Christmas Christmas Go Away

Christmas is basically gone for another year, and that is a good thing. Since I was never really into it anyway, I'm glad to see it packed up and put away. Clean slate for the new year. My son came into the family room yesterday after the Big Man moved the couch back in front of the window (where the tree was) and looks around saying, "Its back to normal!"
I had signed up for the Foyer Dinner Groups at church-its basically once a month a group gets together for dinner, and its like a small Christian community. However, I've realized that I would rather be with my boys than anyone else on the whole planet, and I don't want to NOT eat dinner with them. I enjoy us sitting around the table and sharing the meal with each other. Its not that I don't want to go out-believe me I do, and so much so that the Little Man has added going to a meeting to a list of things that people do. Its that thought that changed my perspective immediately. I need to be with my family and not out gallavanting. In order to make the world a better place, it needs to start at home.
I do love being involved with different groups, especially at church. For a very long time it was my social life. I was never a hang out at a bar type of person, I was more hang out at Bible study. I always seemed to volunteer for the grunt work as well, I could always be counted on to do things that no one else wanted to do-and I would do them well. I have to admit I am very frustrated right now with the youth group folks at church. I had been asked to help out with the curriculum since I've taught it before, but I feel like I am being stonewalled by the two youth leaders and that my help is not wanted/appreciated. So I think for my own sanity, I am going to step back a little bit and if my help is requested, I will be glad to do so, but otherwise, I am not part of it. I like my book group and I think that I will continue with it, because its good for me (and I get a lot of crocheting done). I enjoy St. Monnica's and its only once a month, so there isn't much of a commitment. Outreach I don't have to be there for the meeting, so I can help in other ways. Altar Guild is once a month, flowers will be a weekly commitment, but that's ok. No church today because I've got a bunch of stuff to do (including laundry)
In a little bit I'm going to give myself the spa treatment. Soak my feet and do a facial. Sneak in a massage maybe. Tweeze my eyebrows, do a manicure & pedicure (which I totally LOVE)make me look pretty. I know that some very sarcastic folks will tell me that it will take more than all that to make me look pretty, but they are unhappy with themselves and that's why they are so sarcastic and downright mean. Little Man is wanting to play Wii for a little bit, he has a hot wheels game that he loves, so I guess we get the playing out of the way for today. Do need to clean his room though=its a shambles, but I am assuming that is normal for a kid. I refuse to have him live in a shrine like I did growing up. I remember having toys taken away from me because they were too nice to play with by my grandmother...I have stuffed animals that are over 30 years old that look brand new because I wasn't allowed to play with them. Unlike the Velveteen Rabbit, they never became real because they weren't loved. But Little Man's toys are overly loved and his room is looking really bad. Disorganized room, disorganized life. We go back to school tomorrow and we need to get back into the hang of things pretty quickly. Just like I need to get back into the routine of things myself-packing lunches, doing homework, cleaning out backpacks, making sure laundry is done regularly (the last 2 weeks it was just making sure we had clean jammies! now we need clothes again)
Tomorrow is his teacher's half birthday (her actual birthday is in June, after school gets out) so I asked that the kids make her a card for tomorrow and I am making strawberry cupcakes to bring in as a treat. These are the things I love to do. I used to bake a lot more, but for a while I was feeling like I didn't do a good job at it, so I stopped. No apparent reason, just felt like I couldn't do it well, so I didn't do it anymore. But I do bake well, just as I do a lot of things well. I've realized that there are a lot more negative people out there who love to suck all the joy out of people's lives and I tend to attract them more than other people do. Its as if their mission in the world is to make other people as miserable as themselves.
I was watching a marathon of the 7 Deadly Sins on the History channel yesterday as I was working in my craft room. The whole psychic vampire thing (a recent theme on here it seems) was talked about under the sin of anger as well as sloth. It made perfect sense to me, that angry people want everyone else to feel as bad as they do and its almost demonic in how they try to accomplish this goal. Me, I'd rather be happy and enjoy my life than trying to come up with ways to make other people miserable. I swear, I know some people that must have that on their to do list every day. Get up, brush teeth, find ways to make everyone else suffer.
While I was watching my marathon yesterday, I did set up my album for 2010. I just went so far as putting the paper in the album and a list of what I want to scrap. Now I just need to keep up with it as the months go by. It was fun putting things together, and I felt INSPIRED about scrapping again. I haven't for a long time, mainly because it was another chore on my to-do list. I ordered the pictures from Christmas last night, and when I take my mother shopping today I will pick them up so I can start scrapping tomorrow :)
Now that the whole family is up, time to get the day on...