Weekdays

Last week was normal, but normalcy is still worth recording. The week started off strong on Monday with the arrival of my first pay stub in over a decade. It was my pay for coaching cross country. I was surprised at how GOOD it felt to have earned some money. Motherhood is my biggest best job, but it is not a job that can be quantified on paper. It was satisfying to complete a job that came out to $$ on paper. Plus, Jeff and I have designated our coaching pay to be our travel funds, so our next international trip felt that much closer when I opened my pay statement.

On Tuesday, in a burst of generous maternal indulgence, I dug out a bottle of nail polish and painted Amber’s fingernails. Then I let her paint my toenails. It was messy but Amber felt beautiful and thought I was beautiful too. I try to put one specific Amber-activity on my to do list every day so I don’t get too caught up in Other Stuff. This intentional one-on-one time is so good for both of us. If only our daily activity would be enough to keep Amber content to play by herself for the rest of the day! Amber has a knack for attacking, destroying, and pestering until I can’t think straight, much less finish anything else besides defend myself from her intensity and feel guilty for being peeved at her. High spirited children are tough on introverts!

I cleaned my bathroom this week and did two small-but-satisfying repairs. First I dismantled our faucet to clean out the screen on it. The water flow has been slowing more and more over the past few months till it was at less than half power and was a flickering trickle. Google to the rescue! I successfully removed the tip of the faucet and dumped what looked like tiny pebbles out of the screen thingy. Now we have a nice strong stream of water in our sink. I also fixed the loose toilet seat while I was in there. It has been loose for weeks and weeks, but I didn’t know how to tighten it. A quick Google search revealed a simple solution and in the blink of an eye, our toilet seat was nice and snug once more. After completing these repairs, I felt a little sheepish for putting them off for so long because they were so easy, but I also felt like quite the accomplished handy woman. I may have strutted and preened just a little when I invited Jeff to take a look at our bathroom when he got home later that day. He was duly/dutifully impressed, haha.

Jay is getting so good at loading the dishwasher! That boy is growing into such a responsible guy. I love the sight of the men of the house doing the dishes after dinner.

It was COLD this week. VERY cold. I don’t like running with the stroller in the cold. I hit a wall with running when the temperature dropped into the 20s, and I had to get creative to convince myself to run. I turned on a movie for Amber and ran driveway laps around the gravel loop that circles our house (.12 of a mile each lap) while either talking on the phone or listening to an audiobook. On Tuesday I ran five whole miles– my longest driveway distance ever– while talking to my mom on the phone. I used my bluetooth headphones and kept my phone in my pocket. The voice in my head responded when I talked!

On Thursday, I was feeling extra cold, tired, and unmotivated for running. I didn’t run in the morning and snuggled up to watch a Christmas movie on Netflix with Amber after lunch. Jeff called and offered to meet me at the track after school and take Amber while I ran, and I couldn’t resist the offer. I ran with Jeff on the track during his cooldown, then he drove Amber home while I ran home. I met Jay on the canal road while near home and ran the last half mile of his daily mile with him. The breeze picked up and the wind chill dropped, but I ran with Rose afterwards. We both about froze. I kept trying to get her to run faster so we would stay warmer and be done sooner, but she was in tired-stubborn Rose mode and refused. So we trotted our little 12:30 mile and I felt like I was in the early stages of hypothermia when we got home. Anything for the run!

After our run on Thursday, Rose still had spelling homework AND 12 minutes of piano practicing to finish before she could relax (she had only finished half of her daily 25 minutes of practicing that morning before school). She was already overwrought from the long day and the cold run. I could see a Rose-storm a-brewing, so I got out the Cheezits and lined them up on the table. Rose had to write each spelling word three times, so I gave her a Cheezit for every word. She settled right down and did her homework without complaining, pausing to munch a Cheezit after writing each set of words. But the piano practice was too much. She totally melted down and I put her in her room to recover. Emotions are strong in our Rose-girl. Send help.

To Amber, a princess is a girl in a pretty dress with a crown. When I was trying to explain what an angel was to her this week, I ended up telling her that an angel is a princess with wings. It’s basically true, if you think about it…

 The carnage.

She was so happy, and kept taking off my socks all week to admire her handiwork.

Post-bath snuggles. She insisted on having half her face hidden.

Boundless energy, in spite of the gloomy sky.

The Cheezit lineup.

A few rounds of Thursday night Mario Kart. Amber had her own working controller for the first time this week, and I felt a tiny bit left out before realizing that this meant I wouldn’t ever have to play Mario Kart because it’s a 4 player game. FREEDOM! I did sit in the room with them while they played so I would still be present for family time, even if I was reading rather than playing the impossible video game.