what's up weekly: I don't even know what day it is; here is some news from the semi-recent past.

Oh, good Lord.  How long has it been since I last posted?  I don't know.  What all has happened since then?  I don't know.  How long do I have to write this before getting too sleepy and just giving up?  I don't know.  Let's try our luck and find out.

It has been a while since I last posted; I think we had a week left of school before Thanksgiving break when I last wrote.  So some stuff probably happened that week, but I can't be sure.  I do know that Todd was gone on a work trip that entire week, so it was just me and the kids here, and Todd in Tennessee, and everyone bummed out about the whole arrangement. We're all really glad he's home.

I do know we got Stumpi moved back inside after she spent the summer outside on the deck.  Atticus built her a new little house and she loves it.  Ignore how nasty her water plate is - she does this every day.  She likes to swim in it and drag the dirt into the water.  Someone needs to enroll her in a health class.

The kids were excited to have her back inside.

Then we were on break.  I spent the first couple of days helping the kids deep clean their rooms, which was no small feat.  It had gotten bad down there.  They are typically responsible for making their beds each day, and vacuuming and dusting occasionally, but the accumulation of random crap and the closet situation was all pretty dire.  Organization is a learned skill, and it was time for another lesson in how to get eyes on everything you own and make a few decisions.  Another lesson in Trash Is Trash: Not Everything is a Treasure.  The kids were more or less eager learners, and I have to say they did a really good job purging.  The big girls got rid of FOUR kitchen trash bags worth of stuff. 

That week I also got the house cleaned in preparations for guests and we went to Home Depot and got our basement Christmas tree.

I also started brining the turkey midweek.  This is a sad story, so buckle up.  

I was gifted a beautiful, but huge, homegrown turkey by a friend.  Seriously, it was twenty-five or thirty pounds.  It was too big to fit in the roaster, and too big to fit in the oven.  I had Atticus spatchcock it for me to get it down to a more manageable size, and then I dry brined it.

Cutting out the backbone

See?  Huge.

The day of Thanksgiving was just a series of unfortunate events with the turkey.  It took longer than expected, in part because I must not have gotten the meat thermometer-ing right.  Long story short, the turkey turned out dry and sad and was served later than planned.  It all kind of put a damper on the whole day, to be honest.

Luckily there were other things going on to take my mind off my disappointment.  We had family here, and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins.  (Unfortunately, my sister and my nephew couldn't make it because he was sick, but the rest of her family and my parents all came.)

The kids helped to set the tables

They husked some Indian corn for decorations

My sister sent down some lunchtime charcuterie

We had a kids' table and an adults' table this year

I have had a hard time mentally bouncing back from Thanksgiving break.  We are out of groceries, I have stayed in my pajamas and forgotten to put on makeup all week.  I just don't have any "oomph."  I don't know if it's because break was a full week and I'm still recovering, or if it's because we're in that weird no-mans-land between Thanksgiving and Christmas where everything feels a bit floaty and surreal.  Maybe it's because we had a massive cold front blow in right after Thanksgiving and the change in pressure or temperature or something is messing with me.  I'm also wondering if my hormones are still a bit off since weaning the babies.  I'm not sure.  I'm just not really myself, and I don't have any fire in me.

This week we were back to school, and we started our second term.  It seems that when I planned the year, I must have kind of front-loaded the work, so this term seems like it's going to be a bit gentler than last.  I have felt overwhelmed by juggling school and babies during the morning stretch, but this week the big kids have watched them for about an hour in the middle of the morning so that I can concentrate on reading to some of the younger kids, and that has made a huge difference.

This week, we started Two Gentlemen of Verona during our big group read aloud time.  If you'll notice, I am actually dressed here!  Although Mt. St. Laundry hasn't been dealt with in a week...

We started the week with fresh snowfall, so it's been a week of snow gear and boots, which definitely added to the chaos, but also made everything so warm and cozy.  We kept the fire going, and the Christmas music playing, and the tree lighted all day.

Between the snow and the jammies, things were actually really cozy and sweet.

Speaking of the tree, we got our big living room tree on Saturday.  It was so easy this year.  We drove out to the tree farm in the drizzling rain, so when we got out there, things were muddy and wet but not busy.  (You have no idea to what lengths I will go to ensure places are not busy when I get there.  Half my mental energy is spent calculating how to avoid peak times of public human activity.  Traffic?  No.  Lines at Walmart?  No.  Standing behind maximum numbers of idiots at Aldi who park their carts in the dead center of the aisle so you can't get around them?  No.  YOLO, and I'm not going to spend my time squirming my way around strangers.  In a perfect world, only people I know would exist, and even they would only show up sometimes.)

ANYWAY.  I was telling you about Christmas tree shopping.  We got there, tromped through the mud, found the precut trees of the correct height, decided between the best two, and tromped back to the van.  It was a little interesting trying to get the tree in the van, since our cargo area is directly behind the front seats, rather than at the back.  It took some finagling, and Knox was thoroughly freaked out by the presence of the tree, but we made it in the end, and it only took an hour to get there and back. 

Yes, Penelope is in a t-shirt.  She marches to the beat of her own drum.

The boys got the big tree in the house and set up.  (The only thing better than having a teenage son is having two teenage sons.)

Finneas got the little tree prepped for the downstairs stand, and the boys got it all situated.

Then I strung the lights on the upstairs tree.  It looked really amazing... until the very first strand shorted out and I had to unstring the entire 9.5-foot tree just to get to figure out where the problem was and have Todd and Atticus change the fuses, and then I restrung the entire tree the next day before the kids put their ornaments on.  (For reference, this tree uses ten strings of lights.  Needless to say, I'm Christmased out already, so the downstairs tree has no lights or ornaments on it yet even though we bought it before Thanksgiving.)

Outfit 1: stringing the tree

Outfit 2: unstringing the tree

Outfit 3: restringing the tree

We decorated it on Sunday, and the kids have gradually put up room decorations.  

A photo of taking a photo.  Inception.

Like Mother, Like Rocco.

We finished up the last few ornaments in the daylight the next day.

New day, new pajamas.

The boys always do some kind of "battlefield Christmas" with all their G. I. Joes set out on their dresser.  I think they also put up a small tree.  The little girls strung colored lights and set up a small tree.  And the big girls made paper snowflakes and strung fairy lights and white streamers all around their room in addition to setting up their own little tree.  Everyone is feeling festive and decorative and seasonal.  I'm getting there.

The Joes, all thinking of their families at Christmastime.

I will say, I have most of my Christmas shopping done, which feels great.  Todd and I also took the kids to Dollar Tree last week to get their gifts for one another.  So most of the gifting has been accomplished and I should be able to just relax into Advent and enjoy it.  If I can only rouse myself a bit.

As for today.  Today is Atticus' birthday.  He's seventeen.  I just... can't.  I just don't even know how to think about that.  The time goes so slowly and so quickly.  I'm so proud of the young man he is.  He is a hard and cheerful worker.  He is always striving to jump in and meet the expectations of the next stage of life.  He is servant-hearted and is often found meeting needs around the house without being asked.  He's great with babies.  He's an amazing artist.  He is good at speaking encouragement into his younger siblings and is actively pursuing growth in the area of generosity toward them.  He's getting so close to the next chapter of his life, and I'm excited for him.