Amb-antics

What is it about Mondays that inspire moody blog posts? Dec 2nd was an exceptionally gray colorless Monday, with Sunday's snow only a quarter melted and refrozen underneath thick iron gray clouds. It was getting dark by 3pm under that gloomy sky. For my journal entry Monday night, I wrote a list of Amb-antics, or mischief Amber made that day:

Things Amber did today-- Monday, December 2, 2019

• She sat on the couch with a cup full of water and fed herself precarious spoonfuls of water with a long wooden spoon. Twice. I found her doing this two separate times.
• She climbed up on a stool and leaned into our wobbly Christmas tree in an attempt to reach my silver bell ornament hung on a high limb. Her efforts tipped the tree over. Thankfully she caught it and held it up while calling out "Mommy, can you please help me?" until I arrived on the scene. I couldn't get the blasted tree to stand unassisted so I leaned it against the wall. Jeff righted it in about five seconds when he got home later, for which I was equal parts grateful, relieved, and jealous/lame for not being able to do it myself.
• She "made potions" by filling cups with water and dipping markers in them to change the color of the water. Then she sampled the colorful potions with another pilfered wooden spoon.
• She watched the Nutcracker Ballet....but it wasn't quite riveting enough, hence the breaks for potion mixing.
• She filled the sponge by the kitchen sink with large squirts of hand soap so it frothed copiously all day every time I used it, no matter how many times I squeezed it out. 
• She wore a sparkly crown smashed on top of her frizzy curls all day. 
• She "practiced piano" as loudly as possible and set the egg timer to tick endlessly and maddeningly atop the piano after she finished her musical pounding. 
• She followed me around ringing a large jingle bell until I about lost my mind.
• She went to preschool. Blessed blissful 2 hours of quiet!
• She listened to every word I spoke while I was on the phone and interrogated me about it later.
• She jumped from armchair to my bed to the floor over and over until I chased her away.
• She said our family prayer while perched on Jeff's back and nearly fell off mid-prayer, then grabbed my arm and linked her elbow with mine to stay upright, all while praying.
• She attacked my head and neck with an alarmingly strong swift bear hug after family prayer.

When I was listing these events to Jeff this evening, they sounded much funnier and more interesting than they look now that I have written them down. Maybe I'm just tired from handling all of it. Other things I did today amidst all of the Amb-antics:

I braved the snow and ran four miles worth of driveway loops while Amber watched the Nutcracker. I did laundry. I changed the sheets. I talked to my top 3 on the phone (Mom, Em, Laurs). I swept the kitchen, not that it was noticeable by the end of the day. I swear our linoleum grows a fresh crop of crumbs and paper fragments the minute I sweep. It was a water-treading/gerbil ball/status quo/non-progress type of Monday. I did enjoy my phone calls though! And maybe tomorrow or next week or next month... or next year... or in ten years I'll look back at all of these Amb-antics and laugh.

 My snowy running path driveway.

Watching a filmed stage production of the Nutcracker, complete with live orchestra, audience clapping, and curtains. This was before she tipped over the Christmas tree.

Other pictures from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week:

 Opening the daily Christmas pouch--it has a Christmas-y scripture, a picture of Jesus, and a puzzle piece to our traditional Christmas countdown nativity puzzle. The kids rotate who gets to open the pouch, so they each get to open it every third day.

 Goodbye hug before they walk out to the bus stop at the end of our driveway. I love hugging one big kid under each arm every morning.

 Tuesday morning while I was getting Jay and Rose out the door to the bus, Amber resumed her wooden spoon and water feeding activity.

 Wednesday morning I told Amber if she wanted to play with water, she needed to get in the bathtub. She was fine with that! I can't resist taking pictures of a happy clean kid.

 Wednesday afternoon I went running during Amber's preschool time, escaping the dread driveway loops at last. It was still colorless, cold, and gray, but at least I didn't have to look at the same exact stretch of colorless, cold grayness for my entire run.

Wednesday night while waiting to leave for church activities, the girls had a beauty salon for their parents. They brushed Jeff's hair, on his head and on his back. Then Rose put a dozen tiny ponytails in Jeff's head-hair (not on his back, haha).

 Then they started in on me. Rose is getting pretty good at braiding. Amber wanted to add all of our bows, but settled for two when Rose explained that too many bows would mess up the braids.

Rose insisted on taking a picture of the back of my hairdo so she could show it to me.