Another Full Weekend

The month of July really went out with a bang! I had another full, fun weekend. I am ready for a quiet stretch, though! But here is how we filled our weekend. 

On Friday, Phil got together with some college friends so I was on my own with the boys. Phil and I were definitely ships passing in the night this past week. He had the boys on his own Tues/Wed nights while I was traveling for work. Then he swam on Thursday night so I had the boys on my own (although he was home by 7 so was only gone for about 1.5 hours). Friday was a beautiful, perfect day so we headed outside after dinner. I got out a bubble toy we'd received last summer. Paul had fun making bubbles for Will and Will had a blast trying to pop them. He's at the peak age for bubbles!

Will is finally into the little slide we have set up on our patio. We bought this at the start of the pandemic when playgrounds were closed and then Paul outgrew it very quickly. I think it'll get more use over the next couple of summers! On a walk the night before, Paul saw a dad throwing baseball to his kids so he wanted to try it out. Prior to that, he was hitting balls off the tee but he wanted a new challenge. He did really well and was so proud of himself when he hit the ball with the bat! It's kind of comical that I was the parent to introduce him to hitting pitches since I am VERY UNATHLETIC. Phil was very good at baseball so that is who Paul will be getting most of his direction from! 

On Saturday I ran 4 miles with my neighbor and then we did our weekly trip the library where we checked out 19 books and then we headed to gymnastics. Will was so tired that he almost fell asleep on the car ride home... but then napped for 40 minutes that afternoon! Ugh. I got up with the boys that morning, so Phil let me rest and took Will for a long stroller walk. And then we headed to the wading pool after quiet time. 

That night, I went to see Brandi Carlile with my neighbor and 2 other friends. It was my 7th time seeing her in concert. She is so amazing! Us girls met up for a quick dinner before the concert. 

My neighbor and I in our Brandi apparel

She played for about 2 hours straight and put on an awesome show. 

I was glad that Sunday was my day to sleep in. I got home at 11:30 but was able to sleep until 7:45. The boys slept in, too! Will got up at 6:50 and Paul got up after 7! I took Will to swimming lessons. Phil headed out to swim when I got home so I took the boys to the park.

During nap time, my friend Lori arrived. She was in town for a retreat so she spent an extra night in Minneapolis so she could see us and meet our kiddos. Luckily Will napped for 2 hours that day so we were able to enjoy a glass of wine together while he slept and Paul had iPad time. After the boys were up, we headed back to the park. 

Lori took some pictures of us at the park. This is me in "mom mode" with my phone in a fanny pack! So stylish right? 

We made dinner when we got back from the park and Lori got to see how crazy Will is. I was making Asian rice so got the sesame oil out of the cupboard and put it on the counter. I turned around to get tamari out of the fridge and in that time, Will pulled the container of sesame oil off the counter and dumped about 1/4 of it on his head/body... So that was a fun mess to clean up. Good thing we were close to bath time. 

This morning, Lori and I went for a run in my neighborhood before I settled in to do some work before taking her to the airport. I'm glad she thought to take a picture of us together! It was great to catch up with her and she was excited to spend time with the kids and observe their craziness. 

And that was the final weekend of July. It was kind of a lot - 2 concerts, a business trip, hosting several dinners, going to a couple of get togethers, and the business of normal life. I am ready for a quieter stretch but am proud of myself for "choosing the bigger life" which is a mantra by Gretchen Rubin that I kept in mind. I am kind of, no scratch that, I am really a control freak and don't love getting off a schedule. But after 2 years of doing next to nothing, it's been great to see friends and go to concerts. And August is shaping up to be quieter for us so I'll get a chance to get caught up on my sleep and replenish my energy levels!

Back from DC

I had a fast and furious, but great trip to DC! I was barely there for 24 hours. In hindsight, had I known other sales people were going to be there, I would have flown out on Tuesday morning so I could get more time with them and hear some of the other content at the symposium.

My travels all went smoothly, though. My return flight was delayed by about an hour, so I landed after 9pm which makes for a long day, but overall it was a smooth trip! And I lucked out and had an empty middle seat between me and the person by the window on both flights! Woo hoo!

I got to my hotel around 6pm on Tuesday night. I stayed in a Hilton that was right off the Mall so a great location! I walked down to a waterfront area and had dinner at great Mexican restaurant. I enjoyed some ceviche for my meal and a margarita! Yum!

I didn't have to present until around 10 on Wednesday, so I had plenty of time for a run on Wednesday morning. I ran about 3.5 miles and enjoyed seeing some of the monuments! DC is so pretty. 

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

WWII Memorial

After my run I quickly got ready. Here I am before leaving for the other hotel where the conference was held. I look a little red in the face since it was quite humid on my run - although not all that different from the humidity we've had here in MN lately. For this presentation, I opted to wear a classic black dress with a statement necklace. I am SO DONE with business suits so never wear them anymore and when I work with a wardrobe consultant in the future, one thing I want to focus on is getting more work/presentation-appropriate dresses. I think business suits are not flattering and are very uncomfortable. I love this dress I am wearing so much. It's machine washable and great for travel as it does not wrinkle. I got it over 10 years ago at Ann Taylor and wish I had it in like 3 colors!

I presented at Women's Symposium that was hosted by Merrill Lynch for its female financial advisors. How pretty was this backdrop with their logo? 

I did 2 back-to-back breakout sessions on navigating the fixed income markets and they went really well. I practiced for hours and all that work paid off. I only had about 35 minutes for each breakout which is not much time when there is a lot of content to cover, but that's why I had to practice so much! I got lots of questions and people stayed behind after each session to ask more questions and to get the tickers/account numbers for some of our products so that is a good sign. One of my sales colleagues sent a really nice note to my boss saying I did a great job. It feels braggy to share that, but I really appreciate that she provided feedback on me. There was a Merrill Lynch person in my 2nd breakout who stayed behind and said she wants to partner with us to build a lunch and learn campaign for their advisors using our content so that was cool to hear. So I think I can and likely will be traveling more going forward. But I need to figure out how much I would be comfortable with. I'm thinking a max of once/month and ideally no more than 2 nights away from Phil and the kids. We'll see how it all shakes out, though. 

I got back to our house around 9:45 last night so it was a long, but good day. Both boys were excited to see me this morning - and Phil was very happy to see me when I got home last night! It feels good to be missed!

Now I have another somewhat busy weekend on deck. On Saturday night, I'm going to the Brandi Carlile concert! It's not like me to go to 2 concerts 2 weekends in a row, but I've been planning on going to this Brandi concert since last fall! She is my all-time favorite artist and I think I've seen her 7+ times? I'm going with 3 good friends! Then on Sunday a friend from Charlotte (hi Lori!) that I met through blogging 10+ years ago is going to spend the night with us at the tail end of her trip with some other women. So I'll get to spend Sunday afternoon/Monday morning with her! We saw her on our babymoon trip to Asheville in 2017 as we had dinner with her the night before we flew back to Minneapolis, but this will be her first time meeting our kids. She ADORES kids so I know she's excited to see them, too. 

The last several weeks have been a bit stressful and hectic, so I am very much looking forward to a quieter start to the month of August!

Alanis + Day Off + DC-Bound

Happy Tuesday! I am coming off what felt like a busy weekend and heading into a busy week. I can't believe this is the last week of July. I know that is such a cliche thing to say but the month really has flown by. 

We had a nice weekend and spent lots of time outdoors. We had 2 birthday parties to attend, but skipped the library and gymnastics on Saturday since Paul's voice was a bit hoarse. I tested him for covid just to be sure he did not pick up a new variant. His test was negative! Phew! He could have worn a mask at gymnastics but he's not great at mask-wearing so I decided to just skip gymnastics since the optics of bringing a kid w/ a hoarse voice to an indoor class is not great. Plus I wouldn't want him to spread whatever he has to the other kids in class. I felt comfortable bringing him to the outdoor park parties since he is around these kids all the time and likely caught whatever little bug he has from one of them. He had a blast running around with his friends. And he really enjoyed the birthday cupcake/cake. After not liking cake, he now likes it but isn't a huge on frosting. 

Besides the kids activities, I had the Alanis concert on Sunday night which was really fun! She put on a great show! Her first album, Jagged Little Pill, was released in 1995, so 2020 was the 25th anniversary. But that tour got cancelled, hence the reason for a 25th anniversary tour on the actual 27th anniversary of the album. She did not really talk at all to the audience, though. I'm used to more interaction/commentary from the artist but that must not be her thing! The band Garbage opened for her and the lead singer talked about how she's been opening for Alanis since 1997 which is pretty crazy! 

We got home from the concert around 11:30 and I had trouble falling asleep so was very glad I had the foresight to take Monday off. I helped get the boys off to school and then went back to bed at 7 and slept for 2.5 hours! Besides being up late, we had some early mornings over the weekend and Will took extremely short naps (only 40 minutes on Sunday - sob!). So clearly my body needed more sleep. I still fit in a run since it was a cooler day so running mid-morning was still comfortable. And then I spent most of the afternoon working. I spent a solid 2-2.5 practicing the presentation I will give tomorrow. But it was nice to practice my presentation without feeling pressured to keep up with email. I'm feeling pretty good about the presentation but I will be very glad when it's behind me. 

I head to the airport shortly for my flight to DC. Hopefully my flight is on time/not canceled! I present in the morning so don't have a ton of margin in my schedule. When I booked my flights, I thought I was presenting mid-afternoon. Had I known I was presenting in the morning, I would have booked an earlier flight. Oh well. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly. 

It will be a whirlwind trip as I fly back tomorrow night. So I'll barely be in DC for 24 hours. But I wanted to minimize the time away from the kids. I am looking forward to not being woken up by a child during the night tonight, though! I used to sleep poorly in hotel rooms but since having kids, I tend to sleep really well! 

Send me all your good wishes that my breakout sessions tomorrow go well! 3 of my sales colleagues will be there so I feel added pressure to impress them! I'm sure no one will judge me as harshly as I judge myself though! Such is the life of a perfectionist...

TGIF

And just like that, it's Friday. This week went by faster than usual, I think because my work days were especially busy. Here's what's going on in my world!

The book I'm reading is Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron. This is a memoir by the sister of Nora Ephron. I just started it but so far I like the writing style. She deals with some heavy topics as she discusses the death of her husband and sister from cancer. Then she reconnects and starts a relationship with someone from her past and gets diagnosed with cancer. So this is obviously a heavy book. 

The high of my week was going to a brewery with 2 women I met through the mom's group I joined when Paul was born. 2 had to cancel at the last minute but I am glad 3 of us were able to get together. We've been in each others' lives for over 4 years now. It's been wonderful to have friends with kids that are the same age! I don't/can't drink beer so had a delicious mojito-flavored hard seltzer!

The low of my week was feeling super annoyed with myself on Wednesday. I had a mid-day client presentation and planned to wear my sear sucker blazer - but it was too hot to wear it when I was getting ready and in our rush to get out the door a bit earlier so I'd be downtime plenty early for a 7:45 client call, I forgot to grab it! I was able to get an inexpensive one at the downtown Nordstrom Rack for $35 so it all worked out. But I was annoyed with myself that I needlessly spent money! That said, it will be good to have another blazer, especially since I seem to be doing more big meetings and presentations lately.

A recipe I made was this cashew chicken stir fry with basmati rice. I forgot to take a picture, though, but it was delicious although I used too many veggies so it was a little light on the sauce. 

A show I am watching is How to Change Your Mind on Netflix which is a show based on Michael Pollan's book about the use of mushrooms/psilocybin to treat mental health conditions. My book club read the book years ago and I DNF'd it because I was just bored and I am honestly not very open-minded about things so wasn't really sold on the use of psychedelics. We've only watched one episode so far but it's interesting and I've had some good conversations with Phil about it. 

For workouts I ran on Monday, Thursday and this morning, and will run again tomorrow. I usually don't run 3 days in a row, but my neighbor/running partner has been off work this week and has had more availability so I'm taking advantage of her ability to run 3 days in a row!

The best money spent was on that blazer, I guess, but I'm still annoyed with myself that I was kind of forced to buy something thanks to my forgetfulness!

My plans this weekend include kind of a lot! We have no plans tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll run with my neighbor and then the boys have gymnastics. On the way home from gymnastics, we will stop at a park for a birthday party for Paul's classmate. Then we have another park birthday party to attend on Sunday morning. I don't mind these park parties, though. We'd be going to a park anyways in most cases! Then on Sunday night, I am going to see Alanis Morisette in concert with my neighbor/running partner! I'm so excited! We were both huge fans of her, like most people in our age cohort! She will perform Jagged Little Pill - I can still sing the lyrics to nearly all of the songs! It's going to be a really fun night out! I took Monday off since I know it will be a later night. It will be good to have a day at home on Monday because I found out this week that I need to present at a women's finance concert in DC on Wednesday so I fly out Tuesday afternoon. I'm guessing another presenter backed out or something that is short notice to go to DC and give a presentation! I will present at 2 back-to-back break-out sessions about the fixed income markets... cue my anxiety - big presentations are not my favorite!. With the crazy market environment at least this is plenty to talk about!! 

Did you have any low points this week? What are your weekend plans?

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Happy Monday! We are in the midst of a heat wave here, so it's feeling kind of Florida-like! Our high today is 100 and the humidity is pretty high. Keep in mind that our air temp can get as low as -15F, and even colder with the windchill. So well over a 100-degree range of temps in a year. Nuts, right? We tried to be outside as much as we could over the weekend! Here is how we filled out time.

On Friday, our friend came over for dinner. We went for a little stroll/scoot after dinner to get some of Paul's wiggles out. After Will went to bed, we played our favorite little kid game - First Orchard. It's more expensive than other little kid games - $30 - but the fruit is made out of wood and everything is very durable. It's a cooperative game so you all win or you all lose, which can be nice for young kids who are still working on accepting that they won't always win. It's a good way to work on colors and counting so I'd HIGHLY recommend it. And it's a FAST game - unlike games like hi-ho cherry-o or chutes and ladders that can go on forever! 

On Saturday morning, Phil got our car serviced early so we could head to the library when it opened at 9. After the library - where we checked out 28 books!! - we headed to gymnastics. Our Saturday mornings are pretty full, but it's nice to have some structure to our days. We don't "have" to go to the library every weekend but we've usually read everything we've checked out by then so need to get more books! 

Will took a depressingly short nap, despite our busy morning. 45 freaking minutes. He should be sleeping around 2 hours at this age! We had plans to meet up with my friend and her 2 kids at a splash pad so headed out. Paul LOVED the splash pad. It took Will a good hour to warm up to it but he eventually enjoyed the bubblers. 

On Sunday morning, I took Will to swimming lessons. They did their assessments and said he can move onto the 3rd baby level which kind of surprised me! Paul had to take 2 sessions of each level before he made it to level 3! We are going to take a little break from swimming lessons now that Will is in gymnastics. I want one weekend morning free to do things like go to the zoo. 

When I got home, Phil headed out to swim and I took the boys to a farmer's market and park. They got a donut to share and I had some yummy GF banana bread. It was SO HOT, though. Both boys had beat red faces and Paul was dripping with sweat so we didn't stay at the park for long. 

Luckily Will took a bit longer nap - 90 minutes, which is about as good as it gets for him. Paul and Phil headed to Phil's mom. I decided to keep Will indoors since he seemed to get SO HOT when we were outside that morning. Let me tell you - those 4.5 hours between when he woke from his nap and went to bed went very slow at times! But I was encouraged that he picked up a few books to page through! He has not been nearly as interested in reading as Paul was at this age, but hopefully he'll start to have more interest.

And that was a wrap! Paul and Phil were home by 7:30 and I was in bed by 8:30 reading. Will slept until 5:55 this morning and Paul slept until 6:20! Maybe/hopefully we are turning a corner on the early mornings?? That would be wonderful.

How was your weekend? Is it really hot where you live? I like summer but would love some days in the 80s with lower humidity!

TGIF

Happy Friday! Thanks for all of the kind and encouraging comments on my goals post! Several of you noted that I hadn't mentioned my promotion. I found out about it during my trip to AZ in February. I knew it was likely coming but it was nice when it came through! I've been with my company for almost 7 years (my anniversary is later this month!) and wasn't sure when/if I would get promoted since I try not to travel if I can avoid it since having kids. I thought that might preclude me from getting promoted but luckily it didn't!

Now onto what is on my mind this week!

The book I'm reading is Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. It's set in Alabama in the 1970s and is about a black public health nurse who administers birth control shots to young patients as a term of their welfare benefits - and it gets worse from there. It's based on a true story and has been a total page turner for me. But it is a very heavy topic. 

The high of my week was going out to dinner with a college friend. 4 of us were supposed to meet up for dinner but 2 had to cancel. But it was still wonderful to see one of my friends and to be out of the house during bedtime! 

The low of my week was nothing in particular really! I mean sleep stuff continues to be a battle, but now that we are keeping Will in his crib until 6, it's not so bad - as long as he doesn't wake up Paul. If Paul is up early, there is no convincing him to go back to bed!

A recipe I made was chicken tikka masala with cauliflower and peas in the Instant Pot. We make this about every 6 weeks since Phil and I both love it!

A show I am watching is David Letterman's new season of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. So far we've watched 3 and thought they were "just ok." But it's entertaining enough. We finished up Ted Lasso which I loved, although I didn't like the way one of the characters changed from the previous season. Maybe that is real life but he went from being one of my favorite to least favorite character. I made a comment about him after the show ended and Phil commented on how attached I get to tv characters, which is totally true! When Phil does Paul's bedtime, I watch season 2 of Emily in Paris. I don't love the show but I watch it for the Paris vibes/views!

For workouts I ran on Tuesday and this morning and hopefully will fit a run in this weekend. I had early client calls several days this week, so it was harder to fit workouts in this week. But check out this view from my run on Tuesday! It was a gorgeous morning. I'm so lucky that I get to run by water - I can run by a creek or a lakes in our neighborhood!

The best money spent was on my dinner out with my friend! 

My plans this weekend include having a friend over for dinner tonight. We will grill shrimp and pineapple kebabs and will serve them with an Asian rice. On Saturday, Phil is getting our car serviced early in the morning, and then the boys and I will go to the library when it opens at 9 and then to gymnastics. After nap/quiet time, we will meet up with a friend and her kids at a splash pad. On Sunday Will has swimming lessons and Phil will take Paul to his mom's in the afternoon. I'll be home with Will and will probably take him to a wading pool or something like that since it's going to be in the 90s!

Bonus photos:

Coloring at the library last week

Will is finally getting more into swinging!! That look of pure joy on his face is so wonderful!

Our blueberry loving boy. Will doesn't have a lot of words, but he can say cheese! It's funny what kids pick up. 

What was the high of your week?

Half-Way (Goal-free year) Check In

We are about a week past the half-way point of 2022. <Insert cliche comment about how fast the first half of the year went.> As the saying goes, the days are long but the years are short. That statement feels especially true in the young-kid years of life. It's been several years since I've made goals for myself - at least 3! But as an upholder and enneagram 1, I HATE setting goals and then not achieving them. For some, setting aspirational goals they might not achieve is motivating. For me, it's so defeating when I don't achieve something I set out to do that it's best for my mental health to give myself a break. Maybe by 2023 I will feel ready to set some goals. I will be setting some goals for the 2nd of 2022 in this post, but they aren't really "stretch" goals - they are things I know I can and will achieve, barring getting covid again or something like that. 

However, just because I didn't define a list of goals at the start of the year doesn't mean I haven't achieved anything. I've just given myself flexibility to work on what makes sense! I did choose a word for 2022 - connection - so that is something I have really focused on each month.  

I recently participated in a half-way point review through the patreon community of Best of Both Worlds so I thought I'd share some of the reflections from that!

What went well/what have I achieved?

- I was a guest on the Best of Both Worlds podcast!

- Will got tubes in early January which made a huge difference in his health. He's only had one ear infection since getting tubes, and it was right after surgery. He had a raging ear infection when they did the surgery so we weren't surprised he still had an infection after getting tubes. 

- I was promoted in March to managing director at my company!

- Our family traveled to AZ in February to see my sister and her family. 

- I've been off social media since early December 2021 and this continues to be the right decision for me. It's hard to imagine going back on social media. It's a net negative contributor to my happiness. 

- We've been out and about so much which feels so good after 2 years of doing very little. We've gone to a museum, new-to-us parks, the library, and the zoo to name a few. 

- I've seen a lot of friends and family! My focus on connection has been great. Each month I make a list of people to connect with, either virtually or in person. 

- I finished the Morning Meltdown on Beach Body which was a 100 workout program. It took me 6 months since I didn't do it straight through and combined it with lots of running but it was an excellent program!

What didn't work well/was challenging?

- Sleep. Ugh. Despite Will not getting ear infections, he's been through a few sleep regressions and Paul went through a long, difficult stage of fighting bedtime. 

- We were sick SO MUCH, including 3 of us getting covid. It felt like there was rarely a week in the first 4 months of year when someone wasn't sick. Paul had 2 stomach viruses and we all had countless colds. This is out of my control since my kids are in daycare but oof does it suck. 

- I wasn't able to run a 10 mile race in May like I had planned to. It was hard to fit enough runs in after returning to the office in March, I was sick all the time, and then I got Covid the week before the race. 

- There have been positive aspects to returning to the office, but it was challenging. 3 days a week feels like a little too much for me so I am shifting down to 2. The hardest part is getting home at 5-5:15 and being able to eat dinner at 5:30 (our kids are hungry and can barely make it to 5:30). 

What needs to change/what do I want to accomplish in 2nd half of 2022:

- I'm going to drop down to being in the office 2 days/week. This will make it easier to get meals on the table and it will be easier to fit more workouts in. 

- I will be focused on a sales campaign at work related to the asset class I specialize in. So I expect to be more busy and I want to do more client meetings/engage more with our sales force. 

- I will run a 10k race during Twin Cities Marathon weekend. I have no time goals - I just want to finish and be happy. The 10k distance is so doable and not a stretch goal; I could run one tomorrow if I wanted to. But that is what I need out of running right now since I am stretched in other areas of life!

- I need to find a new Beach Body strength training program. I tried the MBF program but didn't care for how repetitive the workouts were so I'm still looking for the right next program. 

- Now that bedtime is going better for Paul, I'd like Phil and I to go on one date/quarter. I'm setting a low bar there. I know some do monthly or even weekly dates, but once a quarter is a good starting place for us. 

- I want to go on a Caribbean getaway with Phil in December. We need to figure out dates and book something soon. My parents have graciously agreed to watch the boys at their lake home while we are gone. Phil and I have not spent a night away from the boys together since Paul was born so we really need some quality time away together in a warm climate! 

- I also want to book a spring trip to the Gulf coast of Florida in the spring. This is the last year that we won't be beholden to a school schedule which is crazy to think about!! 

- I want to continue to focus on connecting with others by making a list of who I want to connect with each month. 

How was the first half of 2022 for you?