Intentional Outdoor Hours: 509 hours (of 1000)
ugh, I got nothing. It's not like I did not step outside all week (hah), but I only count time that I'm intentionally making an effort to be outside, I really did not this week. Must try harder.
Reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman in tiny short bursts that last the length of bathtime. But we are getting in lots of picture book reading from our Christmas collection, including some of favorites including: Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree, Snowmen At Night, and Llama Llama Holiday Drama.
Celebrating my Dad's birthday. We met up for dinner at a local pizza place on his actual birthday in an attempt to hide the fact that we had a surprise party planned for him on Saturday night! My sisters and I put together a whiskey-tasting Roast party for Dad's birthday and it went over awesome. Most of his favorite friends and family came over and took their turns up at our Roast podium to tease Dad a little bit but the overall feeling was happiness, and silliness, and love. It was really perfect and so fun to hear all the memories that people offered up. Chum is awesome and definitely deserved all the love (thank you to all that helped make the night so special!)
Taking part in Giving Tuesday with my Spanish I classes and then so grateful to be on the receiving end of Giving Tuesday from my sweet friend (and cousin) Heather when she swept in to take the two big kids out for an evening playdate and ice cream. I was able to tackle three loads of laundry, vaccuuming, and dinner making with ease. What a momma can get done with two out of four kids out of the house! hah. So grateful to have you in my life, Heather. xxox
(just so we are all clear), YES, Brandon and I are obsessed with This Is Us like the rest of humanity. Goodness, the tears this week. Also #steelernation
Adjusting to the routine of Brandon's new job AND basketball season. Thank goodness for Ms. Christy, our awesome babysitter, who held everyone together this week (even through a missed school bus and a spilled cup of curdled milk all down the curtains! - seriously, God bless her). It's been late dinners and 5pm cups of coffee to get me through the bewitching hours solo - but we're making it. We got to see the bball boys play in a scrimmage last weekend and we're all anxious for regular games to kick in.
Getting Holly Jolly. The kids and I put our tree up (Grey actually requested to put up our fake tree because he likes putting all the branches on! ha) and we got the rest of the decorations out to get our house all ready - including our Santa Key on the door since we don't have a fireplace. (what did we do without pinterest?!) Marco arrived on November 30th and started his antics on the first on the month. Then we spent an afternoon working diligently on our lists to Santa and we have quite a range of requests from live animals, to pooping babydolls, to snacks for the stockings!
Answering a lot of Santa questions. When we pulled up Santa's reindeer cam, Gemma asked me if it was the real Santa, "Like the really real Santa." I told her it was and she said, "but why do I see human hands then?" and Grey and I started giggling because what in the world?! We told her Santa is a human and she said, "No, I think he peeled back his Santa skin, maybe." and then we had to explain that Santa wears gloves! That bright white silky smooth is not his skin!? Oh gosh, the thought of Santa skin is kind of scary. Gem also asked Ms. Christy why Marco our elf had tags if he's real. And the ever amazing Ms. Christy cooly replied that they are just his tags saying he's from the North Pole. Gem is also telling us all not to worry about Christmas because she's getting us all kinds of things and when I ask her how she's buying all this with no money, she answers me with annoyance, "Mum, I told Santa all the things I want you to get. And stuff for Violet and Booboo and Rusty and Daddy, so I took care of all that." oh, okay Roe.
Drowning in laundry. It's official, I am never ever going to be caught up in laundry. I mean, it's almost funny if it wasn't so depressing. It just seems to be an impossibility to think that one woman could ever get ahead with six people's clothes to wash, dry, fold, and put away. There was one day this week where I looked around in disbelief because I thought I was all caught up, until I realized Rusty's dirty hamper was completely full and I had a load of bedsheets that needed done but they were hidden in the girl's closet. Sweet Lord of all that is holy, the wrinkles in our clothes from spending multiple days in the clean-waiting-to-be-folded baskets are so extreme they're cartoonish. (Mommas of more than four - Bless your supermom hearts. I can.not.imagine the mountain of clothes you deal with!)
Continuing our progress on the de-clutter/Konmari effort of our house. This week we tackled the laundry room (which only helps minimally in the Great Laundry Challenge of life, but I'll take it). Bud put up two rows of coat hooks which make a big difference for the kids' coats and backpacks and took down a shelf that was in there making the space feel even smaller than it is. We cleaned out all the cupboards and found a place to put our cardboard/burnables (#countrylife) and it looks a million times better in there. Onward to the home office/desk area and the dining room!
Making our Thanksgiving turkey (not until Sunday night!). We had a kid-favorite of chicken, veggie, and stuffing casserole, and leftover thanksgiving casserole, and also chili over noodles. We are really scraping by on the bottom of the pantry shelves and have a big grocery trip in the plans this weekend. Last month my meal planning was terrible and I combed through the budget and proved my theory that meal planning saves us money! With no official plan and stopping by weekly to pick up groceries little by little all month, we spent about $150 more than normal! So it's back to the meal plan for this month with only one big grocery trip!
Your monthly meal planning inspires me and when we get Winco (my favorite grocery store) here in town, I plan on trying it once!!! It should be here in spring. I'm counting down!
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the laundry-- the wrinkles are totally ridic!
You also have piqued my interest in kon mari... I may be checking that out in the new year!