Reasons for not writing

I would love to have more time to read, write, take pictures, paint, create, dream, and cook (fun meals, not the everyday ones). But life is too busy lately and it's starting to bother me. I decided yesterday that I'm going to have all my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving. That's lofty, but if I want to really enjoy Christmas, that's what I'm going to have to do.

When did Halloween become such a huge event? Our neighborhood takes it to another level. We bought candy for 1,500 trick-or-treaters. This is what 1,500 pieces of candy looks like:

It was empty at the end of the night, but way too many of our little goblins were stealing from the candy jar. I'm sure it was closer to 1,200 which is what we usually have.

This weekend my parents were in town. That's always fun, but of course I end up just hanging out with them instead of getting things done.

Spencer guest played for another team this weekend for a tournament in Kentucky. That's where all our time went:  driving back and forth and watching the games.

Tucker climbs on everything. And he dumps out everything. And he walks out the front door when he wants to. This means that nothing gets done during Tucker's waking hours. Just this morning I went to get dressed and I came back to find him sitting on the table, pouring out money from Bo's bag that he collected for school. And he had knocked my laptop to the floor. And one of the tulip stems was broken. All in about 45 seconds.

Spencer turned nine yesterday! She's so special. Her heart is huge and she's got this enviable confidence. She's content with who God has made her to be and she's free to love others unconditionally. It's great to watch her grow up and I'm so thankful to be her mom.

I'm officially moving on to Christmas. Every year I've waited until, oh, December 10 to start my shopping. I've always felt like Christmas starts too early these days, let's enjoy Thanksgiving, don't get caught up in the materialism of the season. But it's backfired on me. I don't get to enjoy Advent because I'm stressed about getting things done. The focus on the coming of Jesus gets ignored. All the ornament making, cookie icing, house decorating gets pushed off because I'm running around like a crazy person. So the Thanksgiving deadline for shopping? Hold me to it.

So those are my excuses for not writing. Those are my excuses for not seeing my friends or stopping to make time for anyone outside my family. But it's going to change! I'm determined! December is going to be awesome this year.