MIL

I've been quiet the past few days. I haven't really had a lot to say. I've been doing a lot of thinking on my own. I've been very stressed lately and I can see it coming out in displays of impatience and irritation. So I've been trying to figure out what needs to change in my life so I can go back to being Little Ms. Happy Go Lucky. The sad thing is, I haven't seen her since...oh, about college or shortly thereafter. But I'm still trying to get us back together. For some girl on girl. Wanna watch?

Just kidding.

Anyway I've also been busy trying to get both my act and my house together for my mother-in-law, who is here now and staying all week. The Man has an annual trumpet day camp that he directs, which requires him to be away in the mornings for almost a week. Since I'm at work during that time, MIL is here to take care of SB. I don't really have a problem with my MIL, personally. I think she's really nice, she adores SB and does great with her. My issue is with having someone new in my house.

My house isn't large. It's about the size of an outhouse. So when it's just me and SB and my husband, we're kind of cramped. Add another person and we're practically on top of each other. It's not her fault- short of locking herself in the bathroom, there's really nowhere for her to go. It's just another body I'm not used to.

And as much as I want her to make herself at home, my house smelling like coffee (which neither my husband nor I drink) and random items placed on the kitchen counter just kind of make my house not my home for a while.

I actually feel sorry for her when she comes here to stay over. I don't cook much, and I can't really keep sweets in the house because my willpower is pretty much....well, nonexistent. So there's really nothing for her to eat when she comes over. While I'm perfectly happy eating pudding for breakfast, a bar for lunch and doing carryout for dinner, she's not quite as comfortable with my approach to nutrition.

So this time I was ready for her. I brought SB to Giant and spent the morning in the kitchen. So now we have a variety of fruits to choose from as well as stew (simmering in the crock pot right now making my house smell super yummy), 2 types of pasta primavera, with extra vegetables added, all sorts of sandwich stuff, spaghetti, cookies and some rice thing I slapped together. Plus I loaded up on frozen meals, chicken and vegetables. I commented out loud to no one in particular earlier on today that my goal was to not have to go to Giant for the rest of the week. My husband laughed at that.

My biggest challenge with the MIL here will be working out. The treadmill is in the same room as where MIL sleeps, so I don't think she'd appreciate me running at 4am about 2 feet from her head. It will even be a little bit of an issue to get to work early to work out because I will have nowhere to wake up and get ready.

So consider this fair warning- if you return to this blog, you will probably be succumbed to reading various rants and vents about dealing with my MIL staying here for a week while I try to maintain a normal life.