not necessarily in this order

One : It’s been a minute… well, a month. Everything’s been a lot and my mental bandwidth was in survival mode. On the other side, I have this wonderful realization that it’s important to be a person amongst all the tasks and am excited to come back here and to comment sections and be just that.   Two : Lil Momma has one more month of 7 th  grade. We can do this. She turns 13 in 2 months. It’s just wild.   Three : We just survived 3 straight weekends of dance competitions, 2 of which were at a high school with very little parking. She did so well across the comps in her team dances and solo, as well as being a good teammate and supportive presence, but I have to say I am incredibly glad to have 2 weekends off before recital June begins. A big personal win was being able to do these 3 comp weekends on my own and handle her and food and the hotels and all her props remembering that last year I attempted to do the 1 st  comp 2 weeks after my foot/ankle surgery and ended ...

 Hello friends! It's been a minute, right? The Mr. and I have been talking about how it was wild enough that we got a puppy last fall when we already felt like we were running on fumes between Lil Momma's extracurricular schedule, working on my aunt's estate, work being oof, injuries... only for me to throw this MLIS class into the mix. It's taken literally almost the entire first quarter of the year for me to feel like I have a modicum of control over my tasks and house and life, but I'm back with a catch up and hopefully back here and in your comment sections on a regular basis, too.  Yes, Maysie, I’m sitting here   For now, some catching up on what I've been catching up on: School I think I had left off saying I felt so much better once I dropped that second class that I was supposed to start mid-March. I also feel so much better because I have a better perspective on what I am trying to get out of this experience. I think I was putting in inordinate amount o...

It’s been a wild July and I feel like I’ve been scattered all over the place. I figured I’d start the week off with some quick updates! Weighted dance Dino and hotel room ice cream!   PT Update I’m in this weird space where I feel like I should be progressing faster, but I’ve also come so, so far. I have to keep reminding myself that I started weight-bearing at the end of May and got out of the boot and back to driving at the start of July – it really hasn’t been that long!   Now that I’m more comfortable walking (and less terrified my ankle/foot will shatter into a million pieces), my PT is all about building strength, balance, and endurance. I’m finding that I can walk for a few minutes in good form and then I start to limp– and, the limp leads to my right hip and lower back hurting. This was exacerbated by going back into the office 2 days a week (which is so much walking) and sitting in awful chairs on the weekends for Lil Momma’s performances. So, I’m also doing a lot of ...

 A handful of thoughts from the end of June chaos… One Poor Lil Momma had a freak accident last weekend, but luckily it was more annoying than painful. Saturday night, she was headed upstairs to get ready for bed and remembers hitting her palm on the railing - but not hard enough to say anything (and she would say something, haha!). When I came up to hang with her, I noticed her ring finger was bent down and asked her about it. We quickly realized she couldn’t raise it without her other hand or assistance. Strangely, I didn’t even have to ask Dr  Google what it was (although I’ve googled a lot since haha!): When LM was a toddler, she randomly developed “tr!gger finger” in her thumb that had to be released via surgery; here’s hoping this one will have some other options. A trip to Urgent Care left her with a splint and an appointment at the orthopedic surgeon’s next week… Two …which leads us to the camp she was supposed to attend this week and next saying she couldn’t come un...

Random recent thoughts and happenings…   Lil Momma is finishing out her 2024 recital/show/competition year with  back to back weekends of recitals . First up, we had a Christmas Parade that her dance school walks in followed by a dance showcase the competition teams perform in. The parade was FRIGID; last year we were in hoodies and this year one of the moms was handing out hand warmers like they were candy. I couldn’t walk with the group because of my ankle, so I saw the parade for the first time (aka I hung with the dads). After, we had an hour or so to do hair and makeup and then lined up for their dance showcase which was themed around  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation . It was so fun and cute! Lil Momma was in a hip hop dance with songs themed around money (the Mr. made the mix!) which entered the story when Clark Griswold was talking about his bonus and getting a pool. Her jazz dance was to  Mele Kalikimaka (Marry Christmas)  and LM was front and...

  What a week! I don’t even know how to process a lot of it, so the high-level run of it is:   last Tuesday,  the Doctor said I could take the walking boot off  (yay!) but I had to buy all new “bouncy” sneakers (New Balance 1080 and Brooks Ghost Pro Max), inserts, and Oofos (boo for my wallet…) and needed to take it slow for a couple of weeks (less than 5K steps a day)… so glad to be more mobile, but this is all going to take some work to get where I want to be. last Wednesday, we had a  huge organizational change at work  and there will be more to come as they figure out what it means for my little team and the larger team I’m part of. I don’t deal well with this sort of uncertainty, the amount of feelings, nor not knowing what will happen to my projects and people, so it’s an ongoing oof… last weekend was  Lil Momma’s Dance Nationals , so she and I stayed up at the hotel where it was held and it was pretty much 48 straight hours of dance and people a...

  One  We survived dance competition season! Our last one was north of Boston last weekend, so Lil Momma and I packed up on Saturday and drove up to a hotel so we wouldn’t have to wake up, make up, bun up, and get out so early the next day. Beyond the driving nightmares (highway construction, oh so much merging, EXITS ON THE LEFT), we had a lovely afternoon getting settled, visiting the last 2 hours of the first day of competition and seeing her teammates “eat” and “slay”, and then hitting dinner and a random Target spree. The next day, we were up for a hotel breakfast and then check out to go check in at the comp. Lil Momma danced beautifully in all 3 of the dances and her teams did so well – and, the Mr. drove up and surprised her, which was amazing! All in all, a good experience and she and her teacher are already planning her first solo for next year, haha (sigh)! Two  I am having some massive energy struggles this week that have been a bit concerning. Flat-out exhaus...

Maybe I should have called this “Dancing Uphill” as my life is revolving around these weekend dance competitions right now, haha! A few thoughts from lately:   Lil Momma had an amazing first dance comp of the year 2 weekends ago. Her first-ever duo got one of the special judges’ awards for storytelling and they placed in their category, her hip hop dance placed in its category, jazz was adorable, and she had a wonderful time running around with her friends. Bonus, all of her dances were done in ONE HOUR. Of course, we did hang out for SEVEN HOURS to see awards (not to mention driving down the day before and having a parking nightmare from the comp and a college graduation making spots impossible – I had to drop LM off, watch her go in, and then drive to a parking garage and power walk uphill 15 minutes to get back to her), but it was all worth it to see her having a nice little moment.   Last weekend’s comp was a bit oof, to be honest. We stayed overnight at a hotel, which was...

  One  This week has a bit of a slog. A regular amount of busy but it feels like my brain has been moving on .75 speed. I don’t know if this is it, but after being incredibly consistent with my allergy meds for MONTHS after buying a pill organizer, I somehow missed TWO DOSES this week – so, maybe my brain is just full of pollen and histamines?  Two  I’m having such a hard time commenting on some blogs. I get sent into a weird login loop for platforms I didn’t know I had logins for and the like. I created a new email address for me at this blog (notnecessarilyinthisorder (at) (gmail) etc.) to see if I can get around it. So, if you see that in your spam filters, it’s me!!   Three  The first dance competition weekend is upon us! LM dances  on Sunday afternoon  and awards are  at 7:30 pm  (ON A SCHOOL NIGHT?!?!?) and will be doing a Duo for the first time ever. Her performances will be wild; they are all in an hour, so she’ll go from her Duo...

  ENJOYING  / My boss told me to take off  at noon today  because of how busy this week has been, so I’m going to take her up on that and go for a walk in the woods before I pick Lil Momma up from school. Maybe I’ll get my elusive Cool Bloggers Walking Club picture?!?!   EATING  / I had to go to a wake after work on Wednesday that dropped me into rush hour traffic and arriving home  around 7pm . The idea of making food was not appealing at that point – and the Mr. was off picking up LM from Matilda Jr. rehearsal – so, I took advantage of the lack of witnesses and had frozen cookie dough for dinner. It was glorious!     SAVORING  / I’ve been doing this Beginner Runner program and I’m really enjoying that I don’t feel like I’m going to collapse after the workouts. It’s not that I’m not working hard or am not challenged, but in previous attempts over the last 15 years or so, I feel like I’ve pushed too hard to try and keep up and crash...

The day there was an earthquake and we go see Moana    6:54 : Wake up with a start and then remember I don’t have to rush today. Consider going back to sleep but then LM comes out of her room.   7:05 : After a cuddle with LM, put on some work from home clothes (t-shirt, hoodie, leggings), go to the bathroom, put in my contacts, deodorant, moisturize, and head downstairs.   7:15 : Yay, coffee! Try to pump LM up for the second day of state testing (forgetting she has 3 sets of it this year, so we have to do this 2 more times)   7:45 : Head upstairs to start working; notice that it’s sunny (!!!) and use that as the lead-in to my daily hello to my team.   9:10 : Go downstairs to say hello to Bella and the Mr. Make my smoothie.   9:20 : Back up to keep working on some slides.   10:02 : Go lay dramatically in my bed to mentally prepare for my meetings.   10:XX : The bed starts shaking back and forth. I call down to the Mr. and downstairs is slightl...