Currently: October snow edition

We got a dumping of about 8" of snow yesterday. Well played, 2020. You just keep packing the punches, don't you? So much for my wish for a long mild fall. With temps in the 30s for the forseeable future and more snow forecasted for Saturday, I guess this is just how October is going to be? 

Reading: Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey and Lovely War by Julie Berry. I'm reading Raising White Kids with 3 other moms I know IRL and through social media. It talks about how to talk about racism from an early age so your kids are part of the solution, not the problem. I'm looking forward to discussing it with the other ladies! Lovely War is a book from the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide. I felt a bit skeptical when I started as it's told from the perspective of some of the Greek Gods. But I'm going to stick with it for 50-100 pages as I trust Anne Bogel's taste and she says this narrative structure works!

Loving: whole milk lattes with 2 pumps of SF vanilla syrup from Starbucks as an occasional treat. I tried one with heavy cream yesterday and oof, that was too much for me. Heavy fat is good for the gestational diabetes diet but that was just too much for me. I am not a huge dairy person so that thickness of the heavy cream sat in my stomach in an unpleasant way. But the whole milk ones are perfect! Admittedly these lattes are not as 'occasional' as they probably should be. I'm probably getting 3-4/week but besides the Fairlife Chocolate milk, it's the only treat I can really have these days due to my restrictive diet. 

Feeling: very sick of pregnancy. My RA has been really bad - I've been getting flares every 2-3 days and they are very painful. My last pregnancy was tough so I knew this one would be hard, too, but I'm getting more flares than I did during the final part of Paul's pregnancy so I'm just very over it!

Thinking: about how to make the Christmas holiday extra special for Paul. We won't be celebrating the holidays with family due to covid concerns/having a newborn so it will be a different season than usual. But I want to make it extra special since Paul will also be adjusting to being a big brother. I ordered a cool Advent Calendar from West Elm (appears to be sold out now!) that has a drawer for each day so we'll put things like stickers, Hershey's kisses, etc in that. I'll also buy some Christmas book so we can open a new one each week and I'm sure we'll decorate cookies, too, and maybe a gingerbread house. 

Anticipating: Paul's return to daycare on Friday!! Having him home has definitely been challenging. He has watched a ton of tv but that is the only solution to keeping him entertained/busy so we can focus on our work. He's very into Sesame Street now which I much prefer to Little Baby Bum!

Struggling: with this change in weather.

These photos were taken on Saturday. Paul loved playing with the leaves and Phil kept the leaf pile in the backyard so he could play with them this week. 

These photos were taken on Tuesday after our dumping of 7" of snow. Paul was very excited about the snow, though. So at least 1 person in our house was happy? 

Minnesota winters are VERY long. We can have snow through March or April. So getting this much snow in October when we know we'll be extra isolated due to Covid is just DEPRESSING.

Grateful: that Phil took Paul out to his mom's on Sunday afternoon so I could have a solid 4+ hours alone in our house. I had a very painful flare that day so I really needed the downtime with no demands made upon me. We had been quarantining and had all tested negative so he felt safe bringing Paul out there. It was probably better that I wasn't there as Paul was happy to sit on nana's lap and read books. When I'm there, he wants to sit on my lap... 

Working: on some baby prep stuff. I took all the baby stuff out of our storage areas under the stairs. After it was all out, I wondered how it all had fit in there before? The storage area was like the equivalent of Mary Poppin's margic carpet bag, I swear. So I have a pile of stuff in the guest room that needs to go upstairs when the baby is closer to arriving. I was also reminded how many hand-me-down toys Paul has from generous friends! I'm keeping them stored away until we can swap them out for some of the things he's currently playing with. 

Just some of the stuff that came out of the storage area... I had already moved some items to the guest room when I took this pic. As a minimalist, looking at this photo stresses me out!

Listening: to podcasts, as usual!

Watching: the show Fargo on Hulu. We needed something new to watch as a couple so decided to give it a try. It's darker than I like shows to be but it's interesting and well-written so we will keep at it. 

Wishing: for this snow to melt and for 50ish degree weather to return!

Your turn! What are you reading, anticipating, and struggling with?