This has been the longest day of the longest week of the year 2016, says I, typing from behind the flailing T-Rex limbs of a teething (omg! 3 molars in 24 hours) and feverish Luke, perched unhappily on my lap. All 4 kids have been sick at some point this week and Dave was traveling the first half of it, so I’m done. There is a shiny bottle of silver anejo tequila perched atop the fridge and I’m eyeing up 5pm EST for kickoff. And linking up with Kelly.
So where was I?
1. For starters, this piece by my talented colleague Kevin Jones is fantastic. And provides a lot of meat in response to the (somewhat mystifying) question “what exactly was your beef with Obama all these years?” that my post-election post generated.
And that’s enough politics for the rest of the year, dontcha think? Oh, and totally not related to politics, but I’m going on week 3 of not checking Facebook comments or messages and it.is.awesome. Sorry that it makes me a little less accessible, but it’s so worth it for my family. (Feel free to email me anytime.)
2. Sometimes I rediscover/discover for the first time some music/artist that I’d previously overlooked or sort of assumed I knew about. Lately I’m jamming to my dad’s jams, and find myself listing to a Beatles/Fleetwood Mac station on Pandora. I’m listening to random Bruce Springsteen tracks on Youtube right now. (Which my younger siblings mock me for, bc apparently one does not use Youtube for listing to music, but Spotify. But I’m a tired old dog and setting up yet another account for something just makes me feel…tired-er.) Why not give this one a spin and kick off your weekend right?
3. I need new clothes, and it’s getting to a kind of desperate point, now that we’ve had our first snow. I’ve been pregnant and nursing for most of past 6 years, so now to be neither and to be down 21 official THM pounds means that nothing fits and that I don’t have a super strong sense of “style.” I’ve become accustomed to slinking into the fitting room at Old Navy with an armful of stuff from the clearance rack that is actually only there to begin with because it’s hideous, and then slinking back out again, defeated, when the hideous clothes looked hideous on. Where would you start if you were literally going to build an entire cold-weather wardrobe from scratch for not a ton of money? I’m thinking I should go to Loft or JCrew since I liked to shop there when I was single and thinner (oh, and working a full time job with no kids so $$$$), but I’m not sure they’re cool anymore. I know Anthropologie and Madewell are where the cool kids shop, but I’m not that skinny yet, and I’ll probably never be that rich.
Any Black Friday deals I should be peeping?
4. I am loving “the Crown.” I don’t love her husband. I have almost no love left in my heart for “Poldark,” at all. And “This is Us” is kinda take it or leave it. It found it super compelling the first couple episodes, but not so much now. What should I be watching while I fold laundry tonight?
5. I’m hosting a virtual Arbonne party Tuesday night so that I can buy myself some gluten free makeup at a great price. I’m not a huge fan of going to parties that sell you stuff, but I am a huge fan of Arbonne (and of my best friend Elizabeth, who sells it), and of sitting in my pajamas on my couch during said party, and so I’ll take the opportunity to get their stuff for a steal. Click the link to join the party: https://zoom.us/j/414329173. (Starts 7:30 pm MT/9:30 EST on Tuesday, November 22)
6. I’m planning to write up another summary of what I’ve been learning in CatholicPsych Institute’s “Catholic Mindfulness” course for next Monday. As a little teaser, I’ll just tell you that while Dave was traveling I didn’t into actual tears at any point during the hard times, which maybe sounds pathetic (and is not the point of the classes, for the record) but! generally I don’t do well solo parenting for multiple bedtimes in a row with 4 children. Plus, everyone woke up sick at some point in the week. But I was fine. I was tired and frustrated, of course, but I wasn’t like GIVE ME ALL THE WINE IN THE HOUSE I AM SO OVERWHELMED GET BACK IN BED every night.
Which was nice. This stuff really works, and it’s more effective than any of the many self help/pop psych books I’ve read over the years. I think Kelly, who is also taking the course, wrote a reflection along those lines a couple weeks back. That this was going to be sufficient in place of reading all the organizing/self care/de-stressing books, going forward.
I think I agree.
7. After answering (24 days. 23 days. 3.5 weeks) over and over again to a very eager soon-to-be Tae Kwon Do student hankering after his class start date, I sat down and made a simple calendar for the fridge for the months of November and December. Then I let Joey fill in all the important dates and feast days (and of course, Tae Kwon Do class nights) in the little squares, and now the best moment of his day is marking a big fat x on the finished day’s square and pointing out upcoming feast days or family birthdays.
Yesterday he pointed to St. Elizabeth of Hungary’s square and asked me to tell him about her. And I literally joked that she was always excited for dinner, just like him. So. I guess I need to do some remedial studying up on the saints. Thankfully, his school, which yesterday sent him home wearing a bejeweled paper crown in anticipation of Christ the King this weekend, is nailing it in my stead.
No Comments