This week was actually way more interesting than it looks in iPhone photos. I just spent nearly all my free minutes with my headphones plugged into my phone listening to podcasts while I tried to get the disaster that is my house under control. I’m happy to report about a 50% improvement. It would be closer to 100 if there weren’t two small people who make more messes literally SECONDS after I clean them up.

Sunday:

I promise we did lots of things, but the only picture I have is the gingers helping me pick fabric at Joann’s.

Monday:

Princesses love iPads

Princesses also love paint dots

Tuesday:

Morning person

Practicing his long jump

Hugging her dog-brother

Wednesday:

This might not impress you, but that’s 50 cents less than the actual price, thanks to Stop & Shop points.

If they made the salted caramel kind I would be the happiest person EVER.

Mystic

Thursday:

This girl loves school, except for the days she doesn’t, in which case OMG THE SCREAMING.

Waiting very patiently for her brother.

Friday:

Princesses want their quesadilla RIGHT NOW.

I’m trying to decide if this stuff will look ridiculous in our slightly-smaller-scale dollhouse

Saturday:

THE EXTRA COUCH IS GONE AND MY LIVING ROOM LOOKS LIKE A LIVING ROOM!!

Finally started decorating – one week to go!

This week I am going to finish 90% of my Christmas shopping, bake a zillion things, decorate for Caroline’s birthday AND Christmas, have a coffee date with a friend, clean the house for my parents and my in-laws (yaaaaaaah!) and possibly dye my hair rose gold.

Today Evan’s school is canceled so we have the morning to decorate the Christmas tree the kids and I chopped down and brought home and got in the house ALL OUR OWN SELVES. Or really, my own self. The kids weren’t very good with the hand saw.

LIFE UPDATE: My husband is still on shift work. That is 14 hour days, 7 days a week, which means I am also working 7 days a week, close to 18 hours a day. I fell behind on the housework and laundry a week before Thanksgiving and have never caught up, even when I ignore my children, neglect my blog, put off editing photos, stick in my headphones and tackle a room for 2 hours straight. And no matter how many times I clean up the main living space the children destroy it again within minutes. If I didn’t believe in my heart that I would trip over a RescueBot, fall into the TV and bleed to death on the floor I might just stop even TRYING to clean up.

KID UPDATE: Evan still thinks school is awesome. He hasn’t had any more bus drama and I haven’t forgotten a single half day in months. He is helpful and kind at home and still wants to snuggle on a fairly regular basis despite being so tall I sometimes don’t recognize him. Caroline refuses to wear anything besides princess dresses. She also has the most horrible whining voice in the world. It’s worse than nails on a chalkboard and she does it ALL the time, even when she’s just making up imaginary games between her dolls. She is also unbelievably adorable. Her birthday party is next weekend and her birthday itself is right after that and then my baby will be THREE.

COUCH UPDATE: STILL HAVE AN EXTRA COUCH I CANNOT EVEN GIVE AWAY. And no Christmas tree because of shift work and also because there is no where to put it because of the couch.

ICE CREAM UPDATE: Despite the fact that it is usually around 40 degrees, we’ve been hitting Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream pretty regularly. Downtown Mystic is my favorite place for photo shoots right now, and bribing my kids with ice cream is a win-win, since it means I get some ice cream too. The peanut butter sundae is still my favorite.

PHOTO UPDATE: Here are some photos.

CONNECTICUT UPDATE: Still unbelievably scenic.

A short list of things of all sizes that I am thankful for right now:

1. Pie and yoga pants. Those count as one thing.

2. Podcasts. I would never clean anything in my house if it weren’t for podcasts. They are extremely distracting. A short list of my favorites: This American Life, How To Do Everything, Pop Culture Happy Hour, RadioLab, Stuff You Should Know, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Planet Money. They make me feel smart.

3. A dishwasher. Doing all those Thanksgiving dishes by hand would have taken forever.

4. My children, who told me today they were most thankful for Mommy.

5. The moment when Evan told me he really believed in Santa…and then when he hugged me because I started crying. CHILDHOOD IS MAGIC.

6. Everyone who has supported me in any way as I started my photography business. It’s been (is) terrifying but I cannot wait to see how much it will grow in 2014.

7. Facebook. I am never lonely or bored or without validation when I have an internet connection.

8. Amazon Prime. Absolutely, totally, without question worth the subscription. The amount I save on shipping is crazy, although I’d probably buy a lot less stuff if I couldn’t get it in 2 days without having to go get my credit card from my wallet.

9. My husband, and the fact that he still goes to work every day to support us instead of running off the Mexico where the military will never find him. I almost wouldn’t blame him at this point.

10. Now it’s Christmas! SANTA. I KNOW HIM.

There are approximately 2 bazillionteen more things I am thankful for, but right now I’m thankful for warm coats and Starbucks since I promised the kids the aquarium, Santa, and the town tree lighting tonight.

Here are some not very good pictures of our boring, non-Pinterest, at-home Thanksgiving that I didn’t really edit and you probably don’t care about unless you are a relative very concerned we might not have had a proper meal on real plates at the table. Happy Thanksgiving!

I bought a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey and just sort of…winged it. Considering I was taking stuff in and out of the oven above and below the bird I’m shocked it came out delicious, with enough leftovers for sandwiches.

Potatoes with cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, bacon and chives > boring mashed potatoes

Wish bone! They failed.

CHEERS!

Don’t worry, it’s cranberry-apple sparkling cider, not “Mommy juice”.

MORE CHEERS!

Leftover begging face. It worked, obvs.

Time for pie!

The correct pie-eating method.

Caroline talked me into rented one of the Barbie animated movies – something about magic pink horses? – and it was just about as awful as you can imagine. I would rather watch one million episodes of My Little Pony than anything Barbie-themed ever again.

Sunday:

A bear, a Wuzzle and an angry bird walk into a bar…

Weird things I drank today: apple cider vinegar in grapefruit juice, chia seeds in lemon water.

Sleeping face.

Monday:

Mondays are royal occasions.

Greeting her subjects as they arrive home.

Hair stylist daddy brushes the ginger curls

Tuesday:

So much blue sky, so so cold

A recent family picture! It’s a miracle!

When that face says “pweeeeeeease??” I almost always say yes.

Wednesday:

The school’s Thanksgiving program was a fruit salad (my job was to send in a cantaloupe)…

And a performance of some songs about turkeys and family

Tiny Dunkin Fan.

Thursday:

Bus stop cuddles

Accurate Snow White portrayal

Friday:

Proof everyone – even Princesses – loves Target

I think there are some kids under all that hair

CLEARLY we needed an organizational system

Saturday:

Maybe the highlight of the week.

“Mommy I’m going to do my pose and Caroline is going to do her pose and you take a picture, OK?”

If I could go back in time and start househunting again in CT, I wouldn’t even consider anywhere but Mystic.

I can’t believe this week is Thanksgiving already, especially because right after Thanksgiving it’s December. I’m not ready for December. I need way more than 2 week to finish getting ready for Caroline’s birthday party…and WAY WAY more than 2 weeks after that before Christmas. I am not prepared. AT ALLLLLLL.

This should really be another installment of Pictures I Forgot About but I have words to say about Chowder Days. I LOVE CHOWDER DAYS. It’s one of the few things we’ve actually managed to do as a family for several years in a row now, so I’m calling it an official tradition. The weather this year was amazing and Caroline magically got over her fear of boats so we got to ride the water taxi and I got to take some pictures. It was surprisingly un-crowded for an event – not at all like the one time we tried to go to the wooden boat show and couldn’t find parking within 2 miles – so the kids could run around and try the old fashioned games and play on the boats. There was a minor meltdown involving whether or not Evan was going to participate in pumpkin painting, but he got over it pretty fast and made a “sea monster” gourd. It’s still sitting on my window sill.

Apple fritters

Spicy crab and corn chowder. It was delicious. E had the lobster bisque, which is the only kind of soup he likes.

Shipyard beer at the shipyard!

These things crack me up.

I bought that dress at the consignment store in Mystic – it was $12, which was half price, which was probably 1/4 of the original price. It’s designer toddler-wear.

For a kid who is refusing to go into the building and participate in craft time he looks surprisingly cheerful.

Change of heart, he DOES like painting!

The gingers attempt croquet on the great lawn

I say old chap, nice swing!

It’s been a full month since Chowder Days and these pictures are actually bumming me out. We’re well past the go-out-on-the-water-without-coats stage of fall and into the brown-brown-and-more-brown stage. I’m cold and I don’t like it.