Weekly recap: 1/28/2019

Snow day!

Not for my husband- I still had to drive him to the train on seriously nasty unplowed roads- but my son is off today; I was already awake when the call came at 5:45 this morning. We got about another six inches or so of snow last night, and not only is it still coming down, it's supposed to keep falling until about noon. I'll send my son out to snowblow later on (he did the driveway yesterday, thank goodness, because there's zero way I could've).

So...you know that thing where you say something like, for example, "Hey, my back has been pretty good this week!" and then the bottom drops out? Yeah, I really need to stop that. That was me stupidly saying that sentence on Friday...and then Saturday happened. No bueno, friends, but I'm hanging in there.


Let's recap the week, shall we?


MONDAY

I did wake up with some nasty pain in both SI joints this day, even before I got out of bed (that's a heck of a way to start a week, isn't it?). I ran the dishwasher in the morning, and then it was off to the library, where we took my daughter to mini golf (my husband was off work).

A slightly unorthodox technique, but it gets the job done!

She had an absolute blast and had one of the librarians cracking up with how many strokes it took to finally finish each hole. We stayed and played at the library for a while afterwards.

At home, I unloaded the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, and started a batch of beans in the Instant Pot. During naptime, I started to read my library book, but then my son came downstairs and asked if we could go back to the library, since he'd already finished the book he'd checked out! I never refuse a trip to pick out more books, so I drove over there and he ran in, grabbed a stack of four more books, and we drove back home. 

I made a batch of delicious sweet potato and black bean chili (my own recipe that I just kind of make up as I go along), baked a batch of Vegan Corn Muffins, then threw together a double batch of Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (using some frozen pumpkin I had in the freezer in place of the applesauce)  and set the dough to chill in the fridge. I ran the dishwasher again, and after my shower, I baked the cookies and unloaded the dishwasher. I actually did my PT exercises on this night, read a little of my library book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Supernatural before bed.

TUESDAY 

Back to the grind! I drove everyone to where they needed to be. We usually hit the road at about 6:15-6:20. YAWN. At home, I took down the laundry hanging on the racks and delivered it to my son's room, and then it was time to overhaul my daughter's room. 

I can't even explain how much better this is for everyone.

The majority of the clean-out took about two hours. I tossed the compost outside into the compost bin, and then I read aloud to my daughter while she played quietly (we're still slowly making our way through Sense and Sensibility. I used to read to grown-up books to my son all the time when he was little, but I haven't been able to do that as much with my daughter. Now that her room is calmer, she seems a little more amenable to it, which is nice).

I tidied the kitchen during naptime, then started a batch of Rice Cooker Vegan Lentil Bolognese. It's not my favorite recipe, but I'd done two hours of heavy lifting and carrying stuff down two sets of stairs (we live in a split-level), so this was good enough. I had been planning on trying some yoga, but my hip hurt enough that I figured I'd better leave it alone and read my library book and dozed a little instead. 

I read to my daughter more when she woke up, then hung out in her room with both kids (now that her room isn't so crowded with toys, my son has been coming to hang out with us in the afternoons, which is a super big treat for both me and my daughter. She absolutely adores her big brother and is so thrilled when he plays with her, it's really cute). I put the noodles on to boil, leaving my son in charge of them, and then my daughter and I headed off to pick up Papa.

My husband and I played with my daughter in her room (he was super impressed by it!), and after she went to bed, I read my library book. My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed ourselves.

WEDNESDAY

I drove everyone to where they needed to be, and after breakfast, I bowled with my daughter in her room. She'd received a bowling set for her birthday last year, but she'd only used it once or twice. We had a fantastic time and bowled for a good 30 minutes! Afterwards, I started a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot, then my daughter helped me add the ingredients for a batch of Lazy Dave's $5-bread-machine Turkey-flavored Seitan. I love seitan, but this was a new recipe for me. I took out the recycling and compost, then read to my daughter as she played Play-Doh at the table in her room (something she's never been able to do before, since the table was covered in toys she never played with). We cleaned up, and when we came downstairs, the bread machine was...smoking? I *think* some debris got onto the heating element. The dough was perfectly fine, so I unplugged the machine and removed the dough, covering it in foil and steaming it on the stovetop (which is the usual way of cooking seitan, and it worked out perfectly fine). I cleaned out the bottom of the machine once it cooled, and I'll test it out again this week, closely supervised, of course. If it works, great! If it's smoky, out the door it goes, and we'll find a new one at the thrift store.

During nap time, I made a batch of white bean gravy and a batch of skillet potatoes and green beans to go with our seitan. I swept and mopped the living room, then filled and ran the dishwasher before reading my library book. Once my daughter woke up, it was time to bowl with both kids. 

Almost 12 years between them, but they can still have a fun time together!

My daughter and I went to the library, where we read and played until my husband met us there. Everyone loved the seitan at dinner- there was none left over!- to the point where my husband has been looking at 50lb bags of vital wheat gluten on Amazon. I emptied the dishwasher, put away the leftovers we did have, reloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned up the kitchen. My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.

THURSDAY

I drove everyone to where they needed to be, and after getting ready for the day, my daughter and I hit the grocery stores. Next week is supposed to be brutal- the forecast is for a high of -18F- and we're not leaving the house other than to *maybe* drive my husband to the train if he decides to go in (his boss already said not to worry about it, so we'll see. The odds are that my son's school will be called off, because that -18 doesn't even begin to factor in windchill). I'm not planning on shopping at all next week, and maybe only the absolute necessities the week after that. We're good on food for a while. :) 

At home, I put everything away, including in the garage freezer. At naptime, I felt kind of awful and tried to nap myself, only to be jarred from sleep almost immediately by my jerk of a cat.

He's lucky he's cute. And warm. And cuddly. GRRRR.

I wound up with a massive headache the rest of the day. UGH.

For dinner, I made a batch of Broccoli Cheese and Potato Soup. Now, look at that recipe. Serves 8 people. 

Sure. If those 8 people are having a thimblefull of soup each.

I took the compost and recycling outside and ran the dishwasher, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that amount of soup wasn't going to be enough for three adult-sized people and one soup-loving preschooler. I started the ingredients for a second batch and realized that I was going to quickly run out of potatoes over the next few weeks. Add to that my realization that I'd forgotten baking spray (my reusable oil sprayer DIED on me this week!), and I came to terms with the fact that we were going to need to run back to Aldi, and we did just that after naptime. I almost never have to make extra trips, but again, it's brutally cold here and is going to get worse, so I'm not making ANY trips next week! We picked up spray, potatoes, and an extra gallon of milk, just to be sure.

At home, I got the rest of the soup ready, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned the kitchen. We picked up my husband when it was time, and the soup was FABULOUS. Highly recommended (plus I found a use for all those bags of frozen broccoli! I used to throw them in quiche, but I'm not a huge fan of this. This soup is so, so much better). I finished a library book and then went to bed early, my head still pounding.

FRIDAY

BRRRRR. 

HUGELY cold morning. I drove everyone where they needed to be, scooped the litterbox, and then I tossed my daughter in the bathtub on her request, wiping down the sink and the toilet while she was in there. After her bath, she requested to weed out some of her food toys (less really is more, and she's so happy with her room that she's actually taking ownership of having fewer items. I'm seriously impressed with all of this; I can't believe the difference this has made), so we did, sorting everything out into batches and choosing certain items (extras, stuff she didn't play with) to go into a bag that will go in the basement with her other toys. The end result was a lot more space in the two drawers where she keeps her toy food and dishes. Fewer choices to get frustrated over, fewer things to clean up. Everyone wins. 

During naptime, I huddled under a blanket and read. I also tried to nap, but it didn't really work; I'm not sure what's up with me and sleep lately. After my daughter woke up, we headed to the library. It was so empty, I started to feel like we'd done something wrong showing up there! It was because of the weather, I knew; not only was it not much above 0 degrees F, it was also snowing, but when the weather gets that cold, my husband's train is often late, and sure enough, he was late on this night (he also doesn't have the greatest of cell signals at the station, so there have been a lot of times when I don't get the message that he's going to be late until we're already sitting in the lot, waiting to pick him up at the usual time. It's just so much easier to hang out at the library and read and play than let the car idle outside for ages). My daughter came close to melting down a few times, but a few quiet words with her helped her keep it together. I was really proud of her.

She found a shawl I'd knitted ages ago and wore it all day, looking so much like a tiny grandma that it charmed me to pieces. <3

We picked my son up on the way home, and I waited in the car while he ran in and grabbed his stuff, and then I dropped him back off at his best friend's house, where he spends almost every Friday night. At home, we had leftovers for dinner. I read my library book and cleaned up the kitchen, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed. 

SATURDAY

Another cold day! 

This was the day I woke up feeling not so great, pain-wise. Some of my right glut muscles decided to throw a spasm-party and spent the entire morning trying to hug my aching hipbone, or so it felt. My right leg is something like 4/10 of a centimeter longer than my left. My physical therapists can move it back into place so that both legs are equal length, but it always creeps back, and I could definitely feel the difference in length as I walked around the house this morning. Imagine walking around for a while in one sneaker and one high heel, what that would feel like after a while, and you'll get an idea of what walking feels like for me. I hung out reading my library book (finishing one book, starting another) in my daughter's room in the morning while my husband and daughter worked on an art project together.

As the day went on, the pain got worse. I really wasn't able to do much of anything this day, other than fill and run the dishwasher. By nighttime, I could barely walk, and turning over in bed was close to impossible. Imagine lying on your side, with a 300-lb weight on your hip, and think about how difficult it would be to turn to the other side like that. That's exactly what it feels like, to the point that my left arm muscles were hurting on Sunday because I had to use that arm to haul myself over in bed and up the stairs.

I didn't get much sleep this night due to the intensity of the pain.


SUNDAY

The pain was still there when I woke up. Getting dressed involved having to roll around on the bed, because when my back/SI joint is this bad, I can't put my pants on standing up (years ago, it was so bad that I couldn't bend to remove or pull up my pants and ended up having to wear long skirts for several weeks solely so I could use the bathroom regularly). I did manage to sloooooooooowwwwwwly unload the dishwasher while the coffee machine ran, and then I spent the rest of the morning once again reading on my daughter's bed while my husband and daughter played, although it was difficult focusing from time to time because of the pain.

During naptime, I read my book and tried to doze (again, didn't really happen), and after my daughter got up, she wanted to go play at a neighboring town's library. I was able to handle the car trip fairly well, although the long walk down to the children's department- it's a REALLY big library- got me out of breath. I finished one book and started another there.

We picked my son up on the way home. After dinner, things settled down a little with my back. The constant spasm wasn't *quite* so fierce and I could at least move at a somewhat more normal pace, so I loaded up the dishwasher and ran it. My husband and I crammed in three episodes of Supernatural (I think we're on season 12 now, out of 13 on Netflix; I'm going to be so sad when we're done!) before going to bed, where I slept a little better, fortunately.

And that was my week! Pain is so-so this morning. I'm functional, at least. I can still feel the muscle spasm in my right hip as I sit here, and I had a *nasty* all-over spasm getting my daughter out of the car when we got home after dropping my husband off, but I can at least get around, so I'm grateful for that. I've got laundry and cooking and baking and cleaning to do today, and my son has a choir concert on Friday that I'm looking forward to. Wednesday and Thursday, however, are going to be brutal. The high on Wednesday is -15F. Odds are school will be cancelled (possibly Thursday too, as the high is -2F), so we'll all be huddled inside here under many layers of blankets.


Stay warm, friends! How did your week go?