Weekend: pre-spring break

Ahh, it feels SO NICE to have a mid-week departure planned, on the heels of a wide open weekend. This has most definitely not always been the case lately. On recent trips we’ve had multiple Friday night departures, which means working all week AND trying to get ready for trip…

This Wednesday departure was planned to try and deal with the boys’ different spring breaks (Asher’s is this week, Ethan’s is next week). Original plan was a Wednesday to Wednesday trip so they’d each just miss 3 days. Well, we ended up extending the trip and tacking 4 nights on St. John on to our time in St. Thomas, so now Asher is actually missing the entire week next week. 😬

He seems to think it will be fine, and says a bunch of other kids (in high school) were actually out for trips this past week. We have actively tried to avoid them missing much school now in high school, but it just happened this time. Oh well.

I spent some time yesterday morning sketching out a rough itinerary for our 7 nights on St. Thomas. ROUGH being the key word. Really the only things “planned” are a sunset boat trip (Friday) and a night kayaking tour (Sunday). But I played around with the days and ideas and locations to see what days might make sense to do certain other things.

I have researched the St. John portion already too but still have a little bit more to go there.

The biggest accomplishment from yesterday, however, was that I packed!! We literally had no plans this weekend – amazing- so I had open time.

All my summer clothes were still packed away in the basement, I had bought some new things, plus had some summer items in my main closet (I keep certain things upstairs year round). Anyway, Ivan was just shaking his head at what I production I made out of it all, lol, but I am happy to say I’m done!

I also pulled out (most) of my summer dresses (which were hanging in a storage closet downstairs)…. o.m.g. I did not realize I had so many!! 😳 Probably did NOT need to buy any new sundresses…. 😂 (But in my defense, some (or at least many) of these dresses are quite old now, and I HAVE worn them many, many times (on vacations). Living in Wisconsin, though, and also living a pretty casual lifestyle, I actually do not wear these dresses very often in my day-to-day life, so even the old ones are still in excellent condition. I guess I was just itching for a couple of new/fresh things…)

(And the new ones are not shown here… ha.)

You will be happy to know that I did not pack 16 dresses in my carry on for this trip. 😅

I definitely overpacked, per my usual. Lol. (There are WAY too many tank tops in there- but I couldn’t really decide, and technically, they all fit (barely)….). Gah. I texted my friends, “I am not cut out to be a frequent traveler….”.

Oh, I forgot to share the other day- I also snagged this new beach cover-up at TJ Maxx last week, which I’m excited about. My current beach coverups (2) are both really old and I’m just very bored of them, basically. It was strangely difficult to find anything besides the big white or black button-down shirt coverup style, which I didn’t really want. (In part because my mom tends to wear that style, I think, and while it might be cute, I don’t really need to be all matchy matchy with my mom at 42! 😅)

Isn’t this cute? Hard to tell in the pic, but it’s blue and white stripes.

I think I’m pretty set!

I also had a super productive Thursday and Friday at work and got caught up/ set up on various things- so I’m feeling pretty good about where things stand there, too.

Now if I can just get my family to pack today… we’ll be way ahead of the game for the first time like, ever. 😉

I think I’m going to try and get a pedicure today, too, just to get that out of the way.

Charlie is going to Ivan’s cousin’s house (a little nervous, but hopefully will all be okay!!). He lives on the far opposite side of town, so I think the plan is for Ivan to drop Charlie off Tuesday morning on his way to work, actually. Which is sad, because it’s an extra day with no Char Char, but it makes the most sense.

Plan for the rest of the day:

• email clean out
• pedicure
• gym!
• straighten up the house/ basement before my parents come on Tuesday
• get reef safe sunscreen…. last trip errand
• buy Nicole’s book on Kindle to read on the trip!!! (DID I EVER MENTION THAT our blogger friend extraordinaire Nicole recently published her very first novel?!?! Available at all places that sell books! I have heard nothing but amazing reviews so far and I cannot wait to read it!!)
• make sure the boys start packing…

Also need to eat up some food. I ended up going on an accidentally too-large grocery shop on Thursday- which was supposed to be “just a few essentials to tide us over” and I somehow came home with like, full groceries?! When we leave in less than a week?! Oops. Fortunately much of it will keep- pantry type staples- and the extra meat can be frozen.

Going (pretty) strong on my high protein/ healthy eating kick- final stretch to our trip! (not that I’m planning to stop eating high protein/ healthy after the trip- I just mean, I’ve been a little more dialed in.)

A favorite salad from this week- tuna, onion, green apple, hard boiled egg, cheese and salsa verde on top (not shown). Writing that out, it sounds a little strange. But it’s delicious.

Breakfast this morning:

Speaking of PB2, I recently unearthed a container of it when I cleaned out the pantry. I forgot I had bought it a while back!! I used to use this back in the day when I was doing macro tracking- it’s a great way to get that peanut butter taste without ALL the fat and calories from peanut butter. (disclaimer- I’ve never tried adding water to “make” peanut butter- I’ve only ever stirred the powder into oatmeal or yogurt or smoothies, etc.).

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A few side notes from the blogosphere:

I know many of you already follow Elisabeth and Laura and Jenny, but just in case you’re unaware, there’s some amazing stuff happening in their blog-lands!

Elisabeth is a couple weeks in now to their family’s incredible 4 month extended stay in Europe; so far she has posted about their time in Munich, and they’re currently in Vienna for a month. She has many other awesome locations coming up, too, and she’s writing the coolest posts! Check them out. (She also survived both kids coming down with a nasty stomach flu, also during their long-awaited time in Europe….Blergh!)

Laura was recently on the Mel Robbins podcast!! I had heard about this and forgot, but then remembered yesterday and listened while I packed. It was so great! And there are 500+ comments on the You Tube and like 482,000 views! Talk about some exposure!! Wow! Well deserved, because Laura’s content is amazing. (Speaking of books, her new book Big Time is coming out soon and I cannot wait to read it. You can pre-order it now.)

And JENNY. Oh, Jenny. Jenny is a beast. Our beloved Jenny turned 60 years old yesterday. (Happy birthday Jenny!!) To celebrate, she casually ran an ultra-marathon (on her actual birthday) and ran 60 miles. Yes, 60 miles. 6.0. 🤯🤯 Literally cannot fathom that at any age, and to be still kicking ass at 60 is even more amazing. So proud of you Jenny. Her race recap will be up Tuesday!! (Her little teaser post up today is titled “OH YES I DID!!” 👊

Okay, off to do some things from my list and see what the fam is up to.

I hope you’re having a good weekend!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful that my packing is done. I really, really despise packing….