Some real time updates!

Hello! Finally back in “present voice” here! Yay! It feels like AGES ago since I’ve written a real time post. It’s hard to believe, but we’ve been home from Hawaii for almost 2 weeks already. Plus a 2 week trip… means it’s just about a full month since we left for vacation! Mind.blown.

So, what have I been doing since we got home? Gosh. It has been kind of a strange time.

First Few Days

We got home on Sunday 6/16, and because you all know we are flat out gluttons for punishment, we both had to work on Monday morning. Jet lag be damned. lol.

Those first fews days I was tired. I mean, I won’t say the jet lag was “awful” or anything- I mostly just did my best to completely ignore it. I just basically carried on and didn’t try to do any adjusting or naps or anything.

But we clearly didn’t have much time to prep for re-entry. So that first week was a blur. I actually didn’t get real groceries until the following Saturday! Probably appalling to many people, I know. But we made do with pantry staples, a few quick meals out and a good ol Little Caesar’s pizza one night. No one starved!

We had everything unpacked within a day or two. Not a huge deal. Ivan did the laundry in there somewhere. I still do have a toiletries pouch hanging out in my room that needs to get put away and some other loose ends to tie up…. yes, almost 2 weeks after our trip. That’s on the docket for this weekend.

Workouts

By the end of Week 1 home I felt itching to get back into some workouts! I have tried to pick my regular schedule back up now (4 days strength at gym) + I decided to pick some running back up now, too! I have run exactly 4 times since we got home and have felt sort of like death on all of them. Ha. Not sure why it feels a lot harder than when I dabbled in running this winter?! I mean, yes, it’s warmer now, but can that make THAT much of a difference?? Did I lose literally all cardiovascular endurance during my vacation? Lingering jet lag and just general tiredness? What the heck. Anyway, I’m trying to stick with it for a bit and see if I can make some progress. So far, not convinced it will ever feel easier….

Ethan has joined me a few times at the gym, though he is slightly better at saying he will go to the gym at 6:30 a.m. than he is at actually going at 6:30 a.m.

Asher’s summer swim practices have been from 6-7:30 most mornings and that’s honestly been a bit of a killer. I don’t mind getting up early, but there’s something about having to be UP AND OUT THE DOOR DRIVING MY CAR by 5:40, multiple days in a row, that I find a bit exhausting.

On the plus side, not having school runs plus the earlier mornings means I have been very consistent with morning walks! Even if I work out, I have still been walking Charlie every morning too.

Challenges/ stress

I’ve also just felt generally wiped out since we got home. Between the jet lag and the abrupt re-entry to work, kids “suddenly” on summer break (ie lots of interruptions and driving responsibilities to/ from their jobs, etc.), a fairly busy couple of weeks at my work and then a very complex/ stressful interpersonal situation happening with a close extended family member (which I will not say much more about here, but will just say it’s not anything in our nuclear little family of 4, don’t worry, but it’s something that we are being pulled into for assistance and support and we are invested in the overall wellbeing of this person and it has occupied a lot of my and Ivan’s mental headspace in the last couple weeks).

I probably care a little too much (and also, the outcome actually could end up impacting our day-to-day life in some ways for a while, possibly, depending on which way the cookie crumbles), but some of the issues make my head spin and I keep trying to repeat the mantra “Not my circus, not my monkeys. Not my circus, not my monkeys.” (Except sometimes the monkeys get into my circus and then they become my monkeys. Darn it! 😫)

Cooking

I basically did zero cooking in Week One home, but after a $$$$ grocery haul last weekend, I have been happy to cook a bit.

A couple hits this week have been this lemon chicken/green beans/ potato dish:

Also, I made a shrimp fettucine alfredo last night (with broccoli on the side, because Asher didn’t want broccoli IN the pasta… eye roll…). Here is the world’s worst photo (I snapped it to text to Ethan who was at work and asking if I was actually making the dinner I had said I was going to, presumably to decide if he should eat a cheeseburger at work before coming home, or wait for whatever I made):

And, why not add in more fun…

So on top of feeling just a little out of sorts over here, why not up the ante and get Charlie neutered this week, too! Wahoo. 😑

He had his appt at 7:30 Thursday morning and I picked him up at 4:30.

He spent the rest of the evening looking at me like this:

He’s doing…. fine, I guess. Doesn’t seem to be in terrible pain or anything and tolerates the cone- though he definitely does NOT like it. He mostly just sits there acting a bit confused as to what on earth is on his head. Also, it scares the living daylights out of him any time he bumps it into the wall or a chair or anything.

The vet said 10-14 days with it on. OMG. It’s going to be a long couple weeks….. 😫

I did order a surgical suit (should be here tonight) and will see if that’s a viable alternative. Although he is a pretty big fan of chewing on fabric things, so I could definitely see him putting his mind to sitting and chewing through the suit or something. Might be ok when we’re with him, though? Then we could just use the cone when we have to leave him alone. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Tips from seasoned dog parents???

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I was going to try to squeeze in a little recap of Asher’s 8th grade graduation on May 30th (the night before Hawaii trip, which I totally skipped over on the blog), but this is plenty long already. Will save for another time!

So that’s where we are. Doing fine but overall just a little…. off kilter feeling and a little mentally frazzled.

Oh well. On the plus side, we don’t have too many major events/ activities coming up in the near future. So we’ll slowly right the ship, I’m sure.

(* I CANNOT believe that 2024 is half over, though. That is freaking me out pretty bad. I would share a mid-year goals update, but I am not sure I have actually looked at my annual goals since January, so….. guess I won’t be doing that…. LOL. 🤣)

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the warm weather on summer walks, even if it has been annoyingly rainy this summer.