Thursday Thirteen: Things You Should Not Do in December

1. Have a baby.
   
2. Have baby #3.
   
3. Have baby #3 and two kids aged 3 and under.
   
4. Have baby #3 and two kids aged 3 and under and have your house on the market.
   
5. Have baby #3 and two kids aged 3 and under and have your house on the market and be ready to show said house with 15 minutes notice.
   
6. Have baby #3 be the baby who doesn't like her swing and won't sleep longer than 30 minutes without being held.
   
7. Plan on doing any kind of gift-giving if you have baby #3. You should have finished it in November, silly. Along with many other things.
   
8. Plan on remembering to actually send all the gifts you finally attained. Some gifts are still sitting in the house ready to ship with the boxes that you finally sent out on Dec 20th. Now they STILL won't get those gifts (the non-shipped ones) by Christmas.
   
9. Leave wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree with an almost 2-year-old boy in the house. They won't stay wrapped and they won't stay gifts.
   
10. Take a 3-year-old Christmas shopping and leave baby #3 home. Shopping with a 3-year-old takes three times as long. And somebody will need to be nursed sooner rather than later. Plus, said 3-year-old has discovered the "getting" involved in presents. She wants to give but she sure wants to get too.
    
11. Work 40 hours in three days two weeks before Christmas.
    
12. Plan on being supermom two weeks after baby #3 is born. The time for supermomming is past. You had nine months to be supermom. Now you're just frazzled, sleepless, frumpy postpartum Mom.
    
13. Forget the true meaning of Christmas and the *gulp* delight of being a mom. You've got to recognize that the baby whose birth we celebrate doesn't care how perfect the tree is, how many packages weren't shipped on time, how tasty the treats are, or how you got the perfect gift for someone. He understands that sometimes kids will be yelled at, tears will be shed, phone calls will be left un-made, laundry will pile up, and life will happen. The more we lean on Him, the more He loves and succors us.
    

Well, it took me until #13 to put a positive spin on this. I have had a hard day and a pretty negative attitude about it. As I was venting on my Thursday Thirteen, I realized I probably need to take a step back, cut myself some slack, and plan on starting fresh tomorrow (hopefully I can get some sleep - that usually helps with perspective...). The season is supposed to be a joyous one, and since the mom sets the tone of the house, I need to be an adult about this. So if you were to stop by my house tomorrow, you'd hear Christmas music blaring and see a smiling, although frumpy, mom who's pulling herself together!