Monday, April 29, 2024

Randoms

 Harry competed in a huge, nation-wide national-qualifier speech tournament on Friday and Saturday. It was virtual, so he made himself a speaking area in his room (which required moving his giant recliner and one of his desks (lol) into storage).There were 250 kids entered in his event, and the top 16 qualified to nats. Everyone was guaranteed 3 prelim rounds, and on Saturday morning, the tournament cut half the entires to pick the top 128. Harry was still in! He spoke again, and the tournament cut to the top 64 speakers. Harry was still in! He spoke again, and the tournament cut to the top 32 speakers. HARRY WAS STILL IN! He spoke again and then waited an agonizing hour for the qualifiers to be posted on YouTube... and he did not qualify. **whomp whomp** He was third at his district qualifying tourney (the top TWO go to nats) so this was his last chance. He appreciated that his high school speech season ended the same way it began-- with Zooms from his bedroom. But, he was disappointed that he wouldn't be making a return trip to nats. Luckily, he has 4 more years and a potential EIGHT national tourneys in college.

The rest of us were... actually really happy that he didn't make it because that's the very same week we are going on vacation, and we didn't want to change locations to Des Moines, IA (even though we love Des Moines and have fam to visit there-- THERE IS NO OCEAN IN IOWA, actually) (fun fact: the guy who wrote the book in that link grew up literally next door to my mom).

And then! While we were solidifying trip plans (it is SO HARD to travel in the summer with Cooper and Dorothy's activities, my in-person teaching assignment, Dorothy's dance tryouts, Harry and Jack's lifeguard schedules, etc. We are cutting it VERY CLOSE to dance nats with this trip, but **yikes face** **shrug**), Ben was like oh you know ha ha this might be the very last vacation Harry wants to go on with us, and now the stakes feel VERY HIGH. (I also JUST LOOKED at dance nats dates again after I wrote this because I was worried I got them wrong.)

ANYWAY. Other things.

I am trying to upgrade my pajama wardrobe. Where do you buy your pajamas, and why are they great? I got 2 pairs at Nordstrom Rack and cleaned out at least 4 pairs I hate, so I can maybe get a couple more and would love your recs.

Also, I would perhaps like to lose weight with but I also would not like top change any of my food habits. THIS IS A HARD PLACE TO BE, friends. Bah humbug. (I am eating pretzels and cheese while I eat write this).

Related to all of this, I need to buy more swimsuits. Blergh.

Coop qualified to zones for diving over the weekend, meaning he is one step closer to USA Diving nationals-- super excited for him! One more qualifier to go (in Madison! the same exact days as dance nationals **melting emoji**)

Saturday brunch:

Park!!
Speech!



Saturday, April 27, 2024

What's for Dinner April 29-May 3, walking, skirting, etc

 What's for Dinner? STOP ASKING ME. Kidding. But also.

SUNDAY: We are coming off a full weekend of diving, so I am going to say SANDWICHES. CHIPS. FRUIT. VEGGIES. Did I just serve this same basic meal on Friday with grilled cheese? SHUT UP.

MONDAY: My last Monday night meeting of the semester! Frozen randoms for the children and Ben.

TUESDAY: It's my spring speech contest! Woo-hoo! Kids and Ben can have whatever they freaking want for dinner. #IAmTheBest

WEDNESDAY: It's going to be GORGEOUS HERE, so I want to go full summer-- burgers on the grill, corn, watermelon, etc,

THURSDAY: Jack's spring play!! One of us will go this night, and one of us will go Friday with Dorothy and Coop and Harry. Salads and baked potatoes? Breakfast for dinner?

FRIDAY: Pretty sure Cooper has baseball...maybe baseball picnic? OUR FIRST OF THE SEAAAAASON Otherwise, PIZZA for sure.

Saturday, Coop plays baseball at the Milwaukee Brewer's Little League park, and HARRY GOES TO PROM. BABY HARRY. GOES TO PROM. YOU GUYS. How can I even think about dinner in the face of this event?

I definitely walked this week because the weather is perfection.





The girlies dressed up for some dance class spirit weeks, namely MOL gear day, decades day, and unicorn day






Dorothy pulled out all the stops for Throwback Costume Day and wore a PRESCHOOL COSTUME that still fits LOL



And, of course, my last full week of SKIRTATHON










Friday, April 26, 2024

5 on a Friday: RANDOM PICS and the commentary they inspired (17/52)

  1. Minnie has enough hair (BARELY) for fancy braids. She requested an Elsa braid here and was disappointed that her hair was not blond.

2. I am in love with this outfit. Leopard pants. Floral skirt. Star Was shirt. Frozen Crocs.



3. I got a filling at 9 am on Tuesday, and parts of my face stayed numb until 6:30 pm. I really thought I had nerve damage, you guys. Half of my mouth was all collapsed still, and I had this weird pucker in my upper cheek. IT FINALLY WENT AWAY, and I think maybe that part of my face doesn't move very much so doesn't get lots of blood flow? It was anxiety provoking for sure.
4. Multi tasking: tennis AND speceh
5. POLICE HORSES!! IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD! Dorothy spotted them out the front door, and we sprinted across the park to meet them. This one was Cooper (LOL), and according to his business card, he is 1900 pounds. And! Maybe we should all put our weight and hand height on our business cards.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

5 years

 I wasn't going to post anything, but wow. My dad died 5 years ago tonight.

I reflected on the two-year anniversary, and all of that is still just right. Last year, I was fresh off Beatrix's death when this terrible anniversary bloomed, so I wrote about it. Today, I talked with Jon, and he mentioned that the hilarious Miss Congeniality clip about April 25 is forever ruined, which made me laugh a little at least.

My Facebook memories are all about Take Your Kid to Work Day, and I hate looking at all of us living our last normal day and not even knowing it.

(Also taking 3 kids 11 and under to a 100-person lecture class was dumb, and no wonder things did not go well)


(Harry got to go with Ben to the Capitol)


Maybe I have enough distance to see how darling that day was. My kids were babies. BABIES. Dorothy (6), Cooper (7), and Jack (11) had a BLAST at their favorite campus cafeteria after being THE WORST audience members ever in my lecture.



Cruelest April and all that, I guess.

(I turned off comments-- don't feel obligated to say all the lovely things you've said before. I appreciate all of you and love having this space to share).



Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Where all that food goes

 Engie asked for a fridge and pantry tour, and what the heck? Except SPOILER there is no pantry **whomp whomp**

We DO have a gross basement fridge (nothing wrong with this fridge except that Ben is in charge of cleaning it, and it has **never** been cleaned.)


It mainly holds overflow milk, bread (I like my bread in the fridge **shrug**) and random alcohol and mixers. Sometimes if I have ingredients I don't want the kids to eat, I stash them in here, and it is the official Thanksgiving Leftover Storage Spot.

The freezer on top is... a waste of space? I mean we do have a whole ass DUCK in there that I will never let Ben cook because I think duck is gross. Also popsicles, overflow chicken nuggets (LOL) and... other stuff that's too gross to eat because it has been frozen longer than 3 of my kids have been alive. There's at least 1 homemade pot pie and probably a lasagna from the time of the Obama administration. Plus big bags of frozen fruit that I overbought at some point and maybe some bagels in the back?

Also not my space to clean, so **shrug**

The upstairs fridge is kind of an organizational nightmare. It is REALLY deep, and the stuff in the back is ALWAYS hard to access. I have started following fridge organizing Instagram accounts, and some of these women have SALAD BARS in their refrigerators, and this will never be me, but it is so so so awesome.

What I have? Is a mess with LOTS AND LOTS of condiments, and even though I clean them out every few weeks, I always have more than we can reasonably use.

I also wipe the whole fridge down every week and clean out the meat and veggie drawers, and my fridge is still messy and has spills and crumbs. WHY?

In a perfect world, the upstairs fridge would be counter-depth, and this particular fridge/freezer combo would live in the garage to hold snacks and ice cream and beer. SOMEDAY MAYBE.

Right now, it is ALWAYS super full, first with groceries and, then, as the week progresses, with various tupperware containers of leftovers.

Always both produce drawers and usually the very bottom shelf are full to bursting


MORE PRODUCE cut up and ready for snacking on the shelf
SO MUCH CHEESE YOU GUYS.
Current lunch and snack fave-- mini bagels. The perfect size for Minnie's bento box!
Stephany asked about favorite breakfasts, and this is mine. I like to eat it in the car with a coffee on my way to work or home from school drop off while I listen to a book. It is a ton of calories and really well balanced and keeps me snack and craving free until lunch time.
Dorothy has been LOVING these meat and cheese snacks from Aldi-- she takes one for lunch with pretzels or crackers, fruit, match sticked baby carrots, and something sweet, and it's a perfect sandwich alternative for a kid who does not like sandwiches.

Our cabinets are kind of a shit show. Actually, if you come over, you will see that EVERY DRAWER, CLOSET, AND CABINET in the house is a shit show. It is just who I am, and I am not going to change NOW if the first 45 years are any indication.

We have one teeny little terrible spice cabinet


This other regular size cabinet gradually also became spices and small baking ingredients (the big stuff like sugar and flour is in an even bigger jumble-- I AM WHO I AM)

Also with flour and sugar is SOME BUT NOT ALL of my casserole dishes and pie pans and also parchment paper and foil and frosting bags because why would I ever store them with, like, frosting tips?. It makes zero sense.

We do not have a pantry, but DO have 2 really big cabinets jam effing packed with food of all kinds in a manner that defies categorization.

Like the fridge, these cabinets are really, really DEEP in a way that is actually super not helpful because WHO THE HELL KNOWS WHAT'S ALL THE WAY IN THE BACK? That's a rhetorical question because I know in the space of my brain that used to be absofuckinglutely BRILLIANT when I was, say, a PhD candidate defending my preliminary exams or researching my dissertation. Now I am a Wisconsin-sized mom who can always find you that particular kind of protein bar or box of tea you've been searching for in the cabinet. ASK ME WHERE YOUR PISTACHIOS ARE because I KNOW THAT ONE, too.
 
Like 3 rows of cereal deep


And then! In the laundry room! Right as we are on the way to the garage, we have boxes of random prepackaged snacks that we can grab to fill activity bags or the center console of my minivan or my purse. NO ONE LEAVES WITHOUT A SNACK DAMNIT.





Underneath those are bins of other stuff we need to grab on the way out the door: lipstick, lip balm, sunglasses, hand sanitizer, Minnie's tablet, tiny jars of play doh, mess-free coloring books, random kiddie books, markers, stickers, bouncy balls, small wooden puzzles, ziploc bags of Legos with a Lego mat to play on, etc. NO ONE LEAVES WITHOUT AMUSEMENTS, either.

Phew! There you have it. WHERE ALL THAT FOOD GOES.

While I was writing this, I thought of some mom hack stuff I have learned over the years, namely about things to always have on hand because you never know when a million kids are going to be at your house, etc.

Treats you should always stock:
Cinnamon rolls in a tube  (can be a fun breakfast or a cozy snack)
Cookie dough  (when you don't even have time to make cookies)
ingredients for chocolate chip cookies (specifically THESE)
brownie mix
frozen pizza
popcorn (we have a whirley pop and a really cool glass microwave popper)
Twizzlers and/or gummy bears (with the pizza and popcorn you are ALWAYS READY for movie night or a fun matinee)
stovetop hot chocolate ingredients
tiny marshmallows
Back up meal at the ready:
Frozen chicken nuggets
Boxed mac and cheese
canned green beans
applesauce
(this stuff like NEVER GOES BAD, and when it almost does JUST SERVE THIS TERRIBLE MEAL and restock for like $6. But chances are you will have an oh shit dinner night long before anything expires)
Smoothie stuff: (the quick and dirty oh my god it has been a whole day since my kid ate any fruit edition)
bananas
milk 
yogurt
frozen fruit
granola

If I always have all of this stuff on hand, I can solve all situations with food. LIKE THE EMOTIONAL EATER I AM.

Any essential items you keep stocked that might be surprising to others? Does anyone have a fridge salad bar? What's your emergency cabinet meal that you always have on hand?



Monday, April 22, 2024

That escalated quickly

 I was having a FINE TIME on Friday. A little frantic, sure, as the end of the week often is, especially the end of the week near the end of the semester. BUT FINE. Ben was out of town for a work thing, but everyone got to school on time. The house looked mostly OK (even though I didn't change anyone's sheets all week-- don't worry, I changed five freaking kid beds on Saturday); laundry was basically caught up. I did a TON of work on future classes last week, so I really needed to spend my preschool hours in the grade cave. And I did! Harry came home to get changed for a tennis invitational meet and eat a late breakfast. I took a walk, worked on my adjunct classes, graded my freaking face off, updated by 2024 tracking docs, defrosted some chocolate chip brioche to make baked french toast for kid dinner and thought about seeing if Ben wanted to go out when he got back to town. THINGS WERE FINE.

Then I picked Minnie up from preschool, and the moment she saw me on the playground, she started screaming and crying that both of her ears hurt.

**RECORD SCRATCH**

I should note that she was sick AGAIN last weekend (super high fever on Saturday-- that did not break for 24 hours despite meds-- and a headache). She was OK on Monday (had been fever-free for 24 hours by then), but she got a yucky cough and a runny nose), so Ben took her to see her pediatrician on Wednesday to ask why she is sick all the time. The doc said she thinks it's just preschool germs, but she'll do some bloodwork if things don't work themselves out this spring/summer. She also referred us to the ENT (who called me as I was checking Jack in at the pediatric endocrinologist, and typing this, I realize I need to get on the ball and schedule her appointment ASAP since ASAP probably means in like 5 months even if I call first thing Monday **melting emoji**) to see about tubes or maybe tonsils out. She also told Ben that Minnie's ears were red but not infected and advised us to be on the alert for an ear infection. HER SECOND ONE IN 30 DAYS.

WHICH SHE GOT ON FRIDAY WHEN NO PEDS WERE AVAILABLE TO SEE HER. 

Just to make everything more awesome, Harry was at tennis until 5, so he could not help me transport anyone, and Ben was not due back in Madison until around 7. Jack had a 2pm dentist appointment for a checkup and cleaning, and I absolutely could not reschedule because it takes MONTHS to get in right now AND ALSO I forgot to tell Dorothy I wouldn't be home when she got home. This would be ok if it was just the dentist because I'd be home right after her and could leave a note. BUT! The only time a doc in our HMO could see Minnie Friday afternoon was at 3:20 pm at a clinic all the way by my office. (after the pneumonia incident, I have notes in her chart that she should be seen by peds providers first, family practice second, and MD/DO/PNP only if possible).

Soooooooo. I gave Minnie some Tylenol and a heating pad for her ear and made her a snack lunch for her on the couch, where I set her up with a show and a blankie. I texted Harry and told him if he for some reason got done early, I would need him and he should call me. I jumped on our district's online attendance app and called out Jack for his appointment and Dorothy because I realized the only workable solution for her was to get her early and bring her along. I ate lunch, put away the day's laundry, packed a bunch of paper and washi tape and markers and stickers in my purse along with a couple of tiny baby dolls and a bunch of snacks, made sure I had water bottles for both girls, threw ibruprofen in my bag for Minnie, figuring if I alternated ibuprofen and tylenol every 3-ish hours, I could keep her feeling ok ear-pain-wise.

We got Dorothy (who was happy to have some extra time to listen to Taylor Swift), got Jack, drove to the dentist, got Jack checked in, enjoyed Minnie napping in the car, went inside when she woke up to get a report from the hygienist, etc. I dropped Jack back off at school for his English class because he didn't want to do an essay at home that he could work on in class and booked it across town for Minnie's appointment, telling Jack I would be a little late because Coop gets out of school at 4:10, and I assumed I would leave urgent care (supposed to be a 15-minute appointment) and go straight there.

OF COURSE THIS WAS A DUMB ASSUMPTION. We waited forever at the clinic. SO HAPPY I COULD DOSE MINNIE WITH MEDS IN THE CAR because her ears were killing her again.  The intake nurse could not get an accurate reading on Minnie's pulse ox (machine prob; not a Minnie prob) or her blood pressure (same). She was sort of flustered by this and forgot to ask us if we'd be ok with a nurse practitioner student coming in before the doctor (usually yes; that day I would have said no because I was in a hurry). The student came in and was so nice and lovely and great that I couldn't tell her to GTFO and get the doc. But! We essentially had double exams. And the student freaked me out about Minnie's lungs (which were clear on Wed at the pediatrician's office), but then the doc said they were fine, and the congestion is in her throat, which makes sense to me and Ben who woke up with the most awful cough-- thank you , Minnie. She has a double ear infection, of course. Her second this month. The doc went back and forth about what to prescribe and ultimately went with the same abx she just had but a longer course. Fine!

NOT FINE THOUGH. Apparently, that abx is only ok for 10 days when mixed, and he wanted her to take it for 14 days. The pharmacist was SO RUDE TO ME (I will be making a complaint with member services on Monday) which was completely off base because I DID NOT WRITE THE SCRIPT, and we waited 30 minutes for the meds AND have to follow up on day 8 to make sure they're working (sooner if she's still miserable). The pharmacist was like did the doctor say how long she needs to take this? And I was like he said 14 days, and she goes, oh really? are you sure? Do I need to call the doctor? Um WHAT??? It was like she was a disappointed mom trying to threaten me into telling the truth??? It was the icing on a terrible stress cake.

I was 90 minutes late for pick up-- thank god for Cooper's homeroom teacher who stayed with him even though it was a Friday, and Jack dirty old manned it in a Tropical Smoothie Cafe for almost 2 hours.

We got home with everyone starving, and I asked what they wanted to eat, fully prepared to order takeout. The response? Pizza, pancakes, smoothies, and fresh cookies. Ha! SO EASY TO DELIVER THAT WEIRD ASSORTMENT OF FOOD TO THE TABLE with the groceries I had in my fridge and freezer. I even threw is some carrot and pepper sticks and strawberries.

FIVE KIDS IS A TON OF KIDS, it turns out.

Also! My seven-year colonoscopy is offish!
I got the official pathology report before this letter and googled it-- Dr. Google was like GET EXCITED FOR WEEKLY COLON CHECKS, BETCH, so I messaged the doc before he sent the letter asking him how long until my next scope. But then he replied after he sent the letter and seems to think I can't read, which, fair enough. THE LETTER IS CRYSTAL CLEAR. LIKE MY COLON. Gimmee all the red meat and twinkies.

(Also, tennis is cute)