A pre-holiday gratitude list

I had the fleeting thought yesterday, while looking around my decorated house, of, “Awww, the Christmas season here at home is basically over now!”

CHRISTMAS is obviously not over yet, but we leave for Ireland tonight (!) and return after Christmas. We will certainly leave our decorations up for a while- always through New Year’s week, and seeing as we’ll probably do another little gift exchange here, too, I won’t take anything down until after that happens.

But the magic is not “the same” after Christmas, in my opinion.

That’s okay, though. I feel like I’ve leaned into the Christmas spirit pretty heavily this past ~month or so. LOTS of Christmas music!! In the kitchen, in the car, while working… Twinkle lights, candles, etc. A little cookie baking. A few Christmas movies, though hopefully still more to come.

We didn’t get to any big Christmas event, as we typically try to- most years we go to some sort of show (A Christmas Carol, a performance, etc.) but it didn’t work this year. I even missed my work Christmas party. Oh well- we’re going to Ireland this year!

Anyway, I’ve had a few “thankful thoughts” floating around in my head this week, so I wanted to share those today.

Pre-holiday gratitude list

❄️You know how the last 2 weeks were CRAZY??? I had so many appointments and evening “things”. Well, the stars all aligned and this week was blissfully light. Maybe the heavens knew that I was on the verge of losing my actual shit if things didn’t back off a little. lol.

We had essentially nothing on the schedule this week, which opened up time to take care of several things we really needed to do but hadn’t had time!

Monday after work, Ivan and I ran a few quick errands- a library drop-off, a pharmacy pick up, and a curbside gift pick up, then called it a night and went out for dinner. 🙂

Tuesday we actually went out again- more errands!-, this time to the mall for another return, a Barnes and Noble stop (where I tracked down SHU’s newly released book, Best Laid Plans! Just chilling there on the shelf right above Cal Newport’s Deep Work and next to a table full of James Clear’s Atomic Habits… you know, no big deal… ;)), then Target, TJMaxx, etc. We didn’t get home until almost 10 pm! But I was grateful to have a window of time to actually do all this stuff.

Wednesday I developed a splitting headache during my workday and was SO thankful to have nothing on the agenda for the evening. We ordered Chinese take out, went in the hot tub, and then I collapsed on the couch and we watched the 2018 Grinch.

(Ethan was studying for finals + Asher had the car and drove himself home from swim, making this relaxing Wednesday night possible! #teensforthewin)

I’m also so glad we had time on Sunday and we basically cleaned the whole house (it badly needed it!!). Having the house nice and clean heading into our trip feels like a gift to my future self.

❄️I’m grateful I finally had time on Sunday to order holiday cards (during the disastrous Packers game). Super late, yes, but it’s done. I opted to just order “Happy New Year” cards this year, since I knew I won’t have time to mail them until we get home. Oh well! If you’re on my list, sit tight- it’s coming! 🙂

❄️My volleyball friends sent out a bunch of pics this week after our Christmas PJ party last Friday. It’s a Hassle to block everyone’s faces, but here are a few, so you get the idea.

It was so fun and one of the most true “holiday vibe” things I’ve done this season so far. 🙂

Bonus- I came home nicely stocked with holiday treats!

❄️ I had to stop at the hardware store for something yesterday, and on a whim I saw these cute Christmas slippers on sale for $9. I grabbed them to pack for Ireland! Perfect timing, because my only Christmas slipper socks have seen better days and I’m not lugging my big Uggs along.

❄️ The house on our block with the dog treats tin switched over to these adorable Christmas cookie style dog treats. How cute! Charlie is a fan.

❄️ I’m so grateful that I’m not a morning news anchor. Hahaha. Let me explain… So every morning when I come downstairs, I turn the TV on to the local news while I make my tea, etc. And every morning at ~5:20 a.m., when I see the news anchors already all dressed, makeup on, and sometimes, like today, already out on location reporting (today from the Olbrich Gardens holiday train show), I think, “What on earth time did they wake up to already be in that perfect looking state at this hour?! And they’re not only awake, they’ve driven multiple places and are all chipper and cheerful already! Impressive.”

I’m so glad I don’t have to do that every day. Bless them. Ha.

Random one, but from the heart. 😅

❄️I’m grateful Ethan is almost done with his final exams! AND that his finals schedule worked in our favor. Back when we booked the Ireland flights, he didn’t have his exam schedule yet. Technically, he could have had an exam this afternoon, which would have royally conflicted with us needing to head to Chicago on time for a ~7 p.m. flight.

But we really wanted to fly Friday (allowing us to get to Ireland on Saturday, not Sunday), so we decided to take our chances. Worst case, we figured he could somehow plead to take the exam early, I guess.

Fortunately, it wasn’t an issue. His last exam (AP U.S. History) is at 8:00, so he’s officially on break as of about 10 am!

Also grateful it seems like his exams are going pretty well so far, he thinks.

❄️I’ve been trying out the Opal screen time app and am liking it a lot! I have the free version, which has more than met my personal needs.

I mostly have just been using the “block” features. I like this better than Apple’s screen time options, because instead of only blocking the total time spent on an app, it lets you block how many times you can open it. This is KEY for me, because my biggest screen time problem is over-checking.

I have it set to completely block my email, Facebook and What’s App on my phone during work hours (from 8 am -5 pm).

It also only allows me to open Facebook 3x/ day (for max of 5 minutes each), and my email a total of 5x.

This has been pretty game changer for me. I love that these things are not totally gone, but they are severely limited. I’ll admit by instinct I do sometimes forget and try to open the apps during “blocked” times. If I do, I get a message like this and can’t get in:

It lets you know how many “checks” you have left, too.

For example:

I suppose to some people this could sound totally insane, but it honestly feels really low key to me! It calmly blocks my “trouble spots” without going too overboard or requiring me to like, totally get rid of my phone or anything drastic.

It does also allow you to exclude certain apps from your screen time totals (Maps, for example), which is nice, though I haven’t even really been watching my total screen time that carefully. I feel like as long as my compulsive trouble spots are under control (facebook + email), I’m pretty okay with the rest of my phone use.

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Okay, time to run! Of course, I’m working today right up until the wire… ha. Gotta always squeeze that PTO time…. 😉

I also need to run Charlie to the boarding place this morning (🥹), I have a 9:15 meeting, need to do some more work, the boys still need to pack (I’m letting Asher stay home… he swears in every class they’re just doing “fun stuff” today; he doesn’t have exams this week like Ethan’s school does…), and then it’s AIRPORT TIME this afternoon! Which, we need to allow extra time for, because for some reason it wouldn’t let us check in for our flights online… hmph. It said “please check in at the Aer Lingus counter at the airport.” Um, I don’t WANT to check in at crazy Chicago O’Hare on Friday night of Christmas week…. sigh. Fingers crossed no issues.

No idea if I’ll blog at all while I’m away, but if I don’t, HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS and all things festive to all of you! 🎄❄️Enjoy every moment, unless you have small children, in which case, just enjoy the moments you can. 😉💕