A Woman of Action vs. A Woman of Stuff

It's been a big year for our little family.

We bought a house.  We bought stuff to fill the house.  We bought convenient, easy stuff to fill our bellies while we were busy moving the things we had bought for the house around the house. *head spins, stomach churns*

Long story short, this has left us fat, and with lots of bills.

We had guests in town for Thanksgiving, and in honor of their pending arrival we decided to take the plunge and finally buy one more mattress set, which would bring us up to such a total that we would have a bed in each bedroom, plus a futon downstairs, making lots of comfy space for our guests, current and future, to sleep.  (or sex it up.  but that's just a joke.  do not, under any circumstances, come to our house just to sex it up. please)  This is a very satisfying new development, and a pleasant coming-of-age for two formerly empty and nearly-empty bedrooms upstairs. 

Now, for the first time in my short-tenure as a homeowner, I can look around and be confident in the knowledge that we DO NOT NEED ANYTHING.  Sure, there may be a few wants here and there... but nothing is needed in the way that I needed that Expedit from Ikea to make the living room complete, or how we needed Shelly's loveseat to keep the recliners company in the study.  Those needs are even silly, as I often like to reflect upon Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs to remind myself that I'm really pretty lucky to be so content and sated that I find myself on the top of the pyramid, judging ('cuz it says morality, right?) the folks struggling down below.  There are televisions, networks, places to sit, tools with which to cook (and the food to be cooked as well)... all in all, relative comforts, and mostly well-utilized ones, abound.

So now that we're fully furnished with stuff, I have great great intentions of becoming a
WOMAN OF ACTION! 

What, you ask, is a woman of action?  Well. (as I pour myself a glass of wine, in order to tonight be a woman of slightly-less coordinated actions) 

I wanna DO stuff.  Remember that post where I was talking about how much sh*t I got done while the internet was inaccessible? 

Oh, Dr. Seuss... you had it SO right, man!  THE THINGS YOU CAN DO!  Here I am waiting for bread I baked (action!!) to cool, while typing my blog  (action!).  One of the lesser things in life indeed, but it's better than trolling Facebook, right?  Plus it's like I'm making my whole mental plan tangible... putting it out there for folks to, hopefully, hold me somewhat accountable to my intentions.  (ACTION!!!)

 Here's my list. 

1.  Lose weight.  Every little bit counts but 10-15 pounds would be ideal, and 25 lbs would be bitchin'
2.  Continue organizing the house - especially the craft room
3.  START SEWING!  (dependent on #2)
4. Potty train E-Unit
5.  De-pacify the E-Unit... (another blog, another time)
6.  Paint guest/office room and decorate in "City" theme as planned
7.  Monetize blog in slightly-less hardcore manner as the fabulous FlutieMcD (of course, only after committing to posting at least 3x a week and having super-awesome content) and revel in the idea of being able to fancy myself a "writer" - if even *just* (hahaha) a "Mommy Blogger"
8.  Get myself, the handsome husband, and my no-longer-flying-free 2+ year old out of the country for a vacation fit to remember forevah.  Germany/France?  Perhaps.  Club Med in el Caribe?  Maybe.  Just plain Florida with family?  Even that'd do.  Most ideal?  Western Ireland by car for 4 days, on the way to India.  (And then a train trip to visit friends and the ruins at Hampi while in India.  Oh Lordy, I can dream.)
9.  Um... have more babies?  Yeah, somewhere in there, that'd be pretty cool.  So yeah, have more babies.
10.  Raise aforementioned babies to be awesome little buggers like E-Unit

That's the problem with becoming a Woman of Action -  seem's that there's inherently some tangible, shoppable portion of the dream.  Me wanting to stop focusing on the material and get the proverbial shit done somehow translates to me wanting to TRAVEL.  Me wanting more children means there's definitely a deadline to those much-imagined travels.   I imagine my fitter, more-organized self unloading jauntily off of a plane with the hubba and toddler in tow, toward adventures and relaxation in new surrounds.  Super-skinny self?  Oh, that foxy BITCH!  She would be unloading in Lima, Peru, holding the hubba's hand and breathlessly carrying the child in a backpack up the Inca trail, into the clouds of Macchu Pichu...

Shit.  There is one more thing I need.   

E-Mac

Ahhh, my fellow Spampylandians, my apologies on there being no action here in Spampylandia.

While I've been virtually dormant, life has been literally bonkers for about the last three weeks.  The E-Unit and I are the proud new weekday watchers of a jolly little gibblet named E-Mac (or at least we'll call her that, in order to differentiate her from our own E-Unit.)  This new "acquisition" came about when E-Mac's mommy decided to go back to school.  E-Mac didn't like this much and decided that daycare was for the birds, and spent most of two days trying to get this message across to the daycare provider.  Unfortunately, this particular daycare provider did not speak E-Mac and instead, BOOTED HER OUT OF THE DAYCARE! (this is a rather sore subject, as often touched upon by my friend Aunt TT in her frank and heartwarming blog The Vampire, the Drama Queen, & Aunt TT)

As ri-damn-diculous as that whole "hey let's take a baby and reject her for doing what babies do" concept sounds, it provided us the opportunity to be backup daycare providers until that faroff day when E-Mac makes it to the top of a long waiting list for another daycare.  'Til then, we are quite tickled to have an extra little friend around, and I've been quite busy learning the ins and outs of this Unit's operating system.

Like...
How to make bottles (woah.... check it: I never used formula!  had no clue how to use it.  luckily instructions on the can are written in simple, zombie-suited language) and then best way to give kid said bottle.

And...
Getting new-to-me baby to nap in new-to-her house and crib, without sending new-to-her me into the loony bin with her apparently new-to-everyone screaming fits  (this has tremendously improved, btw!)

Really she's a darling little peach who, when happy, is the most content child I've seen since the first E-Unit rolled off the line in Aught Eight.  The adjustments have been more for myself in preparation for E-Mac's daily arrivals, and include going to bed at 9:30pm and waking up at just a smidge before 6am...  

You can imagine how that went the first couple of days...

But it's much better now...

But that's why I haven't written.