It's beginning to look a lot like ....

I've been very quiet over here and over at Lessons From Walker, not because I haven't had much to say, but because I've lacked the time to sit and type it out.  My head is spinning, with a new job, moving back to our old house and all the usual running around with four children.

Today, though, I had to write because I've been feeling very conflicted about the whole "black friday"  hype. I have never done the "Black Friday" shopping, I have friends that make a sport out of it, but personally, i just don't like shopping that much.  Normally, I wouldn't even know what deals were out there but this year funds are a little tighter than usual.  I found myself conflicted with trying to fill Santa's sled with all the items on my boys lists and the empty wallet syndrome as of late. As the time wore on yesterday I was on a roller coaster of decision, yes I was going, no I was not.  It was an internal dialog but in the end, i stayed home.   

It seems that year after year, the sales start earlier and are pumped up to be the event of the season.  TV commercials show women cross training to be ready for the sales, and I can't help but ask myself, is this really what Christmas has become?

I'm not about to go up on a soap box and go on about the true meaning of Christmas because quite frankly, I'm not sure what it means to me.  So from now until December 25th, I hope to embark on a personal journey to find a true meaning for me and my family.  Stay tuned.....

Minty mistake

At 15 months, Sawyer is a ball of energy! She doesn't stop moving, not even in her sleep! When it comes to changing her diaper, it feels more like wrestling an octopus! Last Thursday night was one of these WWF matches on my bed.  What made it worse was that she had had a stomach bug and the contents of her diaper were not only putrid but also making her bum sore and red.  As I hung on to her and finished cleaning her up I asked my oldest son to go into the top drawer of the dresser and grab the butt cream.  He held up a white tube and asked if that was it, since I was still flipping Sawyer back over to her back while simultaneously holding both ankles, i glanced at him and said yes.  I quickly squirted the ointment on to my finger and began to apply it to the many cracks and crevices that belong to my lovely girl.  No sooner had i put the first drop on her skin when the smell of eucalyptus hit my nose.  Right away I realized what the ointment was, it wasn't the butt cream but instead Vick's vapor rub! I immediately wiped it away with a baby cloth and hauled ass into the bathroom putting her in the tub while running warm water. I was really worried about how it would irritate her skin or bother her all night.  Luckily, she didn't seem to notice and thought that my haste was pretty amusing! After her bath I called my sister who works for a gynecologist and double checked that there wasn't much else I could do.  She assured me that my treatment was good and just to watch how her skin reacted to it over night.  Thank goodness!  As parents we can make mistakes and just have to give ourselves some credit.  I am sure that I am not the only one out there that has had blunders with their children, so please share them, Otherwise, if I get a visit from child protective services... i won't be surprised.

Random blog topics

I've been pretty quiet over here on my blog sphere.  Its not that I haven't had ideas for blogging, I've had tons!  Its just that I haven't had tons of time to actually sit and articulate all the madness in my life! So here is a rundown list of what has been going on and the blog topics I had wanted to post:

• We moved back to our small 2 bedroom house in Greenville  Blog topic: Life's U-turns
• Mason attended his first middle school dance. Blog topic: Where does the time go? and Don't make me go back there!! (my dreadful memories of middleschool!)
• Hubby is in a career crisis - Blog Topic: The ups and downs of marriage with special needs.
• I've been working all the extra hours I can - Blog Topic: Hitting the in-law lottery!!

Random topics:
The joys of grocery shopping by myself!
Name that smell.
Sawyer - the destruct!
Painting with ones spouse!

So as you can see, this really is the best that I can do for blog content right now! But not to worry.  I know it will calm down soon... it has to right??