Less Than a Week Til School (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: The other day I saw something fascinating while I was driving through my neighborhood. A lady was walking her dog, and the dog stopped on someone's lawn to relieve itself. The lady squatted down and got right up in her dog's business. From my position at a four-way stop, I watched and wondered what on earth she was doing. Then I noticed she was holding a red solo cup between her dog's legs. 

Friends! I saw a dog pee into a cup held by its owner. Now, I'm no dog owner, so there's a lot I don't know. But... Is this normal? 

Fact #2: Zoe is obsessed with ramen. She wants it every day for lunch (I don't let her have it every day, but she would if she could). I recently gave her ramen-making lessons because I am so sick of cooking ramen. This made me think about how everyone likes their ramen a certain way. I make it like soup. But some people drain the water out and just eat the noodles. That's how my babysitter fed it to us when I was a kid. 

How do you like your ramen?

Fact #3: Last year I had a really good crop of little jacks in my garden, so I put them around my house for fall. 

The other day, Zoe found this:

It was in a toy bin.

Fact #4: Sometimes I watch shows or read books where it's pretty clear that a character is going to die, and I get impatient and think, "Oh my gosh, just die already!" 

I did this with Jack in This is Us (which I quit watching) and again with Walter in A Million Little Things (which I also quit watching). 

I did this with a book the other day, and then the character didn't die, and I was so disappointed! Does this make me heartless?

Fact #5: I've learned many lessons as a parent, one being: if you have a kid playing at your house, and you tell their mom that everything's fine, and everyone is playing well, and they're welcome to stay for another hour, things will immediately go south, and it will be the longest hour of your life. 

Never extend a play date when "everything's fine." Because that's when things turn.

Fact #6: I've always been a little paranoid of being on a hidden camera show. I don't want to be Candid Camera-ed, Punk'd, or Impractical Joker-ed. I recently found out that Nicky has the same concern. We were at Walmart, and there was a dollar on the ground. No one was around, and Nicky refused to pick it up because he was too afraid he was being set up. He told me about the dollar, and I said, "Just go pick it up!" and he said, "Why don't you go pick it up?" But I couldn't... because hidden cameras.

Thus, neither of us is a dollar richer. But someone else is because the dollar was gone the next time we walked by.

Fact #7: A few things I'm not going to miss when my kids go back to school...

• The sounds of them playing Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza (constant slapping on the kitchen table)
• Having the car radio and the Alexa hijacked over and over all day
• Daisy saying, "Teehee!" after everything. "Teehee! Teehee! Teehee!"
• "Nunya!" "Your mom!" "Sheesh!"
• Being asked, "Can I play Roblox?" and "Can I watch YouTube?" every hour all week long (even though they're only allowed to play Roblox and watch YouTube for half an hour on Fridays so they know the answer will always be "no!")

Fact #8: I saw a Victoria's Secret bag for sale at the thrift store last week. 

Fact #9: The other day I was playing Super Scrabble (purchased from the thrift store, thankyouverymuch) with Daisy, and I had a B and an R on my rack, and then I drew this in order:

Fact #10: I played "britt," because, when your name is a valid Scrabble word, and you have the chance to play it, you gotta do it even if it’s not super high points, but I refuse to go to nursing school despite what the Scrabble Gods seem to want from me.

Summertime ABCs

A is for Arcadia

Early in the summer, we went on vacation with extended family to Saint George and stayed at a rental in the Arcadia Resort. This was our third time there, and we've had a blast every trip!

B is for Band

Nicky was recruited to play bass in a band with some friends (even though he doesn't actually play the bass). They had a backyard concert with Scotty's band as the opening act. 

C is for Chickens

We brought three new chicks into our family while Scotty was out of town, and we've loved watching them grow over the summer. This gray one is Princess, and she really is our little princess. She's the sweetest thing, and we all adore her!

D is for Disaster

I had the dumb idea to let my girls paint the play place in the backyard. 

E is for Effort

Scotty, Daisy, and I all went to stake girls' camp this year. The theme was "The Lord Loves Effort" which comes from a video interview with President Nelson. 

F is for Fourth of July

We spent the day at Willard Bay with Scotty's family and then came home and watched our neighbors' fireworks. We had a few boxes of sparklers stashed on top of our fridge that we lit. 

G is for Garden

After spending a few years revamping our garden, everything was finally finished this year, and I love it!

H is for Hill Aerospace Museum

We hit the aerospace museum on a Saturday morning and then went to the Burger Bar in Roy, which was delicious!

I is for Ice Cream in a Bag

We made ice cream in a bag a few times, and the kids thought it was pretty fun (although Nicky broke his bag of salt and ice at least twice from being to aggressive and got salt water all over the floor).

J is for Jurassic

Our Thanksgiving Point pass expired the day before the dinosaur exhibit opened at Ashton Gardens, but luckily, Grandma and Grandpa got a pass and treated us to a trip!

K is for Koi

I continue to find them disgusting.

L is for Laundry

One goal I had for summer was to get Zoe and Eva folding and putting away their own laundry. I invited them to attend "Mom's Laundry Academy" in the living room one day and then printed each of them a diploma stating that they get to fold and put away their laundry from now on. Zoe didn't handle it well.

M is for Musical

We saw a local production of In the Heights. I went to it twice. Nicky, Daisy, and Scotty went three times!

N is for Nine Square

Nine square is a hit with the kids in our area! They'll play it for hours. Our friend KoriAnn brought the glow in the dark version to our lives this summer. We played in her yard and at camp. All the other wards were constantly in our camp playing nine square. 

O is for Oops!

The moment Scotty and Brian discovered they were wearing the same shirt on our date night was classic!

P is for Parade Preview

I've never been to the Pioneer Day parade float preview (a popular event here in Salt Lake), but my mother-in-law took some of my kids and their cousins while we were at camp with Daisy. 

Q is for Quarts

It's been several years since I canned green beans, but this year I started up again. 

R is for Relatives

As always, we did a lot of fun stuff with family this summer. 

S is for Sunflowers

I plant sunflowers every year and always enjoy watching them grow. This year I planted a multi-pack of seeds and got a huge variety of sunflowers. This one is called a teddy bear sunflower. It doesn't have the classic center, so when it started growing, I was a little weirded out! The sunflowers have attracted tons of bees to our yard. 

T is for Tennis

I found a bunch of brand new tennis balls at the thrift store and a couple of children's' tennis racquets. I later took a tennis ball straight to the eyeball from two feet away, courtesy of Eva.

U is for Uintas

Scotty and Nicky went backpacking in the Uintas with the priests quorum. They had a great time. Scotty really enjoys backpacking, but it's not my thing at all. Carrying all my equipment up a mountain and eating crappy food while sitting on a log for three days? No, thank you.

V is for Volcanoes

We made homemade play dough volcanoes one day, and then they sat in the living room for three weeks before we finally found a time where all four kids were home, and we could erupt them outside. 

W is for Wardrobe

Since I knew I'd be hot, sweaty, and miserable at girls' camp, I decided to invest in a large wardrobe of ridiculous thrift store t-shirts to perspire in. I wore two different shirts per day - my "daytime" wear and my "evening" wear (it was always refreshing to change into my evening wear after the hottest part of the day). 

X is for Xtra Tomatoes

We grew a lot of tomatoes. And I always hate trying to work in the letter X.

Y is for Youth Conference

Life has worked out such that Nicky had never been to Youth Conference before this year.

Z is for Zoo

We had an annual pass to Hogle Zoo, that expired at the end of July. We made sure we got our zoo fix! We live the zoo, but we’re sure sick of it!

Ramblings of a Tired Mom Who's a Little Sick of Summer

I have the tendency to start my days off with a bang and then very quickly hit a wall. That's the case with today. I woke up to the sound of one of our chickens squawking rather loudly. She was too loud, so I had to get out of bed and go outside to shut her up. Usually this can be done with food. When I got out there, I found that she was being taunted by a cat. I don't know what the cat was doing because it ran off as soon as I got outside, but the hen was pacing back and forth in such distress that she kept stumbling over her feet, so for a minute, I thought she might be injured. But then a bucket full of lettuce scraps from last night's dinner made her forget her trauma, and she started walking just fine again. 

The Culprit

Nicky had to be to the golf course at 7:00 this morning for his first tournament of the season. He placed varsity for this one, so he's playing (and walking) 18. He has mixed feelings. Most kids aspire to play on varsity while my kid wants to cheat to not make varsity so he only has to play 9 holes. Scotty and I can't figure this kid out. We don't know if he really likes golf or not. He's been acting kind of uninterested in the golf team, and if he doesn't want to play, that's fine with us - we only want him to do it if he enjoys it. Now, not every game or experience is going to be great, but he should enjoy it at least 75% of the time, right? But he's just kind of cranky about it. After a few heart to hearts, he didn't want to quit, though. So we'll see what this season brings. I think he likes golf as a hobby and not as a high school sport. On the other hand, I really want him to stay on the team because I want him to have something to keep him busy. He's always bored and cranky at home. 

Peekaboo Sunrise Over the Golf Course

That's all to say that I had to be awake and alert pretty early this morning due to chicken drama and golf commitments. 

In recent weeks, for the first time ever, my kids have been sleeping in. In fact, yesterday, Nicky and I accidentally slept through a golf meeting. He was supposed to be to the school at 8:00, and I never would have thought I'd need to set an alarm for that (remember - I'm a morning person, it's typically no big deal for me to wake up naturally in plenty of time to get out of the house by 8:00). When I woke up, and the clock said 8:06, I was probably the most confused I've ever been in my life. I had been up at 5:00 reading a book, and then fell back asleep around 6:00, and I was out cold! I ran downstairs to Nicky's room and whisper-yelled, "We're late for your meeting!" He was equally confused because he, too, is a morning person, and between the two of us, this kind of stuff just doesn't happen! 

I know. We're weird. But I like this about us. 

It's been beautiful having my girls sleep a little later. Zoe and Eva aren't consistent with sleeping in, but sometimes they do it. Daisy is my one child that might not be a morning person. She has been sleeping until about 9:00. That's about my tolerance point, though. I don't let her sleep much later than that. She's been eating breakfast when the rest of us are eating lunch. 

This morning Zoe and Eva woke up pretty early, though, and my saving grace was that there are new episodes of Bluey on Disney+. They retreated to the basement to watch the show while I went outside to work in the garden. 

I picked some green beans and canned a quart (my canner is currently depressurizing). It's so disappointing to can just a quart (and a low-fill quart at that), but if I want home-canned green beans, I have to do it as they're available. I think this is probably my last one, though. The green bean plants are just about done.

My green bean box

And now, at 9:14 a.m. is when I've hit that wall I was talking about. I started strong, and now I want to go back to bed and sleep off the rest of summer. 

I might be a little excited for school to start. 

Okay, a lot excited. 

I'm so over summer. At this point, my kids and I are all just miserable together. I'm so tired of breaking up their fights and trying to keep them busy, productive, and entertained. This summer was different because it was the first summer that really felt like I have teenagers. My children's ages and interests were more divided than ever this summer. I got to deal with teenage angst and moodiness. It probably would have been good for Nicky to have a job this summer, but we didn't find anything that worked for us. Being 15, he's at that point where he can get a job, but there are a lot of limits for his age, and he didn't really need a job. I'm so undecided about what my expectations are as a parent when it comes to my children's expenses and contributions. Nicky hasn't demanded much from us financially (aside from regular living costs). He's always been pretty thrifty. He's not a spender, and he doesn't ask us for money, so we haven't really had to buckle down on him in that regard. We've been happy to fund a few of his hobbies and interests (such as participation in the school play and the golf team) because we're just so excited that he's actually doing something. We're like, "Yes! We will pay for this! Just enjoy it!" Plus, we've paid for our girls' dance classes for the past ten years while Nicky hasn't had any classes or sports, so sure, we'll fund some stuff now. But soon, he'll be able to drive, so we need to figure out how we want to handle things like gas and insurance. I'm running out of time with this kid in my house, and I still haven't figured out how I want to raise him!

Nicky made a big purchase this summer, though. He bought himself a nice guitar and has been practicing it every day. I hope he sticks with it. His poor fingers are in rough shape. I pitched in $50 toward his guitar because he has been very helpful with housework and yard work. 

But yes, summer? I'm over it. As we've been getting ready to return to school, I feel like my life is falling back into place. This past week I've been prepping some freezer breakfasts for when school starts. My kids are strange, and they're not really into cereal. On days I tell them we're having cereal for breakfast, they're always disappointed. I would love to feed them cereal everyday! But I also know that cereal doesn't hold them over until lunch at school, so it is wise to give them something a little more substantial as a courtesy to their educators and peers. Plus, I really love making and freezing things. It gives me a food prep high. Anyone else experience this? Even my little quart of green beans contributes, as inconvenient as it may be. This week I've made and froze chocolate zucchini muffins, pancakes, waffles, mini breakfast casseroles, breakfast burritos, and eight dozen cookies - and I sing and dance in my kitchen the whole time because A) food prep high and B) school is just around the corner! It's all I can do to not pack my kids lunches for the next month RIGHT NOW. 

Speaking of lunch, for the first time since COVID started, we have to pay for school lunch. We’ll probably stick to mostly home lunches, but I no longer remember how to navigate all of this! It’s been quite cozy to just send my kids to school and not have to ever pay for their lunch! 

Don't get me wrong in all this talk of going back to school. I love my kids. And when they go back to school, I miss them. But I am a much better mom when we have structure and schedules. I also function better in every aspect of my life when the weather is cooler. So bring on Fall! 

With school starting, I have decided to try going off antidepressants for a while. It's been a few years since I've tried, and I have felt, during those few years, that I needed to stay on them consistently, but right now, I feel like I need to test the waters a bit and see where I'm at. Don't worry! I have a plan! And I'm proceeding with caution and have started tapering off. I also prayed about it and feel good about it. That's not to say that I think I'll be okay without them - I might not be - but I want to know. If I can go without them, even just for a season, that will be a nice break. I'm tired of the side effects - weight gain, excessive sweating, and tummy problems. But I'd rather have those than debilitating depression. So I'll go back on them if I need to. 

With that, it's time to burst through the wall and take my humble quart of green beans out of the canner. 

But before I go, can I just say thank you for being a reader here? I have no desire to be a big time blogger or online influencer, but I enjoy having a little corner of the internet where I can share my thoughts and stories and have a tiny readership. So thank you for being my readers! I have been given so many kind and thoughtful compliments on my blog over the years, and it just warms my heart! 

(I’m not going anywhere! I just wanted to express my gratitude!)

Thirteen Hours

One thing I didn't know about myself until recent years is that I need alone time. Some of that alone time needs to take place in my living space. When I figured that out, it was a big "Ah ha!" moment. Scotty would tend to come home from work, find me overwhelmed, and send me away to recover. I would leave for a while, but I would never return feeling better. Then one Saturday, Scotty took the kids hiking, and I stayed home, and that's when I discovered the missing element - I need to be alone in my house. It didn't always help me to be sent away somewhere for a few hours. I never had anywhere to go, so I would just wander stores and go out to eat and then come home and feel just as overwhelmed as I was when I left. The key is, I need them to leave, and I need to stay home... alone.

As you can imagine, alone time is sparse during the summer. The only time I'm really alone when the kids are out of school is when I make a quick drive to a store without them, and that usually has be be before 7:00 a.m. so I can sneak away while they're still asleep, and they can't stow away in the van. I usually return home to pure chaos, so that brand of alone time isn't very healing. 

This past weekend, I got some alone time, courtesy of my sister-in-law. Scotty and Nicky were backpacking for a few days, so it was just the girls and me at home. Amber invited the girls for a sleepover, so I was able to have alone time for thirteen straight hours!

There's a phenomenon that most moms can probably relate to where you have time without your kids, and you feel immense pressure to use that time as wisely and productively as possibly, but the stress of of it makes you so paralyzed that you end up doing nothing. I wanted to make sure I didn't use my thirteen hours like that, but I also didn't want to clean the whole time. I decided to strive for half productivity and half enjoyment. Here's how I spent my thirteen hours:

-First I went to see Elvis. I got a reclining seat in a corner all by myself, and it was glorious. I've never been to the movie theater alone. Several years ago, I never would have wanted to do that, but now I have no qualms over going solo. 

-From the movie theater, I ordered Applebee's carside to go. Then I went and picked it up, took it home, and ate dinner while finishing an audiobook. 

-Then I finished a puzzle and watched 4 episodes of Virgin River on Netflix.

-Then I cleaned the bathroom 50% (I didn't do the shower or the floor) and did 30 push-ups.

-I went to bed and read Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand until I couldn't keep my eyes open.

-I woke up at 5:13, 6:32, and 7:05. Then I dragged myself out of bed and ate breakfast. 

-I finished my Come Follow Me study for the week.

-I went outside and listened to an audiobook while I did some work in the garden.

-I clipped a bunch of sunflowers and made some bouquets to put around the house. I had to pull out several sunflower stalks that were knocked over during a storm the other day, so I wanted to enjoy the blooms as long as I could. 

-Then I picked all the veggies that were ready and put some out on the curb (I do this a lot in the summer because I always have way more tomatoes than we'll ever need. I might can some this year - it's been a while since I canned tomatoes. I just don't feel like cleaning up the murder-scene-esque mess in my kitchen afterward).

-I took my rugs outside and beat them, then brought them inside to wash.

-I swept and vacuumed the main level of my house (and sweated so very much!)

-I wrote a blog post.

And then three girls came pounding on the front door, and my thirteen hours of alone time came to a sudden end. 

But, ah! It was wonderful while it lasted! Now I'm renewed enough to get through the next few weeks until school starts... I hope. Then I'll go through that other motherhood phenomenon where your kids go back to school, and you don't know what to do with yourself, and you feel super guilty for a few days, but then you get used to it and return to a state of homeostasis whilst living in your car.

How I Process the Performing Arts

This summer I've had the chance to see quite a few movies and stage productions, and I've realized some funny habits I have. 

During a show (be it a movie, a play, a concert, or even reality TV), I rarely just sit back, watch it, and take it in. Instead, in my mind, I put myself in the performance. If I am watching So You Think You Can Dance, I am doing the dance moves in my head. If I'm watching In the Heights on stage (which I did twice this summer), I am singing or acting out the parts. 

Some things I think about while I'm "performing" in my head:

Sweat: I worry about how much the people in the show are sweating/not sweating. If they are sweating a lot, I'm concerned about their costuming, their make-up, and their contact with other people. I think about what it would be like to perform a dance number with a sweaty partner, what they all smell like, and what I would smell like. I think about how this affects one's confidence and ability to interact intimately with another person. I think about how they have to touch each other and just be okay with it.

But then, if they're not sweating excessively, I wonder why. How are they staying dry? What is their secret? Why isn't their face melting off and why aren't their pits drenched?

Breath: I worry about what everyone's breath smells like. When actors have to get right in each other's faces, do they smell each other's breath and just deal with it? Do they swish with mouthwash between scenes? What if you have a kissing scene, and the person you have to kiss is just nasty, but you have to act like you like it? 

I especially think about breath when I see a morning scene where characters wake up in bed next to each other and go for the open mouth smoocher. There is nothing romantic about that to me because all I can focus on is their morning breath which they're pretending not to have.

Costuming: I look at costumes, imagine myself wearing them, and anticipate every wardrobe malfunction I can think of. She's going to break a heel. That shirt is going to show some serious back sweat. I'm not sure her boobs are going to stay in. She can't sit down in that. He's gonna pop a button. For the love of Pete! Do not lift your arms above your head!

And then there's the all-too-popular sex scene. 

When I see a sex scene, all I think about is what it would be like to act it out. I don't know how people do it. They're basically pretending intimacy with a co-worker! And of course, I'm thinking about sweat... and breath... and costuming... and then I also think about their real-life spouses and their professional relationship, and I never quite buy into the scene because I'm overly focused on the fact that it's make-believe, and two people had to act it out in front of a camera with a bunch of onlookers, some of which would be saying things like, "A little more to the left! Let's move the sheet. Get the camera right up in there! Try to flex your muscles a bit more!"

While I was watching a play a couple of weeks ago (performing the song and dance numbers in my mind and trying to imagine myself not sweating), I realized this might not be what everyone else does during a performance. Last night I went to see Elvis (all by myself!), and I tried to watch it without doing Elvis dance moves in my head or worrying about his sweat, and I couldn't do it. I had to gyrate in my mind and wonder what Elvis smelled like. 

I can't help it. This is my process. 

An Incomplete List of Awkward Situations (Part VI)

When you have to use the bathroom at someone's house, and they direct you to a restroom that's right off their kitchen, and you can hear everyone in the kitchen talking, and it feels like you're peeing in the middle of a dinner party, and you think, "If I can hear them, they can hear me!" and you become hyper aware of every sound coming from your body. 

When you approach the pharmacy counter, and you want to make sure the techs know you're there, but you don't want to look too antsy, so you strategically position yourself so they can see you, but they keep shifting ever so slightly so you're blocked from view by the privacy partition, so you have to shift to where they can see you in their peripherals while still putting on the air of, "It's cool, I know you're busy, so I'm just going to stand here all casual-like, but also, hurry up, let's get this show on the road."

When you're walking out to your amazing parking spot at Costco, and you end up with two different people waiting for you to back out of it so they can take it, and you feel like you have to offer mediation between all parties so they don't fight in front of you like your parents did as a child. 

When you're at a social event and everyone is talking about how much they hate McDonald's, and you're secretly wishing you could leave and go use your McDonald's app to get your daily large fries for $1. 

When you wake up to a text message with six pictures of someone's elbow x-rays from Oklahoma and a voicemail from an x-ray technician asking if you received said x-rays, and you think, "Either they have the wrong number, or I forgot I went to medical school."

When you're singing your heart out at church, and you accidentally sing the wrong line of the hymn, but you catch yourself during the first syllable and try to act like you were singing it right all along.

When you push a 300 pound shopping cart around every aisle at Sam's Club, and then you check your fitness watch and see that you only went .19 miles, but it felt like at least five!

When you’re using a public restroom, and there’s someone in a stall talking on their phone, and you wonder if you’re allowed to flush the toilet or not.

Currently {August 2022 Edition}

 Reading:

I'm about 60% done with this one, and it's not one I openly recommend due to language.

Wearing: a "happy camper" t-shirt and cut off joggers.

Annoyed by: Google telling me I'm out of storage space. I deleted thousands of emails, photos, and documents. My trash folders are empty, and yet, I still have no storage space on my account. Dirty, Google. Dirty. 

Struggling with: the kids. Particularly Eva and Zoe. I've often referred to them as the Tornado Twins, and that name still suits them, however, instead of just destroying everything all the time (which they continue to do), they now have a heavy component of rage included. They are angry, little elves - especially Zoe - and both of them tend to be very rude (to each other, to Scotty and me, and to people outside of our family). We also have major issues with jealousy. I don't know what to do with them. 

Excited for: our upcoming family vacation. Except for the part where I have to take Eva and Zoe out in public. 

Listening to:

Thinking about: ideas for a novel. When the kids go back to school, I want to toy around with some creative writing and just... see. 

Deciding: that now is not the time to go back to work. At the beginning of the school year, I always think about it, but this year I am getting the same feelings as years past... it's not time yet. 

Celebrating: the seven pathetic ears of corn we've harvested from our garden. 

Avoiding: being outside in the heat. This was the hottest July we've ever had on record (from 1875) in Utah.

Building: a baking-themed puzzle I got from the thrift store that I've been working on for almost a whole month. I would include a photo, but that would require me to walk down two sets of stair and then back up two sets of stairs, and I don't wanna. 

Trying: to work on one goal each week for ten weeks in a row. I'm on Week 5.

Watching: So You Think You Can Dance and Seinfeld.

Playing: 

We broke out Thurn and Taxis and Hansa over the weekend for the first time since early 2019. 

Buying: school clothes and Hobby Lobby clearance. 

Clearance plates - I’m in love 

Singing: "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Feeling: tired. I just woke up from a short nap, and my head doesn't feel right. The fluid in my left ear is blocking my hearing, and I have a headache above my left eye. I'm sitting cross-legged on my couch with my laptop in my lap and my head tipped to the side. 

Wanting: socks for all my kids that are one color and have their names on them. 

Cooking: 

As a way to avoid other responsibilities, I doodled my meal plan the other night (partially inspired by my friend Krystle who put me in a doodling mood). Does doodling make me more committed to the meal plan? Time will tell. I've crossed off five meals so far, but I've also been to Del Taco and Crown Burger.

Proud of myself for: not having any soda for a month. 

Sure, my life is meaningless now, but I’m consuming less sugar and caffeine…

Needing: a day in my house without kids so I can get caught up on everything. 

I think this will always be the truest meme that ever was

Regretting: accidentally clipping a pumpkin vine this morning. I was pruning the pumpkins, and I cut the wrong spot. I'm so mad at myself. 

Eating: Korean Tacos from my doodled meal plan. The meat is currently marinating, but I'm a little worried about it because the steak seemed a little fattier than normal, so I'm worried it's going to be chewy and ruin Korean tacos for me forever. 

Thank you for listening to my concerns.  

Missing: Disney's Fast Passes. Remember how they used to be FREE, and everyone could use them? 

Looking forward to: being caught up on laundry. Will it happen this week? Who knows! I love the suspense. 

Wishing: that I never had to read board game rules, and that I could just download the information straight to my brain. I believe this and teleportation will be possible someday, and I can't wait! (I just don't want to be one of the early test subjects). 

Dreading: all the back to school events - picture day, orientation, and back to school night. 

Procrastinating: deciding whether to enroll Zoe in tumbling or not. 

Sick of: my kids (and everyone else's kids) saying, "Your mom!" 

The only time it's funny

Craving: water with pebble ice in a styrofoam cup with a straw. Sorry, Earth. But I promise that when I have such a cup, I reuse it until it starts leaking or breaks. 

Grateful for: two working arms.