Happy Friday. Whew, it’s been a week. A couple unfortunately non-bloggable stressful things popped up, but hopefully we’re on the downswing now.
Here are 5 things on this Friday….
1. Kid Updates
This week on Wednesday Ethan’s school had a full day Community Service event. They do this every year. The entire high school gets split up and shipped out into the community to do ~5 hours of volunteer work. It’s a cool event!
Here are some nice pics I saved that the school shared with us:
LOTS of busses ready to cart kids off to many different sites.
Ethan ended up at a local food pantry all day and apparently spent a lot of time bagging up pears.
Tonight Ethan has a soccer game at 4:30 after school, and then he and friends are going to the Homecoming Varsity football game. Should be fun!! I remember those days. Today is a “dress up in school colors day” and they’re having a Pep Rally.
Tomorrow night is the Homecoming dance. He’s going with 3 other friends and they’re all going out to dinner at a casual place near their school beforehand. I’m happy he’s partaking in all of the fun activities. 🙂
Asher stayed home not feeling well on Wednesday, but seemed to bounce right back and was better by Thursday. He is still on a huge fishing kick…. met up with a friend last night yet again before swim practice:
2. A fun + easy dinner idea
I made this “Chicken Pepperoni Pizza Bake” the other night and it was a) super easy b) very kid friendly and c) really tasty!
It’s basically just chicken breasts, seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano. Brown in a skillet, then put in baking pan. Top with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. Bake. The end.
SO EASY. If your kids like pepperoni pizza, this is a nice (and higher protein) alternative.
3. I attended Dr. Jacqueline Nesi’s “Parenting + Tech Webinar” on Tuesday over my lunch hour.
It was well done! (By chance did anyone else listen in?)
A couple things I liked:
🔷 a) At the beginning she had us do an exercise where she said, “Go ahead and grab your phone. Just hold it for a minute. Notice your hand position, what you’re thinking/feeling, what you wish to do with it.” Then she had us unlock it, and pause again. Where does your finger immediately want to move to? Why? What’s the first place you instinctively wish to go on your phone?
She put a big emphasis on not “demonizing” phone/ tech use, but rather really approaching it with a mindful approach. Why are we (or our kids) using it, when are we using it, etc. What are we/ they trying to get out of it? Being aware of the “why”, and helping kids to think this through, is a good thing.
Is it just…you want a distraction? Are you feeling lonely? Are you looking something up? Are you watching fishing videos? Or do you feel a compulsion to check your game or social media? Is it just a habit? Or ________ (fill in the blank).
🔷 b) I liked how she validated that “all smartphone use is not equal”. Lately there’s a lot of “tech is bad!!” narratives out there, but she pushed back on that. Even for kids, not all smartphone use is bad.
🔷 c) She also pointed out that “kids having screentime is not automatically a “problem”. Again, there’s a lot of buzz around phones and kids and social media and on and on. Yes, there are some problems, but it’s also ok to settle down a little. Just because a kid uses a smartphone or a TV or a device not does not mean that there is inherently a problem.
🔷 d) She asked, “What are your best tech habits? What are your worst tech habits? What is one change to your tech habits that you could easily make today?” (and encouraged having this discussion with kid/teens).
Overall, I just liked her level-headed and balanced approach. She didn’t go crazy and say, “Throw away all phones! Never let your child’s eyes see the light of a screen!!!!!” She did discuss the risks and issues and suggestions for what to do, too, of course, but not in a way that made you feel like a terrible parent if you’ve ever let your child use a phone/tablet/TV.
I also appreciated her big focus on open communication with kids about it. Being curious, asking questions, encouraging open discussion with our kids – not approaching it all from a “these are the screentime rules and you must blindly follow them because I’m the parent and you’re the kid, no questions asked, no negotiating” viewpoint.
(She’s also a mom with lots going on, a big job, and is pregnant with another child, due in a few weeks. So I feel like her advice is very relatable and real.)
4. Starting tomorrow, there are 100 days until the end of the year. 😳
WHAT. HOW.
On the Happier podcast they pointed this out, and encouraged people to use it as a natural boundary for maybe setting some fun “end of the year” goal or streak. Like a big push to the finish line.
I’ve had a lot going on and am already focusing on prioritizing my big “pillars for a happy life” (walking, exercise and a little reading). I’m not really in a position to tackle some big 100 day project.
But I did think perhaps I could set a goal to do at least 5-10 minutes of my back exercises every day for the next 100 days. More on this another time, but I had my chiropractor 3 month re-eval on Monday. X-rays showed… some improvement, but my symptoms are largely unchanged. Or maybe even worsening still? Before shelling out more $$ to continue, I said I need to think about this more.
I’m just not convinced the chiropractor is going to solve this. (No offense to him… I feel like I might have inadvertently kind of offended him by my frustrated/ skeptical comments that “I’m just not sure this is actually doing anything….”). But it’s the truth! Chiropractic care is not really covered by my insurance after 3 months, and it’s expensive. If I’m not getting results after going religiously since June, I’m not sure it’s worth continuing.
BUT it is true that I have been very spotty with the PT type exercises he also prescribed. (He said my best bet was chiropractic adjustments PLUS home exercises.) I’ve been 100% with my 2x/week adjustments, but….not very good with the exercises. I always put it off to the end of the day and then I’m tired… And they are boring.
Anyway, before I say that isn’t helping either, I should probably actually do them. Consistently. For 100 days, maybe??
5. A funny + true graph:
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for randomly ending up laying in bed with Ethan 2x this week watching old re-runs of Modern Family and Everybody Loves Raymond on TV. He’s not a big TV watcher but these shows are so funny and he was getting a big kick out of them. (He’d never seen either before.) I enjoyed the totally mindless, comedy break, too. 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
Ha! That snake doodle cartoon cracked me up. I am not a doodler! However, I am a list maker and will make random lists of…groceries or to-dos or even things I don’t really need lists of (running schedule or something like that) when I am bored in a meeting. We used to have SO MANY meetings in one of my last jobs and I swear all we did was talk about what other meetings we needed to have in order to…?? (solve a problem? make people feel important? I am not sure)
Your plan for back exercises sounds good to me! I think that you need to actually do them to be sure that it is not working. Maybe since they are boring you can watch 10 mins of Everybody Loves Raymond while you are doing them, or something equally as fun, so that you are not dreading it each day?
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Yes! I think this is one where I need to “pair it with something enjoyable”. I also have thought maybe trying to do at least 5 minutes of exercises in the morning/ during the day when I have more energy might help. Like if I can do at least the bare minimum, and then do a bit more before bed. Even if I hit a little bit, that has to be better than none…
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Sigh, I know that not everything has an easy answer, but it’s a bit of a red flag that your chiro got huffy when you said you weren’t sure if the treatment was working. I do like the idea of making the most of the last 100 days and trying to build the habit of doing the PT – but maybe not sticking with treatment for another 100 days if you don’t see an improvement.
The phone exercise reminds me of last year after I stopped running. I would pick up my phone every time that I got bored or frustrated as one does, but once I unlocked it I would have literally nothing to do on it. I didn’t realize how much I was looking at running apps and doing runner things like obsessively checking the weather every 5 minutes and all of a sudden those things were gone. I got a lot of amusement out of it.
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I’m not sure exactly if he got huffy really, but maybe a little bit. I felt just a twinge of awkwardness there which did unsettle me just a tad. I feel a little conflicted since I do realize that sometimes things take a lot of time to resolve, so on the one hand I want to give it a fair shot….but also, it’s expensive, and I have done a full 3 months already, so…. I’m just not sure!! I think I’m opting for not continuing the chiropractor for now and am going to explore some other options.
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I am not a doodler! I don’t remember the last time I doodled anything. But I have zero artistic ability so anything I doodled would look ridiculous and it’s not an outlet for me.
That class on tech sounds really interesting. I should listen to it sometime! I have missed a lot of “bonus” type of stuff lately since work has been kind of nutty. But I should make an effort to listen to that if it was recorded/available for replay. I really love her newsletter. It’s one of the few that I make a point to read.
Laying in bed watching shows with Ethan sounds sweet! It’s nice that you can still get those one-on-one type of moments with him!
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I know, it’s hard to always fit in extras in the work day like that. Fortunately the timing worked out in my day this time. I think it may be available for replay!
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I’m a list maker but also a web browser, I think I’ve got a really short attention span. Everyone talks so slowly, I wish I could attend my meetings at 1.5 speed!
Re. phones, we stayed with my husband’s cousin this weekend and she has a 14 year old, and 11 year old. The 11-year-old commutes to school solo on the train so they ended up giving him a phone earlier than they would have if they went to school locally. But their rules sounded strict but sensible – no Youtube (which feels draconian but Youtube is a cesspit) and no phones upstairs. My son’s 6 so we don’t have the tech issue yet (2 hours or so of TV a week, maybe 30 minutes on a reading game on the ipad) but I was quite inspired by the phone downstairs rule and have been charging my phone downstairs after dinner. My husband is unconvinced but I’m a reader and he isn’t, so I guess there’s less for him to do after kid bedtime. We don’t have a TV upstairs either.
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I feel like I am limited to just doodling, because other things like web browsing or list making take up too much mental energy for me and then I find I’m not really paying attention. At least with doodling, it scratches the “I’m bored” itch a little bit while still allowing me to listen more intently. I struggle most in meetings where I feel like people aren’t necessarily talking “slowly”, but maybe just talking TOO MUCH. Like someone will kind of go on and on about something, and I’ll be thinking, get to the point already!!!
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I am sure you treasure these times when you get to hang out with each of your boys as long when you still can 😉
That snake doodle is funny and so accurate (well, I don’t doodle but I check out mentally in unnecessarily long meetings).
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I do!! It makes me so happy when they still want to snuggle or just hang out with me. Fortunately I feel like we still get a pretty good amount of this!! 🙂
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that’s totally me during meetings when there’s more than 4 person. sooooo boring 99% of the meetings.
chicken pizza sounds delightful, I just made chicken mildnesa, so many that the family will have for few weeks. everyone loves it and relatively easy to make a cook.
love the pics of fall. I miss that.
phone usage. my girls still don’t have a phone for them, one Sofia uses for alarm, FaceTime with grandma, and zoom piano class. no apps there so I feel we are still kind of screen free.
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We love all milanesas too- chicken or steak. The boys aren’t as big of fans for some reason though of the breaded meat, but Ivan and I love it!!!
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That tech webinar sounds GREAT. It’s true- smartphones aren’t going away and we have to learn to live with them and use them well.
It’s funny, I listened to that same podcast AND blogged about it AND have a similar thought for the last 100 days- to do my foot stretches every single day and either see if it finally helps, or rule it out once and for all as a solution to my plantar fasciitis. I think we should do this! We’ll be accountability buddies 🙂
Oh, it was also our homecoming this week- the game got rained out and my daughter opted not to go to the dance this year. Sigh! Hopefully next year will be a little more festive.
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Yes, we should!! That sounds great!! Except I already missed Day 1 on 9/23, OOPS! Hahahaha. Not looking good for me. I resolve to start today though! And I’ll just add one extra day on the end. 😉
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I had to share that infographic with T- he is meetings a lot so he got a great laugh about it lol
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Hahah, right?! It’s just so accurate. 😂
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I recently wrote a post about doodles! I tend to doodle nested amorphous blobs and then color in every other layer. I sort of wonder what our doodles say about us!
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Hahaha, I don’t know!! I feel like the fact that I tend to write my name in block letters while being actually very BAD at block letters (like they always end up kind of asymmetrical….) has to do with my school days when some girls seemed to be able to write really pretty, perfect block lettered things. Haha. Like I wish I were good at it, so I keep trying, even now as an adult. lol!
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That tech webinar sounds so good! I agree that not all smartphone usage is created equal, and also that a mindful approach to usage is the best way. I have found that for myself for sure!
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I’m thinking more and more mindfulness is key to so many things!! Just that first step of awareness is so important.
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