Sinus Woes, Budget Blowing, and a Movie Review

 1.) I got really sick last weekend

That cold I mentioned last Friday turned into a full blown sinus infection that basically laid me out on my back for three days. 

Friday night Chris had to work until past the kids' bedtime, so between that and my rapidly declining state I shifted firmly into survival mode.  He came home to a kitchen filled with dirty dishes and Mexican food takeout debris, a cluttered living room, two still awake kids, and a bed piled high with a whole bunch of random clothes and blankets with his feverish wife and nursing baby in the middle of it. 

God bless him, he took it in stride. 

Saturday I spent the entire day in bed, with the worst migraine of my life that evening (did you know that sinus infections can give you a full blown, dear-sweet-mercy-turn-off-that-light-and-shut-up, type migraine? Turns out they can). 

Sunday I was still feeling weak and tired, but managed to go to Church...then stayed in bed all afternoon. And all this week my body has been clearing out the last of it; I'm just now getting back my sense of smell. 

Sinus infections, man. They're really something. 

2.) Homebody 

As a result of the sinus infection of doom, I haven't been running normal errands. At the beginning of the week it was because I was still recovering, later it was because I suddenly noticed the shaggy mountain of unwashed laundry and assorted clutter that seemed to have taken over the house. 

Staying home and going out are both such double edged swords. If I stay home all week, both the kids and I get pretty strong cabin fever that results in burnout for me and squabbles from the kids. If we go out, then we have housework that builds up. Most of the time I'm able to strike a balance, but sometimes something gets thrown off (like during the holidays or during a sickness) and we have to compensate. 

This was very much a compensate kind of week. It went fine, but I'm thinking I might try and leave the kids with Chris and sneak out for an hour or so Saturday. Or just go outside and run around waving my hands in the air like a loon, one of the two. 

The second option is probably cheaper. 

3.) Student-teacher-parent conference 

One of the few times we ventured out this week was to Little Boy's school. 

As a homeschooled kid, the only prior experience I'd ever had with the parent-teacher conference was in elementary and middle grade fiction, most notably Freaky Friday and the works of Beverly Cleary. The teacher always meets with the parent out of earshot of the kid, who waits around in the hall and wonders what they're saying about them. 

Well, apparently in this enlightened 21st century, the kids are supposed to self evaluate their own performances and then sit in on the conference. Seemed odd to me, but it also seemed to go ok. Little Boy read parts of his evaluation to me, there wasn't an air of dread or mystery around anything, and I got to touch base with his teacher. 

4.) Grocery budgets I have loved (and betrayed)

Usually, we managed to stay on budget with our groceries. 

There will be the odd splurge or two, but generally we're able to keep spending on food to what we plan for the month. 

This month I made the mistake of visiting the local Middle Eastern/Indian/Mediterranean food market (run by a family from Lebanon and attached to a pretty stinkin' good deli) and the budget...did not survive. 

I mean, look at this! It looks fascinating! 

Do I know what it tastes like? No, not really. 

Do I have any recipes that call for it? Sure, but only one or two and I'm not sure my family will eat them (pureed beets with yogurt is one of them). 

I have discovered my Achilles heel, and apparently it's a place someone named Achilles (or Mohammed, or Pooja) would shop for groceries. 

5.) A DreamWorks movie review no one asked for 

Bad Guys is not only a pretty formulaic movie, it gives a bad message. 

I have a habit of getting a full length movie at the library for the kids to watch on nights where Chris has to work a football or soccer game. It gives us something to look forward to, and (I'll shamelessly admit it) a bargaining chip to use to get through supper and bedtime routines ("you have to eat your supper before we can watch the movie. You need to put on your pajamas..."etc). 

Well, last Friday was just such a night, and Bad Guys was the movie I plugged in (and watched part of through a feverish haze). 

First off, the animation was beautiful. Even when they have crappy stories, DreamWorks makes a beautiful looking film. This one seemed to take some cues from the Spiderverse fim and combined 3D effects with some stylized line drawings for smoke, reaction effects, etc. It looked beautiful. 

Unfortunately, the central message was "be good and do good because it'll make you feel good and people will like you. You'll be loved." The story revolves around a group of "bad guys" reforming, and I get what they were going for... I think. The idea that it's possible to reform is one that needs to be heard every now and again. 

That said, "do good to be loved" is a HORRIBLE message. They have a character near the beginning literally spell it out, and I paused the movie and gave a little lecture about how, no, you do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. And no, people won't always like you for it. I doubt I did anything other than become my own mother in that moment, but, dangit, I couldn't leave that idea unchallenged in my kids' heads. 

The truth is that sometimes you'll be hated for doing the right thing. Sometimes it won't feel good. You don't do it for yourself, you do it for its own sake, or you do it out of love. REAL love, self sacrificial love, not that ego centric crap they were selling. 

I digress. But I do think the messages that kids hear in movies sink in pretty deep, and it's worth it to pay attention to what they are. 

And don't ever get me started on the depiction of motherhood in Sing...

6.) Leaded Cooking 

We found out this week that KitchenAid used lead laced aluminum in their mixer accessories, "but they should be fine as long as the enamel coating isn't chipped." 

Well. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO KNOW. 

So the only implement I can use on my KitchenAid currently is the stainless steel whisk. This is annoying, but such is life. 

Edit: apparently this is false. My meal plan this week is not amused with whatever scammer thought this would be funny. You made us cancel a pizza night for no good reason. 

7.) Surrender Novena 

A friend recently recommended this to me, and I think it's my new favorite novena (this coming from someone who usually can't stand them). 

- it's short 

- the prayer isn't overly gooey or sentimental or flowery 

-there's a short reflection on each day that's pretty straightforward

So if you happen to have something in your life going on that warrants a novena, I'd give it a recommendation. 

Bonus Take 

I think this is the first time in awhile I've seen someone actually risk something to be publicly pro-life. 

Johnathan Roumie might be making most of his bread and butter on a Christian production at the moment, but I get a pretty distinct impression that he has no desire to become the next Kirk Cameron or Kevin Sorbo. He takes a wide variety of roles, and has said in at least one interview that he isn't interested in limiting himself to working in one type of media. 

So to do this, especially in the field this guy works in and in this cultural climate, took some cajones. I already respected this guy as an artist, but this made me respect him as a person. 

I mean, part of me still goes, "oh please, please, PLEASE don't turn out to be a jackass or pervert" whenever I see any press on him, but that's any celebrity or talking head I see anymore. And this, I think, genuinely took a lot of courage to do. 

So, yeah, props to him.