Coffee Talk Mom

God Bless working women!!

 

It has dawned on me MANY times throughout the years, but until a friend said to me this week, "I don't know how I did it when I worked full time!" it didn't really hit me what planning goes in to Christmas. Granted, we are ALL busy and "doing our thing"…working moms need a little uplifting this week! Personally, we are heading to Colorado Springs for 3 days and we may as well be going to New Zealand for a month! We have formalwear, suits, casual clothes, a dog, and so much more. All of this takes organization and, thank you Jesus, I had the time and energy after battling the stomach flu a week ago to get it all together. When you put in a day's work, the energy is gone and it is pure adrenaline that keeps those working mom's going. Just knowing that their families are depending on them to have wrapped gifts, clothes packed, dry cleaning done, haircuts (for potential grandparent sightings), concert clothing, final projects, notes to teachers, house decorated, menus planned, grocery shopping done and cookies baked keeps them, in some cases, up all night. If you know a working woman (kids or no kids), give them a big hug this week and tell them how much you appreciate what they do!

 

Whew…time for a nap!

 

Coffee Talk Mom

P.S. Buzz and I Christmas morning circa 2003

Tired, old decor!

It's that most wonderful time of the year when the decorations get pulled out of boxes and the dust goes flying after 11 months of storage. For many of us, there is an excitement to find the pieces from our past that have created so many wonderful memories throughout the years. At some point, we had 3 decorated Christmas trees throughout the house. The pressure was on when I married CT Dad because his mom Paula was legend in the Christmas decor department. She had a 2 sided tree: half was beautiful lace and crystals, and the other chili peppers and raffia. It was so cool to see the difference depending upon which room you were in. I have had an all-green tree, a silver and gold tree, fishing tree and more. I think in the midst of the challenge, I forgot about the dear old handmade ornaments that my kids had carefully crafted. I opted for the "wow" factor and those ended up back in storage.

The first empty nesting Christmas has changed all of that. I am proudly displaying any and all former class-project ornaments, Hallmark moving ornaments that the boys used to be so excited about, and even John Elway is making an appearance in the living room. I have always been one to want to add a twist on the usual, so this year I am jumping in to the burlap, twine and butcher paper trend. Now, you can chose what speaks to you, but I tend to see something I like in a magazine or shop and just try to emulate it for pennies on the dollar. You can get an endless supply of brown paper big enough to wrap a small pony for $20 on amazon and some twine to go with it for about $7. I found a burlap pillow for $14.99 at TJMaxx and incorporated things I already had to the decor. At a designer shop, I found a roll of burlap ribbon for $50, but I wasn't about to spend that. It was $9.99 for a very similar roll at TJMaxx. In the home decorator area, I found some burlap balls...not meant for Christmas and they look perfect on the tree and incorporate the "rustic" look. All in, I spent less than $75 to update my tired old look.

This time of year it's the little updates that make a big difference in your house. Set aside a few bucks and shop the after Christmas sales for next year!

May your days be merry and bright...Happy Christmas!

Coffee Talk Mom

P.s. Grandma Paula...if there are blogs in heaven, I hope you are happy to note that raffia is totally back in style and I am making every effort to keep the traditions going !

WORST JOB EVER

After 3 days stuck inside due to sub zero temps, my dog (Lexie) is driving me CrAZy!! She literally follows me everywhere anxiously anticipating any possible indication that I may be putting on shoes or opening the back door. This morning was -8 in Boulder, but I just could NOT deal with it any longer. I found a box with my wooly sweaters, drug out the skiing gloves and hat and with great trepidation put on the boots much to the utter JOY of the dog. Now, I know it is not good for their paws to be out for long, but I figured my mental health was just as important, so I grabbed the leash and off I went to what I was hoping was an empty park to let her run free. Let me say that originally I got her a dog tag (City of Boulder ordinance)…Well, come to find out that if you want her off the leash, it was a DIFFERENT color tag altogether. In October, I got the green tag and we were off to the races $$$.

I am, at this point, literally sprint walking (I am pretty sure I could win an Olympic berth) to the park as my face is starting to freeze and I can no longer feel my legs. There is NO ONE walking. The second I hit the corner of the park, I let her off the lease and she SPRINTS like she has just found heaven. She is going nowhere in particular, just feeling her legs again after days of laying around. Within about 3 minutes, I look up and guess what I see? THE DOG POLICE!! Seriously??? There is not a single soul in this huge park, and he is sitting in his DOG POLICE VAN , rolls down his window and says, "Maaaam…your dog needs to be on a leash"…CRAP! I SO wanted to say, "Shine on" and just start running to make him get out of his van. HAHA!! I reluctantly said, "She has a red tag, she has a green tag, what more does she need?"…"Maaaam…she can't be off leash…City of Boulder ordinance". Don't our city workers have better things to do? This must be the WORST JOB EVER! Cornering a yellow lab running in the park with no one in sight and threatening a citation! UGH!! Maybe they should put the van-man-citation-wielding-dog-police onto marijuana duty!

Back home, I took this pic of Lexie who dutifully retrieves the paper every day. Her face says, "But Mom…that wasn't a very good walk!!"…

Stay warm Coffee Talk Peeps and watch your dogs in Boulder!

 

Coffee Talk Mom