Weekend, etc.

Friday family movie night is a THING for us, and we haven't screwed it up yet, and all of the kids ask about it and just expect it on Friday and YAY FOR US because consistency is NOT usually our thing.  So far, we have watched Power Rangers, Lego Ninjago, Beauty and the Beast, and this week RV, which I selected pretty much at random from a list of on-demand movies on Showtime and the kids LOVED it.  I also grabbed super greasy pizza on the way home from gymnastics and swung by the ball park to pick up 75% of the kids. They watched the movie with me until Ben and the other kid came home, and then I escaped to margaritas and gossip with a friend.  50/50, you guys.  And actually?  RV was their favorite movie so far.  Ha!  (It's also the only one I didn't pay for in some form, unless you count the monthly cable bill which I don't because I don't even like to THINK about the cable bill.)

 Harry finally chose his 6th grade band instrument.  Also, his band teacher sends a weekly email titled "band news" and I ALWAYS think it says "bad news" and get worried.

 Clothes in Cooper's closet or dresser that did not fit Cooper or meet his super strict how-shit-feels-on-his-body requirements. (I did not throw them away-- just stashed them in bags in the basement).  Also, any room I made by cleaning stuff out was made up for by the amount of stuff that Ben brought upstairs for Cooper from Jack's closet.  Yowza.

 POKER NIGHT!

 Oh my gosh, this was so cute.  I took the kids for donuts and called Beatrix and Harry up front to take a selfie on our way in, and they obliged.

 Beatrix was especially happy to come out with us which makes me think we should take her places more often.

 Except she was too nervous to stay in the car by herself, so Harry had to stand out with her.

 We celebrated a friend's 40th birthday at our favorite low key local brewery.  It was noon on the most gorgeous Sunday in the history of Sundays, and the place just opened, and our rowdy crew was the only crew there.  SO PERFECT.  Dorothy dressed for the occasion.

 Doing intermittent fasting and breaking fast with a beer for lunch is great, BTW.  I should write a diet book.

 We spent the whole Sunday outside, going straight from the party to Jack's last game of the fall season.  Ah, October's bright blue weather.

 FABULOUS.

 The kids and I played Spot It to pass the time.  I love that game.

 I have for sure created a monster.  Every morning after she gets dressed, Dorothy needs to pose for a picture.

Pod Tours America!

Last night we went to see Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It with my parents.

We had a total blast.  Both shows were just as smart and hilarious as they are in podcast form. We didn't even mind being up until 1 am (the second show didn't START until 10).  But oh my goodness am I tired today.

Dorothy really wanted to kick off the weekend by making cookies. So we did.

And now?  It's a weekend, filled with baseball and birthday parties and housework and hopefully sleeping in.  But first,  have a dinner date with a friend-- cannot wait!

The Full MOTY

You guys!!  

Not only did I make from-scratch buttermilk pancakes (not a totally on the regular school morning occurrence)

 But I FLIPPED them to the kids' plates.  Which was awesome.  Full MOTY.

 Dorothy found the blow card from her American Girl catalog and keeps it in her play kitchen as her mail.

 Also, she is hard to take a picture of.

 Which is why my Instagram is cluttered with Boomerang videos.

 WEDNESDAYS are TRYING TO KILL ME.  In particular, gymnastics is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge pain. Dorothy and Cooper are super squirrely, and it's right over the dinner hour and even if I feed them there, then I still have to feed Jack and Harry (one of whom always also has baseball) and myself, of course.  BAH.

 Ok.  I gotta go work on my class for next semester, which is going to be AWESOME AND AMAZING and I cannot wait to teach it!!

Shoe help for Coop-- WINTER IS COMING

I have been doing intermittent fasting all week, and I lost 1.3 pounds.  I am going to give it 3 more weeks just be thorough, but I feel like I am WAY TOO HUNGRY to have only lost 1.3 pounds.  But!  Also!  During my 8-hour eating window, I have most definitely been lying to My Fitness Pal, so there's that,  MAYBE I SHOULD JUST BUY BIGGER CLOTHES. Hashtag too old to get pregnant too old to lose weight.

Also between the black coffee and the hot lemon water, I am slightly worried about my teeth.  I just ordered some stainless steel straws from Amazon, so hopefully that'll help.  One of the obvious plus sides of not being pregnant or nursing is that I can bleach the shit out of my teeth, and I should have taken advantage of this sooner.

Also YES that is the second reference I have made to not having a baby, but the pregnancy I miscarried in March was supposed to yield a squishy little baby TODAY, so it's kind of on my mind.


It's still planet-dying-ly hot here, but these guys are making the most of their summer clothes and enjoying their before-school frolic time.

Speaking of school.  Can we pause to consider for one second how tightly Cooper requires me to tie his shoes?

What in the hell are we going to do when it snows and he has to wear boots outside and put shoes on inside?  We have tried Plae and Tsukihoshi but neither one is TIGHT.  This is actually common for many of the shoes made for kids with sensory issues because more of them seem to like their shoes loose.  NOT COOPER.  He has an IEP for speech-- maybe we can add something about shoes so he can wear Uggs to gym class?  And then we buy him 2 pair of Uggs-- one of gym and one for everywhere else?  This sounds expensive.  Also Uggs are not ideal gym shoes.  Thoughts?  He really will not/ cannot wear shoes that feel loose. It's not something he can just soldier through, either.  The way his shoes feel matters DEEPLY to him.  He has suggested that I come to school and tie his shoes so tight my fingers bleed (THIS HAS HAPPENED, the bleeding, not the going to school), but this is not too practical.  Ok.  I just ordered these while typing this paragraph.  A $14 solution would be beyond amazing. 

We went to open house at the elementary school, and it was a thousand times more adorable than I ever could have predicted,

This kid is just so PROUD of himself for being a kindergartener.

Cooper's classroom had a chart where you could sign up for items to donate. Cooper chose moon sand and wrote his name so sweetly on the big poster, that I knew I was going to have to remember to buy it.  So, I took out my phone and ordered it on Amazon RIGHT THERE IN THE ROOM. Bam!  Maybe the best use of my amazon app EVAR.  How's that for a multi-tasking pro-tip?

 Also Jack says I am his hero, so there's that.

Jack seems to be having a good year so far, and he really likes his teacher.  He is also excited to be in Harry's old 4th grade classroom.

 This is an I AM board in the cafeteria, and Jack contributed one of the cools.  Of course he did.

 Super cool origami art project:

 Here's Cooper's.  It was hard to get a lot of pictures of Cooper-- he's a quick one.

 Yesterday, Cooper and Jack were walking to school as Dorothy and I were leaving, and she screamed "BYE LOVEY" to Cooper.  I was like oh that's sweet that you call him that, and she said, "Cooper is my lovey.  When I am scared or sad, I want him, and that's what a lovey is.  He makes me feel better."  HOW CUTE IS THAT?!

 Harry aced a math test and a science project and did well on a social studies test-- his first time getting actual grades-- so I picked him up from cross country practice and took him to a new chocolate cafe that opened where out favorite bakery used to be.  WE APPROVE.  (Also, the lady behind the counter GAVE him the lollipop-- we only ordered the 2 candies and the coffee and the mousse.  WHY AREN'T I LOSING WEIGHT?)

 Dude.  You guys.  Dorothy told me that she "trasheded" her room, and she was sooooooo right.

Housework on my mind

I love, love, love loved Gemma Hartley's "Women Aren't Nags-- They're Just Fed Up" essay in Harper's Bazaar last week.  LOVED it.

I loved it so much that Ben and I talked about it on POTY, in fact.  You can listen on iTunes or on our podcast website.

(I sound kind of like a windbag when I try to talk about academic work on the same subject, but I just wanted to point out that this is a well-articulated conversation that lacks appropriate resolution.)

Speaking of being a feminist killjoy, my latest Madison Moms Blog post talks about how to be equal partners by dividing up the housework in painstaking, joy-sucking detail. (This refers to both the dividing and the essay).

Clearly, in the midst of a busier-than-usual back-to-school season, I have housework on the brain.  Also, I came home from work at 4:45 yesterday and did not sit down on the couch until 10pm, and during that window, I made tonight's dinner.  JUST SAYING.

Oh look, she's preparing for a lifetime of emotional labor and entrance to the public sphere predicated on Cinderella-like labor in the home.  How ADORABLE.

Weekend: A Review

If I were grading this weekend, I would give it a solid B.

Which, I mean, in Trump adjusted terms is pretty pretty good.

We had a Friday afternoon baseball game for Jack and could NOT get a good picture, even though we tried.

 Did I mention the game was late, and we had to hit Culvers at like 6:30 and that a certain someone goes to bed at 7 after a full day of school, lunch bunch, and gymnastics?

 We kicked off Saturday morning with some homemade waffles.

 And had kind of an alarming breakfast guest.

 Jack and I went grocery shopping-- one of my favorite things to do all week-- he is a stitch-- and then  sneaked away with an old friend who was in town for a hot minute.

 Next up: Ben running frantically around the house doing all of the things before going going out on the town with his high school friends (NOT PICTURED, either the running around or the out on the town).

Meanwhile, I took Cooper to a birthday party at the Children's Museum.

 And then we met Ben and the kids at Harry's baseball game, where Dorothy did a little poetry reading

 And stole my lipstick.

 And Cooper still had his Lego guy from the birthday party.

 The kids and I kept our family movie night streak going with Beauty and the Beast and make your own French bread pizza.

 And! I served apple coffee cake and tea for Sunday breakfast.  (Also fruit loops because kids).

And there you have it!

September: What I Read

Kid Book

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary:  This is like the Platonic ideal of a kid book.  Dorothy and Cooper were delighted with it.  We have a couple more on our list, but we plan to read Ellen Tebbits soon.

Work Books

Rhetoric Retold by Cheryl Glenn: If you want to find a place for women's voices when you talk about ancient Greek rhetoric, then you should read this.
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:  This will only take you a minute.  READ IT.
Feminism Is For Everybody by bell hooks:  THIS BOOK.  I am in love.  Worldview altering.  And that's me as a feminist.  If you aren't one, then I cannot even imagine how earth-shattering and paradigm-redefining it would be for you.  BUY THIS.

Fun Work Books

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Ann Helen Petersen:  An excellent read.  Each chapter is named for a celebrity who is too something-- HRC is too shrill, for example.  It's smart, entertaining, and galvanizing.
What Happened by Hillary Clinton:  Is say fun because I did read this for pleasure, not for the class I am teaching next semester, although I WILL also use this book in class.  But this book made me cry every time I picked it up and took the better part of the month to read.  You should read it.  But still.

Fun Books

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher:  Nope.
Difficult Women by Roxanne Gay:  LOVE.
Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong:  This was charming and sad and funny, a really good combo.
No One Is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts:  Such an engaging story of a family, and Ava is a GREAT character.
The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson: I am a sucker for this writer. If you haven't read her yet, I recommend her audiobooks-- she reads them herself, and she's lovely.  This is the first one I have read as opposed to listen to, and I could hear her voice.
Careers for Women by Joanna Scott:  READ THIS!!  It's completely brilliant.
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt:  About Lizzie Borden.  NEED I SAY MORE?

The BEST book this month was Henry Huggins, but What Happened was a close second.  You should read it, even if it makes you cry.  As usual, the media got it all wrong-- the book is NOT about blame and not about Bernie.  It IS about our country's determined march to authoritarianism.  Which might be less fun to talk about.