What I Read in January 2019

This week, I'm doing something a little different.

It's been a quiet week around here. For one, I'm dealing with that nasty fatigue again. I'm not sure if it's because there's something going on medically (regular metabolic blood tests came back fine, so I'm not anemic and it's not my thyroid, but we're wondering if I have some chronic swelling that contributes to my fatigue), or if it's because I can't get comfortable at night and end up waking up constantly and switching positions over and over throughout the night. Maybe both? Who knows. I'm just dragging right now. And then there was this:

The Polar Vortex swung through here and I basically threw on 234782347293 layers of clothing and huddled under a blanket with a book the whole time. Our cars wouldn't start, not that we wanted to go anywhere anyway, but I just wasn't up to doing much whatsoever. It was a really, really quiet week around here. So instead, I'm posting January's reading log!

I have had such an amazing reading month!

For all that I felt reading slumpy back in October/November, I'm exactly the opposite right now. I credit this entirely to the What Should I Read Next podcast. I've been listening to this as I fall asleep, work in the kitchen, and complete other tasks that don't require listening to anything else. It's gotten me so excited about reading new things, branching out of my regular genres and including more fiction in my life. Every trip to the library seriously feels like Christmas morning these days.

I'm trying something new with this post. Years ago, I used to run a book blog that received some moderate attention (decent number of followers, multiple authors quoted my reviews on their websites; the Raleigh News & Observer's book page quoted me; I was occasionally offered books to review by authors and publishing companies). I absolutely loved book blogging, but it got too difficult to keep up when my son went to school full-time and I took some college classes. I miss it, and so I've decided to start another book blog, dedicated fully to my reading life. I'll list the books I've read here, but I'll link to my book blog, and if the book interests you, click on through and read the review!

Here's what I read in January of 2019.

1. Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity- Emily Matchar

2. The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom- Helen Thorpe

3. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea- Barbara Demick

4. This Dark World: A Memoir of Salvation Found and Lost- Carolyn S. Briggs

5. The Cult Files: True Stories from the Extreme Edges of Religious Belief- Chris Mikul

6. The Magdalen Girls- V.S. Alexander

7. Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper- Hilary Liftin

8. Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids- Kim John Payne and Lisa M. Ross

9. Switch and Bait- Ricki Schultz

10. A Crazy Kind of Love- Mary Ann Marlowe

11. The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: A Novel of Snow and Courage- Chris Kurtz

12. How Does It Feel to Be Unwanted?: Stories of Resistance and Resilience from Mexicans Living in the United States- Eileen Truax

13. I'll Be There For You: The One about Friends- Kelsey Miller


Thirteen books isn't bad for a month! I think in 2016, I managed to read something like 21 books in January (I was really stressed and reading was how I handled it), but I'm pretty happy with thirteen. :)

Hopefully this week will be a little more energetic (crossing all the things!). My son has his rescheduled choir concert on Wednesday- it was supposed to be Friday, but with the rehearsal on Wednesday being cancelled due to the brutal cold, they moved it to this week. I have to drive him and his friend on Friday after school to a place that's only about 5 miles away but ends up taking about an hour due to traffic (one of the few drawbacks to where we live), and I really need to do a deep cleaning of the house, since everyone was home so many days last week- I've just been too worn out to do it. We'll see how things go. I don't want to push myself and make things worse.


What have you been reading lately?

Friday thoughts 2/1/2019

Goodness, what a strange week it's been so far. With the brutally cold temperatures we've been having, my #1 goal has been to huddle under a blanket and stay warm. Our car wouldn't start on Wednesday or Thursday, but that just means I've gotten in some extra reading time, so I'm not necessarily complaining. ;)

Here are some of the interesting things I dug up online this week!


*Why you should surround yourself with more books than you'll ever have time to read*

I've become very anti-clutter in the past few years, and very not-overwhelming-myself-with-material-possessions, but the reader in me loves this article. To me, books represent possibility. They contain all the things I could know, could learn, could become, if only I sat down and spent time with their contents. I keep a three-shelf bookshelf across from where I sit in the living room, and it's crammed full of books I brought from upstairs, the ones I'll read first when the library stops stocking such fascinating books (because that's totally going to happen...). Those books give me comfort; they're just there, and I *will* get to them. Until they, I'll just enjoy what they stand for: the possibility of a better me. :)


*Steep Climb in Benzodiazepine Prescribing by Primary Care Doctors*

Full disclosure: I'm not on any of these meds. I have nothing to control my pain other than OTC ibuprofen (and you can imagine how well that works when I'm struggling to walk). In the far distant past, I did have a prescription for Xanax to help my I've-been-awake-for-three-days style of insomnia (which was what my doc and I had settled on, and what worked, after trying probably five or six other kinds of meds). I only took it when absolutely necessary and ended up getting rid of an expired bottle of it when we moved back home.

The gist of the article is that ever since the crackdown began on opioids, doctors, especially primary care doctors, have been prescribing benzodiazepines, which include drugs like Valium, Ativan, and Xanax. And now that those are being overprescribed, they're going to be the next drugs to be cracked down on.

*deep breath* All of this makes me pretty angry. Patients with legitimate chronic pain (*raises hand*) are forced to live with zero options for pain control because of stuff like this. We get sent home with paperwork that tells us to keep a positive mental attitude (yes, I've received that; it made me cry. How the hell does one keep a positive mental attitude when walking to the bathroom is so difficult that you're shaking by the time you get there?), and that's it. In the past four years, the only thing I've been offered is something called Meloxicam, which made zero difference in my pain levels (and my pain doc, when I asked him, said if that was the case, not to bother taking it, but didn't offer me anything else). I'm not saying this because I want strong medication- I've taken Vicodin after root canals in the past (I had to Google to remember the name of that!) and it makes me sleepy, and that's obviously not something I can be with a four year old in my care. I'm saying this because it's frustrating, it's disheartening, and it honestly feels like the entire medical profession is blowing pain off these days.  Case in point? A terminally ill friend of mine also has nothing prescribed to her for pain relief. That's where we're at these days.

I'm also incredibly irritated by this line in the article:

For example, a form of talk therapy has been shown to be one of the most effective treatments for insomnia. And simply practicing better sleep hygiene can make a big difference, she says.

Seriously? Because talk therapy is affordable and accessible to so many people? If you've got small children and no childcare, if you can't afford the co-pay (even sliding scale can be prohibitively expensive), if you work split-shift or nights, if there's no one in your area who accepts your insurance- any of these can place people outside the access of therapy services, and incidentally, many of these can be barriers to practicing better sleep hygiene. And that leaves these people with...nothing. And doing nothing isn't healthcare.


*'Delusional' parent's ad demands that babysitter pay for food, support Trump, and love pitbulls*

Yikes.

Don't be this parent!

Summary: a parent placed an ad for a babysitter, making a few reasonable demands, a few demands that were beyond the pale, and then offered a ridiculous salary for what they were demanding.

A few of them I can see. Comfortable with pitbulls? If you've got one, that's probably a good thing to mention; not everyone is comfortable with dogs, let alone pitbulls. I have no problem with that, and if you want your childcare provider to share your political or religious beliefs, that's also not a big deal. But if you want someone with a Bachelor's degree, full-time availability (including weekends!), a second language, and you expect them to own a car, offering to pay them ten bucks an hour for watching three kids is ridiculous and you deserve to be laughed at. That's insulting.


*Scientists Crack a 50-Year-Old Mystery About The Measles Vaccine*

For years, scientists have wondered about the correlation between the measles vaccine and the lower rate of death from childhood infections that children who received the vaccine experienced. Now they think they might finally understand what's going on. Turns out measles screws up your immune system for several years afterwards, making the person who suffered from measles susceptible to all sorts of horrible illnesses. But vaccinating against measles keeps you safe from measles and all the other stuff you didn't get because you didn't get measles in the first place.

This is still a hypothesis, but there's compelling evidence for it. Fascinating stuff!


*Rare half-male, half-female cardinal spotted in Pennsylvania*

Ooh, pretty! The article is really neat and explains exactly what's going on with this bird, how it will most likely be capable of reproducing, and why that's exciting for scientists, so you should definitely read it because it's cool stuff. But really, the bird is just pretty. Nature's pretty awesome. :)



And that's it for the week! Our car did start this morning- my husband brought the battery in overnight, let it warm, and charged it, and I was able to get everyone to where they needed to be this morning, although not without some fear, because it snowed overnight and the roads were wicked. Even doing 25 mph down Main Street, we almost ended up in someone's front yard, twice. I have books due at the library today, so we'll have to go out, but I'm waiting for a bit to let the roads clear up after that!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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?

Friday thoughts 1/25/2019

Good morning! It's COLD outside! It was -6 when I drove my husband and son this morning. Being outside is not pleasant whatsoever. And next Wednesday, the forecast says the high will be -9. YIKES.

Now, I generally don't mind cold weather, but this is a little ridiculous! I'm thankful for my toasty warm house and lots of blankets to snuggle under (and leftovers for dinner tonight so that I don't have to cook and can stay snuggled underneath!). I've got a list of things to do today, but right now, all I want to do is huddle under my blanket!

Here's a few of the interesting things I dug up online this week.



*The skyrocketing costs of insulin*

This is something that worries me greatly. My father is a type 1 diabetic, and if you're not familiar with diabetes, type 1 is insulin-dependent and that won't ever change. All the news about insulin lately- the ridiculous costs of it (which have risen far more than can be accounted for by inflation; one type of insulin has seen a price increase of over 1000% in the past twenty years that also can't be accounted for by increased production costs), the stories of people who have had to ration it, the articles about people who died because they hadn't been able to afford it- it scares me, badly.

Diabetics need insulin to survive. They're guaranteed customers for these companies, and yet these companies price their product so far out of reach that people are dying and the companies are killing off their own customer base in the name of corporate greed. How is this not murder? At the very least, they're shooting themselves in the foot. Price it lower and everyone will be able to pay. Price it higher and your customer base starts dying because they can't pay for it. This doesn't seem like a difficult decision to me, but then again I'm not full of corporate greed and desperate to make a profit no matter how many people I kill off.


*The Limits of Home Cooking*

I cook almost every night of the week, unless there are leftovers. Occasionally we'll go out, but we try to make it a special treat and only go to restaurants that have things I can't prepare at home (or at least successfully prepare at home! I LOVE Indian food and make some of my own, but that's one of the few things that tastes better when someone else makes it. If anyone has a suggestion for a really great vegetarian Indian cookbook, I'm all ears). But I do realize that my ability to make full, healthy meals at home every night comes from a place of privilege. We're incredibly lucky that my husband's salary is enough that I can stay home and have the time to cook from scratch, and that we can afford healthy food. We're incredibly lucky that I was raised in a family where education was valued and that I learned the skills necessary in order to be able to learn and teach myself new skills (and that my ability to learn wasn't compromised by childhood trauma). Not everyone is that lucky, and while too many people in the food industry (Michael Pollan, I'm looking at you) seem to think that if women would just start roasting free range chickens every night, all our societal problems would be solved, but the answer just isn't that simple.

Who cooks when you're working 72 hours a week on your feet? How do you prepare a healthy meal when you have a 3 hour commute? If your landlord hasn't fixed your busted oven in three months and all you have is a single hotplate and three hungry kids who also need help with their homework, what do you do? It's not just that people can't or don't want to cook; our society often works against those with more difficult lives, to prevent them from cooking. My husband used to say things like, "Poor people just need to plan better and do things like use a crockpot!" And then we added our daughter to the family (which means less sleep), he got a different job with an increased workload and a longer commute, and he finally admitted that if I weren't around to cook dinner every night, he'd probably just feed everyone crap like pizza rolls constantly because he's just too tired to cook. There's a lot that needs to be changed in our society so that everyone can prepare healthy, well-balanced homemade meals every night.

The book referenced in the article doesn't come out until March and I absolutely plan on reading it. Food politics is a subject that has long fascinated me, and this book looks really interesting.



*15 Stats That Show Americans Are Drowning in 'Stuff''*

'Look around,' the meme says. 'All that stuff used to be money.'

Even as I purge more and more of our belongings, we've still got too much stuff. Most likely, you do too. How did we get like this? What makes us want to collect stuff like a squirrel collects nuts?

The picture in that article? That looks almost identical to what my daughter's room looked like before I overhauled it this week. Toys scattered all over the floor, mixed in with each other, and an overwhelmed child right in the middle of it all. All those extra toys weren't making her happy, and all that extra stuff isn't making us happy either.

These stats are jarring and they're going to be something I keep considering as I continue to pare down the stuff we own. I'm already seeing the positive effects of cutting down the number of toys in my daughter's room- she's less prone to drawn-out tantrums this week, she's more engaged with the toys she does have in there, I'm less cranky because I don't have to spend thirty minutes every day cleaning her room- and I expect these trends will continue the more I weed out stuff we don't truly need.

And on a lighter note...


*Dog Accidentally Runs Half-Marathon After Being Let Out For Pee, Finishes 7th*

Good boy! :D

April Hamlin let her dog out to go potty one morning and to her surprise, her dog ran an entire half-marathon and came home with a medal. Now that's some determination! I haven't been able to stop laughing at this since I saw it. Dogs are the best. :)



And that's it for today! May you have a warm weekend no matter what the weather, and I'll see you on Monday. :)

Completed project: Overhauling my daughter's room.

My daughter has a lot of toys.

Like...

A LOT LOT LOT of toys.

That? Is a HUGE amount of toys. That's not even all of them. Under the bed, in the closet, in the toybox...

Toys are fun. Toys can be hours of imaginative play. It's always fun to get a new toy, right?

Well...too much of a good thing isn't necessarily a better thing, and that's a concept I've been pondering for a while now. I've posted a few articles in my Friday Thoughts posts about how less is more when it comes to toys, and that message came through loud and clear for me this week.

Recently, Elizabeth Willard Thames, she of the amazing and inspirational Frugalwoods blog, made a post about the challenges of holidays with small children. So much of what she posted rang true for me, and when she mentioned a book called Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids, my ears (eyes?) perked up. This sounded like something I needed, and as luck would have it, my local library had a copy.

I'm not done with the book yet, but SO much of what this author is saying makes sense. Basically, given too many options, too many choices for anything, kids become easily overwhelmed, and it shows in their behavior. One of the examples he gave talked about a little girl with so many toys that she wasn't even playing with them, just kind of...arranging them. Gathering them in odd mixes. And with that, I sat back and went, "Oh." Because that's pretty close to how my daughter plays with her toys. I'm constantly finding bags and containers full of toy food, play rocks, Mr. PotatoHead parts, Barbie clothes, a block or two, a shoelace, just odd mixtures of things that don't at all go together (but of course need to be separated and put back into their proper containers). And that's when I realized...maybe my daughter wasn't having all that much fun. Maybe something needed to change.

And so last night, I started making plans. I broached the idea with my daughter (she's 4.5) and, to my surprise, she readily agreed to it. Now, this is a kid who once sobbed during a game of imagination when a doll (that she had JUST MADE UP) had broken. The doll didn't even exist, but she burst into tears over the mere idea of this doll not existing anymore. But she was amenable to the idea of clearing her room out so she could focus on a select few toys, and so I told her that was the plan for the next day.

I'm even happier that I cleaned the basement out this summer, because that's where everything went. The first to go was the toybox, which isn't so much a toybox these days as a giant catch-all for stuff she rarely plays with anyway. And then the little Frozen mirror table, the Little People toys that she doesn't play with anyway, the tent and stuffed animals that filled it and rendered it useless (I SWEAR stuffed animals multiply. I'm going to go through them and pass some of them on, because no one on this planet needs four garbage bags full of stuffed animals), her dollhouse (she plays with the dolls and clothes, but not the house), and a whole bunch of other stuff. Downstairs it all went to a corner of the basement. She helped me carry some of it down, and she knows that she can visit it or trade some stuff out for something else whenever she wants, but for now, that big pile stays down there.

And we'll go through it from time to time, I'm sure, to see what we can get rid of, or what she's developed an interest in, but for now, we're going to give this new, streamlined room a try and see if her behavior improves any. She's always been an intense kid, prone to quick tantrums and meltdowns if something doesn't go exactly the way she thinks it does (or doesn't match up the picture in her mind. Last week, she sobbed because I wouldn't put doll pants on the cat...), and although I'm sure a large part of that is just her personality, overwhelming her with 234823497832749832 options for toys probably wasn't helping, as evidenced by the grouping-odd-stuff-together method of playing. Thus, the whole room overhaul.

And there we go. Calm. Clean. Relaxing.

When we were finished, her exact words were an excited-sounding "I LIKE my room like this!" She was especially excited about the two sets of drawers being separated. "Now I can reach everything!" she told me. Before I was even done hauling stuff downstairs, she was digging through the drawer with her coloring books and coloring on the table- something she's NEVER done before. The table was always covered with Little People toys she never played with, and although she knew exactly where the coloring books were, she never took them out. Today, she did. Later on, the table became a place to make phone calls (her kitchen has a cordless phone), and she used the stool under the table to set up a lemonade stand. I lay on her bed and read out loud to her as she played, and she enjoyed that. She kept sighing happily and chatting about how much she liked the space, and when we cleaned up before going downstairs for lunch, it took two minutes. It really does feel like an entirely new room. 

So thanks, Mrs. Frugalwoods, and thanks to Mr. Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, because although long-term results remain to be seen, today she's happy with the calmness of her new room, and so am I. 

Weekly recap: 1/21/2019

It. Is. COLD!!!!

I thought my toes were going to freeze off my feet last night before going to bed. Our heat is set to go down to 62 around 9 pm, and by the time my husband and I got upstairs, despite my multiple layers, I was freezing. We have a day in the forecast where the high is 3F. I'm NOT looking forward to that!!!

Driving everyone in the morning and waking up a little earlier hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be (although that was before single digit temperatures; I might have a different story next week!). I'm exhausted at the end of the day, though, and I've been starting to fall asleep on the couch most nights. Oops!

Up until Saturday afternoon, my pain was manageable for the most part, so that was a bit of a nice break. Still there, but not terrible. Today's verging on terrible, so that's a bummer, but nothing new.

Feels like it's been a quiet week with nothing major happening, but after the busyness of last week, sometimes you need that.

Okay, let's get this show on the road, shall we?



MONDAY

I woke up feeling pretty good, pain-wise! I drove everyone where they needed to go, and after my daughter had breakfast and got ready for the day, we got gas and made a trip to Walmart, where we purchased bubble bath and skirt hangers (but forgot the distilled water for my iron, dang it!). At home, I threw my daughter into the tub, where she played, and I organized my next-to-the-bathroom closet. It's where we keep all the medicine, all my toiletries and my daughter's hair accessories like hair ties and barrettes, our bath towels, etc. It had stayed in decent condition since I last organized it in the summer, but I was still able to condense some things and throw out a bunch of other things. Here it is, in all its organizational glory!

Not bad! Hard to take a good photo of this, though.

Once that was finished, I scrubbed my daughter down, and after I got her dressed, I started the dishwasher. I got some lentils started in the Instant Pot, and during naptime, I did a twenty minute yoga video that, for whatever reason, my body didn't care for. I was actually shaking afterwards, so I opted out of doing more. I got a batch of Baingan Bharta (mashed spiced eggplant) going in the Instant Pot, as well as a batch of rice going in the rice cooker, then cleaned up the kitchen, took out the recycling, unloaded the dishwasher, and took out the compost. When the Instant Pot beeped, I mashed the eggplant, then stirred the lentils into it. (Maybe not quite traditional, but it bulks the meal out a bit and adds some protein!)

My son wanted to go to the Senior Recital for the music department at school (and I would've gone if it had been at a different time), so we picked his friend up and I dropped them both off at the school. There wasn't enough time to go back home, so my daughter and I played at the library until my husband arrived from the train. 

At home, I ate dinner and farted around on the computer until my son texted to let me know he was done, so I picked the boys up and dropped his friend off. My son and I dragged the trash and recycling cans to the curb, and after my shower, I put dinner away and cleaned up the kitchen. I read my library book for a bit, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed. 

TUESDAY

I had some noticeable SI joint pain on this day...

I put the dishes in the dishwasher, then drove everyone to where they needed to be. I read my library book during breakfast (my daughter watches TV; I usually use this time to catch up on a few online things, but not always), then I tidied the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, and swept the living room floor.

And then my mom arrived! She comes up every few weeks to hang out with us and it's always nice. We visited for a bit and then went for lunch at a local pizza buffet. They also have different types of pasta and a vat of chicken noodle soup, which made my daughter happy. It was RIDICULOUSLY cold out this day. The temperature wasn't low, but it was windy and that made everything cold, even in the house.

The poor cold kitty huddled up to the heating vent agrees with me!

After lunch, we stopped by the thrift store, where I bought three skirts for my skirt-and-dress-loving daughter. They were on sale for a dollar each, and she's so excited about them. After my mom went home, I finished my library book, and when it was time, we picked up my husband. I tried to read more of my library book after dinner, but my husband and daughter were extra boisterous this evening, and so I gave up and just messed around online until it was time to pick up my son, who had stayed late to volunteer to pack food with his choir at an organization that ships food overseas. They packed enough meals to keep two children in Haiti fed for a year, and he enjoyed the experience. I read more of my book at home, and my husband and I watched an episode of Supernatural before bed. 

WEDNESDAY

I don't know if I slept funny or what, but the muscles on the right side of my back were crabby as heck today. Driving was totally uncomfortable because of it.

I drove everyone where they needed to go, completed my basement chores of scooping the litterbox and refilling our Air Washer, and then it was time to run for groceries. I watch the weather forecasts carefully, and as the upcoming week was forecast to drop down into the low teens (with possible snow), I decided to shop a little extra this week in order to NOT have to go out next week. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if it were just me, but I have no desire to stand out in three wind-whipped parking lots in 11 degrees F, trying to hurry to get my daughter properly buckled in her car seat. NO THANK YOU. It may take a little creativity and extra time in the kitchen, but we *should* be good for two weeks; I can only think of a few things that may necessitate a trip out. We'll see. ;)

At home, I put everything away, including out in the garage freezer (our garage is unattached, so this is always an ordeal!). I took out the recycling and the compost, and during naptime, I read my book and dozed for a bit. My daughter and I hung out at the library until my husband got off the train, and after dinner, I read my library book until it was time to pick up my son, who had joined the pep band to play bass drum at a minor league hockey game (he had a great time!). My husband and I managed to watch most of an episode of Supernatural before I passed out! I was exhausted for some reason.

THURSDAY

I dropped my husband off, dropped my son off, then went back and picked my husband up again. The trains weren't running due to a suicide on the tracks in our town. This is something that happens far too frequently and is just a complete heartbreak. If any details have been released, I haven't seen them, but I'm so sad for the person's family, and for the workers on the train who were affected; I'm sure it's devastating for them as well. 

At home, I started a load of laundry, then took down the laundry from the drying racks and put that away. I cleaned up the kitchen and got some black beans going in the Instant Pot, and then I dropped my husband off at the next train station up the line, which did have service, although he still had to wait about a half hour for the next train. Due to an impending weekend winter storm, my daughter and I made another trip to Walmart for cat litter, salt for our icy driveway, and the distilled water I'd forgotten on Monday. 

I salted the front and back walkways at home, hung up the wet laundry, and cleaned my daughter's room. Thanks to an online prompting, I vacuumed and lint-rolled the one lampshade we have in the house, then wiped the rest of the lamp down. I hadn't realized how gross it was, but yikes! It looks so much better now. I ran the dishwasher, took out the compost, and during naptime, I made black bean burgers and this potato-onion mixture that I make in this microwaveable potato cooker my mom gave me (my son loves these potatoes). I cleaned up the kitchen, finished one book, and started another. 

We picked up my husband when it was time, I read my book on and off throughout the evening, cleaned the kitchen again, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed. 

FRIDAY

I drove everyone to where they needed to be, and after my daughter and I got ready for the day, we ran to the post office, got gas, made a quick run into Aldi for more lunchmeat (I don't eat meat and so I hadn't realized my husband has been chowing down on this as well, leaving not enough for my son's lunches the next two weeks!), extra coffee creamer for just in case, and a pizza for a quick dinner. I thought we needed to go to the bank, but it ended up not being necessary, so I took my daughter to play at a library in another town, where I also grabbed a few books. 

At home, I tried to doze a little during my daughter's naptime (didn't work!), and then watched a short documentary on the Magdalene laundries. This ties into the book I finished later on on this day. If you've never heard of these, they're horrifying, and I urge you to learn more. I had a vague idea of what they were about, having learned about them in my early 20's (the last one closed when I was a teenager in the mid 90's), but reading and hearing about the details of the atrocious human rights violations committed in these places is rage-inducing. There's another documentary I have bookmarked to watch whenever I get a chance. 

I unloaded the dishwasher and baked the Aldi pizza, then repaired the broken strap on my daughter's Barbie doll dress. Mama to the rescue! We picked my husband up, scarfed down our dinner, then headed to the library to watch a magic show. My daughter loved every bit of this, and it's nice to see her have so much fun. The snow was just starting to fall when we put my daughter to bed. My husband and I squeezed in two episodes of Supernatural before bed, although I was falling asleep on the couch!

SATURDAY

Snow day!!!!!!!!

In total, I think we ended up with about seven inches. It was still snowing when we got up (my daughter thought 6:02 am was a fine time to wake up for the day *grumble*). I wiped down the bathroom counter and changed out the bathroom garbage bag, put the dishes in the dishwasher, started bread in the bread machine, started a load of laundry, took down the laundry hanging on the rack (it takes about two days to fully dry hanging in the basement), and scooped the litterbox. I swept the living room, cleaned my daughter's room, put the folded laundry away, hung up the wet laundry, and started another load of my son's bedding. 

During some of this, my husband and daughter went outside, where my husband figured out the snowblower we'd purchased last year. 

A GLORIOUS SIGHT TO BEHOLD!!!!

Little bit snowy out there. :)

When they came in, they were both snow-caked, so I tossed their pants and my daughter's snow gear into the dryer, then got the bread to rise in pans. The dryer didn't have to run too long to get that small load dry, and I tossed the bedding in next. I baked the bread, threw together a batch of Cauliflower Potato Soup, and then tried to nap for a bit. Didn't work. Don't you just hate that? This was about the time when my right hip really started bothering me in a bad, bad way.

After dinner, I loaded and ran the dishwasher, took the compost out (BRRR! The temp was definitely starting to drop), cleaned up my daughter's toys in the living room, and restarted the load of bedding in the dryer. I read some more of my library book, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.



SUNDAY

Quiet day around here. I read my library book throughout the morning, and we made a trip to the Dollar Store and the book store next door so my husband could grab a set of tiny screwdrivers in order to fix my daughter's light saber. I read a little more after lunch and then was hurting so much that I went to lie down in bed during naptime. I dozed for about half an hour, and when my daughter got up, she and I went to play at the library. I also picked up a copy of Will It Waffle?, a cookbook of recipes you can make on your waffle maker. I learned about this this weekend and I'm excited to flip through it. We picked my son up on the way home.

At home, my daughter played and I read my library book hanging out with her (husband was out at the movies with a friend from childhood. After I put her to bed, I finished my library book (#7 for the year so far!), and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.




I was hurting this morning even before getting out of bed. My right hip is just nasty today and walking is at a turtle's pace. We're taking my daughter to a mini golf program at the library for a little bit (husband is off work today), and I'm not sure what we'll do after that. Hopefully something warm!


How was your week???

Friday thoughts 1/18/2019

Batten down the hatches, folks! We're gearing up to get some weather. Nothing too crazy- I saw Bangor, Maine is supposed to get something nuts like two feet of snow during this storm! I think our forecast states something like 5-9 inches, so we'll see how that goes. And then the temperatures fall. Our highs after Saturday are only in the low teens. I'm more concerned with that than the snow!

Here's the weekly roundup of interesting things I found online this week!


*Man Sleeps 5 Hours a Night as "Experiment"; Moms Everywhere Are Like, So?*

Have you ever rolled your eyes so hard, you practically sprained something?

That was me when I was reading this.

This guy slept 4.5 hours at night, took two naps during the day, and thinks he should receive a medal for it.

NO.

I'm not trying to play the Suffering Olympics here. I'm sure he felt terrible- I have no doubt about that. Messing with your sleep is no joke. But dude. DUDE. I did this every day of my life for 18 months. I hallucinated. I drove through stoplights. I forgot where I was going as I was driving down the road at full speed. I thought of something I needed to do, stood up, and had no idea why I was standing. All because I regularly woke up 6 times a night with my daughter, between 11 pm and 6 am, and she didn't nap at that point, so I couldn't nap either. And no one was falling all over themselves to congratulate me for it. Mostly, people just rolled their eyes or laughed (which only served to make me feel worse). After I started having serious concerns about killing us all while driving, we let her cry for a night or two and she started sleeping normally, and I finally got five straight hours in a row and felt human for the first time in almost two years, but she's 4.5 now and I still don't feel like my brain has fully recovered from all the sleep it missed out on during that time (maybe if I could get more than 6.5 hours a night, but that's not possible right now).

So yeah. Hearing about this dude's experiment irritated me to no end. You want to hear how awful sleep deprivation is? Talk to some of us moms and believe us, because we know.



*Case report: Woman gives herself a C-section and saves her baby*

WHOA.

This is just a brief medical abstract, but to sum it up, a woman who lived in a village with no electricity, no running water, and no prenatal care, ended up having to give herself a C-section in order to deliver a live baby. The village nurse provided some post-section medical care, and then the poor mother had to travel to the nearest hospital, which was EIGHT HOURS AWAY BY CAR.

She was discharged from the hospital ten days post-section.

I could not have done that, could not have sliced myself open, and am horrified that that seemed to be her only option. I'm not saying that everyone needs to live the lifestyle that we live in Western countries, but man, I wish women had better medical care around the world so that a DIY C-section never had to be an option.



*Sherrilyn Kenyon accuses husband of 'Shakespearean plot' to poison her*

Holy cow.

I haven't read Ms. Kenyon's books, but I'm familiar with her, so I was stunned to read this article. It's honestly like something out of a thriller novel or a movie. She tested positive for high levels of some scary stuff after filing for divorce and only improved when she spent time away from her husband. Her husband, via his lawyer, seems to be scoffing at it all.

What a scary situation. Check your food, friends.



*'Frosty had the last laugh': Vandal tries to run over giant snowman, hits tree stump instead*

*giant grin*

I do my best to be kind to others and generous in my thoughts, even to those who are unkind to me. It's something I actively work on, because kindness is in such short supply around the world these days. But sometimes, when someone does something horrible solely for the sake of being horrible, it's nice to see karma come back, in this case fairly immediately. :)

The people in this story got a large amount of snow for what sounds like the first time, at least for one of them. They celebrated by building a nine-foot-tall snowman around a large tree stump in their yard, and the picture of it is adorable. Good for them, right? It's so nice to see people take joy in simple things, like building a snowman in the yard.

Along comes some jerk who has to ruin it all. Tire tracks lead up to the stump, where someone obviously tried to run it over, because no one can have nice things without someone else trying to ruin it for them, apparently. But Frosty had the last laugh, because his base was a large snow-covered tree stump, and odds are, the driver has some self-inflicted front-end damage right now, a fitting end for someone whose goal was seemingly ruining someone else's joy.

(I'm assuming that the police ruled out, via examining the tire tracks, the possibility of an accidental off-roading due to conditions. I would be entirely sympathetic to a person who accidentally slid off the road and smacked into Frosty.)

Moral of the story: being a jerk only comes back to hurt you in the end. Don't be that person, folks!



And that's about it! I hope you all have a fantastic weekend, no matter what the weather where you're at. Stay safe, and I'll see you Monday. :)

Weekly recap 1/14/2019

This feels like it's been a busier week than normal.

Maybe it's just how the week ended, but I feel good about all the stuff I got done this week. The word I have in mind for this year is 'industrious,' and that's never far from my mind as I make my way through the days. I've been able to check a few projects off my list this week, but of course, there are always a million more waiting. It never ends, does it? ;)

Let's recap the week!



MONDAY

Oof! My hips were so sore on this day. My son pointed out that it might be due to the cold rainy weather, and that was definitely a possibility.

I started the day by going out to our unattached garage to retrieve some previously roasted and frozen butternut squash, then came back inside and went down to the basement to grab both my crockpot and bread machine. I tossed the ingredients for Tomato Butternut Squash Soup into the crockpot (using onions I'd sauteed the night before), put the ingredients for bread into the bread machine, cleaned up the kitchen, and ran the dishwasher. I took down the laundry that was hanging on racks in the basement and folded it, cleaned up my daughter's room, then put away that laundry in both her room and mine.

I started a load of my son's laundry, got the bread in the bread pans to rise (does anyone actually cook bread in their bread machine? I'm not a fan of how it turns out), unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, then overhauled the cabinet underneath my kitchen sink. YIKES, was it terrible.

So, when my mom was here watching my daughter so I could go to physical therapy this fall, she looked for something under the sink and...um, well, it was a mess. I clean and organize that area once or twice a year, but this was at an off time, and so for Christmas, she bought me a shelf to go under the sink! (Not as judgment, more as a, "Ooh, this will help!" My mom is fantastic at gifts like that!). And so I condensed items, tossed stuff out, moved a basket of candle-making supplies to the basement, recycled things, it was glorious. It's not perfect-looking, but it's organized and I'm thrilled about it!

I can actually find stuff now!!!

Do you have an organizational system under your sink? I had everything in baskets before, but the amount of stuff outgrew the basket space and it ended up just really not working out. I'm so happy about this shelf!

I hung my son's laundry to dry, baked the bread, and read my library book. When my daughter woke up, she and I waited at the library to pick my husband up (the train station is right behind, so we do this often). At home, I cleaned the kitchen, took the trash and recycling to the curb, and did my PT exercises. My husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed.

TUESDAY

Yikes, the hip pain was still going on this day, and got worse at night. :( 

Today was the first day I had to start driving my son to school for early gym (something he's doing voluntarily, in order to make space for another class), so I dropped my husband off at the train, and then dropped my son off at school at 6:30. 

My daughter's behavior on this day was less than exemplary, and although it was a bad morning, I gave her another chance and we went to play at a library out of town. Unfortunately, she continued to not listen to a single word I said, and so we left after about twenty minutes. Oy.

At home, I scooped the litter box and read my library book, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. For dinner, I made Rice Cooker Spanish Rice and stirred some cooked Soyrizo into it (my daughter had leftover soup and grilled cheese; the Soyrizo is too spicy for her still). I swept the living room floor, then brought in our two containers of old Halloween and Christmas candy, and I sorted through it, pulling out all the old chocolate (and separating whatever was left into plastic bags). And I took that old chocolate and melted it down and turned it into a batch of brownies, going off of a recipe from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. They turned out pretty good- I saved three for my son's lunches the rest of the week, and my family devoured the rest. It's a great way to use up candy that doesn't get eaten before it turns old and just sits there. :)

I read more of my library book, and when it was time, we picked my husband up. At home, I read *more* of my book, and cleaned the kitchen, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before bed. :)

WEDNESDAY

GAH, that hip pain! It kept going throughout the day and ended up traveling down my legs as well. HMPH.

I drove everyone where they needed to be, and after my daughter and I got ready for the day, I made out a list and we were off to grocery shop! On this day, we hit three different stores. I spent closer to my normal total this week, because we needed perishable things like cheese, bread, milk, and fresh produce, but everything I got was fresh; I'm still committed to eating down what's in my garage freezer and some of my pantry. At home, we put groceries away, I took out the compost, loaded and ran the dishwasher, and got some white beans into the Instant Pot. I started a loaf of French bread in the bread machine (not my preferred method of making French bread, but my regular method needs to be started much earlier in the morning, so this would have to do!), and started a load of my son's laundry.

When the bread machine beeped, I put the bread out to rise, then unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. I took out the recycling and compost, and for dinner, I made an Instant Pot full of veggie soup (using up some frozen corn, along with the last of my fresh spinach), because it was bitterly cold outside. I cleaned up the kitchen, swept the basement, then folded my son's hanging laundry and hung up the wet load. I delivered the basket to his room, baked the bread, and finally finished the library book I'd been reading- which meant, of course, that I could start a new one. Which I did. ;)

I picked my husband up, and after dinner, I put the leftovers away, then loaded and ran the dishwasher. I swept the living room and kitchen and did my PT exercises, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.


THURSDAY

My son didn't have to go in early on this day, and I was hoping my daughter would sleep in, but nope! Up at 6:15 am. I was tired and got a slow start to the morning, but once I got going, I threw my daughter into the tub and organized one of the hallway closets. 

It's a weird closet- its location is such that it's situated over our downstairs stairway, so the door and floor of the closet is about at chest level for me (and I'm about 5'8"). It's also long and goes back stupidly far, so it's easy for stuff to get shoved to the back, lost, or forgotten. For the past two years or so, I've been going through it every six months or so, in order to organize and pitch, and it was time today. I found a mesh laundry bag, which I used to store all our bedsheets in (along with one of those plastic bags with a zipper that comforters come in- I *knew* that thing would come in handy!), so those are all organized and not falling all over the place now. I tossed a few things, placed two more things into the giveaway pile, organized my shampoo collection, and pulled out a box and some extras of diapers that my daughter never needed. There's an organization in town that hands out diapers to needy families; they'll gladly accept open packages as well as closed, and a local school is doing a diaper drive for them. A mom of those students had posted on FB a few days ago, and as I knew I had some to donate, that was my impetus to clean out that closet. (I messaged her and she came and picked them up later on in the day. She's thrilled to receive them, I'm happy they're going to people who need them and happy they're out of my house!!!) 

Also in the closet was a bag of too-big clothes for my daughter. I went through it and found a few things that will fit her now and in the summer, so I put those away in her closet (tidying up the area in front first so I *could* put them away!) and I went through the other bags of too-big clothes in her closet and condensed them down into two bags (clothes sizes 6-10; when yard sale season starts, I'll focus mostly on sizes 5-6 and larger; that way I never have to go out and buy new clothes, I can just shop what I've already bought at ridiculously low prices).

I started bread in the bread machine, vacuumed the hallway, then scrubbed my daughter down and made her try on a few articles of clothing once she was out of the tub. (At this point, I checked my step counter and was surprised see that I'd already walked two miles just in my house!) I emptied and refilled the dishwasher, vacuumed and tidied the living room, and when it was time, I put the bread to rise in pans.

Once my daughter went down for a nap, I did 28 minutes worth of yoga and baked the bread. 

Smells so good!

After my daughter woke up, I cleaned her room, and when it was time, we picked my husband up. I drove my son to a basketball game at school, cleaned up the kitchen, showered, put my daughter to bed, then had about ten minutes to read my library book before I had to leave to pick my son up.

My husband and I watched one episode of Supernatural before bed.


FRIDAY

Pain levels weren't too bad on this day; my hips finally seemed to quiet down.

I drove everyone to where they needed to be, then put chickpeas into the Instant Pot as soon as we got home. My daughter and I had breakfast and got ready for the day, and then we were off to play at a library in another town, where I also picked up a few books.

She was SO much better behaved on this day!!!

On the way home, we stopped by Aldi to pick something up for my husband. At home, I took the chickpeas out and turned them into red pepper hummus. I steamed sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot, and when they came out, I used the pot to cook couscous. I roasted broccoli, took out the compost, filled and ran the dishwasher, and tidied up the kitchen. When my daughter woke up, I used my (very loud) food processor to make a garlic tahini sauce, and then we went to the library in our town, where we read a large stack of books, picked up a book for my husband, and then picked my husband up. ;)

At home, we made Mediterranean-flavored couscous bowls with all the things I'd cooked for the day piled on top. I tidied the kitchen up, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and ran it again, and watched two episodes of Supernatural with my husband before bed.



SATURDAY

No kid gymnastics; we missed the sign-up for this session, so we'll start up again in February. No big deal!

But yikes, a LOT of hip pain on this day, to the point that walking hurt and I had to take it slow.

Since we had the morning free, we went to Saturday storytime at the library, then played in the playroom. I got to chat with a mom whose daughter had been in my daughter's preschool class last year. Her daughter is in kindergarten at the same school my daughter will be at next year, so I'm looking forward to already knowing a few people at the school!

My mom texted me to ask if we had any snow. I texted her back with this picture:

So pretty! 

I finished a library book during naptime, and then we made a trip to Menards, where we used a gift card to buy a shelf to go under the bathroom sink and supplies to make a clothing rack in the laundry room. Closet space in my house is ridiculously limited and I have nowhere to hang up my long skirts. Since jeans are hurting my right hip these days, I either wear sweatpants, a leggings/long shirt/cardigan combo, or leggings and a long skirt with a sweater or shirt and cardigan. But since my skirts are all stored in a large Rubbermaid container, that means I have to iron every time I want to wear one, and I don't have time to do that every morning, so this clothing rack will give me a place to hang up a bunch of skirts. I still need to get skirt hangers; I'm hoping to do that this upcoming week.

At home, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher while my husband made some boxed macaroni and cheese for him and my daughter (I can't eat that stuff; I had leftovers). I read a little of my next library book, and my husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural before going to bed.



SUNDAY

Busy day.

BUSY day.

With all the snow we got on Saturday, the family event that would've required us to travel was rescheduled (thankfully; I'm not sure my hips could've taken the car ride). So my husband and daughter left to go sledding with other family members, and I got to work at home despite my already aching hips.

I started out with my basement chores, then got a load of laundry going and ran the dishwasher. I headed upstairs and took everything out of the cabinet under the sink, placed the shelf in there, then reorganized everything (SO much better!), cleaning the toilet and emptying the trash since I was up there. I put the dishes in the dishwasher, did a quick tidy-up of the kitchen, and took out the recycling. I tidied and swept the living room, took down the load of my son's laundry that was on the drying racks, delivered it to his room, then hung the load of laundry I'd just washed. I started a load of my daughter's bedding and headed back to the kitchen, where I baked a batch of Norwegian kringler cookies (this was a new recipe for me, from a 1001 cookie recipe book, and they're pleasant enough. They used up the rest of a container of sour cream, so hurray for no waste!). I then set about deep cleaning the kitchen, scrubbing everything including the sink and running a knife along the metal edges of my counter to get the grime out.

I switched the bedding laundry into the dryer, then stripped the couch and chair blankets off and threw those into the wash. I vacuumed underneath the couch cushions (which weren't too bad, surprisingly!), then vacuumed my stovetop, sprinkled it with baking soda, sprayed it with my vinegar cleaner, and left it to sit while I cleaned my daughter's incredibly messy room. I emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, then scrubbed down my stovetop, including around the burners with a toothbrush (I definitely need to do that more often. And I can, now that I can actually find the toothbrush in my super-organized under-the-sink kitchen cabinet!). I vacuumed under the kitchen table, swept the living room again, and mopped it, then wiped down the bathroom sink.

At this point, I sat down and checked my step count.

Just about 4.5 miles walked without even leaving the house!!!

My husband and daughter returned home, and during her nap, I took some well-deserved time to relax and read my library book. When my daughter got up, she and I read some library books together while my husband installed my clothes rack in the laundry room. When he finished, they went to play outside in the snow while I prepared dinner, an Instant Pot full of vegan cabbage roll soup (I always use rice, because that's what I have on hand). I cleaned up after myself, then assisted my son on and off, as he was cleaning out his own room (which badly needed it!). 

I put dinner away and cleaned up the post-dinner mess, tidied the living room, and my husband and I watched three episodes of Supernatural. As I got into bed, I checked my step count.

Six miles without ever leaving the house. Not bad for a day's work. ;)

And that was my week! I need to get better at getting back to my PT exercises, but I've been so sore this week (in a way that exercising doesn't help) that it's been difficult to find the motivation.

I'm noticing that I tend to organize the house twice a year, and this time of year is my counter to my big summer house overhaul. I have an enormous pile for the thrift store right now, but we've also got a bunch of snow on the ground, and I don't know how much I want to load up the trunk while tracking all that yuck into the house. Even if I bring it all downstairs first...Hmm. I'm going to have to think about this.

It's going to be another busy week around here. My son has several field trips and something else going on late one night at school, so I'll be making more trips there and back than normal. Friday, we'll take my daughter to a magic show at the library, and I'm hoping to get the closet next to our bathroom organized. It's what holds all our towels, stuff like cold medication, my and my daughter's hair ties and barrettes... It's still in pretty good shape from when I organized it over the summer, so I don't think it'll be a super arduous task, and...maybe I'll tackle my husband's many heaps of clothing in our bedroom, if I get around to it. Maybe. ;)

How did your week go? What projects did you tackle that made you feel accomplished???