I was still fighting my respiratory funk all last week (every time I get a respiratory illness it hangs on for weeks… the main reason why I’m such a germaphobe), but we were miraculously able to get some things done and I finally got ahead on the blog, so it was a productive week – finally!
Monday, June 24
Monday morning, I slept in until 7:45. I was exhausted from coughing and groggy from taking all of the meds from this stupid upper respiratory infection. I probably would have slept later, but I had a ton of stuff to do.
We awoke to a dark, cloudy sky which was unexpected. It hadn’t rained in over a month, and there was no rain in the forecast anywhere. I had breakfast, grabbed my hot tea, and then headed to my office to troubleshoot that iPhone to PC picture issue some more, and when I got to my office, it started pouring. It was the best sound and the coziest morning after weeks of brutal heat and sun.
Around 10 AM, I got showered and then headed to Walmart and Publix to grab groceries. I saw my car line buddy from school in Walmart (we somehow end up right behind each other in the car line every day), and I ended up chatting with him for a while, so I ended up getting home later than expected.
By the time I got home, it was time to get the groceries put away and eat lunch. After lunch, the kids finally started summer homework!! Jacob has a nine-page math packet to do + he has to read a book on his AR level + he is supposed to have some kind of homework for the high school foreign language he’s taking next year. Olivia has to do 8 hours of work in IXL which is the online program that the school uses + she has to read one book on her AR level and do a book report. My goal was for them to get halfway done with summer homework by the end of June, and they ended up doing so much last week that they did, indeed, hit that goal despite the fact that they just started.
They got in a good 45 minutes on Monday, and then I let them have some screen time for fun. While they did that, I worked in my office. Brian figured out that the codec we’d installed on my laptop to *hopefully* fix my video issue was the cause of the picture issue I was having, so we uninstalled it, and that fixed the problem I’d been having all weekend. I’m still having trouble transferring videos from my iPhone to my PC, but at least I have access to my pictures again! Without pictures, there can be no blog, so those are important. Haha.
The rain was very short-lived, and by the time I got to Walmart, the sun was blazing, and it reached a million degrees by the afternoon, so there was no outdoor time for anyone again.
After I finished working, I did some house tidying, folded some towels, and a few other things, and then I felt overwhelmed with exhaustion. I’d been coughing ALL DAY AGAIN and my body was just so dang tired and sore from coughing that it hit me like a ton of bricks Monday afternoon.
I managed to cook beef and parmesan pasta with zucchini for dinner, and then afterward, I did my Bible study and then read in my bedroom while the kids played. I wanted more than anything to go for a run or do some kind of workout, but my body wasn’t having it.
Late in the evening, I moved outside to the back porch to read so I could get some fresh air, but it was still a million degrees, even in the shade with the fans on.
In order to get some activity, I took Maui for a walk. I waited until almost 8:30 so the sun was behind the trees, but it was still hot as hades. It felt good to get out, but I felt so tired when we got home, and it was only a 20-minute walk. Sigh.
Tuesday morning, I was up at 7:30, and I got my breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, and did all of the morning things. I spent some time in my office after that, working on a blog post that needed to go live the next day, and then I got showered.
The kids and I hit up the library late in the morning, and Olivia finally picked out her book for summer reading. They didn’t have the book that Jacob wanted, so we ordered it from my friend Khristina, since she’s opening a small book shop in the near future. He did, however, check out this Picturepedia book for, probably, the tenth time. Haha.
After that, it was more work for me, and screen time for the kids… still no outdoor time because it was 100 degrees again FOR THE LOVE.
At 5:30, I headed out to meet my girlfriends for Thai food, and we had a good time catching up. We have a group text chat that we’re all in, so we talk pretty much every day in some capacity, but it’s always nice to see their beautiful faces! And the food was delicious, as always.
We kept it pretty quick and low-key Tuesday, so I was home by 7:30, and then I decided to head outside and force myself to walk/jog to see if it would make me feel any better. I miss exercising and I think part of my exhaustion is also because I haven’t been doing anything physical. I always start to feel sluggish when I don’t work out.
Sure enough, my walk/jog went even better than I thought it would despite the fact that it was nearly 100 degrees out, and it felt great to move my body. It was definitely an easier run than the one had been the night before I woke up sick. I should have known I was coming down with something because my body felt heavy as lead on that run and my lungs felt like they were going to burst.
Wednesday, June 26
Wednesday morning, I got up at 7:30 and I felt like I had finally turned the corner in my sickness. I felt like I had less congestion, and I had more energy than I’d had previously. Plus, my voice was mostly back, and I no longer sounded like an 85-year-old smoker. Haha.
I did my breakfast/vitamins/unload the dishwasher/water the plants routine, and then I headed to my office with some hot tea and a Trader Joe’s vanilla scone. Oh, my word, if you haven’t had one, you must try them! They are divine.
I spent the next hour knocking out two blog posts, finally putting myself almost a week ahead! Woo hoooo! It felt good to get it done and it was a super productive hour. While I was working, both kids woke up, got their breakfasts, and then they watched a little bit of TV.
Mid-morning, I got ready for the day, and then I dropped the kids off at my parents’ house for an hour so I could go to my therapist appointment. She told me that she knows a lot of people who have had upper respiratory illnesses recently, and we discussed how odd it is to have them during the summer, so there must just be some kind of summer cold running rampant here in town. She told me she’d had Covid the previous week, too, so that is definitely still around here in town as the doctor had told me.
After my appointment, I grabbed the kids from mom and dad’s and we checked on the neighborhood pool, which is still covered up. Boooo.
By the time we got home, I had started feeling really tired and a little “off” because I’d taken some pseudoephedrine before my appointment. It was supposed to be non-drowsy, but as Brian said, “Leave it to you to get drowsy from a non-drowsy medication.” Haha. He’s so right. I always end up being the outlier for everything medical. Always.
I made lunch for the kids and me, and by the time I was done, I was dragging. Sigh. So much for turning the corner with the sickness!
After lunch, the kids did some more summer homework – we really crammed in a bunch last week since we’d done none prior to that – and then I spent some time listing some items for sale on a local Facebook page. Two of the items sold immediately, so that was great!
It was nearly 100 degrees again Wednesday afternoon, so the kids spent the afternoon indoors playing and having some screen time. I did some more work, and I finally got somewhat caught up on life stuff. Then I did my Bible study for the day before heading downstairs to cook dinner – one pan chicken, yellow potatoes, and broccoli.
We ate dinner shortly after Brian got home from work, and then I desperately wanted to do a workout, but I didn’t feel up to it. Instead, I took a few minutes to clean out our linen closet that was OFF THE CHAIN. We got rid of so.much.stuff. and now there’s plenty of breathing room in there! Prior to this, I couldn’t pull a single thing out without a giant pile falling down behind it, so it’s nice to finally have this done. I'll be sharing the befores and afters for all of these projects in a post later this month, but until then, you can always follow along in real-time on Instagram stories, or check out my "Done 2024" Highlight.
By the time I finished doing that, I was feeling a little better, so I got in a 30-minute strength workout, mostly focusing on my arms.
Thursday, June 27
Thursday morning, Brian had the day off, so we slept in until 7:45 and then he went for a run while I ate breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, and did all of my morning things. Jacob and Olivia woke up and came downstairs just as I was finishing up, and they got their breakfast while I went up to work on a couple of things.
Unfortunately, I woke up feeling awful again on Thursday – my cough was back and worse than ever, my congestion had ramped up again, and my left ear was super plugged causing the ringing in my ears to be even louder than usual. Boooo.
Mid-morning, I got showered and ready for the day, and then our friend, Khristina, dropped her son, Noah, off to hang out with us for the day. The kids all played for a while when he arrived, and I finally sat down and organized my greeting cards in the greeting card organizer that I’d gotten for my birthday months ago… I’d just never had the time to get it organized.
It’s been crazy hot and dry here the last few weeks, so we were all excited when a rainstorm came along and settled in for the rest of the morning. We needed the rain so bad! I took that cozy time to do my Bible study.
At 3, Khristina came to pick up Noah, and the kids and I headed to music lessons. I sat in the lobby again since I was still coughing a ton, and Steve, one of the other teachers, came out and chatted with me again for a while.
When we got home, the kids had some screen time and I got some work done, and then I sat and finished my book. Friends, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter was a page turner, but it was one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. I will definitely have to do better at screening my books from now on because I don’t think I can read anything like that again. Whew.
By dinnertime, nobody was hungry because we were all still pretty full from our big, late lunch, so we heated a pizza in the oven and each had a couple of small slices of that.
After dinner, I decided to go for a run even though the humidity was at level 1000%, and I ended up doing okay. Considering I’d been coughing nonstop all day, it was definitely a win that I even made it through. Never mind the slow pace. ;o)
I worked on an Instagram Reel and then read during the remainder of it because it was just too painful to watch.
Friday, June 28
Friday morning, I was up at 7:30, I got breakfast, unloaded the dishwasher, watered the plants, etc. and then I did some blog reading. After that, I had a ton of blog housekeeping to tackle – I had been wanting to opt-in to a couple of new programs that my ad company is offering, I had some emails to respond to regarding collaborations, and I had to download aaaallll of my history from the old Google Analytics (Universal) since they pulled the plug on July 1. They are not storing the data prior to the switch for their users, so we had to go in and download PDFs/Excel spreadsheets/Google docs of everything if we wanted to have our analytics history prior to the switch to GA4. I’ve been blogging for over nine years, so there were a lot of reports to run and save.
Mid-morning, the kids and I went in their closets and took inventory of all of their uniforms, and I made a list of everything that needed to be ordered for back-to-school. We are officially halfway through summer break, and the uniform company we use has a tendency to be verrrry slow at shipping orders, so we always have to order them early. It feels good to have that checked off of the list!
I got showered and ready and then I loaded up all of our donation stuff that’s been sitting in the dining room for weeks. I dropped that off at the donation center on the way to the Mexican restaurant down the street because I was meeting my friends Lauren, April, and Kelli for lunch. My friend, Lauren, lives in Atlanta now, but she was in town for the weekend, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see her.
After lunch, I headed home and got the kids started on more summer homework, and then I headed to my office to download all of those reports from Google Analytics. I also went back-and-forth with a brand about a collab I have in the works, and it was just a BIG housekeeping day for blog stuff. It’s times like these that I wish I had an assistant. I LOVE blogging – the writing, the photography, and even the editing – but the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s required for the business part of it is tedious and boring. Haha.
At 6, Jacob’s friend, WJ, and his dad came to pick Jacob up to take the two of them to a Velocity ice cream social. Velocity is Teen Advisors, but for middle schoolers. WJ has been a member of Velocity for the last year, and he’s been asking Jacob to join with him, so Jacob went with him to see what it was all about.
After they left, Brian, Olivia, and I headed to our favorite local barbecue place to meet my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and their kiddos, and my uncle and his girlfriend for dinner.
We had just ordered our food when WJ’s dad called saying that a bunch of people had shown up for the Velocity social, but none of the moderators were there to open the building (so strange), so he was taking the boys to their house until we finished dinner.
We had already planned for WJ to sleep over after their social, so we went and grabbed him and Jacob from WJ’s house and took them home. The boys spent the rest of the night playing video games, and Olivia spent the evening with them watching Five Minute Craft videos that she loves so much.
Brian and I watched an episode of Trying, and then we watched an episode of The Morning Show, and then we got Olivia in the bed and headed to bed ourselves. It was a late night for all of us.
Saturday, June 29
Saturday morning, Brian went to pick up donuts for all of us, and he and Olivia and I ate breakfast together. I did all of my morning chores and then finally got caught up on my end of the year blog post. I recap the entire year on the last day of each year, and those posts are so long and so time-consuming that I work on them throughout the year, so I don’t end up having to do it all at once. I try to work on it every Friday to update the current week, but I had gotten a good 6-7 weeks behind due to all of the busyness. So, it felt great to catch up… finally!
The boys got up at 10, had breakfast, played some more video games, and then played board games, and I started some laundry and got in a mixed cardio/weights workout. I had sent Olivia to clean her room while I was working out because it was an absolute and utter disaster, and she’d put a little dent in it, but it was still in terrible shape, so I spent the next hour helping her sort some things and get things tidied. The room is still a mess, but we can at least see (some) of the floor, and we can now get her closet doors open without having to shove a bunch of stuff out of the way. Haha.
Around 2, Brian and the kids left to take WJ home, and I got some more blog work done. It was 8,000 degrees again Saturday, so none of us spent a single second outside.
Saturday evening, we attended 5:30 Mass per usual, and then we went to eat Mexican with our usual group – my parents, Mama Cass, my Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg, and my Uncle Billy, along with his girlfriend.
We got home around 8:30 and there was still plenty of daylight left, so I took Maui for a walk. I do love these long days where it doesn’t get dark until 9:15!
Sunday, June 30
Sunday morning, we all slept in, and then we had leftover donuts for breakfast. I watched my Sunday morning sermon and did yoga, and I got my planner ready for July and the week ahead.
After he got up and had breakfast, he and Brian and Olivia got ready and then headed out to pick up fireworks for The Fourth of July. I stayed home and had a super productive time whittling away at the long list of non-urgent tasks that have been on my list for months (and years).
One of the projects for the morning was to get the new frames hung in the kids’ bathroom. Last summer (the day my vertigo started, actually), the kids both had friends over, and while they were running wild, Jacob’s friend accidentally knocked one of the frames off the wall in the kids’ bathroom and it broke.
Normally when something like that happens, I replace it immediately, but I was in the throes of the worst of my vertigo, so naturally, it got put on the backburner. Then months, and almost a full year went by, and it still hadn’t been replaced.
Jacob and I picked out new frames at Target a few weeks ago, and I finallyyyy got them hung. They look so good in there – much better than the old ones – so I’m very pleased with the outcome. Now I just have to develop pictures of the kids to put in the frames… let’s hope that doesn’t take me another year! Ha!
When Brian and the kids got home, we all ate a light lunch, and then I headed outside to read in the sun. I’m losing my beach tan because we don’t have access to a pool, and since the temps have been so ridiculously high this summer, it’s been too hot to sit outside without one.
I used the next couple of hours to remove the week’s batch of pictures, and my stupid computer and phone started having that same issue that it had earlier in the week, so I was back to square one even though Brian had already removed that codec that had fixed the problem on Monday. Sigh. I kept trying and getting the same result (like a crazy person), but finally, on the fourth try, the pictures and videos transferred. I swear, it makes zero sense. The first three times, it was trying to pull them off one way (where the files would be broken) and then on the fourth time, like magic, it just decided to work properly. There’s no rhyme or reason to when it decides to work, so it just makes no sense. Suuuuper frustrating.
While I did that, I had to contact Life Touch, that company that does school photos, because we’d ordered a class picture for Olivia back in April and never received it. The person I spoke with told me the photographer never uploaded the photo for her class to their system, but yet they had cashed my check (and don’t get me started on the fact that they made me order via the mail with a check this time… they wouldn’t let me order online), so I guess they were just going to keep our money and not send us anything in return. What?! Not to mention, we want that picture!!
The guy ended up escalating my issue to see if another department could locate the photo, and in the meantime, they’re issuing a refund in the form of… a check… that will take 3-6 weeks to arrive. It’s 2024, people!! Why are we still mailing checks?!
After dealing with my picture issue and the people at Life Touch, I needed Jesus, so I did my Bible study. It’s amazing how reading His Word truly calms me right down (most of the time).
Since Momma and Daddy decided at the last minute not to do Sunday dinner, we had nothing planned at home, and we were all tired of sandwiches, so Brian picked up Carabba’s for dinner. They have the best lasagna!!
After dinner, we decided to have a family game night, and we played Pictureka, Sussed, and Sorry! We hadn’t had a family game night in a while, so it was a fun change of pace from watching TV or movies.
After that, the kids retreated to their rooms to read and then go to bed, and Brian watched House of the Dragon while I read my book.
And that was our week!
Happy Wednesday, y’all!
