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.

It really might as well be week one million. It feels like week one million.

Sunday:

I hung out with the cutest, chillest baby ever at the Community Baby Shower

My teeny little table showing off my work

Don’t worry, I pulled over before I took this picture out the car window of the regatta in the river

Monday:

I took this picture AND threw that ball. Impressed????

School makes him tired.

Princess Sadface was sad, so we had lots of extra cuddles

Tuesday:

I bought ALL THE GROCERIES. I also broke my crock pot (the second one!) so I can’t make half the stuff I planned.

I like this spot.

Evan likes this spot too.

Wednesday:

Saying good morning to Fred, the giant fake Halloween spider

Face painting at school. She meowed all afternoon.

Reading on the front porch

Thursday:

All the RescueBots HAVE to come outside to wait for the bus with Evan.

Mr. Incredible from Enterprise. They’re office of superheroes was the best part of my day.

Trick or treating at the fancy houses

They actually liked handing out candy more than collecting it

Friday:

It wasn’t actually raining, but the gingers do not care. Umbrellas make them look jaunty.

WTF Target, it’s only NOVEMBER FIRST.

I wasted fancy hair and spanx on a lousy event for E’s work.

Saturday:

My assistant at the morning photo shoot got a liiiiitle dirty

We have too many couches right now, but at least it means they can watch iPad OVER THERE and leave me alone.

Yes, she is wearing her costume AGAIN. At least it was at a costume party.

E’s submarine was commission on Saturday, which means they’re one step closer to being a fully functioning boat that goes to sea. That is both good news (no more shipyard!) and bad news (deployments) but it also means he’s going to be working even more over the next couple of weeks. Since this is still the busy season for pictures too, I suspect there will be a lot of late nights for the next month. Although it hardly matters now, since it’s 4:55 pm and PITCH BLACK outside. Thanks for nothing, daylight savings time.

In blog news: I’m about 3 meals into a brand new round of What’s For Dinner – which I haven’t done in a crazy long time – and it’s nice to be cooking new stuff again. I can only handle taco salad and spaghetti so many times before I give up and let my family eat pop tarts and grapes for dinner. So watch for that sometime next week!

Is it possible I could be nesting even though I’m not pregnant? Maybe it’s less nesting and more getting ready for winter hibernation. I’ve been living on a steady diet of HGTV while I edit photos, and nothing makes me hate my own (pretty nice) house than watching people turn their horrible basements into super useful space. Why can’t someone do that to MY basement?! It’s disgusting! The before and afters would be amazing!

The current first floor makeover started when E moved our cheap, old, Walmart desk downstairs so I could carve out an “office” corner for my business stuff. Need a lamp for one ugly desk was the gateway drug to a Target trip, which lead to a HomeGoods trip, which lead to an Ikea catalog with half the pages marked and a Pinterest board full of links to more furniture than I could ever fit in my house.

Last weekend I went shopping alone to “just look” for a little tiny couch to put in the living room. I didn’t end up finding the couch of my dreams, but that didn’t stop me from dragging the rest of my family out at 7 pm to look at the couch I DID find. It’s probably for the best I couldn’t find the one I wanted – I’m not sure a white tufted fabric couch is the right thing for a room that is currently full of surfaces the children are allowed to write on. The tan microfiber that was delivered yesterday will DEFINITELY survive more Play-Doh mishaps.

Part of the deal when E agreed to come look at “my” couch was we would also look for “his” new couch, which was basically the total opposite of that white one I had in mind. Think of the ugliest, most ridiculous man-couch you can. Now make it a) bigger b) uglier and c) add more cup holders. THAT is the couch he wanted. If a dozen cows didn’t have to die to cover his own personal reclining seat with built in beer fridge, he was NO INTERESTED.

Fortunately, our budget couldn’t support that couch, so it is NOT what I am sitting on while I write this. Unfortunately, the store’s huge sale item that weekend was a big, squishy sectional complete with cup holders and power recliners at each end, so that IS what I am sitting on. I’m not going to lie…it’s pretty comfortable. And this cup holder is very convenient for my Diet Coke. And it’s nice that it takes up basically the ENTIRE ROOM so we had to move most of the toys upstairs and I have most of my house back. The kids are both old enough that I can send them upstairs to play without me and I only have to occasionally shout at them to stop hitting each other. It’s pretty amazing to go from having 3 seats in this room to at least 7…and that’s not counting MY couch in front of the fireplace. A couch in front of the fireplace! For sitting on while drinking mulled wine and eating sparkling brie bites and having adult conversation without the TV on!

That will probably happen once. Right after we put the Christmas tree up. Then someone will say “We should watch Love Actually!” and we’ll move back to the giant ugly couch and that will be that. But when we have people over, there will be SO MANY PLACES TO SIT DOWN!

I realize I just wrote 500 words about two couches and I’ve posted no pictures, but that’s because I’m not done with the rearranging and redecorating. Plus I haven’t finished cleaning the old couch to put on Craigslist, so we actually have THREE couches in two small-ish rooms. I’ll be sure to do an underwhelming reveal if I ever get this part of the house set up the way I want – but I sort of suspect we’ll get busy and never actually sell the old couch or move this bookcase that’s basically blocking a doorway or buy a coffee table or patch the holes in the walls. So for now, just IMAGINE I live in a Pinterest-looking classy yet casual house. That’s what I’m doing.

This week is basically just photos of all the places I’m going to take photos. Plus Caroline.

Sunday:

Super happy to be swinging.

I GUESS this spot was OK for family photos. (This spot was amazing.)

Monday:

Eyeing the last apple fritter at Chowder Days.

Nicely done, Connecticut

Free boat rides are the best boat rides

Tuesday:

This is not my baby, but I kind of want to hang it up in my house anyways.

75% off wings at the craft store!

Pixie Girl

Wednesday:

Practicing his long jump skills

A pond…

…a cove…

…a park. I LOVE CONNECTICUT.

Wrinkly toes

Thursday:

Ready for school! It’s been 65 here all week, so she refuses to wear a coat.

I found the steps where we did my maternity photos! I love this park.

What does the fox say? BUY ME, I’M ADORABLE.

Someone had a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast.

That chalkboard was the train station schedule for Evan’s birthday. Repurposing!!

Editing editing editing…I really loved this session!

Saturday:

I did NOT buy this, even though I really really really really love it. I did end up buying a dresser. And a table. And a couch. And…another couch. It was an expensive weekend.

I love you, soda machine.

Project RECLAIM THIS DISASTER is underway. I’m so excited about it, especially now that it’s getting darker and colder and we’re going to be stuck inside more.

I had no photo sessions this weekend but I’m making up for it with 4 in the next 6 days and I’m crossing my fingers SO HARD that the weather stays nice. I’m hoping to get some of our personal photos sorted and (minorly) edited and shared too, since my family starts to get mad if there aren’t enough gingers on the blog. MOAR GINGERS SOON, I promise.

DO ALL THE SUMMER BEFORE IT’S GONE.

Sunday:

I put away the changing pad (that I’ve used maybe twice ever) since I don’t have any babies anymore.

Fresh neighborhood eggs are a game of IS THERE A CHICKEN FETUS IN THIS OR NO?

Best spot ever for senior pictures? Probably.

Monday:

Tired.

Mess.

Tired.

Tuesday:

I WILL MISS YOU WHILE I AM AT SCHOOL BABY SISTER EVEN THOUGH WE ARE GOING TO SAME SCHOOL.

Mommy the donkey is my best friend!

Cloud or portal opened to another dimension by a tesseract?

Wednesday:

Our last gymnastics class. She’ll have to use her super strength somewhere else.

Our duck pond has an endless supply of adorable baby ducks and I cannot stop taking pictures of them.

Waiting patiently for her grilled cheese.

Thursday:

NO PICTURES PLEASE.

Tinker Bell rests in the tasting room of the winery. Being a fairy is hard work.

My sister and her boyfriend are EXCELLENT child watchers. I like them.

Friday:

The princess generously bestows bacon upon her people.

Beach baby

THREE GINGERS.

Saturday:

Yard sale. Most of it’s on the curb now, it was not a smashing success. But at least it’s all out of my house.

Second day of the princess dress. I peeled it off her to wash it because 2 year olds are gross.

Watching more Watch Us Edit videos from Clickin Moms and it’s still blowing my mind.

It was a surprisingly good week, even if I continue to make poor choices in regards to my own bedtime. 11 pm has become midnight has become 1 am, which means I’m getting like 5 hours of sleep which means I am chronically tired which is my OWN FAULT and yet I keep doing it. I am not very good at learning my lesson. I’m also so, so excited about Ginger Snaps Pictures (website! facebook! in progress, so don’t judge too harshly) and the photography classes/workshops/critiques I’ve signed up for I CAN’T go to bed any earlier. I need those post-kid hours. Although I have managed to thoroughly wear them out several days this week so they took naps – NAPS! – and slept a full 12 hours at night.

This week will be almost as full as last week, which is my favorite kind of week. Even if I am tired.