Friday, January 13, 2023

TGIF

Hey hey - it's Friday and the first 5-day work week since early December! It didn't feel overly long so I guess that is good? We have a 3-day weekend since it's MLK Day. Luckily the weather will be very mild this weekend! Not nice enough to melt the bajillion inches of snow we have, but I'll take what I can get. Here's a TGIF style recap of my week. 

The book I read this week was Solito, which I finished on Wednesday. It's a hard subject matter (a young 9yo boy traversing from El Salvador to the Tucson area) so it was slower going for me. Now I am reading All the Broken Places by John Boyne. I have loved everything I've read by Boyne, especially The Hearts Invisible Furies! Goodreads says it’s a sequel to ‘The Boy in the Striped Pajamas’ but it’s not marketed that way. The main character is the daughter of a Nazi soldier, so it seems to focus on culpability. I was drawn in from the first page. 

The high of my week was getting together with friends to celebrate a college friend’s birthday last night! We had dinner and then went to a ‘game show showroom’ where we played 3 different games. It was such a fun night planned by her husband!

The low of my week was feeling sad about the passing of a young (54!) former coworker. I didn't know him super well as we only overlapped for 3 years and I hadn't seen him in 4+ years but I was still sad to learn of his passing. I ended up working during the funeral on Tuesday so my coworkers who were close to him could attend. 

A recipe I made was 2 recipes from the Milk Street Instant Pot Cookbook - picadillo and pork carnitas. Both were excellent. We really love our instant pot! It's misunderstood, in my opinion, as this amazing time saving device. For me, the biggest benefit is that you only dirty one pot since there is a saute function. And it does save time - like the pork carnitas are done in about 1.5 hours. But it's not something I use on week nights when we get home at 5 and ideally need to have dinner on the table at 5:30. But overall, I prefer the instant pot to a slow cooker for most things. 

A show we are watching is nothing right now! We finished Fleishman is in Trouble and need to find a new show to watch. We did "watch" The Glass Onion. I say "watch" because I was working on a puzzle. Phil watched it and enjoyed it but not nearly as much as the first one.

For workouts I ran on Monday and Tuesday and will do a strength training workout later today and then will run again tomorrow. And maybe fit another strength training workout in on Sunday? We'll see. 

The best money spent was on a haircut/color! I hadn't seen my stylist since mid-September so was very overdue. We changed things up and did a VERY subtle money piece, which from my understanding means highlights around your forehead/crown of your head. I usually get an all-over color but I am really graying, especially around my temples/forehead area. So the money piece will disguise the graying a little bit. I know there is a trend to lean into the gray, but I have really young kids so don't feel like it's the time for me to go gray. This is ultimately a you do you decision, though! Maybe in 5-10 years I will be ready to lean into the gray!




My plans this weekend include nothing tonight which is typical. We are so tired by Friday night! Tomorrow morning I'm planning to run with my neighbor - maybe we'll be motivated enough to run around the lake by our house, which is a 4 mile route. Then we have our usual combo of the library followed by gymnastics. After nap, we are going to our friend's house for a get together with 2 other families. I'm bringing this chili. On Sunday, I think we are going to the zoo to see the new dolphin that our zoo is taking care of while a zoo in IL works on a renovation. Will is very into dolphins lately so I think he'll love seeing them in real life! We all have Monday off. Phil will take Paul out to his mom's in the afternoon. I don't know what Will and I will do. Wander the toy aisle of Target? The weather will be nice so ideally we would go for a long stroller walk but the sidewalks are kind of treacherous in parts - especially the corners. So we'd have to probably walk on the street which I don't love doing. We'll see how we entertain ourselves!

Bonus pictures
Watching a This Old House video with daddy. Who knew plumbing repairs were so interesting? 



Paul’s latest magnatile creation - a train! 

The complete Lego set we worked on over the course of 4 nights over the last 2 weeks!



What was the high of your week? 

14 comments:

  1. High of the week? I'm e-mailing you about it right now :)

    The picture of Phil with the boys reminds me of a few years ago when we had an electrician doing some work in our home. I couldn't find our son ANYWHERE. I kept searching all over the house, and then found him sitting on the floor beside the electrician. He watched him work for ages! This summer we had someone doing drywall work in our new entryway and our son sat on the floor until the contractor asked it he wanted to help. So some of the mudding in our entryway was actually laid by our 8-year-old. Haha! Hopefully he has inherited a DIY gene, because my husband and I are hopeless with even simple home repair projects.

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  2. Your hair looks fabulous! Girl, I hear you on the grey. I am 100% grey and that means that my roots are very very noticeable. I *could* lean into it and grow it out but I'm not going to quite yet. For one thing - growing it out! What a nightmare. But my hair stylist said "I think it will really age you" and while I am pro-aging, I also just want to look my age.

    I liked The Hearts Invisible Furies and I currently have The Boy in the Striped Pajamas on my hold list. I shall report back.

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  3. I love the picture of Phil and the boys watching plumbing; get them into it now while you can, because my least favorite home repair to do is plumbing! If you have someone around that can do it, all the better!

    I did not realize that the Striped PJs and The Hearts were the same author! I read both books a while back but the style is so different! I Enjoyed Hearts more than PJs, but if you are into the new one already, I will put it on my list!

    The high of my week was taking Bob (new mountain bike) out for a spin yesterday. The trails are WAY too muddy and the parks are still closed, but I took him up and down the Oakland hills and got about 1200 feet of climbing. He is my first MB and I need to practice on the streets before I go on the trails. It was really fun, especially the downhills, and I am looking forward to getting him (and me) dirty soon!

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  4. I’m also an instant pot fan. As a mom of young kids I find not having to pay attention to it once it starts cooking to be a huge benefit.

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  5. Yay for the money piece! I tried one last year, haha, but it actually was so light that it almost looked gray and I was just not ready for that look, even as style. We were talking about going gray at my last book club meeting because one of my friends has to dye her hair every 4 weeks or else the gray starts coming in. She's only 39 so she's definitely not ready for that era of her life to start! My mom is in her late 50s and still dyes her hair every few weeks because she's not ready to go gray yet. Why is it so becoming on men, and so aging on women? ARGH! Anyway, you look beautiful in that photo! I love that hair color on you.

    High of my week? Today, as I decided to take the day off to give myself a 4-day weekend. It was a really long and busy week full of meetings (had to do all my annual reviews with my team!) so I just decided I needed an extra aay of weekend to relax!

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  6. Oh wow, your hair looks fantastic! Love the color. I had never heard of a money piece before, but that's a great idea! I wonder if I need to start edging away from dark brown hair toward something that hides grey a little better.

    I am so sorry to hear about your colleague. 54 is so young.

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  7. I love your hair! I've heard of a "money piece" but wasn't really clear on what it is. It's a tough call, but I agree you're probably too young to go gray. Or I should say, it wouldn't make you feel good at this stage. Like you said, everyone is different.
    It would be hard to pick one highlight of the week because I'm having so much fun on our trip to Tampa! But I did have an incredible trail run this morning.
    Your weekend plans sound nice- enjoy your run tomorrow!

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  8. I didn't get my hair cut or colored for two years during the pandemic and I grew out all the grey and now I'm keeping it. I didn't like how high maintenance the color was. But I don't love how aging the grey is, either, so I guess I'm never going to be satisfied!

    I love it that the boys are interested in DYI. Definitely encourage that since the world's going to need lots of carpenters, plumbers, and electricians!

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  9. My boys love watching This Old House too and Jack in particular loves to watch Eric do fixing projects. He also has the same Lego set Paul has but hasn’t built it yet- he just finished a Ferrari 🤣

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  10. Love your new hair color. I’d definitely cover my grays when they come out. I think it’s a genetic issue. My dad didn’t have much grays even in his 70s, my mom has some and does coloring religiously. It makes a huge difference. The older I get, the more things I do to feel best for myself, not for others even husband. The eye surgery was convenience but also aesthetic as I don’t like my way of look with glasses. I just ordered six mot us worth of supplement to regrow my hairs on the receding lines, again because I don’t like what I look in the mirror. These count as self care right?

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  11. I have been dying my hair blonde since my early 20s, with a few experiments trying out my natural color (like so many, I was blonde as a kid, and it got darker, until now it is a mousy color that washes me out somehow…except that now there is also grey), so I’m used to the maintenance. I don’t like it, it’s expensive, but I always feel SO MUCH BETTER after getting my hair done. Which reminds me, I need to make an appointment…my roots are coming in and it’s starting to look pretty bad. When I’m really on the ball, I get it done every 6 weeks. Usually it’s more like every 8 weeks. Sometimes I do a root touch up from the grocery store, which extends it to 12 weeks. I’m at about 9 weeks now, so trying to decide whether to do the root touch up, or go in.

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  12. The hair looks great!! I color my hair too and I am not sure exactly what's all under there, lol! I am noticing a few more grey strands peeking out at the roots now and then. hmph.

    The pork dish sounds really yummy! I love stuff like that. Especially right now since I'm trying to eat a lot of protein, I'm wanting to find some recipes I could double or make a bunch to eat like all week for lunches, etc.

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  13. Your hair - cut and color - looks great. I understand you're not ready to embrace the grey. I haven't been to the hairdresser in like 3 years, have been cutting my own ends during the pandemic, but I miss the hair salon experience. I might go again sometime soon.

    Haha, that picture of Phil with the boys is so cute. It's funny how kids can be so easily entertained by "anything" (plumbing videos, who knew?).

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  14. Love your hair!!! I just got fresh color and a cut last week and I always feel so good after! That magnatile train is very cool!!!
    Lori

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