Blog break catch up

Hi friends! Sorry about the unintentional week-long blog break.

I was not away on a mysterious adventure, but really just here at home, staying busy with regular life! I love blogging and reading blogs, but sometimes Real Life > Blog Life. 🙂

Also, a big part of what kicked off the blog break was this:

Last Tuesday I had, um, a little run-in with a DOOR and I lost. 😩 I was pretty sure I likely broke my middle finger, or at the very least did some combination of badly bruising, jamming and/or spraining it. It was very, very painful.

I did not want to “deal” with going to the doctor, because a) hassle, b) I swear x-rays always end up costing several hundred dollars, even with our insurance and c) since my finger was not drastically deformed or anything, I was 99% sure the treatment would just be splinting it, anyway.

I did not have a splint though, at first, so I spent Tuesday and most of Wednesday with my finger splinted on a bent over straw. 😅

Wednesday night though I finally decided I should probably make a trip over to Walgreens and get a more presentable splint, because I had to work on site at the hospital on Thursday. A terrible tape job + a plastic straw is not the most professional look for a…. nurse. Ha.

Anyway, got a nice splint + some Coban wrap and that looked much better. (see above)

My finger really hurt, though the splint definitely helped a lot. It is SO ANNOYING and amazingly hard to do things with 2 fingers immobilized and in pain. One of those things where you think, eh, how important can that one finger be?

Turns out it is Very Important.

Opening things, pulling things, holding things, TYPING, even getting dressed…. I did adjust some with time, but I have a huge new appreciation for the 5 finger design.

As I said, I worked on site on Thursday, which always feels like a Production now, to my spoiled work-from-home self. I had my annual performance evaluation (all gold stars 😇) and another meeting.

On Friday, I had a very busy work day (especially for a Friday), and then Friday night we went to see my sister-in-law in the hospital, who just had a baby! From there, we went out for dinner with Ivan’s brother + his girlfriend.

Saturday morning we did a sort of family cleaning extravaganza, since the whole house really needed it and hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned since we got home from Florida.

By noon I left to go watch Ethan’s first soccer scrimmage of the season. It was a really beautiful day. We’ve had a cold front which I have very mixed feelings about- it hasn’t been cold cold, so that’s good, but it’s definitely COLD for August (like highs in low 70s, lows in the 40s-50s!!). Saturday was pretty warm and sunny though (i.e. I wore shorts and soccer t-shirt and was comfortable but not hot).

It was really fun to be back in the bleachers!

Ethan is on the full Varsity roster this year (last year he was on the Varsity Reserve team as a sophomore, so kind of straddling JV + Varsity- he suited up for both games and was a starter on JV and only played sometimes on Varsity). This year he’s one of only a few Juniors who made the full Varsity squad, so he’s pleased about that.

I texted SHU after the game, “I just love youth sports! I really do.” After not attending as many games/events this past spring + summer, I realized how much I really have enjoyed sports being a big part of our family life over the years. 🙂 Definitely special memories I’ll always cherish.

When we got back from the game, my parents were already at our house. They were both coming for the weekend, and then my dad left on Sunday and my mom has stayed. It’s Asher’s last week of summer break and he didn’t have too many major plans, so we thought it’d be fun for him to hang out with grandma for a few days.

Also, my mom offered to help me wrap up this storage room clean out project! IT IS SO CLOSE NOW!! It looks and feels amazing. I’ll share pics when it’s done done.

*I am so excited to have this massive storage room project almost complete. This was on my 2020 goals list! (And every year thereafter- and now it’s 2025.) So seriously, if I accomplish NOTHING else in 2025, I feel like this year can be counted as a win.

The rest of Saturday + Sunday were spent with my parents, dinner, chatting, etc. My dad left in the afternoon on Sunday after lunch at Chipotle, and Ivan and I did a bunch of yard work while Asher and my mom went to run a couple of errands and Ethan was working.

My mom and I went in the hot tub for a really long time on Sunday late afternoon (it was quite crisp out) and that was super lovely! We ended the day on the couch watching a re-run of Pretty Woman on TV while editing her Storyworth entries on my laptop. (I gifted her Storyworth a long time ago now, and she’s completed it, but she needed help to edit it/ re-size some photos/ etc so that we can order the final book!)

Then it was Monday already, and a new work week and all of that….

I finally took the splint off my finger yesterday, and I am actually typing with it right now with only minimal pain! I was debating sucking it up and going to get an x-ray after all, just to make sure it wasn’t broken (so I’d know if I should keep the splint on or not), but I decided it is suddenly much better and more mobile and I think it’s going to be okay.

My mom will head home tonight, so after work I’ll drive her halfway to meet up with my dad to hand her off. It’s been so fun having her here! Usually both of my parents come, which is great, but there’s also something special about just my mom coming now and then. Just a little different vibe, I guess, when it’s just mom/daughter time!

Ethan has his first real soccer game tomorrow night, Friday is nacho night, and then- a much anticipated long weekend with NO major plans! 🥳 I’m super excited to not have much on the docket, honestly. And then, Asher starts school on Tuesday and the new school year will be “official” over here.

A few other random bits from the past week:

🔷A walk with Asher + Charlie:

🔷Asher’s bed comforter badly needed a refresh (literally had a HOLE in his old one), so he picked out this dark grey one. I was skeptical at first (too dark?) but I actually think it looks great! Very “teen masculine”, I think.

🔷 My sister + I sent each other approximately 5,423 texts as we worked out ideas + plans for next summer…but it all finally culminated in us getting beach condos booked for next August for a JOINT family beach trip! Yay!!!

I think that’s about all I have to report from the week. Sorry if I’ve been MIA on your blogs! Will try and catch up soon. 🙂

Oh, and I also have done ZERO exercise of any kind (besides walking Charlie) since last Wednesday. Ugh. With my finger, there was no way I could really lift. But I probably could have managed to do something– or at least some cardio…. I guess I just totally leaned in and made it both a “blog AND exercise break”. Ha.

*Note: by removing both blogging + exercise from my life, oddly, everything else fits in a lot better, too!! 😬 It was actually really nice in a way to not be trying to scramble and squeeze these things in. But, that said, I definitely don’t want to exclude them forever. Just an observation, I guess.

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that my finger is slowly but surely becoming more functional again!!! Never will take my fingers for granted again. 😉