5 on a Friday: The I can’t believe it’s almost a new month edition (4/52)

 1. Harry should find out today if he got into UW-Madison, since he applied early action, and the Reddit rumor mill says they release decisions the Friday before the 1/31 deadline. WHICH IS TODAY. He is an honors student with a super hard AP schedule, a National Honor Society member, a kid with tons of extra curriculars, including sportsball. But. He is definitely on the bubble for UW, and we all have our fingers crossed. (He got into 7 other schools, so he has terrific options).

2. One of my TAs introduced the staff to a get-to-know you game that the kids love playing at dinner (even though we know each other). You say your name and where you’re from (Minnie says she is from upstairs and also school) and then the answer to a question. Everyone else has to guess the question you answered. If someone guesses the wrong question, you have to answer that one, too. So, like you could say lasagna and someone could guess favorite food, but then you would say no it’s my favorite cartoon cat’s favorite food (Garfield) and then tell them your favorite food, too.

3. Errand Friday is making me mad, but I am going to give it a couple more weeks. Since the first week, I have had to run errands midweek out of necessity, although I am saving some returns for today. This week, for example, I had to do a Target pickup after drop off because we were out of Tide and I had to go to the pharmacy for someone’s meds. I missed my dad a lot on the first day of class because I always wear the pretty necklace that my parents got me for PhD graduation on the first day of class, so I channeled that feeling into chatting up the pharmacist at our doctor’s office. She told me I could short fill all our meds to match them up with the one I just filled and sketched out what this would look like for me and also made notes in the kids’ charts. The only draw back is that I will have to pay a full copay for a short fill, but that’s not a drawback at all if it means I only have to run this errand once a month instead of most weeks. Why didn’t I think of this sooner??

4.  I threw some Valentine-looking stuff into a plastic basket I found in the back of a bathroom cabinet and tossed it all on the table, and Minnie clambers up several times a day to make Valentines.

5. We had some crowd-pleaser dinners this week, specifically THESE pot pies (I made three and froze 1), THESE taco salads (I also offered tortillas and made rice for anyone who wanted to slice an avocado and make a bowl— Ben made a salad for the next day’s lunch while I was cleaning up the kitchen, and the kids repurposed leftovers for baked nachos), and THIS sheet pan meal (I doubled the shrimp because I Insta-carted a giant bag from Costco and served with couscous and a big salad). 

COZY HOME INDEED