Presents Day

Posted on February 18, 2019 by admin

I had to work today, though the students in our district were off. With that, our daycare was also closed for a “curriculum day” which annoys me. Their whole reason for existing is so parents can drop their kids off and go to work. You know, so that I can pay them exorbitant fees to watch my kid. It’s a whole circle of life thing.

Anyway, The Hubs had to stay home with Chaos and Mayhem while I brought home the bacon…which since I get paid like a teacher isn’t even close to bacon, but more like government Spam.

I was trying to amp up the whole President’s Day thing. Not that it’s really a big thing, but I texted The Hubs to have the boys put out our flag.

Apparently Mayhem was PUMPED! He was psyched it was Presents Day and he couldn’t wait to get started opening them. He also couldn’t be dissuade. Today was Presents Day and he intended to live it up.

Whoops!

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Saturday Morning Wanderings

Posted on February 16, 2019 by admin

Ah, Saturday mornings. Delightful Saturdays mornings. I long for you all week. You are always welcomed in my heart (and my calendar) especially since you bring your buddy Sunday morning.

We have finally found a good routine for Saturday mornings. The boys are old enough that they can wander out and find some cereal themselves and entertain themselves with their Kindles (don’t start with me, hippies. I’ll defend some appropriately used screen time to my death). This is especially handy as Chaos still wakes up at 4:30-5:30 am each morning, and isn’t old enough to appreciate Mama’s love-fest with Saturday mornings. Mayhem sleeps in longer, but that drive for breakfast always gets him moving long before The Hubs and I would like to greet the world. With Baby Sprocket joining the family in a few months, I will miss the sweet simpleness on our weekend mornings.

The Hubs, delightful man that he is, brings me coffee in bed where we drink it and watch The Today Show (it’s a delightful pleasure of mine that is denied to me by that whole j-o-b thing). We talk and lounge and basically get some time to reconnect. Again- this whole Saturday morning this is a thing of beauty.

Saturday mid-mornings usually roll around with The Hubs making breakfast while I start tackling The Laundry Monster and wandering our house putting away the gagillion billion things that have migrated out of their spots and ended up on my vertical spaces.

(I don’t remember which decluttering/Minimalist/dechaosing site uses the whole horizontal spaces thing. But basically, horizontal spaces must be defended! The Hubs knows that the state of our kitchen island is directly related to the level of nuttiness that I’m going to exhibit. We must protect the island! )

So mid-morning finds me ambling around muttering “What the hell” to myself and complaining about all the stuff we have. At least the mornings are blissful. 🙂

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Still Not Keeping Up

Posted on February 15, 2019 by admin

Fine. There. I said it.

I am SO not up-to-date on posts with my 365 day challenge.

When I started this (during a school break in which I was at home, hanging out, with ample time upon my hands… I think I’ve found the root cause) challenge idea, I saw myself sitting down each day busting out a pithy post about, uh, whatever. Still haven’t figured out that theme thing.

Now I’m third trimester pregnant and my evenings have dissolved into something that includes a pre-bedtime nap and a slow trudge through our evening “have tos”.

The Hubs and I are vigilant about always having the dishes washed, kitchen vaguely clean, and all of our lunches packed after dinner. Granted my counters are always sticky and full of crumbs, but these things help us stay afloat.

What has not translated into my day life is writing a post. My day starts at 5am, so I can’t fathom losing even a minute of that sleep time to writing, though my brain is the happiest in the quiet of a solitary early morning.

I work outside the home as a librarian. While I am SO grateful to have an administration who believes in my integrity and sense of initiative, which means that I can run my library program as I see fit- that doesn’t mean I’m willing to bring Dinos & Cheese into that realm.

So that leaves the evenings. Somehow.

What I do know is that I can’t keep backtracking and trying to write posts and post date them (like this one…lol).

I have some thinking to do to figure this one out.

I will not use the “I’m busy” excuse anymore. We’re all busy. Can we agree to keep that out of our lives and figure out solutions? Maybe more “no” instead of begrudging yes’s?

Why do the children need to eat EVERY NIGHT?? I mean, I fed them yesterday. That should be enough.

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Valentine’s Day- No Buy February

Posted on February 14, 2019 by admin

Our No Buy February is in full swing- well, with it being the 14th, that means we are halfway through the dealio. Yay!

In truth, I don’t miss buying things at all. And I should quantify that this is “I don’t miss buying stuff that is not part of the plan to be bought or something that cannot be avoided” type of No Buy February.

So what do two people who love each other deeply, but want to honor their financial growth do for Valentine’s Day?

We love each other! And we hang out with the kids, who are so sugared up that they may not be able to see straight. And we make handmade cards filled with words that matter. And, yes, we bought each other our favorite candy. He loves me “A Thousand Swedish Fish” but knows that a Reese’s peanut butter heart goes a long way with a pregnant gal, so he bought a bag of those. I gave him the Sweethearts that he loves and adores (though I don’t understand why).

The Hubs’ Love Language is gift-giving. It’s how he shows love and appreciation. I have the utmost respect for him because he has learned how to show love in ways that are not tangible items. He wanted to send me flowers at work. He wanted to fill the house with balloons. He wanted that gigantic teddy bear that he could talk for and make me laugh.

And the idea of this makes me teary-eyed because I know that The Hubs really does strive to make me happy and loved.

He honored our new path. And he made me a card with a sweet message. A sweet message that he really struggled with because words are not his forte. In fact, he has been working on it all week. I know this because he said if I looked at his text messages there will be a string of messages on there that will make him seem like he’s sweet talking another woman. In fact, he was sending himself sweet texts so he could remember them for when he wrote my card.

Going to HEB would have been easier, but his gifts mattered more.

He has also recruited Chaos and Mayhem to help him make me a special Valentine’s Day dinner on Saturday. That’s love, baby!

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A Little Less

Posted on February 13, 2019 by admin

In addition to buying less and spending less money, I’m also on a quest to use less. Less plastic mostly. (Side note- I’ve linked a bunch of stuff on here. I get zero money for any of this- it’s just the stuff I use. I mean, if someone wants to pay me though…. 😉 )

Single-use plastic eats at me.

A few solutions that we use:

  • Reusable grocery bags ( I mean- this feels almost basic at this point. If you haven’t started bringing your own bags to the store, give it a try. It is an easy switch and saves so many bags!)
  • Reusable produce bags- I hate using the produce bags at the store. I use mesh bags from Amazon (something like these. I’m not actually sure which ones I use. They live in the trunk of my car….which is in the garage…and not my couch, which is where I’m prepared to never move from. Sorry.) which is also a super easy switch to make.
  • Straws- I’m the obnoxious anti-straw person at the restaurant. Whatever.
  • Bamboo toothbrushes- the “every toothbrush you have ever used is in a landfill” statement got me. Damn Gina! I mean, okay, I admit that I probably use my toothbrush longer than I should, but I’m not married to the damn thing. They do find their way out of my house every now and again.
  • Glass containers rather than plastic- this was a health choice however.
  • Reusable water bottles and snack bags. I love snack bags- we use them for the boys at school, but I also have my beloved flamingo snack bag that I use at work. I see that they also have wraps for bowls and these sandwich wraps that flatten as a placemat. I think those may be coming to my home at some point. Goodbye cling-wrap!
  • Imperfect Produce– they sell produce that would otherwise be discarded and sells it for a discount rate. They ship it to our house in a box without any plastic- woot woot! If you want to use a discount code let me know- I have one for $10 off your first shipment.
  • Packed lunches. We all take our lunches to work/school. We send the boys to school with lunches real silverware and reusable food containers. This saves the disposable forks and spoons that they use at daycare. It also saves the packaging from their lunches. The morning teacher still uses a plate under the boys’ breakfast bowls which chaps me. I need to figure out a solution on that one.(Maybe the sandwich wraps I was just talking about??) She told me once that the teachers are nervous to lose our silverware. I had to just shrug that one off. I told her that we don’t mind losing the silverware if it cuts down on the use of disposable utensils. She said she had never thought of that.

In that past I used bar shampoo, but I sorta hated it. I’m willing to try it again though. Anyone have any favorite brands?

I was reading this article “Living Plastic Free” and it made me think about how much more we could do if we had a few more things available to us. I would absolutely use a refilling station (however this is not going to be my announcement of creating one in suburban Houston) if one was available. I’m not in a place where I feel ready to make my own toothpaste, but I have been noodling around with using Bite for our toothpaste. I like the idea of it being delivered in a glass container originally, then in refill boxes. I also like that I won’t be responsible for making my own toothpaste, because you guys, I’m at my max on projects around here.

It’s not a perfect solution, but I am excited to see that people are changing their lives in defense of the environment.

And I’m always on that borderline of being ‘obnoxious granola girl’ and suddenly plunging my family into a happy-hippy life. Life is a balance, I suppose, but dammit I’m always teetering on that line of going extreme. :breathe, breathe:

Anyone have any favorite ways to reduce plastic or waste in general? Favorite bar shampoo?

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Pluto-less

Posted on February 12, 2019 by admin

In third grade, they’re learning about the planets currently.

I know this because one of our 3rd grade teachers rooms is set up so where she talks, her sound waves have a straight path to my right ear. All day, I hear third grade math and science (5th grade language arts for my left ear, but it’s not a straight shot, so it doesn’t make as big of an impact).

In case you were wondering…or in case you hadn’t considered it (like me)- the whole mnemonic “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Me _________” had to be changed upon the ousting of Pluto.

Let’s take a moment.

Pluto 🙁

My whole life…well, at least since 3rd grade or whenever Ohio decided to take me about the planets, I have used this version:

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Me Nine Pizza pies

WHY IS THERE AN EXTRA P FOR PIES? Anyone? AN-E-ONE???

I recognize that I may not have had a top-of-the-line primary education, but gravy- why not stop with PIZZA??

(Clearly this has begun to eat at me. Pun intended.)

Anyway- moving on. Nowadays, the chant has changed for the more delicious (and less ridiculous. Pizza pies. :shakes head: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, pie?)

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Me Nachos.

We can agree that while the lack of Pluto may be an outrage- melted cheese does help heal our wounds.

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Imperfect Produce

Posted on February 8, 2019 by admin

Today my first box of Imperfect Produce arrived! I was pretty pumped to have bok choy delivered straight to my porch.

The deal behind Imperfect Produce is pretty simple. They sell the fruit and veggies that can’t be sold to stores because of imperfections or overstock. Then those foods are delivered to customers on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. You can pick and choose what you want (They tried to sell me beets. Uck!) to buy and it even tells you what is wrong with the stuff.

I really like the idea that this food isn’t going to waste… well, barring that I make it a point to get it used up before it goes bad (It happens. Not a lot, but it does happen). Living in Nigeria really changed my perspective on what makes food quality. Spoiler alert- it’s not perfect symmetry. More than anything, I’m pretty pumped that there are companies that are combining people’s love of at-your-doorstep convenience with the desire to reduce things that are commonly wasted.

It claims to be 33% cheaper than normal produce, but I’ll have to investigate that a bit more. We don’t get an HEB discount on produce like we do on HEB brand items, so it’s possible that this could save us some money too. I’m also going to play with the box size and shipping schedule to see what works best for us. Our family eats A LOT of produce, so it would be delightful if we could get to a place where the produce amount keeps up with the demand.

Ok. I’ll admit it- I think fruit and veggies are kinda cute. And the bunch of carrots I got were adorable and held together with a rubber band in an adorable little bunch. I LOVE that things weren’t in plastic (other than the tomatoes and cauliflower since that was overstock from the store. By the way, Mayhem calls cauliflower “white broccoli,” thus, we ALL call it “white broccoli”) but merely in the box. I’m a big ol fan of reducing the use of plastic.

I mean- look at that picture. It’s okay. You can say it. That’s some mighty friendly looking bok choy right there.

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Field of Random Quotes

Posted on February 7, 2019 by admin

“Then they killed Martin, Bobby, and they elected Tricky Dick twice…”

I get up between 5-5:15am during the week. It’s basically soul-crushing. Like 5 days a week I fantasize what it would be like to run away and sleep in without an alarm.

So this morning, as I dragged myself to the shower, this quote popped into my head. Um… strange, but here we are. And then it stayed there and I kept hearing it over and over again. C’mon brain, it’s too early for a stroke. Get it together.

For those of you not in the know- this is from “Field of Dreams”. That’s right. That gem of a movie from 1989 and here we are at 5:15am with this one part of a sentence from a fairly forgettable scene stuck in my head. Repeating over and over again. Sigh.

I watched “Field of Dreams” basically every weekend of my life from age 7-13. My dad’s house didn’t have cable, but it did have a VCR and a beloved copy of that baseball powerhouse.

And at one point, Kevin Costner’s character meets up with James Earl Jones in an effort to get God Jones to go to a ballgame with Costner. The quote is part of JEJ’s explanation of why he dropped off the face of the Earth.

A couple things:

Starting out, I had no fracking idea who Tricky Dick was since most 7 year olds don’t know about Nixon or Watergate. However my dad was really good about answering all my questions about everything, so I probably knew more about that era of politics than most pint-sized folks.

Watergate and Nixon did play a part in “Forrest Gump” which is another movie that I also watched nearly every weekend or so during that same time frame. I made that connection somewhere along the way.

As an adult, I can understand why someone would like to disappear, especially after finding fame. Sometimes I hide from my children in my oversized closet. I’m basically James Earl Jones.

I stand by the idea that if I could defrag my brain and get rid of things like the entire “Field of Dreams” script, I would be able to do things like remembering my boys’ names.

In the book that “Field of Dreams” was based on Shoeless Joe– The Terrence Mann character was actually J.D. Salinger. Think back- you know that name. That’s right- he’s the author of  Catcher in the Rye. But because Salinger was known for being very reclusive and litigious, the movie folks changed that element of the movie.

So there we go- Nixon and baseball… at 5:15am. Why am I awake?

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Bbe Grl

Posted on February 6, 2019 by admin

One of our first grade teachers intercepted a note today between two of her students.

Okay, that is not abnormal, nor would it be a reason to come in to the library to show me.

However- this note ends with “bbe grl”

I never taught 1st grade. So when she handed me the note, I stared at it for a few seconds and then gave a bewildered look to the teacher.

Bbe grl…. baby girl.

Now say it in a deep sultry voice as I can only imagine the 1st grade boy meant for it be read.

Bbe grl.

I’ve giggled all day about this. Like… a lot. Bbe grl.

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My Dear Huge Novel

Posted on February 5, 2019 by admin

My book club, appropriately named Books & Bubbles, was set to read My Dear Hamilton this month. It’s 630 pages long. :blink, blink: 630 frackin’ pages. This is a reading marathon.

And then I was pummeled with the flu. At 6 mos pregnant, I am fortunate that with a variety of medicines at my disposal I can take…um… uh… oh, that’s right- absolutely nothing while pregnant. So other than some Tylenol when my fever started to get really high and rather uncomfortable, I just waited it out.

Unfortunately, history is pretty confident that A. Ham and Eliza both ended up with yellow fever in 1793 and very nearly died. (Spoiler alert: They recovered. However, don’t get too comfortable with Alexander hanging out on Earth.) I spent a lot of my day moving between napping, sweating, shivering, and reading. I was really miserable.

Which is why at one point, I woke up from a nap and was absolutely heartsick that I had yellow fever and that I was going to die. I was absolutely convinced and I was so sad that I was going to miss out on Chaos & Mayhem growing up to become evil geniuses which they are certainly destined to be.

Also, a second spoiler alert: I also didn’t die from yellow fever…or the flu. I’m still standing by the evil genius thing.

(I really loved the book, by the way. Yes, it was insanely long and my pregnancy hormones had me sobbing over the deaths of people who have been dead for over 220 years, but that didn’t take away from a really compelling storyline. When I grow up, I want to be strong like Eliza Hamilton.)

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