not necessarily in this order

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...

Our Thanksgiving was the quiet and weird one we figured it would be. Lil Momma asked for a pajama day and we leaned into that vibe:    Don’t want to start cooking until after we watch the parade?  Sure!   Having trouble timing the rolls with the turkey being done?  Rolls are the appetizer course!   Apple dessert not made yet?  Dessert will be dinner!   I had missed my usual “carbs are the priority” test bake weekend, so all of the baking was an “on the day” risk – but, we were ready for it!   LM had asked for “ homemade Bertucci’s rolls to dip in olive oil with parmesan ” as her one meal request. Now, I have made dinner rolls, but I haven’t made Italian ones before. I found  this recipe  and did my best to time it out. Making the “biga” 12-24 hours ahead went well (don’t ask me about the 2 forgotten bigas from the tests that never happened, haha, but please don’t), but I ran into some trouble with not knowing how long the first and ...

 5 small things bringing me joy this Friday! Love notes from Lil Momma . My guy and I aren't the biggest Valentine's Day people (actually, years ago he asked me to choose between Valentine's and our anniversary as the day to celebrate us and I chose our anniversary since it was more personally meaningful*), but my girl loves, loves, LOVES love and telling people she cares. Each February, I do that Pinterest-inspired thing of sticking heart notes on her bedroom door each night with reasons that we love her**. Today, I walked into my office and found these on the door. OH MY HEART! She made my day. Tea and toast . I had taken yesterday off to hopefully navigate the worst of this virus and, for lunch, LM and my guy brought me up sourdough toast with butter and cinnamon sugar*** done by LM and a cup of my current favorite tea at just the perfect temperature to sip. It was the perfect meal moment and made me feel oh so much better. Virtual school assignments . This one isn't...

This week was one of  those weeks:  a sad kid, a cut on my foot, work projects snowballing… …but, after spending some well deserved time in a pit, I’m ready to climb out with a quick list of wins and smiles: I couldn’t walk, but I barre-d I had this whole plan for lunch workouts this week because after-school activities and homework and night routine keep bumping exercise from my list. Monday night, I tripped in our bedroom and cut my foot. It’s fine, I’m fine - but it’s enough to shut down most non-essential movement. Not being able to walk or ride or put pressure on it (I can barely get a shoe on) shut my brain down for a bit, but I made a random turn into  Barre workouts  on the Peloton app. It was no pressure on my foot, a great lower body workout, and checked something off my list - all wins! I read two books at the same time  I’m a reading monogamist. It goes against my love of tangents and rambles, but I’ve always just read one book straight through befor...