Monday, September 9, 2024

Weekend Recap + Back on the Road

We had a beautiful fall-like weekend but now summer weather returns this week with highs in the upper 80s - right in time for my 10 mile race on Saturday, go figure. If only my race was this past weekend when the weather was PERFECT but so it goes! Here is how our weekend shaped up.

- Friday night was low key as usual. We ate leftovers and I ended up taking the boys to the goose house to play with the toys there to get them out of the house. Phil stayed back to enjoy some silence since he’ll be solo parenting for a good chunk this week. 

- Both boys were up around 6:15 on Saturday morning. I did my final long run (8 miles) once Phil was up. It was 53 with low humidity when I started so perfect running weather. I felt really strong! When I got back and showered, the boys and I went to the library. We hadn’t been there in about a month. I ran into a friend from the neighborhood (hi, Anne!). 

A rare quiet moment when Taco was looking at a book.

- After lunch I was ‘off-the-clock’ so I laid down in bed and read (‘You, With a View’, recommended by Stephany!) and napped while Phil took the boys to the park. 

- Then it was block party time! The boys had a blast scooting and running around on the closed street with the other kids on our block. Phil and I had a great time catching up with the other adults. The shoe kicking contest was fun as usual. The way it works is that each person gets 2 tries - one try for each shoe. There is an under 13 division, women's, and men’s with a traveling ‘golden’ shoe trophy for each division. I actually tied for 2nd! My furthest shoe went 63’ - the winner kicked it 66’.  I did have to carry a kicking, screaming Taco home around 7:30 when it was time for bed… transitions are so hard. Paul and Phil stayed until 8:30.

Shoe kicking!


Racing with other kids on the block!

- I woke on my own at 6:45 on Sunday morning! Not waking to a screaming child is such a treat. I actually had to wake both boys around 7:30 which pained me to do, but letting them sleep too late makes for a terrible bedtime and since it was a school night, I didn’t want to pay for letting them sleep late when bedtime rolled around. 

- The boys went to Sunday school while I went to church at 10. This is a new routine for us but both boys loved their classes and are excited to go back. Phil stayed back to clean and mow.

- After lunch I once again read and napped. Why am I so dang tired? Phil and the boys watched the Vikings (they won!!) and the boys played on their iPads. Then it was time for the first swimming lesson of the fall session. This is Taco’s first session of being in the pool without me - we did mom/parent classes when he was a baby/young toddler but took a long break until he was ready/interested in the water and could be in the pool without me. Both boys did great so we celebrated with macarons after class. 






- Their behavior was not great when we got macarons… They just can’t keep their hands off each other and constantly want to wrestle and mess with each other. I’ve talked to other moms of boys and it seems like this is just how they are going to be for like years to come? Sigh. I used my yelling mom voice when getting them in their car seats which I hate to use.

- So we stopped at a park to run off some of their boundless energy to make the final hours of the day more tolerable.


This week I travel for the first time in 1.5 months. It was a nice break and what our family needed. This is a longer 3-night trip for me. I think I will hit gold status with Delta on this trip. This is the most I have traveled since the year I lived in Charlotte and made silver status on 2 different airline - which is a total waste since silver is worthless but it’s how it worked out. I hope the boys are cooperative while I am away… Solo parenting is hard enough with well-behaved kids, Phil doesn’t need the extra challenge.

How was your weekend?

19 comments:

  1. My three boys - even at (almost) 12, 10 and 7 - cannot be within 3 feet of each other without wrestling. It's like they are pulled together by magnets. If they are sitting on the couch, one will flop on the other one. Or put their feet on the other one. Part of it is to get a reaction, I'm sure, but least I try to convince myself they do it because they get comfort from touching each other ;)

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  2. Lisa you do not want to hear this but LAST WINTER at the ages of 17 and 15, Harry and Jack had a physical altercation in the Target parking lot over who was going to sit in front, and Jack RIPPED THE KNEE of his track pants and was actually bleeding and FELL IN A HUGE PUDDLE. SO, I mean. I think you gotta just lean in LOL

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    1. I'm sorry but this is funny and sad at the same time. leaning IN!!!!

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  3. Gold status! Woot!! I think even gold is not that exciting these days, right? Now that everyone and their mother has the credit card. I was just talking to Birchie about how Mr Lovely and I used to get upgraded all the time and then as more and more people got status through the card, it started to wane. Do you still get upgraded??

    Also I have a butt load of United points but they have been significantly devalued which is a bit of BS. However, I just saw an article that the federal government is looking into the airlines frequent flyer programs. I sent my parents to Scotland on first class years ago for maybe ~80k points and I just looked into a flight to Europe in December and coach is 110k!!!

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  4. "Why am I so dang tired?" Um, Lisa? Your life is tiring with so much work, parenting littles, etc. Not to mention RA!
    Good luck on your trip this week! I'm excited for you and your upgrade. I love cashing in my points on our WestJet card. It makes a difference to me for sure.

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  5. Can confirm that two little boys will cause endless amounts of mayhem 24/7. When their voices start changing the screaming stops at least. My experience is that they spend from the ages of 13-16 in their rooms, which makes the house a lot quieter. After our dog died and we looked back at our 3 years of daily selfies with the dog, it was really noticeable that Kid #1 was never in the year one pictures, it was rare to get either of the kids in the year 2 pictures, and then in year 3 Kid #1 started showing back up but Kid #2 was never around.

    I had the most epic weekend! There was a trip, a Cool Blogger meet, and adventures galore. Story coming soon...

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  6. Oh the highs and lows of parenting. It is such whiplash at this stage where there are good moments followed by moments where you question every decision you've made in your life (primarily the decision to have children). My kids fight...a lot. Sigh.
    I'm so glad swimming lessons went well and the block party looks like lots of fun. Hooray for sleeping in for the boys (I always hate - HATE - to wake sleeping kids, but sometimes it must be done; why do they always wake up early when we can sleep in and why do I always have to wake them up when they need to be up early - seriously, it never fails). I'm so glad you had a good long run as well.
    And goodness - you get so much great adventuring out of the goose house. I love it!!!!
    I hope you get gold status. Those little perks of having status really do make travelling more pleasant.

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  7. I've never lived anywhere that does block parties like Minneapolis does block parties! I love it!

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  8. Oh my -- where are you off to this week. Yikes. I'm glad you've had a travel break though. The weekend sounds fun -- and the block party, too. That sounds like a good neghborhood!

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  9. Mom of 4 boys here. It might be best if I refrain from sharing my experience. ;) After a while, I just let them.do their thing. They mostly managed not to roll on the ground or tackle one another at church and in a school. Ignoring them sometimes was the best option. If they wanted to complain that they got hurt I would shrug and say then you should have kept your hands to yourself.

    I think for years the kids thought the only voice I had was a yelling voice. Coach worked crazy long hours and I was on my own most of the time. I have some guilt, but for the most part the kids are all doing well and have very fond childhood memories.

    The block party sounds so fun. I have not heard of shoe kicking and might need to suggest it to our neighborhood.

    Good luck with your work trip. I second what Nicole said about No wonder you are tired.

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  10. All I really remember about my brother and his friends is all the wrestling they did. I think it's just programmed in them to do it, haha.

    I hope the weather cools down SLIGHTLY for your race!

    Glad you had a break from travel and I hope this week goes well!

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  11. Chiming in to confirm wrestling boys are a still a thing, even after one decade, now at ages 12 and 14. I'm curious to find out when it will actually stop?! Hang in there!

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  12. I had one boy and two girls and although they fought/touched each other etc, there was none of the amount of wrestling that two boys would do. My brother has four boys and the wrestling is still sometimes a thing even though they're 25 - 16 years old and one is 6ft10. Although it is a rare thing now they take up a lot more room when they do decide to wrestle.

    I hope it doesn't get too hot for your race, hopefully it's an early start?

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  13. I really enjoy weekends afternoons of napping and reading, so relaxing! it feels luxurious like on vacation. I'll continue as long as I can.
    Boys, girls, they all fight with their siblings, every day! It's just part of having more than one kid I guess.

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  14. Seriously- the temperature is going back up for your race??? Ugh. I did hear it's going to be hot in the midwest this week- maybe it will cool down by Saturday (?)
    i hate to say it for Phil's sake, but maybe it won't be so bad to get away for a few days. As much as we love our kids, sometimes they can be hard to deal with. Sibling bickering is so normal, and SO annoying!

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  15. I don't remember my brother ever wrestling with his friends, and it was just the two of us growing up. On the other hand, when my daughter was about 10, she was friendly with two boys in our complex, probably 9 and 11 years old. They came over to watch a movie or something. She sat there quietly watching the movie, and one of them just stood in place and bounced up and down for the longest time, until he couldn't take it anymore and tackled his brother. I asked my husband (from a house with 3 boys/1 girl), "Is this life with boys?" and he said, "pretty much."

    I hope you get to relax on your business trip. I don't do airline miles, since I don't really travel enough. I do a cash points card that gives me 2 points per dollar spent, and I save them up and cash them out when I travel. The good thing about that is that it is consistent and you know what you're going to get. But I don't get upgraded or anything like that.

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  16. Okay, Lisa, I have a boy and a girl and they are just as BAD. I yell, I admit. But I just CANNOT be that mom who says "are you having a hard time keeping your hands to yourself?" I can't. Instead it's: "STOP IT. NOW!" lol I explained to the =m that I have feelings, too. L goes " so, your are not a robot" I go "CORRECT" Ugh, I can't...

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  17. Why are you tired, you ask?? Because you work full time, have two young kids, and try to do ALL THE THINGS. I would be tired too. I really admire how you handle it all.

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  18. Same as everyone else said - OF COURSE YOU'RE TIRED. My goodness, Lisa. You work full time, parent two small children, travel for work, live with a chronic inflammatory condition that has caused immense pain for a long time, have a spouse...should I go on? And yet, you show up here, you show up for the rest of us, and you do it with a smile on your face. You are amazing, and I hope you realize that. <3

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