Our Week - The One with a Golf Dinner, Poker Night, a Voice Recital, and Mother’s Day

Another week has come and gone, and it’s time to get it all recapped.  Here we go!

Monday, May 8

Monday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed to Walmart to get our groceries for the next couple of weeks.  After that, I worked on blog stuff for the rest of the day, and I tackled several other things on my list.  I did stop mid-morning to go see my therapist… I’m still seeing her 1-2 times per month for maintenance for my anxiety even though I’ve been doing really well with it lately.

At 3, I grabbed the kids from school and then we headed to dance to drop off Olivia.  After that, Jacob and I went to piano lessons, and he tackled another new song.  He started using the pedal on the piano this week, too, so he’s just moving right along! 

After piano lessons were over, we went to Publix to pick up the items I couldn’t get at Walmart, and then he and I headed home so I could start dinner while he did homework.  Monday evening, I made meatballs, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and blueberry muffins.  Meatballs are one of the few things that the kids both love so it’s always a win.  I guess I need to remember to make them more often!

After dinner, B and I cleaned up the kitchen and I got everything prepped for Tuesday, and then I headed upstairs to do a stair stepper workout while the kids finished up with homework and showered. 

While the kiddos watched an episode of Weird But True, I got the sheets put back on the kids’ beds.  It always takes foreverrrr to get the sheets on and off of Olivia’s bed because she has so much crap in her bed.  Lol.  A few things that were in her bed this time?  A keyboard, two beach towels, a lap desk, a ton of blankets, enough pillows for our entire family and then some, and about 84,000 stuffed animals.  Hahahaha.

Once the kiddos were in bed, I retreated to my office to mediate and catch up on a few readings, and then I headed downstairs to join Brian to watch American Idol.

Tuesday, May 9

Tuesday was soooo bussssyyyy.  First, I dropped the kids, and then I headed home to work all the live long day while they were at school.  When I got home, I saw this sweet little scene in the back seat:

Olivia brings her beloved Sheepie everywhere she goes, and on that day, she had swaddled Sheepie and placed her in a basket, so she’d be comfortable all day.  <3

After all of my work was done, I left a little early to pick the kids up from school because I had to make a few stops along the way – the gas station to grab gas for my car, a local salon to grab a gift card, and the mall to do a return. 

I got in the car line right on time, and I had a few minutes of peace and quiet to read before Olivia was jumping in!  Our school had held a fundraiser the Saturday before where you can bid on all sorts of different activities for the kids, and we had bid on video game time with one of Jacob’s teachers after school.  He and his BFF both won, so they were redeeming their Super Smash Bros time with his teacher right after school. 

That meant that Olivia and I had some time to kill, so we had a date at the library with Sheepie since it’s not too far from the school.  I ended up checking out three books and Olivia checked out four.  The first book she chose to read in the car was a book that was all about… Taylor Swift.  Haha.  My girl is obsessed.

At 4, we picked Jacob up from school and he was gushing about how much fun he’d had.  While he chatted about his day, I hightailed it home so Olivia could get changed for dance, and then we all piled back in the car and drove her there.  I had to pick up our recital tickets as well as another pair of tights while we were there, and then Jacob and I headed back home.

I had just enough time at home to empty the dishwasher, prep lunchboxes and thermoses for Wednesday, sift through the mail, and freshen up before Jacob and I had to head back out to get him to his end-of-the-year golf dinner.

It was held at a local Mexican restaurant that we rarely go to, and it ended up being a nice evening.  Brian and Olivia joined us after she got out of dance class, and thankfully, they arrived just in time for the presentation portion of the evening.

Once the dinner wrapped up, we all headed home, and Olivia got started on homework while Jacob started showering and getting ready for bed.  They then switched off, and I got in an arms workout while all of that was going on.

By the time they were ready for bed, we had just enough time to watch one episode of Weird But True, and then they headed off to bed.  Once they were tucked in, I got my face washed and teeth brushed, and then I meditated and did my quiet time before joining Brian for the rest of American Idol that we’d started the previous evening.

Wednesday, May 10

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to work on the blog and get various other things done.  I left a few minutes early for pickup, because I had to swing by a local boot store to pick up the shoe paint that we need for Olivia’s recital.  Her ballet shoes have to be a specific color to match all of the costumes for the show, so we will be using the shoe paint to spray them before the shows. 

Once that was done, I headed to the school and grabbed Olivia.  Jacob had to stay afterward to make up a test, so Olivia and I had some time to kill.  We ended up going to the Walgreens right near their school so we could pick up a graduation card for my nephew along with a couple of other items.  I let Olivia pick out a snack while we were there, and she opted for some white powdered donuts… her favorite.  We grabbed some for Jacob, too, and I grabbed a bag of pizza flavored Combos for myself.  I looooved those when I was a kid and I hadn’t had them in years, so I couldn’t resist when I saw them.

By the time we were done at Walgreens, it was nearly time to pick up Jacob.  Olivia and I sat in the parking lot and enjoyed our snacks while we waited for him to come out, and then we surprised him with his donuts.  He was so excited.  Our kids love a donut!

After that, we headed home, and we hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  The kids worked on homework, and I actually took a few minutes to read before I had to start cooking.  They headed outside to play after homework was done, and I started on dinner.  Wednesday, we had stir fry with chicken, pineapple, red peppers, and broccoli + rice, and various leftover bread from earlier in the week.

After dinner, we all laced up our shoes and headed out for a walk to the playground only to be greeted by angry, dark clouds just to our north.  It was blue-skied and sunny everywhere else, but the dark clouds to our north looked like they were approaching, and thunder was rumbling.  A quick look at the radar showed that they were not coming our way, so we started walking, but about halfway through, things started to look worse, so we opted not to go to the playground as we didn’t want to get stranded there since it’s about a half-mile walk from our house.

The kids were disappointed, but we wanted to play it safe, and they opted to play in the back yard when we got home instead.  I headed back outside for a run after that, and I’d planned on running close to the house, but the clouds never ended up making it any closer, so I ended up running my usual route. 

It was very hot Wednesday, and the humidity was back in full force last week, so I struggled on my run, and I only made it a couple of miles before I decided to stop.  I did walk another mile after that, but I didn’t record it with my Apple Watch.

When I got back home, the kids were about halfway through getting showered and ready for bed, and after they were done, I jumped in the shower and then joined them all downstairs so we could watch an episode of Weird But True.

Once they were in bed, B and I watched an episode of Shark Tank, and then we got into bed a little early because I wanted to read a little longer since my book was so good!

Thursday, May 11

Thursday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to do all the things – lots of blog work, prepping for Olivia’s dance recital (they sent out the packets with all of the details on Thursday and it’s always mind boggling, so I had to get everything together), filing some papers and getting my office organized, prepping for Mother’s Day, etc. 

The day went by in a flash, and before I knew it, it was time to pick up the kids from school.  After school, Olivia had a makeup voice lesson at 3:30 followed by her regular voice lesson at 4, so the kids ate snacks in the car, and then we headed straight to the music school. 

At the music school, the kids gave the remaining teacher gifts out since we hadn’t been able to hand them out the previous Thursday since Olivia’s lesson had been canceled.  Then Jacob and I settled in for the next hour while Olivia did her lessons.  I used the time to get some notes organized in my phone and I read for a long time.  It was nice to have a breather.  When I’m at home, I rarely take the time to just sit down and read.

After Olivia’s lessons, we headed to my parents’ house to pick up some spaghetti because my mom had texted to say that she had leftovers.  It was perfect timing, too, since we’ve been so busy… it was nice to not have to cook a full dinner.

While we were there, we sat on the back porch for a bit and chatted, and the kids hopped in my dad’s sports car and played around in there for a bit.  Both of their party animal poses are killing me.  Should we be worried?  Lol.

After that, we headed home and I got started reheating dinner, cooking noodles, and warming some garlic cheese bread, and then we all sat down to eat when B got home.

After dinner, the four of us walked to the neighborhood playground, and B and I continued to walk loops around it while the kids played.  After everyone had their fill of playtime, we walked on the trail back home, and I split off from B and the kids to pick up the pace and continue my walk.

I was running on the main road towards the end of my workout, and all of a sudden, I felt something shove me from behind.  My first thought was that it was Jacob or Olivia playing a prank on me, but I remembered quickly that they should be at home showering by that point, so I turned around and there was a big dog.  I could tell immediately that it was friendly, but it was HUGE, and it was super hyper and aggressive, and it wanted to play so badly that it continued to jump on me over and over again. 

I looked around desperate to spot the owner, and I didn’t see anyone anywhere that seemed to be looking for the dog, so I tried to continue running hoping that the dog would leave me alone and go home.  Instead, he proceeded to follow me, running circles around me and jumping up on me every five seconds.  It was nerve-wracking. 

Finally, someone came walking up from behind me to get the dog and he had to physically pull the dog off of me to get it to go home.  The guy didn’t apologize or ask me if I was okay or anything, and it was just weird.  Granted, I’m pretty sure he was high as a kite – LOL – because the scent of marijuana was wafting down the street and his eyes were half-closed.  Can’t make this stuff up!

But anyway, this is just a friendly reminder to keep your dogs fenced in or on leashes.  Thankfully, my situation ended well, but things could have ended badly had the dog knocked me down.  I do have a giant bruise on my shin where it jumped on me, but I can live with a bruise.

When I got home, B and the kids had just started watching an episode of Weird But True, so I sat down and watched with them, and then after the kids were in the bed, I showered, washed my face, brushed my teeth, got in my jammies, meditated, and then joined B downstairs to watch Shark Tank.

Friday, May 12

Friday morning after I dropped the kids, I ran to Walmart to pick up everything that we needed for Sunday dinner, and then I headed home to work on blog stuff for the rest of the morning.  This sweet girl joined me in my office and her mood totally matched the dreary mood of the rainy weather day we were having.

The kids got out at noon on Friday because high school graduation was at 4 PM and they wanted the school and parking lot cleared out for the event.  On the way to pick them up, I swung by Hobby Lobby to pick up a few beads to make some bracelets, and then the three of us headed home after school pickup.

Olivia was thrilled because she’d spent the morning in the school library seeing all of the fun things that her stuffy, Sheepie, had done during her sleepover in the school library.  At the school auction last weekend, we were able to bid on a “stuffed animal sleepover” in the school library, and about 20 kids were able to have their stuffed animals spend the night.  Our librarian did all kinds of fun things with them, and she took pictures of their overnight adventures, and then the next morning, all of the kids who had left their stuffies were able to go to the library and enjoy donuts while watching a video of all of the things their stuffies had done overnight while they were there.  She also sent the kids home with a picture of their stuffies on their adventures.  Sheepie’s picture was taken while she was sleeping in her sleeping bag.  ;o)

It was just the most precious thing!  We have the best librarian!

When we all got home, we had a light lunch, and then the kids played video games while I finished up some things in my office.  It rained all day Friday, so unfortunately, we couldn’t spend any time outside.  I had a HUGE item checked off of my to-do list Friday afternoon, though!!  

Google Analytics is the system that I run on my blog to provide all of my blog statistics, and those are reported to Mediavine, my ad company.  I get paid from Mediavine based on all of those stats from Google Analytics, so it is of utmost importance that Google Analytics runs smoothly on my blog.  

Well, a whole year ago, Google announced that they were doing away with the old Google Analytics and that they were updating to an entire new system, so anyone running it on their websites had to go in and reconfigure all of this stuff and set up the new one.  I tried almost immediately to do it last year, and it kept telling me that there were errors and that it couldn't be set up.  So I asked someone at Mediavine if they could assist, and they couldn't, so since I couldn't figure it out, I put it on the backburner... for 12 months.  Ugh.

Google has been sending emails nonstop for the last year remind me to make the switch, and they recently sent a countdown saying that the last day to make the switch was July 1, so I knew I had to get it handled ASAP.

Friday, I decided to go in and try again, and upon logging in to Google Analytics, I saw that they had reconfigured everything for me and they had already started running the new program on my blog.  I was ELATED and so relieved.  Procrastination paid off for once.  Haha.  I did have to go in and confirm a few things, so I'm praying that it's all set up properly once and for all now.  

Finally, an item that's been on my to-do list is officially checked off after 12 long months!  This is my relieved face.  Haha.

Our nephew (Brian’s sister’s son) was one of the students graduating from our kids’ school on Friday, so we turned on the livestream to watch the ceremony since we couldn’t be there.  (Space is limited and they didn’t have enough tickets for us to attend.)  Graduations always make me cry… it’s such a bittersweet time!  I have such fond memories from my own graduation and all of the celebrations that followed!  Maybe one day I’ll share a little bit about it here on the blog!  I always love taking trips down memory lane…

After graduation, we headed to my friend Jeannine’s house for a poker night.  They had a whole cheeseboard spread along with all of the fixings to make salads with grilled chicken, and they had one of the best cheeses I have everrrr put in my mouth.  I’m still thinking about it.  If you have an Aldi, RUN, and grab some of their cranberry cinnamon goat cheese.  Oh. My. Word.  It is the best thing ever.   

After dinner, all of us adults grabbed some drinks, and we made our way to the table to play poker for the rest of the night while the kids lived their best lives outside playing in the foam machine that Jeannine had bought for her boys.  They all had a BLAST and they ended up playing until it was almost dark outside.  They probably would have played even longer had the rain not gotten really hard.

We ended up getting home around 9:30 and we got the kids straight in the bed.  They were both worn out from the long week and late night. 

B and I finally started the new season of Ted Lasso Friday night and I’m just so excited to see what happens!  We’ve been holding off, waiting for the season to get near the end, so we could just binge the whole thing in one month and not have to pay for multiple months of service.   

Saturday, May 13

Saturday morning, I got up and made homemade waffles, and then I squeezed in a quick workout before getting ready for the day.  Olivia’s voice recital was at 12:30, so we had to be ready, eat lunch, and be out of the house a little before 12 to get her there on time.

The recital was at a church here in town, and Olivia was grouped in with some of the piano students as well as the voice students.  There were 37 kids in all, and Olivia was second to last.  She was really nervous, and I could tell she was regretting her decision to do the recital this year.  She had opted out in the fall, and then shocked us all by saying she wanted to do it this spring, so we have been trying to encourage her ever since.

The recital moved very quickly as some of the piano students were beginners and they only played for about 30 seconds.  When Olivia’s turn came, she walked on the stage, took her bow, and she sang her little heart out.  She was able to choose any song that she wanted, and she chose Love Story by Taylor Swift.  She sang the whole song from start to finish with a track running in the background, so it wasn’t acapella.  She did a fantastic job, and her little voice was just the sweetest thing! 

After her performance, she walked back to all of us in the audience, and she just collapsed in Brian’s arms in tears.  Bless her heart.  She had been so nervous, and she had worked herself up so much that her emotions got the best of her when it was over, and she was crying all of the tears of relief.  Needless to say, she has decided (for now) that singing on stage is not for her.  We are so dang proud of her for being so brave to do it, though!  I can’t imagine getting up in front of 150 people and doing a solo performance at age nine!  (Or at age 41… or any other age for that matter.  LOL.)

She was really shaken up after the whole thing was over, and she didn’t want to take any pictures, so we respected her wishes.  Instead, we gave her a little bouquet of sunflowers and then took her to Chick-Fil-A to get milkshakes per her request. 

When we got home, Brian played video games with the kids for a bit while I got some things done around the house, and then we all headed to 5:30 Mass.  By the time Mass rolled around, she was back to her usual, sunny self.  I was so grateful to see it.

After church, we went to the pizza place down the street with my parents, Mama Cass, and Aunt Joy and Uncle Greg to have dinner.  Their food is always so good, and the atmosphere is fun, but it’s always hard to get in there with a big group like that.  Thankfully, we were able to make a reservation which meant that we were able to sit right down when we arrived.

After dinner, we headed home and got the kiddos in bed, and then B and I watched another episode of Ted Lasso before calling it a night.

 

Sunday, May 14

Sunday morning, B went out and got donuts for Mother’s Day, and we all had breakfast together.  After breakfast, he went out to mow, and I lay in the sun and finished my book.  After that, I had to make dessert for Sunday dinner and get that in the refrigerator, and then I went upstairs and did my weekly yoga workout. 

By the time I was done working out, it was time to get ready and go to my mother-in-law’s and step-father-in-law’s for lunch.  We celebrated my MIL for Mother’s Day as well as my nephew for his graduation, and then we headed home.

I got some things done in my office, and then it was time to start prepping for Sunday dinner.  We had my parents, my brother and his roommate, my Mama Cass, and my Uncle Billy over, and we grilled burgers and hot dogs, and Brian made his famous guac.  My Momma brought her mac n cheese, baked beans, and some chicken to grill, and Mama Cass had brought her coleslaw that we love, and we all ate waaaay too much.  It was all so delicious. 

After dinner, we had dessert, and then we took some pictures in the back yard to commemorate the day.  I’m so very grateful for this momma of mine as well as that momma of hers.  Both of them have helped mold me into the mother I’ve always wanted to be because they’ve always set such a great example of what motherhood should look like.   

And I just love these two babies of mine plus our baby in heaven more than words could ever adequately say.  I knew my whole life that I wanted to be a mother, and it is such a privilege and a blessing to be able to nurture these babies and watch them grow.

 

Happy Tuesday, y’all!