So Much Socializing, Cold Weather, and the Realities of Toddlerdom

 Monday: 

I'm dragging a bit this morning, but we soldier on. 

We had a family friend over this past weekend. We live in a small house with no spare bedrooms (the only room that could be considered a spare houses our freezer, sewing machine, and various assorted junk we don't have anywhere else to put), so we cleaned out the RV, parked it near-ish to the backdoor, and used it as a guest house. 

It was a pleasant visit, but we ended up staying up way too late and eating a lot of junk food.  It's probably part of the reason I'm dragging today. I'm not thirty yet,but I guess I am getting older. 

Today it's rainy and blustery outside. We're supposed to get some rainy, chilly weather later this week, so I guess fall has actually arrived now. It's not really cold yet, just wet and grey. It looks the part, even if the temperature isn't there yet. 

Also, the trailer for the new season of The Chosen dropped today, and all I can think of is this...

I suppose I ought to feel a little guilty about that. 

Supper was a pasta bake assembled from some clearanced meatballs, leftover tomato soup with some added tomato paste, frozen spinach, and some whole wheat pasta that's been sitting in the pantry for way too long. I also diced up half a baked potato we had lying around and tossed it in there. 

Tuesday: 

It's wet and cold and miserable, yet Little Girl keeps going outside to ride her bike. 

I participated in a "survivor rosary" done by Awake Milwaukee today via Zoom call. They asked some survivors of abuse to write an intention and lead the decades of the rosary, one survivor and intention per decade. I was assigned the fourth decade. 

I set Little Girl in front of the TV, grabbed some toys for Bitty Baby, and sequestered us into my room. It actually went pretty well initially. They asked us to keep our cameras off, so I was able to redirect Bitty Baby as needed. 

Finally, it was my turn to lead. Reading the intention went ok, but then BB decided to voice a complaint. I stood up from the bed and put her on my hip while attempting to keep the phone as far away from her as possible while also keeping it close to my mouth. 

She got louder and more and more frantic as I fruitlessly bounced her on my hip around the room. Finally, I had to concede defeat halfway through the decade and hand it off to someone else. 

I had an email from the organizer that a couple people found it touching that a devotion having to do with Mother Mary was interrupted by some actual mothering. So I suppose all's well that ends well. 

Supper was chicken soup made with a partial jar of chicken broth that's been in the fridge for awhile, some celery and baby carrots leftover from camping, some rinsed pot roast veggies (and beef scraps) that were nearing (but had not yet reached) the point of inedibility, some chicken from the freezer, and dumplings. 

Wednesday

My brother and his wife are visiting for a few days. 

This morning was taken up with last minute grocery shopping and getting the house and RV ready for guests. 

Both of my married brothers live out of state, and it's always a rare treat when we get to see them. 

 Doesn't leave much time for writing though. 

Thursday 

My brother and his wife decided to head into town and visit some friends today, so we're more or less on our own. 

We went to the library this morning. I'm very thankful for the librarians at our local branch. They're just always ridiculously helpful. 

We had a playdate with a friend at the park, went to my little brother's junior high football game (where my kids cheered for the home public school team rather then their uncle's Catholic school team because my oldest goes to school at the public school elementary...I gave up trying to correct them after a bit and we just weathered the weird looks in the visitor's section), and then went to a Taqueria. 

My visiting brother, my parents, and the brothers still living at home were all there. Because it was a weeknight, we had to order in Spanish. 

Friday 

My brother and his wife left this morning. It'll be awhile before we see them again, so kinda sad. 

Instead of writing, I made this. 

I got roped into making another prop. This one is the front piece for a snake costume meant to be worn by several kids. Someone else is making the rest of it, thankfully. 

Supper tonight was cheap pizza bites, chips and queso, some raw veggies, and ranch dip. Chris is working late tonight, and I am running on survival mode. 

And...that's a work week. Hoping to take a long, LONG nap this weekend. It's been a full couple of weeks.