not necessarily in this order

Welcome to performance day 1 of Lil Momma’s Elf Jr . the musical! We’ve had a wild few months; 7 days a week of activities, a messy start to school, tween girl dynamics challenges… it will be so nice to check this show off our list and get Friday nights and Saturday mornings back and find a better family rhythm.  LM’s call time (the time she needs to be at the theater, which is the black box small theater in the building she takes lessons in) is 12pm and she has shows at 2pm and 5pm (and we have to do it all over tomorrow). The Mr and I are seeing both shows today (I’m seeing both tomorrow while he’s only seeing the 2pm - it’s a lot of Elf , yikes), so it’s been a long thinking about what she can eat between shows, what I can eat, can the Mr run home and feed the dog between and still find parking, etc   6:45am: I woke up because my body doesn’t understand sleeping in and read for a bit.  8;15am: LM wakes up so I wake the Mr up to wake Bella up. LM takes a shower while th...

We really did have a great time in NH. We did everything on our list: We saw waterfalls! We went on rides! We went out to breakfast! But, as a lot of things do right now, the whole thing felt so shaky and precarious. We are in one of those weird seasons where everything feels so wrought with meaning because it’s all the firsts – our first NH vacation where we didn’t have to wait for a call about my mom or have me on the phone with an ER or nurse. It puts a weird “supposed to” energy on things because we no longer have this elephant in the room, but we also are still finding our balance in this next part of life. So, when the boarding place called to say Bella might have a UTI but they weren’t worried about it, it was like muscle memory to start worrying.    <<this part isn’t too graphic, but it just talks about pet ick a bit, so SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAGH if you need to, but know Bella was sicker than a “don’t worry about it”, sigh.    A few months ago, Bella had...

  Today started off with an oof as the breakfast place we went to (and had gone to when LM was younger) is now a Mexican restaurant now. So much for nostalgia! We grabbed egg sandwiches from Dunks and headed to  Santa’s Village , this wild mix of holiday nostalgia, rides, Christmas music, and Scandinavian storefronts. The Mr. and Lil Momma love Christmas and rides, so this is a must on our New Hampshire vacations. While not as much my jam, I do very much love seeing how much they love it here. We got to ride the new rollercoaster, ate  gingerbread, and had a great time riding rides and humming random Christmas carols. I even pushed myself out of my comfort zone and tried out the Ferris wheel again after having a full on panic attack so bad they had to stop the ride 5 years ago. (True story.) On our way out, sigh, the Mr. had a text saying Bella (our 10 year old Morkie who is being boarded back home) may have a UTI, which sent me into a bit of a tizzy. We are headed home t...

  Last year, we were supposed to take the  Cog railway  up Mount Washington (6,288 ft), but we ended up bailing out on the vacation early and drove home in a downpour. Not this year! We grabbed a hotel breakfast (and then better coffees at Starbucks; Lil Momma got her favorite hot chocolate with a shot of caramel) and then headed to the train.  It was a whole experience! They have a tour guide who both “narrates” your summit ride and return with what you’re seeing on the mountain including the NH range, flowers and trees, the Appalachian Trail, etc. We also had unusual clearness and could see Maine and Vermont!, but also about the railway itself: its history, how the biodiesel and steam engines differ, and how the tracks were built. It was so cool! Even the seats were at an angle to handle the up to 37% grade.  Once you summit, you have an hour to explore the extreme weather museum, take a picture with the summit sign, and even have lunch! We wandered about aft...

I’ve been so impressed by  Daria‘ s Italy recaps that I decided to take a swing and try and recap my wild week. We have our family vacation to  New Hampshire  from Monday through Thursday and then on Saturday I’m actually going away by myself to Maine, which is a trial run or precursor to my first ever solo vacation this fall. Our energy is a little hectic coming off a week where we were trying to do a big computer swap that just left us only with our work computers and smartphones and Lil Mama having some wild antics. But, I have hope that this vacation can chill us out and make some memories, and hopefully be an overall win. Here’s how I prepped : I admitted that I’m feeling a lot of feels  For almost my entire life, but especially the last 5 to 10 years, I’ve spent every vacation or day away worrying about my parents. Things always just seem to happen when I was away and it’s led to a lot of anxiety around being away. This is my first one since losing both of them...

Sunday funday or Sunday scaries? Here’s how the week ended for us: 7:30 : I hear LM stirring: she loudly whispers that she wants to play for 30 minutes and I go doze.  7:50 : I’m awake and scroll a little while I let the Mr. grab his last 10 minutes of sleep.  8:00  (on the dot!): LM throws herself on my bed and lets me know she’s going to talk the Mr. into donuts.  8:05 : I get out of bed use the bathroom. Glasses, hair in a ponytail, moving at the pace of Sunday.  8:15 : The Mr. gets back with donuts. We sit with our coffee while LM eats hers with a show and a bonus OJ he got her.  8:45 : LM heads up for a show in my bed. I clean up the kitchen and then work on my task list for all my mom’s affairs. (Apparently, I was dragging my feet too much because her financial guy has started giving me homework, oof…) 10:15 : I head upstairs and organize my meds for the week - the only way I can deal with my “did I or did I not take my meds” anxiety… 10:30 : LM and I...

Finally, a day off! We get some stuff done and then we laze about spectacularly! 7:30 : LM comes out of her room and wakes us up. She jumps in the bed once the Mr. heads downstairs to advocate for a “lazy” day and I boot her and scroll a little.  7:50 : I go the bathroom and head downstairs. The Mr. and I whisper about what we could do today while LM eats breakfast with a show in the other room (and Bella begs when we aren’t looking).  8:15 : LM tries on the new hiking shoes we got her. Oof, just a bit too tight ?and I hate returning things) (but that’s a future me problem). We decide the Mr. will go food shop and LM and I will go look for spring / summer clothes and shoes for her because it’s still pretty cold and raw out and I don’t want her get-over-the-cold progress to fall apart if we go walk somewhere. 8:50 : We dig our LM’s various shorts from last year and figure out her size. She negotiates one tv show in my bed before we go and decides on dessert-first Saturday (we u...