Maternal laziness

masquerading as an art experience.

I have been decidedly unenthused about Halloween this year. That’s unusual for me, I normally really like it and get all excited about making a costume for the dutchkid and giving out candy… but this year I really feel like I’m phoning it in. We bought a costume. I have just a few bags of candy because we will be trick or treating with some friends in another neighborhood.

Yet, Halloween is fast approaching as the uncarved pumpkins sitting on our deck reminded me tonight. I read a book quite a while ago about art for kids, and one of the things the book is big on is avoiding “contrived” art  experiences.  Those being things where adults guide a child into how a project should look instead of letting them be creative with it.  I usually carve the pumpkin for me, anyway,  I’m certainly not letting my 4 year old wield a cutting tool.  So she was thrilled beyond belief to be able to paint a pumpkin any way she so chose.

A win win, really. Maybe I’ll have a burst of Halloween spirit tomorrow and carve our last remaining pumpkin, but if not, there’s always next year, right?

Friday Fill-in!!

Another Friday down, two weeks into this deployment, woo-hoo! (hey I have to celebrate the small stuff these days). I haven’t participated in one of Wife of A Sailor’s Friday fill-ins in a while, so here we go!

Are you a night owl or an early bird? Night owl. Firmly. And much to my detriment. I think my average bedtime since dh headed out isn’t until almost 1am. I feel almost as tired as I did when the dutchkid was a baby.

What makes you jealous? When someone really looks like their life is all perfect and together.

Have you started Christmas/holiday shopping yet? When will you finish? (There’s only 63 days left!) Quit scaring me (so that would be big fat NO, I haven’t started).  I’ll probably get finished right at the beginning of December.   Waiting until the absolute last minute stresses me out.

What would you have a personal chef make you tonight? I would love to have some ropa vieja, my hubby’s special recipe of course. Preferably made by him. In person.

Where was your first kiss? In a car, parked in my parent’s driveway. Funnily enough, he had the same name as my dh (but not the same person, silly). My dh is a much better kisser.

One of the great things about the Friday Fill-in is seeing everyone’s answers, so go and visit Wife of a Sailor to see who’s participating this week. 

p.s.  shameless plug — if you are new to my blog or haven’t visited in a while, I would love to show you my newest deployment project The Life Left Behind.

Holy ponies, Batman

One of the benefits of having friends with older children, is that you get a lot of stuff they’ve outgrown. Today I have one happy girl, still busily combing pony hair, and a new flock of ponies to pick up.

My brother was giving me crap yesterday because I haven’t been blogging, and that’s mostly because right now we are doing fine, but I feel as if I’m working really hard to stay on top of things. I think I’ve been at least 15 minutes late to everything this week. I’ve been emotionally ok, but maybe this is the manifestation of the stress?

In other news, I think I have a critter (squirrel, maybe?) taking up residence in the chimney. And my pony-loving kiddo has decided that now would be a good time to throw monster tantrums at school when it’s time to go home. I figure that’s par for the adjusting-to-deployment-course.

At any rate, today is a free day for me and I am going to enjoy every single minute of it!

Hanging in

I feel heartless sometimes, admitting it, but now that dh is safely in the-land-far-far-away I’m feeling much better. I can think of a long list of painful things I would rather do than relive that last week.

The dutchkid handled it better than I had expected. Then again, I had no idea what to expect. She cried a lot the night he left, and continues to talk about missing him on a daily basis, but overall she seems like her happy self.

Me? I’m fine during the day but evenings are always when my paranoia about being alone kicks in. It’s not that I’m lonely, it’s that my twisted psyche is convinced that someone is going to break into my house. I think I need to take a self defense class, it might help me relax a little (and sleep more). My first Netflix movie should arrive this week. I’m hoping something to look forward to after the dutchkid heads to bed will help.

I’m continuing on over here, as well. It’s been cathartic in a big way. Thanks for all your kind words about it. You guys are the best.