Re-entry into the real world is always interesting after Christmas break, but we managed to make it through the first week back, and it wasn’t too shabby! Not too shabby at all!
Monday, January 3
Monday, we were all up bright and early, and it was rough after sleeping in for nearly three weeks. The weather had finally turned cold again – and I mean FREEZING – so that didn’t help either. I never want to get out of bed when it’s cold outside… I just want to stay snuggled up in my cozy bed forever.
The kids were ready in record time Monday morning so they could sneak in one last game of Exploding Kittens before we had to leave for school. They were both thrilled to be going back, so thankfully, we didn’t have any Sunday Scaries the day before either.
I got them off to school, said a little prayer for good health and safety for everyone at school, and I was on my way. Anybody else suuuuper apprehensive about sending the kids back to school in this Covid mess? It has just exploded again. Thankfully, our school sent an email asking that everyone mask up again regardless of vaccination status, and they also asked parents to keep kids out of school for a few extra days if they’d been traveling over the break. At least we can take comfort in knowing everyone is doing everything they can do to prevent the spread.
At this point, I feel like it’s inevitable that we’re going to get it, so I’m just praying our vaccines do their job. And I’m very grateful that Omicron is looking to be a bit less severe than the horrendous virus that the other versions have been.
Anyway, after I dropped the kids, I got started on my to-do list for the day. Side note, I think I might start posting them here on the blog since I already have them ready to go from Instagram.
Mid-morning, I headed back out to run some errands – Kohl’s, UPS, Michael’s, and a visit with my therapist. By the time I got home, it was time for lunch, and then afterward, I finished up a blog post for the next day before heading back out to pick up the kids from school.
Both of them were just raving about how wonderful their days had been, and I was so grateful. It’s always tough to get back in the swing of things, and I was especially worried about Jacob since he had some work to make up from three weeks prior when he had the flu. He had gotten it all done, though, and he’d aced it all to boot!
Both kids did say that there were several kids out in their classes Monday, though, and at the time we weren’t sure if they were out because they had traveled and were quarantining or if they were sick. We ended up finding out a couple of days later that one kid in Jacob’s class was out with Covid and one kid in Olivia’s class was out with it, too. Ugggghhhh. Thankfully, neither kid had been to school since before Christmas break, so nobody at the school was exposed.
Which reminds me, we somehow managed to make it from November 1 to Christmas break without a single positive case on our entire school campus (faculty, staff, students, etc.) which is a miracle in itself, and I’m praying somehow that can continue. I just don’t see that happening now, though, with Omicron. We know way too many people who have it right now… it. is. everywhere. As a matter of fact, I think we know more people who have it right now than all of the people we’ve known to have it combined for the last two years. Seriously, everyone has it. I feel like my entire Facebook feed has been nothing but posts about people having Covid.
Anyhoo, Olivia didn’t have dance Monday because public schools were still out for a couple more days, so we had the rest of the afternoon and evening to do whatever we pleased. The kids did their homework, I finished my book, and then B and I made breakfast for dinner.
While they got ready for bed, I got in a 30-minute stair stepper workout, and then after we got them in the bed, B and I sat down to start the new season of The Bachelor. My cousins and aunt and I all resumed our Bachelor chat while we watched, and they had me cracking up.
Tuesday morning, I got the kids to school and then headed to Fresh Market to grab some chicken. The rest of the day was spent in my office working my butt off on the blog. It takes serious effort and lots of time to get ahead, and that’s exactly what I wanted to work on doing.
After dinner, B headed out to a tennis match, and the kids and I played a few rounds of Exploding Kittens. While they showered and got ready for bed, I did a short cardio workout, and then I spent some time measuring some things in the house. I have a few minor house projects up my sleeve, mostly just moving a few things around here and there, and I spent some time visualizing where I wanted everything to go.
When B got home, we tucked the kids into bed, and then he and I watched the first episode of the last season of This is Us. I’m so sad it’s almost over!
Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I spent the whole morning working. After lunch, I called a moving company and arranged for them to pick up a couch from my parents’ house and deliver it to our house on Friday. Normally, we’d do something like this on our own, but the couch is a sleeper sofa, so it weighs a TON, and it had to be moved from a tiny upstairs bedroom down their cramped staircase with a bend in it. Sounded like a recipe for disaster, and since B just had back surgery last year, we don’t want to put him back in the hospital, so we hired someone to do it for us. ;o)
Wednesday afternoon was filled with homework and tons of outdoor basketball time for the kids and I took 15 minutes to clean out a row of tops in my closet before starting dinner. After dinner, the four of us sat down to work on our Lego puzzle, and we finished it! That’s the fastest we have ever put together a 1,000-piece puzzle. This one was pretty easy!
We almost always have music playing in our house, and last week I discovered that Alexa will play any genre you ask her to for free if you have an Amazon Echo device. I randomly asked her to start playing 90’s pop Tuesday and Wednesday night, and y’all, she played the best playlist everrrr!!!!
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, we listened for over four hours, and she never once repeated a song. It ended up being a mix of pop, R&B, and hip hop and I loved nearly every single song. You can tell her to skip a song, and you’re allowed six skips per hour, I believe, but I only had to ask her to skip 5 or 6 songs during the entire four hours. I heart the 90’s, y’all.
After the puzzle was done, the kids played cards until it was time to get ready for bed, and then I did a weights workout while they showered. Once they were in the bed, B and I caught up on Ordinary Joe and Supermarket Sweep before heading up to bed.
Thursday was another workday at home, and I got a ton done. Although, not everything on my list.
I thought about canceling because I was apprehensive about picking up the funk, but I figured that the benefits outweighed the risks for this particular get together since our family of four is fully vaxxed now (and B and I are boosted) and all of my girlfriends are vaxxed (and most boosted as well).
We all met at the new upscale-ish Mexican restaurant that just opened downtown, and it was the cutest place! The décor was super modern with exposed brick, tons of greenery, and a couple of the cutest neon signs.
They didn’t have their liquor license yet – BOOOO – because there’s a waiting period in the state of Georgia to get one, but I’ll definitely be going back to try one of their margs when they do, because their selection sounded amazing.
The upside to them not having their liquor license was that they weren’t very busy, so we were able to avoid being around a lot of people. And thankfully, we were seated at a table at the end of the restaurant, so we weren’t smack in the middle of a bunch of people either.
We ended up staying for nearly three hours, and we had the best time catching up, reminiscing a bit, and laughing a whole lot. I didn’t take a single picture, and I hate that I didn’t think to do that. It would have been great to get a picture of the six of us in front of one of the neon signs! Next time I’ll have to do better.
By the time I got home, it was time to get the kids in the bed, and then once they were tucked in, I sat down to switch my old Apple watch to the new one. I thought it was going to be an easy process, but it was the exact opposite. I ended up having tons of technical difficulties, I ended up losing all of my data from my old watch at one point (though I was miraculously able to recover it on my old watch), and the old data would NOT pair with the new watch so I ended up giving up because I was so stressed out. WHY DOES TECHNOLOGY ALWAYS HATE ME?!
After that, it was bedtime because I was in a horrible mood. There’s nothing like technology not working to put me in the worst mood ever. Sigh.
Friday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then cleared out the front room for the couch delivery. The rest of the morning was spent finally getting my new Apple Watch set up. I struggled again and then had to do a bunch of Googling, but I finally figured out what the problem was, and it was an easy (but time-consuming) fix once I knew what the problem was.
This sweet girl...
The award is named after his school, and it’s basically just a “Best All-Around” kind of award that they give to one student per quarter who is hard-working, kind, goes the extra mile, etc. When his teacher called his name, I teared right up. He is such a good kid at home, and it makes my heart burst to know that he’s also a good kid when Mommy and Daddy aren’t around.
My parents attended the awards ceremony, too, and afterward, we took a couple of pictures with our sweet guy.
Once the kids and I were home, we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. I got the front room somewhat back in order and B picked up dinner from our favorite pub by our church. He also grabbed DQ Blizzards for us to put in the freezer and eat later for dessert. ;o) I sure do miss going out to eat every Friday night.
After the kids went to bed, B and I started season 2 of Emily in Paris, and he watched another episode of Bobafett. #Snooze If Baby Yoda isn’t in it then I’m not interested.
Saturday morning, I got up and made homemade waffles, and then the kids watched some cartoons while I enjoyed some hot tea in my office. I got in a great cardio workout after that, and B and the kids played basketball for a long time.
We worked on that for a couple of hours, and then I threw in the towel because I was over it. Haha. The rest of the afternoon was spent working in my office while the kids played video games and then B picked up pizza for dinner.
After dinner, B unexpectedly had to work for the rest of the night, so the kids and I were on our own. We played a couple of rounds of Olivia’s new game, Pictureka! It’s a lot of fun and it’s age appropriate for everyone in our family.
After that was over, the kids said that they wanted to watch Encanto for the third time, and since I’d already just watched it with them, I chose to get a few things done around the house instead. I worked on the playroom for a few more minutes, I cleaned out and organized my nightstand, I organized some books I want to read in 2022, I got caught up on the new devotional that had recently delivered, I started moving things over from my Christmas wish list to my birthday wish list (for the blog), and I got a couple of annoying other little projects out of the way that I’d been putting off.
After the kids’ movie was over, we got them in the bed, and then I snuggled on the couch with Maui and watched The Big Wedding for the billionth time while I cleaned out and reorganized all of the apps on my phone. If you haven’t seen that movie (it’s about 10 years old, I think?) you need to watch it. It has a huge cast (including Diane Keaton – my favorite) and it is hilarious. It is soooo rated R, though, so do not even attempt to watch with kids anywhere nearby.
Sunday, January 9
Sunday morning, we made breakfast and watched church. The cinnamon rolls we love have been hard to find lately thanks to supply chain issues, so we didn’t have any for our Sunday morning tradition. Womp womp. I guess I need to learn how to make them from scratch!
I spent a few minutes planning the week ahead, and then the kids and I headed back upstairs to finish cleaning out and organizing the playroom. We got it all done, and it was soooo nice to have that off my plate. Now the kids can find everything easily, and they can see what all they actually have. We ended up donating a whole bag full of stuff + two other large items that wouldn’t fit in a bag, and we trashed/recycled the equivalent of a full bag as well. Check!
By the time we’d finished cleaning the playroom, it was time for lunch, and then B headed off to play tennis while the kids and I spent some time outside. It was 72 degrees Sunday afternoon, so we went for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood first, and then we played lots of basketball when we got home.
In the early evening, I headed downstairs to cook dinner. For now, my parents and my in-law’s have decided to put Sunday lunches and dinners on hold until this wave dies down a bit, so I have to start cooking on Sundays. Waaaahhhh. Haha.
I made baked ziti, green beans, and bread, and B and I opened a bottle of wine. After dinner, the kids got ready for bed, and then we watched a couple of episodes of The Fresh Prince before sending them to bed. After that, it was another episode of Emily in Paris and another episode of Bobafett for B and me, and then we were off to bed, too!
Happy Tuesday, y’all!
The covid numbers currently are crazy, but hopefully it is not as bad now if you get it. I think our whole school will have it in a few days. Congrats to Jacob on his awards!
ReplyDeleteGetting back into a routine is so rough! HA But looks like y'all handled it like CHAMPS!
ReplyDeleteAs you know, covid is crazy here too. Jack said half his teachers were out last week. Congrats to Jacob for all those awards! I had to laugh when you said "Snooze if baby yoda isn't in it." Ha, ha!
ReplyDeleteThe first week back went as smooth as possible it seems! Congrats to Jacob on that award - so awesome!
ReplyDeleteI am putting the big wedding on my list to watch! Homemade cinnamon rolls are easy, just use canned pizza dough, butter and cinnamon and sugar! Sounds like a great week!
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