Today is the happiest of Mondays because Phil and I have the day off for Presidents' Day - but the kids still have school! This so rarely happens so we really enjoy it when it does! Like I mentioned in previous posts, I really love to be home alone in my house. Obviously Phil will be around today so I won't have the house completely to myself, but even with Phil home I will still get plenty of "me time." We are planning to take advantage of having childcare and will go out for lunch after running some errands this morning.
Here's a bullet-point style recap of our weekend!
- On Friday morning, Phil did drop-off so I could be on the website at 7am when registration for the Minneapolis public school summer program opened. We've decided to put Paul in that program this summer to make his transition to Kindergarten smooth. They rotate the location of the program and this summer, it's at the school he'll attend in the fall! Plus, there is no nap in the public school summer program. They do nap at Paul's daycare and it makes bedtime tough at times because he really does not NEED a nap! It sounds like those who register on the day it opens get in so hopefully that is the case for us! I also have heard summer families are guaranteed to get spots in before/after care in the fall, so that’s another reason we are doing this summer program.
- I got up with the boys both mornings as a way to compensate for all the solo parenting Phil is doing over a 2-week stretch. I think I kind of prefer being the early parent and having nap to myself, but it is nice to have the option to sleep in sometimes. To be clear, Paul does not nap during nap time - he gets his iPad where he only has access to PBS kids and ABC mouse. I took a nice long nap during quiet time on Sunday! I slept so hard that I dreamed! My body clearly needed the extra sleep.
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| Phil surprised the boys with donuts on Sunday morning! |
- I have a run-of-the-mill runny nose/cold so skipped my runs/workouts and went for walks instead. We had a lot of rain last week that then froze when the temps dropped so it’s not really ideal running conditions anyways, even with yaktrax on. This has been the iciest winter I can recall! Not a fan.
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| Will came with on Sunday and walked for almost an hour! |
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| We saw lots of ducks on the creek! |
- Gymnastics was cancelled due to staffing shortages so on Saturday we just went to the library where I ran into a neighborhood friend (that I met through my blog!). After the boys and Phil had lunch, I met my "second time mama" group for lunch sans kids. There is a local organization that puts together a class for new moms and then has a second time mom class, among other programming. I'm still in touch with both of my mom groups all these years later! We went to Restoration Hardware which has a beautiful restaurant. IMO you are paying for the ambiance/environment. The food was fine but kind of expensive… like $22 for a sandwich - with no sides. A side salad was $9, a side of fries was $10. That is on the pricier sode for Minneapolis but oh well. It was fun to have midday social plans, but I don’t think I’d go back to this place.
- On Sunday I took the boys to a new-to-us indoor playground in a close-ish suburb (Eagan) and my neighbor and her kids came, too. I wanted to give Phil some extra me time in the house since he solo parented last week and will again this coming week when I go to Chicago.
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| Getting some air on this huge jumper |
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| Building a fort together |
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| Playing together nicely - not always a given! |
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I was going to try to limit myself to 1 work trip/month, but I'm traveling again this week as I'm doing a presentation to our sales group tomorrow which I couldn't say no to. So I fly out at 7am tomorrow. I don't love early flights but chose an early flight over flying in the night before/being away from Phil and the boys for another night. Luckily Chicago is an easy trip for me. I go there so often so it's kind of like a home away from home, in a way. While I'm in Chicago, our sales group is especially focused on setting up calls with me and my teammates. So I have 16 zoom client meetings while I'm in Chicago, on top of that sales presentation I'm doing on Tuesday at lunch. On Wednesday alone, I have 11 zoom meetings! Ay yi yi. I feel like I'm going to want to curl up into the fetal position when this trip is over. Ha. But then I get a break until I head back to NJ/NY in the 2nd half of March.
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| A sample outfit I wear when traveling. I wore this in Texas last week and paired it with a blazer since I freeze in office buildings. I would not wear this in Chicago in February - I would FREEZE! But it was nice to wear something springy for a change! |
A storm is forecasted for Wednesday/Thursday and we might get over a foot (!!!) of snow. I really hope this does not happen! A) I don’t want to get stuck in Chicago and B) managing snow removal on a corner lot house on a hill is A LOT on top of solo parenting for Phil. Fingers crossed the storm is not as bad as predicted. I could try to move my flight to Wednesday night if need be. We will see.
How was your weekend?
11 comments:
This sounds fun, but tiring! Filling time in the winter with toddlers is not for the faint of heart. I hope that today is both restful and restorative. It is SO nice to be alone in the house. 100% agree on that one. I used to feel guilty having a day off when the kids were at preschool/school, but now I treasure them. That said, I work from home, so do actually get quite a bit of "alone" time in the house...it's just busy and wow the hours fly by before the school day ends.
Happy President's Day (it's a holiday here in Canada now, too: Heritage or Family Day, depending on the province).
Hooray for a day at home with no kids! And a day date with your husband sounds wonderful. I love the way you two step in to support each other and help “make up” for the time you are out of town.
That is a LOT of zoom meetings! Good luck and I hope the weather holds out so you can get home safely and on time!
That dress! You look fabulous in it. I remember travelling for work, Houston was just crazy for the air-conditioning. I constantly froze in their offices, only to melt when I stepped outside. Those Texans seem to really love their air conditioning!
We just got a bunch of snow as well, and the snow that we had before has melted and frozen into sheer ice, which makes walking a bit of an adventure. I would never run here in the winter. People do, of course, but I am too scared I'd slip and break something.
I love that you have so many friends from your blog and from mom's groups. It's just so lovely to have a nice circle.
Kindergarten!!! Time just flies! I loved the kindergarten years.
It sounds like you guys had a fun weekend! I am sure it was hard having both kids but I bet Phil relished the break, especially if he's got snow removal in his near future! I hope that today you are putting your feet up a bit and not just adulting while the kids are gone. You mentioned on your last (?) post about enjoying a day off while still putting the kids in school and I think that is totally normal! I know that my friend K, although she doesn't love the atmosphere of her ex's house, still enjoys having that free weekend from time to time when the kids are with their dad.
I totally relate to your 2nd to last paragraph about work. I actually have been having (a midlife crisis?) some thoughts about that myself lately, as in, when my parents were my age, they were so adult to me and I do not feel that adult, even though I am holding down a steady job, own a house, have credibility and life experience etc. I still feel like a "kid" or just like myself I guess. Then the kitchen faucet breaks and I look around and it's just me who has to figure out what to do and I get a little ping of...hey I guess I AM an adult.
That dress looks great on you! Won't it be nice when the snow is gone and we can have bare legs on the regular again?
Love that dress!! Sounds like a BUSY trip, but good to cram it all in, I guess?? Napping during Minnie's nap is just about my favorite thing to do-- I need to remember the joy and do it more often LOL
Hee hee! I love the picture of Will bundled up for the walk.
I hope you're having a nice day today. It sounds like a nice break before travel (for you) and solo parenting (for Phil.)
Good luck on your trip, and I hope the snow holds off until you get back home.
It sounds like a great weekend. We're in the midst of the ice storm right now. Did you get the blizzard they mentioned and did you get home OK? I hope so!
You look AMAZING in that dress! Va-va-va-VOOM.
I now make a lot of decisions for my department at work and a lot of the writers come to me for advice and help, and it's been such a weird mindset shift to realize I'm the pro here. And being privy to really big org changes and stuff like that is CRAZY.
I hope your trip goes well, although it sounds SO exhausting with so many meetings. I feel like I would need a mental health day after all of that to recuperate!
You are clearly a total rockstar at your job!! How awesome to be able to wear a springy dress...yeah, we are not there yet around here, are we. Ha.
Your nap also has me feeling jealous. I was so tired today and kept saying, I really could have used a power nap today! But the timing didn't work out as we had to leave for back to back basketball games by 1:30 and then we ended up going out for dinner.
That's a crazy amount of zoom meetings! I cannot imagine!!! At least my webex training sessions were 1:1 and informal- just me and my trainee. So it's lower stress than if they were all high stakes meetings or something. But it is just draining to be connected like that for so long, and I think the main thing for me is that I don't like not being able to just get up whenever I want, take a quick break, etc.
16 (!) zoom meetings!?? You must have been exhausted... but that red dress hopefully gave you a great boost. So fun!
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