Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2018 January

Starting the new year off right with all the Christmas decorations put away, a clean house, both cars washed and mine vacuumed and car seats clean (thanks to a road side vomit stop on our way home from Utah). John got a new Jeep, so it doesn’t need vacuuming yet. Kids got lots of time to play iPad but also went outside and did some jobs. The under stairs storage closet is all organized nicely. And I printed a 2018 things in 2018 decluttering chart and we filled in some stuff as we worked.

Tuesdays are always power days. I worked out, made a triple batch of peanut butter chocolate chip muffins, took Sienna to the beach, made real food for dinner, and took Sienna and Arthur to splash in puddles and throw pine cones in the river. We had baths and showers (always an accomplishment) and went to bed with the house tidy.

Between coughing and Arthur (who wakes up around 5, and sometimes also in the night) I got about five hours of sleep. Today Arthur and i were going to Disneyland while the kids were at school, which I’ve been planning for ten days. I packed my bag last night with lots of snacks, and got up and put my favorite clothes on. Then Sienna decided her “tummy hurts” and now I am sitting at home instead. Half an hour later Dalton called from school and asked me to bring his lunch box. So now I’m tired and grumpy and can’t even just sit here being tired and grumpy.

This afternoon, I got in the car to drive Dalton to Scouts only to find that my car key was missing. (I asked for a spare key for Christmas, but that’s neither here nor there, apparently.) We spent 45 minutes looking for it, during which I completely broke down over the crappiness of the day and the complete nothing I accomplished (tea party with Sienna was the only highlight). I also broke a bathroom drawer, and pieced together what happened: the front pocket of my purse was ripped, I had cleaned up a rubber band earlier, and there was an empty fruit snacks wrapper in the girls’ room. Someone had ripped open my zipped pocket, helped himself to fruit snacks, and lost my key.

I once found a Very Important Key as a clear answer to prayer - no other possible reason for the location I found it in, or the fact that I found it, or the fact that I hadn’t found it in the previous days I’d been looking. So I said a prayer, mostly because I didn’t want to disappoint Dalton. Who was probably more disappointed with my attitude than with missing Scouts. And lo and behold, Sienna found the key in the shape sorter, clearly put there by a toddler. We were only 35 minutes late to Scouts.

Me: Where are you going?
Arthur: Arthur’s room.
Walks into mom and dad’s room...

Yes, I’m obsessed with finding sea glass, and tide charts. I felt a bit guilty playing with today’s finds, as it’s 9pm and John isn’t home from work yet. But then I remembered that today I also worked out, took Arthur to the park, made a double batch of apple walnut muffins, did two loads of laundry, did two school pick ups, took the girls to gymnastics, picked up a Walmart order, and shopped at the dollar store. So I will call that good.

Sienna and I had a great hour and a half at Fisherman’s Cove in Laguna this afternoon. We found tons of sea glass, including a tiny red piece and a few little blue ones. Sienna usually stays far away from the water, but the tide was so far out, she was comfortable and soon started finding sea glass with me for the first time.

I climbed into the furthest cave, which usually requires wading through a foot or two of water, and if there’s no sand filling the bottom of the cave, it’s all under water. But today I was able to get in, and found lots of nice pieces in there. I carried Sienna in, but she was freaked out by the barnacles. Can’t say I blame her.