I'm dreaming of a NyQuil induced coma

Forget dreaming of a white Christmas. I'm dreaming of sleep.

I'm in desperate need of sleep. The last three nights have been H-E-L-L. Night one: two hours. Night two: five hours. Last night: six hours. Despite increasing my sleep quota over the last two nights, I'm utterly exhausted. I need some good, quality sleep. Not interrupted sleep. For a woman who basically lives her life in a bubble, I've been either dealing with allergies or a cold for the last month. Darling daughter got sick last week. She seems to be getting over her epic week-long runny nose.

I, on the other hand, sound like I'm coughing up a lung. My cough keeps me up at night. Combine this with the fact that I will suddenly wake up at night for no reason and I have a disaster on my hands. I'm utterly tired. I think I'm reaching the threshold where I'm just too tired to sleep. Ah, insomnia is not my friend. And as for dear husband, who takes public transit to get to work every day, other than the sore throat on Monday, he has had no major colds to deal with. Lucky him.

I'm waiting for dear husband to come home to take over parental duties. Once he walks through the front door, I'm taking a mega dose of NyQuil and calling it a day.

Days like these . . .

It is days like these that I'm glad that I'm a stay at home mom.

Right now I'm watching darling daughter play with her books and one of the small bins from her trofast unit. And that is fine by me. I've got a major headache, and it isn't from all the snow that is falling to the ground, either. I've been suffering with a cold for the last several days. I'm pretty sure that what I'm suffering from is a cold. It feels different than when I'm battling allergies. Right now I'm thankful that I can breath through my nose, but I wish this horrible cough would take a hike.

The other night I got a grand total of two hours of sleep and last night I got about five. While I more than doubled what I got the night before, I'm feeling pretty exhausted. Add in the fact that darling daughter is refusing to nap longer than one hour a day, and I'm almost to the end of my rope. A two hour nap would feel great right about now.

So before I confuse your or myself any further, the reason I'm glad that I'm a stay at home mom on days like these is that if I only had five hours of sleep, forced to battle the crazy stormy weather in rush hour traffic and work eight hours in an office, I think I'd go nuts. Right now I'm in my usual uniform of lululemon wear. I have no intentions venturing outside. I may not even leave the house for the rest of the week, depending how I'm feeling. Yes, I'm exhausted. Yes, the weather is frightful. But thankfully I'm safe and sound at home, in close proximity to a bed if darling daughter decides to take a nap any time soon.

Christmas card writing marathon

Good lord, who knew that writing out and addressing Christmas cards would take four hours?

Yesterday, dear husband was home sick. (We were both sick). With the two of us at home, I took the opportunity to write out Christmas cards. I had my day plan: Christmas card writing, tree trimming and some knitting.

Well, wasn't I surprised that this task that I thought would take me an hour to complete took all day. I started around 11 a.m. and except for a half-hour break, I was done around 3:30 p.m. I started getting writer's cramp two hours into my task. I don't remember last year's Christmas card writing session taking four hours. And I wasn't writing anything elaborate either, just a small message underneath the printed greeting and inserting a photo of darling daughter in some of the cards.

Once I was done my Christmas card writing marathon, I was pooped. I didn't feel like writing a blog entry. I had no energy to tackle one of my many knitting projects or drag the Christmas decorations from the basement to trim the tree. Our poor artificial tree is looking pretty sparse as it sits ignored in the corner. Other than the lights (it is a pre-lit tree) there isn't a single ornament on it. I'd like to say today is the day that we decorate the tree, but I'm running on two hours of sleep today. Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to do it as Wednesday is suppose to be a snow day. With 20 to 30 centimetres of snow predicted for the Ottawa area, I may manage to find enough Christmas spirit to decorate the tree with a toddler in tow.

Meal planning extravaganza

In my quest to become a domestic goddess in the kitchen, I've taken to meal planning with a vengeance. I've made meals for the last five evenings. Any leftovers we have have been frozen and will be used at the end of the month during the holiday rush. Today, I did an entire inventory of the pantry and the freezers and made lists. I used those lists to help create a meal plan for the upcoming week. I scoured websites for new recipes. I opened up cook books that haven't been open for years. I based my grocery list on my meal plan. Yes, it was certainly an exciting way to spend a Friday afternoon.

I don't like cooking, but meal planning is helping to bridge the gap. I'm even starting to get excited about cooking. But before I start planning my ticker tape parade, I know that this meal planning momentum I have will likely peter out and I may return back to opening up the refrigerator door at 3 p.m., wondering what is for dinner. Although I know I'm not going to be Rachel Ray or Jaime Oliver, but I'm hoping I can at least serve dinner every night at 5 p.m.

Stick happy

I think I may have gone a little crazy with the wall decals.

Creating darling daughter's playroom has been a work in progress for the last several months. First, I had to declutter the room. Second, I had to buy two toy storage units: one for the playroom and the other for the living room. And third, I had to find the motivation to finally finish putting it all together.

Lately, I been feeling pretty motivated. I almost want to say that I'm a domestic goddess with all the meal planning, cleaning and planning I've been doing for the last several days. In theory, I'd like to finish darling daughter's playroom by this weekend. My motivation to finish it comes in the form of a Christmas tree. Once that sucker is up, she'll probably won't be able to resist temptation. If all fails (and when I mean fail, I mean if the Christmas tree topples over due to the rambunctiousness of a very excitable toddler), we can head downstairs and play in the playroom.

I think one of reasons I haven't been all that motivated to finish the playroom is because it is downstairs in the basement. I find it a bit dreary downstairs. Who wants to play in a room with only a sliver of a window to let light in? To cheer the room up, I bought wall decals from a Buck or Two. Well, I went a little stick happy with the wall decals. I've got a mermaid theme one wall. I've got a wall and a half covered with fairies, some of which glow in the dark. I've got cute sparkly animals and I have an jungle/dinosaur motif on the back wall. I think I have it covered, literally.

So here's hoping that I get the playroom done by this weekend. I don't want to chance having a toddler playing with a Christmas tree. Too dangerous for my liking.

I welcome productivity

The last several days have very productive ones. I've made dinner every day this week. I've tackled laundry. I've vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom and washed the floors. I've dug out the Christmas decorations out of my very packed storage closet. I started to put together darling daughter's playroom, putting up wall statics and rearranging items. I finally got around to delivering the two garbage bags of aluminum cans to my next door neighbour. (Several months ago, she asked us to collect our cans for her. I think they go to charity). I've ordered photos for my Christmas cards. I figured how how to magic loop. Now the sleeve of a sweater I'm knitting doesn't look so sad. I've put together darling daughter's Christmas stocking. All I have to do now is wrap her gifts.

I welcome productivity. It makes me feel so productive. I'm hoping this trend will continue because I have quite the list I need to accomplish before Christmas.

O Christmas tree

This is last year's Christmas tree. Notice the very noticeable tilt? I refused to allow dear husband to straighten it out because I was afraid it would fall again. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was a couple of days before Christmas when our very real Christmas tree decided to crash on the floor, just minutes after I watered it. I wanted to cry. I think I may have did. There was pine needles and dirty water everywhere. I do remember making a frantic phone call to dear husband at work, informing him it was all his fault that the tree fell on the floor. He didn't even have a chance to reply because I rudely hung up the phone. It was certainly an afternoon to remember.

I vowed last year we would never have a repeat of Christmas 2008. I'm tired of real trees, their real needles shedding on my floor and their tendency to crash. It is artificial all the way this year, especially with a very active toddler on the go. But the question is should I get a small tree or a large tree?

I have no desire to police darling daughter and tell her to step away from the tree. The following conversation plays in my head when I think of setting up a Christmas tree: "Get away from the tree, please. I said, please move away from the tree. No, don't take the decorations off the tree. Be gentle. I said gentle. Or dear, I don't think that snowflake ornament will be the same. The tree isn't a snack so stop gnawing on the branches. If I said it, I've said it a million times, stay away from the tree. Oh dear God in heaven, I said, STEP AWAY FROM THE TREE." Not a very Christmasey conversation to have with a toddler, in my opinion.

As I see it, my options are the following: (1) have no tree; (2) have a small tree and set it up on a table behind the love seat so I have the illusion of a full tree; or (3) get a big tree and let the chips fall where they may. We haven't decided what to do. I'm leaning on having no tree at all, but that is the Scrooge in me talking. We'll likely get a tree. We'll likely have to police darling daughter in staying away from said tree. And the tree will likely crash again. Not from the help of gravity, but likely by a very curious toddler.