A week of Madness.....

I"m in my living room watching Shakespeare in love, one of my favorite movies; the one with Gwyneth Paltrow in it. My girls are asleep and the house is quiet. My body aches, my head is spinning from all the things I have to do. I've made many lists, I've organized my recipe's, I'm doing my laundry, I'm drinking eggnog but I really wish I had some wine.
This week has been filled with family and activities. It started with my daughters 15th birthday party last Sunday. I cleaned all day Saturday, scrubbed the bathrooms, moped, swept, dusted, organized, went shopping, and then we headed out to my brothers to watch the Pacquio fight. I drank a little too much and woke up the next day with this huge head ache. I took some Advil and I managed to clean, shop, pick up the cake,  decorate and make fajitas and rice. The party was a great! She opened presents, ate fajitas, ate cake, and sang karaoke.  Then my sisters and I decided to plan thanksgiving. We had pen and paper and we made list's. We all talked at the same time, my sister Linda was the leader as usual, she wrote down what she was going to bring and what Leticia was going to bring. Everything was going on as usual until Linda said "Let's not make mash potatoes" For a minute, I didn't understand what she said and then my brain caught on and I looked at my niece for an answer. We looked at each other and then looked at Leticia for an answer and she said "No, well, wait, uh" and then I said to cover up my anxiety, very casually "well, I have to make potatoes for Emma" Then our good behavior went out the window and my niece and I shouted " How can we not have mashed potatoes?" But why, why had Linda said something so awful, and strange. Not but just a few moments ago, we had all been talking about our weight and how we need to lose weight, but can we forgo mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving? The answer is NO, sorry not gonna happen people.....This is my family for better or worse but no matter what we will eat our mashed potatoes. I then start to feel better about the situation and then.....my mother who is sitting watching us says pointing to me
"she makes them with lot of butter and miracle whip too" I feel guilty for a second and then I think "no mashed potatoes, nah, that's just plain crazy" We decide it's too much to do and we leave the list on the table to go sing karaoke. My sisters and I sing "What's love got to do with it" and some other song I can't remember now. We also sing I love Rock n Roll with my younger daughter. All in all Saturday and Sunday were busy but good days. I can't believe Sarah is 15 and I'm just so proud of her. She is my joy and my best friend.
Monday morning I remember that Leticia and I had planned to paint my kitchen. I wake up Monday late and Emma is still suffering from her cold she had on Saturday. She stays home from school and I make her soup and give her Robitussin. I go to pick up my sister and my niece and nephew. First we have to eat, I make french toast and pancakes and bacon. After we eat, we rummage through the garage and open cans, mix pain and decide to go to Home Depot. We bring an old paint color that we want to match. Our plan is to just buy another can of the same color. It takes us a minute to find an employee. I hand the can of pain to a young lady who seems to be in a not so good mood. I say to her, I'd like to match that color but in a cheaper paint. She looks annoyed and she points to where the cheap paint is as she says that the paint I have is Behr paint and it will be a different color. I tell her not to ring up the Behr paint yet. We look through the paint and decide on a buttermilk color. I decide to buy the buttermilk and I say hey, lets just use both cans and maybe it will be two different shades of cream in the kitchen. We get some tape, the cheap kind and pick up our cans and head to the self check out. I feel pretty good at this point. Then we get home and begin the process. We tape off the walls and take out the furniture and pour paint into pans. I bought the cheap pans so you have to be real careful with them. We decide on a buttermilk and cranberry as an edge. We are in the middle of painting up a storm and my mom walks in and looks at the cranberry and says no, no, the buttermilk is a good color but not the cranberry. We keep painting, we paint till we don't know what we're doing. It's like the painting monster got a hold of us and we just couldn't stop. My sister spends the night, we go to bed late and in the middle of the night. Sarah wakes me up cause she is sick. She sleeps in our bed and I sleep on the bottom of the bed, checking on her every minute. I've got two sick kids and my body hurts from all the standing, ladders and movement of painting the kitchen like a crazy woman.
I wake up the next day Tuesday morning and I look at the kitchen and it's like a dream. I can hear my mom saying cranberry was not a good color. I can see that some walls need another coat of cream. I decide to take out the cranberry and cover the wall white again. We begin to paint my sister helps me take care of Sarah so I can finish the kitchen. The kids have to go to church and Leticia has to run errands. They go home and while they are gone I make chicken soup and clean up the kitchen and then I begin to paint. When they come back I"ve started in a new color Terracotta. The painting monster takes a hold of all of us and we paint, and paint, climb ladders, tape, paint. I develop a pattern of spilling, dripping and painting a wall only to turn around and back up on the wall, thus getting paint all over myself. I'm worse than Steve Martin....we finally say that is enough and we all sit down and let the paint dry. The kitchen is a beautiful cream and terracotta color. We watch a movie and then head to bed.
I wake up Wednesday morning and take Emma to school, my sister goes home and I feel pretty good about the whole thing...until I take the tape off....it's okay the kitchen needs some touch up and I spent a couple of hours cleaning the floor today while my two year old nephew pointed to the floor and told me where to scrub.
Now I have to focus my attention on Thanksgiving. It's a big one this year. More family, more food and this year we are doing a talent show contest. Yes all this and a talent contest.....We're nuts, but it's fun! :)

Janie (I wonder what tomorrow holds...)