The Nelson Narrative

What a great weekend!  My birthday was Saturday, and birthdays around here always drag out for a week or so, although this year I was able to rein it in to just a weekend.  On Friday night, Paul and I had a date night at Earl's Kitchen + Bar.  I had been wanting to go there for years and we finally did and it was great. We got the calamari appetizer and then I had steak and tortellini and Paul had a southwest chicken salad.  Everything was delicious. Saturday morning the four of us went to brunch at the neighborhood Irish Pub.  That was really great as well.  Then the girls went out to get me a coffee from Huxdotter and some flowers. Paul had got me flowers, too, and I also had some delivered from my best friend. So many flowers! In the afternoon Paul and I took Kona for a nice walk and it was a beautiful sunny day.  The whole week has been really nice.  Then we went to Paul's mom's for dinner and she had got my favorite cake from Costco. Today we...

I meant to post this Sunday or Monday or at least Tuesday, since Monday was a holiday anyway, but couldn't quite get around to it. We had a great weekend.  On Saturday, we went to a wedding.  It was in a town about an hour and 40 minutes from where we live, but Paul's mom's is in-between, and he needed to go there anyway to help her put all her Christmas storage boxes away, plus the Seahawks game was on at 5:00, the wedding was at 2:00, so we weren't going to make it home in time, so it worked out great to just stop at her house after the wedding and watch the game there.  And what a game it was.  The Seahawks DESTROYED the 49ers 41-6! Looking forward to the NFC championship game on Sunday! I loved the centerpieces at the wedding.  Every table had a small stack of books, with a candle/lantern thingie and lights.  They were so pretty.  After all that, it was nice to have Monday off.  I think I mostly just cleaned and maybe grocery shopped, but what...

In light of the girls' impending graduation/going off to college, I'm starting a new series called, "Things I Won't Miss".  In this inaugural episode, the topic is laundry. A common site around here is a pile of unfolded laundry.  It seems like one or the other does a huge load about every other day, and usually around 10:00 PM when Paul's already asleep and I'm thinking about it.  And then it sits in said pile for several days, while the owner just randomly selects what they need that day instead of folding and putting everything away.  I almost always end up folding it and putting it in their room, but I'm trying hard not to do that anymore.

Today I am linking up with Erika and Shay for a series they do called Let’s Look, where they "look" at various aspects of their lives. Today’s topic is what we outsource without regret. At first, I didn’t think I outsource anything but then I remembered a few things. Meal planning -  It's only a small percentage that gets outsourced but it helps. We get Hello Fresh for 2 meals per week most weeks, and I love not having to worry about what’s for dinner those two days. The rental of our Crescent Bar condo . This was kind of built in, because we were gifted the unit from Paul’s parents and they were already doing that with their other unit and most of the owners do, and so it just kind of naturally happened that way.  Every now and then we will rent it on our own to someone we know but mostly it’s through the rental company. Car maintenance - I don't know very many people who do their own but I know there are some, just not us. Dog nail trims - I do the cats myself, but...

I like to occasionally document what a typical day is like so I have something to look back on years from now.  Today I will recap a typical Monday.  Mondays are one of my two work-from-home days, so I will also try to document an in-office day soon, as well as a typical weekend. My alarm usually goes off at 6:00, but sometimes I reset it to 6:20 or 6:30, especially if I plan to skip my shower which I typically do on WFH days (sometimes I'll take it in the evening). I like to save time and get an earlier start and end time, so I just get dressed in sweats or leggings or yoga pants and put my hair in a ponytail and I'm ready to go.  I do have on-camera meetings on Mondays, however, so I will put make-up on whereas I don't bother on Fridays (my other WFH day).  Every morning, when I first come out of the bathroom Kona has gotten in our bed.  It's the cutest thing.  On this particular day, however, I had just changed the sheets the night before so I pulled eve...

I love a good organizational project any time of year, but especially at the beginning of the year.  At the start of every year I have plans to go through every single room/cabinet/closet/drawer in the entire house (not all in one day, obviously), but rarely actually do.  Just a little here and there but only ever a small percentage of the whole house. I wasn't planning on doing the pantry yesterday, but just kind of decided to on a whim.  I had finally broke down and ordered a tiered canned good shelf that arrived yesterday so it seemed liked a great time to get started.  Here is what it looked like before: That's the door going out to the garage, so this room also acts as a mud room.  Under the shelves on the floor are plastic bins that we put our shoes (and sometimes hats and gloves) in, one for each family member plus an extra.  Then there is the garbage/recycling and a container of cat food On this side, I have a step stool, dog food, cat litter and a ...