My last Week Home

This week was all about making every moment count! 

On Monday, Gussie and I went to the bakery and to the park to start our day. We love Mommy/Gussie days and I will definitely miss hanging out with my man. He loves to run errands with me, he loves to help me cook. He is funny and affectionate and the cutest, sweetest 4 year old I know. 

 

In the afternoon we played with Abby for a while before I went to pick up Xander from school. The weather was still beautiful and made being outside very nice. 

On Monday afternoon, MPA held a vaccination clinic and it was so incredibly well run and organized! I was so impressed. Xander got his first covid shot and was very brave. He was nervous, but he held my hand and closed his eyes and it was very fast. He didn’t even cry! 

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On Wednesday Augustus spent the day with Grandma, and Xander was busy at school. I spent the day baking as I have about one million cookie orders for Thanksgiving. 

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Daylight savings makes it feel like it’s midnight every day by 5pm, but we are still heading outside after dinner to play in the dark. Kids have energy even when it’s cold and dark, so we’re holding onto our outside time. 

On Thursday, I had a marathon cooking day and made 14 dinners for the upcoming weeks. I make dinner every single night, and without knowing how busy my work schedule will be, I did some prep work to make my life a little simpler. I have meals planned for the next 6 weeks, and the highlighted ones are cooked and in the freezer. I will need to add sides and veggies to all, but it’s a good head start! 

Friday was Augustus and my last day at home together. My mom and Nate are going to split the Mondays and Fridays in November and December (there aren’t very many because of the holidays) and in January, he will go to school 4 days a week. We ran errands, played, went out to lunch and had a fabulous day together. 
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Nate was in Iowa this weekend, so the boys and I had a weekend of fun planned (Xander had the whole itinerary worked out). Saturday morning we got fresh bagels (HOT out of the oven). I had a goal to run 6 miles, but with 2 kids and 2 dogs, I wasn’t sure I would get an uninterrupted hour. However, the dogs were in the backyard frolicking and playing nicely and the boys were upstairs playing like angels and I was able to run in peace for 52 minutes… with 5 minutes to go, the kids started yelling and the dogs were barking, but by that point, I’d made it too far to quit, so I let the chaos go on while I sprinted the final minutes. 

After lunch, we headed to Good Times Park to play. An indoor play place on a chilly Saturday is the LAST place I wanted to be, but it wasn’t busy and the boys played for over 2 hours and were so happy, so I was glad we went. 
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When we got home, we decided to take the dogs and go to the pet food store. 2 kids and 2 puppies- we were a spectacle, but overall, everyone was pretty well behaved. Hudson is 60 pounds of pure muscle and energy. He was like a wrecking ball that I could barely keep contained. Ruthie is smaller and calmer, so Xander walked her around. Augustus was in charge of carrying the treats we were buying. A few customers were wide eyed and gave us a lot of room, but most smiled and commented that I had my hands full. Yes- understatement of the year. When we got home, the dogs both passed out on the couch- even a short outing is enough excitement to tire them out. 

Later, we joined our neighborhood friends outside to play in the newly fallen snow.

The boys were very excited to order pizza and have a movie night, so that’s what we did. 

Nate and his buddies were enjoying themselves in Iowa. The Hawkeyes won against Minnesota and it was a good game. 

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Sunday has been a good day- the boys and my mom went to the arcade, went out to lunch and went swimming. I cleaned our house top to bottom, got my nails done and even had time to sit on the couch and read a book. Tomorrow I begin my job as Director of Alumni Philanthropy. I will be in person this week, but I’m excited to be officing out of my house! I’m looking forward to meeting some new people, working with some folks I already know and to be using my brain in a different way than I have been these past few months at home. Life will be much busier, but I like a full schedule. Here we go!

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