Frazzled Fawndear

I’m a bit frazzled at the moment. However, frazzled is normal for me. I was thinking of adopting ‘Frazzled’ as a permanent intro to my name. Doesn’t Frazzled Fawndear have a realistic ring to it?

I bet you were wondering what the cause of my frazzle was this week. And even if you weren’t wondering, I’ll go ahead and tell you. I have two birthdays to get ready for. My Lea turns 9 tomorrow, and my husband turns 40 somethingish years old on Saturday. Picture me either standing around, like a deer frozen in headlights wondering what to do, or running around like a chicken with my head chopped off, trying to do who knows what at the last minute and you’ve got a pretty good mental picture of myself this week. Have you ever found (cheap but nice) presents? By the way, I don’t think they really exist. Usually all I can find is nice but cheaply built, but still attached to a moderate price tag. I’ve heard of people who luck into awesome deals and find remarkable gifts for next to nothing. I think I missed those deals when I skipped the after-Christmas sales in an effort to let our checking account recover.

Today I tackled preparations for Lea’s birthday. We normally don’t let our kids have birthday parties with friends except for big years for them like when they turn 5, 8, 10, 12, and 16, etc. Now before you think we are horrible parents. We still celebrate their birthdays with a family party, but hold off on the big, impress your neighbor’s with your creative theme skills, invite 15 wild and crazy kids(in addition to my own half dozen), have some really expensive themed goody bags, piñata’s and don’t forget the gi-normous Costco cake with it’s leftover’s for a week. So you would think I was off the hook for some outrageous party for Lea because she is turning 9. Wrong! We decided that since I’ve been homeschooling her this year that she needs all the peer time she can get. So the party is on. We made that decision Sunday morning and I’ve been scrambling ever since.

The trick comes around because we need to keep it healthy. Evo-man is starting phase II of his kid fitness program and parties with their regular food fair are not on the menu. So I’m making enough cupcakes out of a fat-free brownie mix for everyone to have just one. The regular ice cream will be replaced with frozen yogurt. And thanks to the Dollar Tree, I didn’t have to go into hawk for the goody bags.

Lea loves art and so we are having a fairy art party. Being insane, I always have a craft for the kids, so we are making flower fairies. I found all the supplies at the dollar store as well. We will also be playing Pictionary – kind of goes with the art theme. And Dad will pull out some of his magic tricks. However I don’t know how he will incorporate the magic with the theme of art and fairies. I just hope it doesn’t involve wearing tights. The magic tricks were a hit when we had a Harry Potter birthday party and a when we had a Lord of the Rings Birthday party he dressed up as Gandalf and that worked out perfect. We will have to wait and see on that one.

I still want to hit my un-clutter dream of this week of my back room. I’ve been keeping up on the 'more out than in,' rule, and the de-clutter some space everyday. Plus, I've added in some of the great comments made by my blogger friends like find a place for 10 things at the end of the day.

My amazing friend Kami came over yesterday and helped me find my front porch. I took the before picture after we had already removed a cooler, a couple boxes of trash and charity donations. So this is really the half-way there picture. It still looks bad.

However when we were finished I threw out a garbage bag of shoes, and had another bag of good shoes that I could donate. I got rid of the bench by taking it out to the back porch to collect clutter there. That will be a future project. Sooooo the only thing left on the front porch is the rugs and a bag of tulips to plant. Oh and some really pretty hanging planters. In a couple of months I’ll probably plant them full of fake plants because I kill every living plant I’ve ever had. I’m going to try to let nothing else stay on the front porch until I can find a cute little wrought-iron mini table and matching pair of chairs. I thought they would match the planters.

Then I could have something to sit on while sipping lemon flavored water and yelling at my kids to reminding them not to go so blazingly fast, while biking, skateboarding, or running down the hill in front of our home.

I even found time today to unload at the thrift store drop off. Yeah, now I can see out the back window of my tank-mobile again.

Anyway, this frazzled lady needs to get back to cleaning. It would be nice to have a birthday party in a home you won’t lose the kids in.