Top 10

We are constantly learning new things.  Sometimes we fight it, sometimes we welcome it.  Some lessons are worth sharing.   In the spirit of this, I will give you the top 10 things that I have learned this year.

10) Overstock.com is like Toys'R'Us for grown ups.  Only better.  And cheaper.  Overstock may rival Etsy as my resource for awesome.  But nothing really will ever surpass Etsy.

9) Nothing beats doing crafts with my kids.  The look of accomplishment on their sweet little faces is priceless.  The way they show projects off to anyone who comes over to visit...  However, being the perfectionist that I am, I find crafts with children one of the most stressful things I could do with my time.  I'm glad that I do it.  I know the girls will appreciate it later in life.  But it really is a pain in the ass.  I hate glitter.  I loathe dried glue on counter tops.  And in the end,  where in the heck am I supposed to put this crap that we've made?  When you get *beautiful handmade artwork* for christmas this year, you will know why.

8) The Nintendo Wii may be the best thing that I've purchased in many years.  It wins hands down in all categories.  Cost per use, ease of use, versatility... you name it.  And it's allegiance to Netflix, well, that was just genius.

7) Human lactation is perhaps the most amazing thing that humans can do.  The more I learn about it the more I am awed.  Not only can a woman grow a small human inside her own body, but she can then continue to grow that human giving it everything it can possibly need.  And perhaps more amazingly, she still wants to feed and nurture this creature after it's made its brutal way out of her body.  Just amazing.

6) Cougar Gold is the best thing to come out of Pullman, Wa.  Perhaps that's cheating.  I've known that for years.  It was just reinforced this year when my 2 year old decided that it's the best cheese ever.  

5) I start more projects than I can possibly finish.  Currently, my front porch floor is half stripped of 85 years of paint.  My guest room trim boards are half stripped of paint and stain.  The basement crap has been sorted, re-organized and abandoned multiple times over.  Truth is, home projects are my therapy.  Perhaps the fact that it's unfinished simply means that I found closure in what ever was troubling me...  perhaps.  Or maybe my arms were just too tired to finish and the fumes got a little too thick. 

4) My husband is a domestic God.

3) I'm pretty sure that my dogs cost me more money this year than my kids.  Yep, pretty sure.

2) Having both of my sisters live on the East Coast sucks.  A lot.

1) Kids are hard.  They make my heart burst. They make my blood boil.  Loving someone so much, even when they wake you up every day hours before your alarm... Teaching a person to be an independent thinker while in the same breath you are telling them to do what you tell them to do... it becomes so challenging that most days I think my head might explode!  But miraculously, it doesn't.