Peace

Enjoying the last 'quiet' solitary morning of the winter break. Boys headed out at around 7:30 for their last day of finals. H. actually doesn't have any finals today - the two classes scheduled today for him are PE and English and he's taken the final in those already, last week, I guess....so of course, he sees no reason to attend class today. But he went. 'Cuz I had no paperwork from the school indicating skipping the scheduled final period was OK. (and also 'cuz I wasn't ready to give up my last 'free' kid-free day for the next two weeks. I like my quiet, solitude while I piddle around the house and I wasn't willing to say yesterday was my last day of that. No, not by a long shot...so off he went). B's light was on when I got up to rouse H. out of bed - and I tapped on the door and checked on him. My 'did you get any sleep' was answered with '5 hours'. I went downstairs and fired up the espresso machine and made him a triple shot, sugar-free, fat-free mocha and took it up to him. He was really appreciative - even elicited an 'I love you, Mom' from him. He's studying like a maniac 'cuz today is his BIGGEST, most important final of all - math. His grade in that class is abysmal and only a miracle will raise it to an acceptable semester grade - failing that, he may not actually attend a 4 year school 'cuz a semester grade of what he's currently carrying in that class will not pass muster at Chico. Or Monterey. Or anywhere in the state school system, for that matter. So we'll see. He'll arrive home at around 1 and undoubtedly go to sleep for a bit. As he has every afternoon of these early release 'final schedule' days. And then he'll go to work.

It's warmer by 10 degrees this morning (though I just realized the temp has dropped a few degrees from when I got up to now, so we'll see). It's cold...for sure.

I have a lot of wrapping to do - and then, hopefully, a trip to the UPS store to get things shipped to out of state family....undoubtedly, some of those gifts will arrive post-Christmas but that's OK. It's not lack of thought, just lack of effort. That, and I've changed my mind on how to 'present' these gifts so many times. The dining room table is littered with my 'various ideas' and today, I need to 'pick one' and stick with it - kind of the same message I've been giving B. regarding the college decision. 'Just decide and stick with it', I told him yesterday. 'Once we know FOR SURE, then we can start to figure out what comes next. It's the unknown that's killing me, B.'. He seemed to 'get that'. Hopefully, I won't have a heart attack and die in the next week, otherwise, the kid will be scarred for life. But that IS the hugest part of the stress for me - the constant 'changing his mind', applying all over the place and not being sure any of them is where he actually wants to go. He's paid all the application fees from his money (thank goodness he's working) so I can't gripe about that. Once we know where he wants to go, we know - and can chart out what $$ is due when, and figure out where it's coming from. Then we'll know.

So, I will be hopefully doing the same today. Will we keep the 2nd artificial tree (a post on why we're on our 2nd artificial tree will be up in a day or so - it's an amusing tale, full of mirth and whimsy, a tale of a wife and a husband and the 'tradition' that is Christmas in our home)? Will Majah ever decide which [xxxxx] (I can't type the word or the family that reads this blog will know what they're getting for Christmas) to use? Will she make it to the UPS store before Christmas? All those things yet to be answered.

For now, I'm heading into the kitchen to make my 2nd latte - we're out of sugar free vanilla syrup and I've added a trip to Smart and Final to my list of errands today 'cuz I'm sort of really missing it. I'd use vanilla extract but did you know it's mainly alcohol? And while you'd have to use a lot of it to get buzzed from a latte, it can happen? Not that I'd know....well.....that's another story for another day. I don't use vanilla extract in my coffee anymore. 'Nuf said.