not necessarily in this order

  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...

  When I make what seems like wildly audacious goals in my head, 100 is my number:   “100 hikes!” “100 days of decluttering!!” “100 cookie recipes!!!”.   To hit 100 posts here is a goal achieved to write more, scroll less, and just be me in my words; but, it’s much more. The joy this little blog has given me over these 100 posts also feels wildly audacious through the funny anecdotes to the hardest times to the rambles.   I appreciate the comments and the connection more than you know ❤ Here’s to the next 100 stories we get to share here!

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...

  We have a family goal to actually enjoy vacations this year. To kick us off, we spent 48 hours in Portland, Maine during April’s school vacation. Here’s a loose tracking of our stops: Day 1 Stop 1 : drop Bella (our Maltese-Yorkie) off to be boarded about 20 min from our house; her tail started shedding on the ride over and the anxiety level in the car is oof. Stop 2 : Gas station snacks! Lil Momma navigates her indecision (so. many. oreo. flavors.) AND agrees to get a water, so a win overall.  Stop 3 : The rest stop just over the New Hampshire border to pick up a Combo spill, use the restrooms, and stretch our legs  Stop 4 : A Wendy’s in Portsmouth; hanger averted, but at what cost? Stop 5 : Our hotel in Portland! We figured out parking for the night, ditched our stuff and went walking! Stop 6 : Gelato Fiasco ! We got mediums when we should have gotten smalls (and LM mixed her mint chip with her s’mores and had to steal my cookie dough because ew), but another overall w...

  A ways back, I talked about trying to leave the house looking more like a person and not like I’ve given up. This only became more critical as I started encountering more and more people on my in office days because of our requirements change; sigh, I miss the days of not worrying about running into a big up I haven’t seen since 2019 and just getting my   2pm   emotional support Reese’s in peace. I’m still working on the clothes side of this (that’s going to be a   process ), but I did make some changes to my makeup that have been helping me feel better about myself when I’m out and about, be it at work or school pick up or extracurricular activities.   Am I no longer president of the Pale Lip Club? At first, I tried using a lip oil by e.l.f. (in  Berry Kiss ); I’d slap some on in the parking garage once I parked my car (I drink my smoothie on the ride to work) and then maybe again after lunch. I like h ow it felt moisturizing and gave a bit of color, bu...