Muddiest Point Monday

 When I planned my NaBloPoMo this year, I thought I would do Money Monday posts.

But! There are people who suddenly do not have food stamps to feed themselves and their kids, and there are tens of thousands of workers who are newly laid off in time for the holiday season, and my own university is making budget adjustments in the face of fewer federal dollars coming in-- and me complaining about money is just THE WRONG VIBE right now.

Sooooo I think I will just do some sort of alliterative something that's on my mind to start the weeks this month.

And right now? It is Wednesday. Wednesday is the day when the wheels fall off my mental health bus and I turn into someone I wouldn't want to be around.

I gotta figure out how to make Wednesdays easier and more fun.

I think the trouble starts in the early morning hours when I decide not to get up and exercise because I hate getting up in the dark and think I will be in a better mood on Wednesday night if I sleep later and exercise when the kids go to school. I think this might be a false story since I am tired AF at night anyway, and not having those extra 90 or so minutes in the morning makes me feel like I am scrambling to keep up all day.

After school is when the shit really hits the fan, though, because it is our second of three days to do the dance and dive run, and Minnie is sort of over it, which I understand. I am going to try leaving the house earlier to get the big kids so Minnie can play at the park across from their school for 10 or so minutes. See! I am a fun mom! I think she and I also need to listen to audio books in the car again. We listened to the entire Ramona series last year, and I think we will dive into Roald Dahl this year. Books FOR SURE make the car ride more fun, and we should have started listening again before now-- not sure how I forgot about that.

We usually do breakfast for dinner on Wednesday nights, and I see no reason to change this. Last week, I made these and these, and they were such a hit, I think I will do them again. Bonus! We had leftovers for breakfasts for a couple of days.

I also think I need to take a shower earlier in the evening-- maybe before I go pick up Dorothy and her friend at dance. That way I could actually have time to hang out with Jack for a bit?

Wednesday is really hard because when I am exhausted and ready to check out for the night, Cooper comes home from diving and makes (a big, messy) dinner. Then I go get Dorothy, and she eats dinner and also has homework, and it's already 9pm! But! Dorothy and Cooper are both gone for about 12 hours on Wednesdays, so I want them to be able to enjoy themselves for he tiny sliver of time they're home and actually awake, which means I need to not be a shrew, at the very least.

Maybe Jack and I need to watch a fun show every Wednesday night, and maybe I could find a tea I like or something like that to look forward to as a little closing Wednesday night ritual as we veg on the couch.

Another random thing: Ben is taking over lunches for Mondays and Fridays, and we usually do Tuesday lunches together. This is great because I used to do all the lunches (and activity dinners which we pack with lunches, and now we are looking at a more even split, which should help with general overwhelm.

Other thoughts for me? How can I make a long busy day more fun?

Costumes for school

And ToTing