All work and no play...

... makes me a crabby Mama.

I've been trying to get the house in order since my husband left last Monday (he deployed to Q@t@r for 4 months). I've also been trying to get the Christmas decorations set up. The Christmas stuff is coming along, but the house cleaning is going very slow. I just can't seem to get much done during the day because of the kids and after they go to bed I just never seem to accomplish as much as I want to. Each task seems to take much longer than I had planned. It's stressing me out!

I'm also bummed because it has become clear to me that I can't even come close to what I want to do with the Christmas decorations. My husband and I go all out for Christmas and each year we add to our decorations. Last year the house looked pretty darned good and we had even bigger plans for this year. But I just can't figure out his share of the work. He was in charge of putting the rope lights around the posts on the porch, and getting all the lights along the eaves of the house hooked up right. I'm afraid of ladders (not heights, just ladders) so I can't do the eaves, and I can't seem to figure out how he does the rope lights. I also gave up trying to put the lights up in the window because my suction cups kept popping off and I was getting too stressed. I remember it being a royal pita last year and I'm not willing to kill myself over it this year.

I just really want to make this Christmas awesome for my daughter. She is a total Daddy's girl and she really misses him. She is loving the decorations I've put up so far, and I really wanted to wow her with the lights and all. I guess she won't really know the difference if I don't get everything right. To her it will be wonderful and exciting.

I have to go chase my cat out of the Christmas tree. I was hoping this year would be easier since the tree isn't real, but alas it has not proven so yet. The little rat keeps climbing it just like it's the real thing!