The Nelson Narrative

The girls are on mid-winter break this week.  I simultaneously love and hate school breaks. Pros: I don't have to make lunches the night before I only have to get myself ready in the morning, not supervise the girls or fix their breakfast. No homework Usually no after school activities (gymnastics, music lessons, etc.) Cons: Finding childcare. Girls staying up later (less "me" time). I finally have a teeny bit of PTO built up (mostly saving for our cruise this summer and for sick days) so I was able to take today off (yesterday was a company holiday) and Paul has Friday off.  So we just needed a sitter for 2 of the days but so far we only have one for tomorrow.  But if worst comes to worst I can take another PTO day or a personal holiday on Thursday. Anyway, we've had a fun few days so far.  Yesterday we broke out some new painting supplies and had a fun painting session.  I just looked on Pinterest for...

It started snowing yesterday and sure enough, school got cancelled.  The plan was for Paul to stay home with the girls, since I stayed home with Kayley one day a few weeks ago when she wasn't feeling well, but this morning we decided that I should stay home as well as road conditions just didn't warrant trying to go in.  We had about a foot this morning and it had stopped snowing but now it has started again.  There's a good chance school will be cancelled tomorrow as well. The park down the street has some good sledding hills, so we did that this morning.  Lots of our friends were there and it was really fun. Now I'm panicking that I might get called in to work, as we have a lot of power outages and some of the storm bases have opened.  I really don't want to have to work all night, so I'm hoping that most of the outages are restored today.

I am long overdue for a Typical Day post.  I like to document our daily routine every now and then to have something to look back on.  So here is our current routine. Between 6:15 and 6:30 - Alarm goes off, I may or may not get up.  If I decide to go without a shower and put my hair in ponytail, I reset the alarm for 7:00 :) 7:40 - Done getting ready for work, get the girls up. 7:45 - Breakfast 8:15 - Leave for school/work.  I drop the girls off on my way. 9:00 - 5:30, give or take - Work 3:15ish - Girls get home from school and are alone for 15 or 20 minutes until Paul gets home. 3:35 - Paul gets home.  Girls do their homework. 6:15 or 6:30 - I get home.  Paul and the girls have usually already eaten.  I eat and then clean up the kitchen, go through their school papers and the mail, make lunches and other next day prep. 8:00 - help with bedtime routine, instrument practice, fold laundry, etc. Anywhere between 8:45 and 10:00 - Finally done fo...

It has been an awesome 10 days.  I have had 8 out of the last 10 days off!  Christmas Eve through the 27th, then I worked on the 28th and 29th, and now I've been off since the 30th.  It has been so nice to finally have some time to do something besides work, clean, shop, cook, make lunches, etc.  (Speaking of making lunches, I just realized this morning that I will have to make lunches TONIGHT for the first time in over 2 weeks.  Blah.)  Last Tuesday, the 27th, Olivia and I spent the day together just the two of us because Kayley went to an overnight birthday party at Great Wolf Lodge (Olivia didn't want to go because I wasn't going to be there) and Paul went skiing with a friend.  We went to the library, then to Michael's, then out to lunch at Red Robin, then to the pet store.  Once we got home we painted some canvases.  It was awesome.  I bought a bunch of painting supplies back in June or July and they sat in a closet unused un...

I mentioned a few posts ago that I have decided to try and journal every single day in 2017.  Even if it's just a sentence or tow, or even just a word or phrase, but I'm going to try and write something every single day.  The main reason is just because I thought it would be fun to go back and reread at the end of the year (I'm weird that way), and also I am hoping that it might keep me motivated with things like weight loss and time management. I was hoping to find a journal that wasn't just a bunch of blank pages but maybe had some sayings/quotes or questions to think about, etc.  I also kind of wanted to go back to a paper planner and thought what I really wanted was a combination planner/journal.  I probably could find something like that online or even in a store if I looked hard enough, but I was at Michaels and found something close enough on sale so I went with it. First, a simple journal, with cheesy quotes:  Sorry some of these pics are...

I was re-reading last year's Year in Review post and I mentioned how most years I think about penning a Christmas letter but never do, and that I didn't even get around to sending cards last year.  It was funny because I once again almost wrote a Christmas letter this year but didn't, and again did not even send cards.  But I didn't realize this was two years in a row without sending cards.  Oops.  I thought I had managed to get some photo cards made at the last minute last year but apparently not.  So again, here is my would-have-been Christmas letter in blog and photo form. The girls turned 8 in February and in lieu of a party decided they wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge with just one friend.  Another friend was already going to be there because they always go during the mid-winter break which is right around the same time, so it made for a nice little mini-party. Paul and I celebrated 10 years of marriage in May with a ...

Let's review the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year and see how I did, shall we?  Lose 20 pounds.  I want and need to lose more but a goal of 20 for the year is good.  I'm sure I lost more than 20 if you add up all the 3 and 4 pound losses, but my net loss for the year is right around 1, give or take.   Read 16 books.  I'm just not one of those people who can read 4 or 5 or 20 books in a month, and lately I hardly read at all so I'm just hoping to get back into reading somewhat regularly.  I read 16 1/2, plus a couple of kid books!  At one point I thought I would get to at least 18 but then I just got really busy and didn't read much for a few months. Train for another 5K.  I really want to get back into running but now that I'm working full-time and evenings are filled with kid stuff and next-day prep, it's SO hard to find time but I really hope to figure out how to squeeze it in.  I just need to commit to g...