Work Week

I have got to find time or put up with the fussing from the kids to update.  I really like doing this and so I should really do it.

Mommy "Style"

 I don't have the whole week put here are some of outfits I wore:

Monday: jeans and a t-shirt

Tuesday: yoga pants and a t-shirt

Wednesday:

Thursday: Running pants and a t-shirt. 

Friday: Jeans and a t-shirt.

Accomplishments:  Being crafty.  And enjoying it.

High/Low:  High:  Getting good news about the job.   Low: feeling overwhelmed again.

Activities: Mostly going to school and playing on the playground afterwards.  We've been working on potty training and sometimes it seems like it has clicked.  And other times, it hasn't and that is frustrating.

On the more interesting side things: 

Fred pulled the cereal off of the spaghetti noodle as his activity. 

 This activity was originally over wivesunscripted.com and of course found on pinterest.  I'm not sure if this blog is really for fashion/style/my thoughts or just testing ideas and crap off of pinerest.  

We also craved pumpkins and stuff.

Menu:  Breakfast: either oatmeal or cereal.  It's been fancy over here. Lunch: either sandwiches or fast food.  I've been loving the pretzel cheeseburger from Wendy's.  I'll be sad when they retire it. Dinner: Monday: Pasta, sausage, broccoli.  Tuesday: pizza.  I think the clothes made me feel lazy. Wednesday: chili

Thursday: Beef-stir fry with Sesame Seed noodles.  I have had inconsistent results with the Pioneer woman's recipes.  Some are freaking awesome, and others are crap.  This was amazing.  I will definitely use it again.  I  really liked the meal.  I usually screw-up stir fry, but needed to use up the meat since I defrosted it and didn't want to waste the money.  Friday:  La Parilla.  The kids had tacos.  And Matt and I had fajitas.  We're starting our farewell to favorite restaurants tour. 

The weekend past

Mommy "style"

Saturday:

I went out with friends to a movie and I felt I needed to look nice.  Matt complained because I looked nicer for friends than him.  But if I wore nice clothes around the kids, then I would get stains or spills on them and be highly annoyed.

Sunday:  Yoga pants and a t-shirt.  I kept hoping I would get off my butt and go for a real run, but I didn't.  

Accomplishments:  Hanging out with friends twice in one month!  And I got to spend fun time with the family.

High/Low: High:  I really liked Gravity.  We all suggested something that we didn't want to think about as in no fancy "art house" movies.  However, all I've done for the past week is think about that movie.  It was really well written and directed.  The acting was also really well done.  I forgot I was watching Sandra Bullock.  I didn't forget I was watching George Clooney, but I guess that's because I see his pictures a lot on the on-line/supermarket paparazzi sites. Not that I go to them often.  Low:  not (real) running on Sunday

Activities: Saturday: we went out to lunch and then to the craft store to make the spooky spiders.  And then I went to a movie. Sunday: after listening to a lot of whining, we went to the park in the mid-afternoon.  I attempted to run to the park so I could get some kind of run in, but lunch was sitting very heavily on my stomach and I wasn't able to get into the groove, so I just walked.  And felt fat.

Menu: Saturday: made pumpkin pancakes.  They turned out really good.  I liked them and ate up the entire recipe.  Except the three that the kids had on their plates.  I wished I had ginger, but I didn't.  Martha Stewart makes a mean recipe.  Lunch:  Moes.  Dinner: Chicken from the grocery store, fruit and crackers..  Sunday: crackers, fruit and  cheese for breakfast.  Lunch: hotdogs.  Dinner:  Chicken tetrazzini.  It was really good that night.

Halloween

First the craft:

I wanted to do and post something that we've done for Halloween decoration.

This spider fits the ticket:

Supplies:  styrofoam floral balls, craft paint, goggly eyes, pipe cleaners

First,  we rolled styrofoam balls in craft paint

Or in Oliver's case covered them in tape

And then poked holes for the pipe cleaners

And finally stuck pipe cleaners into the balls

And added some goggely eyes.

Yesterday, we carved pumpkins.  And by we, I mean me.

Scooping out the seeds

I drew the faces on before I cut them.  I am not a very fancy carver and have little patience to learn so it old school over here.

This pumpkin is Fred's. He has two teeth on the bottom and when I asked him what he wanted the mouth to look like, he smiled.

And here is the outside:

Add caption

The big spider is from Spoonful

Overall, our outside is pretty much off my Pinterest boards.

Poor, poor neglected blog

 So, uhhh. It's been over a week.  I've been busy.  Or not really, but I've been anxious which tends to manifest as me not being able to do shit either around the house or when I have things that actually need to be done.

At any rate, I haven't updated regularly and I'm not all that good about taking pictures right now of my clothes and most of them are on my phone anyways.

Mommy "Style":  Shorts and t-shirts, and jeans and t-shirts.  I wear the crap out of Target $5 t-shirts and then feel guilty when I throw them out stained and stretched out at the end of the season.

I'll come back an update with pictures, (hopefully).

Accomplishments: Nothing huge.  I have done some outside decorating for Halloween.  Oliver is super into the holiday this year, so it seemed like a good idea to dress up.

High/Low: Low: Matt interviewed for a job out in Seattle.  We're still waiting to hear back about the job.  He really wants it.  I really want him to get the job.  It would be a good career move, we think.  And with a company that is doing interesting things in Matt's field.  He has ANOTHER telephone interview after already having an in-face interview in California.  We been waiting to hear back so it's making him anxious, I'm anxious because he is AND I really like the idea of moving. At the same time, I love living near my family and having my kids grow up knowing their grandparents in a way that I never did.  And while there are flights between Atlanta and Seattle, the flights are expensive, long, and expensive.  So while we'd visit, it wouldn't be the same as even moving to New York or even Denver.  So, it's been somewhat nerve racking.  High: the kids are playing very nicely, mostly.

Activities: I got my drivers licence renewed. I had to wait about 2 hrs.  And while that is a long to wait, I guess it could have been longer.  Except, 2 hrs when you have a young child is very long and the restless energy in the place makes even 10 min seem like an hour.   Last weekend was spent killing time.  We thought we would hear back about the job on Monday, so we were waiting for Monday. Sunday, I went for a 6k run.  And then in the afternoon, because I was SO RESTLESS, I walked up to Starbucks and then to the park with Fred, so that was another 2 miles.  Overall, Sunday I walked/ran a 10k, which is my current fitness goal.  Monday, I picked the kids up from their grandmothers and came home.  Tuesday, there was no school and we stayed at home all day.   Wednesday, school and nothing in the afternoon.  Same for Thursday.  Friday, Fred and I went to the botanical gardens with some friends while the older two were in school.  After school we played on the school playground and came home.

Menu: Weekend: breakfast: nothing.  I know I should eat, but sometimes when the older kids aren't home and Matt wakes up very late, I don't see any point.  Lunch: sandwiches.  Dinner: Saturday yummy mexican, Sunday: General Tso's meatballs.  The meatball part was really good.  The sauce wasn't.  I used a couple of sub, and it didn't turn out right.  I think I'll re-make the meatballs, and use the pan drippings for a gravy, more like Swedish meatballs. During the week: dinners: Monday: bratwurst, Tuesday: chicken with eggplant and zucchini, Wednesday: a horrible lentil pilaf.  I make lentil pilaf once in awhile and usually it turns out pretty good, but this time I over cooked the rice and everything tasted awful.  Dinner fail.  Thursday: meatloaf hamburgers  Friday: tacos.  And one of the few things I don't like about my neighborhood is that I am no longer near grocery stores with ripe avocados at a decent price.  

Hump Day

Am I the only one thinks "Hump Day" sounds like a bad porn title?  Yes?  Okay then...

Mommy "style"

Monday: 

In the interest of being totally and completely honest about my clothing choices.  I usually only wear real clothes in the morning.  I drop the kids off in real clothes except when I plan on going for a run and then I pick them up in real clothes.  By the time Matt comes from work, I'm in usually either yoga pants if it is cool/cold or running shorts if it is warm/hot.  If I know that I'm going to be going out in the afternoon or evening, I'll obviously keep wearing "real" clothes, but more often than not, I'm getting comfy on the couch.

Tuesday:

Back into slacker gear.  And yikes, I need to clean the mirror!

Wednesday:

Preschooler style too!

Accomplishment: I have been cooking off of pinterest again.  And it has been tasty or at least worthy of a second cooking.

High/Low: High: Phil had NO ACCIDENTS yesterday.  Low: Phil was on one massive meltdown yesterday.  Neither eating, drinking, playing, or watching t.v helped the meltdown.  It was a very long day. 

Activities: Monday: I made carrot cupcakes while the older kids were in school.  After school, lots of playing in the backyard.  Tuesday: while Phil took a much needed nap in the morning, Fred and I finished planting the front flower area for the fall.  It looks nice.  I need to take a picture and post it.  After school, more playing in the backyard.  Wednesday: Fred and I went to Target in the morning and planned to spend very little money but didn't.  The eye of Target was upon me and hypnotized me into spending more money than I planned on cheap clothes.  But everything except a hoodie was on sale and generally much needed.  After school, a little t.v and then more playing in the backyard.  I'm loving this weather, because I really want to spend outside and the kids do sooooo much better at bedtime when they spend a lot of time outside.

Menu: Monday: yogurt for breakfast, lunch was left overs from Sunday dinner.  Dinner was Salmon cakes

They turned okay.  I don't think I'll make the salmon cake part again, but the yogurt sauce was really good

 

Tuesday: cheese for breakfast, chicken deli meat sandwich for lunch.  And dinner was Mediterranean baked chicken.  There were some problems with this recipe for me.  One I need more tomatoes than what I used.  And the bigger problem was that it very bland.  Some of that is I didn't put salt and pepper on the chicken when I cooked it.  But overall the it need some more herbs.  But it was pretty easy and even better easy to clean up, so I'll probably put into to the bi-monthly rotation.  

Wednesday: carrot cupcake We'll pretend that since it has carrots in it, it must be heathly. Lunch: chicken deli meat sandwiches.  Dinner: eggs, bacon, toast, and strawberries.

extra busy weekend

Mommy "Style":   Sad and tired clothes.  I didn't take pictures but it was the same stuff I wear every day.

Accomplishment:  I ran a 5k on Saturday night.  It was awesome.  I ran with some friends and actually ran most of it and did it with one of my best times.  And I did some planting.

High/low: High: A good race time.  Low: Having to leave a festival early because of whining.

Activities:  Saturday; I went to the grocery store and then later in the evening ran the 5k.  After the 5k, my friends and I went out for a snack and a drink.  The snack was great, but the drinks were very light on the alcohol.  And while I realize that we shouldn't had much to drink, having a drink that had what we paid to have the good stuff in it would have been nice.

Sunday: I did laundry in the morning.  And then we went to a fall festival.  The first part was great, the kids played in the kid zone and had a great time.  After lunch, when it was time to go look at the art and crafts, Oliver acted tired, Phil fell asleep, and Fred got very cranky.  So we left.  And for whatever reason, I wasn't feeling the festival which normally I love.  I'm going to blame the heat and the kids.  After we came home and hydrated and rested, I planted some of the fall stuff for the front yard. It felt like a really good and productive weekend.

Menu: Saturday: bagels for breakfast.  Tuna for lunch.  And a burger very late for dinner.  I knew that I didn't want to run with anything in my stomach other than water.  Sunday: bagel for breakfast, gyro for lunch, and roast pork with zucchini and rice for dinner.

Rounding out the week

Mommy "style" 

Thursday: Jean shorts and a t-shirt

Friday

Nothing fancy

Accomplishment:  I did some work around the house.  It's been a very lazy week.  I don't know why I haven't been more motivated to do stuff.  I guess I go in these cycles.  I'm usually pretty good for about 3 weeks and then I take a week off.  And then I either get grossed out by the house or watch an episode of Hoarders and get my act together.

High/Low: High: Not having to wait several hours to see the OB-GYN.  Low:  I have fat calves and I'm short.  I don't know if my calves are muscular or just fat, but it makes buying boots incredibly difficult. But I saw a pair of rain boots on the Facebook exchange I'm on and they were so cute and at a really good price, so I foolishly bought them hoping they would work.  They don't and since they're rubber and high quality, I can't expand them.  So, now I have a pair of lovely (expensive) boots I can't wear.  Lame.  

Activities: OB-Gyn appointment.  And then Matt stayed home from work yesterday.  That was nice.

Menu:  Breakfast both days: Bagel.  Thursday for lunch I had Taco Bell.  I tried something different and now I remember why I buy only one thing there.  It was very gross. I had to get a cookie from a good place to wash the taste out.  Dinner Thursday: Matt wasn't home so we had chicken covered in yogurt and herbs and baked until done.  It turned out very well.  Friday: Zaxby's for lunch, and Chile Rellanoes for dinner.

Random Grumpiness