Eek, the week is flying by here.
Life:
Ivan’s mom left Sunday to fly back to Mexico, but then my parents arrived Monday afternoon. Kind of “unfortunately”, because our house has just been so full of people and chaos that we could really probably use some guest-free time! But also “fortunately”, because they came so my dad could keep working on our bathroom remodel, which is a good thing. Also fortunately because- well, they’re my parents and obviously we do love spending time with them, too! But at the same time, it of course affects our rhythms of the week somewhat.
It’s been good though.
We had pizza Monday night and caught up a little.
Tuesday Ethan had a soccer game; my mom came along to watch and my dad stayed home with Asher to get him to swim practice for us. It was my turn to provide the post-game snack for the whole team + varsity reserve, so ~25 snacks + Gatorades. Ivan worked the concession stand during the game too. At least we knocked out our 2 “parent volunteer duties” (snack + concessions) in one day and we’re done with that now.
Yesterday my dad kept working on ripping out the subfloor in the bathroom and detaching the vanity, among other things. Our new Kohler cast iron shower base was delivered and now sits waiting (heavily) in the garage. Then I snuck away to a great local, family-owned tile shop in the afternoon where I think I finally found some tile I really like. Brought samples home and Ivan seems on board, too. I hadn’t had much luck at the big box stores so far and was so excited to stumble across this place on Google. The owner was awesome and so helpful. I think I’ll maybe wait to share pics though, a la Jenny and her kitchen backsplash…I’ll just eventually share the final product and then you can all tell me how much you like it. 😆😆 (Kind of like naming a baby. No one can critique it once it’s on the outside!)
Fall
Still haven’t had the chance to do the rest of my interior fall decorating, but hoping maybe soon! My pumpkins and mums are doing well out there. We’ve had a bunch of rain this week.
Our neighborhood is FULL of naughty squirrels who love to eat up my $7 pumpkins. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way over the years with those guys, so I now arm myself with these weapons:
This seems to work! I smear vaseline all over the pumpkin first with my hands, and then dab hot sauce on paper towel and pat it everywhere. The pumpkin looks normal, albeit slightly shiny, but the scent seems to repel the squirrels. They don’t even take a bite. It also wouldn’t actually harm the squirrels if they did somehow end up eating them (by the end of the season eventually it wears and washes off anyway, but it tends to last the ~month or so I need them protected).
I got out for a longer walk on Tuesday (no gym day) which felt kind of fall-ish, though actually almost hot by the end and I had to tie my fleece around my waist:
Elisabeth is back!
Happy to report for anyone who hasn’t heard yet: Elisabeth’s new blog (to replace her old one that accidentally got deleted) is up and running.
It has a new name: The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist.
SO happy you’re back, friend! ♥ And I love the new name.
Fashion thoughts
Quick random thought of the day…. I will never claim to be any sort of fashionista. I mostly just do my best to look decent and “kind of” in the realm of in style, sorta.
But I was thinking yesterday that despite all of the changing fashion trends, which can leave one’s head spinning a bit, there is one good thing. I feel like more than ever, the current trend is kind of… “anything goes”. I’m sure that’s not actually true for people who know fashion, but it feels to me like we are in a time when people can basically wear whatever and it’s totally fine.
Things like…. ALL different style pants and lengths. Cropped. Ankle. Long flare. Wide leg. Skinny is still generally acceptable enough. Baggy. There doesn’t really seem to be a hard right or wrong at the moment. I feel like pants that previously would have been called “high waters” or “ill fitting” are now just “normal”.
Also- it used to be sort of a fashion faux pau to have your socks showing under your jeans really. (Like back in the day of only full length pants- if your pants went way up when you sat down, they were probably too short…) Now, I see people wearing ankle length or cropped jeans with colorful (or even white) socks blatantly pulled up and sticking out from underneath- from what I can tell, it’s like there is no longer any “rule” about pants + socks. I see teens wearing socks and sandals at the gym with their Birkenstocks. (Also made their way back to style.) CROCS are highly popular again, after being “ugly” for years. I remember a time as a teen when it was kind of nerdy to tuck your shirt in (for women, like with tops or t-shirts), but everyone does that now! You get the idea.
I find this whole “anything goes” thing to at least be sort of refreshing.
Mental load podcast
SHU shared this podcast episode yesterday (from podcast 10 Things to Tell You) about moms + mental load and it was a very validating discussion!
A favorite quote, referring to how it can go when moms try to talk to their partners about this:
“It’s hard to explain it. Because so much is invisible. ‘Have you noticed how we always have toilet paper? Have you noticed how when our kid was struggling I made arrangements for them to do X y or z? Have you noticed that I researched the safest body wash, or you know, or whatever!’ It’s all these really invisible things that can become hard to explain to our partners. And then when we start to list them off, a lot of times the responses are, okayyy….. that seems kinda silly…. It becomes really frustrating to have the conversation around it.
The second defining feature is that it takes up cognitive real estate. The mental load, because it’s invisible, and we’re carrying it in our minds, it crowds out lots of things. It drains our energy regularly during the day… it takes up a lot of space and it wears us out.“
That’s enough random stuff for now!
How’s your week? Dragging or flying?? Any thoughts on current fashion? Are my observations accurate or am I way off base? (<– probably the second one).
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that we may have found tile! That was some mental load that was draining, because we just haven’t had a lot of time to go running around to stores… yet we needed to get this sorted out asap so the project can continue….
GRATEFUL KAE 
Ha ha, yes, I felt exactly the same way about our kitchen tile. Once I was pretty sure I had the one I wanted, I was afraid to post a photo of it in case someone would try to talk me out of it! You’re right, once it’s up everyone is obligated to say they love it, lol. (The other thing of course is, once it’s up it really will look good, unless you’ve made some really crazy choice, which I’m pretty sure you haven’t!)
I’m the last person to talk about fashion, but now that you mentioned it, I think you’re right. “Anything goes” does seem to be the theme for fashion nowadays. I’ll be interested to see if any fashionistas disagree with you, but from what I can see people are just wearing everything.
I should listen to that podcast! Just this morning, I was packing my daughter’s lunch while my husband was off to the gym, and I thought “he has no idea how much more complicated my mornings are than his!” There are so many little things that go into running a household, especially when you have kids.
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You’re totally right- usually whatever we pick will look totally fine, or at least we won’t even know any better once it’s done! Haha. It’s always SUCH a hard decision, especially for people who are not designers for a living… sometimes I see things done in magazines or samples that kind of blow my mind. Like things that I would NEVER think to do, or colors/ materials together that I just wouldn’t have dreamed of, but yet it looks really good! I usually attempt to kind of find a photo or example somewhere that serves as inspiration and then try to kind of model my choice after that, more or less! That’s what we did with the kitchen, anyway.
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I feel like it’s been a recessive year, even though they say it’s not. By one figure, households are paying an extra $700 per month for the same stuff. I love love love the style for kids has been thrifting for awhile. Now to convince my hubs Xmas should be low-key this year 🙂 https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/economy/inflation-rate-spending/index.html
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I definitely believe it!!! I feel like we are just getting slammed from all sides lately with expenses, as well as regular day to day costs being higher. It is making me very twitchy! I have had the same thought about Xmas. We are/were hoping to travel to Mexico for Xmas this year (we’ve never done Xmas in Mexico w/ Ivan’s family), but we are still undecided bc the flight prices are just insanely high for the dates we can travel! If we do end up being able to find reasonable enough tickets to go, I suggested that since we wouldn’t even be home, let’s just keep everything else SUPER low key this year…. the boys don’t need much anyway and I feel they are plenty old enough to understand $ tradeoffs!
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I think your approach to sharing the finished product is the way to go. We did not share our names before our kids were born because people are incredibly rude about names! It’s just so odd. I think we did tell my parents the 2 names we were debating between for Will but now I couldn’t tell you what the other name was? I really wanted to name him Simon but Phil was NOT on board. So I can remember the rejected name but not the acceptable alternative we debated between. But this is quite the digression!
I do think there is more acceptance of different styles, at least among our age group? Maybe because we have all accepted that we know what looks best/feels best on our bodies and no one has to subscribe to a fashion moment that doesn’t appeal to them? I am skinny/cropped jeans for life. I cannot do bell bottoms or wide leg or what have you. The socks thing is VERY funny to me. My retired coworker was an assistant coach to his daughter’s HS track team last spring and he told me he got SO MANY COMMENTS when he wore sandals without socks! Like the kids were appalled that he had his toes exposed? Fashion trends are so weird!
You guys have had a revolving door of guests it seems! it’s probably easier to have your parents about. I feel like it’s easier to have my parents v hosting Phil’s mom if that makes sense? Sounds like your dad is making great progress on the bathroom!
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Thank heavens the tiny sock trend is over. I have issues with tiny socks and am glad that I can wear my socks loud and proud and be on the do whatever you want to do train!
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Agree with the ‘anything goes’ fashion and I’m here for it! I even see A dressing pretty different styles from one day to the next. I feel like that didn’t happen when i was in middle school!
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Kae, I have to tell you, since my older son moved out he has been SO APPRECIATIVE of all of my efforts for his entire life. Like, he’s figured out what it means to have to buy toilet paper. And how much effort I have put into food for his entire life. So that silent work has become appreciated and I am very happy about it.
I laughed at this: “Kind of like naming a baby. No one can critique it once it’s on the outside!” because that same son shares a name with one of my cousins (I have like 50 first cousins, so it’s not really a stretch). He is much older than me so we weren’t close, but I like the name (obviously). So I told NO ONE what we would name him and not one person commented about it. My grandma, on the other hand, did not like the name we chose for my younger son because there was a man of her generation who, in their youth, was quite the rake. He was a womanizer of the nth degree and this is in rural Saskatchewan in the 1940s so it was a thing. But again, I didn’t tell anyone, and my grandma was like “Why did you name him that, it’s like (whatever this guy’s name was).” And I had never heard of this person before in my life!
It seems to me like the fashion for the young girls right now is tiny tiny tiny tops with GIGANTIC PANTS. Like, the more petite the girl, the bigger the pant.
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Yes to the invisible load – so relate to this!
I chuckled at your squirrel repellent tricks. I saw the toilet paper and hot sauce and thought: this sounds painful…haha!
I am here for most of the current fashion trends. I feel like things are relatively comfortable (and modest which, as a mom to a tween, I definitely appreciate)…I still can’t believe Crocs with socks are ALL. THE. RAGE (at least where we live). I wear Crocs as my house shoes all day every day but I never, ever wear them outside the house. I guess now I could and would fit right in. Though they’re bright purple, so about as conspicuous as it comes in terms of colours.
Thanks for sharing the news about my blog. And thanks for all your love, support, and practical support as I got things back up and running ❤
Can't wait to see the bathroom makeover reveal!
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very happy to see Elizabeth’s blog is back, and love the name!!!
on fashion, I think fashion comes and goes and it’s totally normal to get old trends back. I find it liberating that nothing is really out of fashion when it’s viewed at long term.
I am gravitating toward comfort and quality over fashion, maybe because I’m getting old or because I am more confident with myself with whatever I put on.
mental load… I will listen to that on my way to Chicago. this week is flying!!!
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I think you’re kinda spot on with the fashion statement… anything goes thes days. I see all different kind of styles and wouldn’t be able to tell you which one is the “hip one” right now… it seems like people can really choose what they like. It is kinda refreshing (not that I ever paid much attention what was “hip” since I was teen. Haha.
I am so happy you have your parents close by and your dad is helping with the bathroom. So curious about the reveal 🙂
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Thanks for another update, Kae! That repellant… Uffff something! A funny story. We have had HOARDS of deer here in central Jersey and they will pretty much shave everything to the ground. That was before we got the fence. One year, I found this “recipe” for homemade deer repellent: mix vinegar, soap, raw eggs, cayenne pepper, garlic, and let it sit in the sun for a few days. The result? A VILE smelling concoction that you spray on flowers and such. After it dries out, you can’t smell it but the deer can. Idk I feel like that repelled the deer and neighbors 🤣🤣
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