I don't know if it's the change in weather or what, but I've had a hard time getting going lately. I've been so, so tired that all I want to do is snuggle under a blanket and take a nap. Even a mug of afternoon coffee hasn't been helping, so I'll be glad when whatever this is moves on. How about you? Are you feeling a little sluggish lately?
Let's recap the week!
MONDAY
This was my busy day. What with physical therapy breaking up my days, along with my daughter's school schedule, any day I have large chunks of uninterrupted time means I need to be on the go all day long, even on days when I have a headache the entire day, like this one.
After doing my basement chores and cleaning the kitchen (which really needed it after the weekend!), I made guacamole, swept and mopped the living room floor, and finally took care of those five butternut squash that had been sitting on my kitchen table for a few weeks. Once I got them roasting whole in the oven, my daughter and I sat down for her Reading lesson, and then I tossed her bedding in the wash. I put a load of laundry away, and then my daughter and I made a pan of chocolate banana brownies.
These are a HUGE hit around here. Super fudgy and moist.
I ran the dishwasher, switched the laundry, and ding! The squash were done.
All nicely roasted!
Once I learned you can just roast these things whole, there was no going back for me. I let them cool, then bagged them and tossed them in the freezer in the garage. We'll enjoy these over the winter, mostly in Tomato Butternut Squash Soup.
I hand-washed the squash roasting pans, then got started on what I'd be preparing for dinner: Roasted Cauliflower Lasagna. Now, I love roasted cauliflower, but...I just didn't think it would go well in here. It can go from not-cooked-enough-yet to charred-beyond-recognition in seconds, and I was worried about that, so I decided to steam the cauliflower instead, and I added two or three carrots in there as well. I steamed them in two batches in my Instant Pot while I prepared the sauce and boiled the noodles, and when the cauliflower was done, I prepared the ricotta mixture in the food processor. This doesn't sound like a lot, but by the time I put the lasagna together, it had taken over three hours! There's a reason why these things come frozen. Somewhere in there, I managed to write a tiny bit...
Done!
With the lasagna in the oven, I folded and put away several loads of laundry, and my daughter read I Can Be A Gymnast (Barbie, Step Into Reading. This is an affiliate link!) to me. We picked my husband up, I cleaned up the kitchen and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, put the bedding back on my daughter's bed, tidied the living room, put dinner away, and did my PT exercises before collapsing in an exhausted heap. Phew!
TUESDAY
You would think with as busy as I was the day before, I would've gone to bed and slept like the dead, but no dice. I got up in the morning exhausted, having slept like crap. My daughter slept in, however, so we got a late start to our day. She had no school, so we visited the library in the next town over, where she played and I read a book on my Kindle.
Children's section! The light in this library is incredible.
Walking is my favorite form of exercise. There's something very mentally calming about listening to music and moving my body in a gentle, controlled fashion for long periods of time. It never hurts that the people around my neighborhood are often taking their dogs out for walks and let me pet them. Any day I get to pet someone else's dog is a good one. :) I also like to use my walking time to work out issues with whatever it is I'm writing, and I often come back with new ideas, eager to get to work.
Giant inflatable light-up Halloween dragon I spotted on my walk!
I ended up walking 3.5 miles. This is my shorter route; as you can tell from the picture, it was too dark to take my longer route. I walk in residential areas, so I never feel unsafe. Back at home, I cleaned the kitchen and did my PT exercises, then sat down to write and pounded out 529 words, which brought my two day word count total to 757 words. Before I had my daughter, I used to aim for 500 words a day, and it's not often when I can meet that now, but I've come to realize that doing less is okay too- slow motion is still motion.
WEDNESDAY
I made out a grocery list, then did the basement chores and swept the living room. After dropping my daughter off at school, I ran to Aldi ($39 for a cart full of groceries), then came home, put the groceries away, and practiced the piano until it was time to pick her up again. During naptime, I prepared Easy Chickpea Spinach Curry and rice, cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, and did a yoga video. I unloaded the dishwasher, did some writing research, and read my Kindle book before we picked my husband up. After dropping him off at home, I walked another 3.5 miles. Man, that feels SO good to do, especially now that I'm feeling a lot less pain.
That evening, I did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural (which I'd never seen before this and I'm REALLY enjoying, much to my surprise! I'm not usually a fan of paranormal/sci-fi stuff- not for any particular reason, just not my cup of tea- but this reminds me of all the ghost stories I used to read as a kid, and it's funny and well-written. I've been looking forward to watching it at night with my husband).
THURSDAY
I managed a little bit of writing before cleaning the kitchen and driving my daughter to school. I then had to speed home to drop the keys off for my mom and then raced off to physical therapy. This week, my physical therapist wanted to try dry needling, which is basically shoving very fine needles into the muscles that are causing me pain. It doesn't hurt any more than a tiny bee sting-like pain at the initial prick, and the amount of relief I got from this was almost SPOOKY. To tell the truth, I was skeptical about it and wasn't expecting much, but it actually helped a LOT, and the next day was even wilder...
At home, I rested and finished my Kindle book during naptime, then started a book from my Goodreads list. I threw some potatoes and carrots into the Instant Pot to make a vegan nacho cheese dip, then cleaned up and started the dishwasher. It was cold in the house, and when my daughter woke up, we snuggled under a blanket for a bit and had a really nice talk about all the things she could do or be when she grew up, one of those times that she might not remember when she gets bigger but that are always really special for us as parents. After we picked my husband up, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, prepared the vegan nacho cheese dip (I always add a can of tomatoes with green chilies, and I added an extra can of green chilies in there tonight; we like it spicy!), and cleaned up again. Husband and I enjoyed our cheese dip with a side of two episodes of Supernatural.
FRIDAY
Oy.
It was COLD in the house- 57 degrees when I woke up in the morning, and I woke up in a considerable amount of pain, which I immediately attributed to the cats having pinned me down in bed so they could share what little warmth I had. I couldn't blame them- it really was cold in there- but sleeping in such an odd position was NOT good for my back. I still drove my husband to work, did my basement chores, swept and tidied the living room, and ran the dishwasher before heading off to physical therapy.
We started off with a few exercises that targeted the muscle on my right side that was hurting, so that was good, and then we moved into the dry needling again. The muscles around my right side hip went from all bunched up to feeling much more relaxed, and then my physical therapist moved to my left side.
EGADS.
EGADS.
One of the muscles there was so badly spasmed that she had a hard time getting the needle in at all, but once she did... With dry needling, once the needle is inserted, you get this kind of achy feeling, somewhat similar to a muscle cramp, and afterwards the muscle relaxes. Well, when my PT finally got the needle in, there was this sudden enormous muscle cramp, kind of like the worst charley horse I've ever felt (and this is normal; that's exactly what's supposed to happen), but in one of the muscles in my rear end/side of my leg/around my hip. Just massive, enough to make me go, "Whoa!" And afterwards, the pain I woke up with? GONE. The difference in what I felt before I got on the table and afterwards was MASSIVE. My muscles weren't bunched up and spasmed around my pelvis anymore, I could bend forward with ZERO pain, I could swing my hips around like I was doing a hula hoop, and even to the touch, my glut muscles felt normal and not tough and spasmy. It was seriously one of the wildest things I've ever, ever experienced. I walked out of physical therapy feeling normal, after having woken up feeling creaky and pained. I don't know that everyone has this experience with dry needling, but for me, it was pretty close to miraculous.
At home, I rested and read more of my Goodreads book, then made some green beans and a batch of Velvety Vegan Alfredo Sauce to serve over pierogies (not traditional, I know, but it keeps my family interested!), but then my husband wanted to go out to a local falafel restaurant, and I'm ALWAYS down with that, so we had a lovely meal together there. That evening, I skipped my PT exercises (my arms are STILL sore from some of the exercises we did!), and my husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural.
SATURDAY
I woke up this morning with no pain, so my suspicions of my Friday pain having been caused by my having slept funny were confirmed. I read my Goodreads book at my daughter's gymnastics class, and then my husband and daughter and I all went for haircuts (nothing fancy for daughter and me, just a trim!). I did some writing at home, but my brain felt like sludge, and I tried to nap and failed at that as well! Finally, I gave up on everything and just went for a walk, only to have my left earbud die about a mile into the walk. HONESTLY!!! I ended up walking a lovely 4.1 miles; I had a few muscle spasms along the way but nothing severe. Back at home, I managed to get some writing done- walking does help!- and brought my word count total for the past two days up to 1390, which is pretty amazing for me lately. That night, I did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural.
SUNDAY
Sunday morning, I ran the dishwasher, and then we went to a local park that has a museum dedicated to the 1st Division Infantry. It's small but extremely well done. My son was with us and he enjoys history, so I enjoyed getting to see it with him (as he wasn't there the last time we went through).
Part of the WWI exhibit.
The exhibits are, at times, almost jarringly lifelike, and the soundtrack of battle sounds and dim lighting add to the heaviness one feels walking through.
Part of the WWII exhibit.
I'm not going to sugarcoat this: the World War II part of the exhibit was difficult to walk through. The Nazi flags and military uniforms straight up turned my stomach. And then there was this:
Click on it to read it in full if you need to. Please.
I stood there and watched the video and cried. All those people, all those entire worlds erased, all those families devastated, while the townspeople denied that it happened- which is, in essence, denying that those people ever existed. I'm having a hard time typing this out right now. It was difficult to watch, but I felt like I needed to, to honor the people who died even if I didn't know their names or their individual stories. They existed, they mattered, they were murdered by people who, for whatever reason, turned into monsters, while the townspeople turned away. How people can care so little about their fellow human beings is something I will never, ever understand.
There was a newer section of the museum dedicated to modern warfare. It's smaller and doesn't have the realistic, lifelike exhibits, but features a lot of video testimony of members of the military who served in the Middle East and places like Kosovo and Bosnia. The museum also features a slab of the Berlin Wall, which fascinated me.
I found this especially interesting thanks to reading A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen this summer. Fascinating book; if you haven't read it, check it out.
After we let our daughter climb around the tanks in the park, we went home for lunch, and then I went out to run some errands. I picked up an envelope to ship out a book to a friend this week, and then I had to stop by another store to replace my earbuds that had died on me during my walk! Back at home, my husband had told my daughter we'd take her to play at the library in the next town over, so we headed over there.
She brought me a heart block while I was reading the new biography of Fred Rogers. So perfect. <3
We stopped by another store so my husband could pick up a few things, then came home, where I unloaded the dishwasher, refilled it, and then made a batch of bananadoodles (the dough went into the fridge to chill for an hour) and reheated the dinner we hadn't eaten on Friday. After showering, I baked the cookies and did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.
And that's it! Not as productive of a week as I would've liked, but like I said, I've been exhausted lately. Hopefully that'll be done soon and I'll be able to pick up the pace. What about you? How was your week?
Goodreads Want to Read list: 144 books
Goodreads Want to Read list: 144 books
Weekly word count: 2147 words
Goodness me, that is a very busy week compared to mine.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel like I got nothing done at all!!! :D Hopefully I'll feel a little better about my productivity this week. :)
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