The Best Laid Plans

Somehow, it is already Wendesday. BB is working from home this week as his office is shut down for the holiday.

I was excited at first, thinking we'd be able to do some fun things, get some little projects done around the house, welcome my new range and microwave to their place in my kitchen...

And yet, here we are, on Wednesday, almost the middle of the day. BB will be home until Tuesday the 4th, as his company holiday for New Year will be observed the 2nd. One more week. Sigh...

He's spent the days since Christmas in the manual of the gift I purchased for him - an antique wood plane (did I mention that yesterday?), checking parts, learning how to use it, what each piece and part does.

He promised he'd be able to help out with basic things, in order that our free time could be that: FREE...so we could have special lunches, go for bike rides while it was still warm, do some shopping together, just be together...

So far, my mom came over to help me rearrange and clean my kitchen in preparation for the delivery and installation of our new range and microwave. Then, the store called to tell me that they are back-ordered and won't even be in Colorado until the 10th of January! BOO HOO! Alright, it's not as though my current appliances don't work. I can and am still cooking and baking. It was just the thought of having a brand-new shiny stove to cook on, a convection oven to bake in...sigh...

She was here most of the day yesterday and we cleaned out every cabinet and moved items around, making space for the large baking sheets I used to keep in drawer of my oven (my new one has a double oven and no drawer). It was fun, it was nice to chat and work side by side with someone so like me. The kids played, the baby is still fighting her ear infection and is now on a stronger antibiotic (which I don't like, but homeopathic things didn't work...) and was fretful and fussy and slept a lot.

BB did take her to the doctor so I could continue progress in the kitchen.

As a result, I have a dining room table full of all the wonderful collector's glasses that BB collected prior to our marriage. I do not like them. I do not want them. He wants to display them in our family room. We are, needless to say, at an impasse.

On top of that, I have some seasonal and canning things that need to find permanent homes in our basement storage room. I was able to fill a box of things to donate (read - NO GARAGE SALE).

I am hosting our family gathering for New Year's Day and have Christmas gift detritus everywhere.

I cannot vacuum for fear of vacuuming some stray Lego, but every time I get things tidied and up off the floor, Littlest One wakes up and needs comforting and soothing. I tried asking BB if he'd mind running the vacuum and organizing the kids' gifts a bit better (we're leaving them out to share with Uncle Designer and his friend on Saturday), and you'd have thought I'd have asked him to move Mt Kilimanjaro into my living room.

Needless to say, when he asked me this morning, in a snarky tone, if I was ever going to bake the cookies he likes or unpack his suitcase from last week, I about lost it. It is a good thing the kids were all awake and I'm trying hard to demonstrate healthy ways to express my anger and frustration, rather than automatically losing my temper and yelling...it was tough, and I still don't think he understands that right now, almost every countertop is holding some sort of dish, container, or pile of empty envelopes to be recycled (that he left there 2 days ago), and baking cookies is LOW on my list.

I've got to host a dozen people in just 3 days and have no clean laundry, need to dust and vacuum the main floor of the house, and iron the table linens at the very least.

That doesn't include the fact that I've GOT to get some menus planned out for the next months to get us back on track with our budget, as well as change all the bedding, and clean the rest of the house.

I'd like, at the very least, to have all the bedding changed, the laundry done, clothes ironed, kitchen cleaned, furniture dusted, floors cleaned, and some cookies baked.

Of course, I'd probably be much more productive if I logged off my laptop and got to work...