5 on a Friday: VERY RANDOM THINGS

 1. Minnie and I are listening to Stockard Channing read the Ramona books, and we just heard the part in Ramona and her Mother where Beezus and Ramona get their hair cut at a beauty shop for the first time. And! Minnie demanded to go and get a haircut like Ramona (only she ended up more like Beezus, who got a bad hairdo in the book. But! Like Beezus, Minnie's just needed better styling). As luck would have it, my stylist and another were free at the same time, so we booked simultaneous appointments, AND WE BOTH GOT BANGS!

2. Dorothy grew up. I let her out of the car at dance, and there she was with flat ironed hair and Selena Gomez Rare Beauty makeup and her Scuba and Stanley and iPhone and Uggs and omg! SHE was my little Ramona just the other day, I swear.

3. Dorothy had strep on Sunday, and Coop just tested positive today. Booooooooooo.

4. I got to have lunch with Anne and Engie last weekend (MEET AT LEAST TWO BLOGGERS CHECK), and then Engie came over to meet Annabel and take a walk and drink a cup of tea, and we had so much fun!

5.THURSDAYS! Can be my library days! Minnie stays later at school, and we have time to run to the library before we have to get Dorothy adn Cooper, and it is magical! I can finally pick up all my holds on time!

Annabel at 4-ish Months

 Annabel celebrated her 4 month birthday on December 24th, so she's already midway to five months, which seems hard to believe. 

Day one:

A couple weeks ago:

She came to us a 2.1-pound ball of fur, and now she is an 8.3-pound ball of fur. She is incredibly sweet and inquisitive. Unlike Beatrix, she is spunky and energetic and open to new experiences. The broom and vacuum cleaner, for example, are not enemies or tormentors. They are fun loud, friends she likes to play with. I adore this attitude of hers.

She also DOES NOT SHED AT ALL, and this is a life-changer. Beatrix's short hair came out in giant clumps. You could not pet her without developing werewolf hands. Her hair was EVERYWHERE. She did this funny thing where she'd get scared (often by the broom or vacuum) and drop, like, a whole dog's worth of hair on the spot. It was pretty gross.

Annabel has eaten a couple of pairs of Minnie's shoes (my bad, honestly, for leaving them on the laundry room floor) and a pair of Ben's slippers (but you guys they said PAPA BEAR on them. so good riddance, you know?) the plastic coffee cup out of a Fisher Price Little People guy's hand, and Pocahontas' torso. Plus a tiny section of a wall in the bathroom and a small piece of trim in the living room (LOL-- both look like. mouse bibbled them, which would be WAY MORE TERRIBLE, IMO). But really this is all NBD because she is so tiny.

TINY DOGS ARE WHERE IT'S AT.

Because she is a poodle, she is prone to having a sensitive stomach. She does great if she eats Hill's Science Diet kibble and beef and barley wet food (BLECH) and NOTHING ELSE. But! She patrols the crumbs under the kids' counter stool pretty aggressively, eats a piece of cheese every now and then, and really likes collagen sticks, Blue Buffalo puppy treats, and protein rings. She's fine, though, and very very very good at going outside to use the bathroom.

We hung bells by the back door, and she loves ringing them to go out. Lately, she has been ringing them for the pleasure of going out, going in, going out, going in, etc etc etc. That's how we made an amazing discovery: SHE NEEDS TO GO ON LOTS OF WALKS!! I love this for me! I take her for a quick 15- minute walk first thing in the morning and another before I pick up Minnie. Then Minnie and I bundle up and walk her to the park in our neighborhood in the afternoon, and she and I do laps around the park while Minnie plays, and we all walk home-- this is WONDERFUL! I look forward to nicer weather and longer walks.

The kids play with her in the evening, when she gets the zoomies and goes around and around the living room couch. She is good at fetch and tug of war, and both of these games tire her right out. She sleeps all night long and through my morning exercise routine. She is less fond of riding in the car than she was when she was super tiny, but she is happy to lie down in her crate while I do the afternoon kid run. I have been too tired and cold to take her for a night walk when we get home (and the girls have been too hungry), but I can see how this would be a good addition to her schedule. I am not sure I can swing it the nights Ben is away, but I am going to give it a try. (Honestly, it would be good for me because it is my very crabbiest time of day-- I am going to try to make this work).

(It's hard right now because Jack is the rail manager for the spring musical, plus it is diving season for his high school team, plus the speech season is starting, plus he has a job teaching swim lessons 4 nights a week, plus he has 2 AP classes and it's the end of the semester, so he is not often home to watch kids for me. And! Cooper dives until 8 4 nights a week. Maybe I could take her out at 8 after Minnie is in bed??)

I look forward to her being confident in her ability to go up and down stairs (very scared of them right now), so she can play in the backyard. Spring maybe??

Money Monday: January Goal

 Ideally, this would be the first money post of the month, but, alas.

Okay. My goal for January is to have 2 days every week where I spend ZERO DOLLARS. I think Ben is also going to do this, but our days might not sync up because it is easier for me to do it when he is gone and probably easier for him when he is home.

A few things:

• We share all of our money, so when one of us spends, we both spend, and these days are totally arbitrary, and I KNOW THAT at least.
• I am not going to make Ben buy things on my zero days because this seems like a loophole I could really use. Hey can you run to Target and grab…
• It actually probably matters more that I spend/don't spend since I am the one buying ALL OF THE THINGS for the kids and the house and paying school fees, etc etc etc, so if Ben wants to play along, I love that, but I am the one with $1500 latte problem or whatever the hell Suze Orman says.
• Obviously, if someone NEEDS something I will buy it, but also, I like how this goal is structuring my spending. For instance, I was planning a no-spend day on Tuesday. But! The middle school sent a notice about ordering yearbooks. I know from my experience in this school district that yearbook ordering is a shitshow until high school, and I will be bombarded with emails about ordering for the rest of the semester and I can never remember if I actually did it and it is all outsourced to a vendor so no one at school can confirm (high school yearbooks are purchased at registration right there in my Infinite Campus account, and this is heaven). SO ANYWAY, my new policy (a few years old) is to just order the damn books the minute I first see an email. That happened on Tuesday. So, I pulled the trigger on a Target pick up and also stopped by the pharmacy to grab a script for a kid and then declared Wednesday and Thursday no-spend days. Bonus: errand consolidation. 
• I am, as you can tell by the bullet above, an abstainer, not a moderator. If I do any spending on no-spend, I will do all of the spending, so the fewer loopholes the better.

Will no-spend days bring my weekly spending down, or will I just spend MORE on the other days? Who knows-- I will keep you posted.

Dumbest thing I bought last week:

 Probably a shirt to match my planner. But! It was only $4 at Old Navy, so I really think I have bought less responsible things. This is just, like, super silly.

(Also, on the topic of frugality-- I found the jeans I am wearing in that picture in the back of Cooper and Jack's closet. I think they used to be Harry's, and they no longer fit anyone, so I chopped off the legs to just above the ankle, and I am in love. Stay tuned for this summer because I made 3 more pairs of old boy jeans into awkward jorts)

Best thing I bought last week:

Last year, I was too slow on the add-to-cart (NOT MY USUAL PROBLEM), and I missed out on Target's cute v-day sweatshirts. NOT THIS YEAR, FRIENDS.

(Also I will wear this year-round because I heart hearts.)

5 on a Friday: Favorite Things

 1. Maybelline SuperStay Ink Crayon lipstick: I have this in Be Bold Be You and Change Is Good, and I love them both so much.

2. My weighted vest: It's only 12 pounds, so I will need to level up eventually, but this thing is great! My nirmal elliptical workout makes me sweat again! (lol) I wear it to walk the dog, and I leave it on while I do light housework in the morning. I think it is helping my posture, too!

3. Vicks Vaporub on my feet all day. I love putting a layer of this stuff on under my socks. My doc said the tea tree oil can help prevent toenail fungus (I am never not wearing polish on my toes), and my heels are perfect since I started this practice. Plus, it tingles!

4. Pasta casserole on repeat. This is SO EASY to make, and you can use different pasta and veggies every week. This week, I made one with penne pasta, and sauteed mushrooms, spinach, and broccoli. I used 2 jars of Whole Foods store-brand tomato basil sauce and added spices to the veggies and fresh chopped basil, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella to the mix. Pre-cook the pasta. Pre-cook the veggies and spices (I use minced garlic, olive oil, and frozen chopped onions, plus italian seasoning, etc, to cook the veggies), and then mix it all together with sauce and cheese, throw it in a casserole dish, sprinkle with parm, and bake. SO GOOD.

5. Whole Foods 365-brand Pleasant Morning Buzz coffee. Coffee has been making me feel PANICKED lately, BUT NOT THIS STUFF. The label is no lie— the buzz is pleasant.

Bonus: Minnie in sweats.

Winter break vacation is the best idea ever!

 We totally cut out the whole part of break where everyone just loafs around the house and gets mad at each other and screams that they’re bored and breaks all their new toys. It was awesome! We had a fun family celebration, went to the beach, and then everyone went to school and I am on breeeaaaaak— it’s perfect.

We rolled into Madison on Saturday to unpack the car (required a ladder— car topper **eye roll**) and immediately hit the grocery store for chicken and salad. (We ordered one more garbage dinner for the kids and cooked for ourselves because after our final pizza lunch we just could not even with the fattening restaurant food). We shoveled out and restocked on Sunday and then the kids went back to school Monday. Harry still has 2 more weeks at home, and I have 3. **chef’s kiss**

Ben! Had a winter break! For the first time since he was a professor at Blackhawk Tech! And this made aaaall the difference. We are already talking about where we’ll go next year (WILL I BE A FREQUENT FLYER BY THEN? I HOPE SO).

This photo series is definitely my favorite memento from the trip

 Jack got a fancy camera and tripod for Christmas, so he brought it along to take awesome family pictures

We ate at our favorite IL pizza place on the way down and then ate there one more time on our way home (mostly to pick up Minnie’s Owala, accidentally abandoned on 12/28). We played euchre, pool, Cards Against Humanity, lots of Go Fish, and even Candy Land in a TN hotel lobby. Ben and I listened to a book in the car, and we all enjoyed Stockard Channing reading Ramona and her Father. Harry and Jack got to do a few things on their own, as did Ben and I. Everyone doted on Minnie. Car fighting was minimal. All three bros played on Cooper’s MetaQuest the whole trip.

EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

And now we’re back to reality. Sigh.

I will say we really screwed ourselves over by leaving the house kind of a mess. It looked clean when we first walked in, but then we noticed the overflowing laundry hamper, all of the trashes in the house that needed to be emptied, a fridge full of expired food, coffee dregs in both pots, etc. Next time, I will take care of Future Me before I go. It would have been wonderful to have a Costco Instacart scheduled to arrive and also a casserole or a pan of enchiladas in the freezer waiting to be cooked. Also! I forgot to water my wonderful plant ladies before we left and they were very sad and wilty.

Oof— and we left Minnie’s lovey in TN (and I could not call the (really awful— will never stay there again— if you are reading this blog, you are too old for Tru by Hilton) hotel to ask for her because I used my actual real name to leave them a 1-star (pretty snarky) review. SO I had to rush order a new one. Plus the Ziploc bag of kid medicine got drenched in liquid ibuprofen, and Coop is allergic to ibuprofen, so we had to throw it all away and start from scratch (meds, ointments, etc). But! Still! Plus one for winter break vacation!

Beach, Please

 Turns out, chilly beach is my favorite beach. We had a day in the 70s, a day in the high 60s, a day in the low 60s, and a couple days in the high 50s. AND WE LOVED THEM ALL.

Most of the staff at the beach club was wearing puffer vests, hats, and gloves, and Ben and I mostly stayed in sweats, but the kids were IN THE WATER. Wild.

In the summer, the Sea Pines beach club is PACKED, and there isn’t a pool on the beach. AND the Atlantic is lousy with jelly fish. So while there are chairs with drink and towel service, it’s HOT and STICKY and DIRTY. This way, we had to sit on the sand and walk to the bar, sure, but all of our favorite things to do were so much more pleasant— dig, play paddle ball, take walks, stare at the water while drinking a beer.