May Gratitude

1.  YOGA.  I did yoga everyday this month, and I loved it.  I am so happy to have discovered such a wonderful activity.  I hope practice yoga everyday until my birthday and then reevaluate.

2.  SPEAKING OF BIRTHDAYS, I had 2 lovely parties with great friends new and old-- how lucky is that?

3.  KID FREE DAYS: it's been a lovely little honeymoon period between the end of my school year and the end of theirs, and I am lucky to enjoy it.

4.  HAVING BIG KIDS.  You know I miss babies, but life with people who can use the bathroom by themselves and buckle their own seat belts is pretty awesome.

5.  THE MAGIC OF INTERMITTENT FASTING:  Omg.  Finally a way to eat that works for me and has helped me return to my normal fat weight instead of my fat fat weight.

I know this list seems short, but when you think about it, all of these things are huge.  40 is fab, so far.

Things I Am Leaving in May

Design Home.  I deleted it for real this time. HA!

FOMO.  I am not going to lie, I felt very left out this weekend, and then I realized DUDE, you are FORTY.  GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER and live your life.  So, that's a new thing I am trying this month.  WISH ME LUCK.

(Also, seriously.  If you have tips for not feeling like a losey loser when you realize everyone is hanging out without you, SEND THEM MY WAY).

Not taking my vitamins.  I am FORTY.  I need vitamins. I am old enough to remember to take them-- but not so old that forgetting is acceptable.  Get.  It.  Together, self.

Eating an entire column of Oreos.  I need to stop one or two cookies short of the whole row.  Baby steps, as always.

SUMMER!

 I was at Target stocking my pool bag, and I saw this swimsuit and imagined wearing it to the pool and laughed out loud for way too long to be LOLing by yourself at a store.

 Dorothy also took her pool preparation seriously.

 She was in her swimsuit and cover up by 7 am on Saturday.  The pool opened at 10.

 But I could hardly blame her because I was clearly excited, too.

 She decided to slide in the moment we burst through the doors at precisely 10 on the dot.

 Cooper and Jack just sort of jumped in.

 Harry was excited, but also chill

 Yay!  We're baaaaack!

 Just hanging around:

 Slide moms!

 Ben and Harry had a baseball game, but the kids and I stuck around until the late afternoon when we all went home to get ready for my second 40th birthday party, a wiffle ball party at the word's most adorable wiffle ball bar in the middle of nowhere.

 Despite a completely wicked hangover, I rolled my fat ass out of bed and into SHORTS (mom shorts/ JORTS) and accessories to go grocery shopping.  Something I am trying this summer!  I am going to get dressed in actual clothes every damn day every time I have to leave the house, even if it's just to go to swim lessons.  No More hot mess express for me.

 Something else we are trying!  Each kid gets $5 a week to spend at the pool snack bar, in an envelope with their name on it, refillable every Saturday.  They can also pack themselves snacks (the same junk the snack bar sells) of the want to save their cash or if they have spent it already.  No more bargaining with me at adult swim!  If they have cash, they can spend it. If they don't they're out of luck.  Let's see how it goes.

 She only has $1 left, by the way.

 Also, she's ALL GROWN UP.

 Baseball picnic!

 It was 91 degrees at 7 pm.  SO MISERABLE.

 Harry, though, os a good little catcher, even in the heat.

 Dorothy was cheering by saying, "Let's go, Somebody!"

 After baseball, in a move that should surprise NO ONE, we went back to the pool.

 Monday morning started out with crafts.

 And some dress up.

 And some more dress up.

 Curse you, glitter!

 Then, of course, we were right back at the pool

 I wore a rash guard because I am already sick of all of the sun screen.

 Jack.  Is.  Awesome.  (Also, I threw this ball and then took his pic-- I am awesome, too!)

 H dove so hard for a ball he ended up flipping.

 Harry totally looks like a labrador in this shot

 And he caught it, too!

So, I mean, basically, this is what I am going to do for the next, like, 99 days.

What We're Eating 22/52

Okay, first of all YES YES YES to Pioneer Woman's fettucine alfredo.  We has it with chicken breasts chopped up and mixed in (cooked in the oven in butter, garlic, and TJ's 21 Flavor Salute or whatever the hell it's called)
Any recipe where this is only HALF of the cheese is amazeballs

Second, YES YES YES to Ina Garten's strawberry rhubarb crisp.

Seriously.  All of the yeses.

Okay, so clearly I am stalling because this week is RIDICULOUS, and we have something during the dinner hour EVERYDAY

Sunday: Baseball at 6. 
Monday: Track at 6
Tuesday: Soccer at 5:30 Maybe try for a couch date?
Wednesday: Gymnastics at 3:45, baseball at 4:15, track at 6.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME
Thursday: Virtual faculty meeting at 6:30  Can probably still have dinner.  Hot dogs, tater tots, corn watermelon.
Friday: OH MY GOD IT'S A UNICORN!  I think we can make dinner.  I am thrilled!  Salmon burgers, fries, green veggie, corn, ice cream
Saturday:  Baseball 4-6.  GAH.  I think we'll go to the golf course bar for pizza after.

Video of the Week

Deathless monsters-- her favorite animals at the zoo.

The Wednesday of all of the things, plus a pretty freaking packed Thursday

I don;t know how it happened, but our Wednesdays have been brutally over-scheduled all year. Even way back in hockey season, we were riding the struggle bus on Wednesdays, and then, when hockey was over, we continued to have Wednesday FULL to the BRIM of kiddie activity and other work.

This week's was no different.

I had my normal housework (Wednesday I try to dust and vacuum all the bedrooms, dust and mop the main room, and bleach all the bathrooms for a mid-week pick-me-up.

 Also, Harry needed me to make brownies for his school's community dinner which-- OF COURSE-- fell on a Wednesday.

 I had to deal with the normal day's laundry situation.

 Do yoga and cardio

 (I didn't really HAVE to mask my face, but I usually do it on Wednesdays)

 I had a bunch of TAs to interview for my class in the fall

 This has nothing to do with how busy we are on Wednesdays, but the city finally came and took away the pile of branches that have been on our curb for literal weeks.

 And revealed this:

Mid-morning, I picked Dorothy up from school and got her cleaned up, fed, packed up, and changed for dance

I finished my daily word goal at dance class

 And then we got organized and changed for gymnastics, middle school community dinner, and track practice

 I dropped Dorothy off at gymnastics and took the boys for haircuts (did you know that Sports Clips does free ear and neck trims?  This has been key for Cooper, who looks better, I think, with slightly longer hair)

 Then we picked Dorothy up and went to Harry's adorable little school where he showed us a Power Point presentation he's been working on, and we fed the kids from the world's cutest potluck line in the outdoor classroom.

 That's the point in the evening when I abandoned Ben and the ids (Ben was fresh from work and swooped in just in time for the Power Point situation) and went to girls' night out which THANK GOD.

 ...But I came home to make more brownies for Cooper, who was kindergarten star of the day yesterday, pack lunches (including one for Ben), and prep my hipster coffee for Thursday morning.

 All ready for show-and-tell

 I took my damn self to the movies and was all alone in the heater, which was mildly creepy.  I am going to see 2 movies a month next school year, but I will only have a few ore days to squeeze in some solo shows before summer is upon me, so I am taking full advantage.

 After the movie, I went to Starbucks to meet my word goal.

 And then picked Dorothy up with lunch in the car (for her-- I am still doing intermittent fasting and find it is easier to be out of the house until my eating window opens) and took her to the splash park.

 These cookies really looked like they had potential, but they came out TOTALLY EFFING FLAT.

 And of course!  SO MUCH LAUNDRY