I don't think that's going to happen, though. And I've got a ridiculously busy week ahead of me. Maybe I'll just start going to bed after I put my daughter to bed hahahahahahahahaha, that won't happen either! Way too much to do.
Let's recap the week, shall we?
MONDAY
Early in the morning, I unloaded the dishwasher and started a loaf of French bread (this is my favorite recipe so far; it consistently turns out a great loaf of bread for me). I cleaned the living room, then my daughter and I settled down for her Reading and Geography lessons (a virtual trip to Dominica). I did a brief bit of piano practice, then threw together a lunch of English muffin pizzas, made with leftover spaghetti sauce from our garden tomatoes from dinner the night before.
During naptime, I started dinner, which was a pot of Potato Cauliflower soup (the next time I make this, I'll try to get a recipe up; it's one of my favorite soups ever, so simple and yet so lovely).
Soup to the left, bread to the right.
After I finished dinner prep, I scrubbed out the bathtub, which made my back hurt. Not a surprise, but it didn't make me happy, either. I tossed the bread in the oven, then scooped up the rest of the cherry tomatoes I had dehydrated over the weekend and tossed them in an old salsa jar.
These things are RIDICULOUSLY good.
I finished work on my husband's Christmas gift, a knitted anatomically correct heart, then began work on a knitted Christmas gift for my daughter. I tidied the kitchen, picked my husband up, dropped my son off, ate dinner, then picked my son up again. After putting my daughter to bed, I did my PT exercises, then did a bit more work on my daughter's Christmas gift (but had to pull a lot; the yarn I'm working with isn't much fun).
Phew!
TUESDAY
After doing morning kitchen clean up, I loaded the dishwasher, ran it, then later on unloaded it and ran it again. Some days are like that! I started laundry that included my daughter's bedding, then dropped my daughter off for her first day of preschool (year two! She'll go to full-day kindergarten next year). She was excited about going, but was a little apprehensive when we got there. She did okay, though. :)
At home, I switched the laundry, and as I carried a load of my husband's clean laundry into the bedroom, I walked two steps into the room, stopped, sniffed, and said, "Okay, where is it?"
Cat puke, and the answer was under the bed. Ah, the joys of having a great sense of smell! Fortunately, my cat was polite enough to vomit on a sock that had made its way under the bed, so the mess was easily cleaned up and the sock went into the wash after being shaken off over the trash.
Barfy cat, you're lucky you're so cute. <3
My husband was home for my daughter's first day of preschool, so I left for physical therapy and he left to go pick her up. At PT, they made all my exercises harder, adding weights to my ankles to build up muscle strength. (I didn't do my PT exercises at home on this day, since I was REALLY tired from this and kind of sore.)
After PT, I ate lunch at home, and we took my daughter out for ice cream like we had promised her. She was full of stories about school and we had a really nice time. I napped during her nap time (told you PT wore me out!), then picked my son up, and we went out to dinner together as a family at a local Chinese restaurant (my daughter's choice). I read a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list that evening.
WEDNESDAY
These are busy days for me now that my daughter is back in school. After getting ready, we did her Reading and Geography lesson (travelling virtually to the Dominican Republic). I threw some beans into the Instant Pot, then dropped my daughter off at preschool.
I got gas for the car, then ran to Aldi to do my grocery shopping there. They had two surprises for me this week- canning jars for $5.99 (!!!! I almost fell over when I read my receipt) and a cast iron skillet for $12.99. I got rid of three disgusting pans this year and have been trying to figure out what to do about a new one. When I saw this on sale, I figured it was a sign. I still have to learn how to season and clean it, since I've never owned cast iron anything before, but I'm pretty excited! I came home to put away the groceries and started up the dryer (with the bedding from the day before, whoops!), then drove back to school to pick my daughter up.
From there, we headed for our two other grocery stops. We picked up four packages of cheese ends for various prices, butternut squash (3lbs for $1; I have five squash on my kitchen table, waiting for me to have time for them), four pounds of lentils for $6.09 (NOT a great price, but lentil prices have been up around here since they had a bad crop last year, and my stash was running low), pink beans (which I've never had before, but at 80 cents a pound, I'm happy to try), and garam masala.
I was really excited to find this!
In the past, a single small bottle of garam masala would have cost this, but I opened the bag and dumped it into another empty salsa jar and I *still* have half a bag left, so I won't need to buy this again for a long, long time. :)
Our ground squirrel friend was there to greet us when we returned home!
After putting the groceries away at home, my daughter and I had lunch, then I put her down for a nap. While she slept, I made black bean burgers (I had a package of mushrooms that I cooked and added to the mushed up beans; it gives the burgers a more savory flavor), made some guacamole, cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, and did my basement chores (which involve refilling our Air Washer with water and scooping the litterbox. I don't usually mention these, but they're part of what I do every two days, so feel free to mentally add that in there every other day!).
I picked my son up from school (he's on scenery for the fall musical), picked my husband up, cleaned the kitchen, did my PT exercises, and, to finish off the day, I finished a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list.
PHEW! Seriously, days like these earn me some sort of vacation points, right?
THURSDAY
All we had time for this morning was a Reading lesson, no Geography. I dropped my daughter off at school, then ran to the bank to take out money, switch that money to different bills, and cash a check. I then drove back home (all the way across town) to change my clothes and give my car keys to my mom, who left at the same time I did to pick my daughter up from school while I went to physical therapy (which is located about two or three minutes from the bank, but that's how these things work some days).
My daughter put a wig on the cat while I was gone. Because of course she did.
OOF.
It was one of THOSE days. The exercises I did felt fine, but I'd been having weird not-quite-full-spasms-but-almost-spasms in this muscle in the middle of my right side. I worked with the other female therapist, who got my on the table and was immediately able to pinpoint exactly where it hurt because that spot was all red- apparently, I'd been rubbing it all morning, which I didn't realize until she pointed it out. She started massaging the muscle out, and it turned out that it hurt from my pelvis all the way up to the top of my shoulder (and it REALLY REALLY REALLY hurt up there). I have a really high pain tolerance, and this was...intense. After I got home, my mom left and I put my daughter down for a nap, and then I crawled into bed. I passed out immediately, slept like the dead, and woke up two hours later.
Yikes. Told you it was an intense PT session. :(
I picked my husband up, then went to a meeting for the music department at my son's school. At home, I cleaned the kitchen, then spent the rest of the night reading a book from my Goodreads Want to Read list. No PT exercises tonight, as I was in far too much pain from that stupid painful spasmy muscle (which I'm going to blame on the weather change we were experiencing at this point. Massive changes in temperature and pressure wreak absolute havoc on my pain levels, and we had about a twenty degree drop between Thursday and Friday). I took a Celebrex before I went to bed.
FRIDAY
I ran the dishwasher, then my daughter and I ran to Walmart for cat food and litter, then ran to Walgreens, where I used a $2 off coupon to purchase a pretty shade of lipstick for 58 cents (the cashier laughed when he rang it up, since it was the only thing I bought). We then made a trip to our local library, since my daughter had been begging to go play there.
We love our library!
I finished a Goodreads book while we were there. At home, I prepared Vegan Cabbage Roll Soup (subbing rice for quinoa as usual; my daughter LOVES this soup), cleaned the kitchen, and then we picked my son up. We tried to do my daughter's Reading lesson but it didn't happen; she was in a mood and her behavior was less than stellar, so I gave up and read a library book while she played. That evening, I did my PT exercises and my husband and I watched Get Smart on Netflix.
SATURDAY
Saturday mornings mean kid gymnastics, so we did that. I was happy to see that my daughter's friend from last year's preschool class is in another gymnastics class at the same time, so I was able to chat with her mom for a bit (we're going to try to set up another park playdate before the weather gets too cold; my daughter and hers play really well together and have similar behavioral issues at home, so her mom and I can commiserate!) before settling down with a Goodreads book (the classes are observable, but you have to stand if you want to see them and seating is limited. Standing is still something that's not totally easy for me, as I found out on Sunday- although that's getting better!- so I grab a seat as soon as I can when we get there).
During my daughter's nap, I picked up three Goodreads books from my library's interlibrary loan (ones I'm really excited about reading, too!), then ran to a thrift store in the next town over, where a completely random guy told me all about his vintage Playboy collection. Some of them even have double-sided centerfolds!
Which is totally a thing I didn't need to know, so thanks for that, random dude who also let me know that he lived right by the store.
Ugh.
After THAT fun encounter (I bought my daughter some easy reader books and a few books for Christmas), I dropped a book off at that town's library and came home to complete my 1000th day of Duolingo. We met up with my sister-in-law and her son at a park and let the kids play for a bit, then had dinner together at her house. I would have had pictures of some of the lovely landscaping at the park, but my phone decided to stop working when we got in the car. I was puzzled. It had worked totally fine all day, and I was a bit concerned about getting a new phone and thus access to my pictures (which are backed up) for Monday's post, but fortunately, after the park, I yanked the battery out and put it back in and the phone came back to life.
Technology, amirite???
At home, I did my PT exercises before picking up my son and going to sleep.
SUNDAY
A somewhat impromptu trip to an apple orchard!
This was something we did last year as well. My daughter was obsessed with the idea of apple picking, so my husband had found a local place and we went picking. The apples we got last year were wonderful, but unfortunately, we witnessed some pretty overt racism from the people in charge there toward the family in front of us while we waited to pay, and when my husband was looking at that orchard's Facebook page this year, he saw a review from another customer of a different ethnic background, reporting similar treatment to what we'd witnessed the year before, and that was all we needed to hear to ensure we didn't want to give them any more of our money. My husband asked around at work and learned of a new place to go, and we arrived there about a half hour after they opened.
I now have I-don't-know-how-many-pounds of apples in my kitchen! It's a lot. We'll eat them for a few weeks, and then I'll figure out what I want to do with them. Last year, I made a bunch of jars of apple pie jam and apple butter. I haven't checked yet, but I think I still have quite a few jars of apple pie jam left (plus I have quite a few jars of strawberry freezer preserves and four jars of dandelion jelly that I canned this summer), so I'm thinking I might can some apple pie filling this year. If anyone has any recommendations, either of apple pie filling recipes for canning or other things you like to make with large amounts of apples, I'd love to hear it!
There was a petting zoo, a train ride for kids, food trucks and stands, it was a pretty busy place with people from all walks of life (and we didn't witness any racism this year, which was a plus). It was farther away than the last place, though, but it was definitely a nice day out, and I got to read my library book in the car.
When we got home, my husband took my daughter a local park she'd been wanting to visit, and I mowed the lawn (I made it through about...eh, not quite half the lawn before it started hurting, so that's definitely an improvement!), then came inside and made Cinnamon Apple Waffles for my son's breakfasts. I had some leftover apples from that, so I used those in making a batch of apple muffins with the universal muffin recipe from The Complete Tightwad Gazette. (Somewhere in there I managed to eat dinner and give my daughter a bath!). After putting my daughter to bed, I did my PT exercises and read my library book.
So that was my week! This week is another busy one. Two PT appointments, a parade in my mom's town on Sunday, and my son has a choir show on Thursday (my mom is coming up for that, but not until almost show time, and since I have PT early in the morning on Friday, she's staying the night on Thursday, so I'll need to wash the blankets on the couch). No rest for the wicked, eh?
What have you been up to this week?
Goodreads Want to Read list: 149 books
I'm exhausted just reading about your week, I can't imagine how you must feel packing so much in to your days! No apple picking here where I live as it's far too hot for apple orchards but there are strawberry farms where you can pick your own. I absolutely adore apple pie so that's what I'd make if I ever got to go apple picking. Hope some slower days come your way soon. Meg:)
ReplyDeleteHaha, thank you! There aren't too many slow days around here, that's for sure. And if there were more hours in the day, I'd fill them all with activity too, I'm sure- there's so much stuff I want to get done but just don't have the time for. Someday! :)
DeleteI did make a single apple pie last year before canning, so if I end up doing something other than apple pie filling, I'm thinking I'll make several pies and freeze a few for later. Hot apple pie is one of my favorites, too!