🔷 I feel 1,000 times better and more myself this week. The biggest factor I think is a more normal workweek, where I’m more in control of my schedule again. The audit isn’t over yet, but the “heaviest lifting” re: prep work is done. So this week I’m not needing to focus on any of that and it feels SO GOOD.
🔷 Also, my life “works” 1,000 times better when I a) exercise and b) get outside to walk. If I ever mention on here again that I’m letting these things slide, someone drive up to Wisconsin, come to my house, and slap me. 😂
🔷A parenting win: I saw mention on Facebook from another mom frantically lamenting that she couldn’t get a “back to school sports physical” appointment for her son (high school fall sports start up in August). My boys had their physicals last August and they’re valid for 2 years, so I knew we were okay for now, but it prompted me to message our Peds office and get a copy of the forms sent over (I couldn’t find ours and knew I’d need to submit the paperwork soon to school). ALSO- I already scheduled the boys’ sports physicals for NEXT summer (when they’ll come due). This feels like a major victory and I know my Future Self will be so thrilled come next July when I’m not scrambling to get an appointment!! Please stand by while I step away from the keyboard to pat myself on the back…. 😄
🔷I went grocery shopping last night around 7:20 p.m. and it was so great. Apparently Wednesday nights are a very quiet time, because it was empty.
🔷 Random note from the grocery store: A guy walked by me talking into his phone, dictating a text. I do this from time to time on my Apple watch, but it was very amusing listening to someone else do it. “Thanks (comma) I will stop by after (period) Do you need anything else (question mark)” Hahahaha.
🔷Another random note from the grocery store: Do a lot of people use those big water jugs that they sell? You know what I mean, those huge plastic ones? In Mexico at my in-laws they have those all the time in this metal “water jug holder” thing and that’s where they pour all their drinking water from. It sits out just at room temperature. But this makes sense to me, since no one drinks the tap water in Mexico really. But I feel like in the U.S. it’s either fine to drink the tap water (I certainly do) or many refrigerators have the filtered water nowadays. Just curious. I did see a man walk by with like 2 of them in his cart. I did not see any of those water-jug-holders for sale (maybe I missed them) though, so then I got curious if people use them the same way like in Mexico (you put the jug in the water holder and then tip it forward to pour into your cup) or is there some other way people use these?? (Clearly I’ve never had one of these in my home… this may be a dumb question?)
🔷 One more random grocery store thought: Reason #543 I’m really glad I only have 2 kids…. dang groceries are expensive. Ethan has a friend from school who is part of a set of quadruplets. Quadruplets!!! Can you even imagine. And this family also has 2 other kids. It’s one thing when they are younger, but these quadruplets are now entering 9th grade. Can you even imagine how much food they must go through?! My cart was full to the brim just for my family of 4. I think if I were shopping for all of them I would need like 4 carts. Haha. I don’t even want to know what their grocery bill is.
🔷 Speaking of food, Ethan helped me cook dinner last night. I had run to the gym after work and when I got home, I asked him to help me. At first he resisted but I said, “No. Come on. In THREE YEARS you are going to be an “adult”. You cannot go out into the world not knowing how to do anything! Let’s go.” So he joined me, and…. he liked it! At the end he said, I kind of like cooking! Maybe you can find me some more easier recipes that I can make. I SURE WILL!! 😉
🔷 It is HOT here this week. And I’m actually really into it!! I’m sure I wouldn’t like it if it were constantly so hot and muggy, but I love the warm, humid mornings and the nice warm nights. In Wisconsin even when it’s hot during the day, it’s often still cooler and almost chilly in the early morning and at night. I hate being cold, so I love being able to go sit on my deck at 5:30 a.m. and have it be WARM!
I also LOOOOOOVE morning walks when it’s warm in the summer. I am realizing that I really need to prioritize getting out to walk in the MORNING. It is joyous to me. A mid-day walk just doesn’t do the same thing for me. I do like an evening walk, too, but a morning walk trumps them all.
🔷 Something that made me laugh this week, because I’ve totally been guilty of this….(“I need a snack. Maybe I’ll have some celery sticks and baby carrots. OR, no, actually, maybe I’ll eat a bowl of Cheez-Its….😂)
It’s a VERY SUNNY Thursday over here…. hope it’s sunny where you are, too! 🌞🌞
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for a random conversation with a stranger at the store last night! A young woman stopped me to compliment me on my tennis shoes and we got chatting for almost 10 minutes! She was fairly newly married and newer to the area. She and her husband are hoping to start a family soon and somehow we got talking about our jobs and my kids and all sorts of things! It was kind of funny but a pleasant little blip in my otherwise ho-hum grocery trip.
GRATEFUL KAE 
We have switched our schedule from going to the grocery store on Friday nights to Thursday nights (for very boring reasons) and we don’t even leave the house until 7:30, so it’s probably 8 when we get there and it’s so lovely. I recommend people do go to the grocery store in off-peak hours if possible.
Also, I used to work at a grocery store in college (so, 20 years ago…egads!) and people would buy those blue containers of water. I always suspected they were for people with a) small businesses with water coolers or b) non-potable water, like well water or city water that tasted gross. I have no evidence to back this up, but we sold plenty twenty years ago.
I have to admit that the fact it’s not really cooling down at night is giving me the sads. I actually like it when we can open up and just have fans at night, rather than running the AC, but this past week it’s either been raining or not getting cool enough. I appreciate that you don’t like being cold, but there has to be a middle ground!
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i’m so jealous your ability book physicals in advance! I tried to book A’s physical for August in early July and was told the schedule would not be out until the end of the month (so it’s on my planner for tomorrow . . .) – so frustrating!
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also I’ll take your cool mornings . . . ANY DAAYYYYYYYYYYYY. ha!
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I love those random social connections! T and I went to a friend’s for a nibble dinner last night and were walking home and ran into our neighbour working in the community garden and then an older woman with the cutest labrador who was amazing with my dog-shy kid. She told us her life story (my husband thinks it’s my American accent which inspires people to do this) and let us pet Coco the dog.
We got back from holiday on Thursday, are leaving again Saturday, and got hit with a stomach bug at the weekend. Coupled with heavy ran off and on, I’ve had very little outside time. White knuckling it with no childcare tomorrow and I’m going to take a long lunch so we can cycle or walk to the library and run around the playpark.
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We use those blue bottles daily for our bottom-loading water cooler. The town water is fine, but tastes like chlorine and I didn’t want a tap filtration system. Plus, having a water cooler means we can get ice cold water at all times (we have a VERY old fridge that doesn’t have a water dispenser).
We had company this week (total of 12 people at my house for most meals), and we were going through one big blue jug each day.
We’re fortunate that about 8 minutes from our house we have access to a free natural spring with AMAZING water (I know water is water…but it’s really not. This is truly delicious water!), so we go and fill them up there. When it’s just our family of 4, and especially in the winter, a jug will last us a week. But with hot summer weather and all those guests, the water use was intense!
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Turned 70 and always talking to people, drives my grandchildren and daughter to commence eye rolling glances.
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We drink tap water! But we had a well where I grew up and it wasn’t good for drinking. But we had a water purification system so could drink from the fridge (filtered water went into the fridge) or from a special tap by the sink. My parents have a well at the lake, too, and have that same set up. I would hate to have to buy water!!
I am glad you are feeling back on track! You have had a lot of fun lately but travel and guests really throw things off!!
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MY MIL HAS THOSE BIG WATER JUGS! She gets them delivered, though, I cannot imagine lugging one out of the grocery store. We have a fancy new filtration system in our house so we use tap water, but before that I just had a less-fancy filtration system under our sink with a special tap, for drinking water. I mean, it’s all city water so it’s perfectly drinkable, but still, I am a fancy woman now. Ha! My extended family was all in SE Saskatchewan when I was growing up, and the water tasted just like chlorine back then.
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Yes! A morning walk (or run!) trumps all – I agree. It’s so nice out early in the morning.
It sounds like getting back into your regular routine feels good. It’s nice to be on vacation and traveling, but the reentry into the real world is always a bit of a shake-up…. glad to hear you’ve arrived.
P.S. I have never used the dictate feature. LOL
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HA! I always think about people who have twins, or triplets (now I’ll add quadruplets as well.). My son eats SO MUCH. It is insane. I shudder to think if there were two of him (forget about four- I seriously can’t imagine how
they afford the groceries. Not to mention college…?????)
I agree with Engie- the person buying those huge bottles of water might own a business. I know we have those at work. For home, we have a reverse osmosis system because our tap water isn’t very good. That is, when we have a SINK. At the present moment we’re buying gallon jugs of water from the grocery store, ugh.
Glad you’re feeling back to normal!
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We have a firm deliver those water jugs to our office once a month. They go on a stand.
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