Dirty Dances and Kitchen Renovations

Dirty Dancing is on TV right now. JP has never seen it and he is not as caught up in the magic of "will she do the jump or won't she?" as I expected him to be. Or at least as I was when I saw this in my tween years and declared it the greatest movie ever. Who knew it was entirely premised on a dance partner getting a botched pre-Roe v. Wade abortion and not being able to dance at the neighboring resort. That went RIGHT over my head on my first 100 viewings. Apparently the magic of the finale went right over JP's head too. He needs to watch it again.

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So not having a kitchen is completely terrible.

I can't muster a single positive word about the situation, but I also feel like I can't complain because I have a lovely home and what is going to (SOMEDAY) be a beautiful kitchen. But OMG the interim is so so terrible. It's more terrible than Cora thinks of cake and snow and leaves combined. SO TERRIBLE.

Coming home at the end of the day makes me stressed and sad and dusty. I hate walking in the door with hungry kids and not knowing if the fridge will be accessible that day or not. I'm tired of paying to eat at restaurants when we'd rather be at home and very tired of judging myself when I check out at the grocery store with a stack of microwave meals. I'm tired of dust on everything and everything being everywhere; I'm staring at a turkey roaster on the TV stand while I type. There are currently no uncluttered surfaces of my house. It'll be worth it, but it's been 3.5 weeks and I feel like maybe having a wall between the living room and kitchen wasn't so bad after all. SO MUCH DUST AND SO MUCH CLUTTER. My heart rate actually increases when I walk in the door.

This is not my life.

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I finished my Christmas shopping today and I'm so excited about everything I picked out. I was very careful this year and thought a lot about my list of ideas (started via iPhone Note back in February) for each family member and kid and I even have a few things I'm really excited to give to JP and he is SO hard to shop for. I love gift giving- finding that perfect thing gives me more excitement than opening up anything for myself. One of JP's gifts involves fire and there is no one who likes making fire more than JP. He's going to love it and I'm totally going to regret giving it to him, but such is the cycle of perfect gift giving.

(A co-worker gifted Cora with a set of musical instruments for her birthday; I barely even notice the extra bit of chaos.)

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Cora got sick back in Steamboat and finally decided to be better yesterday. She became so quiet and sleepy and snuggly that I'd almost forgotten how happy-screamy and joyful she normally is. She woke up a little early this morning (a sure sign she was feeling better; she's been sleeping in like a teenager) and when I brought her back to my bed to cuddle she clawed at my face and screamed in my ear and clapped and crawled and basically had a party in my bed. There was a lot of joy contained in a tiny little body and though I was tired (I got sick on Tuesday night) it was lovely to see.

So thanks to Cora being sick and doctor appointments and being sent home from daycare and my throat swelling up all red and angry, I only worked one full day this week. It's been a long transition back from Thanksgiving with a lot of extra time spent in my construction site of a house. If not for the bonus Cora snuggles, I honestly would have rather been at work.

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We got home from Colorado to a sea of leaves in the front yard. After JP and the kids spent a few hours raking (Landon doesn't complain, but has noted that we are maybe the family in the world who makes our kids do yard work. Just noting.), they promptly destroyed all their work by leaping into it from a great height. Chores and giant Red Oak trees can be fun.

We even tried to recreate one of my favorite pictures from last year, but Cora has opinions now and hating leaves is one of them.

Leaves are the worst. And she didn't even have to rake them.

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I think I'm drinking more wine, but I can't tell because the plastic cup I'm using is so big that any amount I pour seems small in comparison.

Kitchen ETA is late next week. I'm afraid to hope, but I really can't wait to be able to show you the finished results. And make my Christmas cookies, drink out of a real wine glass, and never eat out again until midway through 2015. Seriously, can't wait.