5 on a Friday: From my camera roll

1. A kindergartener with a snack to share

2. Two bros with the same stylist

3. Best friends having a nap

4. Silliest thing I have seen at Costco in awhile

5.  An old fave sign that popped up in my FB memories

how was I so young and gorgeous just 10 years ago? sob

This post is really only about Minnie, but I did throw in an aside about Dorothy and Cooper

 

I felt so RUSHED this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We didn't even light the menorah one single night. Wait no, that's not true. We did light it one night-- the night of our annual sibling gift exchange-- but it was WAY past sundown. I didn't have my holiday ish together enough to ebven buy candles!

I blame my university for not having a fall break AND ALSO the extreme lateness of Thanksgiving.

ANYWHO. I resolved that this year, I would be ready early for all of the things, and V-Day is up first. Not only do I have everyone's gifts purchased, but I also have cards and candy AND Minnie has already made her school Valentines. I even have 2 extra boxes of pre-made Valentines to take to school when I volunteer in class this week for kids who might not be planning to make them at home.

They're just so stinking cute.

She made bespoke cards for each person and wrote lobe Minnie on the back. hen she put them in little treat bags with stamps, a heart-shaped pop it for their back packs, and a couple teeny containers of Play-Doh, plus confetti. Then she wrote the recipient's name on a cute little heart tag. I love them!

Can I just say, apropos of nothing, that Santa hit it out of the park with the Barbie Dream House? Minnie has played with t every single day, and her 2 BFFs also each got one and love to go house to house playing Barbies.

It is so cold here that my tween and teen are WEARING COATS and GLOVES. Wow.

The Clorox wipes in the foreground here are perfect. Cold and flu season indeed. Minnie was delighted her entire ballet class and is thrilled to be dancing a Tinker Bell themed number for the recital.

Also thrilling? She has been nagging and nagging for a chore chart, and her dreams have finally come true. I gotta take a picture of her making her bed-- it is too much. She also insisted I add "dust" to her chart, and she uses a Swiffer duster VERY SERIOUSLY.

Her laundry folding! IS SO CUTE I can't stand it.

And she told me I could put reading on her chart and she will do it every day, but it is NOT a chore. I FINALLY GOT A READER YOU GUYS. IT ONLY TOOK 4 PRIOR ATTEMPTS.

Hey! The Reset Worked! And Then We All Got Shut In Together

 We had a HIGH of NEGATIVE NINE ARE YOU KIDDING ME on Friday,  and both  of our colleges (people in IL are big wimps-- it was not as cold there) and the kids' schools were all closed. SO COZY. But kind of killed my Friday vibe of going to campus (TOTALLY KILLED IT YOU GUYS) (AND WE HAD A BASEMENT FULL OF 8TH GRADERS which made WFH... not ideal). (And yes, my school was closed, but I don't teach on Fridays anyway and really need any work time I can get to make sure I am ready for my huge NEW class...)

Also, the reset did not totally work because when Ben came home from his conference lat on Thursday, I found his talk about AI tools very rage baity and responded accordingly. We will never speak of it again (seriously-- I cannot even with him, especially since he likes to take the opposite side of whatever I am arguing just for fun).

I wore an outfit I loved to school (and it was a perfect choice because I could lift weights in it when I got home and honestly could have also done yoga and maybe this needs to be my new standard for work clothes...)

(With slippers because it is January)

I had coffee in a fancy cup, which is as good as fancy coffee

Even though I did not read in bed (no time in the morning; too tired at night), I did read in my office and finished a book I was working through for a committee (it comes out in April and was GREAT)

I downloaded the free (with subscription) Audible version of Anne of Green Gables read by Rachel McAdams, and Minnie and I listened to it while we drove the kids to dance and diving. AND! I used an Audible credit to buy ALL 7 ANNE BOOKS!!!! I have SEVENTY-THREE hours of Anne to listen to!!! YOU GUYS!

(Minnie said apropos of nothing on Thursday I have a great imagination-- I am just like Anne, and I almost died of happiness)

We came home and bundled up and took Annabel for a snowy walk with plenty of time to stop and play

And the big kids and I watched Dance Moms and ate sour Skittles (delightful, BTW).

We achieved MAXIMUM COZY on Friday. The girls started their day with Inside Out 2 and a snackle box breakfast

With their new Disney stuffies and their dog who looks like a stuffy

Ben bravely took the first walk in NEGATIVE 18 DEGREES (the actual gd temp, not the  wimpy "feels like")

 We had a delightfully cosy trip to the library

I DID have to walk the dog a few times...

But otherwise it was all reading in blanket forts

Having a bunch of kids in the basement

And eating leftover pulled pork as pulled pork nachos-- so delish!

5 on a Friday: January Micro Delights

 1. Dogs in sweaters

2. Winter pedicures (they feel so much more indulgent that summer pedicures), and I am really into white glittery polish (I bring my own polish because I am the queen of chipping my pedicure and want to be able to fix it)

3. Leggings as pants. Still. On campus even.

4. Book It pizza

5. Snowy dog walks (sans bobcat)

Midweek Reset

 Ben is in Disney World right now, and it is hard not to be jealous (even though we made a good choice when we decided to stay home). There is no snow at Disney World, for one thing. No one is asking him what's for dinner, and none of our kids need rides to their million-dollar activities, either.

GAH.

(srsly we made the right choice to not go with him because everyone has stuff going on, from finals to a spelling bee to specials practice at dance to the first week of class, but also FOMO)

I need more of this energy

Why do I always save cozy little treats for the end of the week?

Today I want to tackle unsolved problem number 4 from Monday's rant:

4. Never being off duty Tuesday-Thursday. People's schedules are a mess, and there is often a third dinner shift happening at 9pm, which means I am working as a mom from 6:40 when Minnie wakes up until 10pm and have zero time to relax. ZERO.

First of all, you guys. NEVER being off duty is not accurate. More accurate to say my momming shift is longer than usual when Ben is out of town, and I am looking for ways to add more fun and relaxation into a busy time of the week. 

Next, it's not accurate to say I have ZERO time for relaxation. That's not a helpful frame-- I would like to find more opportunities to relax and enjoy myself mid-week.

LIKE READING IN BED, which I cannot do on Wednesday morning, but probably COULD do on Wednesday night. I bought some vanilla sleepytime tea to make this happen.

For the rest of the semester, I am going to have a Wednesday reset which should include:

at least 10 minutes of reading in bed

an outfit I love for campus

a fancy coffee

a show I want to watch at night that I maybe even stay awake for

something fun to make Wednesday a little midweek treat

    lunch with a friend

    coffee with a friend

    a walk to the lake

    a visit to the campus art museum

    a new skincare product

    a walk n talk

    an after dinner treat

    an extra yoga session

    a new release book for my Kindle

TINY THINGS, is what I am saying

This particular week, I have given myself the gift of a slow ramp up to the beginning of the semester. We started the semester on a Tuesday, which interrupted the lecture/discussion flow in both of my classes (some kids had a Monday discussion that didn't happen; no Monday lecture) SO both classes have an online module 0, and we start meeting F2F next week. I AM A GENIUS.

(ALSO, I aim for four 20-minute weight lifting sessions a week and three 10-minute yoga flows, and I really like to do them the first few days of the week. BUT ALSO. I think I will have a better chance of leaving the house by 8 on Wednesdays if I do NOT do weights or morning yoga. Maybe I can do yoga at night on Wednesdays, and I will just make Friday a weight day instead of Wednesday. This bothers the rigid part of me who wants to do things early in the week, but I think it's the best choice for now.

I am going to walk right by a sandwich shop on the way to my car on campus, so I think I have solved the Wednesday after school snack dilemma. 

I am also going to walk Annabel and listen to a podcast the second I get home, even if the house is still trashed from the morning. A little walk (even on the very coldest day) always makes me feel happier.

Spring Semester Schedule Tweaks

 You guys. There are many, many things I love about my life. But! Being home by myself for 3 days every week while I shuttle kids and juggle the house and my (FULL TIME THO YOU GUYS) job? NOT SOMETHING I LOVE. I actually actively dislike it. I am trying not to wish the time away or be bummed out all the time, but things are stressful. And not changing any time soon. SO. I am going to just sort of life hack myself into a better place. (Sustainable? No. Ok for now? Yes).

Instead of heading into another semester with THE SAME STRESSORS and thing that aren't working, I have tried to evaluate what's not working for me and, erm, fix it. This is a little like solving for the effects of a problem instead of the causes of the problem, but whatever. 

I thought maybe this heatless curler thing would be a tweak, but then I realized that I immediately run when I wake up and all is lost **eye roll**

This semester, I have:

a large lecture course with 1 TA that meets twice a week. I lecture and grade attendance exercises and the exams. My TA leads discussions and grades the final project and all its components and other work.

a huge lecture course with 3 TAs that meets once a week. I lecture and grade attendance exercises, and the TAs lead discussion that focuses on 4 large written assignments, which they grade.

a ginormous public speaking course with 600+ students taught by 14 TAs. I do not teach this course, but I do design it, develop all materials and assessments for it, and lead all the TA training-- we meet weekly as a teaching team.

Anyway. Here are a few things I am changing this semester

1. My teaching schedule. 

The problem: back-to-back teaching days made it easy to get totally wrong-footed for the whole week if any issues arose in the mornings (AND THEY DID YOU GUYS)

The solution: a day in between to do work that can easily fall through the cracks.

I have a large lecture class Monday and Wednesday mornings and a HUGE lecture class on Monday at noon, followed by a grad student meeting in the afternoon (I have been attending this meeting as a grad student or leading it as a grown up person since 2003). I have a full day in between teaching to prep for the following week instead of teaching 2 days in a row like I did last semester. 

My plan is to use Tuesdays to grade the weekly assignment I am in charge of for the huge class (TAs grade the rest) and prep for the following Monday, plus assemble a weekly email for both classes that I'll schedule to go out on Fridays. Then on Thursdays, I will use my work block time to reconcile attendance from the large class, grade the weekly participation assignment in that class, deal with any committee work, and triage my email. 

In both the large class and the huge class, I just lecture and drop the mic with TAs to grade the longer written assignments, but I like to stay on top of what the students are doing through weekly assignments that I call case studies in the huge class and attendance questions in the large class. In both cases they are critical thinking exercises that require students to have been in class if they want to compete them for full points. They won't be able to answer the questions completely from Canvas materials alone. Even though I take attendance in this sneaky way, I also use the roll call function on Canvas and pass around an attendance sheet-- then I have to use the sheet to check off roll call attendance on Canvas. This is busy work that I do not want to take on for the huge course (2.5 tikes bigger than the large course), so I use case studies that are worth more points.

They key is to NOT FALL BEHIND on grading these small things. It really does not take long to do one, but if I have 3 weeks worth sitting there? Ugh. Takes forever and I always add a procrastination shame spiral. SO! Tuesday for the huge class and Thursday for the large class.

2. Fridays

The problem: this should have been a focused work day for me, but I ended up squandering it and watching Ben work with no distractions and feeling stabby

The solution: GO TO CAMPUS ON FRIDAY FFS

I am going to campus every Friday for my work block and am going to try to actively schedule meetings for this day. I tried to get the 3 TAs for my huge class to have our weekly meeting on this day, but they were not thrilled about it, so I did not press the issue. We are meeting on Wednesdays, and my large class TA and I will meet on Mondays, which is the same day I meet with the grad students who teach my ginormous public speaking class. And really? This is super smart because if kids are sick or something, I only have to be on campus 2 days-- surely even I can scrape together 2 days every week, right?

Last semester I ended up doing house and kid stuff while working on Fridays and just felt pissed off about it. I think I will enjoy working away from all the people and things who need me to take care of them on this day, too.

3. Wednesday leave time

The problem: This was a Tuesday last semester, but the same problem: I would not leave until all the morning house work was done and it really cut into my work time AND I still had bullshit housework to do when I got home anyway.

The solution: Kids do more (incentivized by their Green Light cards) and also I just WALK AWAY because I can lump "morning" work into the afternoon laundry and activity pack-up scramble.

I am committing to leaving the house at 8 on Wednesdays no matter what. This one is going to be hard, but I think if I an manage to leave when Dorothy and Cooper walk to the bus (I can walk them to the bus with Annabel, but I need to come home, stick her in her house, and drive away-- no running back inside), it will be a game changer. If the house looks like we were robbed/raptured up during breakfast, I can deal with it when I get home.  If I can manage to get home 45 minutes before Minnie is out, I should have time to get my shit together for the afternoon onslaught, and having a solid 75 minutes in my office before my large class? Would be AWESOME.

4. Walking schedule?

Problem: Dawn and dusk when I might get eaten by a bobcat

Solution: Probably not changing anything, TBH, but def worried about being eaten by a bobcat.

We have a BOBCAT in the neighborhood you guys. A REALLY BIG ONE. Which might explain why the place is lousy with half bunnies, huh? But bobcats like dawn and dusk. WHEN I AM OUT WITH MY TINY SNACKY DOG. **yikes face**

5. Takeout

Problem: Some nights dinner is impossible and I get really stressed

Solution: Garbage food

Why was I such a hero about eating at home last semester? NO IDEA. But! Culvers on the way home from dance on Tuesdays and Milios on the way to dive on Wednesdays? JUST MAKES SENSE. (For the kids-- I am not a fan, but that's also OK)

Problems yet to be solved:

1. Packing up Cooper's high maintenance after school snack (very ragey when he won't eat it; no time for him to do it himself since he is out of school at 4:25. He will only eat a hot meal and if he doesn't eat, he gets really shaky and often gets hurt at practice and sometimes he doesn't like what I brought or the temp is off and he's not "able" to eat and it's so stressful-- this one really sucks).

2. Spending so many hours driving back and forth across town in bad weather and bad traffic. (Maybe Minnie and I need to listen to Rachel McAdams read us Anne of Green Gables?

3. Lunch packing. It's not as easy as let them eat at school or make them do it-- that's easy to say but harder to put into practice. 

4. Never being off duty Tuesday-Thursday. People's schedules are a mess, and there is often a third dinner shift happening at 9pm, which means I am working as a mom from 6:40 when Minnie wakes up until 10pm and have zero time to relax. ZERO.

5 on a Friday: FUN THINGS

 1. Minnie had a make up gymnastics class, and it was a freaking TREAT to watch her in the gym 2 days in one week. SHE GETS SO SWEATY. SHE LISTENS SO CAREFULLY. She wears a leotard-- everything is awesome. Also! Dance started back up again, so I got to watch jazz and acro, too-- darling!

(She bailed on her acro class though-- just DID NOT WANT to do it. I switched her into ballet, which screws up our schedule, but she is really really excited about it, and she can start class just in time to learn the recital dance, so I think it is going to work out ok **crosses fingers**)

Note: she takes gymnastics on Saturday mornings, but as dance and dive heats up, we have had to do a few make up classes on weeknights, and holy cats was it crowded! Also, I do not have the stamina to squeeze more kindergarten activities into the school week-- yeesh! Minnie told me she would like to take class on Saturdays and Mondays, but I just do not think I can make it happen.

2. I made cookies every day, one batch at a time, and they were excellent except for a batch with oatmeal that were just not sweet enough. I squeezed them into my afternoons, made a few batches after I put Minnie to bed, and even whipped them up in the middle of the morning craziness. I think I have mastered the Tollhouse cookie recipe and can make like Elsa and let it go. (I even made a bunch to take to my TA meetings)

3. I LOVE a cold morning run. On Thursday, it was only TEN when Annabel and I went out, and we were the only people (or dogs) around. Everything was cold and quiet and sparkly, and we loved it. There is something so delightful about being sweaty and also cold. 9I wore long underwear-- top and bottom-- plus a thermal long sleeved T, plus sweats, plus slipper socks, plus a hoodie, plus a NorthFace fleece and also a hat and gloves (duh).

4. Dorothy and Cooper and I had a Tuesday night movie night with popcorn, and M&Ms and (most of) People We Meet on Vacation (Liked the book; loved the movie).

5. Harry and I went on the most random Target run and then! 

When we got home, I took Annabel for a walk and brought her in and had a snack. Midway through my snack, I heard her crunching on something in the laundry room and assumed it was a toy of Minnie's or something, so I got up to take it away and found her eating HALF OF A RABBIT. A RABBIT YOU GUYS. THE LEGS WERE HANGING OUT OF HER MOUTH. IT WAS SO BIG. HOW DID SHE BRING IT IN WITHOUT ME NOTICING???? SHE WAS EATING A ROTTING FLATTENED BUNNY MY GOD.

Harry and I screamed a lot and shut her in the laundry room WHERE WE COULD HEAR HER EATING IT while we figured out a plan (that included FaceTiming Ben who laughed until he cried when we showed him the dog who was SO PROUD with the bunny in her mouth.)

We used steak (prepped ahead for tacos!) to get her to drop it and lure her away. Then Harry picked it up with a snow shovel (almost flung it across the living room OMFG) and threw it outside. Then I bleached the ever loving fuck out of the laundry room rug and also mopped the floor with bleach and gave her tons of water and 2 toothbrush treats and a major bath (her dirty little bunny eating face and paws-- so gross!).

It was pretty hilarious. The other kids all loved the story, and we have started singing the Talking Heads song Psycho Killer to her (even though the bunny was already dead).

Bunny half on shovel: not pictured. YOU ARE WELCOME.

Psycho killer