Friday Five

• My boss has been out of town for almost two weeks, during which time I've been able to close the office to take a lunch break THREE times. Hardly seems fair (or, um, legal). I've also been sick the entire time and my son has been sick as well. But obviously using my sick time is not possible either. So, not feeling the love right now.
• I've had a gaping hole in the ceiling of my guest bathroom for months. Last night my contractor stopped by to get a spare garage door opener so he could start working on it today. As I was getting ready for bed, I thought to myself I bet his daughter goes into labor tomorrow. I should've bought a lottery ticket. So I could hire a new contractor. Kidding.
• I signed up for Walktober through my employer, but as with most commitments, it is not having the desired affect on me. I do not feel inspired, I feel obligated and grumpy. Plus, a tiny piece broke off the face of my Fitbit, so it's sharp and I'm afraid it will scratch my son. Frankly, I want to stop wearing it altogether, but part of me feels compelled to finished the challenge.
• Of course this didn't stop me from signing up for some other challenge next month. Something about mindfulness. Sigh. It's like I don't even know myself at all. 
• At least I'm wearing jeans and a t-shirt because I excel at CASUAL Fridays. (I also think having to dress up for work is the stupidest thing ever. Can we do away with that tradition already?)

Happy Friday!!

Friday Five: Self-Care

I'm not a fan of the term "self-care," which is so widely used these days. For me it's more about staying sane. I know I've talked about this before, but here are some of the things that help me keep my head above the water:

1. Chocolate. See also: ice cream, cake, cookies.
2. Starbucks Green Tea Lattes. Yes, I spend too much money at Starbucks. But if it helps me be a better person/mom, maybe it's worth it. It's not frickin' heroin or Jack Daniels, after all.
3. TV. Three days a week I get to watch TV for an hour or two. I unplug my brain and stare at the idiot box. Not thinking is nice sometimes.
4. Leaving the office for 59 minutes most days during lunch. Mostly to read, with a short walk thrown in.
5. Target. This one's a bit of a stretch, but I was really struggling to come up with a 5th item. Target (easily combined with #2) is somewhere to go when the weather is not ideal, or we need to get out of the house, or I need some chocolate (#1).

If you're wondering why I haven't included any outdoorsy type activities (hiking!) on this list, it's because while I firmly believe getting my son outside is super important, it is currently far from relaxing. It's more like wrangling and watching for mosquitoes and very little looking up or around or noticing my surroundings. It's a lot of effort.

Friday Five

1. We've been purging at the office. Now that I've been in my current position for a full year I finally feel comfortable deciding what I need to keep and what I DO NOT. The ladies that staffed the office previously were of the print-every-email variety. The oldest one I disposed of yesterday was from 3/15/99. They also printed off our website for crying out loud. Now if only I could translate some of this energy to my house...
2. I haven't been meal prepping my lunches because I can't possibly use the oven when it's already 77 degrees inside the house (or hotter!). But I need to come up with cheaper alternatives to buying five frozen meals a week. And it can't involve peanut butter because that's what my son and I eat for lunch every Saturday and Sunday.
3. I have many times mentioned my love of Le Tour de France on this blog, but this may well be the least I've watched it in countless years. I'm averaging 5-10 minutes a day, which is far from satisfying, but the only way I could watch more is to stay up later and NOPE, not gonna happen. I need my sleep.
4. Cute/funny things my son has said/done recently: 
1. The other day, as we approached the playground he said, "Hi playground. What are you doing, playground?"
2. "Look at the tiny, little bird!" He said, while pointing at a butterfly.
3. He routinely tries to grab things out of books. He gets upset as his little fingers scrabble across the page, "Grab it! Grab it!"
5. He is all of a sudden on a Thomas kick. I don't know who to blame for this (his school? his father?), but I am not pleased with this development. Yes, it's certainly the lesser of evils when it comes to cartoons (gak!), but it's tedious. I actually enjoy Daniel Tiger, and I cannot say the same for Thomas.

Friday Five

Five random things:

1. I finally cleared off the coffee table and matching end tables that I want to get rid of. I moved them to the garage and posted their availability online. But no takers, so now I have to figure out some other way to get rid of them as I can't fit them in my car to take to the donation center. It's sad when you can't even give away perfectly good furniture. 
2. I used a lot of vacation time in June to avoid losing it before the end of our fiscal year. Because of that I had more naptime than usual to watch TV, so I got all caught up on my recorded shows and even watched a few movies. Movie watching is tricky because each movie has to be spread over at least two days, and not always two consecutive days. For example, on Tuesday I started watching Snowden, but I likely won't be able to finish it until nap tomorrow (Saturday). Other movies I've watched recently include: The Scorch Trials, The Giver, and The Martian. I enjoyed all of them and look forward to watching two more I have recorded on the DVR at some point. It has been years since movie watching was a regular part of my life.
3. The other night I was sitting on the couch watching a few minutes of Le Tour de France while waiting for my son to settle down so I could take my nightly shower. I heard something and peaked out the curtains. The noise was just my across the street neighbors, but as I determined that I saw a little flash of light and then another. Fireflies! I know this sounds crazy, but I had kinda forgotten all about fireflies. I have not been outside my house after 7:30pm in more than 27 months. It's strange to think of everything going on out there in the rest of the world. Like fireflies!
4. The town I live in picks up yard waste every other week. All yard waste must be in a container or tied in bundles (no piles of stuff). I put out 3 full trash cans on Wednesday and refilled two already just yesterday. I need pick up every other DAY or a brush hog or a chain saw or I don't even know. It's out of control.
5. After SO MUCH RAIN we've had a stretch of dry (but humid, can't win 'em all) days and it's been glorious.

Friday Five

1. Little Man decided 4:30 AM was the appropriate time to get up this morning. So yeah, I'm a little tired.

2. We had his first parent-teacher conference today. Yup, you read that right. Parent-teacher conferences for a 1.5 year old. Apparently, daycare does them every six months, which seems like a lot to me. No concerns or issues.

3. Today I parked in my garage for the first time EVER. I drive a pretty small car, and still I felt like I was trying to park a semi. Why are garages so small?

4. Ever since pregnancy, my pits stink. As in, body odor. B.O. Pre-pregnancy I never really had to worry about such things, and I've been hoping that once my body and hormones regulated themselves again it would return to the way it used to be. But alas, I'm starting to fear this is my new norm. So I think I need to start looking for a more effective deodorant and maybe dosing myself with patchouli.

5. I shower six days a week. I've been shampooing and conditioning my hair every time I shower, but we got into a big discussion at work about shampooing your hair and how you're not supposed to do it so often. Of course, this is not new information, but it got me thinking about it again. Two of the woman explained that they still wet their hair when they shower and apply conditioner, which frankly would never have occurred to me. So I tried that last night and I may try to work it in more regularly if I can stand it. I like feeling clean.

Happy Friday!

Friday Five

1. Two of my music class mom friends are pregnant with their second babies. And one is actively trying (IVF). We all took a babies music class together. All of us were first time moms. I was the oldest mom and had the oldest baby (by a few days). Now I'm the only single mom, although I haven't told them that my husband left me. Because it's hard to slip that kind of news into our group texts between all the big sister, big brother announcements.

2. I cut a few wispy strands of my son's hair this morning. I always sweep his hair to one side, but others do not and a few of the longer strands were getting in his eyes. I have no interest in giving him a real, official haircut. But at the same time, this was the first time I cut his hair and I wanted to save the tiny bits. But as it turns out, snipping a few hairs while holding a struggling toddler doesn't result in a nicely kept locket of hair. Oh well, maybe next time.

3. This morning I dropped him off in his infant classroom for the last time. Yesterday they moved his belongings to the toddler room, so his old shelf belongs to another boy now. In his new room he has a cubby with a shelf and a hook. So much more grown up. He's been a "toddler" for a while now, but the moving of classrooms still feels like a milestone of sorts. My baby isn't really a baby any more.

4. On my lunch break I like to walk over to Small Green College (where I got my BS) to read. The campus feels like home to me. Sometimes I catch a whiff of fallen leaves in the sun and cooking exhaust from the cafe and I'm transported back 20 years. And seriously, how can it be TWENTY years? How is that possible?

5. As much as I love being there, it makes me sad when I have to walk back to my office. I wish I had done something with my degree. I wish I was more than just an office lady. But right now, the thing that matters is that I have an income and a fairly low stress job. Because the thing that matters the most is my son. My job/career means nothing compared to him.

Happy Friday y'all!

Friday Five

For my Friday Five this week, I've decided to focus on five specific things I am grateful for.

1. I am grateful for deliciously sweet pastries leftover from an event at work. Enough that I can eat as many as I want without feeling greedy. Ha!

2. I am grateful for cooler weather so I can wear pants and not have to shave every day. That's five minutes of my day I can devote to something (anything) else.

3. I am grateful for casual Fridays so I can wear jeans to work. (And Chucks and a long-sleeve tshirt... I may have gone a little overboard with the casual today, but school spirit makes it OK, right?)

4. I am grateful the task of taking the AC unit out of the bedroom window has been completed. It is not something I can do myself, so I had not been looking forward to having to ask for assistance, but fortunately it turned out to be relatively pain-free.

5. I am grateful it's Friday, which means I get to spend the next two days with my little man. Hugs and kisses and boogers and books.

What are you grateful for today?

Friday Five

1. I don't usually like this style of music, but this song is really speaking to me of late. Some of the lyrics really hit home.

2. As I mentioned in my last post, the book I'm reading currently isn't doing much for me. I don't care at all about what happens next. When I pick it up each day I have zero interest in it. But I am still thinking about the last book I read, Still Life with Bread Crumbs, by Anna Quindlen. Now that was a great book, very compelling. I would highly recommend it.

3. I've never been a leggings-as-pants person, but I've long been a fan of yoga pants so it was a fairly natural transition once I got over the not-pants hump. It helps that as a 40 year old single mom of a toddler I am essentially invisible, so I might as well be comfortable. I spent months agonizing over whether to buy a pair of LuLaRoe leggings, which I kept hearing about. I joined (many) Facebook groups and looked at what seemed like hundreds of patterns. I hemmed and hawed and then I saw these:

Bam. My life is now complete. And I shall be wearing them every second I am not at work (as soon as it stops being 85 degrees, that is).

4. I have to remember to set my DVR to record this on Thanksgiving.

5. Today is Apple Fest at work. Bring on the apple fritters. That is all.

Happy Friday, y'all!!

Friday Five: Gratitude {2}

We're neck deep in another painfully cold stretch of weather. The kind that requires polypro long underwear and a Buff pulled up over your nose when you're outside for more than a few minutes. At least I need these things to feel even remotely comfortable. I'm trying not to think about how scary the next heat bill will be. So it seems like a good time to review a few things I'm grateful for right now:

1. Hot tea. I can't start my day without a big mug of English breakfast tea. I prefer it strong with a hint of sugar and a splash of milk.

2. Dog fence. Last spring we installed a fence around a small area of the backyard, accessible from the back door. For the first time since I brought my first dog home 14 years ago I don't have to bundle up and go outside every couple hours. I was thankful during rainstorms over the summer, but it really became obvious how the fence was worth every penny we paid when the temperatures fell below zero. Best. Thing. Ever.

3. My elliptical. A couple winters ago I was panicking about my inability to exercise because of the cold and snow. I obsessively monitored craigslist until I found a basic elliptical model for sale in our town for cheap. We nabbed it and set it up in the family room (a room we use only for storage of crap). I eventually discovered that I am able to read my Nook while using it, which has allowed me to use it for longer periods of time (and more frequently because, frankly, it's maddeningly dull without a novel to distract me).

4. My Subaru. I had lusted after Subarus for years. They were my dream cars, I kid you not. No Beemers or Corvettes for me. All I wanted was a Subaru. Well, a hatchback, manual transmission model to be more precise. Almost 4 years after buying my Impreza I still love it every day all year round, but when there is snow on the road I am especially grateful for its all-wheel drive. As long as I live in snow country I will never own another two-wheel drive vehicle. But really, I can't foresee any reason why I would ever buy anything but a Subaru ever again.

5. New opportunities. My husband recently partnered with a friend in a local business. It's a successful, established business that has been growing over the last several years with advice and assistance from my husband. Now he is a full partner in the business, and I will be working there. I gave my two weeks notice at my job (BRAVE) and worked my last day yesterday. To say that I'm excited would be an understatement. I will also be working part-time for another friend of ours. I start training at his office this coming Monday. The event I worked this past Monday was for his business as well. Leaving the security of my job was a little scary, but I am so thankful to be away from that stifling environment. The last two years there have been soul-killing and confidence stealing. I am ready to find myself again and rebuild my self-confidence.

What are you grateful for today?

You can read my last Friday Five: Gratitude here.

Friday Five: Gratitude

I've made the transition from thinking the snow is pretty and Christmas-y to just thinking winter sucks and being cold is miserable. This happens every year with the first dip in temperature after Christmas.

So in an attempt to focus on the good things in my life, here are five things I am grateful for today:

1. Sunshine. Although I was inside and couldn't absorb any benefits from the sunlight, I did glimpse blue sky out the window. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. Welcome to winter in Central New York.

2. My cozy house and the heat it provides. No, the house is not my "house of dreams" and no, it doesn't even have central heat, but it is MY house. A house with a roof and walls and two full baths. Something many people the world over can only dream of.

3. New windows/doors downstairs. My husband has replaced the windows and doors on the main floor (living room, kitchen, and dining room), which has vastly improved the comfort level in the winter. NO drafts! I can't wait until he replaces the bedroom windows upstairs (next summer).

4. Chocolate. Particularly seashell-shaped Belgian chocolate truffles. My dad and step-mom used to give each of us girls a big box for Christmas, but they have cut back to small boxes the last two years. To compensate, my sister gave me one of the big boxes at our second celebration. She absolutely, totally rocks. I'm trying to ration them out in reasonable portions. It's harder than you'd think.

5. Stack of new books. Both my sister and my mom gifted me books for Christmas and it pleases me immensely to see the stack waiting for me to devour. It's always good to have something to look forward to.

What are you grateful for today?