Friday, December 10, 2021

TGIF: December 2021

It's Friday and we are 1/3 of the way through the month! I have today off but it won't really be a "day off" because I'll be home with Will. He has his 1y check-up this morning and gets a bunch of shots so I'm keeping him home since he'll surely feel pretty tough. I'm hoping for some good naps so that I can nap, too!! 

The book I'm reading is Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (physical book) and The Twelve Dates of Christmas (kindle book). I have tried not to read 2 books at the same time. But I had a bunch of physical books become available all at once - and I wanted to read a holiday-themed book this month! So 2 books at the same time was necessary. I typically am great at managing my library holds, but I had a bunch of requests paused and they were all paused until late November, so once the pause expired, they all came in! I need to be better about monitoring my "pause until" dates!! I know I won't get through all of them in 3 weeks but can't bear to return them late so I will get to what I can!

The high of my week was getting feedback at work that some of my responses to client questions resulted in purchases of a new product that we have in the market. I put a lot of time into my responses and have to answer pretty technical/confusing questions so it's nice to get the immediate feedback that it resulted in a sale! I don't work in sales, but I'm a product expert that supports our sales group so I am involved in the sales process. I would never want to work in sales, which is commission-based. I'm way too risk-averse for that and want to know what my paycheck will be every time!

The low of my week was the same as usual - feeling really tired thanks to night wakings. Will has a cold and is getting his molars so letting him cry just isn't working. I tried it one night and he just kept waking up every 30-45 minutes or so. I keep telling myself that this, too, shall pass. Paul has been waking at night, too, I think from nightmares! Gah. Boy do I look forward to a time when we aren't being woken during the night.

A recipe I made was Nothing!! Just keeping it real around here! We had leftovers in our fridge to eat over the course of the week plus I had some stuffed peppers from costco (they are so good!) in the freezer. So we've gotten by with leftovers and baking those frozen peppers. I was really burned out on cooking after prepping for the birthday party on Sunday so it's been nice to take it easy this week on the meal-planning front.

A show we are watching is Seinfeld episodes. We haven't been able to find something we are both interested in so Phil will pick a Seinfeld episode to watch each night. I didn't really watch that show growing up but he has seen every episode, I think, and has lots of favorites. 

For workouts I did not do much as I'm still fighting a cold which I've had for 2+ weeks. It's morphed into what felt like 3 different colds! I've done some beach body morning meltdown workouts and that's it. It's getting to be the time of year when I do not run much as I'm not a fan of running in super cold weather. My neighbor is training for a 1/2 in January so I will run with her when it's nice enough outside (a "feels like" temp above 0F, preferably little to no wind). 

The best money spent was at Target on a whole bunch of things from household supplies to a donation of products for homeless high school students (so sad to think of young students being homeless!) to Christmas gifts for the cousin gift exchange to ribbon to hang Christmas cards on the wall. I bought most of the items online for store pick-up to shorten the trip as much as possible! Time is limited these days!

My plans this weekend include going to a favorite things gift exchange tonight with 4 college friends. Tomorrow Phil is taking Paul out to his mom's for the afternoon so I will lay low with Will and hopefully nap while he naps in the afternoon (fingers crossed for a long nap). On Sunday afternoon we are going to a high school friend of Phil's for a small 40th bday dinner for one of his friends. That is a decent amount of activity for one weekend! I'm grateful for vaccines which make all of these gatherings possible!

Bonus Will and Paul photos:

Will got this little fishing set for his birthday from Phil's mom. Paul has monopolized it since he opened it on Sunday...

But Will finally got a turn this week when Paul was distracted. If I want to get Paul interested in a toy, I just need to give it to Will! We feel pretty certain that Will is going to be bigger than him at some point and certainly will not be so docile/fine with having things taken away from him so we keep telling Paul to enjoy it while it lasts...


We do not typically get matching pjs and certainly not for Phil! But I was in need of some new jammies so decided to get some that would match Paul. He especially loved that the jammies have dinosaurs on them! I got a pair for Will, too, but he was already asleep when Phil snapped this photo. I'll wear these well outside of the Christmas holiday season but will particularly enjoy matching my boys!

What was the high of your week? What are your plans for the weekend?

4 comments:

Elisabeth said...

We've discussed the matching pajama scenario; while I don't jump on the bandwagon, it's fun when the stars align and it happens more organically. They look very festive!

Hope everyone is feeling better soon. I remember feeling like I was being pulled under at a beach when everyone was little/sick all the time. You know - the feeling of getting knocked over by a huge waves and then as you're getting back on your feet you just get hit again...repeat ad nauseum. It is SO exhausting mentally and physically, but you are 100% right that this too shall pass. And that knowledge DOES help. It doesn't make us less tired and certainly doesn't stop us from wishing that all the sick bugs and nightmares and fevers will just go away, but the perspective is still a bit of a relief.

That's great news from the office; it's so nice to have hard work recognized by a boss/colleagues/clients.

And I love that you took the week off cooking. I've been doing this a lot more lately - giving myself grace for a week and just digging in to the freezer stash or making bare basic meals (scrambled egg burritos for supper anyone?). It's good to recognize when to take a step back/coast in one area of life. And when you're run-down physically + overtired, I think it's critical to look to step back in as many areas as possible.

Happy weekending. Sounds like some fun plans ahead :) My daughter is hosting on of her classmates for a sleepover tonight and then tomorrow has a birthday part (very small) to attend and then Sunday after church we're going to go see The Muppet's Christmas Carol in our town theatre.

Jeanie said...

It sounds like a pretty good week. My highs -- a catch-up zoom call with a good friend and a pretty good report from my physical. My lows? None, really. Tonight we're taking dinner to friends (he just had surgery) and will probably decorate trees tomorrow and Sunday! Happy weekend.

San said...

Don't you look cute in your matching pajamas :)

I try to absolutely avoid reading two books at the same time, but it has happened. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I am glad get to do the gift exchange with College friends. That sounds like fun.

Grateful Kae said...

Sounds like an overall good week with the usual ups and downs of work, holidays, kids and inevitable colds/illnesses for little ones! ;) Glad you were able to get a bunch of gifts bought from Target! I feel like there are less and less good options for buying things "in person", which I have mixed feelings on. I think back on going out Christmas shopping at the mall with my mom when I was a kid, and there were tons of good stores to browse and pick out items. Now I feel like there just aren't many good stores at ALL at our mall, which ends up forcing me to online shop...which is okay, if I know what I'm looking for, but I'm not so great at just "browsing" online if I don't have a specific item in mind. I find it overwhelming and kind of frustrating! But Target is definitely a place I still can have luck either browsing in person OR online, usually.