Too Many Days Hath November

     November was a brutal month. While giving thanks for the mildest weather in recent memory complete with confused violets springing up on sixty degree days, mom-life stretched me to my limit. It sounds dramatic, but trust me, I'm ready to hibernate.

    It began with Little Mister's fourth birthday, three separate birthday parties, which were swiftly followed by an array of annual medical check-ups and too many days off from school. Many people feel that their children grow up too fast, but it feels like we were blessed a lifetime ago with our little tornado. I can hardly remember a time before him, although there were many! Quote from the birthday boy: "I don't want to be four. Four is too hard!" 

 

 This month also marked our third official attempt at family picture day. It's too early to say whether the latter was a success, but I'm cautiously optimistic. One thing that was unique and exciting this year was that our photo session was a free gift from a coworker of The Mister. He was very thankful that we could help out with having my husband cover some work shifts so that he could make a visit to his home country when the visa was approved at the last minute. We were surprised and delighted that he wanted to repay us with a photography session. The price of "free" was exactly what we budgeted for photos this year, so that worked out great! 

"Okay, that's enough pictures."

   Although family picture day for us is often unwieldy if not outright stressful, it reached new highs this year. A rainy day led to one session cancellation, and then a drop in temperature changed our wardrobe plans. Over the past eight months, I've gone down 2-3 clothing sizes and have been scraping by with a mix of old stuff that is too big for me and new items that are procured cheaply but aren't very dazzling. Trust me when I tell you that this is a problem no one will feel sorry for you for having, and that is rightly so. As it was, I had to run to a nearby store the night before picture day to purchase a suitable coat, jacket, or warm sweater to wear outside the next day.

We traveled a ways to the excellent Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ. Put it on your list.

     Soon enough it was our annual church Thanksgiving dinner. We really reach out to the entire community and invite anyone, anyone to come for a free meal. It floors me how few people take advantage of our hospitality. The mashed potatoes are first rate. I know because I make them. I have an efficient system for making a delicious large batch of mashed potatoes without much fuss. I just leave the skins on and mash them.

 Just kidding. 
 
     I spent Thanksgiving doing what everyone else did; cleaning my house and making pizza for supper. Actually, we celebrated a day later on Friday. Too many work conflicts with family made a Thursday dinner too much of a hassle. When you have a family member who works in a hospital or other 24-hour professions, you get very flexible when it comes to holidays. 

 Back in July, I saw a Thanksgiving display in Kohl's. You would have thought that would have lit a fire under me, but like the rest of the world, I've become both annoyed and oblivious to extremely premature seasonal decor. Thanksgiving saw me trying to cook the corn at the last minute and calling my mom to explain that we'd be twenty minutes late.

"Is this thing on?"

"We're on the way," I told her. Some people were being all fussy about having to wear clothes, while I multi-tasked and shoved multiple slow cookers in the trunk of the car.
"Oh, about where are you?" my mom asked. 
"Well, the driveway of our house, but we're all in the car!"
 
   I might have been a little tired from shopping online on Wednesday night. Forget Black Friday. I've been conducting an informal study for years that shows all the good deals are live online on  Wednesday night. I just needed the best price on one single thing and I got it.

    I'm glad this month is coming to an end. They say time flies but sometimes it doesn't fly fast enough. The birds flew slow and low these past few weeks. 

Bye, November.

  




   There are draft posts a-plenty. Join me in December for some pre-Christmas inspiration as I get back on the blog bandwagon.