After what I feel was a week of sort of heavier, slightly emotional posts, I’m in the mood to do a fun Friday 5 post! I’m going to share 5 Loves, 5 Challenges and 5 Things I Enjoyed Eating (because why not?!) from the week.
Let’s start with the positives!
5 Loves:
1. News last night that Asher’s COVID-19 test was negative!Yay! He is also feeling 100% better (see yesterday’s post about this).
2. On Wednesday, my “flex” day off of work, we had the most gorgeous weather. I got in two long outdoor walks, a fun bike ride with the boys and I even sat outside and did some stuff on my laptop on the deck for an hour in the afternoon (alone!). Also, I enjoyed seeing this cool heron on multiple occasions:
3. Yesterday I received word that starting next week (for at least the next two weeks- they will update us again after that), I only need to flex down by 8 hours per week of unpaid time instead of the original 12! Good news- moving in the right direction back toward full time work.
4. The boys and I tackled our overflowing game closet! We weeded out probably 30% of the games/ toys and it just looks and feels so much better and more organized now.
5. My Mom received her first two Story Worth prompts (if you have been reading, you may remember I purchased her a subscription to “Story Worth” for Mother’s Day). Each week she will receive a writing prompt in her email about her childhood or past and in one year, all of the responses will be compiled into a hardcover book. The first two questions she had to answer were, “What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?” and “What was your most memorable birthday?”. She wrote super interesting responses and even attached old photos. So cool to read. I can’t wait for the book eventually! (Check out the product on their website here.)
5 Challenges:
1. I struggled a bit more than usual with the boys just “around” constantly. I felt a little claustrophobic this week!
2. I “overslept” 2 days- once intentionally, once unintentionally. I felt thrown off those days without my early morning time.
3. I got super frustrated with some technical difficulties while trying to transfer photos from my iPhone to our external hard drive. Our family computer is old and needs to be replaced, and everything was taking too long and just driving me crazy.
4. I balanced our checkbook last night and I am off by a few cents. Enough said. Is there anything more frustrating than not being able to find those missing cents??
5. I received word yesterday that my son’s summer swim camp is officially cancelled (as we expected, but still). Also, we learned this week neither the high school pool nor the city outdoor pool will open this summer, which is quite devastating to my son’s competitive swim team (who have all been out of the water since the end of February already).
5 Things I Enjoyed Eating!:
1. The broccoli/ shrimp alfredo pasta I shared here, and especially the garlic bread!
2. Sloppy joes and black pepper/ sea salt potato chips!!
3. Several bites of Ethan’s Oreo McFlurry and Asher’s M&M McFlurry the other day
4. These interesting “banana pancakes” I tried yesterday morning! (Literally the recipe is: 1 banana, 2 eggs. Blend. Pour into pan. The end).
5. A delicious spicy meal of ground turkey, onion, zucchini and pinto beans simmered in a salsa verde/ arbol sauce. SOOOOO GOOD!! Really, I outdid myself on this one. LOL!! 😊
5/21:
Steps: 11,224
Meditate: Done
Read: 10 minutes
Daily Gratitude: I am grateful for good neighbors. Also, I’m so grateful that the boys have a great environment in our neighborhood to play outside. We live in a cul-de-sac, and I’m so grateful everyday for the amazing space for them to safely ride bikes and play games in the street. Also, we have several other young kids around. After the negative COVID test call yesterday, they raced outside to join in an epic game of dodgeball being played in the neighbor’s yard. I’m so grateful they can have these traditional “outdoor” summer experiences.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Lots of great news and events this week – I know it's a blog about positivity, but it's great to celebrate a negative for once (COVID-test). Sorry to hear about the summer swim camp. Is there any place for the kids to get in the pool at all? Even at the gym? A lake? Something? I know it's not the same as competing, but it would be nice to at least practice! And I'm pretty sure your breakfast was technically a banana omelet, not a pancake! :-p
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Well, that's the weird thing- the "pancake" actually tasted quite a bit like a real pancake! A more banana flavored pancake, but it oddly enough really didn't taste like egg at all! Our gym will be opening up next week, so he is hoping he can snag some time in the pool there as able. But it's not the same as doing real workouts, with the coaches and team… His team is looking for any other options to hold some practices, even at places they don't normally swim. And they may do some lake swimming at some point. But there are going to be lots of restrictions- sounds like maybe no more than 1 person per lane if they can even find a pool, which is pretty unrealistic for a swim team! Can't exactly have only 6-8 kids at a practice at a time…
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Banana pancakes are one of our sons favorite meals and have been since around 10-12 months. We put a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon in our batter, too. And then we put peanut butter on them and roll them up and slice them. He crams so many pieces into his mouth at one time. It's nuts. He looks like a little chipmunk but he can't get him to eat slower when he's eating banana pancakes! We make a bunch of small ones and they refrigerate well so he probably eats them every 2-3 days! I'm glad you are able to work slightly more hours – hopefully things keep moving in that direction! And yum – that last meal looks delicious. We love anything cooked in salsa verde. Also, in my email to you, I forgot to mention that if you do ever fine tomatillo plants, you have to plant at least 2. They cross-pollinate so if you only plant one, the husks will grow but they will be empty! Luckily my aunt experienced this and warned me so I didn't have to experience that!
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That's hilarious about your son! I had NEVER tried making those! It was interesting! I had thought about adding in some vanilla too but then I didn't. Thanks for the info on the tomatillo plants! I had no idea. That is very good to know!
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