We've been swamped.

Happier times, early last week.

I don't know, Internet. I'm starting to wonder how mothers who aren't getting paid to do it actually find the time to regularly blog. I'm struggling. I have a thousand things I've wanted to post about (walking! concerts! Europe! Thanksgiving! family!), & I just absolutely cannot find the time. I just can't. So - please excuse the mini brain dump that is about to take place... 

Real Simple had this great feature in their October issue called A Month of Meals. A menu for each week with a corresponding grocery shopping list. Easy! I feel like I've been in a little bit bored & uninspired with my cooking recently, so I ripped out the pages of the magazine, went to the grocery store yesterday morning with my list & made a commitment to try it for the week. I came home with a bag full of meats I've been too scared to cook, & enough veggies to feed a family of rabbits. It was a good feeling, & I had intentions of having a really great day full of a happy, smiling child & lots of productivity.

It turned out to be one of those days (those days seemingly happening frequently the past few months). Poor Quinn had a tooth breaking through in the front, not to mention the party happening in the back with his molars. We'd had a bit of a break over the Thanksgiving weekend, but his teething was back in full force. A sad baby & a 40 minute nap made for a very long day where I was counting down the minutes until Mike came home.

So - cut back to my dinner plans. After the longest day that had left me just worn out, the universe punished me for some unknown offense & my homemade tomato soup exploded out of the blender all over my face, chest & arms - & kitchen. This would have been hysterically funny, had it not been for the almost-boiling temperature & the blistering burn I got on my arm. I screamed, Mike ran down from giving Q a bath, & I admitted total defeat for the day. When I spilled the bag of peas intended for an ice pack all over my floor, I finally laughed through the tears. My day was a total & complete bust, except for the dinner I made - tomato soup with a roast beef, cheddar & horseradish panini. It was actually really, really good - 3rd degree burns aside.

Another one of my not-so-favorite moments of the past few weeks: getting two-thirds finished with my grocery shopping at Costco, only to have my apparently psychotic 1 year old go into absolute, complete hysterics (something, for the record, he has never done before in public). It was one of those there's absolutely nothing I can do about this situations that you encounter every so often as a mother, & after a few minutes of trying to soothe him in a corner (with several people coming up & saying all sorts of insightful & helpful things like, He really needs a nap!), I walked up to an employee with my cart full of $350 of Thanksgiving groceries & said, I'm really sorry but I have to go. I'm leaving this here. He looked totally perplexed, but I had a screaming baby in my arms & a don't even think about arguing with me look in my eyes. I drove the 35 minutes home with a still-hysterical baby, called Mike & told him it was a really good idea if he came home immediately (a card I've only pulled once or twice since welcoming Q), walked in the door, & cried. I'm sure I'll be telling this story for the next 20 years, but really, I think that I'd put molars on par with those first weeks with a newborn (once they're past the really nice sleepy phase). I know Quinn isn't happy about the situation either, but I feel like I'm back in those bleary-eyed moments of new motherhood where getting dressed for the day is totally optional. The upside of all of this teething business is that at 14 1/2 months, my sweet baby is officially weaned. We're done! It's official. The combination of lots of teeth coming in + figuring out how to walk (he's totally a walker now) meant that Q decided that he was totally done. It was such a gradual process, & much easier emotionally than I feel like it could have been otherwise. So - I survived! Those first initial weeks (months?) that were so hard with nursing... It proved to be so worth it.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, two days before we were going to have Mike's entire family show up at our house, our kind Bishop approached me at church & asked me to speak the following Sunday (in 7 days). On USING YOUR TIME WISELY. I wanted to tell him that I had no spare time to use that week, & that if he had been using his wisely then he would have already had someone lined up to speak. Someone who wasn't preparing to have four days of a full house + delicious meals to feed 10. But - I told him I'd be happy to (lie), & went home & pounded my head against a cement wall. 

I should probably mention that despite the fact that I continually whine about my 1st world problems (thank you for that phrase, Megs), I know that they're really not so big. Quinn is generally a very happy boy, & I love being his mother. I know that I learned a thing or two from preparing my talk, & it was nice being able to have the space to have Thanksgiving in our home for the first time in our married life. And, I'm grateful for the big blessings in my life right now, like the fact that my sweet sister Elizabeth, who is the very best mother & deserves nothing but the easiest & most uneventful pregnancies, still has her baby cooking in her belly at 26 weeks. She's on bed rest for the third time in three pregnancies, & after 6 weeks down already, she's still flat on her back. She'll be really lucky if Baby Girl (!!) gets to cook for a few more weeks, & while I've been worried sick about her,  I'm just really grateful that she has a good doctor, & lots & lots of family around her to help. I also think maybe I should move to Utah for the winter.

Tomorrow - December! Our tree is up, we've (sparsely) decorated the house, & the mulled wine candle that Kylie gave me as a hostess gift last week is making everything just smell delicious. My Christmas cards are ordered, & now I just have to start thinking about shopping for what has evolved into a very long list of people (help!). 

Happy almost-December, friends. I really like this time of year.