5 on a Friday: What's Saving My Life Right Now After a Stresful Health Week

YOU GUYS. I have been waiting on biposy results all week and freaking OUT under the surface. ALL IS WELL, though, and I am SO GRATEFUL,  I didn't tell the kids (obvi), and I have been trying to be col, but you all know THAT IS NOT MY STRONG SUIT. So. Anyway. A few things that help lately:

 1. This lavender balm for my cuticles and hands. My mom buys me this stuff, and I love it. It smells amazing, and I try to remember to put it on several times day-- sitting in the car waiting for kids, before class when I'm in my office, at night when I am watching TV. I keep tins everywhere.

2. Tiny schedule tweaks to make life easier. Sometimes these are things I am subbing in: takeout on Tuesday nights, for example. Door dashing food to Dorothy at dance on Mondays. Sometimes, these are things I am adding like 15 minutes mentally blocked off to set up my work bag or morning running gear. I have also added a ittle spot to my daily planner page for sketching out the next morning in minute detail so I know when I need to wake up, what order I need to exercise in, if I have time to have coffee first, etc. I am OK with a variety of ways to schedule my early morning routine, as long as I wake up with a plan-- otherwise I will just bed rot. In other instances, these tiny tweaks are things I am subtracting. This week, I decided I would not do couch to 10K because I am supposed to run for 67 minutes, and I don't know if I have time because Ben is in GA with Cooper for a dive meet W-S. So! 30-minute runs it is. 

3. The entire Anne collection on Audible. I finally had the courage to listen to Rainbow Valley and Rilla, even though I know WWI is coming, and, as a mom of war-aged boys, current foreign policy news is so terrifying. Listening while I grade is **chef's kiss**

4.  Pre-ordering the books I want to read. It is such a delight when I finish a Kindle read and see another brand new book in my library. And! Since my memory these days is hazy at best, I often don't remember when these new books are set to appear, so it very much feels like a gift to me from me.

5. Date nights. I have been scheduling fun into every week (lol lol lol scheduling fun), and a date night is SO EASY when we live with 2 (soon to be 3!!!) teens. All I have to do is open up Open Table and click. (Yes, I have gained 7 pounds and outgrown my Target junior barrel jeans-- why do you ask?) (Booked one as I was writing this post, in fact, to celebrate Ben's birthday a few days early because Dorothy is hosting a party at our house for her 13th on his actual birthday-- is there any better way to ring in 47 than with eight 13 y/o girls screaming in your basement? No way.)

Life Lately

 Are you even a parent if you don't stop for donuts on your way home from a date night?

This was a spicy charred poblano marg, and it was PERFECT

Ladies who lunch!

Fresh cuts!

Minnie did some home renovation projects

And leveled up at gymnastics

That's all I have today, guys. This semester! It is (already) feeling looooooong, and we are balanced on the precipice of our very busiest season, so if you need me, I will be in my office buried under thousands of pages.

FIGs Week 3

 The BEST part of this whole joy finding exercise is the realization that almost all of these FIGs are recurring things. It's not like I am choosing special once in awhile occurrences here. I COULD NOTICE JOY EVERY SINGLE DAY. Wild. Thanks, Elisabeth.

Here are my tangible moments of joy over the last week:

Minnie can read herself chapter books!

I have started havung my first cup of coffee ON THE YOGA MAT, guaranteeing I will do a quick 10-minute flow and lift weights before my run.

The convenience food you didn't even know you needed!

It took me several minutes to find Annabel the other morning

Prix fixe Vday dinner at a new favorite spot

Cooper wanted this weird squishy banana on our way to Hilton Head (at a Cracker Barrel) and we were like omfg no way are we going to deal with you swinging that thing around in the car and then he FOUND IT AT KOHLS and bought it with his Green Light moneys. 

I love Minnie's love of the library

SHE CAN FINALLY DO A CARTWHEEL after SIX MONTHS of gymnastics

And! Another Minnie Fig-- she said she loves when it's windy outside because the trees are dancing--- then she did her version of a tree dance

5 on a Friday: Some questions

1. How do people who run actual long distances find the time to do it??? We are doing a 5-mile race in April, so I have been working slooooowly through the Couch to 10K program, and this means that 3 days a week, I need to run for a little over an hour. IT IS SO HARD TO FIND THE TIME. This week, I fit it in on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays by running the hour between when Minnie goes to school and when I could drive Dorothy and Cooper to school. Last week, I did Monday, Saturday, Sunday, but that meant I had to get up early on the weekend because we had a bunch of stuff to do. Bah. I guess I will keep working it in where I can week to week. (The other 4 days, I do a quick 30-minute run, and this is way easier to schedule). How am I ever going to train for a half marathon if I never have time to RUN?

One excellent weather-provided tweak is that I have shifted some of my dog walking (we do 60 minutes a day minimum) to the after school hours, and Min scooters-- I could actually probably do a shorter jog this way, to...

2. Can you even believe I let Dorothy talk me into this footwear combo?

(I will say this outfit was DARLING without the jacket, but I was trying to squeeze in a pic before anyone else came into the bathroom, bovs).

3. Why oh why am I always taking cold showers?

THE CLOUD OF STEAM that emerged from the bathroom after Dorothy was NUTS you guys. I was sitting on Minnie's bed while she read to me right across the hall, and I GASPED.

4. Is anything cuter than. a kindergartener spending Vday cash at Target and dressing up like a 100 year-old for the 100th day of school??

5. Do you think Annabel wanted to come along?

 

now it's THURSDAYS that suck?

I have sworn off food crafts (FOR THE MOST PART), but I absolutely WILL NOT stop trying the hair crafts.

Every time I turn this corner on the path around the kids' school and see the sun coming up in front of me, I feel so HAPPY to be out running.

Trader Joe's $3 sheet masks are still my favorite ones in the world.

This is the much more orderly mic drawer in my other lecture hall, and I don't like it as much as the messy one, even though I am reliably loud enough thanks to its maintenance. 

HOW DID MINNIE GET THIS BIG???

YOU GUYS. I keep solving for problems, and then MOAR problems pop up. Like, I fixed Tuesdays by giving myself a buffer day between teaching days this semester. Then I realized that Wednesdays were THE LITERAL FREAKING WORST, so I started wearing clothes I love and treating myself to coffee (but not full caf because I did not need any more anxiety) and all the other excellent Wednesday reset ideas and now? I am just crabby and off my game on Thursday nights.

I think I am solving for the effects of a problem instead of the causes. SO. I am joining the YMCA so we can get priority registration for on-site after care next year. Minnie will likely be on the dance team (IT IS GOING TO BE SO CUTE YOU GUYS), so she will likely only go to care a couple hours a week (for six HUNDRED dollars a month), but I think those hours? WILL BE FREAKING AMAZING. Just to be able to stay 90 minutes or so later at work when Ben is OOT will be a game changer. 

Reminder: her school dismisses at TWO THIRTY Tues-Fri and at ONE TEN on Mondays. If she could just stay there until 3:30, that would be wildly helpful. After care is done by 6, so it won't help me on my late Monday-- but hopefully Ben will be able to be the pick up guy that day.

Because the PROBLEM is that I do not have time to do all of the stuff I need to do, and all the tea in bed and new release books and atleisure in the world will not change this. A few extra hours of childcare? Will.

(Leggings as pants, though, makes A LOT of things better)

Also I am going to institute a LEAVE ME THE EFF ALONE rule on Thursday nights lasting fro the minute Ben gets home until the last child goes to bed-- I think this will help too.

 

Week 2 FIGs

1. Cookie dough Built bars. THESE ARE SO DELICIOUS. I am always looking for something sweet to eat at the end of the lunch hour, and THESE ARE IT.

2. Last week's Cool Blogger Book Club homework. Look at these gorg Gilded Age mansions just a 10-minute walk from my office!

3. Sunrises.

4. Sunsets

5. More fave comfy clothes at work

6. Fave walking/running buddy 

7. I got my filthy car washed!!!! At one of those places where you just get out and they drive it through and like 6 people leap into action and vacuum everything. Which gave me plenty of time to look at the macaws. Which honestly really creep me out. BUT NOW MY CAR IS CLEAN on the outside and definitely clean-ish on the inside.

Bonus: this book is terrific, and I loved the narrator

Also, a cookie decorating kit from a local bakery-- Minnie got to frost cut-outs, and I did not have to bake them (but they were freshly baked, and the frosting was **chef's kiss**!)