I can't make this stuff up: vomit, printer derailment, broken fridge, etc.

I feel like a bad blog friend, and I'm sorry. The hectic pace of life right now is killing me. Understatement. I promise I'll get over to read your posts soon. I'm trying to stay afloat, but this week I made Rocky Road fudge bars, Peppermint ice cream cake, and I have the batter in the fridge for Chocolate Crinkle cookies. Plus I finished the ornaments I make for the tots. The older girls and I found gifts for two god children tonight (Wednesday). The rest will be gift cards. Progress. 

Tuesday night I stayed up too late to draft this post. I'd gotten my allergy shots, so I was groggy as all hell. Plus I can't sleep more than 6 hours currently - hey, 6 hours isn't all bad, but still. I'll take more sleep,  please. I wanted to go to bed. Then I realized that it was Tuesday, not Wednesday - and I was drafting a post a day early. Dummy. 

The latest: 

Saturday night, I was in my study begging my desktop to cooperate and print my envelopes. I struggle setting up mail merges. What can I say, I'm human and mail merges are angry little functions of a software that hates me for some wrong that I cannot account for. While I was in the study, a loud KABOOM happened. Everything from the study closet was falling to the floor. Guess what? The shelves ripped from the wall on one side and everything DID fall to the floor. 

Coach was good enough to move the boxes of photos and things up to our pit room. I'm hosting like 40 people for Christmas and who has time to rebuild shelves and figure stuff out? The weird thing is, this closet hasn't been recently loaded with more stuff. It's been bearing an incredibly weighty load for some time now, apparently. It just gave up. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, but I'm too exhausted to elaborate. 

Our room is pure chaos. I have bins of clothes (some from Curly, some from Aunt Leprechaun and other friends who were good enough to share hand-me-downs when the girls moved in) waiting for when the girls grow into them and I've run out of room in the basement storage room. 

Enter photo and memory storage from the study closet to the mix, and our room literally looks like we're moving, or we should consider moving. Remember, Ed uses our room as his work from home space, because no babies nap there currently. I mention this in case you'd like to add a card table butted up against my dresser in order to plug his computer into my big screen TV while he's working as part of the visual. 

Sunday evening, Coach's stomach started to hurt. He and Rae when down with a stomach bug. 

When vomit city hit, Coach opted to sleep on the floor of our room, so as not to contaminate me. Now there are blankets and sleeping bags tossed between the card table and the bins and boxes - well, it's an inviting space. Trust me. 

While Coach was writing in pain in bed after dinner awaiting the inevitable, we've all been there and it is the worst - right?, I printed off my envelopes. We'd planned to decorate the tree, but with Rae and Coach unavailable, we postponed. 

Kay was a little lost. She is a button pusher. I'll leave it at that. I was trying to organize the many photos I had printed to make the ornaments for the tots while I was camped out on the study floor feeding stacks of envelopes into the printer. 

Me:  WHY ARE WE STILL ON THE END OF THE ALPHABET? 

I paused the printing, and investigated. For some reason, that will forever frustrate me, my printer printed the same 100 addresses twice - skipping the last 150 addresses on my list. It was in the process of reprinting THE SAME addresses the 3rd time when I, a clever distracted girl, realized it. I've done mail merges many times. This was a new development. 

I had a box of extra envelopes in the study closet from a few years ago when my former ass-hole printer ate most of my envelopes. This would be the closet that recently crumbled in a jumbled mess. Can you believe that the box of extra envelopes was on a top shelf, clearly marked, unmoved by the tiny closet-quake? I printed my envelopes and went to bed crazy ass late. And when Kay arrived to argue with me about God knows what, my older kids summoned her to the family room. They knew there was a storm-a-brewing. 

I'm not crazy about the stockings. They're a bit
cheap, but they're fine. The girls were tickled
to come from from school and see that we had
new stockings that included their names. 

On Tuesday, I hung the stockings, but didn't have enough stocking holders even though I found my Target order and I purchased 2 sets of four last year. I only used 6 last year, so where were the other 2 hiding? They weren't in the bin. Did I throw them away? That seemed unlikely. 

Dec. 19th, Curly's 16th birthday - we finally decorated our tree. Most of the kids were present. 

I'm trying to forget the amount of time wasted spent trying to order another set of holders at Target. Out of stock. How far would I travel to pick some up? I didn't feel like spending $50 just to get free shipping. This was a debacle I didn't need. 

Guess what I found buried in the box of ornaments? The missing 2 stocking holders. 

Santa's workshop.

Today: I'm still frazzled. Feeling behind. But we have new stockings hung on our 8 stocking holders, the tot ornaments are wrapped and ready to distribute, and a few of the 8 (?) desserts are in my freezer for Christmas. Most importantly the puke issue didn't wipe out the entire fam. 

Oh - but wait, our set of fridge drawers in the snack bar between the family room and kitchen died. They beep incessantly unless we turn off the circuit breaker, so the family room is in hello darkness, my old friend mode. I'm hosting close to 40 people on Dec. 25th. Will the unit be repaired by then? Doubtful. Very doubtful. 

Oh, and Mini found a misspelling in my annual Christmas poem, so if you got one- please ignore it. I'm super bummed, but these things happen when you race the clock and your college kid who likes to read these things is too busy with finals to look it over before it's sent to the printer. *sigh  - the large font here? to demonstrate that I do know the difference between its and it's. 

Also, I'm tardy in thanking Engie for the lovely package filled with so many little treats. Fuzzy socks, cute notebook, great pens, hand lotions - she covered all the bases. It was so much fun to be a part of the exchange. Thanks to San for organizing and to Engie for the thoughtful gifts. 

Hard to see what these are - but they are
the tot ornaments before the
twine is attached. Mini photo collages. Most
 kids get 2, but the kids who started in
 November get 1 as I don't have as many
 photos of them. Besides, prove yourself
 worthy of two ornaments, please. 

So long as there is no more puking, I can manage anything, or so I'm telling myself that. Remember last year? I got covid 9 days before Christmas and I still hosted 36 people and made 8 million desserts. I've got this, people. 

I may have wept a bit trying to order a few online gifts yesterday morning, before I lost an appliance. I wish I had a more definite gift buying list  - one that I can stick to, and then feel done when all was bought. I don't feel done now and I doubt I'll feel done before the 25th. It'll all be fine, of course. 

I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas or whatever it is that you celebrate. I'm ever so grateful for you, my blog friends. You make me laugh, and you offer me such kindness and support. I so enjoy getting a glimpse into your world. I'm so grateful that you've chosen to connect with me. May your 2024 be filled with tons of comments, good health, and fulfilled dreams. 

Yours, 

Ernie (you might have to remind me to come back and update some of these posts when I take my blog off the privacy setting)