Tidbits: week before Christmas edition

Note: When the school shooting first happened on Friday, I was feeling like I was in a fragile place, and could not let the reality of it sink in or it might be too much to bear. But now, after a few days, the reality is there, unable to be ignored, and it is beyond sad. I can still only carefully consider small pieces of it at a time, for the whole is too crushing. Lord, please comfort these families through their unthinkable pain. And please know that this week, I appreciate the regular tidbits about our family's life more than ever because of what happened...

- The kids are getting super excited that Christmas is so quickly approaching. We've got about 5 different countdowns going in the house, and this coming week is packed full of school parties, visits from long-distance friends, specials dinners, and the first of our family guests this coming weekend. We have finished shopping and wrapping and have started menu planning. Because I am not able to travel this Christmas, I am very fortunate that everyone is willing to come HERE. That also means that I'm getting ready to host 4 different family units over seven days. It will be tons of fun, as soon as I figure out what we're going to eat.

- Our 4 year old laptop is having monitor issues, which are apparently critical in nature. Right now we have our laptop hooked up to a spare monitor (all you other IT people have spare monitors in your closets, right?), so it's functioning as a desktop. Which is fine for now, but eventually we'll be looking for a new laptop. Which can be filed under "Expenses we weren't planning on in the near future."

- I am completely surprised how well potty training is going at this point (after 2 weeks). Luke is doing really really well....AT HOME. He's not having very many accidents (of either type) for the past several days. And most of the time, I've been able to convince him to wear EITHER pants OR underpants - don't push your luck on both. (Fair warning to all who are about to come and visit - I'm working on it, but I cannot promise a fully clothed two year old at any given moment). Our biggest hangup at the moment is that he will not use any other potty other than his small plastic one at home. He won't use our big one, even with a potty ring, he won't use the little (porcelain) potty at church, won't use the potty at a friends house, or heaven forbid...in a public place. So. For long outings we are still wearing diapers because we will be out somewhere and he will tell me he needs to go but won't go near the toilet. Then he tries to hold it (and does a pretty good job) but eventually has an accident. So that's where we are.

- After all the bunkbed drama on Black Friday, I'm embarrassed to say that we still gave our money to KMart in the end, because try as we might, we could not find another decent quality wooden bunk bed, even used, for the price ($160, if you are curious). The KMart one went on sale again, we tried ordering it online again (because our local store said they were out of stock and they weren't on sale in store), and crossed our fingers. It took almost a week, but finally we were able to go pick it up. It took literally ALL DAY yesterday to put it together, including taking down the other two beds and doing a thorough room cleaning. But Katy and David were really invested in the project, and they really and truly helped. They are SO excited about their new beds. And the best part is that we now have a big empty floor space that can house air mattresses for incoming guests (Christmas and new baby will bring quite a few), AND it is fully ready for either Luke's crib or toddler bed to sneak in there when we need him to move for his little sister. Behold!

This shot from last month gives an idea of the previous bed placement.

The kids gave me an update at one point: "Mom, only 52 screws left to put in and then it's DONE!"

Finished! And Katy slept until 8:15 this morning (the last possible moment that I can let her sleep and still be on time for school), so it must have been comfy!

Not too long before this is a reality (trying to put all 3 of them to bed in one place). There's room for Luke's bed where the pink chair is. And I've already heard several stories of broken bones from falling off of top bunks, so I'm on high supervision alert (and I moved the string of lights this morning after paranoid mommy-thoughts overnight).

- I'll end with this: random photo dump of face painting from kids' night at Skyline Chili.