Domestic Wednesday

This is the first  Wednesday post I’ve written outdoors! It’s a balmy 82 in Lawrence today, and I am wearing a tank top, sandals, cuffed up jeans in what seems like a very SUDDEN move to summer clothes. My arms and ankles aren’t really ready to see the world yet. The children are playing like maniacs outside while I look on and sigh in a world-weary fashion from time to time. Also I have a sinus infection but I don’t want to talk about it. I bought a neti pot and the…shall we say PRODUCTS of my neti potting are just horrifying.

Errand/adventure: I volunteered to bring some visiting prospective students to the airport this morning…as long as they didn’t mind riding in the car with a three-year-old. Neither of them minded (or said so, at least) so we enjoyed a lovely, sunny drive to the airport this morning. Afterward, Sam and I stopped at the Legends Outlet Mall since it was on our way back. Charlotte has only one pair of functional presentable non-dress shoes, and no summer sandals at all. So we found four pairs of sandals and shoes, at buy one get one 50% off. (Sidenote: Sam just ambled up to me, holding his crotch. I asked “Sam, do you need to go potty?” He sighed loudly and said “OF COURSE.” Then dashed off to the bathroom, like he was just waiting for me to ask.) I also found a couple shirts and a pair of sandals for me. Sam complained loudly almost the entire time. He is not a great clothes shopping companion these days.

Cleaning: Not much. A little tidying.

Library: Brought back what seemed like a full collection of Magic Tree House books and limited Charlotte to three more of those. She’s read all of them now and is just rereading the ones she gets. I thought it’d be good to get some newer, different books. Again, follow along on Good Reads if you’re interested. Then for a special treat we got ice cream at Sylas and Maddy’s (strawberry for Sam, cookie dough for Charlotte, remnants of Sam’s for me). Stopped to get a few groceries and then came home.

Now Sam has ridden his too-small firetruck ride-on toy for like toddlers down to the mailbox and seems unwilling or unable to return under his own power, so I had better go retrieve him.

Sorry I missed my Domestic Wednesday post this week. I ended up working on Wednesday, and every other day this week, trying to catch up after Jeff was gone last week. I did realize how much I like my mid-week domestic “breaks” when I was forced to go grocery shopping on Friday afternoon instead. I read in Food magazine that Wednesdays are the least busy times for grocery shopping, and I can believe it. The grocery store is always so nice and quiet and well-stocked on Wednesday. Charlotte and I are making pumpkin muffins this afternoon (we’ve got the first batch in the oven now) and I have plans to clean a little, trying to keep ahead of the mess that’s sure to descend during spring break next week.

I wanted to write a post about my exercise, which has fallen off a bit in the new year. It seems like I have been sick off and on constantly since we got back from Florida. I don’t know if I’ve managed to run 3x week once since then. I’ve done 2x most weeks, but some weeks only once. I can feel it in my energy levels as well as the fit of my clothes, and it’s discouraging. I am sick again right now, or maybe it’s allergies, I don’t know. I feel foggy-headed, congested, ears plugged, etc, and have for some time. I just don’t have the energy I want, which makes it hard to do most everyday stuff.

So starting this week, I want to get back on track with exercise. Three days a week, I will get up in the morning before the kids (essential!) and run my normal 1.5 mile route. It’s not too taxing, it doesn’t take too long, and I can handle it. I will also work on going to bed earlier. If that means taking melatonin more regularly and monitoring my evening computer usage, so be it. I also need to get excited about salads again, plus find a way to vary my options a bit more. Cooked greens or other veggie-based meals, plus salmon or eggs or beans, I think. That will make it all a bit more exciting.

There goes the timer on the pumpkin muffins! Good, since I don’t have anything else to write.

In a few hours, Jeff’s train will pull into the charmingly retro Lawrence Amtrak station. There’s something kind of romantic about disembarking from a day-long train ride in the dark. Or maybe by “romantic” I mean “tired and rumpled and cramped.” Anyway, soon he’ll be home, and then my domestic stint will end. Hurrah!

It’s silly for me to talk like this. People do this all the time. Stay-at-home whatevers, single parents. I am not terrible good at it. I am impatient. I like my space almost as much as I like my children. I like my children more, of course. But there is something singularly challenging about the constant barrage of chatter and the little touching hands and the farts and the sticky mouths and the little socks and tiny legos everywhere.

Sam and I got out as much as we could. Thursday, the day after his high fever, we mostly hung around the house. But we had our regular Wednesday outing to the library. And on Friday, Sam was well enough for us to join my friends for breakfast, although he did insist on going to the bathroom three times while we were there, producing an astonishing half-teaspoon of pee each time.

That was one of the bigger excitements of this week. You guys, I think Sam is potty-trained! He wears his unders all day now, and I was confident enough in this step to remove all his cloth diapers from his room, o happy day. He still does have some weird hangups about going potty, like insisting on privacy to the point of SCREAMING ANGER if you dare ask “how are things going in there, Sam?” “I NEED MY PWIVACY MOM!” Ugh, mom, you’re the worst.

My parents came for part of the weekend though and BOY was I glad to see them. I got out to do some work Saturday afternoon, and got to sleep in yesterday and today. And my mom unleashed a cleaning hurricane on the kids’ rooms and now they are spotless and gleaming and that will probably last about a day. I of course found it necessary to tell her that I do clean the kids’ rooms regularly (true) but they just get messy again so quickly (also true) but let’s be honest here: my most dedicated, intense cleaning session will never match my mother for sheer force, range, and depth. She is a wonder.

What else? Oh! Also I ran Saturday, which felt good, as I have not been as devoted to my running schedule lately and I can feel it (around my waist) (but also in my energy levels). Funny story, though: I set my alarm for 6:50 a.m. Thursday, which is the time I set my alarm for if I am going to go for a run. My alarm goes off, I swing my legs out of bed, reach for my running clothes, and ONLY THEN do I remember that I am the only adult in the house and the authorities would MOST LIKELY frown upon my leaving the sleeping children alone in the house as I go gallivanting around the neighborhood, even for the purposes of exercise.

Now it is late and I am tired and have to get back to my academic persona tomorrow, so goodnight.

Domestic Wednesday PLUS

Yes, it’s another domestic Wednesday! And while it is indeed domestic as in I am at home, it is also not so much because I am sick. Again. Jeff left for a conference early this morning, and just like the last time he left (for his grandpa’s funeral) almost the minute he walked out the door I started sniffling and my throat felt uncomfortably sore. Now I am foggy-headed and sneezing and miserable. I don’t know if this is my body’s way of ensuring I will devote myself to recuperating from my illness, by making me sick every time I won’t be able to work, but NO THANKS body.

The kids are sort of sick-ish too. It feels like this winter has just been an endless series of colds and bugs for them.

So I am being domestic this entire week, until my parents arrive sometime on Friday. I’ll be back to post more on: 1. Potty training! 2. Academic rejection! 3. And other things! Including new computers!

For now I need to “enjoy” my remaining half-hour of child-free couch time with my glass of tepid water and Bejeweled and not obsessively checking my email inbox because SURELY the universe has some good news for me soon, right?

Domestic Wednesday

Yesterday was a lovely day with Sam (and, after school, Charlotte). In brief:

Errand/Adventure: It was time for another Trader Joe’s run! After bringing Charlotte to school, I went back home and picked up the boys. Sam and I dropped Jeff off in town and then we proceeded to TJs. I love my little car trips with Sam. He’s a good passenger when he has a snack and a couple of books or his doodle pro to occupy his time. We also spent most of the trip enjoying our favorite songs from the CD my internet friend Perpetua made for me. Sam’s overall favorite is the Mumford & Sons “Roll Away Your Stone” which he calls “DA STONE SONG” and we probably listened to it ten times. It was balanced out by my own obsession with Vampire Weekend’s “White Sky” and Iron & Wine’s “Belated Promise Ring.”

We have a few favorite items at TJs (in addition to the cheap wine, of course). The kids love the cinnamon “schoolhouse” crackers that are shaped like letters and numbers. I always buy those, plus the maple leaf sandwich cookies which we all love. Last time we tried the cream varieties of yogurt, which are very rich, and the kids loved those. Plus they’re a little smaller than the standard yogurt tubs which works better for the kids. So this time I got blueberry, vanilla, peach, and mango (all “& cream”). More cereal bars, plus some fiber fruit strips that I hope Charlotte will like. We like the basic TJs hummus. And Jeff is a big fan of their frozen Thai and Indian dinners, so I picked up a bunch of those.

Cleaning: A load of laundry, including bedding, because it had been too long. The weather was great for drying sheets outside! I also loaded a bunch of outgrown clothes, shoes, and toys into the back of the Subaru to bring to goodwill today (I dropped them all off this morning after I brought C to school). There is much more room in the garage now! Mostly though since the kids were playing outdoors once we got home I didn’t do much cleaning inside.

Library: SAM WENT POTTY IN THE TOILET AT THE LIBRARY! ON HIS OWN INITIATIVE!!! As a reward, I let him pick out an extra DVD. He got one that’s essentially a read-aloud with illustrations version of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel plus three other books about trucks. He loves it, and he and Charlotte both love the “I Stink!” book about a garbage truck. “DIRTY DIAPERS! PUPPY POOP!” they bellow in imitation. The also got a few more Reading Rainbow episodes. Charlotte found one Magic Tree House book she hadn’t read, several Cam Jansen books, and I grabbed a couple longer chapter books off the shelf I thought she’d like.

So, a nice commenter last week asked for the chicken pot pie recipe. It’s adapted from Real Simple (you can find the original here). I made mine by chopping an onion, and mixing that with a bag of mixed vegetables, a carton of sliced mushrooms, 1/2 T. thyme, 1 T salt, a little black pepper, and 1/3 cup of flour in the bottom of the crock pot. Then I dumped a package of boneless skinless chicken thighs (about a pound, maybe more) on top, more salt & pepper, and about a cup of water poured over it all. Cook on low for about 5-6 hours, checking to see if more water is needed. Then when the chicken is cooked through you kind of shred it up and mix in a block of cream cheese. The end! You can make this into pot pie, or you can just eat it with rice or bread or pasta or a spoon. Heh.

Domestic Wednesday

So, this is all I do on my blog now, I guess. Write these boring domestic posts. Ugh, I’m boring myself. I should try to write more about other things, like: potty training Sam, Charlotte’s reading, Downton Abbey OMG, etc. But I’m writing this on a work day so I’d better get to it.

Errand/Adventure: More errand than adventure, sorry Sam. We got groceries. Although Sam was wearing his underpants the whole time, which is a bit of an adventure! He did not use the potty.

Cooking/baking: Last week’s chicken pot pies were successful, except for the pie part. So I just made the innards again and served it over penne for Charlotte. She loved it. It’s a basic crockpot recipe but it’s a nice way to get veggies and protein. I also made broccoli cheddar soup that I brought to C’s school today for the teachers’ lunch during PT conferences.

Cleaning: I washed sweaters. I’d been meaning to do this for MONTHS, but I have finally amassed enough gentle machine wash sweaters to do a load. Thank goodness because it is still winter and I need my sweaters. Most of them were dry this morning.

Library: This is where the day started to fall apart. Sam hadn’t napped NOR had he peed. All day. So he was tired and crabby and obviously needed to go, but refused to use the bathroom. It was unpleasant. So after a fifteen minute battle in the tiny boy’s bathroom at the library, we grabbed a bunch more Magic Tree House and Cam Jansen books for Charlotte, a few DVDs, and headed home, where Sam promptly peed…in the bathtub. Seriously, you cannot wait for my potty training post. The DVD we got of Reading Rainbow was pretty awesome, I must say. Might make a tradition of that.

Domestic Thursday Morning

Everything is all messed up here because of our recent travel and illnesses. That cold I wrote about getting last week Monday? Yeah, today is the first day I feel a little better. And by “little better” I mean I can go about five minutes not being in arm’s reach of a kleenex without worrying I’m going to have an unseemly snot moustache. Jeff and I went to Chicago this weekend, dropping the kids off with my parents in Iowa en route. I would have enjoyed our trip more had I a complete sense of smell and/or taste, but I suppose that’s nit picking. Two nights sans kids! Five hours each way in the car without the children (never mind the four and a half each way with)! We listened to what we wanted to on the radio (Run DMC, a loud and passionate duet to Survivor’s The Search is Over)! We talked without interruption! Oh, it was glorious. I would sacrifice my sense of taste smell again just for another weekend like it.

Today I am feeling all opposite of that. Today we registered Sam for preschool (which he still adorably and totally uncorrected by me calls “PRETTYSCHOOL”). Oh, my baby. I am equal parts “my baby is all grown up!” and “wow, three hours three times a week with no kids in the house? Oh the cleaning I could do!” Of course the joke’s on me because I am scheduled to teach the mornings Sam is in school. However, oh the writing Jeff will be able to do! Hooray! And my house will continue to sink under a tide of filth and lone socks and tiny foot-stabby toys.

Speaking of which, this is a domestic day post! I worked yesterday so I gave Jeff this morning, morning only because I was covering a friend’s class this afternoon, not because I’m ungenerous, although anyone who has ever tried to take a bite of food from my plate might argue that is exactly what I am. Order your own food! But I’m getting off track. Today! This morning! I tried to pack too much domesticity into a morning, I’ll tell you. Our fridge was barren and cavernous, so we got groceries. Then while I was unloading them I got the reminder call that we had to register Sam for preschool TODAY or risk losing the spot we wanted, so I left the nonperishables and booked it out there to fill out the forms. Then when Sam and I returned home, I put the ingredients for chicken pot pie in the slow cooker (the innards only, obviously, not the pie), changed into my Professional Lady clothes, and booked it to school as soon as Jeff got back. Left undone: two loads of laundry, tidying the living room, putting away clothes, general ungrossening.

The pot pies were good. Charlotte went nuts for the insides but continues to deny the deliciousness of pie crust. Sam ate fruit. We have leftover pot pie plus a spare for the freezer. Housekeeping!