We are getting slammed with snow. It’s up to our doggie door, 12.9″, and still coming down.
This is how the dogs feel about it:
Reed and Lena aren’t too thrilled to be missing two days of school in a row. I think everyone is a bit bored at home, after weeks of cold.
We did have some mandatory outside time today. I actually think they had some fun.
“It looks like our snow angels are holding hands!”
I was there, too.
Someone noticed that Reed’s very chapped lips are gone. Yup. There was no magic cream and I didn’t somehow get him to stop licking his lips. I had an epiphany. A few years ago, he had a mild rash on the outer corners of his mouth. It popped up occasionally and I casually mentioned it to their doctor. It could be citrus related, he told me, but it wasn’t anything to be concerned about. When I remembered this, we asked him to try giving up clementines, which had been a staple of his diet, and it was nearly gone over night. Poor kid, I think he might rather have the rash and his clementines than go without, but he hasn’t complained.
We spent the day celebrating Christmas with Aaron’s family. Unfortunately, we missed last week when all of his siblings were there, so it was just his parents and brother.
It’s a long drive to their house. Which apparently means I take selfies with Reed and my dogs.
I’m super cool.
Lena and Gus have bucket seats next to each other. I tickled Gus’s feet for awhile, but he wanted more, more, more and I quit. Someone else took over.
And this adorable thing happened.
This makes me happy. In the midst of people and many toys, I found her with her nose in a book. I can’t imagine how much more she’ll enjoy books when she can read all of the words.
Lena just adores her Uncle Micah.
Presents were opened. Lots of presents. Including envelopes which probably seems odd, but I promise you, Reed and Lena will use them up fast. And maybe we can even use some of them to write thank you notes!
I went out for a brief walk with my dogs, and saw several cardinals. I love their bold color against the starkness of winter.
A friend asked how my Christmas was today, and I told her– it was pretty good. Moments of fun and moments of “WE’RE NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN!” She told me that she’d never know it by my blog– that I seem like the “world’s best mom”.
You guys. I don’t want to be THAT person. The one who puts on a show of perfection. Wonder mom who seems to do all things.
I’m not. I have my strengths as a mom, but I also have tons of weaknesses.
1. Something that I left out from Christmas Day?
I showed my kids the following adorable Christmas video.
Afterwards, I asked them who that was all about and Reed said “Moses?”
2. My cabinets are a HUGE disaster.
If you look closely, you will notice not only the mess, but also evidence of my chocolate covered pretzel addiction. I regularly sneak candy behind my kids’ backs.
3. My floor desperately needs to be vacuumed and mopped. Ugh.
4. That Advent calendar. Yup, I rocked it.
Here was December 8th’s card.
We did it. And here are the canned goods on 12/27.
… by our back door. And I took a can of beans out last week for dinner.
5. I adore my sweet dogs, but they leave a huge mess everywhere around them. Nose prints, much?
If you are still under some illusion about me being the “world’s best mom”, just ask my kids. Although I actually did, and Lena told me that she just wants me to not correct her ever. And Reed wants me to stop dragging him to the dog park. But, there’s a lot more than I wish I could change about myself and more I’m sure they’d say if they understood what I was getting at. I lose my temper and yell or speak harshly. I regularly (as in, almost always) skip class parties. I’ve never volunteered for anything at school. We almost never have friends over to our house, which I know Reed would certainly like me to change. We are late to school at least once a week, sometimes every day. And I am a couple of minutes late to pick them up almost every day. Doing homework with my kids sends me into fits of frustration. I only share the fun stuff on here (usually), but there are lots of days where my kids watch too much TV while I sneak chocolate and don’t do anything productive. It’s true.
I’d love to do better at those things, and a lot more. But, I’m learning to not feel bad for what I cannot do and learning to not feel guilty about what is in the past. My friend Bethany shared the article, Parent Guilt – A Silent Epidemic, in my first Imperfect Friday post and I really enjoyed that. My friend Jill(who is fabulous and looks gorgeous even right out of bed, so obviously she doesn’t have any self doubt whatsoever) wrote this post, Why I Don’t Suffer Mama Guilt, which is also awesome. I’m sure I’ve read more great articles on perfect and mom guilt recently, but I’m currently suffering from another common parenting epidemic– mom brain.
Whew, anyways, I have some more photos to share with you today– and I promise they are not of my dirty house this time, so I will be back later!
a moose in moscow 