Feeling kind of tired/ blah this morning.
I stayed up until 11 pm working on volunteer related preparations for yet another home hosted swim meet coming up the weekend of February 18-20. It’s a big one, too- Regionals.
Typically Regionals are not hosted by our team (we always just attend at a different pool) but for some reason our team ended up with hosting duties this year. We’re actually co-hosting with another local team, which is nice overall- helps to increase the volunteer pool, that’s for sure. But also creates some additional work in the form of collaboration with them, too.
Regionals is the big end of season culmination for the majority of swimmers who won’t go on to State the following weekend, so there’s generally a lot of hoopla and excitement surrounding the meet. (Think….the playoffs.) This makes me feel a little bit extra pressured to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. At least it should be the LAST one I have to manage for….a long time (or ever, if I quit before next season😆) . They’ve already announced we won’t be hosting a Spring meet, thank God.
The week has been busy-ish feeling, too. Ivan’s brother tore his ACL and had surgery at the end of last week. He’s recently divorced and living alone now, so, Ivan and his sister have been over at his place a lot helping him out while he recovers. Fortunately he lives very close to us. They’ve been taking food over and helping him change his leg dressing, and also driving around his teenaged son as needed. So Ivan has been gone a lot in the evenings and he’s just been rather distracted with a lot going on between all of that and a stressful sounding workweek too.
Asher started play practice this week after school and stayed until 5 pm both Tuesday and Wednesday so far. He’s loving it- but those make for some long days! Especially because then he comes home, eats and then still later goes to swim practice most nights… I worry a little about him overstretching himself, but he says he’s good! He’s very excited about the play. Winter swim season wraps up in the next few weeks at least, so we’re in the home stretch.
Last night I made a quick but fan favorite dinner: bistec a la mexicana.
I had some nice thin cut steak in the freezer I needed to use up. It’s basically just strips of onion, jalapeno pepper, and tomato, plus seasoning and the steak. I made pinto beans on the side, and then you scoop some of the beans + the meat/veggie mix into a tortilla and eat! It’s really good and so simple. Perfect for a weeknight.
Quote of the Day:
(As the Titanic is starting to sink) “But this ship can’t sink!” -ship owner, Ismay
“She is made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can.”– Thomas Andrewes, ship designer
I’ve been thinking of this quote often since we watched Titanic the other day. I love this quote and remembered liking it all those years ago when I first watched it. Such a stark reminder that certain realities are simply inescapable. No matter how much they hyped up the famed Titanic, at the end of the day, she was still just made of iron.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for the days starting to get a little bit longer. I’m not usually too bothered by the winter darkness, but this year it’s grated on me more than usual. It’s just made me feel kind of mopey/ tired/ blah in the evenings more than I remember in the past.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Sorry things have been extra tiring; I’m sure Ivan’s brother is so grateful for all your support in this challenging time.
Hope you have a great weekend. It’s raining here now so some of the enormous snow drifts are getting smaller…in time for it to snow again tomorrow. I’m planning on it being a snow day for the kiddos, but at least John is home this time around!
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Seems like everywhere is getting snow except us here in Wisconsin!! I think I’m okay with it. 🙂
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I don’t think I realized that Ivan has 2 siblings locally – that is so nice and must help make being away from the rest of his family in Mexico a little more tolerable! But it does sound a tough combo of him helping family and you managing the volunteer stuff. I hope someone else takes that over next year!
That steak meal looks so good! I can’t wait for our kids to be better eaters… Paul is especially particular about what he eats. Will is good now but I know that can change in the blink of an eye since little kids are so fickle! Paul was a better eater at Will’s age so I hope Will doesn’t turn into Paul Jr!
I’m thankful for longer days, too. It bothers me less since I am so rarely doing drop-off. Phil has been going in every day so will do pick-up every day for 2 weeks straight. I hated dropping off and picking up Paul in the dark. It just made the day seem so short. Now it’s less apparent since I’m not in the car w/ them! I’m grateful that the weather is warming up next week. The last several days have been bitterly cold. It will barely get about 0 today. Womp womp.
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Ugh my kids totally ate things when they were little that they won’t touch now. It’s so frustrating!! I always see you complaining about Paul’s picky eating in your posts, haha! I am actually a fairly picky eater myself, in certain ways, so I try not to judge others! lol!
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Energy has definitely been low, I have seasonal affective disorder every winter. Vitamins, exercise, putting some plans on the calendar to cheer myself. Lauren told me to stop buying candles lol. Hoping your bro in law heals fast and things calm down.
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Hehehe Lauren….. too funny!!
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looks so yummy your dinner and those frozen veggies look so fresh. every time you post some meals, they are mainly Mexican. is that the main meal type at home? I guess because it’s so much better than American food. hahaha… I love a good quesadilla and guacamole.
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Haha the veggies were all fresh, not frozen! That’s why they look fresh! Haha. I’d say we eat maybe 70% Mexican style and 30% American style. Some meals are kind of a combo. There are lots of good American things we like too, but Mexican is just our favorite! And Ivan definitely prefers Mexican style food… he loooooves his Mexican food. 🙂 I always tell him how lucky he is to have married someone who also loves Mexican food AND can match him equally in eating spicy food! He always answers that he wouldn’t have married me if I didn’t like spicy food. 🤣
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