've spent HOURS pulling out boxes and bins from our basement, meeting with wildlife exterminators, and laying awake listening to them party in my attic at night. We've had to throw away a ton of stuff, which maybe isn't SUCH a bad thing, but much of it we didn't want or intend to part with. Entire days devoted to minimizing what's in storage, cleaning up rat droppings. You see, they come tomorrow to seal the house up and set traps. They've got to have open space to work in and as clean a slate as possible so we can gauge success. Add to this that we'll all be gone for a few days over the holiday weekend. I have visions of them taking over every square inch of my home in my absence. We have no idea how many of them there are. Nor do our wildlife exterminators. They don't know how many visits they will have to make to clear out and reset the traps. It. Makes. Me. Crazy. And it's pretty much killed my Christmas spirit. And further decimated the budget. You don't even want to know what the bill is for wildlife extermination of this magnitude.
Oh, and my washing machine died yesterday.
Bah Humbug, y'all.
Hope to be back to you with a 2011 recap post that's full of happiness and levity. In the meantime, I'll keep counting my Gifts. It's the only thing keeping me sane these days.
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