Busy as bees or beavers or something else alliterative...

Returning to work has made me pretty busy. Adjusting to the return to work, remembering how much I hate hate hate always having piles of grading needing my attention, getting over the grief of having to leave my boys every day, the boys adjusting to a whole new routine, learning how to get our whole family out the door by 7:15 am every day, and preparing for Christmas has left me feeling a tad overwhelmed.


Despite feeling somewhat smothered by work and home responsibilities, I make sure to find the time for the important things. Things like...

• Cutting down a Christmas tree with the boys.

(No, we are not stealing our tree, although we did not pay for it. We were rescuing it...from an old Christmas tree farm that was being plowed over to make way for a new subdivision. Seriously, the tractor doing the plowing over was even parked there and rows upon rows had already succumbed to its angry teeth. I like to think that our tree is the narrator of some classic Christmas story in which all it wants to do is bring christmas cheer to someone's home. And that home is ours.)

Baking an awesome truck cake to celebrate Jude's second birthday.

(Please note that the design of this cake is perfect for those with not so awesome cake making skills. I plan on finding other items I can creatively pile a big mess of cake into for future birthdays)

• Enjoying family dinners, or watching River enjoy them.
  

(Some of it does actually make it into his mouth, the rest must be absorbed through osmosis or something.)