The Peril of a Motivated Husband

New Year's Day is supposed to be a day of relaxation, of family time, of black eyed peas and football.  At least that was how I was raised.  On Wednesday I battled the frantic shopping carts at the grocery store and stocked up on treasures for our special meal:  a chicken, black eyed peas, Heritage Dr. Pepper made with pure cane sugar.  I buy only the necessities.

Having stayed up past midnight with my eldest daughter, I was not in the get-up-and-get-em kind of mood yesterday.  My pace was slow, at best.  But there was a mysterious peril looming in our house.  I had a motivated husband.

He was not raised as I was raised, where you spend a relaxing day with your family around the dinner table, the television, and a huge, challenging puzzle.  At 8 am, he was ready to work.  I believe, in retrospect, he was trying to eliminate every possible chore for all of 2010 on day one.  It was kind of terrifying.

He got the girls to working on their rooms right away.  I secluded myself to the confines of the dining room, where I was reorganizing every Christmas item into better boxes.  I was also purging various Christmas items that I never want to see again.  Roxy got a headache from all her cleaning.  Darby got her room done, but was afraid to turn on the TV because it would bring attention to the fact that she is no longer cleaning.  No one talked to each other - at all.  We don't know where the motivated tornado will hit next - basement, attic, living room - AACK!

Being the kind and thoughtful mother I am, I take off for a movie.  I leave Scott as he is pulling out all of the living room furniture, vacuuming behind and under and over and through it.  When I get home, the house is calm.  I begin to cook dinner to find that the entire pantry has been thoroughly reshelved and the cabinet of baking pans has been restructured, too.  The Tornado sometimes hops in to the most surprising of places.

Dinner turned out fine, even good, and the girls enjoyed the relaxation of helping me with it.  By 7:00, Scott did not know what to do with himself.  The Peril of the Motivated Husband had lifted, and he was somewhat listless without anything to clean.

My dear motivated husband had worked himself out of a job.  Thank goodness.  I'm glad he embraced the cleanness of 2010, and I'm glad I have no more chores for another month or so.

Strange Things in the Bargain Bin

I happen to be one of those people that waits until after Christmas to get a calendar so that I pay half price.  There are multiple problems with this scenario, because depending on the year, you wind up with unspeakable things to choose from in that half price bargain bin.  I also happen to be a preacher's wife, so anything with a reference to a housewife drinking martinis would raise eyebrows amongst my small group families.

This year was especially profane.  I found lots of cursing on calendars, entire calendars dedicated to naughty housewives and pinups, and more references to tasteless jokes and alcoholic behavior than I have ever encountered.  Where are the tasteful calendars?  Hanging in people's homes because they paid full price, I guess.

The only calendar that was remotely close to my personality was the one pictured below.  It makes me remember my brother.  In the seventies, he would get the stickers from gum packages and stick them on his bureau.  And I would read all of them and be too young to get the humor.  My brother's old bureau is still in my parent's garage and you may still be able to see a faded sticker or two on it.

I will enjoy the nostalgia of this calendar all year.  It is also funny that it included some free stickers in it, but they were all about alcohol and smoking.  Those will not be stuck on Roxy's bureau.  Let it be said, let it be done.

Obligatory Christmas Pics

I feel obligated to take certain Christmas photos - one of the kids in front of the tree, one of all the cousins on the couch.  Unfortunately for me, I have missed the big moment of my children finding the Santa gifts for years now.  If only Roxy would not rise at 5 am to go and inspect everything, I would get to snap a shot of her delighted smile.  But since she was 2, the year I found her playing with her new kitchen, I have not actually gotten live footage of the illusive, glorious moment.  This is odd, because Roxy generally obeys me.  But not when it comes to presents :)

I Got You, My Pretty

It finally happened - I got a beautiful cobalt blue enamel coated cast-iron dutch oven.  I predict that all my meat will roast perfectly from now on, thanks to this baby.  I will no longer drool over Le Creuset cookware, because mine is the best color of blue and cost $100 less than theirs.  Thanks for the Christmas money, Garret and Sheila.  My money went to a good place.

I took my daughters to Macy's where we bought Little Blue.  I showed them my Holy Grail - the Kitchen Aid stand mixer in cobalt blue - and told them that every girl deserves the right to dream.

Strong Enough to Be My Man

We have had a busy, sometimes trying week.  With lots of travel and traffic, toss in a blizzard, and dealing with all the emotions of seeing ones you love, the girls and I are exhausted.  But Scott is the one who deals with it all so well.  This week he:

1.  Drove a lot when we asked him to - even on very bad roads that were dangerous.

2.  Shoveled my parents' driveway multiple times in the blizzard and after the blizzard.

3.  Shoveled driveways of total strangers.

4.  Extended our OK stay a day because I was so anxious about travelling on icy roads.

5.  Overpacked our little trunk with all of the girls' Christmas treasures.  He didn't even overreact when Roxy told him at 6:30 am that she wanted to take home an empty box (it is a cute box :))

6.  Got us home at 10:45 and carried all our stuff upstairs while I unpacked the girls, found the nightly necessities, and turned up the heat around the house.

7.  He even bought me a book I wanted - and it was a surprise!  I didn't even pick it out or order it online for him to gift to me.

Being the only man in a house with three women is a tough job, and Scott is just the man to do it.

White Christmas

Merry Christmas from the frozen land of Oklahoma.  Who knew that 14 inches of snow would blow in!  It is keeping us from some friends and family, though, and that makes it hard on my girls who crave time with the ones they love.  The good thing is that Scottie will be ready to push them around on the sled today, after he shovels pounds and piles of snow.  He really does love that sort of thing.  Weirdo.

Oklahoma Christmas Observed

Happy Festivus!  I have found my last gift and celebrated with some pizza from the Wedge.  Now I am merry and bright.

Driving around Oklahoma today and yesterday has provoked a few thoughts:

1.  I will never know Atlanta like I know Oklahoma.  I still remember where everything is, the shortcuts to take, where four different Best Buys are (and I had to go to two of them today), and you can actually get in to the places where you like to eat.  If I had to figure out how to get from one Best Buy to the other, it would take over an hour due to Atlanta traffic.

2.  Oklahoma looks like it has been blanketed in camo.  I am definitely used to seeing year-round green, thanks to massive amounts of rain in Georgia.  We need some snow here to brighten up this year's landscape.  And I am no longer used to flat, straight roads.  It feels kind of weird to me now.

3.  I miss having cheap movies.  I took Dar and a friend to the movies yesterday afternoon for $11.  You can't make that happen in Georgia.

4.There's no place like home, there's no place like home.  I'm glad I'm not in Kansas today.