Tackling life ...

I'm still rushing through my days hoping that I can get stop spinning this little hamster wheel and stop living from adrenalin rush to adrenalin rush. I have so much to do in the next 6 days it boggles my mind. However, to make me feel like I have accomplished something since last Tuesday (picture worthy or not) I will attempt to review the week's progress.
*Two ENT appointments made and kept for my 10 year old son. Thankfully the office is just a mile or so away from home.
*One drive to downtown Madrid to bring said son to have a CAT scan done of his sinus and nasal passages. (This took several hours last Friday and included bringing all the kids to my husband's work where he had Pizza Hut pizza waiting for us and then he took the rest of the kids out to do some shopping while my son and I were at the clinic for the scan.)
* With the help of my husband the boxes that hold the Christmas decorations have been removed from the living room and dining room. There is still too much clutter and the floors need to be swept and vacuumed but that is a chore for tomorrow. I spent a little time over at BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes but had to stop after looking at just a few posts. It was too depressing to look at these gorgeous homes with their decorations and the TOTAL LACK OF CLUTTER ANYWHERE that I started going into a funk. I would love to have even one little corner look half as good as some of these homes. Problem is that on top of always dealing with clutter, I lack the decorating gene. My sister has it. My sister-in-law(s) have it. My niece seems to have it too. I, however, just have a lot of stuff that I don't always know how to arrange in a pleasing and artful way. Now, don't get me wrong. I think I am a fairly good hostess and love to exercise "hospitality". If you come stay at my home you will be most welcome, and certainly be well fed. Sometimes I (and I think my husband too) wishes that our house could be a little more "put together".
*One entire Saturday morning (9:30 am till 2:30 pm) spent at the park while the two oldest have a special baseball game and pizza party before the Christmas break.
* One Entire Sunday spent away from home, leaving for church at 9:30 am and staying in town to grab lunch and then drive to the mountains north of Madrid to sing with the choir our first of two cantata concerts.... home around 10pm.
* Another trip to downtown Madrid (again with the kids in tow, picking up hubby to be our "taxi driver") to pick up the results of the CAT scan and return home to bring them to the ENT. (BTW, the scans showed nothing except some allergy related inflammation that we just need to treat with antihistamine).
* One trip with my 7 year old to the urgent care clinic to diagnose pink eye (conjunctivitis)
* several loads of laundry done ... including now a full change of bedsheets daily for the pink eye patient. Plus drops every 4 hours.
* Two days (of three) spent with the 7 year old at home from school due to the pink eye. Other than one quick trip to grab milk, bread and eggs at the grocery store, I have been rather home-bound, yet unable to wrap presents etc.
* A skeleton menu planned for this week and posted on the fridge, if not on the blog.

I will most likely be on bloggy hiatus until after Christmas (unless I need to escape for a bit and treat myself to a few minutes of writing) since I still have to finish shopping, wrapping, decorating the house, finish the school newspaper that needs to be run off and passed out to the students on Friday, plan for the teen Christmas party scheduled for the 29th at our home, and attend the kids' Christmas program at school Friday. I still plan to bake Christmas cookies and want to give out trays of assorted treats but will most likely do all that in the week between Christmas and New Year's. I gladly take advantage of the fact that here in Spain the holidays extend till January 6th (Kings Day) so no-one thinks you are tardy if you bring them a gift AFTER the 25th.