stonepicnicking_okapi

1. Last day of school for the boys is tomorrow. There was supposed to be a picnic at Minisculus' but it's too wet. Tonight is a ceremony at the middle school (not a graduation--they have stressed that) and then Minor is staying for the 8th grade dance.

2. I noticed something interesting (to me) last week during the ceiling catastrophe. I missed drinking any coffee Tuesday because I was in exile, but I didn't notice it. I didn't get that nail-being-driven-in-the-temple headache I normally get. Like, nothing, no physical sign that I was caffeine deprived. So maybe the anxiety adrenaline of the ceiling held it at bay? I don't know. I'm just making an observation. I started to feel it on Day 2 but I got some coffee and of course it went away

3. I'm about halfway through The Seamstress by Maria Duenas and enjoying it. It's an epic life story of a woman from Spain who lives in Morocco during the Civil War. I'm at the even of WWII now. Finished Bridge to Teribithia with Minisculus and now we're reading something called Clementine which is the typical 'kid does pranks and gets into trouble' story.

4. I cracked open a new jigsaw: Around the Word in 50 Plants.

5. No news from the Visiting Angels. :( I'm hoping everything is okay. I uploaded the COVID vaccine info per request but it's been crickets for a week.

6. I REALLY need to get cracking on my casefic for the exchange.

7. I like train ambient channels:



6.

1. The interview on Thursday is the big thing.

2. I have finally started actually writing my casefic for the exchange.

3. School is winding down for the boys. Their last day is 18 June.

4. I realized that the book that Minisculus and I are reading was made into a film (Because of Winn-Dixie) so I have my movie-tie in for the book bingo.

5. 13 June is FESTA day, which is the day BTS debuted (so BTS birthday). All but SUGA will be out by then.

I wish I could make this look this easy.

1. I got a call from a home health agency called Visting Angels. I submitted my resume to their website and went to a CPR class on Thursday to get up-to-date credentials. We'll see. I haven't applied for any more jobs and neither Wal-Mart nor the grocery store have called me back.

2. The boys' father left for Kenya on Saturday. He will be back on Monday. It looks like he will have work until July and then (maybe) the Gates Foundation might fund them for another two years. We'll see.

3. So I am home alone with the boys. Saturday I spent 4 hours sitting under a tree reading while Minisculus went to his elementary school Spring Fair and Sunday we spent 6 hours at Minor's track meet. Tonight I have Mom Taxi duties to and fro to soccer and track practices.

Not much is going on.

3weeks4dreamwidth is celebrating Dreamwidth's anniversary!
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So on Tuesdays I do my personal posts (when life allows) and I want to give a shot-out today to DW friend dine who does daily (or almost daily) posts and they are always fun links to interesting articles (archeology, museums, art, words, and other thought-y subjects, pop culture, hockey etc.) as well as pictures of kitties or puppies or goats (or some other cute animals). And other things, music, videos. Anyway, I enjoy her posts very much.

1. I applied for another job! This is #2. For the grocery store across the street. And it required doing a proper resume and cover letter which, you know, was a humbling and nerve-wracking experience.

2. I got my match for the Case Fic Exchange and it's good. I can do this. I was nervous about it, and I am relieved. Assignments due 11 July. 3k minimum.

3. Minor did great at his track meet on Sunday. Two new PRs for 400 and 800 m and he tried a new event (relay 4x800) and didn't drop the baton! Minisculus' soccer game was cancelled 20 minutes into it due to lightning. :( Pain the butt-ock!

5. What's most important to you about your school/work environment?

Ha! I am a stay at home mom so the most important thing about my work environment is that we have a washer and dryer in our own apartment and two bathrooms so I don't have to share my toilet with two stinky little boys.

( Full list of 3Weeks4Dreamwith questions )

I usually do an ASMR of the week. I am still watching the old ones: Ryu and Ryua going camping, the miniature house-making one CocoBellyDIY and the animated animals getting spa care HABO and my gal moment.D doing her collaging.

I really like the voice of this Junk Journaling lady Thrifty Day and even though it's bordering conspicuous consumption, I watch all this 'Pack an Order with Me' videos because I like her voice.

1. I fell to temptation and went to JoAnn's (a craft store in the US that's going out of business). Everything was 50% off. I walked around and around. There wasn't anything I couldn't live without, it was very picked over, but I got a few pieces of paper and 2 washi tapes and a couple of stickers. I won't ever go back. I hope to show off my new buys very soon.

2. I saw a Youtube video about creating a dopamine menu. So this is a list of 1-minute, 5-minute, and 10-minute activities that give you pleasure in order to give yourself the dopamine hit to keep you motivated to complete tasks. It's geared toward people with ADHD but I created one for myself. We'll see if it helps with procrastination and other mental obstacles to Getting Stuff Done.

3. Minor wanted to get chicken at a place, and since I was out of dinner ideas, we did and I ate cole slaw for the first time in many, many years. I never ate it as a young person, but it isn't bad!

4. I did fills for my second Yahtzee roll at GYWO. I did 3 loads of laundry today. I finished At Bertram's Hotel and started The Third Girl. I did a Marie-Kondo clean & purge of a closet and dresser. On Sunday, we drove an hour into the countryside to take Minor to his first track meet of the season. He got one PR in the 800 meters. It was rural (see cows). It was cold, and I had the absolute worst cup of coffee I've ever drank.



New item: ASMR of the Week. Last week I mentioned Ryu & Ryua's camping. [https://www.youtube.com/@RYUCAMP] and this week, it's animated animals getting beauty/health treatments (HABO asmr). Here's a ferret getting his teeth cleaned. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhFaghbhvHk&list=WL&index=2]

Happy Mardi Gras! Woo-hoo!

I lived in New Orleans for a couple of years and countries in South America where Carnival was celebrated and always enjoyed the festivities.

I bought things to make a simple version of bananas foster for Mardi Gras tonight. [bananas cooked in brown sugar and butter with ice cream and caramel sauce].

Yesterday I was doing ok. I got quite a few things checked off on my To-do list. Today I am a land slug and can barely make it into clothes. Things may swing back tomorrow as I have a dentist appointment early. I am cold but it's warming up here (I think).

Some Mardi Gras mambo!

1. It's jhope day! Yay! I updated my soap opera and did a drabble.

2. I ran Saturday morning (the full 5k) around the lake and I tried to run today but part of the lake was closed off for tree cutting so my weak soul declared defeat far too easily and doubled back and went home. There was a blue and gold bird (an Eastern bluebird, the internet tells me) which was striking given the dull landscape.

3. Yesterday the boys had the day off school and Minisculus went to an indoor soccer tournament. I did laundry. We got pizza because I mis-calcuated in my meal planning and didn't have quite enough for the whole week.

4. Sunday was the boys' father's birthday and we settled on a happy medium of a nice meal and one gift and he watched soccer most of the day. And there was key lime pie (which we finished this afternoon. Nom!)

5. Minisculus (and I) have moved onto step 2 of Caloric Modification program which is drinking a 6 oz of water before every meal and scheduled snack. He hates it but has stopped grumbling. He got some fun Valentine's on Friday and I got to take my pick of them for collage ephemera.

6. It's very cold but there is no longer snow forecasted for tomorrow so maybe we have seen the last of the snow (?).

1. Going shopping and only buying what you came for is (for me) like using an odd muscle that hasn't been used in a while. A good thing, a great thing, actually, but I still need to focus to do it.

2. There is a tiny, tiny bit of glee in watching the boys' father having to find ways fill his own days without a job which is what I have been doing for the past TEN YEARS! He did taxes yesterday.

3. We're already having a few fights about money, but I am getting better at #1. The issue is that the boys' birthdays are in March and April.

4. I did 5 Valentines. They are in the mail. Tomorrow I am going to try shopping at ALDI. The weather is warmer, so I went back to the lake yesterday. I want to get back to running. I finished reading a book of poetry Versed by Rae Armantrout and will post some more poems on Thursday.

5. The boys had their check-ups and Minisculus got put on a Calorie Modification Plan (we know what that is, hm?) so there are 7 steps. We are on Step 1, which is set eating & snacking times. A simple start, but of course he's grumbling already. The next one starts in 10 days and will be more difficult: drinking more water. But who knows? Maybe I will lose some weight from it. He doesn't need to lose weight, according to the doctor, just stay the same and let his natural growth (height) catch up. He was 18 lbs heavier than he was supposed to be, so it's not without reason. And not spending money on junk will go into #1 and probably help #3.

1. I'm all over the place today. This morning, I did a Yoga with Adriene which was too difficult for me and that set the tone for a day of frustration.

2. I am trying very hard to 1. write a poem 2. settle on a plot for my National Puzzle Day offerings. I want to try an escape room story, but I think it is too ambitious.

3. Out of sheer!@#$% I challenged myself to see how many drabbles I could write in 90 minutes, so I could have SOMETHING to show for the day. The answer is 5.

4. For the same reasons, I ate the last of the Christmas chocolate. I have some bars of Valentine chocolate but am going to TRY to save them.

5. I did a facial mask today and forced myself to lay down and just BE for 20 minutes with fair to middling results.

Tomorrow is shopping and errands day so I wanted today to be a quiet day at home, and I feel like I wasted it. But maybe my lens is cracked.

Let's start with the good.

1. Long run yesterday. New watch is working well.

2. I finished a WIP yesterday, one I had started in August; it ended up being 26k, Omegaverse BTS poly but SUGA & sope-centric.

3. I also did a Fannish 50 so I am only 4 away from finishing.

4. On Sunday I got up at 5 AM and attended a 3-hour online poetry workshop in the UK and enjoyed it.

5. My YMCA is doing another 12 days of fitness for December and I have logged 9 out of 12 days.

5a. I did a winter spread which I will post on Friday.

6. Yesterday I watched a 1973 film horror/slasher Black Christmas which I enjoyed very much, and the origin of the 'the call is coming from inside the house' trope and of sorority girls getting murdered. I might watch it again. It was interesting.

But of course, it's not all good.

7. I was very, very slow yesterday and my chief anxiety is embarrassing Minor in front of his running team and their parents on Sunday's Rudolph Run.

7a. Friday we went to a dinner at one of the running team family's house. It was out in the rural area and a huge house expertly decorated for Christmas. 2 trees which were 2 floors tall and everything looking like a House Beautiful spread. And the boys decided to do a run AFTER eating and then wanted to go because rich people give me hives and so Minor was wheezing in the car and said his lips were swelling so I got him home and made him give himself an Epi Pen and a nebulizer treatment so I guess he'll live. (but not for long, see next).

8. The boys' father caught Minor watching porn on his school laptop in bed in the middle of the night--which pretty much torpedoes my campaign to get Minor an upgrade to his phone for Christmas. Thirteen is not an easy age but Minor keeps shooting himself in the foot in spectacular ways.

9. My car is leaking again. The same leak which we had fixed a year ago.

10. I'm official the same weight I was on 12/31 of last year so I haven't lost an ounce. :( I seem to be bent on getting myself into a larger trouser size.

11. I went looking last week in the rain for Snoopy stickers, which Target was out of. I walked down to the Hallmark store and got this Snoopy Santa-letter kit which was fine and did the collage for Fannish 50 BUT...yesterday I went by Walgreens and saw the PERFECT Snoopy Xmas sticker kit (better than the one at Target) it was shaped like Snoopy's doghouse, but of course, I don't need it now. I did the spread. Finding the perfect thing a week after I searched in the rain and made do with something not-quite is an Alanis Morsette song and the story of my life (these days).

11 DEC: Stretching Day: How often do you stretch?
The goal is 4 x a week. I do think it is the most important element of feeling not-like-shit. I have even made S T R E T C H my word of 2025.

12 DEC: Gingerbread House Day: Have you ever made a gingerbread house?

Yes. It was a disaster. I said never again! But such a great idea (for other people to do)

13 DEC: Day of the Horse: Would you like to die in the saddle?
Yeah, having seen my mother die in a nursing home and my father die in home hospice care, yeah, let's make it sudden and quick.

14 DEC: Yoga Day: Do you like yoga?
I like having done yoga. I am working on liking it itself.

15 DEC: Wear Your Pearls Day: Do you own any pearls?

Yes, one of the few items of jewelry which have survived my many purges. My mother's.

16 DEC: Chocolate-Covered Anything Day: What’s the oddest thing you’ve seen covered in chocolate?
Not odd but I do like chocolate covered espresso beans.

17 DEC: A Christmas Carol Day: Do you like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? If so, what’s your favorite adaptation of the work?
The Muppets!