i once read that if you get trapped in a surging mob and feel your feet slipping out from under you, you should stick out your elbows and pick up your feet and let the mob carry you away. the alternative is to get trampled.

this is how i’m handling life now that hubster is home.

it is such a turnaround from the mother/daughter days of his work tours. on those days i have to orchestrate everything and make sure every detail is taken care of. when he’s home i more or less get to sit back and let the current of our busy life carry me away. don’t be mistaken, i still orchestrate and plan and get stressed over the things that i have or haven’t orchestrated or planned but things take on their own energy and life form when we’re a threesome. so, i have to learn to let the master of all ceremonies hat that i wear half the year sit on the shelf for a bit. otherwise i end up being a stressed out ball of stress.

but sometimes i’m not that good at just going with the flow. it’s a process. and it’s especially hard during the holidays. i always have a vision of how i want things to play out. when they don’t i look a lot like darla during a tantrum: sulky, angry, biting whatever piece of furniture is nearest at the moment. ok, i don’t do that last one but my child does. gotta call the psych ward about that one.

anyways, i have a quiet moment to sit down and write some stuff here this friday morning. i’m glad it’s a friday b/c most of you seem to not read posts on friday (i bet you’re catching up on all the work you’ve procrastinated all week. ahhhh yes, i remember working life) and this is mostly for my own purposes anyway. “selfish, party of one? selfish? party of one?”

life lately has consisted of lots of family togetherness. my thoughts migrate towards creating magical holiday moments and stuff i wanna buy. hrrrrggghhhh.

i’ve been trying to rid myself of my buying impulses but it’s so dang hard. we’ve made strides this year towards being a lower waste household: switching to a french press coffee maker, thus no filters, getting dryer balls so we can forgo dryer sheets, rotating milk in glass deposit bottles into the grocery mix, buying ingredients in bulk and storing in canisters. but any progress i’ve made has been washed away with the buying season.

but i’m going to forgive myself and see how i can use it for the future. i already have some new ideas for more recycled material holiday decorations. i did purchase some of darla’s gifts at second-hand stores and i’ve made some of the gifts myself.

other ideas: i’m not going to wrap any of the presents that are going in our own household this year. gonna do it old school style like back when my mom was a girl and all the presents were sat out in the open for them. she said her parents would stack the empty boxes for stuff in the doorway and the littlest tykes in the house had the job of busting the cardboard barrier down. how fun would that be? a such a better use of materials than wrapping paper. i abhor wrapping paper.

and i love it at the same time. i see prettily wrapped trinkets and then want that under our tree. but i must resist. mike has old ocean charts that he has used to wrap in the past. i think we’ll make use of those. we also have recycled brown paper wrapping so we’ll see what we can come up with.

my other thought is about candy in the stocking. i went to buy packages of candy in the grocers the other day and had a cringe moment thinking about how each little piece is individually wrapped. can i start avoiding this for holidays? we could certainly find a way around that item. but then i remembered that darla’s favorite part of her st. nic’s gift was the candy. my solution: i’m going to hit up a candy store where i can put an assortment of unwrapped candies in one bag. that way there is only one bag of waste for each of us instead of hundreds of wrappers strewn about the house.

those are some of my earth conscious musings. feel free to swipe ’em if you want. or don’t. it’s your holiday and up to you but i for one try to think about how i can make an impact in everyday household items. the little parts of our consumerism do add up. what if everyone eliminated wrapping paper? do you know how much landfill messiness that would save? what if we all just stopped buying STUFF.

i would be sad.

but it at least makes me feel better to put my money towards companies that do good with their product, make an environmentally safe product, or something that will cut down on the trash pile in this house. seriously, does anyone like to take out the trash???

alright, i’ll jump down off of this ten foot tall soapbox i’m on. it’s a reused soapbox, by the way.

other conundrums of everyday life: where to live?

where to live? where to live? where to live?

i could go on for another hundred paragraphs about this question but i want someone else to just give me the answer instead of me reasoning myself around in a circle. so, someone, anyone, tell me where we should live.

here’s a little look at wrucker everyday life that i haven’t worked into the writings yet. our girls is so hilarious and imaginative. she’s also stubborn and has some characteristics of a wild coyote but i love every single bit of it.

the girl’s new favorite breakfast spot is on this step-ladder. oh, this ladder is simultaneously my savior and the bain of the household at the moment.

darla in a pair of sweeeeet heels sent by frauntie stephay

i saw this little one born into the world and i thought she would never be more precious than that moment. but she gets more precious by the day. look at the little teeth on miss joni!

and lastly,

here’s what happens when papabear and i try to have a conversation. she says to me “just stop talking to my dad a lot.” and then when we explain that we’re having a convo she says “fine” and runs off. when our talk ends two minutes later i find this upstairs. lovely little tornado.

well, off to get more done. darla is with papaw and cee cee this weekend and mike and i have two, 2!, concerts lined up. as long as we don’t succumb to the wrath of these colds.