December, darling

New month! Yeah! Sam ceremoniously ripped the jam packed November sheet off the calendar this morning in his underwear, revealing a clean month of December. Except that one little reminder that Steve wrote me at the first of every month to change the air filter. %$&*! They could not have jammed our air unit in a more bizarre location, making changing the air filter damn near impossible. But I wrangled that thing in there this morning and got 'er dun.

I'm so happy that it's Friday, because although the weekends are usually more work, at least we don't have to be out past bedtime at some mandatory function. I think that is what I dread most during the week- the nights where Sam's football games and AWANA keep us out past our normal bedtime hours. Then I race home lickety-split trying to get the overtired baby to sleep while also trying to keep disgustingly dirty Will from touching every clean thing in the house before I can bathe him.

This was after one of Sam's practices- there is a playground at the ball fields and Will and Molly spend their time playing there while Sam practices. Which is great! They love it. I love that they're entertained and burning energy. What I don't love is the thick layer of black sludge covering the entire play structure. Because my kids come home covered in it. And while it washes off relatively easy, it's still gross. Will has it on his face here because the slides are just about six inches too tall for him to put his feet down when he gets off, so he has to do a little jump. And sometimes he gets a little top heavy and catches his fall with his face. These things happen. Luckily it doesn't seem to phase him and he gets right back up and keeps playing, blissfully unaware of how nasty he is. Last night as I peeled off his clothes before putting him in the tub I realized he had sock lines. His little feet were perfectly peach compared to his blackened legs.

Eh, that came out blurrier than I remembered but you get the gist. That dirty boy earns his bath every single night.

And sometimes before lunch too.

Before Thanksgiving "break" I made one final stop at the commissary to stock the pantry in preparation of feeding my kids like the starving monkeys they are for nine days straight. I would do almost anything to avoid the commi the week of Thanksgiving anyway, but taking all four of them during that mad rush seemed beyond the scope of my current level of sanity. So we went about two weeks until I summoned the courage (and ate the last egg) to go again. The boys were troopers and we got everything on our list after a full hour of shopping. As I pushed towards the checkout line, a worker came up to me and said that the card machines were down and they were only accepting cash at this time. The look I gave her....... it was shameful. And I know it's not her fault, but the card machines at this place crash daily it seems. And they make no effort to let anyone know until after they've loaded a cart full of groceries. What they want you to do is leave your cart, hope no one takes it, load your kids into the car, drive to the bank, withdraw money, unload you kids back out of the car, go back inside, check out and pay with cash. What I did: stood in line until they fixed the damn machine because ain't nobody got the sanity fo' all that! Luckily it was a quick fix and I was able to check out with my card because I don't often keep $150 in my wallet... (and by not often I mean absolutely never) so PRAISE JESUS. They are starting to make the local Walmart look desirable and that's no easy feat. Get it together, commissary!!

The weather has been extraordinarily nice out lately, like to the point where I might cry the day my children come home with homework because it's so much nicer to sit outside and play than to go inside and work. Gonna need an actual adult around here once homework season starts. Because I tend to justify the kids' need to play after being inside at school all day. Like the big kid that I am. We got some new neighbors down the street that have four children with similar ages and they love playing together, so the circle has only gotten even more fun lately. More kids, more sports, more toys strewn about- I could not be happier sitting in the 75* sunshine watching it all and bouncing that happy baby on my lap. (Well, I suppose I could be lots happier if Steve were sitting next to me, possibly holding the bouncing baby in his lap. But you get what I'm conveying here.)

It's RED Friday here, friends are coming over to play after school to add to the circle madness, pizza night, we will FINALLY (according to Molly) get to watch a Christmas movie, and maybe by some miraculous miracle, they will cancel Sam's flag football game on Saturday. Kidding...... (not really kidding). Happy December, folks! I'm looking forward to the end of 2017 while also not even believing that it's possible for this year to be almost over!