This past Monday was a holiday, and the kids were out of school, so I spent most of the day with them instead of working, which is why today’s weekly recap is a day late!
Last week was a good one, and the weekend was even better because it was four days long! I have a lot to recap, so let’s get to it!
Monday, February 9
Monday morning, Olivia was getting over some congestion that she’d had over the weekend, so we kept her home just in case she was harboring any germs. She never ran a fever, she didn’t have any aches or pains, and she didn’t have a cough… just a severely stuffy nose and she was tired. This is the second time she’s had this in a matter of a few weeks, so I was really surprised that she had come down with something so close to being sick just a couple of weeks ago. We keep flu/Covid all-in-one tests on hand, and she was negative for Flu A, Flu B, and Covid, so we’re just assuming it was another cold. The rest of us never got sick either, so it ended up being a non-issue.
I took Jacob to school and then came home to work. Olivia parked herself on the floor with her pillow, her weighted blanket, and the remote, and she rested all day.
I had an appointment with my orthodontist shortly after I got home, so I headed there while Brian stayed home with Olivia. Thank goodness he works from home now on Mondays and Fridays… that has saved us so many times when we have sick kids!
When I got there, they had my new retainer ready to go. The assistant popped it in, and it felt good, although, it wasn’t flush with the roof of my mouth. The orthodontist came in to check and see if it needed any adjustments, but he said it looked perfect, and he told me that over time, the retainer will mold better to the roof of my mouth. Sure enough, by the time I got home, it had already shifted and it felt better.
While it’s not nearly as bad as the Invisalign retainers, it’s still causing some weirdness with my tongue and jaw, but I’m hoping it will all settle down once my mouth/jaw adapts to the new one.
Brian, Olivia, and I all had lunch together, and then I got some more work done before heading to the school to pick up Jacob.
He is done with e-sports for the season, so we’re back to having our Monday afternoons and evenings wide open, which is lovely! It’s the one weekday that the kids don’t have extracurricular activities, and it also makes for an easy transition back into the week after being off all weekend.
Jacob had some studying to do, and Olivia had some schoolwork in her Google Classroom that she’d missed at school, so they both worked on the things they needed to do. I did my quiet time and then headed out for a walk because, y’all, it was 68 degrees and sunny!! It was GORGEOUS outside!
When I got home, I showered, and then I made dinner. We had beef and rice skillet (it’s a Mexican dish with lots of red peppers, green peppers, tomatoes, corn, and other yummy stuff) and I served it with tortilla chips, cheese, and fruit on the side.
After dinner, I finished my blog post for the next day (clearly, I was behind!), and then Olivia and I watched the Opalite music video that Taylor had dropped over the weekend. The video is SO good, and I just love how clever and creative she is. Truly a mastermind!
Brian and I ended the night with an episode of Run Away and then it was bedtime.
Tuesday, February 10
Tuesday morning, I dropped the kids off at school and then I swung by Publix to get a few items that we needed. After that, I headed home to work all day. I still wasn’t feeling 100 from all my head and neck tension (it always takes soooo long for it to all settle down once it gets stirred up), so it was slow going.
I started and finished a blog post for the next day and then I started this blog post. I usually try to stay on top of these weekly posts by typing out each day live, but in recent months I’ve been keeping notes in my phone and then typing up these whole super long posts all in one sitting, and that’s extremely time consuming. I’ve been wanting to go back to typing each day in real time like I used to, so I’m hoping I can stay on top of that now that I’ve started doing it once again.
I also got a few loads of laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away and I tackled a few other odds and ends around the house. I finally got all the donations bagged up and out of the closet in Brian’s office so I could drop them off later in the week.
Before picking up Olivia from school, I ran a couple of errands, and then she and I headed home. Jacob had golf after school, so Brian picked him up a little later.
The afternoon was a typical afternoon – a Bible study for me while Olivia did homework, then I dropped her off at dance, and then I headed outside for another walk because it was 70 degrees! It was gloomy out, so there wasn’t any sunshine, but I was grateful for the warm temp for the second day in a row.
When I got back home, I did a very short strength training workout. I’m still having to take it easy with my arms and shoulders until my upper cervical chiropractor gives me the green light, but I did pull out some three pound weights to very slowly, very deliberately work out my arms. I was soooo careful not to put any strain on my neck or my upper back, and I ended up doing well. My arms have lost so much muscle these past couple of years since I had to stop working out my upper body, and I’m ready to get them back in shape!
We had turkey and cheese biscuit sliders for dinner, and then after dinner, Olivia got showered and immediately went to bed. She was still pretty congested, and dance always makes her tired, so she put herself in bed at 8:15. Haha.
Jacob stayed up for a bit longer, playing the piano, and Brian and I watched some of the Olympics before saying goodnight to Jacob. Once he was in bed, we watched another episode of Run Away and then called it a night.
Wednesday, February 11
Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I headed home to wash, dry, and put away the last load of laundry. I also worked on a couple of blog posts, and I finally got caught up on responding to blog comments. It had abeen a long time since I’d done that, so it took a while.
After that, I took a break from the computer to stretch and then I finally sat down to organize and wrap all the gifts for Valentine’s Day, Brian’s birthday, and Olivia’s birthday + sign their cards and all that jazz.
By the time I was done with all that, it was time to eat lunch, and then after lunch, I opened all the packages for the prizes from the games Olivia wanted to play at her party and got those all arranged in a basket, and I opened her party favors and got the items ready for her to put together later in the week.
After that, I loaded up the car with aaaallll the things we’ve cleaned out this year so far – and it was a LOT since the kids have outgrown so many clothes and toys – and I drove to the thrift store that our church recently opened to fund our outreach center. I donated all that stuff so the items can go to new homes where they’ll be well loved again.
Olivia and I spent the time she had leftover before dance sorting through the items for the party favors that she’d picked out. We got them all bagged, and then we piled in the car, opened the sunroof, and sang all the way to dance.
When I got home, I went out for a two-mile walk, and then I got dinner started. While it cooked, I squeezed in another very slow, very deliberate strength workout (it feels so good to be working out my arms again!) and then I jumped in the shower and put on my pajamas.
Brian and I finished Run Away and we enjoyed it. I never in a million years would have guessed that ending!
Thursday, February 12
Thursday morning, I woke up with a little bounce in my step because we had a four-day weekend coming up, and Thursday was our Friday!
(The bounce in my step was probably also due to the fact that I had a short reprieve from the face and jaw and neck tension and dizziness. Haha.)
I dropped the kids off at school and then I headed home to work all day. I knocked out Friday’s blog post from start to finish, I caught up on emails, I did a few odds and ends around my office, I did some blog housekeeping, and I did some final preparation for Olivia’s birthday party on Friday.
I also hole punched all our Christmas cards from 2025 and got them together on a binder clip so they can be displayed next year. Having cards out from previous years is one of my favorite Christmas decorations! Oh, and I switched around some of the faux flowers in our house... I moved the tulips from our dining room into our bedroom because I'll be able to enjoy them more in here since we don't use our dining room very often.
Brian met us there to take Jacob to golf practice, and Olivia and I headed home. Since Thursday was our Friday, the kids had no homework, and Olivia got on her iPad and Facetimed with her BFF for a bit while I did a couple more things for her party.
We finished watching Dumbo first since we’d started that one earlier in the week. Then when that was over, the kids asked to start Bambi (whyyyy – LOL) so we started that before they went to bed. Apparently, they want to watch all the old, sad Disney movies that they never saw growing up. Haha.
After they went to bed, B whipped up some Manhattans for us, and he and I settled in to watch the newest episode of Shrinking.
Friday morning, I woke up at 8:15. Brian had to work, but he was working from home, so he was already downstairs in his office. I ate breakfast and unloaded the dishwasher, and then I started checking things off my list for the day:
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Blog reading
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Cleaning off my computer desktop
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Sanitizing our humidifiers
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Decorating the table for Olivia’s party
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Whitening my teeth (so happy I can finally do this
since I couldn’t the whole time I wore braces!)
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Taking off my old nail polish
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Unwrapping plates, napkins, and cups for Olivia’s
party
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Dusting the house
And Olivia baked brownies, vacuumed the whole house, and cleaned the
bathrooms. I didn’t even have to ask her…
she just did it. It will never not be
shocking to me when my kids voluntarily clean the house. Haha.
It was a busy day prepping for Olivia’s party, but we got everything done, and then Olivia and I both got ready and headed out for the afternoon. She had a makeup guitar lesson at 2:30, so we went to see Mr. Steve, and then we went to Walmart to pick up fruit, a veggie tray, chips, drinks, and several other things for her party.
When Olivia and I got home, we had about an hour before her friends started arriving for her party, so we got the groceries unloaded and put away, and then I headed to my office with a cup of tea to have a few minutes of quiet before the chaos.
Thirty minutes later, I headed downstairs to prep the rest of the stuff for the party. I got all the lights turned on, I put some yummy oils in the diffuser, I cut the fruit, and I arranged the food and drinks on trays. Oh, and of course, we had to take photos of everything. ;o)
Brian and Jacob had left to get pizza, and as soon as they got home, the girls came down to eat. After dinner, Olivia opened all her gifts, and she got some pretty great things… a mirror ball, art supplies, makeup and beauty items, journaling items, etc. Her friends know her so well! And the cards they made her – y'all – SO sweet.
You basically print pictures of random famous people (human or animated, conventional and unconventional) and then you go around the table choosing characters and listing the reasons why you could have a crush on them. Our printer ink was almost out, so the pictures didn’t print well, but as you can see from the picture, she printed Sully from Monster’s Inc., Mickey Mouse, Justin Bieber, the red M&M, Woody from Toy Story, Michael Jackson, Tarzan, and several others. Diverse! Lol. The whole purpose is just to laugh and have fun and have a silly debate with your friends, and the girls sure had fun with it. They laughed so hard that they nearly cried.
After the girls were done with their debate, we sang happy birthday to our girl and everyone ate Blizzard cake. Then the girls moved into the living room to play Bingo and Twister. We had a whole basket full of prizes – hand creams, claw clips, water bottle/laptop stickers, and Push Pops – so they all got to pick from the basket after they won. And then they all traded after it was over. They also put on their lip masks. These girls!!
It was loud and it was chaotic and Olivia didn’t want it to end. She had the best time!
After everyone left, we got the house cleaned up and then the kids went to bed. B and I collapsed on the couch with Manhattans and started watching the miniseries The Girlfriend.
Saturday was Valentine’s Day, so I got up, decorated the table, set out cards and treats for Brian and the kids, and I made waffles for breakfast. We had the most festive little breakfast, and the kids loved their little Palm Pals.
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Catching up on emails
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Updating a few album covers in my music library
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Making the bed
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Washing the towels
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Putting away the humidifiers
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Whitening my teeth
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Putting the dining room back together after the
party
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Tidying up my decor closet in Brian’s office since
it had gotten messy
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Getting a Poshmark shipment packaged and ready
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Ordering new guitar strings for Olivia
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Cleaning out the living room
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Cleaning out the dining room
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Cleaning out Jacob’s room
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Looking at everyone’s clothes/shoes to see if we
needed to order anything for our Disney trip
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Researching daily inhalers for myself as our
insurance just stopped covering mine and it’s now going to cost $664.58/month,
which we obviously cannot afford (DO NOT get me started on that.)
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Paying a bill
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Shopping for Easter basket items (yes, I know it’s
still verrrryyyy early, but we will be out of town for spring break, so I’m
trying to make sure everything is done before we go)
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Researching Bibles for the kids… I’d like to get
them each a nice Bible that they can keep forever, but I can’t find exactly
what I’m looking for (NRSV or NABRE translation, brown faux leather, journaling
version with lines, customizable with name engraving, with built-in ribbon
bookmarks… if anyone knows where I can find that, let me know! There’s only one that I could find on the
whole internet, but it’s currently sold out.)
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Doing my quiet time
I really wanted to go for a walk since I’d skipped my workout Friday, but
the city was doing a controlled burn, and the air quality was horrendous
Saturday. It was sunny most of the day,
but everything looked brown and hazy, so I wasn’t about to set foot out there
with my asthma. Yeesh.
After a very productive day of doing lots of little random tasks it was time to get ready for Mass.
After Mass, our usual group all went out together to dinner. Since it was Valentine’s Day, we weren’t sure what to expect regarding restaurants being busy, but thankfully, our Mexican place wasn’t overly crowded. As a matter of fact, I think it was less busy than usual.
I sat next to my Valentine, and we had to snap a picture with our margaritas. ;o) This lady is going to be NINETY-SEVEN next month and I’m so grateful that she is still hanging out and drinking margs with me every Saturday night. I don’t take a single second with her for granted. Does she not look incredible?!
After the kids went to bed, Brian and I watched another episode of The Girlfriend, and then we headed to bed, too. Oh, and shoutout to Brian's Valentine's Day socks! Hahahaha.
Sunday morning, I was up at 8:30, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then I spent some time in my office doing the things I do every Sunday morning – sermon, planner for the week ahead, quiet time, transferring photos from my phone to my computer. I love a routine! And just the other day when I asked Mama Cass what her secret to longevity was, one of the first things she said was that she loves routines and she thinks they’re important. <3
For lunch, we went to my mother-in-law’s and step-father-in-law’s house, and my mother-in-law’s sister and her husband were visiting. They live in Minnesota, but we get to see them once or twice a year when they’re driving through to Florida to visit family, and it’s always nice to catch up with them.
We sat around the table forever after lunch, and then I snuck outside with Olivia to play with the cat my mother-in-law and step-father-in-law have recently “adopted.” I use that term lightly because it was a stray that just started hanging out around their house, and since they never found the owner, they started feeding and caring for it. He was skittish when he first came along, but now he’s super friendly and cuddly, and he loves getting all the pets. He purred nonstop the whole time we were out there with him.
We got home just in time for torrential rain to start coming down. Olivia was thrilled because she loves having “cozy video game time” and that always involves a nice rainstorm. We all settled in for the next couple of hours being lazy. I turned on The Wedding Planner while I organized my pictures from the week and I tried my best to work on this blog post, but it was tough because my face/neck/jaw issues were out of control all weekend. I feel like I’m at least 50% less productive when everything flares up because it’s hard to concentrate and look at a screen when I’m so dizzy and feeling so much tension. I’m hoping that my body will adapt to this new retainer soon, but it is slow going.
For Sunday dinner, we went to my parents’ house to celebrate Brian’s birthday. He got to pick the menu, and he chose one of my favorites of all-time – my Momma’s fettuccine alfredo bake – so we all came hungry. We had a salad and Boursin baked baby carrots with it (OMG, SO GOOD) + bread and wine. And Brian had picked out a festive wine for Valentine’s Day, which was so cuuuute.
For dessert, we had a caramel spice cake, which is another one of my favorite things, and it was a very filling evening. Haha. I ate soooo much Sunday, and I felt stuffed all Sunday night, but it was worth it.
Brian and I ended the weekend with another episode of The Girlfriend (woooo, it’s getting good!), and that was our week!
Happy Wednesday, y’all!
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