Time Goes Fast as it Slowly Marches On

Today is November 30.

The last day of November.

Tomorrow is December.

Um. I swear I blinked and November started. Then I blinked again and November ended.

These days just fly by like I can't imagine when I'm standing in the thick of them.

In the middle of the days, it feels as if time is marching slowly, just molasses rolling out over us. Tick tick tick goes the grandfather clock. 

I swear I spend hours telling the kids to get school work done. And hours folding laundry. And hours wondering what to make for dinner, not deciding, then hours thinking some more.

I count down the minutes until the husband gets home.

All the things that need to be done, take for. ever.

And our day is ruled by time.

Time to get up and wish the 16 year old a good day.
Time to get granny breakfast.
Time to tidy up just a bit.
Time to make sure the other two are up.
Time to nap because I'm still tired from the day before.
Time to get up and start schoolwork.
Time to make lunch.
Time to do more schoolwork.
Time to run to the grocery store.
Time to do more schoolwork.
Time for Jeopardy.
Time to tidy again.
Time for husband to come home.
Time to fold laundry.
Time to make dinner.
Time to clean up from dinner.
Time to watch the news.
Time to watch whatever show is on that night.
Time to get granny dessert.
Time to get things setup for bedtime.
Time to round the children up, to remind of the things they haven't quite finished yet.
Time to hug and kiss them, tell them I love them, and put them to bed.
Time for the husband to go to bed.
Time for peace and quiet.

That is of course the moment the clock starts flying and suddenly, like we're traveling in warp speed, the clock goes from ten to 12.

Time for me to get to bed!

So slow do the individual moments march on. So routine is our day.

There is comfort in the routine. Knowing what is to be done now and what should be done next.
The rhythm, albeit slow, is there and calms me. Until the moment the time is gone and we are frantically trying to get all the things done.

This is life. I take some days minute by minute. And then blink. A week is gone. A month is gone. Soon another year will pass.

Wasn't it just 2014 the other day? That day that felt like it took an entire year to pass?

But here we are. The end of November.

Another NaBloPoMo in the books.

Frankly, I'm most proud of this one. I had a good month this year.

It energized me. Hopefully, I can keep the energy going through December and into the next year. 

Because next year is coming in just another blink. And I'm going to try to not let it pass me by because time sure flies as it slowly ticks by! 

Short post

So.
I have no computer. We wiped it and started to rebuild it all and we've hit a snag.
I'm not very happy about this. And I've done a terrible job of staying calm. And I might have said "are you freaking kidding me." A few times.
Okay. I didn't say freaking. I'll let your imagination fill in what I did say.
Needless to say, I'm typing on my phone. Which I stink at.
So that is all for now. Here's to hoping its up and running by midnight tomorrow so I can write a proper post!

Holiday Crafting

A quick craft I made today*

A few weeks ago I decided that for next Christmas (yes, that would be in 2016), I wanted to try to have completely handmade decorations.

I know. I know.

I can buy stuff at lots of stores. I can even get a lot of it discounted. It's not that we need more things. It's that I like making things. And to be surrounded by lots of decorations during the holidays that I or the kids made? That would be a wonderful treat!

Even though I want this next year - after all I do need to sleep between now and December 25 of this year, I wanted to start making things this year as I was able to.

So. Early this morning (which is code for not really even that early for most of the rest of the world but early for me!) I woke up, got my daughter, got my not-daughter-who-is-here-so-often-she's-like-another-child and we headed over to Jo-Ann's.

I'll admit, I was kind of scared. I didn't know what sort of crowd we'd be facing. I wasn't sure how many people there would be. And I didn't know how well the store would handle all the millions of people I envisioned would be there.

Thankfully, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be - thought definitely a lot busier than normal! And apparently, the store has done this before, because they were ready.

Before we went in the store, we joked around and made a "game plan". Our game plan was basically grab a ticket for the fabric cutting counter pretty quickly to walking in, then shop. That way if the line was really long, we wouldn't wait as long! Then we did a team hand stack and we were ready to head into the store. Right when the doors opened.

But it wasn't that bad. People seemed to be in good moods. Most everyone seemed to expect there would be lines and waiting and lots of people, so no one was getting upset that it wasn't going faster. Most people seemed to know exactly what they want and there didn't seem to be a lot of just wandering around and seeing what there was (which is how I usually spend half my time in any craft store!). Despite lots of people, it seemed good to me. None of those images I've seen on tv of crazy crowds pushing and shoving and running and grabbing things out of people's carts!

I saved quite a bit of money between coupons and sales. And I've come home with many, many items so I can (hopefully) make lots and lots of fun things to decorate the house with. 

I'm excited about this. I don't know how far I'll get or how much I'll actually make. Or what I'll do with the things we already own.

But I do like making things. And I don't make hardly anything for our home, so I'm glad I will finally get a chance to do something crafty for our house!

*I saw this on pinterest. It was made slightly differently because they cut the letters out of vinyl and put it on the glass. I printed the words on a white paper ( a script font at size 100). I taped that to the back of a shadow box and put in three different sized silver bells inside the shadow box. It literally took me about 5 minutes! If I did it again, I'd move the words up higher so I could get more bells in. I'm also looking at that black frame and wondering if there's some way I can jazz it up. But I think what I will do is try to layer in decorations around it and leave the frame alone!

Computer Woes

Oh, I was going to end this year's NaBloPoMo with a bang!

This was, as we headed into this week, probably my best NaBloPoMo yet - which made me feel really good and really proud about my writing and sticking to the challenge!

But. But. But.

Those darn buts.

For the second time in a very short time, a credit card of mine has been "stolen."

Not physically removed from my purse. Not taken out of the house. But the numbers stolen and used by someone else to make purchases.

Not even 6 weeks ago, this happened. We caught it on the first charge they made (thanks credit card fraud department!). This time, they made a charge a few days ago, yesterday, and then the big one today.

Sigh.

We can only imagine, that there is something on my computer - keystroke logger, something - because twice in such a short time? I mean, it could be coincidence, but I feel like probably not.

So I'm frantically removing files I want to an external hard drive. And at some point tomorrow, my husband will wipe the computer clean and we will start over as if it's day one. Because we've scanned, checked, looked for, and we can't find anything.

Maybe. Just maybe, that means nothing is there.

However, I'm not a big fan of coincidences so I'm trusting my gut which says my laptop is the heart of the problem.

To say that I'm frustrated by this would be a huge understatement.

I love technology. But I also dislike it at moments like this.

Also I wonder what problems could we solve if people who did things like this, used their powers for good and to help people.

Sigh.

Alas, all the things I wanted to say, all the things swirling around in my head just went right out of it.

So here you go. I'm off to continue moving files. And hoping this doesn't happen a third time.

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving is in the books. It was a good one indeed for us.

But, before the day passed, I wanted to stop by and say thank you to you. Yes! You!

Thank you for visiting my blog! Thank you for reading - whether this is your first post or you've read them all, thank you!

For every comment you've left, thank you!

For every retweet on twitter. For every like on facebook. For ever plus on google plus. Thank you.

I really do appreciate it.

xoxo
Brandie