Plodding along

 Minnie spent part of her mini fall break organizing her bookshelves

Also going out for tacos

And, of course, enjoying swim practice.

Speaking of enjoying! I restocked out freezer cookie dough stash just in time for Harry to visit for the weekend

And! I am still delighting in the horror movie weather that greets me on my morning runs

Other things:

It is EXAM SEASON. My 250-person class has regular quizzes on the written content and 4 big writing assignments instead of exams. My 100-person class has traditional essay exams, and I spent the whole day on Friday reworking the midterm. My large class that I supervise has exams, too, and writing those (and their accompanying answer key) is basically a job in and of itself. I can finally say CHECK AND CHECK to exam creation season (and have TAs to grade them), which means...

CLASS PREP SEASON is right around the corner. It is essential for my sanity that I start each semester FULLY PREPPED and ready to go with all course content (sometimes I finish exam-writing mid-semester, especially if the course content has recently undergone a change) ready to be delivered. I CANNOT respond to student questions and concerns, grade stuff, meet with TAs, AND develop the course all at the same time. So, I make sure course development is out of the way. Course prep in advance is easier than developing content as you go because it is not really time-sensitive, and I can get to it on a feast/famine cycle if I need to. Content for lecture HAS TO BE READY each week for lecture, and I would be seriously stressed if I were writing it right before class, you know? Content for next semester's lectures? If I have to work really hard for a few weeks and then do other stuff for a few weeks and then get back to working really hard-- that's all OK.

Next semester, I have a large lecture rhetorical theory class and an asynchronous online reproductive justice class, neither of which I have taught in a hot second. I am gearing up (which means staring into space in my silent office and thinking about stuff).

The filthy carpet in here is really diving me crazy. See the color change that looks like a shadow? NOT A SHADOW. Just the traffic pattern. Gah. 

Oh, fall. **sighs dreamily**

 

Nostalgia season

 The kids we still have at home are all (ALL OF THEM!) old enough that when they have a day off and I do not, the world does not come to a screeching halt.  Ahhhhhh, what a feeling. 

UW state universities do not have fall breaks. **whomp whomp** for me and Harry. But! Our public K-12 schools in Madison DO have a fall break. It is yesterday and today. Cushy private college Jack had his break last week, and Ben works all the time no matter what. Which is how come he was in P-town, and I still had to go to the office, and Dorothy, Minnie, and Cooper just Lord of the Fliesded it up at home. AND THAT'S FINE. Good actually because it meant I only had to pack 6 lunches and 6 snack boxes FOR THE WHOLE WEEK (and two dance dinners, but who's counting?) (Me. I am counting).

she even gets her own snacks.

In the live version of this photo, Minnie is elbowing Ben out of the way.

IT IS FALL! Like, gloomy, chilly fall! I love it.

Fall is the season that makes me nostalgic for my childhood AND ALSO for the life I am living right now. I know I am not alone in this because of all the crappy AI videos about Halloween in the 1990s that start with a shot of a golden-lit, leaf-strewn colonial on a perfect suburban street in the rain. **chef's kiss**. Add in the smell of some idiot's driveway fire, and I am suddenly thinking of the scene in Blubber when the mean girls have to rake leaves, and when Anne Shirley waxes poetic about October, and when I took tiny Harry and Jack trick or treating in our brand new neighborhood with brand new baby Cooper in a banana suit.

Minnie and I are reading the Little House books at night and listening to Anne of Green Gables in the car on our afternoon drives-- peak nostalgia. I am already thinking ahead to Anne's early house of dreams on the beach and her perfect, kid-filled Ingleside.

Annabel barks at this witch for about 6 hours a day

fall micro-perfection

A good **terrible** fall spooky book

And! Fall is Lifetouch school picture season-- we only have THREE this year!

9th grade

8th grade

1st grade

Fall break for Jack, a new recipe, and more miscellany

Minnie was a clutch baking assistant this weekend. Jack came home for fall break (YAY! WE MISSED HIM SO MUCH), and she helped me make delicious pumpkin bars (we added chocolate chips) and also pumpkin muffins. She's the best. (They're both Jack's favorites).

In other food news, I made THIS minestrone, and we lurved it. We had it with tiny ham and swiss sanwiches because HyVee gave me 1.75 lbs of ham when I asked for just .75, and they Door Dashed me the ground beef they forgot to give me-- only first they door dashed me SOMEONE'S ELSE'S GROCERIES that we had to keep since they were going to give her brand new ones, and she ordered A LOT of Swiss cheese. And dijon mustard, BOTH PERFECT FOR OUR TOO MUCH HAM.
 

I think one of my goals for next week is to do a better job with groceries. It has been MONTHS since Ben and I had time to go shopping in person, and my slap-dash meal planning is stressful.  think part of the HyVee problem was my last-minute ordering. Bah humbug.

This woodpecker has spent all morning beating its ponty little beak against a rock (?) outside my window. I think the person next to me thinks I am tapping on something because there's no way she can see the bird from her window.

My main job in life according to Dorothy and Cooper is to mail their clothes that they're selling on Depop. Dorothy sold some White Fox sweats in 5 minutes. Because I paid $70 for them initially,  and she was only asking a mere SEVEN DOLLARS.  No wonder they sold quick. **eye roll** That shopping bag is full of mylar envelopes, each containing a single item of clothing. The kids text me a QR code with a note telling me what item of clothing it corresponds to, and the person at the PO scans the code and prints a label. I smack the label on the envelope and seal it up. AND THAT'S IT. Depop is pretty great.

I sweated literal BUCKETS at hot yoga and then came out of the studio to my Ugg slippers and was VERY annoyed at myself. 

Dorothy had a 9-hour dance intensive on Sunday, and I got Starbucks for her and our neighbor who is also on the team since I drove the first leg of the carpool. And! I also got myself a pumpkin spice latte, and you guys! IT WAS THE BEST PSL EVER. Not too sweet. Perfect temp. Ideal swirl of pumpkin spice, erm, spice. THE BEST. Plato's PLS. I took a selfie to commemorate.

Dorothy forgot her lunch, so I dropped it off with "everyone else's" Door Dash. Honestly, while I was packing her lunch, I rolled my eyes when she told me EVERYONE ELSE got takeout at these things. But maybe she was right. I texted her a photo, so I feel like she got the Door Dash experience anyway.

Annabel did her part to help Harry's new mattress find its shape. It boggles my mind when mattresses arrive in little rolled-up tubes and then get huge. I am a simple soul, what can I say?

Bedroom shuffle part one billion

Ah our cozy little Room of Requirement house. It continues to satisfy our needs at every stage of life. As I noted in my October goals post, we once again have a need for a bedroom shuffle. Some of you thought the scope of this project was ambitious for a single month, but we got SO MUCH DONE in a day that I think we might make it!

Clearly we need to paint this room because what the actual eff were we thinking oven choosing this color (called calypso) in the first place? (Cooper picked it when he was 6).

We have 2 new mattresses in here on the the beds from Cooper and Harry's previous room. The beds and mattresses that used to be in here are gone to a good home (for free!) thanks to the magic of Facebook Marketplace. Mattresses thanks to a Prime Day sale. Each college kid has a dresser, a bed, and an IKEA EXPEDIT  book shelf. We need to paint FOR SURE and empty out the closet so they have room for their college things when they come home. The wall next to Jack that is not pictured is a chalkboard wall (COOPER WAS SIX, OK?) and we will probably also paint that my god, but everyone still kinda likes it so maybe not.)

Cooper's room has one queen bed from our room and that's about it-- I like this room a lot-- it's very chill and quiet. Needs some stuff on the walls and maybe a chair next to the EXPEDIT shelf.

Which leaves our room, which is an unholy nightmare.

We are getting new carpet! Yay! And also taking everything off the walls and painting and rearranging stuff (duh) and likely adding chairs or a small loveseat. Soon because the whole thing sucks right now and is kind of stressful to live in.

Soooooo-- progress! yay! And lots more to do! boooooo!

Some random things:

sometimes you gotta take a snack on a walk

ben and I got to run together-- after sunrise!

putting her desk to good use

love this 

she went to a meeting with me at school, sat totally quietly the whole time and drew pictures in a tiny notebook. this is a first for me.

walking the dog before swim team practice

perfect mom hair for school

I took a selfie walking down the stairs at work because I have been walking down these stairs since 2003, and that's WILD

this tastes like a candle. it was free with my regular shipment.

 

New date night habit + calorie deficit update

 New thing: The moment Ben gets home from Peoria, we go out for a drink. ONE drink-- that's it. It's quick and easy and a perfect way to take a beat and catch up for less than an hour before we jump back in the the fray.

Conversations about who is taking Minnie to swim team or what homework Dorothy might have to be cajoled into doing after dance are much more entertaining AT A BAR with a beer or an old fashioned.

Even in a prolonged calorie deficit, I can have a drink or two, and not figuring out where to go based on what food they might have and how I can possibly wait until 8 pm to eat dinner when I am hungry by like 5:45 (lol) is lovely. It's like it just occurred to us tat we could go to a bar just for the dranks.

Speaking of calorie deficit! I actually have no idea if I have lost weight because I haven't weighed myself-- which is weird, I get it. But I can say that my clothes fit much better. 

Something that is really hard for me is treating the weekend like any other part of the week. I am TOTALLY the person who under eats all week, OVER eats on the weekend, and ends up at maintenance without enjoying being at maintenance. Sooooo, I have been trying REALLY HARD to not be that person and also to LIVE MY LIFE-- especially since we have been visiting the boys on the weekend, etc. I want to break out of the "starting Monday" mindset.

Things I love to eat right now:

Plain Chobani yogurt with 15g Purely Elizabeth chocolate chip cookie granola and a chopped up nectarine

Chobani Flip yogurt when I need something sweet

Tru Fru choc covered frozen strawberries 

Whole Foods deli turkey in Carb Balance wraps

Honey crisp apples

Roasted broccoli

Sweet potatoes

Cottage cheese with pears and cinnamon

Oatmeal with peanut butter mixed in

Egg whites and spinach with chicken sausage links on a whole wheat bagel

Built Puff bars

I am eating around 80 grams of protein a day (sometimes as many as 115-ish), 35-40 grams of fiber and less than 15 grams of saturated fat. Most of my fiber comes from fruits and veggies and beans and seeds, but the occaisional multigrain English muffin or wrap boosts me over the edge (I try to make sure I get 25 grams from fruits and veggies before I eat a Carb Balance wrap).

I am  still bakig, but it has really been working for me to make a quadruple batch of cookie dough and freeze the balls. I can pop cookies in the oven ANY TIME someone wants cookies, and I only have the huge (for me) temptation of a giant open bag of chocolate chips and a vat of cookie dough (I freaking love raw cookie dough like no other, health risks be damned) every couple of months. I am also WAY MORE LIKLEY to eat just one cookie fresh out of the oven (one of life's true pleasures) when I am only making a dozen or 18 of them-- when I make a huge batch it feels like I can eat and eat and eat and eat for some reason.

Speaking of moderation! I was craving candy corn and peanuts (IYKYK) so I bought some and ate exactly 8 pieces of each and haven't touched either one since. LOOK AT ME MODERATING!

The TL;DR is that I feel great and am eating delicious food and don;t have to buy new jeans. ALL WINS.

My Athleisure Life

 For years I tried to avoid athleisure in public, and then I started buying Lululemon pants. And now? I aspire to never getting dressed in hard pants again. Kidding. But not really. I think I will just waft from maxi dresses to leggings and sweaters forever. From Birkenstock season to Ugg season, with a brief stopover in cute sneakers season on the way. 

I have my eye on THESE pants, and then maybe I won't even have to get dressed for lecture?

But still. I have some questions for you.

1. Who makes the very BEST leggings?

2. What sports bras do you love? My current favorite is THIS ONE, but I am open to experimentation.

3. What's your go-to sneaker when you're wearing workout gear and not actually working out?

4. What do you wear on top? Who makes the BEST t-shirts?

5. Have you tried a Quince yoga set?

Can't wait to wear these sweats again

Forget dance! Studio pants are the best eating pants ever

Actua/ exercise clothes= not actual public clothes

I bought these 4-inch Align shorts on eBay and actually like the way they feel but could never wear them in public. They ride up like crazy and the google tells me that's a design flaw, not a me problem