This and That

• Since my husband finished grad school, he's had more free time. He's been spending it fishing (as much as I will let him, which is pretty often), hunting whenever possible, and following college football. I have discovered I actually find football pretty interesting to watch. To the point that despite the fact that Dh is working, I watched bits and pieces of the Oregon-Stanford game all on my own. And crowed (nicely) to my brother in Florida via text, who had very snidely suggested last week that Oregon would surely lose. Booyah!
• My kids are on me all day long. It starts from the moment they realize I am awake and it does not cease until they are asleep. It drains me every day. Then I have a couple of hours to myself, or to spend with my husband, and then I do it all again the next day. It is so exhausting. I know we are all trying to find our places again since the addition of Baby C, and it is rough on them for Dh to be temporarily working swing. (They were kind of manic last fall - Dh works swing every autumn.) Miss E started kindergarten, and my mom was here for a full month, and is gone now. All these upsets to our normal routine. But oh my heavens. The constant whining and fighting and begging for candy. (Seriously wtfreak is up with the constant begging for candy?? That alone is driving me mad.) And then. And then Miss E brings me a picture she drew for me, of me and her holding hands, and she has written our names across the top, and I melt. So fortunately for my children, they do just enough cute and sweet and well-behaved things that I have thus far staved off complete insanity.
  
• In my children's defense, I dragged all three of them to Target and Safeway on a Saturday (today) and they were all super, super well-behaved. I even remembered to thank them for that when we piled in the car, and their beaming faces were beautiful to see.
  
• The baby is so sweet. I absolutely adore her. She is a good sport with the pestering her siblings give her. (Though when Ace accidentally kicked her head today, I got extremely mad.) She sleeps so well at night it is truly wonderful. She usually goes down around 8, and sleeps until at least 4. Lately she has been sleeping until 5 or 6. But I mentioned that Dh is working swing? He gets home a bit after 10. So I usually stay up and hang with him. (Stupid.) I haven't been getting that much sleep. I want to see my husband, okay? I think I'm going to have to stop seeing him though, because this not-enough-sleep thing is not working out for me in the long term. Or even the short term.
• Okay my husband just got home, so that's all folks!
  

Apparently Eating Is Important

First of all, you are very smart bloggy friends! I was indeed Kate Middleton. I guess the good people of my town are not as up on posh Brits. Weird.

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If you have had a baby you know how it goes with eating - you might get to, if the baby stops needing you for one minute. Which she doesn't. Besides which I have these two other children who keep expecting clean clothes and regular meals. I keep feeling really shaky, only to look at the clock and realize it's 2 pm and I've yet to eat a bite. But the clincher is I am coming down with my second illness in as many weeks.

My husband is confused by the entire issue. But I've seen how he works. He doesn't worry about pesky things like the dishes, or cleaning, so he just sits right down and eats at the same time as the kids. I hate getting up ten times while eating, so I usually just wait until they're done eating before I attempt to eat. I prefer to clean while they eat, because it doesn't matter if cleaning gets interrupted ten times. But I hate soggy cereal or lukewarm food. This worked fine before I had Baby C, but it just doesn't work now. Cue the shakes.

Right now though, Dh has taken the children away for a little trip to a yurt at the coast, so it's just me and the bambino. It more than makes up for his blase approach to cleaning!!

I'm a Winner! or, Why You Should Always Fill Out Those Surveys

A few months ago Random House sent me a couple of surveys. I get two of their newsletters, a general fiction one & one that showcases newly-published cookbooks. So they asked me what I thought of some changes they were considering making, yadda yadda yadda. They said, as thanks for completing this survey you will be entered in a sweepstakes to win a free tote bag & book of your choice. Then I had four choices of this book I could supposedly win.

Well imagine my surprise when Random House emailed me a couple weeks later and said I had won! Woo! There was no indication whether it was for the fiction survey or the cookbook survey, not that I could remember which free book I had opted for anyway. Two days ago I received a sturdy canvas tote bag with the Random House logo and this cookbook. I love winning, and I love free things. Let this be a lesson to us all. Haha

Halloween 2011

I didn't think my costume was that subtle, but no one guessed it. Who am I?