Josh was on call, so I was primarily on my own for this one.
Saturday:
- I had a babysitter come while I went for a quick run & then took G to MyGym
- We went to the playground (their current favorite one with lots of monkey bars)
- Lunch @ Panera
- G took a solid nap and I prepped dinner
- Up ~4 pm. Brief walk around the neighborhood (b/c the weather was just that good)!
- Trip to Target; the kids wanted to buy Valentines. They didn’t actually have the packs of ‘class valentines’ yet (!), but we managed to get out of there spending only $13.89 (2 glow in the dark balloons & two tubes of toothpaste that I realized we needed) which is essentially A MIRACLE
- Dinner (veg enchiladas) which the kids pretty much categorically refused. !?!?!?
Sunday:
- I finished Celine by Peter Heller and really liked it in the end! There was just a lovely peacefulness to the storytelling. It sort of reminded me of a more adventurous Wallace Stegner.
- I had a babysitter come while I went to the 8 AM class at Ultimate Workout (similar to Orange Theory) — my first class in ages! I had some leftover credits and just bit the bullet and went. It was great and I think I’ll start incorporating it occasionally again into my regular routine.
- Took the kids to Frost Science. They had fun! We were there for quite some time and could have stayed longer but G needed to nap.
- The 40 minute drive home did ruin G’s nap though. No transfer. (*$&@#
- I prepped dinner while she attempted to go back to sleep (no dice) and then we went to the park for 40 minutes while dinner baked in the oven.
- Josh finished with work and took Annabel to a ukulele concert (his friends were performing) and I put G, C, and myself to bed.
Sadly I am finding myself a little sick again which is infuriating because I feel like I just had the same illness about a month ago.
Also sadly, I have work today. I miss being in NC where MLK day was taken seriously. Really! There were always community events and services and clinics were closed (of course, I still had to work if I was on a rotation like PICU or something, but still). Josh and I often made a point of going to a talk or event. Here, schools are closed but the hospital/clinics are going full swing. Okay then.
Workout report:
M – off
T – 3 mi easy with 6 x 30 second strides (10:38/mi ave)
W – 3 x 1mi @ tempo. 5 mi total. Tempo miles @ 9:06, 9:33, 10:10 (though I am not sure of the accuracy; I think Strava was having trouble with the ‘rest intervals’ and calculating the speed ramp-up. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping! Going to charge up the ol’ Garmin for next week.)
R – BB 21DF Upper (8 & 12 lb weights, pushups: 15 up / 5 down; 10 up / 10 down). It is remarkable HOW QUICKLY you (I?) can lose upper body strength.
F – 40 min easy run post-work. 10:02/mi
S – 10 min warmup, 6 x 1K at tempo w/ 1 min recovery between each. Total run @ 9:33/mi.
S – 1 hr Ultimate class (instructor: Casey). Survived!
Meal plan: will save that for tomorrow b/c I am out of time.
10 Comments
Thank goodness you had nice weather so you could get outside with the kids on your solo weekend. It feels like Josh has a lot of call! Maybe it’s because he’s newer to his position? Or he has a normal amount of call but feels like a lot to someone who doesn’t work in the medical field? Either way, hats off to you for all the solo parenting. I’ve had some chunk of time alone with our son but not a full day and I am always sooo glad when my husband comes home and can take over! It’s winter here in Minnesota, so being alone with our son is tougher since we can’t get outside for walks and such (it’s been really cold lately). Womp womp.
He’s on call one out of every 3 weekends and holidays. Luckily I am now on call close to 1/10! Used to be a lot more.
(Meaning, 33% of the time … he is on call. Weekdays included. But I really only pay attention to the weekends/holidays!). It’s just part of his job and is pretty common for surgery / vascular.
What do you do when the kids won’t eat what you made? I have a two year old and it’s just so hard.. I want to send her to bed hungry but then I worry she’ll be up a bunch / can’t sleep because she’s hungry? I don’t know
My son’s preschool has a saying “A lot, or a little.” The kids get to choose the amount, but they have to try everything – but it can be in very small quantities. I thought that was a smart approach.
At home, I definitely adhere to the “You get what you get and you don’t get upset. But, if you really don’t like it, hopefully you’ll like the next meal better – you can try then.” I try not to make a big fuss, but the meal is over and there is no snacking/desserts etc. I did that a few times with my daughter when she was 2/3, and she has turned in to a fabulous eater – I too worried about her waking up in the night hungry, but she never did (I do think consistency is key, though – it could take a few nights of not eating much at supper).
My kids don’t love all food, for sure, but they generally eats without complaint and I also try hard to make sure if we have a meal that isn’t their favourite (Chicken Mango Curry – which I love and they used love, is now their public enemy #1) that we follow it up the next night with something more appealing to their palate.
Sounds like you did more than survive! Well done… in our house it’s me that does the away on call and I don’t get to come home as we live too far from the hospital. My partner copes admirably and very rarely whinges! I come home knackered, to a trashed house usually, but the kids are usually well exercised and happy. I think I’d go a bit nuts if it were me, and totally would do the babysitter thing to claw just a teeny bit of time for myself!
Wow. Very impressed. I have a hard time doing a weekend of solo parenting with even just one 2.5 year old. Hopefully the older kids at least entertain G some of the time. Could you by chance share a link to the Enchilada recipe? They look so good! I one I use is very time-consuming, and I’m assuming you chose something less finicky while watching three kids.
Well, the kids hated it! But I thought it was decent 🙂 it came straight from laglivs meal plan and is here: https://www.thegardengrazer.com/2012/03/black-bean-spinach-enchiladas.html
I just got nostalgic for our Gymboree / Panera meet-ups. 🙂
My kids won’t touch enchiladas either. we have started just eating tacos / taco salad and then Dan and I will make a big batch of enchiladas to be our lunch leftovers when we are craving them!
Awwwww i loved those meetups!!!!