You "Deserve" It

Lately I've been really hating the word deserve. As Christmas gets closer I am noticing it being used more and more:

• A commercial for a car dealership says they will take any old junker as a trade in, because "You deserve a nicer, newer car."
• A mail insert for a furniture store offers me low interest rates to help me get the furnishings I "deserve".
• A billboard for a bank offering holiday loans to "give your family the holiday they deserve."

All of these statements make me want to scream! Yes, it is really nice to have nice things, I get that. But to have the mentality that you deserve nice things, even if you can't afford them, means one of two things:

1. You are going to go into debt to get them.
2. You are expecting someone else to get them for you.

Going into debt for something as silly as a couch or a Christmas present is insane! And expecting someone else to get it for you is selfish! And at the end of the day a new couch isn't going to make you happier. You will be the same person with the same problems (maybe more problems, if you went into debt to get it!), just with a nicer place to sit. 

I'm going to step off my soapbox now and put Christmas music on Pandora and finish decorating the tree. After all this typing, I think I deserve it! ;)

Is it Fate?

A few days ago I noticed a pair of nail clippers on my work desk. How the heck did they get there? No idea. I chalked it up to my pregnancy brain and moved on with my life.

I didn't move the nail clippers though. That one isn't related to pregnancy. I'm just lazy.

Today I had a little break before I had to attend a meeting. A long enough break that I could get bored, but not so long that I could actually start doing something. That's when I noticed that my right big toenail was a little long and the left one was uneven.

Then I remembered that I have nail clippers at my desk! Maybe I knew that future me would need to clip her toenails but wouldn't have time to go get the clippers?

I think it was fate.

Beauty

I found these beauties growing behind the recycle bin on the side of the house. I had to cut a few and bring them inside the house!

Commitment Issues

I love having a fireplace. Not because I think it will be nice on cold winter days to curl up next to a fire. Let's face it. I live in South Texas. It's November and it was 82 degrees today. Maybe in a really cold year we would actually light a fire five times.

No, I love having a fireplace because it comes with a mantle! It's a built in shelf that can hold so many cute things! All of those candle holders I randomly picked up at Goodwill now have a home! I love rearranging the mantle, trying out new things, new colors, new height combinations.

Today I had the idea to start stacking pictures on the mantle. Hey, I'm not putting them on the walls, I might as well do something with them, right? And that's when it hit me. The clock would look so cool up there! So I put it up in the middle, and it looked great. Only... it was too low! So now I really want to try hanging the clock up there.

But... the mantle is brick. Hanging something in brick is a commitment! It involves special drill bits and stuff that I let Steve think about. Once it's up there, you can't just take it down or move it. And if I get tired of having the clock there, I will be forced to put something else there to cover up the hole.

I'm just not ready for that type of commitment...

Life's Great Mysteries

Why is it that I can't wake up on weekdays, but I can't sleep in on the weekends??

Resolutions - A Look Back

Ok, first of all, how in the world is today November first? Seriously? What happened to October? We are exactly three weeks away from Thanksgiving… What??

Since there are only two months until the end of the year I wanted to check in and see how I was doing with my New Year’s Resolutions. They were to:

1. Become an extreme couponer.
2. Get into a routine with my housework.

I did pretty well at becoming an extreme couponer. Except, I’m not that extreme. I would say I am a moderate couponer. There are so many regular products I don’t use because of the parabens (drugstore shampoo, makeup, body wash, etc) that even if they were free, it wouldn’t be worth it for me. But we are all stocked up on contact solution, deodorant, Steve’s body wash, laundry soap, razors, toilet paper, and paper towels for a while. I stopped going every week, and just go now when I see something that I really want/need. It works for me. I’m going to say this was a success!

The housework routine was not quite as successful. It started out pretty well, but then things got a little crazy. We started getting serious about buying a house, and packing disrupts everything. Then we moved, which is even more disruptive. Morning sickness/needing 12 naps a day kicked in a few days after the move, and poor Steve had to do everything for a while! But even if I was feeling fine, keeping a 2000 square foot house clean is MUCH more difficult that keeping a 900 square foot apartment clean. There are so many more surfaces, more floors to sweep or vacuum, more corners to dust, more space for junk to accumulate! But I’m getting there. I haven’t been behind in the laundry for over a month, and I’ve managed to get dinner on the table almost every night. So even though this didn’t go as well as I had hoped, I still say it was marginally successful.

The good news is, I still have two whole months before the year is over. 61 days to get better!