Some days, late in the afternoon, trying to separate work from home in your mind, you begin thinking about what else has to happen before the evening is over. Now a lot of people have their entire week planned by the time they go to bed on Sunday, but I'm not too good at that.

So I made the decision that tonight we would take it easy and begin decorating the house for Christmas. To avoid too much time in the kitchen we would have TV dinners. How much easier could it get? Right?

I picked up the girls and first stop was the dollar store. Does anyone else think that dollar stores have filled the void left by 5 and dimes? OK, I digress.

I forgot that I had stashed some "Santa" presents in the car and as soon as the door opened I made a quick scramble to hide them. The top thing on Annabel's list is a Barbie computer and that was what was in the car. This child has so much trouble reading English but could recognize that! Oh DEAR!!!

I hope by the time it is wrapped and under the tree it will be a surprise again!

We visited the dollar store and bought some things to decorate our mantle. Then back home to start the microwaving of the TV dinners. It just sounds so lazy and will probably keep me from winning "Mom of the Year".

Things were fine after the tough decision on who would eat what was made.

Only I was afraid that the dinner would not be enough, so I also prepared some microwaveable won ton soup.

We got so close to completing the meal with enough time to do something other than kiss the girls, say prayers, and turn off the lights!

Then of course it changed.

Annabel grabbed her bowl of soup from the top and it just poured down her leg.

I start trying to wipe it off of her but knew she had to take off her pants so she would not get burned.

That caused a discovery.

Annabel has been wearing her pajamas under her school uniform because she is so cold in the classroom. It was quite a surprise!

While I was cleaning up that mess, Annabel was patting Nina and announced that Nina had BUGS on her!

I am so ready for the first freeze!

By the time the dogs were de-fleaed, I was sure I had them. A quick shower and washing my clothes made me feel better.

So my extra time tonight got taken away and my posting is pretty limited and the mantle still isn't decorated.

During dinner tonight I also learned that Annabel had a pretty rough day. There was a substitute that was sure she was going to "fix" Annabel. She would not allow her to do what the teacher normally had her do and instead insisted that she write a full page out of a book in English. When Grace tried to explain, she was told that she wasn't asked. Eventually Annabel cried over all the stress. I wish they would let me know these things.

My annual review was to be this afternoon but got changed to Friday. This is one of the most stressful events I go through each year and now I get 2 extra days to worry about it!