Chill weekend

 The kiddos were at my parent's since yesterday afternoon, and now it's Sunday afternoon, and I've had such a relaxed couple of days. I've been on a home decor kick yet again, and have been trying, but not succeeding, at obsession about lots of different things. Here are a few of the items I have either complete, have in the works or am thinking about right now.

1. Get bookshelves for either side of the sideboard that the TV is on right now. Honestly, in the photo, the space doesn't even look too bad. It just looks...functional and lived in. And yet, I ordered two shelves from West Elm that are supposed to arrive tomorrow. We'll see how much better that looks. Maybe it really won't make a difference...who knows. Maybe I will hate it. In that case, I can probably return them! It looks like they require assembly, which makes them easier to return, I guess. I also just learned that I could buy the Target knock-offs for less than half the price. Should I? The Target ones aren't from real wood, but it's never totally clear to me if that matters or not. At least for bookshelves.

This is the "Ladder Leaning Bookshelf" from West Elm.

2. Repot a couple of plants - done today. I repotted the "ZZ" plant that was in our living room, and now it looks kind of droopy and sad. I also repotted a very healthy-looking succulent outside, hopefully that will do better.

3. I'm also searching for a new rug for our living room because the existing one looks nice, but is totally synthetic and very difficult to clean. And it's starting to look very worn and kind of pilled and gross. I've looked at Article, Quince and West Elm. Looks like almost all the Article ones are partially synthetic. Ugh. Quince doesn't have my favorite patterns, so I may go with West Elm. Of course, do I want to spend $1,000 on a rug (after all the taxes and shipping)? No, I don't.

Other than thinking about home decor today, I've also done a bit of work and organizing, went for a run, and talked with O for some time. So...not too bad of a way to spend the day.

Early Friday

Picture has little to do with the post, but it's a photo of one of the pools at our gym. And I hope to use it this weekend.

I woke up around 5am today and tried to go back to sleep (because I didn't fall asleep till after 10:30 last night). But had all these thoughts kicking around in my head. I read, relaxed, then got up to work at 6.

I have a bit of a sore throat and am paranoid that I picked up something at Urgent Care on Wednesday. And why did I go to urgent care? Because my just-turned-4-year-old needed to get a cut stapled on the back on his head. He cut it on a doorframe on Wednesday morning by aggressively playing on a doorway swing that we have loved, but now have to decommission. It looked like a somewhat deep cut, and seeing the flesh stapled made me feel both guilty and slightly nauseous, but he was actually a champ throughout the whole experience.

Yesterday (Thursday), his preschool called in the afternoon because he was screaming for mommy and refusing to nap. I doubt it had anything to do with his injury, but I picked him up at 2:30 anyway because I felt bad. Thankfully, my husband and I were both working from home, and we took turns trying to get him to nap because he seemed to need it. And that was quite the feat and made for an unproductive work afternoon. Thankfully, my mom took both kids home with her last night (as had been planned) so I was able to finish my workday in the evening. 

Today, I'm going to continue working, eventually work out, and hopefully have a productive day before the kids return in the early evening. Tomorrow morning, we have the kiddos' first swim lessons of the summer, followed by a little friend's birthday party. On Sunday, hopefully will go to the pool at our gym. And maybe see some friends.

Toodles!

Last day of school!

 

Today was my daughter's last day of first grade! I actually got a bit emotional while dropping her off at school and think some other parents did, too! I do love her elementary school and teachers. It's a nice community.

I ran the kids to school and preschool in our Burley trailer/jogging stroller today and stopped at the grocery store for some milk and fruit on the way back. It was maybe a 2.5-mile roundtrip? The distance on my Apple Watch isn't very accurate when the phone is in the Burley because it sometimes "thinks" that I'm driving. Very slowly, I guess. Anyway, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to do this Burley/stroller jog with both kids. My almost-7-year-old is essentially sitting in a stroller next to her brother when I do this, even if it doesn't look exactly like a stroller. That said, why is sitting in car any better than sitting in a stroller?

The rest of the day, I worked, threw in some laundry, went for a walk outdoors. It was a nice warm day, though the afternoon is still windy, as per usual here. Work was fine, except I don't like the feeling of never being on top of all my tasks and requests. There's ALWAYS more I could do, and there are always requests coming out of the woodwork - like a project that just landed on my plate from some other group within marketing, even though my plate is already more than full. I know I have it so much easier than people toiling in coal mines or factories or even knowledge workers who are in jobs they hate. My work is fun, I work with nice people and have a lot of flexibility...and yet, it could be better.

Anyway, tonight we're going to have an easy dinner (couscous, raw vegetables, fruit), do the whole bedtime routine, and then my husband is taking a red-eye to Philly for his cousin's wedding. The wedding doesn't allow kids, so I'm staying home with the kiddos. Which is fine.

Tomorrow, I will take the kids to our gym in the morning - I hope to take advantage of the on-site childcare for an hour or so while I do some work and life admin. Then we'll go to a birthday party in the neighborhood, after which my daughter has her annual ballet performance. Last night and this morning, she suddenly became terrified of the performance. We were able to mollify her by promising a "Squishmallow art set" after the performance (decided that this is an appropriate situation for bribery). She seemed to feel much better after that, but we'll see how it goes tonight tomorrow. Thankfully, my dad is going to come and help out with the 3-year-old so that I can focus on getting M to and through the performance.

O just went to pick up the kids from school - I'm going to wrap up the workday, make this couscous, and get ready for the weekend.