Fiber maxxing

 Minnie and I running errands in our athleisure on Saturday. We went to our old Kroger (next to our current Target and our future IKEA) to get the stuff to make more cookie dough for the freezer and a roasted tomato pasta sauce.

Which? THE EASIEST WAY EVER to make pasta sauce. I just roughly chopped 2-ish pounds of tomatoes and one giant onion plus 6 garlic cloves, covered them in olive oil, vinegar, and Italian seasoning (plus fennel seed), cooked them at 400 for 40 minutes, and threw the whole pan in the blender with a handful of fresh basil.

We served it with rotini (I had whole wheat) and turkey sausage, plus an arugula and beet salad. The kids also had French bread and butter. Delish!

Other easy aback-to-school food wins? Cookie dough from the freezer, take and bake pizzas (Hyvee pizzas are fine, but the kids like Whole Foods the best), and Whole Foods prepared family meals-- sometimes all at once,

Cooper actually LLOVES the salmon, green beans, and sweet potato meal, and I like that all I have to do is put in in the oven, and we both also can eat it for lunch the next day. (only $30!!)

Please enjoy this photo of Minnie leaving school on the first day and just imagine my delight at seeing her like that. With a bag of laminated sight words her teacher asked me to cut out at home-- which is exactly the kind of work I love to do. Bonus-- Minnie got to read all the sight words (which she can, flawlessly. I hope she shows her teacher those skills. Last year, she acted really shy and was afraid to show her stuff, and her teacher was FLOORED at conferences when I asked Minnie to pick a rando book off the shelf and read it to me. Minnie scores really high on assessments but does not always perform at that level in the classroom...)

It's getting dark so early, you guys. We can barely make it to the park after dinner before the sun goes down. Also it is frog (toad?) season in our neighborhood, and they jump constantly over the sidewalk at might which is gross. Sometimes they land on my feet, and sometimes we step on them. It is very old testament plague-y.

Also! Minnie is staying up until 8, which really cuts into my couch time. Cooper is in bed before 10, but Dorothy stays up with me to take the dog out closer to 10:30-- she's the new Jack. SPEAKING OF JACK. YOU GUYS. HE IS PLEDGING HIS UNCLE JON'S FRATERNITY and just absolutely LOVING HIS LIFE in college. We get to see him this weekend, and I cannot even wait. 

He and Ben jog on campus-- how cute is that?

Annabel misses Dorothy so much you guys. Minnie and I coukd not find her anywhere the other afternoon on our way to pick Dorothy and Cooper up (TWO DIFFERENT SCHOOLS. TWO DIFFERENT DISMISSAL TIMES. WE ARE FIGURING IT OUT). She was definitely hiding:

I only have 9 weeks of a calorie deficit left to go!  This first week was fine. I stopped eating sweets, except for sometimes (depending on my saturated fat intake for the day) 2 pieces of dark chocolate. The only supremely shitty thing about that is that when I am done with my calorie deficit, I still need to watch my cholesterol, so I probably won't be adding regular  consumption of sweets back in even though I will be eating more overall.  I am an ice cream every day kind of lady, so that really does suck. Some swaps were easy-- skim milk instead of chocolate full fat Fairlife in my coffee, plain nonfat Greek yogurt instead of flavored Chobani, cheese as an occasional ingredient or add-on, not as a meal (lol this is a WI problem). I am also looking at the WEEK not each day, so next weekend, for example, we are going to Pekin, and I will FOR SURE be getting a cookie dough arctic swirl at my hometown ice cream shop. So, this means I will probably NOT be eating chocolate the other days of the week, and I will probably trim my overall calories from 1550 to closer to 1400 Monday-Thursday knowing there will be Cubs game food (going to Chicago "on the way" and Peoria food and just generally restaurant food (definitely harder to track).

If you need me, Il'l be here fiber maxxing.

Pop

 I know I am beating a dead horse here, but the dance placement thing (or, um, lack of dance placements, I guess) is making me foam at the mouth. All I want to do is PLAN MY AFTER SCHOOL life, and... I can't.

I have tried a million different ways to look at this as a positive, and... not finding them. Maybe it's another lesson in control what you can control? Dorothy is stressed about it from a what-team-am-I-on perspective, but we have been with this studio long enough t now that the season will be great no matter what-- I just want to get my carpool on.

The kids finally all went back to school, and I am not going to lie, I am relieved.

Do you love Minnie's bob? I definitely do!!

Before:

During:

After:

Annabel is bereft, but I am loving the quiet house-- might be worth the morning scramble and the terrible drives to and from campus, actually. So far life with 3 kids is incredibly easy, even by myself.

Our internet was out on the penultimate day of summer break (meaning NO TV!!) so we bought some coloring books because we had to delay pool plans while we waited on the internet guys.

A mouse(?) chewed through our fiber optic cable... somewhere? and they hooked up a new one.

The only concerning thing about that (because we have seen mice in the yard and on the school prairie recently) is that the other day when Ben and I came back from walking Annabel-- a walk during which we left the garage door open like IDIOTS-- a weasel you guys omfg was sauntering into the garage as we came up the driveway. DID A WEASEL WEASEL HIS WAY INTO OUR WALLS AND EAT OUR INTERNET?  

Ben and I only communicate with each other via weasel GIFs, BTW.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

 Actually? Wake me up after the second week of NOVEMBER if you don't mind because I am going to spend the next 10 weeks in a calorie deficit. Whomp whomp. And also! An LDL-reducing calorie deficit. How incredibly middle-aged am I?  I'M SO MIDDLE-AGED YOU GUYS.

See ya later grilled cheese. Boo hiss.

Other September things?

Use cuticle cream (I put it by my bathroom sink, even)

Bring back the much-maligned weighted vest (not to replace weight training, but to maybe make my walking more intense?)

Ease into a semester workflow that lets me stay on top of week-to-week course management and grading and also makes time for deeper thinking work.

Take a workout class somewhere doing something

Ease into our after school routine (dance does not start until 9/21-- still no team placements)

Adjust slowly to life with 3 kids instead of 5

Visit Pekin

Visit Jack at school

Visit Eau Claire

Celebrate Cooper turning 15 and take him to get his driver's permit and collect his online course certification form

I know people find diet talk either boring or triggering, but I will likely talk about it a little bit here because losing weight in middle age is a pain in the ass-- not as big of a pain in the ass as being sandwiched in the waybackseat, but close.

August: What I Read

Oh, August. I loved you in so many ways, but reading? Not one of them, despite my productivity in that space. I was underwhelmed by Jane Harper, Riley Sager, Kate Alice Marshall, Lisa Gardner, and Lisa Jewell this month.  But! I was proud of myself for scoring ALL OF THEM via the library! Sometimes on the DAY THEY CAME OUT EVEN. ALL ON LIBBY as either ebooks or audio reads. Talk about an old lady flex!

And. You guys. It pains me to say this, but I was also disappointed by my very favorite author in the entire world, Richard Russo. His new books was... not my favorite. I bought that one ahead of time so it would e on my Kindle the second it came into the world, and it just... was not the best.

(I have the new Liane Moriarty on my Kindle from Libby right now-- came to me ON PUB DAY you guys I am killing the library holds game.)

Here's the month in books from worst to best, with stats compiled at the end:

📱The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O'Clover: Why was I on the waitlist for this for so long?

📚🥳 Clutch by Emily Nemens: I wanted to like best friends dramZ book, but there was so much telling and so little showing. Or dialog. Many sentences that started with AND SO

🎧🥳Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashely Elston: I DNF'd this thriller on paper but then thought I'd try the audio book. It was... fine?

📱🥳The Unknown by Riley Sager: This is the second one of his scary books that I have NOT LIKED. 

🎧🥳The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall: Liked but did not love this thriller.

📱🥳The Last One Out by Jane Harper: She does such a good job of describing late stage capitalism and small scale social collapse and making the environment a sinister character. Lover her.

📚🥳Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register by Ann Larson: Listen, she is no Barbara Ehrenreich, but I liked this one and liked talking about it with NGS even more.

📚🥳The Divorce by Freida McFadden: Yep. No notes.

📚🥳Transcription by Ben Lerner: I like a book that I have to read slowly and think about. SOMETIMES.

🎧🥳It Could Have Been Her by Lisa Jewell: I have not been a fan of her last 2 books, but this one was good.

📱🥳Look What You Made Me Do by John Lancaster: Ooooh, you should read this one.

📚🥳Arrivals and Departures by Amanda Eyre Ward: This was charming and delightful-- I really like this author.

📱🥳Famesick by Lena Dunham: I have mixed feelings about this book, but it made it to the top-ish of the list in a meh reading month.

📱🥳Under the Falls by Richard Russo: This book! It featured some of his perfectly flawed people and some snatches of the dialog I love so much, but it was a weird plot for him, and the emotional parts just did not land for me. I wanted to love it though.

📚🥳Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta: This was quick and fun but also sad-- recommend. 

📱🥳Into the Blue by Emma Brodie: This was extremely long. I liked it, but imagine if it were like 150 pages shorter.

🎧🥳 You'll Be Sorry by Lisa Gardner: I liked this better than the Frankie Elkin series but not as well as the DD Warren books. But! I do really like her. Gardner, Slaughter, and Cornwall are my thriller faves. Plus Louise Penny.

🎧🥳The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter: YES I sure do love this Sara-Linton-free new series.

LAST DAY OF AUGUST!

 Why are we the only people who are still Very Into the pool??

New! Dance! Season! Energy! Dorothy had 10 hours of choreography for jazz company over the weekend, and she had a blast, as usual.

Ben's parents came to town, nd we celenrated Minnie's birthday one! more! time!

DOrothy missed out on Sassy COw grilled cheese, so she ate Clvers in the car on the way to dance.

We all sat in the WAY BACK, with Ben and his dad in front and Minnie and her grandma in the second row.

Unlimited milk at this place.

Seriously the best grilled cheese.

Right now, we are in lovely Eau Claire moving Harry into his JUNIOR YEAR on-campus apartment. He did not want to live off campus or in the 12-month campus apartment lease options because he has previously adored his summer pool manager job and wanted to be able to come home without worrying about a sublet. But that left weird housing options, so he is going to see how this year is shaping up and be more proactive about meeting future housing deadlines. He is very excited to have his own bedroom after a dicey roomie sitch in suites last year, and he is excited to have a kitchen to flex his new Costco membership.

The kids and I start our school year THIS WEEK, and that wonderful new season energy is buoying us all.

Up next: trims for Minnie and Dorothy (rescheduled because Jack's move in changed, so our long-held appt had to move, meaning they have two different appointment times. Minnie's is actually right before bedtime, so maybe she can just wear a shower cap and have a fresh blowout for the first day of first grade), the beginning of Coop's new dive club life, and a slow ramp up to the busy season-- that will last until JUNE.

Ben and I have big plans to put together an easy dinner rotation plan so we can have a smoother meal planning experience for this school year. Cooper, Dorothy, and Minnie all still eat like kids, so it's weird to have just the two of us to want real food. I see lots of dinner bowl options.

SPEAKING OF BOWLS. We haven't been eating leafy greens because of the whole screaming diarrhea thing-- that is not getting better but is being reported on less frequently. NGS suggested using green beans instead in salad, and we have really leaned into that for salads, adding beets, too. It's been wild to have mostly cooked veggies all summer long, but I think we are settling into a rhythm, and grilled veggies/ roasted veggies eaten cold in bowls will actually be delicious. I hope to get into an easy veggie prep routine a couple days a week. 

SPEAKING OF ROUTINES. I am kind of dreading our 4-8pms, especially as the weather turns. I am tryin g not live at the precipice of a slippery slope fallacy, so we are taking each day as it comes, instead of thinking about the mid-week slog stretching out from September to June. Ugh, I shuddered after typing that sentence.

Wrapping up Summer

We had a fun adventure yesterday searching for a shirt for Dorothy to wear on the first day of school.

 Earlier in the week, I took all3 kids to the mall, thinking Cooper and Dorothy could both find something at American Eagle, mostly because I am s sick of seeing Cooper in the plain brown Hollister t-shirt he wears almost every single day. 

Joke was on me, though, because American Eagle was closed for a remodel (!!!!). Dorothy looked at Aerie, Dicks, and H&M, plus Charlotte Russe and the juniors section at Von Maur and found NOTHING she liked. Neither kid liked Lucky, and Dorothy turned her nose up at Dry Goods, which I actually think is cute. My fault for going to the mall by our house and not the mall with Lulu a teeny bit further away.

Cooper eventually found a SINGLE PLAIN DARK GREEN T SHIRT are you kidding me at H&M, and Minnie got a set of donut earrings and a head band at Claire's. We even stopped at Target on the way home where Dorothy tried on every XXS item in the Wild Fable line with zero success (and increasing attitude).

Yesterday, she told me she wanted to check Free People (at the other mall), which was a total lightbulb moment because Madison has the whole Urban Outfitters Inc line-- Anthro, FP and UO. I had to buy donuts for my meetings today and I wanted to check out the parking accommodation I got for garage renovations (YAY!), so I suggested we try Urban Outfitters on campus. IT WAS PERFECT (and there is a Pitaya right by my office I think she would like and Free People is on the way home.

(UO is right next door to Potbelly-- score!)

We also ventured to the east side to try a new vegan donut shop that was a little disappointing (and did not yield donuts for the meeting because they charge FORTY DOLLARS a dozen).

Big kids! Also every dude on campus had llama hair and was wearing sweat shirts, a plain shirt, and Birks with socks, so way to have your finger on the pulse of bruh fashion, Cooper.

Success!!

Another pool night because OF COURSE. (The pool is open through 8/31, closed for T-F, and then open Sat-Mon the 7th before closing for the season **sob**)

How Dorothy does back-to-school

OMG. The girls helped me make 5 batches of cookie dough balls for the freezer.

Only I must have mixed up the proportions. I made a triple batch and a double bath at the same time, and I think I gave the double batch the triple's sugar and butter ad vice versa. Boo hiss.

First day of class!!

Minnie has been making makeup tutorial videos on her iPad. 

POOL DAYS FOREVER.

THE BEST running weather

Park nights

Annabel, preventing me from changing the sheets because how could I disturb her??