Boy, that holiday season flew by so fast. I think I say that every year, but this year it seemed particularly true, what with my daughter and I being sick from basically right after Thanksgiving until right before Christmas. Feeling so crummy left little time to prepare (we were still gathering the last gifts on the 23rd, which is SO not like me), but we managed, and we had some really lovely times with family. That's what counts right?
So here's what I've been up to this week!
MONDAY
New Year's Eve! We never have any plans to go out- I think I've been to one single New Year's Eve party in my entire life- so I was looking forward to a relaxing day at home.
In the morning, my husband and daughter and I ran to the grocery store, where we purchased a bunch of stuff for my husband to make sushi. He usually does this once or twice a year or so, and it's always delicious. My daughter really enjoyed helping him make it this year, and her squeals of delight coming from the kitchen were adorable (she's SUCH a Papa's girl!). I tidied the kitchen when we got home so that my husband would have plenty of workspace, swept the living room floor, did my basement chores of cleaning the litterbox and refilling our Air Washer, and put away two loads of laundry that had been hanging out downstairs, waiting for me to get around to it.
And then it was time to say goodbye to the Christmas tree.
I love having our tree up. It's so cheerful and the lights make me so happy (and provided for a great nightlight when my daughter and I slept downstairs when she was sick), but I do enjoy a calm living room, and thus it was time. My daughter started taking down ornaments from the bottom, I began at the top, and we met at the highest space a four year-old's hand can reach. ;)
Until next year, ornaments!!!
After the tree and accompanying ornaments were packed away, I tidied and swept the living room (even fake trees shed!), then dropped my son off at a friend's house for a short New Year's celebration. At home, I cleaned up the remaining mess from my husband's sushi making (he had cleaned up after himself, but I needed a few more things tidied up, you know?). I finished a library book, and when my daughter woke up, she and I snuggled and read Linnea in Monet's Garden. My grandmother had given me a copy of this book, along with a cloth Linnea doll, when I was younger, and I've always loved it. I found a copy of the book at a library book sale last year and grabbed it for my daughter, and today was the first day we got around to reading it. It's as charming as I remember, and it's a great introduction to Monet and art in general for kids.
I picked my son up when he let me know it was time, and at home, we all watched Pixies (a cartoon movie. It, um, wasn't very good). During the movie, I finally finished the third hat I had been knitting and gave all three to my son, who seemed happy that they were for him- I hadn't had a chance to finish them before Christmas, so they were a late gift. :)
My husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural (we're on Season 9 now!) before going to bed well before midnight, because we're too old for that. ;)
Daily pain recap: Not a terrible day. I had a strong spasm on my lower right side that persisted throughout the day, and a sharp grinding in my SI joint right before bed. Ouch!)
Hurray for leftover yarn that becomes Other Things!
My husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural (we're on Season 9 now!) before going to bed well before midnight, because we're too old for that. ;)
Daily pain recap: Not a terrible day. I had a strong spasm on my lower right side that persisted throughout the day, and a sharp grinding in my SI joint right before bed. Ouch!)
TUESDAY
In the morning, I unloaded the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen, swept and tidied the living room (it still looks so empty without the tree!), mopped the living room floor, and did some writing research. After that, my husband and daughter and I took another trip to the grocery store; he had found an old Chinese cookbook he'd bought a long time ago and wanted to make a soup from the back of the book, so he needed just a few things that I didn't have around, like green onions.
When we returned, I tidied up the kitchen again (with four people at home and limited counterspace, it's a never ending job!), and during my daughter's naptime, I did 41 minutes of yoga (the new fitness tracker watch my mother gave me for Christmas makes it really easy to track just how much I'm doing, which is fantastic!).
I took my son out to pick up a few late Christmas presents for a friend. It was so nice to spend time with him, just the two of us; he's so busy that it's a rare treat for him to be home these days! At home, we ate the soup my husband and daughter had made (which was delicious!) and watched the My Little Pony movie. I filled and ran the dishwasher before hopping into the shower.
My husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.
WEDNESDAY
My daughter and I headed out for groceries and WHEW, were the roads icy!!! It wasn't terrible going to our first stop (although the parking lot was icy), but heading to our second stop, we slipped and slid on the road several times, and I was barely able to stop a few times despite going ridiculously slow. I slipped in the parking lot on the way out of the store, but thanks to having a tight grip on the cart, I didn't fall. Going home was a little scary, and I was ridiculously happy to be safe indoors! We didn't need much, and I only spent about $30, mainly on stuff we were absolutely out of, like cheese.
Safe at home, I put away the groceries and weeded out some old stuff from the fridge (mostly my daughter's leftovers), unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. During naptime, I did 59 minutes of yoga, trying to get the spasmy muscle in my right side to calm down, but it didn't, and by about 3:30, that muscle was putting me in a decent amount of pain. I went to go find the lacrosse ball that I use to help with muscle spasms, which I leave under the piano bench with my other back stuff, only to find it was missing. Having warned my daughter several times in the past to leave it alone, I immediately asked her if she knew where it was. She looked guilty and said, "Oh. Sorry. No, I don't remember where I put it."
Thus began the several hours-long, painful hunt for the ball. I searched all over our downstairs, poked around my daughter's room, checked in the closet. Nothing. We picked my husband up, and he helped to look for it when we got back home. I organized my daughter's room, hoping that it had accidentally gotten tossed somewhere in there; my husband checked the basement to see if the cats had chased it down there. Nothing. We finally just threw our hands up, assuming that our daughter had managed to toss it into another dimension, and I went to take a shower. In the shower, I had an epiphany, and when I got downstairs, I checked one of the few places we hadn't checked: a bag of knitting I hadn't used for a few weeks.
At the bottom of the bag lay the lacrosse ball...along with a Mr. PotatoHead mustache.
Kids, amirite??? The ball did help that muscle spasm a lot. It hurts like CRAZY when I use it, to the point of tears, but at least this time, it helped to disrupt the spasm.
I put dinner away and cleaned up the kitchen, filled and ran the dishwasher, and brought in the trash cans. The husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before bed.
THURSDAY
I read my library book during breakfast time, and after I got ready, I did my basement chores, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned the kitchen, including an impromptu spray-down of the disgusting, removable parts of the dishwasher (I just cleaned those in September! How did they get so nasty so fast???). I read a little more of my library book, swept and tidied the living room, and then it was off to our errands- the post office, and Walmart for cat food.
My daughter and I sat and read the copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein that I had grabbed from the basement bookshelves the day before. This was one of my favorites as a kid, and she enjoyed it as well. When we finished, I pulled the sheets out of the dryer and tossed the cotton blanket back in, that always takes at least two rounds to dry. I sprayed the stovetop and let it sit, and vacuumed (with the Dust Buster!) my counters and sprayed them down, including underneath the microwave, which I'd been meaning to do for a while. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and after lunch, I prepared our dinner- quiche with spinach, carrots and peas, and steamed sweet potatoes. I took out the recycling, composted the eggshells, then put the dry blanket back on the bed, and because my daughter had asked me to the day before, I pulled out my guitar and played for a while. It was the first time I'd played in a long time (because the last time I'd played, my daughter, who was two at the time, threw an enormous fit, telling me I was doing it wrong, and had a tantrum that lasted about an hour, so I just gave up!), and I really enjoyed it. :)
She's eyebrow-deep in the whole "I can pick out my own clothes!" phase, and so she's been wanting to wear dresses all the time, everywhere. Which is fine, but it's been cold and so I make her wear something underneath the dress, usually a pair of stretch pants that kind of look like tights. Two of her pants had holes in the knees and she was NOT going to stand for that ;) so I told her I'd patch them up for her. After stabbing myself half to death about a dozen times and uttering a few choice words about the crappy scissors that do NOT cut fabric well, I think I did an okay job.
This took almost all of her nap, which was fairly short as naps go, so when I heard her awake in her room, I took the pants up to show her. "Ohhhhh, I like these!" she said, so I'll count that as a win. :)
Since it was so nice out, we took a walk down to the new Little Free Library a few blocks away (this was the only part of the day where I really felt pain; walking hurt my SI joint a lot), dropping off an old book my daughter no longer reads, and bringing home a flap book she picked out, and a copy of The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: A Novel of Snow and Courage by Chris Kurtz. At home, I read the first four chapters out loud, and my daughter seemed to enjoy it. I used to read to my son out loud ALL the time, both kid books and grown-up books (for example, we tackled A Tale of Two Cities when he was three, and Frankenstein when he was either five or six- that last one was his choice!). My daughter has a more wild personality and hasn't much been one for sitting and playing quietly while listening like my son was, but maybe we can make this work...
My husband decided he'd rather stay in for dinner than go out (it was his birthday; he DID enjoy those handwarmers, and it looks like he'll need them this week!), so I fixed up the pierogies I'd made and froze a few months ago, along with a batch of Velvety Vegan Alfredo Sauce, and some garlic sesame green beans. It was a delicious dinner!
I cleaned the kitchen and filled and ran the dishwasher, and after my daughter was in bed, I finally finished that library book! My husband and I only had time for a single episode of Supernatural before bed.
SUNDAY
In the morning, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen and took out the compost. I put a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot, then read 50 pages of a new library book. For lunch, we went out to a local Chinese restaurant, my husband's choice, as a day-late birthday lunch, as he didn't want to go the day before. On the way there, my husband and I discussed future gardening and landscaping plans, including- FINALLY- talking about taking out the bushes in front of our house. I'm not a fan of them, and as soon as my husband learned that my neighbor keeps her herb garden in the same space right in front of her house (getting the same amount of light as we do and always having enough herbs to share), he thought taking the bushes out and replacing them with an herb garden was a great idea. We have a nice space in between windows as well that would be perfect for a trellis and climbing plants, so we discussed that, too. I'm excited!
At home, I dozed for a little bit, and then my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came over for a visit, so while we chatted, I worked on my grandmother's cross stitch table runner. I threw together a meal of Creamy Lemon Ziti (no asparagus, add spinach and nutritional yeast) for dinner and cleaned up the kitchen afterwards. My husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before bed.
And that was my week! I thought my son went back to school on Monday, but it turns out they don't start again until Tuesday, so things will really start to get back to normal then. If I'm feeling up to it, there's a family birthday party on Saturday. It's about a 2.5 hour drive away (one way!), so the trip can be a little hard for me- sitting in the car for long periods of time is painful on my crabby SI joints. I'll play it by ear and see how I feel this week when it comes to traveling that far. Otherwise, hopefully it'll be a productive week at home. I definitely need to get back into doing my PT exercises at night; I fell away from that when I was sick. I've been decently about keeping up with the yoga (even when I was sick, I tried to keep up with that!), so that's at least good. :)
How was your week???
Safe at home, I put away the groceries and weeded out some old stuff from the fridge (mostly my daughter's leftovers), unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. During naptime, I did 59 minutes of yoga, trying to get the spasmy muscle in my right side to calm down, but it didn't, and by about 3:30, that muscle was putting me in a decent amount of pain. I went to go find the lacrosse ball that I use to help with muscle spasms, which I leave under the piano bench with my other back stuff, only to find it was missing. Having warned my daughter several times in the past to leave it alone, I immediately asked her if she knew where it was. She looked guilty and said, "Oh. Sorry. No, I don't remember where I put it."
Thus began the several hours-long, painful hunt for the ball. I searched all over our downstairs, poked around my daughter's room, checked in the closet. Nothing. We picked my husband up, and he helped to look for it when we got back home. I organized my daughter's room, hoping that it had accidentally gotten tossed somewhere in there; my husband checked the basement to see if the cats had chased it down there. Nothing. We finally just threw our hands up, assuming that our daughter had managed to toss it into another dimension, and I went to take a shower. In the shower, I had an epiphany, and when I got downstairs, I checked one of the few places we hadn't checked: a bag of knitting I hadn't used for a few weeks.
At the bottom of the bag lay the lacrosse ball...along with a Mr. PotatoHead mustache.
Kids, amirite??? The ball did help that muscle spasm a lot. It hurts like CRAZY when I use it, to the point of tears, but at least this time, it helped to disrupt the spasm.
I put dinner away and cleaned up the kitchen, filled and ran the dishwasher, and brought in the trash cans. The husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before bed.
THURSDAY
I read my library book during breakfast time, and after I got ready, I did my basement chores, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and cleaned the kitchen, including an impromptu spray-down of the disgusting, removable parts of the dishwasher (I just cleaned those in September! How did they get so nasty so fast???). I read a little more of my library book, swept and tidied the living room, and then it was off to our errands- the post office, and Walmart for cat food.
One of the beneficiaries of said cat food. They are SO patient with my daughter.
At home, after lunch but before naptime, I cut out a few squares of fabric and sewed a set of handheld-sized microwaveable rice bags. My husband's birthday is on Saturday. He walks to the train every work day (unless the weather is terrible). It's a decent walk, 1.8 miles from our front door, and he enjoys it because it gives him some exercise, but I worry about him when it's super cold out, so hopefully these will help a little to keep him warm. They're nothing fancy, but I'm hoping he'll like them. The fabric is old scrap fabric that I originally used to make a hanging bag with Velcro straps for my son's old metal bunkbed; he needed somewhere to put his glasses after he climbed up into bed, so I had sewed him a little bag that strapped to the bars of his bunkbed, one that had a side pocket for his glasses, but that also had a big enough body pocket to fit a library book. :)
Fish fabric! Maybe the thought of warm ocean water will keep the husband toasty. ;)
I dozed for just a little bit during naptime, lightly enough that my activity tracker watch didn't even register it as sleep, then got up and stitched the bags fully closed. I managed to read a little bit of my library book, then my daughter woke up from her nap, distressed that her stuffed bear had a rip in his ear. Mama to the rescue! I stitched it up and she was much happier. :)
I helped my son decide on some classes to take for his senior year (Digital photography? Forensics? I want to go back to high school, they have some really fascinating classes these days!), and then it was time to pick up my husband, whose train was late. After dinner, I read my library book, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.
FRIDAY
In the morning, I stripped the bedding, including the comforter, in the hopes that putting on our lighter comforter would help my husband and I stop waking up at night sweating like crazy (spoiler alert: it didn't. Hmph. It's warm under the covers, but we turn the heater down to...I don't know if it's 62 or 65 these days, so it's cool out there. Neither of us is overdressed, so we can't figure out why we've suddenly turned into our own personal rainforests at night!). I gathered our laundry, threw that all in the wash, then refilled the Air Washer in the basement. I cleaned the kitchen, took out the recycling and compost, and swept and mopped the living room. When the wash was done, I tossed the bedding into the dryer and hung the clothing to dry on my drying racks.
My daughter and I sat and read the copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein that I had grabbed from the basement bookshelves the day before. This was one of my favorites as a kid, and she enjoyed it as well. When we finished, I pulled the sheets out of the dryer and tossed the cotton blanket back in, that always takes at least two rounds to dry. I sprayed the stovetop and let it sit, and vacuumed (with the Dust Buster!) my counters and sprayed them down, including underneath the microwave, which I'd been meaning to do for a while. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and after lunch, I prepared our dinner- quiche with spinach, carrots and peas, and steamed sweet potatoes. I took out the recycling, composted the eggshells, then put the dry blanket back on the bed, and because my daughter had asked me to the day before, I pulled out my guitar and played for a while. It was the first time I'd played in a long time (because the last time I'd played, my daughter, who was two at the time, threw an enormous fit, telling me I was doing it wrong, and had a tantrum that lasted about an hour, so I just gave up!), and I really enjoyed it. :)
Then it was time for my son's orthodontist appointment. He'd chewed through his retainer in his sleep, so while he got a new one made, my daughter and I did two pages of a learn-to-write-letters book and read an Olivia story. We dropped my son off at home, and my daughter and I went to the library; she played with some other kids, and I read my library book. After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and read some more of my book, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.
SATURDAY
I read my library book on and off throughout the morning (I haven't had a TON of time to sit and read consistently lately and it's driving me a little nuts! I was really enjoying this book I'm and would really have liked to just inhale it instead of taking tiny sips). I scooped the litterbox, cleaned the kitchen, filled and ran the dishwasher, and swept the basement, and then my husband and daughter and I went to a science surplus store. He purchased a glass rod for work, and then he and my daughter took advantage of the nice weather and went off to the park. I came home and started work on patching two pair of my daughter's pants.
Done!
You might have to enlarge the picture to see the patches well. My daughter loves hearts, so I cut the patches into heart shapes, along with a patch of a stretch knit scrap for the back in order to make the patch stronger, and I hand-sewed them on while listening to a few episodes of the What Should I Read Next podcast (highly recommended!). Closeups:
This took almost all of her nap, which was fairly short as naps go, so when I heard her awake in her room, I took the pants up to show her. "Ohhhhh, I like these!" she said, so I'll count that as a win. :)
Since it was so nice out, we took a walk down to the new Little Free Library a few blocks away (this was the only part of the day where I really felt pain; walking hurt my SI joint a lot), dropping off an old book my daughter no longer reads, and bringing home a flap book she picked out, and a copy of The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: A Novel of Snow and Courage by Chris Kurtz. At home, I read the first four chapters out loud, and my daughter seemed to enjoy it. I used to read to my son out loud ALL the time, both kid books and grown-up books (for example, we tackled A Tale of Two Cities when he was three, and Frankenstein when he was either five or six- that last one was his choice!). My daughter has a more wild personality and hasn't much been one for sitting and playing quietly while listening like my son was, but maybe we can make this work...
My husband decided he'd rather stay in for dinner than go out (it was his birthday; he DID enjoy those handwarmers, and it looks like he'll need them this week!), so I fixed up the pierogies I'd made and froze a few months ago, along with a batch of Velvety Vegan Alfredo Sauce, and some garlic sesame green beans. It was a delicious dinner!
I cleaned the kitchen and filled and ran the dishwasher, and after my daughter was in bed, I finally finished that library book! My husband and I only had time for a single episode of Supernatural before bed.
SUNDAY
In the morning, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen and took out the compost. I put a batch of white beans in the Instant Pot, then read 50 pages of a new library book. For lunch, we went out to a local Chinese restaurant, my husband's choice, as a day-late birthday lunch, as he didn't want to go the day before. On the way there, my husband and I discussed future gardening and landscaping plans, including- FINALLY- talking about taking out the bushes in front of our house. I'm not a fan of them, and as soon as my husband learned that my neighbor keeps her herb garden in the same space right in front of her house (getting the same amount of light as we do and always having enough herbs to share), he thought taking the bushes out and replacing them with an herb garden was a great idea. We have a nice space in between windows as well that would be perfect for a trellis and climbing plants, so we discussed that, too. I'm excited!
At home, I dozed for a little bit, and then my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came over for a visit, so while we chatted, I worked on my grandmother's cross stitch table runner. I threw together a meal of Creamy Lemon Ziti (no asparagus, add spinach and nutritional yeast) for dinner and cleaned up the kitchen afterwards. My husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before bed.
And that was my week! I thought my son went back to school on Monday, but it turns out they don't start again until Tuesday, so things will really start to get back to normal then. If I'm feeling up to it, there's a family birthday party on Saturday. It's about a 2.5 hour drive away (one way!), so the trip can be a little hard for me- sitting in the car for long periods of time is painful on my crabby SI joints. I'll play it by ear and see how I feel this week when it comes to traveling that far. Otherwise, hopefully it'll be a productive week at home. I definitely need to get back into doing my PT exercises at night; I fell away from that when I was sick. I've been decently about keeping up with the yoga (even when I was sick, I tried to keep up with that!), so that's at least good. :)
How was your week???
You are sure busy, and I love the patches, I should do this for my nieces who where holes in their leggings.
ReplyDeleteThank you! The patches turned out so cute, I was so happy with them! They were a bit fiddly to start out with, especially trying to match up the fronts and the backs on opposite sides, but about 1/3 of the way through each, it got easier. :)
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