Saturday

"When Dad said 'Be quiet', I thought to myself, 

who doesn't want to wake up to the sound of their children's joyous laughter?"  

Kid remarked this morning.

 Those girls barely like each other.  

After Mr F and Baby left for a play date I thought of some great ways to procrastinate packing up the Christmas stuff.  I had Kid try on her new sport apparel... which if you remember the first time you tried to put on a sports bra you know that there were some hilariously awkward moments there.  We decided she should just wear it to school on basketball days rather than risk getting caught in the arms & head bound bare chest out position.  Not worth the risk, peeps.  But we did laugh really hard.

Then I had her put on her basketball shoes.

I can't even figure out what is going on with the laces... I mean is there some kind of a trick?! 

They are almost impossible to loosen & tighten.  Gah! 

Okay.  I swear to God I am packing that Christmas shit up right now!!!  

If I can get those bins out of here I'll feel much more productive.  

Then I'm working out.  I am back to my old school ways and I'm working out to old 

Biggest Loser seasons on Hulu.  There are tons of seasons I missed.  

That show never stops inspiring me... I cry during every episode.  

P.S. I'm down over 3 pounds in 16 days.  I'm feeling really good.  

The diet part is a piece of cake, I really am not suffering at all.  

The workout is a little harder, I still want to sabotage on that front but I haven't.  

I'm doing it.  

Showing Up

This day was super crazy and I just ate coleslaw and tapioca pudding for dinner... so... 

have low expectations, is what I'm saying.

Kid had a half day and Baby did not... so... we had a ton of driving and some awkward time in between which we successfully spent eating, shopping, & returning Christmas stuff.

(P.S. I still haven't finished packing up the Christmas bins!!!!)

I did have a fun and successful afternoon out with my favorite date.  

With her homework load
we really don't get very much time to just hang out.  

As maladjusted as she is (Ha!) I sure do enjoy having her around:

And she patiently kept me company while we walked around the mall making returns and such.

I paid her in Godiva truffles.  She ate one in one mouthful.  

Which filled me with momentary regret and prompted me to call out: 

"There goes $2.20 down the hatch!" 

I exchanged a coat I got for Christmas for this coat which I kind of LOVE:

I am never going to stop loving you turquoise and magenta!! We've been Best Friends for over 30 years and I swear to God I'll never quit you!!

(It is turquoise in real life, just take me word for it.)

Then we scored some basketball shoes for Kid.
Interesting that they only make boy's shoes.  

Baby will never EVER go for that.  Basketball is out for her, for sure.

You may not know this, but I'm not really a big shopper
(exception: Target) 

and Kid & I were worn OUT. 

We weren't even at it for 2 hours.  

After picking up Baby, I did still manage to squeeze in my workout... 

(it was close... I REALLY didn't want to... and I had managed to hurt not one, but two fingers, on opposite hands, within 10 seconds of each other while trying to get out of the car?!  

It was weird and blood & bandages were involved)

 I even managed an extra 5 minutes on the treadmill to make up for little Miss Distraction:

I don't know how rollerskating with a giant dust mop all around the treadmill would bother me?  

At least she has a helmet on & is kind of cleaning.

This is all extremely reminiscent of this get up, is it not?:

It is good to know she hasn't changed her spots too much.

(P.S. 14th consecutive workout, I'm really doing it, peeps.)

 And then we attended Baby's curriculum night
(which I had almost forgotten about!!!!) 

and caught this cute moment between Baby and her best friend:

 Dinner was scraped 

but not my diet! 

(hence the bizarro dinner choices) 

and Mr F took the kids out for pizza.  

The End.

Good Advice: Christmas Edition

Somewhere on the world wide web I came across this Christmas (or insert any major holiday) organizing advice:

As you pack up your stuff for the year jot down what worked and what didn't (i.e. order Xmas cards earlier by such and such date, don't let the girls write Santa letters on Xmas eve unless you want to kill yourself, recipe failures or success, teacher gift ideas, etc... you get it) and put it at the top of one of your decoration bins.

Well, I just thought that was genius advice and wanted to share it with you all.  It is easy to forget the lessons learned the previous year... which traditions are more stress than they are worth, which events made the holiday experience & when the tickets go on sale, etc.

I already started streamlining our bins last year and sorted out a "1st Bin" which has the bare minimum that we need to get things going on time (the advent calendars & tree lights & star & tree skirt).  If we are crazed at the beginning of the month I know I can pull out the advent calendars on time.  This has happened more years than not, particularly since we are often out of town for Thanksgiving.  I'm in love with the "1st Bin"... No more starting advent calendars 3 days in!

So for us, I have worked out the couple of things that hadn't worked as smoothly as they could have and jotted them down along with the surprise holiday hits I want to repeat and tucked the list on top of my "1st Bin"...

I have a reminder that Christmas lists need to be finalized over Thanksgiving weekend.  This is before the girls get cuckoo for coconuts and start thinking they want stuff they've seen in store circulars but really had never heard of before.  I might even have them drop them off at one of those Santa mailboxes just to be sure there is an END point to their lists.  This year Kid was the worst and thought of what she *really* wanted at 9 PM on the 23rd.  Santa is a miracle worker... but... that can't always be pulled off and it created a lot of stress!

Also, Thanksgiving weekend would be a perfect time to pick out our Christmas card.  This year was a crazy last minute fiasco with Mr F ordering some (without telling me) and then I ordered some not knowing he had... gah!... it was a big expensive mess.  So we've agreed to just get it done when we have the time off for Thanksgiving and can make a joint decision together.

Ikea pre-made gingerbread house parts are THE BOMB.  They were cheap and easy to assemble.  All you need is your own icing & candy.  We had one for each girl... it was AWESOME.

While I'm at Ikea I'll pick up more of the super nice battery operated candles they had in the Christmas section by checkout (they were great for caroling and with the window suction cup holders you can get at Joann's they are great as window candles).  Easy on off button on the bottom.  And affordable.  I want to put them in all of the windows.

So, yes, my basic lesson was Thanksgiving (not for shopping, that isn't my scene) is the perfect time (and only downtime available until Christmas!!) to knock out a lot of the little things that help get the season started.  Also, if I'm ever going to pull off Christmas boxes I need to mark out a weekend on the calendar and do it.  I failed this year thinking I could fit it in, but with school parties and events my weekends were booked all the way through Christmas.  I think the 1st weekend in December, before all the holiday parties get rolling.

Because Productivity is Contagious (unless it involves Christmas decorations...)

I'm back on both meal planning and stocking my freezer:

Life is so much less stressful when I do this, why have I been half-assing it for some long?!  Because, contrary to popular belief, doing this half-way doesn't help 50% it is completely useless and you'll still be throwing out rotten food you "planned" to cook.  In order for this to truly work it needs to be run like a well oiled machine.  (It also saves you money.  A lot.)

Also, not for nothing, this helps with dieting.  If I have everything ready to go we don't end up going out to eat on a night when the shit hits the fan.  When you are aiming for 1200, going out to eat (while not technically impossible) is setting yourself up to mess up (or at least it is for me).  Once you've figured out the calories in these meals you do not need to ever do it again!!!  That alone almost makes it worth it.

I have made a couple of changes to help streamline the meal planning process.  A lot of people already do this, but I always felt pressure to think of a new menu every week... not anymore.  I have a one week menu & that baby is going to pretty much be on repeat (pending some kind of sale ridiculous sale at the store) until the seasons change.  There is wiggle room within the plan, and I can certainly switch days around... but for the most part I've settled on well balanced meals that EVERY single family member truly enjoys.  They are all meals that can be doubled or tripled, which means that I don't have to start from scratch EVERY week.  This is going to be very helpful come next week when Kid's basketball season starts and we aren't home until 6 PM, 3 nights a week and then we start the with the homework!

Basically we are at this menu:
Monday - Chili with brown rice & cornbread
Tuesday - Chicken turnovers (or chicken & noodles) with spinach salad
Wednesday - Spaghetti & meatballs with sauteed broccoli
Thursday - BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches with coleslaw
Friday - Taco night
Saturday - Soup (Potato Leek or Chicken Noodle) with spinach salad and rolls
Sunday -  leftovers; & I cook a big batch off Pesto pasta to pack for school lunches.

Chili is an easy doubled recipe (heck next time I could quadruple it).  Chicken turnovers can be doubled, chicken & noodles or chicken & veg stirfry, etc aren't doubled but all start with shredded poached chicken.  I buy chicken breasts when they are on sale and poach them, shred and bag them in 2 cup portions in my freezer.  Turns all of the chicken meals into a 20 minute meal.  The turnovers take a some planning but are about 15 minutes of prep and 20 minutes in the oven.  The meatballs are easily made in huge batches.  I brown them and then freeze. To cook, I cover them with sauce & bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 while I boil the water for the pasta & saute the broccoli.  BBQ chicken is a crockpot meal which easily makes 3 meals (using 12 chicken thighs).  I fix the coleslaw while I'm loading the crockpot & all I have to do is shred it when I get home.  I make 2 nights worth of taco filling (ground meat & beans), one for that night & one for the freezer.  The soups, obviously, make around 3 meals and I make 24 rolls at a time which lasts for 3 meals as well.  All I need to do is buy our fresh produce & whatever is needed to keep the batch cooking rolling.  If I have time I add to the stockpile rather than deplete it.  I don't want to get stuck on a busy week needed to make the meatballs, for example.  I'd much rather make another big batch and keep building up my reserves.

January 14th

I blame the Polar Vortex for derailing our momentum.  

Actively Resisting

the strong urge to catch up online

I'm keeping the house at 55 during the day

which makes it really unpleasant to sit (for any length of time)

getting offline

and on the treadmill

One Day At A Time

9 days of 60 minute workouts.  Hard.  Both the level of workout and making myself do it.  But I am.

Also calorie counting.  1200.  Doable but I can't make any mistakes.  I realize how many little things I was always letting go.  They all count now.

There is a lot that goes into all of this, and why I haven't been doing it.  It isn't really HARD, you know?  It isn't NEWS.  It is just a reflection of a self esteem issue which requires me to fail and feel like shit (I have been very successful in this department), a slowing metabolism and hormonal flux which required MORE conscious effort and not the LESS I had decided I'd earned the right to expend (see self esteem issues above), the busy life we live, my predisposition to put everyone else's needs first, and my all or nothing personality which was constantly derailing any effort anytime I had to take a legitimate break for health/family reasons (see putting everyone's needs first).

So, I'm just like you.  I have spent the last 3 solid years letting myself fail at something, more or less on purpose, not because I can't succeed but to keep myself from succeeding.  20 years of therapy and I'm still working on the human condition.

I have tried everything I can to avoid just doing the thing that I know works.  Why?  So that I can fail... I've found more than a dozen ways to fail at taking care of myself in the way that actual results in liking who I am.  I will struggle with this my whole life.  I'm content with that.  I just have to wake up everyday and decide that the one hour it takes to be successful is easier than enduring 24 hours of mental self abuse.  Even when the excuses call to me like a Siren.

I can do this.  I can like myself again and not let it go once I reach my goal.

Steps:
I have to weigh myself every SINGLE fucking day.  Period.  This doesn't make me feel bad about myself.  I have a very small frame and gaining weight is a slippery slope and it is just so much harder for me to lose it than to maintain it.  I need to stay fully conscious of where I am at. A slight gain is motivation to keep working out, checking in a year later and realizing you've gained 10 lbs? (yes, I did that) just set me up on failure/shame spiral that has held me down ever since.

I have to workout every SINGLE fucking day for 60 minutes.  That is my body type, that is what I know works and allows me to not have to micromanage my food once I am back in maintenance, and that is factually the amount I need to burn enough calories to be able to lose while eating 1200 calories a day... I can't eat less without harming my family with my low blood sugar mood swings.

I am not going to volunteer at anymore school events (outside of my PTL commitments & field trips).  Between both schools I have had my schedule so chopped up that it was too easy for me to cut out working out.  I am still baby stepping into a solid routine and reestablishing a habit...I know myself and I need to get as many consecutive days done as humanly possible before I mess with my rhythm.  I might not be able to (or want to) put myself before my children or Mr F, but I sure as hell am going to put myself before school craft fairs for crying out loud!

That's it.  I'm not eating Paleo (interestingly read a fascinating blog post about why it doesn't work for women HERE which resonated with my experience), because I don't need to, I just need to chose to respect myself.  I'm eating whatever the hell I want as long as I account for it and have the calories to do it (I've had a Starbucks Caramel Flan Latte for lunch twice in 9 days... believe it), this is what works for me and allows me to eat with virtually no impact on my family.

Here's the nitty gritty in case you want to know.  I've essentially gained 15 pounds (all fat, obviously) in the 3+ years we've been back in MI.  That might not sound like a lot, and for anyone over 5' it probably isn't!  But for me, that is a 15% body fat increase and 2-3 pant size increase and... well... I wear it on my face & gut and I hate myself for it.  People (other than Kid) have asked if I was pregnant... so... you know... 15 pounds that makes you look 4 months pregnant is a fucking problem for my self esteem.  And I'm just done hating myself for it, when it is a completely fixable problem and would only take 3 months of focused effort to take care of.

The End.  I'm taking care of it.

11 AM

 I'm still wearing my 100% awesome PJs made from stuffed animal hides.  

 Baby is working on her rainbow zebra.  Full disclosure: I drew the outline of the zebra for this one.

 Kid is ... reading.

Big Boy came to announce his dissatisfaction with his food bowl level.  

i.e. not overflowing = empty

Self Esteem Boosting

As if it weren't bad enough that every time we find another mole on Baby she reacts in abject horror...

going dead in the eyes and whimpering "I don't want more moles"

Oh, gee, thanks.  I'm glad I'm a human monster.

Or that very memorable time when Kid remarked on my outfit:

"You could be like 4 months pregnant in the 80s and no one would even know."

"Are you saying I look pregnant?"  I replied self consciously.

"No, I'm saying you could be pregnant and no one would be able to tell."  Kid explained.

"It's a compliment."  She clarified.

"I'm not sure it is."  I muttered through my dry silent tears....

You see the pattern here right?

Well, the other night Kid blurted out,

"I HATE Roman noses."

And, since the well had been primed, I took great offense.

Kid was baffled.  

"You don't have a Roman nose!"

And she was so emphatically sincere that I kind of believed she wasn't just digging herself out of hole.

"I mean, you know... the flat noses." and she gestured at a chopped off  nose.

"Oh!  Those aren't Roman noses."  I said laughing.

"Those noses are just broken off of the statues."  I explained.

We laughed hysterically for a good five minutes.

"Oh, good!  I was always afraid of going to Rome!"  Kid admitted.

Fake It Till You Make It

A lot of what has been keeping me from blogging regularly... outside of just a tremendously busy schedule and little time at home with my computer!... is that I just got out of the daily habit.  And like anything else (working out, ahem) just figuring out how to fit it back in can seem overwhelming.  But unlike working out, blogging can feel like a completely unnecessary thing to try to fit into an already over stretched schedule.  A selfish thing.  The first thing to cut.

Except that isn't true.

I've given up a time and space for myself... for creative expression & friendship building.  A space that starts blank but ends up filled with thoughts and opinions and ideas I hadn't even intended to express.  Blogging helps me.  It helps me to better know myself.  It is more self fulfilling than selfish and, yes,  there is a difference.  Removing that from my daily life has created a huge void and I often feel adrift.  Moorless (which it turns out isn't a word, but let's all agree that it should be).   I need anchoring, to something other than my carpool schedule.  Desperately.

For the next 3 months I am putting a few things at the top of my priority list (after caring for my kids of course).  I am working out every day.  I do have time, I just have to protect that time.  I am also going to blog every day.  Instead of sitting down while I eat my breakfast and checking email, getting a Facebook update on everyone, and scrolling through my blog reader...(and you know what that does?  It says I'm starting my day on someone else's agenda... have you found that?  Someone's email or update will start a snowball effect that can steamroll my whole day and take me way off of the course I had intended to set)... I am going to write a post.  It might be short, it might be long.  I just need to get this ball rolling and stop feeling like I owe you all a recap.

One post done and I already feel better.

See you tomorrow.

I Mean It

I'm going to start blogging again.  Maybe even DAILY.

Jingle Jangle

Okay.  Here we go...

This month photo review:

 Kid & I took a lovely night time walk on our ski vacation.  I pretended to hear a pack of wolves... and scared the crap out of her.  It was good times.

 Kid never EVER would look up when I tried to take a picture of her skiing.  Always just straight down the slope.  She was kind of serious about it.

 Baby was 100% not serious about it... except that she could ski with poles even though every single person there told her/us it would make it harder to learn.

 They were all wrong.  She could totally ski with the poles.  And as she said "I haven't crashed into anyone yet!"

 We got home from that trip on December 1st and I was SO proud of myself for organizing my Xmas bins.  With the 1st Bin I knew I had our advent calendars and we were set to go, even if we hadn't officially started decorating yet.

 Hmm... that doesn't look that great but this is a fantastic go to dinner in these parts.  Chicken & noodles.  Wide egg noodles & mixed vegetables cooked in chicken broth, then drained & tossed with shredded poached chicken, 1 box of Pacific brand organic cream of Chicken soup (I highly recommend), lots of poultry seasoning & salt & pepper and you are good to go!  Sometimes I also saute up an onion but if in a time crunch it isn't necessary.  This is a fast weeknight meal.  I don't really measure anything; just eyeball it & taste for seasoning.  I use about 3/4 bag of noodles, a couple cups of veg & chicken & 2-ish teaspoons of poultry seasoning.  I have bags of shredded poached chicken in the freezer so it really only takes 15-20 min to throw this all together.  You could use rotisserie chicken.  This is one of the casserole type dinners I make that make great hot packed lunches for the girls.

 We went to our local tree lot, where Mr F insisted that we could only fit a 6-7 foot tree.  Hmm... next year we're going with the 7-8 footers.  

Although, it did make it easier to decorate the top.

 Just a reminder that Big Boy is a humongous cat.  Tiger (in back) is actually a 13 pound adult male.  Big Boy looks like he could fit him in his stomach.  :)

 Every year we add something to our Creche scene.  This year: palm trees.  Holy crap it makes all the difference.  Mr F and I are almost embarrassingly into them.  We got them on our annual trip to Bronner's , they are made by Fontanini.  Now all we need are animals.  

 Baby had an awesome "Non Christmas" holiday concert.  She sang "Footloose" and "Hound Dog".  It was awesome & she was SO into it.  She's sitting right below the girl that may or may not be picking her nose.  

Of course, as is to be expected, I was stuck sitting behind my concert nemesis... A woman I call "Hair".  It was filling me with homicidal rage.  This is the 2nd time I've been stuck behind "Hair". She had saved her seat with a coat, so I had no idea she was sitting there when I got our seats.  Thank God, someone down our row left the show before Baby sang & we could move over.  

This year, Baby really wanted us to go caroling. We roped my mother & step father into it.

 Baby had a plan. She insisted that she go up to each door and ring the door bell.  Then she'd sing the first stanza on her own before signaling us to join in.  She is fearless.  It was amazing.

And as heartbreakingly cute as you can imagine.

 Wouldn't your heart just explode if some little kid with a candle was singing to you on your porch?

After our village installed sidewalks surrounding our acre lot (which we need to clear, ahem) Mr F got a mega snowblower.  The girls loved running under it's snow stream getting pelted in the face.  Weirdos.   

 The sidewalk project also regraded our back hill (which was formerly kind of a deadly, though exhilarating sledding hill) and now we don't have to worry about the kids shooting into the road.

 Which is a good thing.

 After a slow start to the holiday merry making.  This week, I got the house decorated (and cleaned!!) and busted out some serious back to back to back baking days.

 While I have made my own gingerbread houses in the past (Joy of Cooking recipe & instructions!!) and bought one of those all inclusive kits (which I didn't love). This year I stumbled on IKEA's gingerbread house parts.  No candy or icing (which were always the disappointing kit components imo, anyway).  They were CHEAP and flat.  Assembly was fairly easy.  I just used homemade royal icing.

 Kid's looks AMAZING.  Her OCD was a real advantage for this project ;)  She also reluctantly took my advice on the cinnamon candy field stone chimney look and was glad she did.  

 Baby took no advice whatsoever.  Her project (like all her artwork) in a constantly evolving storyline. 

I think she accidentally miscounted her first row of candy roofing and she had to kind of squeeze in one of the tiles & instead of getting mad she just made it intentional saying "There are no straight lines, to ward of evil spirits!"(having just read a book about the sloping roofs of ancient China) and then she just went with that and carried it out in everything she did thereafter.   

 She created more of a gingerbread tableaux, than a house. Her gingerbread mom & daughter are decorating the snowman.  The mom is holding his other eye and the daughter is holding his last button.

 The gingerbread baby boy thinks he's been left alone until he looks out the window and sees his dad hanging up the last ornament on the garland.  (I'm not kidding, this is how it goes.  This will be a little bit easier in a few years when she doesn't need help working out the logistics... like me having to nervously pick up a decorated house so she could try and insert the baby boy)

This took a LONG time to complete.  

And the first thing she said this morning was:  

"Mom, can I finish my gingerbread house?"

Um.....No?

(just kidding, of course... just sometime in the distant future)  

So that is the long and the short of it.  Happy December!  I have not worked out in a month-ish.  Just FYI.  I also have had 3 days in a row of only eating cookies for nourishment.  

Rinse and Repeat

Whoa, I can't believe I haven't blogged in about a month.  What the....

Well, basically, the things you have missed:

One or the other of our girls has been home sick THE WHOLE DAMN TIME.

But never with the same thing, or at the same time.

What would the fun be in that?!

We are reaching hard to believe status over here.  I'm waiting for social services to show up and accuse me of having Munchausen by proxy!

Oh, and Kid jammed her finger during gym the day after Thanksgiving break which required another trip to the doctor and round of X-rays and finger splint... on top of the flu- pneumonia- cold- sinus infection- cold roller coaster we've been on.  Awesome times.  I should just go to medical school... it will probably be cheaper in the long run!

So, I never did get around to putting up our Christmas decorations early like I had hoped to. I pretty much have had to spend my time driving whichever kid is healthy to and from school and the sick one rushed to sick appointments and chest X-rays.

I just got started bringing up our Christmas stuff. I don't know... this year is weird.  I just can't get ahead on anything.  And every time I think we're about to get a good normal week, one of the kids gets a fever (hacking cough/broken finger/etc) and all my plans are scrapped (again).

On top of that there is a lice outbreak at Baby's school and I'm the "lice mom" which means I go to school and braid all of the kid's hair in the morning.  That takes... oh... forever.  But it is a small(ish) price to pay if it keeps Baby from getting lice.

In other news, our vacation was a success.  We went Up North to a ski resort.  We definitely took a risk booking a ski vacation so early in the season (in fact I did not know this, but they had never been open that early for skiing)... and... it worked out.  They had had some good snows the week leading up to Thanksgiving and there was at least a foot of snow.  Unfortunately, Baby was pretty much on her death bed with a severe sinus infection and had to sit out of the fun for the first couple of days.  On the plus side, we were upgraded from a two bedroom suite to an entire three bedroom cottage.  It was AMAZING, and made our stay (and our homebound sickie) so much easier to manage and enjoy.
The girls and I all tried downhill skiing for the first time.  Kid loved it, Baby over-loved it, and I... meh... not so much for me.  Maybe you need to try it before adulthood?  I just think sledding is more fun and takes less concentration.  (plus there is always the fear of a butt fracture looming in my mind).

Upon our return, we discovered that our dishwasher had leaked and buckled our cherry floors.  Not good.  Mr F stopped the leak, the floors are still buckling... hoping they dry out and go back down?!  Hopefully?!

That's about the whole of it, peeps.  OH, except for some serious shit that has been going down at Kid's school.  I spoke for about an hour to the school board (involving lesson examples!).  They were enlightened ;)  This will definitely be our last year, but I'm trying to get as many changes implemented as I can for the betterment of the kids who remain.  I am definitely stirring the pot, but I've had many people (even the board members) tell me that they have pretty much needed someone who was willing to do it.  There are some pretty big systemic problems.  But as one school board member called me to say "There is no arguing with what you say.", so with that in mind, light is being shed where it needs to be.  I know I've created a lot of interest in the other parents and the school board in seeking out how to improve the functioning of the school and the effectiveness of the classroom teachers.  I feel good about that.  I've also started making study guides for a few of Kid's classmates... and... they are getting As now, too.  (Kid's rocking a 4.0)  (Which all just helps my street cred at these meetings) (And, yes, I think I'll be homeschooling for middle school... since I've been homeschool all year anyway)

Happy Holidays!

Oh, and photo updates of our trip (and did I ever actually tell you about our spring break to Williamsburg last year?!  It was fantastic despite Kid having the flu and my being a solo-parent... so that says something.  Busch Gardens was very doable & easy to navigate & all of the Williamsburg area is so easy to get around.  We really liked being able to do a historic area in the AM and then heading over to Busch Gardens for a couple hours around dinner time... best of both worlds! I whole heartily recommend it!! We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn and we were really happy with it... great breakfast buffet.  I booked a package through Busch Gardens website that included everything.)

TTFN as they say.

And because this never stops making me laugh, here it is again:

Things You've Missed While I've Been Gone

#1 I gave up coffee.  I'm drinking tea instead.  

#2 Kid, 3 weeks after a bad cold/flu which she came down with just 2 weeks after E. coli poisoning, has now been battling pneumonia for a week.  

She's missed more school this year than all other years combined.

#3 The only upside is that I was able to rest along with her last week, and I finally feel 100% better from my E.coli infection.  

#4 We are NOT going to WDW for Thanksgiving.  I don't know.  I was kind of dreading the drive & feeling cheap.  Plus, with Kid missing so much school recently, I just didn't want to do something that would require so much work (on my part) and more missed days for her.

#5 We are going skiing for Thanksgiving.  This is a ground breaking trip.  I've never downhill skied and either have the girls.  Mr F has never skied in the time I've known him.  So... hopefully we don't all break our legs.  We're heading Up North just for the long weekend to the resort we visited this summer.    We're excited.  And scared.

#6  I've been watching The Paradise on PBS.  It's good peeps.  You can catch all the episodes on PBS.org if you don't have TV service, like me.  

#7 I also watched ALL of the Call the Midwives episodes on Netflix.  I don't know why I didn't get into the first time I tried... I loved it.  Surprisingly funny (at times)

#8  I am totally into flossing, now.  I don't know why it took me nearly 40 years.  I mean, how did I ever think my teeth were clean before?!  Floss, people!  

#9  Major organization projects have been underway.  I did successfully clean off the kitchen counters. (even the dreaded home office peninsula which acts as a super powerful paper magnet)

Craft cabinet... I'm coming for you.

#10 I'm taking down our Halloween decorations (Kid's pneumonia kind slowed me down on that front)... and putting up Christmas.  Deal with it.  I'm going for it!!! Last year I waited too long.  

That's about it.

Photos for your perusal:  

The girls bowling:

 Awesome form, Baby!

 Yo!  Kid's limbs are really LONG.  She is 5 feet tall now & wears a 7.5-8 shoe... she just turned 11.

She can't even fit forward in the car seat (Ha!)

She looks amused, doesn't she?

Still reading like it's her job.

Pumpkin carving:

 Do not fool yourselves... these losers didn't do a damn thing to help carve those!  Will they ever?!?

Baby's super AWESOME school picture:

Hmm... if you tilt your head you might see who she takes after:

 

(although I'll happily admit she is much prettier than I ever was!)

Speaking of which, I laughably started thinking I had reached the age which required more effort into my appearance & decided to start wearing makeup:

(This could also be a strong reflection on having more time on my hands)

Well, about a week into it, a mom from school stopped me and asked me what was wrong.  She said I just looked so stressed & tired lately.  ha!  So, long story short: I'm not wearing makeup anymore.

(But also, yes, I'm older than when you last saw me)

Baby is still.... Baby.  

 And she still, inexplicably, loves doing yard work:

 Kid turned 11 on Halloween:

 She had our traditional family birthday breakfast (Trader Joe's Chocolate Croissants).  

We're never going to quit you, chocolate croissants!

This year's Halloween costumes:

 Kid was a Victorian ghost (which, just take my word for it, was better in person... she even had glow in the dark face paint... which considering our trick-or-treat hours was sadly never in full effect).  

Baby graciously agreed to wear her million dollar dance recital get up while it still fit.

 My mom and stepdad escorted them out in their collaborative costumes.  Popi sporting the ultimate in men's ballerina attire, and my mom was (obviously) a ghostbuster.  

Popi was pretty much famous by the end of the block.

Kid is kind of growing up and too cool to give me any input about things like cakes.

(Baby, by the way, is not... I completely disregarded the 7 page manual she drew up for how she thought I should decorate Kid's cake this year) 

I just did a simple cake that wouldn't offend her sensibilities:

 She didn't even notice I wrote anything on it.  I'm not kidding.  

All she wanted for her birthday was a set of high quality dominos:

 Barnes & Noble in case you need some.  They weren't very easy to find.

 TTFN!

 The cats have a lot of work to do, today:

Chippy (our resident chipmunk) is out there LOADING up on maple seeds.  

I think it is going to be a harsh winter.