alright.
so it’s been a whole week since i blogged.
that’s a long time!
craig said “soooo… are you EVER going to blog again?”
to which i turned and unleashed a long string of LEAVE ME ALONE!!! I AM BUSY! HOW DARE YOU’s on him like a sweet wife does when called out on her slacking.
let’s see… this past week has been bonkers with activities.
just like at your house i assume.
i schedule appointments for each of my kids in december (eye dr…dentisit… etc) and then we do their christmas shopping for their siblings afterwards.
one on one.
we started this a few years ago..jpg)
half of the fun for them is the lunch stop i think!
in the past 9 days I’ve eaten at chipotle 4 times and Chili’s once.
it’s really sweet to watch them shop trying to decide what their sisters or brothers would like… within their budget.
we do a “matching” program (in a way). i pay for it all and then they pay me back most (70-ish%) of it.
i don’t make them pay it all back to me because i like their big hearts and wanting to get nice(r) gifts for people they spend most days fighting with.
it gives me hope.
maybe they will like each other when they grow up??
🙂
ever since annie was home sick on thanksgiving break we have been recording The Price Is Right on the dvr..jpg)
she comes home from school and watches it.
EVERY DAY.
it’s such a clean show! (other than the dresses on the lady models….)
and i may or may not get teary eyes when they win the big showcase and they seem like they may pass out.
did you know there is even a MALE model on the show now?!
i think you should watch over christmas break.
bring back all the old memories of summer and being a kid in the 80’s!
COME ON DOOOOOOWN!
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my girlfriends and i ran in the jingle bell run again this year!
every year we try to think of reasons not to do it but honestly… the spa time afterwards makes any race worth it.
this year i ran the whole thing!
last year i did too but that was purely to stay warm because last year it was 3 degrees!
this year was cold but not like that.
and you would think i would be on an excerise high from doing so well in the run (not because of speed but because of not walking) but you would be wrong in that thinking!
i have a terrible time getting exercise into my day.
but i won’t give up this battle.
i just keep hoping i will become a lover of exercise.
someday….
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i have a thing for peppermint.
we are BFFs all the way.
so believe me when i say i have bought so many boxes of these k-cups from target it’s not even funny.
i am stockpiling them.
because they will be gone and i will have to go back to my second favorite flavor of coconut mocha in january.
what i am really craving is peppermint ice cream.
and i DID purchase Peppermint Mini Oreos this week because i plan to make a milkshake with peppermint ice cream AND the mini oreos at some point in the next week.
because it’s once a year and resistance is futile.
two weekends ago craig asked me if i wanted to hang up a new light?
swoon.
that is like whispering sweet nothings in my ear.
so we pulled out the old, dusty, bent up chandelier i got at the barn forever ago, figured out if it still worked and he even took all the crystals off for me!
i cleaned it and painted it and then last weekend he hung it up!.jpg)
and while he did that i sewed new curtains.
the black and white gingham fabric is by the yard at ikea.
i moved the curtains i had in the dining room into the kitchen.
that big straight lined pattern was SO EASY i said “i don’t ever want to sew anything without lines again!”
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on IG people keep asking for a christmas home tour.
that’s a great idea but i am waiting for my cleaning lady to come and then i will take pictures.
she is the best part of my week.
pretty much every week.
🙂
in case you wondered… she cleans the kitchen, living/dining room, guest bath and my room/bathroom.
my kids still have to clean their own rooms, the family room and their shared bathroom.
skills they need in life.
i want them to learn to do the work.
because i still have to clean stuff everyday. all kinds of things!
it feels like i never stop cleaning (you feel this way too right? please say yes!)
it’s NEVER ending.
i appreciate the professional cleaning help every week more than i can explain.
ok…. one last thing today.
christmas cards.
are you sending them?
i used to be a rock star at christmas cards.
but i am not any more.
so IF i was going to send a card it would be this one:
(this design was on MPIX)
but…. even though i am total slacker in the card mailing department… maybe you aren’t?
if you wanted to send me a christmas card i would be thrilled!
also we have moved twice in three years… so NO ONE knows our address anymore.
and i miss christmas cards!
so if you want to send me your christmas card… send me a quick email at megduerksen@gmail.com and i will give my address to you.
i really will.
(and i f you are thinking WHY would i ever send Meg a christmas card?? i get that and there is NO PRESSURE whatsoever to do this weirdo project. just an idea that popped into my head. i know that not all my ideas are great 🙂 )
Lynda Anderson - I just moved, too! I’ve received three cards, one was a relative, one was my realtor and one was a friend through whom I order Mary Kay. 🙂 I feel your pain. Of course, I haven’t even started my cards yet … no, really, I haven’t even taken the photo I want to use for the cards. I always send Happy New Year cards. Takes some of the pressure off.
Merry Christmas to you and your family. You are a true inspiration!
Lucy - I am a cleaning lady and I applaud you that you make your kids clean their rooms etc. So many people don’t make their kids do anything. They need these life skills I agree!
merry Christmas and Love the chandelier and curtains.
Patti - You’re so funny…receiving Christmas cards from your faithful followers, even though most are strangers. But I have an idea of what you can do with all the cards you will undoubtedly get. I heard this idea from one of our parish priests, and have practiced it for a few years now. After the holidays, we put all the cards in a basket by our kitchen table and when we say grace, one of our kids picks a card out of it and we say a special blessing for that family. Sometimes the same family is prayed for many times over throughout the year and I always think how maybe God knows they need extra prayers! It’s a fun and wonderful way to keep Christmas blessings going the whole year through. And that being said, “Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family!”
Annette - Meg-
Merry Christmas! I have read your blog for years and don’t remember how I got started. Alot of the craziness that goes on in your life I can relate to. I too have 5 children – 2 boys and three girls. I love anything crafts, I have an Etsy store and love the lord. I was reading your blog for several years before I realized both our husbands work at the same bank.
Keep up the good work with your blogs they are an inspiration to me and literally make me laugh out loud sometimes.
Merry Christmas and the most blessed new year!
Annette
Linda Mullen - Hi Meg, been reading your blog for ages and have loved sharing it with my daughter (especially the art projects you do with your kiddos) over the years! Would love to send you a Christmas card….especially since I am just getting around to that and despairing that once again we’re sending non-photo versions, because really, the tree just got up and we’re looking for last minute gingerbread houses–your blog inspires me and I love your open heart! Best to you and your family!
Michelle - Have I told you lately that I love your blog. Yup – its true. Even when you don’t blog for a week. Because I totally get that. I am down with the cleaning lady too. Merry Christmas Meg!
angela - Sent you an email! Would love to send you a card!! P.S. I have eaten a bowl of peppermint ice cream every. single. night. since December 1. I will go in withdrawals on the 31st!
Tanya H - So, I am TOTALLY showing the paragraph about the cleaning lady to my 9yr old who, after flat out refusing to her weekly jobs today, and then threw a fit about having to do jobs before fun plans, snapped to her father and I that WE never do ANY jobs in the house EVER. Ahem. Are you KIDDING ME??? Sigh…
I too used to rock Christmas cards…but I have spent a good chunk of my day addressing and writing in cards and I’m wondering how worth it is, LOL. Its my favorite thing to get cards, so I should, oh…and its my business…lol, but between three dozen wrong addresses, and the fact that it’s 12/20…this is nuts!! 🙂
I also have to comment on The Price Is Right. 🙂 My husband loved that show as a kid, and when my kids were tiny and he worked weird hours, he loved being home at that time random days, he’d commandeer PBS Kids or Nick Jr to watch that. My kids were never as entertained as he was, haha…
Anyway, good for you on the race…I keep hoping I will learn to enjoy working out too…I try, and I have to believe that’s good enough for today. Merry Christmas, if you don’t blog again before then! 🙂
Heather S. - Meg, I would LOVE to send you one of Christmas cards!!! I have one for you, truly I do. I will pop it in the mail when I have your address. 🙂 Though we’ve never met, I love you like a BFF. 🙂 We are sisters in the Lord & one day I will hang out with you. If not here, then in heaven FOR sure. You are a treasure on so many levels.
Kirsten J - Dude – what an epic blog post! It was like a good catchup over coffee with an old friend 🙂
Listen, I was at my PTA co-president’s house Thursday for our Board meeting/Christmas luncheon and she had so many cards on her mantle. I was a little jealous, because I’ve received maybe…6? And so I commented about it. Leslie says, “well, how many do you,send? I send out about 125-140” ummmm…..let’s see….so far they aren’t even ordered, and so they’ll probably get picked up at Walgreens Tuesday morning and I’ll address them in the parking lot. Ugh. Maybe that’s why. And I couldn’t really whine about the PTA president job being so busy because she’s my co! AND she hosted the luncheon!!! But I’ll totally send you one – email coming.
Kerri Lynne - Several thoughts on this great post: 1) My dad was a teacher and you reminded me of when we watched game shows together over Christmas break – there were LOTS of game shows in those days. 2) IKEA has FABRIC? I still have not made it to the new one in KC, and it’s only an hour away… 3) I love sending/receiving Christmas cards, but will not be doing ours this year until after we return from a 10-day trip to Israel (leaving a few days after Christmas!). 4) Gorgeous chandelier! Oh, saw your son’s name on a list of 3A football honors – congratulations to him!
Alicia @ Investing Love - Your posts are always so beautifully random, and I connect with that so much, that it always evokes in me a completely random comment back…so, here goes:
a. I love the productivity going on, light hanging, curtain sewing…perfect. And the green + black check combo is a TEN!
b. Sophia and Jack have recently become OBSESSED with the Price is Right. I’m like, really!?! Also, Let’s Make a Deal. I’m all, are y’all 86?? But they don’t care…they love it. And they want to go on it and win all the things.
c. I used to have a cleaning lady…when I had a house. I missed her more than my mother when we moved away to North Carolina. Really. She was a godsend. Now that we’re house shopping again I just really hope I can find another good lady. It’s such a lifesaver.
d. I am totally sending you a Christmas card. Totally.
Flower Patch Farmgirl - 1) I did NOT know you and Peppermint are BFFs. What???! Guess what…me and peppermint are enemies. Go figure.
2) I love the dentist idea and one-on-one time. I always take all 3 at once and then we despair.
3) Do you have any idea how many good ideas you’ve given me over the years? Poodles. (That word is courtesy of my mom.)
Carol S. - Love that during this busy holiday period you can not post for a week. That is getting your priorities straight! Then a fun post that was worth the wait. Wonderful time with your kids, can’t get that back. Going slow over here and it’s just fine. With high schooler and college kid a lot of the pressure to create Christmas magic is gone, and I am totally cool with that. I’ve got 4 gifts for each of my two boys, and I’m pretty cool with that…really need one more each…hate for me to have purchased more gifts under tree for me than them! Chipotle gift cards may fill the ticket. Enjoy your blog. Merry Christmas Meg.
Jenn - Love the dining room curtains! That bold gingham grounds everything else in the room. Love! Now, about those Christmas cards. We, too, have moved a lot – four times in four years! I have simply given up. With all the moving no one can find us, and with all the moving I can’t find my address book. So we, too, are cardless this year. Which makes me happy to have your beautiful blog from which to wish you and your family and anyone reading this a very joyous, merry, blessed Christmas and a bright, happy, and healthy New Year! Thank you, Meg, for another year of sharing your thoughts and ideas with us through one of my all time favorite blogs to read. Merry Christmas!
Vonda - Love peppermint lattes!!!! And your house is looking amazing-of course:) I’m thinking your mailman will have a huge santa bag of cards for you;)! Merry Christmas!
jamie - i’m thinking about doing new year’s cards. they seem to be all the rage…
Becky Fouts - boy, am I glad you posted today!!! I read everything you write, and missed you this past week! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Lisa - I love the idea of scheduling appts in December and then taking the kids out to lunch and shop for their siblings! I am totally going to copy this next year. Such a great idea for alone time and help them have fun giving!
Heidi DeGroot - Random question–What kind of vacuum do you use and is it good for the dogs and the kids to clean up all the messes?
Gevay Piercefield - Trader Joe’s has peppermint hot chocolate and peppermint JoeJoes (their version of Oreos) , and my friend gave me Starbucks instant peppermint mocha latte packets today, and Dove makes peppermint chocolate squares and it seems I have a problem too! Sending you an email because I would like to send my peppermint loving buddy a card! Merry Christmas!
chrissi - your dining room…….the best! each detail is perfect. buffalo check in black and white, it just doesn’t get any better. merry christmas, enjoy each moment.
Rachel Jeter - And now, you are going to receive approximately 743 Christmas Cards 🙂 Remember a post on your blog from long ago, talking a little bit about your love Christmas Cards and how you would make Craig bring them home from work? Even his coworkers cards? Yeah, I remember that too. And yes, I do that too. I don’t know why I love them, I just do. May you have the merriest of Christmases with no Christmas Eve breakdowns Meg 🙂
And since I’m commenting, have you done Marta’s “Sugar Detox”?? I feel like you were doing that when I came to craft weekend in May, but I can’t fully remember. Did you love it? Would you do that again? I’m signing my hubby and I up for January. (Typing this while eating Christmas cookies.)
Becky - I’m with on the whole price is right thing! I get totally choked up seeing anybody win anything! sappy people unite 🙂
Jen - Just sent you and e-mail and will totally send you a card! I have contemplated not sending them, but decided to again this year. I am in love with peppermint, also. I love the taste and smell. I am actually drinking a cup of peppermint tea right now. Have a wonderful weekend, Meg!
Julie - Love that chandelier and those curtains. I am hoping to get brave enough to make some in 2015, maybe gingham will be the way to go. Cleaning is never done, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to matter how many people are in the house either, the mess is still the same.
I too would love a Christmas tour of your house, always so interesting seeing how you decorate for a Northern hemisphere winter Christmas, while we have a Southern hemisphere summer one.
Necole@seriouslysassymama - Peppermint and I are BFFs also.
Barbara (WA) - I totally get the “swoon”!! And the professional cleaning help. A year ago September our son got married in our back yard. For 6 weeks I had weekly cleaners while I worked outside – it was awesome! I have a broken wrist presently but can still dust, darn. And I did send photo cards but then, I can’t bake. or cook, or. . .
Tracy - I’ve read your blog for a loooong time but don’t comment very often but I will definitely send you a Xmas card. You need Xmas cards in your mailbox!! We live in Kansas City and we’re Jayhawks, too 🙂 Now you know me well enough to receive a Xmas card from me! Haha! Emailing you now.
Amy - Your dining room is beautiful! It looks like the perfect place to have a cup of candy cane coffee. 😉 I would love to send you a Christmas card. It is my favorite Christmas card to date because it is our first Christmas as a family of three. Yay!!!