I am having real trouble writing at the moment, I am not sure why. It could be that Christmas is approaching and I have done all my Christmas shopping (not to brag or anything … but I have) and so now I am just sitting here waiting for it all to start.

Of course, when I say just sitting here, that is my version of just sitting here, which involves things like walking up and down the lawn spreading fertilizer pellets because (at least according to The Daddy) our lawn is dying and/or being choked by weeds. It involves rearranging The Wictor’s bedroom, the TV room and clearing out all our closets. Updating my store even though hello! Christmas shopping season is over and did you hear there’s a recession on? So, not expecting a lot of impulse buys through January.

I have been on the go almost non-stop for months now and I’m not sure why, with things being more relaxed,  I can’t take a well-earned break. I am as capable of chilling out as anybody but I keep making busy work for myself. I think I feel if I just sit I might seize up and stop working or something.  Maybe my joints would rust.

Last night while The Daddy was cooking dinner I pulled a closet from one end of upstairs to the other, because he had been promising to help me for days and never found the right moment and I had a spare timeslot right then. There was nothing to hold onto on the darn thing so I had to kneel on the floor and pull 6 inches at a time by its little feet. That was a total workout of my biceps by the way, and next time I start up the Wii Fit and it throws me that snarky little line about how it hasn’t seen me for 70 days and I should really be working out every day, I will sneer “Wii Fit, you are an arrogant *&$%#! Do you really think you are the only workout on the planet? I don’t need you, I have my new friend closet!”

Busy, busy, busy. It’s all stuff which kind of needs doing, but the world won’t stop if I don’t. Today I even decided that my children lacked puzzle experience. It’s true, they do. I dislike and distrust puzzles, with their blotchy colors and weird shapes that you think should go one way and then they go totally the other way and upside down and usually not even on that side at all. But I also live in fear of my children failing some random IQ test somewhere down the line because it includes puzzles and they only know a puzzle as a random selection of colored bits of board which their mother throws back onto the shelf while swearing profusely. So, we got out all the boxes of bits and sat together peacefully for about 10 minutes, until The Wictor got jealous that I was helping his brother and sister and with one sweep of his little skinny arm swept the T-Bot’s 100 piece masterpiece onto the floor. At which point I gathered it all up and, swearing profusely, threw it back on the shelf.

Actually, I didn’t. But I really, really wanted to. Instead I made soothing noises and we slowly, painfully, stiched that sucker back together. And I believe I aged at least 3 years in the process. The instant that ordeal was over I was bouncing off again to organize my magazine collection.

But before I turn into the Energizer Bunny, I am making an effort to slow down. This afternoon we rented Prince Caspian on DVD and all sat and watched as a family, an experience as memorable for the kiddy comments as for the movie. And later, I managed to coax a few almost-in-focus photos out of my poor dying camera:

Baby Sister: “I saw the commercials for this! I saw the commercials! When do we get to the lion that talks?”

Mommy: “T-Bot, are you enjoying the movie?”

T-Bot: ” Yes Mommy!  …   Mommy? I need someone to give me a foot rub”

Mommy: (Amazed he even knows what a foot rub is) “Why?”

T-Bot: “Because my feet will like it Mommy. Very much. ”

Mommy: “Wictor, look at that funny mouse on TV!”

The Wictor: “I a big M&M! Eat me up! Yumyumyumyumyum!”