Blogging 2015: 419 down, 1596 to go

What a beautiful day it was today. Fantastic husband got up at 0530 to go to CF for his 5th class, and shortly thereafter two little boys bounced in and started making noise. I screeched at them to getoutgetoutGETOUT! and bought myself another 30 minutes of silence.

The kids got the full-on breakfast this morning with cheesy eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, and juice. They all did a pretty good job of powering it down without whining (except for C, who prefers his eggs without cheese like a communist). Fantastic husband even made it home before the girl child needed to leave for school. Overall this morning was a win.

After the kids were off to school I made myself some breakfast and a cup of coffee. I skipped the spinach today in favor of orange peppers. I love mushrooms with eggs, shit I love mushrooms with everything. Cooked down in bacon fat? Fucking nirvana. If you don't like mushrooms, I don't care. More for me.

This mango was fucking delightful.

I went to the box this morning to do the first Lurong WOD for the Summertime Challenge. It was only a 5 minute AMRAP and after the last few WODs I've done it felt kind of easy. We also did max effort thrusters for 3 minutes and that sucked pretty hard core, but at least I didn't have to do the programmed WOD-it looked like fucking murder. I did my GHDs like a good child, had a banana, and went home.

Mmmm. Nana.

Since class ended a little ahead of time (thanks, Justin!) I was home before 10:30 and since it was such a beautiful day we decided to take the dogger out for a nice walk before lunch. We did about 2 miles and used a little gravel trail that runs on one side of the neighborhood in order to avoid the garbage/recycling trucks.
Lunch was more mushrooms (gawd, I love mushrooms!) on a burger and the remainder of the pepper I sent with the girl child for lunch.

Tasty, but they ain't fries.

After lunch we headed down to Jenstar for lunchtime flow. Pretty much every muscle in my pelvic saddle has been screaming for the last few days and this was the perfect 45 minute stretch. I was so relaxed after that I managed a 4 hour nap-good news for my shift tonight. I'm far less likely to be desperately tired at 3am.

So slept the sleep of the dead and fantastic husband took the smalls to CF kids. Apparently there was a tug of war involving all the kids and teens against the 4 adult men that were present. The kids won, and the boys were excited about it. When I woke up it was suppertime, which is truly excellent timing.

Lemon rosemary pork loin and roasted broccoli.

Now I'm chillin' in the living room, watching Wheel of Fortune (I'm watching it ironically), and considering a nice cup of chocolate flavored coffee to finish the night. I should also probably pull a lunch together so I don't starve overnight.

Tomorrow I'll pretty much just be sleeping and walking the dog. I was supposed to start a belly dancing class, but working husband plus no sitter = no class. Hope I can catch up next week.

Going to work a night early is a bit of a drag, but it means I have 8 days off next rotation and that does not suck.

Blogging 2015: 417 down, 1598 to go

Woot!  Got 7 miles today because we needed hamburger buns. Sounds a little stupid, yes? Well, I went to Costco this morning to refill our empty fridge and as I was leaving I got a text from fantastic husband "If still at store, get a pack of hamburger buns." I responded "Too late, but we can walk the dog to the BP."  So I got home, put away my $200 worth of awesome (we were out of a lot of stuff) and we walked the kids to school. Once they were dropped off, we continued on with the dog. The hilltop BP is just shy of 2 miles from our front door. A nice round trip walk. Well, they were out of buns so I said "Why don't we just keep going? We can stop at the one down the hill!"

Down the hill in this case was through campus.  Fantastic husband was game, so off we went. There was one package of hamburger buns on the shelf at the downhill BP, and we got it. Then we had to walk 3.5 miles home. Fortunately the rain held off and it wasn't too hot or windy. 7 miles later we had hamburger buns. I don't even eat hamburger buns.  Nice walk though, and just what my screaming glutes and hamstrings needed to loosen up. I'm skipping yoga tonight as it's softball season and I totally spaced on fantastic husband's game tonight.

I woke this morning to a snoring pile of 5 year old in my bed. I got them up and started dressing and headed downstairs to scrape together breakfast. I found a box of waffles, so we were saved. I had the remnants of a box of blueberries and my now standard egg-spinach-and-mushroom scramble.  Good stuff.

Food groupy.

Fantastic husband walked the girl child to school and I kicked back with a cup of coffee. Then he took the boys to the Y and I got ready for epic errand spending. The girl child now has a summer wardrobe and some new sneakers and we have a full fridge.  Then we had our hamburger bun walk, right before which I realized I'd inadvertently ordered TWO swingsets from Home Depot. Shit. I called them and straightened that out while we walked. Fortunately for me they don't charge until an item ships and we got one canceled prior to shipping. I do not need two giant mac daddy playsets. That is madness.

As a side note, the chick at the HD helpdesk was extremely nice and fixed my problem right away. I adore good customer service. This is what I would've had two of:

I didn't have lunch until almost 2pm due to our extended walk. Pretty basic and once again from the toaster oven.

I had to get more salmon today. It's just so damn tasty.

I couldn't tell you what I did this afternoon. It's all gone. So much for fish being brain food.

My last turkey burger bit the dust for dinner. I considered eating a bun just because.

Must get more Wildtree. Fortunately I have a hook-up.

Opted for dessert. We finally got a good batch of grapes from Costco. Fantastic husband describes it as grape roulette as half the time they look great but are mushy or sour or what have you...and when you get bad ones you have FIVE POUNDS of bad ones. These are delicious. Crunchy and sweet.

GET IN MA MOUF, SWEET THANG!

Tonight's activities are up in the air. I'll be watching Aaron Rodgers on Jeopardy, because Aaron Rodgers and Jeopardy, but other than that? Beaded knitting? Coloring? Maybe I'll READ A BOOK! FOR FUN!

My spawn are making noise, so I banished them to the basement. I will leave you with this gem from P (said while enthusiastically hugging his sister) "YOU CAN'T MILK A CHICKEN!"

I can't argue with that.

Blogging 2015: 410 down, 1605 to go.

Looks like I'm gonna have to do 5 miles tomorrow.

Yesterday I took some of my Mother's Day silence (it's the only thing I asked for) and powered through the foot of my right sock. Here's the result. I kind of love them. I needed green socks, and this was a quick easy knit.

Yay socks!

Today is the first day of the Lurong Summertime Challenge. Just 5 weeks in the summer, and I'm taking it as a cue to get back on track with the support of my fitness community.  

Here's breakfast-eggs with mushrooms and spinach. I tossed peppers in there on the weekend, but we're out now, so oh well.

I also had black coffee and an orange.

I went to the box yesterday for the Mother's Day WOD. It was a hero WOD and it was a hard one. Part of it was weighted lunges and my ass hurt like a bitch this morning, only to show up and do 80 wall balls and 1000m run. I'll be really surprised if sitting on the shitter isn't excruciating tomorrow.  

While I was at the gym, surprise! The sump pump replacement crew showed up at my house. I had them on the calendar for Friday, but there was an email I missed on Friday moving the appointment. I get like 200 emails a day. So I missed one. So sue me.  At any rate, we hustled home and the work was done. No biggie, except that it ate up all the free time I was going to use for grocery shopping this afternoon.  Oops.

The boys had PB&J for lunch by request, and I baked a nice piece of fish and tossed it on some mixed greens.  Looks pretty fucking fancy, doesn't it. You'd pay a hefty price for this in a restaurant.  I made the fish in the toaster oven while making the boys' lunch and pitching greens in a bowl with balsamic while I poured milk. 

That'll be $15 please.

I walked the boys to school in what became a fucking deluge halfway there. They thought that was awesome and they squealed and laughed with their superhero umbrellas. My sweats got wet. Flappity flappity flap. Wet cuffs suck. I was hoping to have enough time to wash before going back to school to volunteer this afternoon, but the crew didn't finish in time for me to do that, so I just stank. Meh. 4 year olds smell pretty bad. I doubt any of them noticed my crunchy hair.

I volunteer in the 4K classroom once a month. I did when the girl child was 4 as well. It's kind of fun, and it's nice to know the kids so that when my boys talk about their friends I can put names with faces. A group of 4 year olds is both unbelievably adorable and excruciatingly painful. Imagine every question that was ever thought of being asked simultaneously in 16 tiny high pitched voices and you have 4K. Kindergarten teachers deserve a medal. If I taught Kindergarten I would probably take steak knife and a tongs and just cut my own fucking uterus out to prevent having to live with a child that age. 

Today we made handprint flowerpots. I alternately wanted to hug and shake every single child. I mean cuuuuuuute, but also OMGFOLLOWDIRECTIONS.  At the end of my time they went to calendar time and I folded alphabet books. Ask me about the 4K weather song sometime. I'll sing it for you.  You'll be singing it forever. I did get a lovely parting gift, though. I don't know what kind of plant it is, but the boys are very excited to find out how it will look.

One little girl remarked "It's so cuuuuuuute"

She is super cute. It is also her birthday.

Somehow after we walked home in the drizzle, the sky cleared completely and it became a beautiful day. Just in time for us to hop in the car and go to CF kids. By the time we got home I was starving, so I tossed some hot dogs together for the kids and I heated up a leftover turkey burger and some peas for myself. 

I really love these turkey burgers.

After dinner the kids and I took the dog outside and played fetch for about an hour. She could play fetch forever and never tire.  She's so good now that she often catches the disc in the air- and tonight she was bringing it back and laying it at my feet. What a good doggie.  I did spend about half the time keeping her from pestering my plants.  Here's the garden box all planted. A little of this, a little of that and we'll see what sprouts!  The kids are already planning what to do with their pumpkins, so let's hope we get a few.

This shit is orderly 

I made the spawn go downstairs to play while I folded laundry so that I could watch Game of Thrones. It took me damn near an hour to fold all that shit. Kid laundry is the worst. But it's all done, it's all folded, and it's all put away. Except for the stuff I have to do tomorrow. Sigh.

At the moment I'm chilling out and considering having a bowl of cherries to finish the night. I think I will.

Oh, I got myself a Mother's Day gift.  A little pharmacy related jewelry.  I thought this was pretty cool.

I especially dig the old-timey hypodermic.

I'm not sure I'll make it to the box tomorrow as my errands were all fucked up today, but I do have yoga in the evening, so I'll at least get some good stretching in. It's been a couple of weeks since I made it to yoga and I have really missed it. 

Also I signed up for belly dancing. Because I enjoy making a fool out of myself in the name of abs. Now I just need one of those jangly belt things.

Blogging 2015: 402 down, 1613 to go

Hey, it's been a while!  Aside from the sump pump blowing up and working, I haven't been doing much except going to the gym and knitting.  Exciting stuff, yes?  Today is my first full day off, so I was actually running on a normal schedule which means being awakened at 5:50am by small children.

I batted them away until around 6:20am when I was forced to wake up and feed them.

Their breakfast was cereal and bananas by request, but I wasn't really ready to eat yet. At least not surrounded by Cocoa Puffs.  Have you eaten Cocoa Puffs? That shit is delicious. It is chemical, it is sugar laden, and it turns the motherfucking milk chocolate. 

I had 2 cups of coffee, we walked the girl child to school, and I came home and made breakfast for myself.

A shitload of spinach, a runny egg, and an orange.

After breakfast I took the boy smalls with me to the gym.  They love the ropes, and they climb them pretty well. Getting down is a different story. They just drop to the floor and I envision broken ankles and collar bones.  Sigh.

"Look at me, Mommy!!"

Today was rough at the box. It's been hot the last couple of days (which means 80s with humidity) and initially I was fine, but about 4 rounds into a 6 round WOD I felt like I was on the point of passing out. So hot I felt dizzy and nauseated. I went outside for a bit to get some air and came back in and finished, but it was slow as shit and I didn't do GHDs because the upside-down of it all made me feel like I was going to hurl. I'm a little proud of myself for finishing. I could've just stopped.

We came back home after the gym and I made lunch for the boys. Girl child had a half day at school, so when we finished up lunch we retrieved her and headed for Menards to buy garden supplies. I had some halibut with herbs and dijon and some asparagus.

So. Fucking. Healthy.

I drew a diagram of the garden and we discussed what we should plant. I'm going to use the Square Foot Gardening technique to keep things well labeled and under control.  The pipe is for trellis netting so we can train melons, peas, tomatoes, and zucchini to grow up instead of out. We're also going to run some pumpkins, but that will be over the side towards the fence.  The kids are super stoked. The trellis frame is made from steel electrical conduit reinforced with rebar. Cheap and easy.  It took me about an hour to construct the grid and the trellis frames. Dogs are shitty helpers. The squares are just wood lath. Planting starts on Sunday!

You know what really gets in the way of garden construction?

A Vizsla.

I came inside and peeled off my destroyed manicure and had a little snack.

Surprise. I ate 3 of these bad boys today.

The last freezer meal workshop I did included southwest turkey burgers. I still had enough stuff to make them again so I cooked up a batch.  I sold them to the kids as TACO TURKEY BURGERS!!! YAAAAAAY! and put cheese on them. They all remarked that they smelled great and 2 of the 3 ate an entire burger. I'm taking that as a win. Turkey burgers are generally pretty shitty and tasteless, but these are good. Just a little kicky. 

And snap peas.

After supper we took the dog for a walk and the kids played at the park for a bit. P&C invited themselves to play baseball with a father and son who were having a little batting practice. They were pretty excited. We came home and played in the yard a bit, then they had a little TV time and are now in bed. They are whining about being in bed, but it's fantastic husband's workday, I've been entertaining them all day, and dammit I need a break.

Since I wrecked my (week old) manicure making the trellis, I gave myself a new manicure. 

Neutral, yet sparkly.

I'll be hitting the box tomorrow at some point. Fantastic husband is doing the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes fundraiser against domestic violence tomorrow. If I'm feeling especially ambitious, I may take the kids to the dog park fundraiser. Then maybe rugby. It could be a long day.

For Mother's Day we'll be planting the garden. With luck I'll get to CF that morning...and I sort of want to go to the movies alone.  I used to go to the movies solo all the time and I loved it. We'll see, we'll see. Weirdly this is the first mothers day since I started crapping out kids that fantastic husband doesn't have to work. Which means I can leave the house...and maybe not feel like murdering all of my crotchfruit at the end of the day. That would be novel. 

Do all you mothers out there have big plans? Anyone like me who when asked "What do you want for Mother's Day?" answered "Silence."?