We did a LOT this past weekend. And while every moment wasn’t amazing (certain child going through tough behavioral phase . . . ), it felt full, in a good way.
Friday:
I took the big kids to the dentist before work. Next time I’ll have to bring G so I relished the last peaceful/easy visit for quite some time. I rather enjoy this twice yearly ritual, for whatever reason. And thankfully, no cavities.
After work, the kids watched Toy Story 4 and we made popcorn. And Josh got home at a reasonable hour and joined! (I read my book while they watched, once G was in bed)
Saturday we had babysitting coverage from ~9 – 11 so that I could take G to MyGym while Josh got some chart catchup done. It worked out well.
From there, we headed (all together again) to a local Car Show – which was free and actually rather amazing, especially if you have a kid who is obsessed with McLarens. Cameron was in his happy place. I thought the Lamborghinis were the prettiest. I told Josh maybe I’ll buy one when I’m 90.
We had lunch at Fuddruckers, at all places. It was . . . okay. Kids were happy. My bison burger was edible especially with a lot of pickled jalapeños on top 🙂
We came home, put G down, and I took my (now customary) nap for a bit. Josh ended up taking the kids to Joann Fabrics (Annabel is super into crafts these days) and I made dinner:
I had grand plans for “make your own mini pizzas” but my dough ended up super sticky and it was hard to control the shapes! It ended up tasting better than it looked, though.
Sunday we had a different sitter come (both new care.com finds, both really good!) from 7:30 – 9:30 so that Josh and I could go exercise & shower. YES indulgent . . . but it worked out nicely. I ran 5 miles (easy relaxed pace with a refreshing lightning-free rainstorm at the end).
Then we headed to a local farm! We had intended to pick strawberries but apparently the season doesn’t start for another month or so. It ended up being fun anyway — we did a hayride, the kids climbed and ran around, and there were lots of animals to feed & see.
The best/worst part was that while we were on the hayride, I looked down and realized that G had started EATING the corn that was meant as animal feed. (She was covered in farm dirt while she did this, too). So far she is not sick and if she stays healthy, the episode will remain cute in my memory and not horrifying.
We headed home for lunch (we were going to eat at Whole Foods but there was a tantrum on arrival that made us turn around . . . ) and I made eggs / chicken sausages & peppers / toast / fruit.
G went down for a nap and then I tried to read/nap but C kept coming in. (We did not allow him screen time because he lost that privilege, but sadly that ended up punishing us too). Getting them to adhere to quiet time is something that I’d really like to do . . . but admittedly it is a challenge without screens. Working on it. It does go well if there is a new Lego kit to assemble, but that’s not necessarily going to happen every weekend . . .
After taking a walk with A & G (Josh ran some errands with C), Josh and I had our monthly Planning Date! During this date, we:
- ate sushi & gelato
- set some financial goals (though not super specific ones; we have decided we want to hire a fee-for-service-only financial advisor)
- reviewed our 2019 savings rate (not that great BUT we were also paying for our other house PLUS saving to sell it, so really probably not so bad with those factors taken into account)
- booked our summer family trip (going to the Keys for a week!)
- organized Josh’s life! Seriously!! I helped him create yearly / quarterly / January goals out of some very old and disorganized lists, and helped him brainstorm some better systems. It was SO much fun for me (and he said he felt better afterwards). I do NOT need another side hustle, but I would totally do this if I did.
Normally we would also review YNAB data, but I only started using YNAB again in January 2020. (Random note: I find it SO MUCH better than EveryDollar now that we are on the paid version, though I am comparing PAID YNAB to Free EveryDollar, so maybe that’s unfair. But seriously – the latest paid YNAB is very user friendly and much better than the free version we limped along with for years.)
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Last week’s workout report:
M – rest (Sunday was my half!)
T – rest #2
W – Beachbody DFX Yoga
R – 3.5 mi recovery run, 10:35/mi pace
F – Beachbody 21DF Dirty 30 (8 + 12 lb weight except triceps @ 10 lb)
S – rest #3 (wanted an easy week post-race!)
S – 5 mi easy (10:31/mi)
This week’s dinners (with some credit to lagliv for inspiration):
M – salmon, plantains or sweet potatoes, green bens
T – Run Fast Eat Slow fartlek chili w/ sweet potato chips
W – leftovers
R – Run Fast Eat Slow soba noodle salad with peanut sauce (surprisingly a kid fave)
F – leftovers
S – (directly taken from LL‘s post): black bean spinach enchiladas
S – (also from LL’s menu post!): balsamic slow-cooker chicken with noodles & asparagus (she did spinach but the kids will at least sometimes eat asparagus so why not)
12 Comments
When we do quiet time, the 4 year old listens to a CD that she enjoys that is 1hr and 15 minutes long. She knows she can only come get us once the CD is over. And we do this with an old school CD player and CD. She gets to put it in a press play, which I swear helps her feel in control and thus makes the time more successful. This might be something to try with C.
ooh I like that idea!
Am curious how your kids do with new babysitters, since they’ve had the same nanny fairly steadily. Do you have a ritual for introducing them to someone new?
it’s interesting – they are VERY sensitive to how engaged the babysitter is. if the babysitter is a good one and jumps ‘into their world’, they are very receptive (even if G is a little scared at first she warms up quickly when she sees the others are cool). but if the babysitter is unmotivated or unwilling they can TELL and it doesn’t go well! the two i recently found are very good (and both with a lot of childcare experience).
That sounds like an awesome weekend! I think Dan and I need to consider a weekend AM babysitter if we are ever both training for a big race or something again. Although … G is going to be 8 soon and B is almost 3 so … maybe we can leave them alone together for an hour or so in a year or two.
can’t imagine that season of life – I think it’s more like 4-5 years away! but I think it would be great.
How do you and your kids handle it when plans change due to one child’s tantrum, like with you heading home instead of eating lunch at Whole Foods? I have 2 kids and when we head home instead of doing something fun the non-misbehaving child gets very upset and starts yelling at the misbehaving child. It isn’t fair that everyone misses out due to one child’s behavior but sometimes there is no way around it. I struggle in these situations so any advice would be helpful.
oh, no one handled it well! I have no magic solution! Sometimes kids are going to be mad. But it was the right move.
Yes to enforced quiet times! I have six kids ages 4-13 and they literally all know my rule that if you are in my house in the afternoon, you have a screen-free quiet hour, even now no one usually sleeps. My older ones read or play quiet (card/board) games together. My 4 year olds usually listen to an audio book that from the Libby app that I stream through a bluetooth speaker in their room. It really helps everyone re-set for the afternoon and evening. (I usually allow screen time after quiet time so it works as a motivator too!)
LOVE that (and wow, 6!). and i like the motivator idea of screen time AFTERWARDS. . . that would probably work in our house!
So glad you found some recipes in my list that you like! And I LOVE asparagus and have got to cook with it more even though James hates it with the fire of a thousand suns. I’m not even sure my kids could identify it in a lineup and they eat all kinds of crazy things. Glad you had a great weekend – love the farm!
I am so happy you gave paid YNAB a try. It’s so worth it! At $7/month it more than pays for itself IMO.
Sounds like a full and fun weekend 🙂