Front-Porch Chatter

There are so many "versions" of tidbit-style blog posts out there ... Coffee talk, Tea Time, the list goes on and on. And they are all great: the best way to just "download" and talk about all the little things, the things that don't have enough to say for their own blog post. Well, here in North Carolina, a lot of our talking happens in a wooden rocker, with a glass of sweet tea, on the front porch. So what better than a little Front-Porch Chatter today:

* There are only 8 days until Christmas. My shopping may be done {unless I need last minute stocking stuffers} but nothing is wrapped. I should probably get that done ... but the problem is finding the time, when the kids are not awake, or when someone else is here to entertain them so I can lock myself in the bedroom and just do it. Not really sure when I'll see that "time" on the schedule.

* The next week or so is incredibly busy looking, and its almost all for my 5 year old. A Christmas party for school today. A dance performance. A play date. Taking the kids to see Christmas lights. A work Christmas party. Three days of church. Caroling with some friends at a local hospice center. Like I said ... trying to find the time to wrap gifts?! Not sure when.

* Weather lately feels uncharacteristically like December, even for North Carolina. The past couple of days, its been in the 60s, and yesterday, we had a massive rain storm, complete with thunder. If this were January, I would be expecting snow any day ... since its not "technically" winter yet ... I don't know if it will happen. I don't want it ... that's for sure.

* Sleep around here still is horrible. Lately, both kids have been acting like wild animals during "quiet time" and wearing themselves out. Which only means that by 530/6pm as we should be sitting down to dinner, I walk into the living room to find at least one, if not two kids, sound asleep. Waking them up only makes the house grumpy ... but I do it anyway. They have been sleeping a LITTLE better at night, only waking up once or twice ... but still up for the day sometime between 430 and 5am. Not sure how much longer I can take it.

* We're about to have a three year old, too. His birthday is all shopped for, the cake is in the works with a friend of mine, and we've decided to keep it small and just family this year, again. We wanted to do something big at the fire department ... but tried to think of which friends of his we would invite. And sadly, the only kids we could think of will actually be reuniting with their Dad that weekend after a six month deployment. So ... yea. No big kiddie party, but we can still spoil him with fun stuff.