I woke up this morning much earlier than I had planned or wanted to.

I actually got out of bed this morning much later than I had planned or wanted to.

In between it all, I had a bad dream.

5YO's internal clock is just so set in stone since she started school. No matter what, she wakes up around 6:00 a.m. and her eyes start to get heavy around 8:00 p.m. It doesn't really matter where we are or what she's doing...she hits her wall and is OUT LIKE A LIGHT. I have pictures of her when she's little sleeping in the tile hallway against a wall, or in the middle of the living room floor that she just happened to be walking across when she decided she was done with her day.

Anyhow, so the past few days have had me busier than usual and up later too. We don't eat our Thanksgiving dinner early, so it wasn't necessary to get up and get the turkey going at the butt crack of dawn like so many other people across the country. But, like clockwork, 5YO had other plans. She wakes up early and HUNGRY. I try to put her off a little while to get a few extra Zzzzz's in, but she tends to be pretty persistent. And, once 5YO is awake, it's usually only a matter of minutes before 2YO is up too.

Sooooo, they are both up and I'm rolling away from them and begging for a couple of more minutes. They both scoot across the hall to their room and play for awhile. In the meantime, I fall back to sleep and have a rather odd dream.

In my dream, it was Thanksgiving morning. The girls were in to wake me up. Sound familiar? I thought so! So, they are doing everything to annoy me from poking and prodding me to going through my jewelry box. That part also seems strangley familiar to me. Next thing I know, I'm getting out of bed. Only, my floor is littered with the last load of clothes that was in the dryer, dirt, crumbs, and some stuff from my jewelry box. One thing in particular that bothered me was my 2nd favorite ring being amongst the wreckage. Once I located the ring, I realized that the stone was missing. Now, this is not really an expensive ring at all, but I think the stone is pretty and I wear it almost every single day. Aside from my wedding ring, it's the only ring I wear.

I dropped to the floor to look for the rest of my ring. I was sobbing out of frustration. How could these kids make such a mess? Who took the laundry out of the dryer without folding it right away? Why did they think they could just dig through my jewelry box and ruin things? After all, it was still Thanksgiving morning and I had a busy day ahead of me. First, I had to find the stone and sweep my floor. (Which was wood in my dreams, though my room is actually carpeted!)

I woke up about then and, started my day. The day actually ran a lot more smoothly than I'd thought. The kids were noisy, things took a bit longer than we'd hoped, the television blared and the men yelled over it.....it was PERFECT, as far as our Thanksgivings go! I've been wanting to fall asleep for hours now. I blame the turkey. Or, it could have been the pie. The pie was good.

For now, I'm finishing my peppermint tea and going to bed. I will not be shopping with all those brave/crazy/violent people in a few hours. I plan to sleep in, drink hot cocoa, listen to Christmas music, eat leftovers and decorate for Christmas.

I hope yours is a wonderful and successful Black Friday, whatever you choose to do.