Throwback Thursday Volume 1

 November 5, 2006

Baby Harry with Uggs in a Bumbo seat

TWENTY YEARS AGO. Omg.

We were all babies.

Wednesday Whines Volume Eleventy Billion

 

I had to put away my beloved ghost mugs, and now I am holiday mug-less.

Dorothy tells me this is silly because I can just get out my Christmas mugs, but this is what she wore to school on Monday, so...

Anyone have an darling turkey mugs they want to recommend? Should I be looking for a pilgrim's head I can sip my coffee out of for the next few weeks? Just bust out the Santa mugs and Spode already?

Tuesday Trends Vol 1

 To be clear. I know nothing of trends. I can only tell you what's trending with me this week. I have a couple things.

Trend #1: MASCARA. I have always been a fan of the fancy stuff, including primer. BUT THEN. Dorothy asked me to grab her a L'Oreal Telescopic tube from Target (my rule is that any makeup or skincare stuff she wants on the drugstore-level is a basic household necessity purchase that I will grab with our weekly order, but the pricey stuff we gotta talk about), and I threw one in the cart for myself, too.

IT IS AWESOME! The brush is teeny tiny, so I do not even need to use my Lancome primer-- every single lash gets coated.

I have started using that first and then applying a thick coat of BLUE MASCARA, and I am in LOVE.

Together, these two products cost less than either the primer or the mascara I was using before. Win/win! (Also that Sephora house brand mascara is great-- I also really like it in brown).

Trend #2: NOT IRONING and then trying to make it look cool. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.

The built-in slip of this dress is literally HANGING OUT below my wrinkled hem because THAT IS NOW WRINKLED THIS DRESS IS. Gah.

Mindset Monday Vol 1: A RESET

 I had the best day eating ALL OF THIE THINGS on Halloween. 

Actually, it started on the 30th when Ben and I had a dinner reservation at this new chain in our fancy mall that had CALORIE COUNTS on the menu, which I always HATE. I do not need to know that my SALAD is going to be ONE THOUSAND CALORIES, thank you. (I added chicken (+300) but also did not have dressing or cheese, so I don't know what the final tally was. Since dinner was going to be ridic, we also had spicy broccolini (330 cals), and I contented myself with just one Sicilian marg (240 cals).

The tl; dr is that if I want to spend $150+ on dinner out (AND I DO), it will not be at a chain restaurant and certainly not one with calorie counts on the gd menu.

Halloween, though, was glorious. I had two donuts from ym fave bakery after a downtown jog

And then there was candy. So much glorious candy.

All I ingested yesterday was donuts, beer, and candy. Plus half a piece of Costco pizza which made me feel so gross. I am not used to that kind of sodium content. And a tiny bottle of Fireball.

BUT (and this is where the mindset Monday comes in), Sunday, I got up and had my usual 170 grams of nonfat Greek yogurt with a handful of blueberries, a diced pear, and 15 grams of Purely Elizabeth chocolate chip cookie granola. I had a mid-morning snack of 1.4 cup of Cracklin Oat Bran (I freaking love that stuff). For lunch, I got some leftover Skinny Taste taco chicken chili out of the freezer and ate it with a delightful honey crisp apple. Dinner was chicken breast, SO MUCH roasted broccoli, and a baked potato with Franks hot sauce in it (nothing else-- it's actually pretty good). Plenty of calorie budget left for wine with The Diplomat after Minnie went to bed and grapes and a Kirkland granola bar for another snack. Just like that-- BACK ON TRACK.

I think I will keep my calorie deficit going through the end of this month because I eased up for a few weeks and ate a more comfortable maintenance. My clothes all fit way better except for my barrel jeans from last season that are still too tight. I'd like to wear them to Thanksgiving dinner, so we'll see how it goes.

How about a few ins and outs, since I feel like I want to stop doing this but also need to FINISH THE YEAR?

Halloween 
snaps:

October: What I Read + Snapshot Sunday Vol 1

 SO MANY BRAND NEW BOOKS. My Libby is overflowing. I have gotten SO GOOD at the library holds game that I actually cannot even READ IT ALL YOU GUYS. (Which actually makes me feel really anxious, so let's not discuss). (And then I feel stupid for letting the library make me anxious).

🎧📱📚🎉

Backlist gems (3)

📚Want to Know a Secret by Freida McFadden: This was silly.

🎧Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata: CBBC pick, and the length was **chef's kiss**

📱Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan: I love her. This is great.

Better than meh, but not much (4)

🎉📚This is not About Running by Mary Cain: Something about this story is fishy, you guys.

🎉📱Ungodly Rich by Katharine McGee: This was cute-ish. The central conceit (THEY ARE GREEK GODS) is basically the whole thing.

🎉📚Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay by Mary Lisa Gavenas: I liked this but there were some dry sports

🎉🎧People Like Us by Jason Mott: I liked this, but maybe I am the only person who did not love it.

Entertaining for sure (5)

🎉📚The Witch by Freida McFadden: Loved it.

🎉🎧Shippers by Katherine Center: Cute.

🎉🎧Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano: I will for sure watch this show.

🎉📚The Social Circle by Sophie Wan: This was SO compelling. There were times that I could not put it down.

🎉🎧Caller Unknown by Gillian McAllister: YES yes yes-- a thriller that was perfect for Ocober.

Excellent-- books of the year, maybe (4)

🎉🎧Good People by Patmeena Sabit: YOU GUYS. YOU GOTTA READ THIS.

🎉📱Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus: This is delightful and absurd and then actually heart warming-- plus her trademark sparkling dialogue.

🎉🎧Taipei Story by R. F. Kuang: This is wonderful. So much to think about in such a deceptively simple coming of age story.

🎉🎧Whale Harbor by Mary Beth Keene: This is tremendous, and I loved it. Maybe as good as her Ask Again, Yes which is one of m recent favorites.

🎉📚Switzy by Emma Cline: I love this author, and this one was pitch perfect. SO SAD and also funny and her trademark tension. An old man traveling to Switzerland because he has Alzheimer's and is ready to go-- gah-- it killed me.

Now onto the Snapshot Sunday portion of this post. HALLOWEEN in one photo:

5 on a Friday + a NaBlo plan

 I don't know if I can do NaBlo, you guys. I mean, it's not that my life isn't riveting enough to write about it every day (lol lol lol). It's that I am in WAY OVER MY HEAD here. 

Turns out that 5 kids is a whole freaking lot of kids. My god.

Here are a few things that made this week great:

Ghost buns (she drew the ghosts herself)

Spooky read from the new neighborhood LFL

Perfect fall weather

A Ben-is-home date a day earlier than usual this week

A downtown run

If I can keep it together for the whole month, here's the plan for 30 posts in 30 days ** gulp**:

📸 5 Snapshot Sunday (11/1, 11/8, 11/15, 11/22, 11/29)

🧠 5 Mindset Monday (11/2; 11/9; 11/16;11/23, 11/30)

🔥 4  TrendingTuesday (11/3; 11/10; 11/17; 11/24)

😩 4 Wednesday whines (11/4; 11/11; 11/18; 11/25)

📝 4 Throwback Thursday (11/5; 11/12; 11/19; 11/26)

✋4 Five on a Friday (11/6; 11/13; 11/20; 11/27)

🎤 4 Soap Box Saturday (11/7; 11/14; 11/21; 11/28)

Whiny Wednesday

 Oh THIS WEEK YOU GUYS.

I feel like I am barely treading water. Sooooo, I did not get up to run in the dark today and decided instead to grade a bit and then complain on the internet. Hoping to squeeze in a run before I go to campus after Dorothy gets on the bus when AT LEAST it will be light outside.

Good news: I am FNALLY implementing a closing ritual where I AT LEAST migrate undone tasks to my next day's to-do list. 

Bad news: SO MANY TASKS TO MIGRATE. Hashtag midterm season.

I got a haircut! I am hoping that in a year all of my old brown/orange ends will be gone, and I'll be very salt and pepper.

Minnie's COVID shot knocked her out.

The pediatrician was like oh good news Minnie, I have the flu mist, so you only need to get one shot, and then you can have raindrops in your nose for the other one. And Minnie was all well, I don't like things in my nose. The doctor was flabbergasted. But then Minnie came to her senses and was ultimately happy to have just one vaccine.

Look at us! We're twins!

        

I chaperoned a first grade field trip to a pumpkin patch last week that was BONKERS. The teacher was like here's your group. See you in 3 hours. Don't go in the corn maze. And that was it. The place was HUGE and full of elementary school groups and middle school groups and also the general public. Thankfully, there was a coffee truck.

Only one little girl in the group wanted to go down the huge slide, so we all waited for her at the bottom for 30 minutes (and the other 3 girls were losing their shit). Then they saw how much fun she was having, so they all wanted to try the slide. They stood in line FOREVER and waited their turn. When Minnie rode to the bottom, she burst into tears. She HATED IT. Oops.