Oh, I'm in my annoyed stage of December. I am trying SO HARD to be cleaned and ready for Christmas, and everything is fighting against me.
First of all, I'm bringing up about 900 new pieces of clutter (ok, fine, decorations). The girls are adding in all of these amazing projects and crafts that they are excitedly making and so proud of. Glittery snowmen! Button trees! Wax ornaments! Puffy paint kitchen towels! They have advent calendars that need to stay out so they can open them daily.
Then the cardboard. The sheer amount of cardboard, which feels completely disproportionate to amount of gifts we've purchased, but which is piling up ALL over the house, waiting to be cut down so we can recycle it. And since downstairs is what HAS to look nice, all the cardboard is ending up upstairs, cluttering up the hallway and our bedroom.
Then the projects. Projects came home from both co-ops. Projects came home from church. Big, elaborate, semester long projects that instill feelings of pride and desire for display by my kids. You know what goes beautifully with a cluttered table of snowmen? A giant diorama about animal classifications.
PLUS, I am 900 times busier with shopping and wrapping and Elf-ing and mailing and decorating, but we're also still homeschooling. And we have FOUR field trips (all to beautifully festive places and shows). So I have books and worksheets piled up as usual, and I am falling behind on my every day upkeep. And I have learned that if I fall behind, it is VERY hard to catch up. And I'm falling behind on the daily stuff every day.
By the way, when I brought this up, I learned that many homeschoolers take December off, for this very reason. I've always been more of a "follow a traditional calendar because we have so many non homeschooling friends and activities" person, but I am now REALLY feeling the logic.
Then there's the winter mess. Even on dry days, we have gloves and boots and hats and scarves and coats. After the first snowfall we ended up with the bath towel in the mudroom as a spot for slushy salty boots. And I'm still determined to keep my new car spic and span on the inside and NOT let winter salt and sand beat me.
But for all these messes I complain about, I love this season and I'm actually not outwardly grinchy at all. Don't tell me to cut back or not decorate.
After all, it's the best time of the year!
