2020 Goals- How did I do?

 Goals for 2020

1. Eat one vegetarian dinner a week. 

Most weeks I would say we did this. Most Saturdays nights we have had fish for dinner in lieu of meat. 

2. Lose 25 pounds this year.

I got close to this goal. Since mid July I have lost 20 pounds while not dieting. I plan to continue intermittent fasting into 2021.

3. Finish Morning Meltdown 100 by February 21st.

Big success! I finished Beachbody's MM100 program by February 21st (the date that we left for Hawaii). I also finished the 10 Rounds Program in 2020 as well!

4. Get rid of my plantar fasciitis.

Still not gone, but I had a good three months with no pain after getting a cortisone shot. Once that wore off the pain came back but now I am going to PT and it is feeling better.....

5. Spend at least one day knocking on doors on a get-out-the-vote effort. 

Ha! I was ready to do this and then the pandemic happened. Instead, I signed up to make calls and got out the vote in PA. 

6. Practice tennis with Izzy. 

Big fail. I think we may have gone once?

7. Try at least one day of Intermittent Fasting.
Big success. I did some dirty Intermittent Fasting early in the year, but once I read "Delay, Not Deny" I realized that I wasn't IFing correctly. Starting in mid July I was clean fasting and by now, it is easy to fast for 18 hours every day, a little longer during the week (usually about 20 hours).

Considering the fact that I didn't really look at these goals once I made them in late January, I did a pretty good job and meeting most of them! Bring on 2021!

A new addition to our family!

 Holy sh*t the last time that I posted was in late September? Well that's pretty sad. Work has slowed down a bit in the last month or so which means that I have had more down time at night...so CP and I quickly making our way through the Queen's Gambit. Has anyone else watched that show on Netflix?

The biggest news around these parts is that we added a new addition to our family- a dog! For those of you that have been around long enough, you may remember Koda and Buster. About three years ago we lost Buster and at the time, I really wanted a pet but couldn't handle another dog. Instead we got the two cats, Marshmallow and Cocoa. They have been great, but they have bonded much more with CP than me, and they just aren't the same as a dog.

I had brought up getting a dog with CP a few times over the past 1.5 years. Once I started working from home with my new job I thought it might be a good time but I fairly quickly started traveling. Now with the pandemic I haven't gone anywhere since the beginning of March and likely won't travel at all for a big longer.

Unbeknownst to me a few weeks ago CP started looking at dogs on Petfinder. He had a COVID scare at work and a few people on his floor tested positive so work has since sent everyone home. Since he is home for the foreseeable future, he thought it would be a good idea to start looking at dogs. As soon as I heard that, I jumped at the chance and soon enough, we were spending nights on Petfinder and various rescue websites and Facebook pages. We filled out a bunch of applications but there is an odd "game" where rescues post dogs that are really already spoken for but to get people interested. 

As a family with small children and two cats looking for a larger dog that was also potty trained, we had a smaller number of dogs that would be a good fit. We were matched to a cute 9 month old pit/shepherd mix but I missed the call from the foster mom and by the time I was able to call back, the first person she called had returned her call. However, when I called her back she asked what kind of dog we were looking for and let us know that she had a lab mix that was good with kids and cats being driven up from TX in a few days that she thought would be perfect for us. After texting a bit with the dog's foster mom, a few days later we found ourselves driving up to Kenosha, WI with the kids to meet the dog and take him home that night!

Meet Lord Vader (or just Vader for short) our ~50 pound underweight lab mix rescue!

As you can see, he has settled in nicely

Not sure if he is comfortable in our house yet....

The cats.....well....they have been happier but every day seems to get better between the animals.

Intermittent Fasting update

I want to keep my brain from thinking about the orange man who is currently THE WORST and DOING NOTHING to stop a virus that has killed over 200,000 people in the US....so I thought that I would give a quick update on how intermittent fasting is going!

I started IF in the last week of January and wrote about it here. It's funny to look back on it now because things have changed! I was consistently doing IF until the pandemic hit in March. Even when I went on a work trip I skipped breakfast, presented all morning long, and didn't eat anything until lunch and was perfectly fine. As soon as I was stuck at home with the kids, working 24/7,  and freaking out over COVID, I started to eat all of my feelings and the 13 pounds that I had lost with IF earlier in the year went right back on my body.

After the July 4th holiday, I realized that I needed to get my sh*t together and started back up with IF. Through some googling, I found the "Delay, Don't Deny: Intermittent Fasting Support" Facebook group and joined. I also download the Delay, Don't Deny audible book and started listening to it on walks around the neighborhood. Turns out the tea that I was drinking back in January/February is on the naughty list and I wasn't truly "clean fasting." So I decided to suck it up and start to drink black coffee in the morning. It's been about two months and as I mentioned during my latest DITL post, black coffee is still gross, but I can tolerate it.

So what do I do these days for IF? Well, I close my eating window (aka stop eating by 7-7:30pm most nights) and I generally don't open my eating window until 2 or 3pm the next day. I'm not woozy, I'm not tired (in fact it is the opposite), I don't have trouble working out before I eat (in fact I prefer it since I don't have food sloshing around in my stomach), and I'm really not that hungry until about 2pm or so. The only thing that I ingest is a cup of black coffee and water until the afternoon. On the weekends I end up eating a bit earlier and only fast 16-17 hours so that I can eat lunch with the kids and CP.

Honestly, it's SO EASY. I don't have to worry about lunch most days because some times I'll have leftovers, sometimes I will just eat snacks (grapes, snap peas, etc), or sometimes I'll make scrambled eggs. Then I look forward to eating a full meal at dinner. 

CP thinks that it is weird and that I am "starving myself" but I truly am not hungry and I'm not eating diet foods...but yet I am still losing weight. So far 7 pounds and this week a friend of mine remarked that I look like I have lost weight (yay!). I can definitely tell in my face! The same author of Delay, Don't Deny has a longer, more recent book that goes into more detail about the science/various studies behind fasting and I have started to read it on walks around the neighborhood. 

I hope to come back with another update in a few months with more weight lost!

Day in the Life- Summer/Fall 2020

Day in the Life- Summer/Fall 2020

Monday, September 21, 2020

CP- 44 years old

NSC- 41.5 years old

Izzy- 6.75 years old

Wes- 4 years old

Marshmallow & Cocoa- ??

I think that I forgot to do a summer DITL so I'm doing a joint summer/fall on the first day of fall. No appearance from CP (other than on Facetime) as his company sent him out to CA on Sunday for two weeks. You know, with wildfires, earthquakes, and a pandemic. Awesome.

Without further ado, my Monday.

Sunday night, 11:04p- Turn light off and go to bed.

1:28am- I hear Izzy calling for me and she is crying because she peed in her pullup. (She recently had a few days dry and has woken up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night a few times in the past week so I think the chemical finally turned on in her brain!) We head to the bathroom and I talk to her about the fact that this is a process and it may take a little bit of time, but that I am so proud she even woke up! She sleeps like a log so this is huge. She pees, then wants me to talk to her as I get her back into bed. I tell her that it's time to go back to sleep. I head back to my bed.

7:03- Phone starts chirping from text messages. One of our friend’s kids has a fever (again). This is a reoccurring thing and has gotten COVID tested twice already- negative results both times (FYI- she got her COVID results again today- negative!). We were just at her (outdoor) birthday party on Saturday. I change my phone settings so that they don’t start going off until 7:30am and try to fall back asleep but of course it is impossible.

7:30- Alarm goes off. I hear the cats scratching so I head downstairs to feed them and hit their food button. 

Marshmallow desperately waiting for food

Bathroom stop. I get a text from a coworker to our work group that his oldest child tried acid this weekend and overdosed. YIKES. I text over my support. I weigh myself and I'm not surprised that I am up from Friday as I had pizza Friday night and leftover pizza last night for dinner. It's only two pounds so nothing too bad. I then get dressed.

7:50- Wake up the kids. I do a temperature check on Izzy for her school's self assessment (she will head in person for 40 minutes today). Encourage the kids to get dressed.

8- We all head downstairs and I make them breakfast. I tell Izzy that she may be cold with her current outfit. She tells me that these are her "inside clothes” and she will bring a jacket for "outside clothes." LOL. Encourage eating as we are (as always) running late.

No idea why Wes decided to make this face

Izzy's "inside clothes"

8:25- We get shoes on, grab masks, and leave the house. We drop Izzy off first at her "1st grade daycare" aka the daycare that is helping Izzy with her e-learning.

8:45- I then drop Wes off at his daycare. His temperature is a bit high because I had the heat on in car but I'm not worried because he was temperature checked at Izzy’s dropoff too.

8:50- I'm home and five minutes later I head downstairs for a workout. Week 2, Day 4 of 10 Rounds for a boxing/lifting Beachbody workout. Today is a leg lifting day and I can use my new 20 lbs dumbbells! I had been waiting for dumbbells from Amazon and the delivery driver delivered them to a city over an hour away two months ago. Thankfully I was able to find some local kid selling new dumbbells. I have no idea where he got them from, but he even delivered the 20 pounders to my house. I now have him looking for 25 pounders for me. :-) During my workout I hear the cats racing around upstairs. Weirdos.

The cast on a rooftop in Vegas

9:40- Workout complete, I head upstairs for a quick shower.

10- I start up my computer and jump on a team meeting.

11- Meeting over! I jump on another meeting. It ends after 20 minutes so I am able to head downstairs to make coffee which I now drink black in order to clean fast. I have been drinking black coffee for two months now and it is still disgusting. Less disgusting than it used to be....but still disgusting. I assume this will always be the case.

Blech

Cocoa hangs out on the bed in our room while I am working all day long

11:30- Next meeting. This meeting is an hour and a half, but at least one where I can hang back and just listen most of the meeting.

During the call I got a call from Wes' daycare. I guess this morning he was going to the bathroom and told his teacher that he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot everyone and then something about a bomb to make everyone scatter. WTF he is FOUR YEARS OLD. I'm flabbergasted/confused about this and slightly worried that they are going to expel Wes from preschool. I tell the director that we don't have any guns and other than Star Wars, we don't let Wes watch any violent movies/tv shows/iPad/etc. She probably doesn't believe me. I let her know that I will talk to Wes. I get back on camera and text CP.

1pm- Next meeting.

2- Meeting ends, I head downstairs for lunch after 19 hours of fasting. Scrambled eggs on a tortilla with some salsa. Green grapes on the side. I listen to part of a "Lovett or Leave It" podcast episode, then head upstairs at 2:30pm.

2:30- Review racial equity resources before my next call at 3pm. Right before my call the delivery driver calls to let me know that my Farmer's Fridge has been delivered. My mom and sister rave about these salads so I thought that I would try them out while CP was gone. So far, super yummy!

3pm- Call on racial equity work. 

4pm- Try to figure out where the recording of the call is and how I can share it.

Marshmallow usually doesn't come up here to hang out on our bed so she must be feeling lonely with CP gone.

4:15- Leave for a quick trip to the grocery store for fruit, prunes, and jelly.

4:30- Pick up Wes. In the car we have a discussion about what he said to his teacher. His version is slightly different and not as sinister, but still.

4:45- Pick up Izzy. I'm running out of gas so we stop by Costco for gas. Wes is yelling in the car while I'm outside and of course I can't hear what's going on. (*sigh*) We get home and I put groceries away while telling the kids to pee and get their shoes back on. I have Izzy try on her new snow boots that arrived today (size 3!!).

5:15pm- It's so nice out and we have time before dinner so we head out on a bike ride. I put my foot down suddenly halfway through a feel a shooting pain- UGH I have hurt my plantar fasciitis. ARGH.

5:45- We are home. The kids feed the cats.

I start to make dinner while the kids make a fort. I also text with CP about Facetiming and check email from 1st grade daycare. Easy dinner is ready so I sit down with the kids to eat. Izzy doesn't want soup, but both kids eat it anyway.

Excited faces for soup. 

7pm- I eat a mini Snickers while the kids run upstairs to get pajamas on and brush teeth. I head upstairs to help and tell them that the faster they go, the more reading time we will have.
Text with CP that he has some time to talk. We sit in Wes' room and Facetime with CP. The kids are fascinated that it is still light out while dark here. CP and I have a talk with Wes about what he said at school. Wes gets upset and makes himself cry. Izzy gets upset because at one point she also tries to parent Wes and we ask her not to do that. She eventually comes back into the room to talk to CP and we find out that because she didn't know her log in, she didn't do any of her homework during asynchronous learning today. (*sigh*)

We finish talking to CP and I read The Bucket Book and finish Notebook of Doom #5. Wes gives me lots of hugs to fill my bucket, I turn out the light and go into Izzy's room. I ask her to read me "Take Me to the Zoo" and she is able to read the entire book by herself and it was not painfully slow. Progress!

8:30- I grab my computer and head downstairs.

I partially listen to school board meeting then give up. Wes comes down at some point to tell me that he has to pee.

I do 2.5 hours of work while watching Shrill. It's nice to have something on in the background while working- generally I am unable to do that.

I stop working and while watching one last Shrill episode, I upload pictures to this post.

11:30- Head upstairs.

12- turn off light and go to bed.

Wes is now FOUR!

(Wes turned 4 in mid-July. Clearly I'm behind in my posts) 

Height: 3' 8" (96% percentile). The doctor laughed and said that Wes is the same height as an average 5.5 year old!! He grew A LOT during the shelter in place.

Weight: 43 lbs (97% percentile)

Physical milestones: Like Izzy, Wes is a super fast runner. He is riding a two wheeler bike and got a new scooter for his birthday so he is getting the hang of the easier-to-maneuver scooter. Back in February he needed floaties for when we were in Hawaii but after time in the pool this summer, no longer needs them and is pretty comfortable in the water.

Language/Reading: Wes can recognize a few of the "easier" letters and can recognize his own name. He also can write a W by himself.

Loves: Star Wars, Harry Potter, light sabers, legos, riding his bike, cherry tomatoes, searching for bugs

Personality: Wes is competitive like Izzy but once he starts losing to her, he gives up (for instance when he runs against her). He isn't as much of a daredevil as Izzy (thank goodness) and wants to wait until he thinks he can do something until he wants to try it. He is definitely a class clown and wants to make people laugh.

Favorite Toy: Right now it would have to be blow up light sabers that we got as favors for Wes' birthday party. He constantly wants to fight anyone that will play with him.

Favorite Book: It's a tie between a Star Wars encyclopedia he got for his birthday and the "Notebook of Doom" books we got him for his birthday.

Sleeping Habits: These days he goes to bed around 8-8:30 and wakes up around 8am....but can sleep as late as 9:30 if he is up late. He doesn't nap much anymore.

Eating: Wes is a more adventurous eater than Izzy and will try a lot of stuff (he doesn't do spicy). He will almost always eat fish with us and recently decided that he likes shrimp and crab cakes as well!

Potty: Wes waits until the last minute most of the time to go to the bathroom but generally no issues during the day. He still needs a pullup at night.

Clothes: Size 5t for clothes, size 13 for shoes. He is obsessed with his Batman tshirt or his Darth Vader surfing shirt he got in Hawaii and athletic shorts.

Media: During the shelter in place the kids were getting 1-2 hours of tv a day plus Ipad time. Now that they are back in camp/daycare they are only watching tv on the weekends and when we have Friday night movie night. Ipad use is back to nothing.

Birthday: We had a family birthday in MI during Fourth of July because my parents and my sister/her husband could all attend. His actual birthday was on a Wednesday so I took the kids out for donuts the morning of his birthday and he had ice cream that night (he wanted mac n cheese and shrimp for his birthday dinner). The following weekend we had some friends over for a small Star Wars-themed party. It was approximately a billion degrees out that day and we had the bouncy house, slip and slide, a pinata, pizza and cake, and then an outdoor movie (Star Wars of course).

Still alive

Hello out there! I can't believe I haven't posted since the beginning of June, but things continue to stay busy in our neck of the woods. I'll try to catch everyone up as to what has been going on....

JUNE

In June we were DYING with the kids home and both of us trying to work. I was still working ALL.THE.TIME (actually I haven't stopped) and since camp wasn't starting, we managed to find someone who babysit for us a few times before that could babysit the kids for 8 hours/day during the week. She had been really good about social distancing so we felt okay with our decision. She made life a lot easier for the month that she was with us and there were only a few times when Wes came into a video call I was having for work (one with elected officials as I was trying to give a presentation to cry about his broken shark toy- good times).

These are our crumbling concrete front steps....

Wes really enjoyed watching the men that were fixing them.

Not quite finished product, but close enough

The cicadas at our house were SO LOUD this summer. I guess this year was both a 13 year brood and early risers from the next 17 year brood. The kids had fun catching them, helping them fly away, and Wes even named a few. Thankfully they are mostly gone now, but they left dead carcasses everywhere.

We celebrated CP's birthday in style by ordering out Alinea, a super fancy multi-Michelin star restaurant that costs something like $400/plate for a 15 course meal if you are dining in person (before adding alcohol). During COVID-19 though, they offered a much less expensive 6 course delicious meal, so I surprised CP with take out. It was really, really good.

Like with Mother's Day, Izzy wanted to make sure that CP had a good birthday so she made him a pinata and a scavenger hunt. It was adorable and I loved how she put so much thought and effort into it.

JULY

We spent a long Fourth of July weekend with my parents at their house in Michigan. I was supposed to take one day off (Thursday) but then ended up working half the day because meetings popped up that I had to attend (sigh). We had a great time otherwise with a family party for Wes' birthday and then on Sunday CP and I got to drive back to IL WITHOUT THE KIDS. My mom had offered to take the kids for a week earlier in the year and it was desperately needed to spend some time away, just the two of us. CP and I still had to work during the day but I didn't work at night (well, one night) and we got to hang out, go to dinner almost every night, and enjoy each other's company. The next weekend we drove back to MI to spend the weekend there and pick up the kids. They had a great time; grandma was a little exhausted (lol).

Once getting back from MI the kids went to summer camp which meant they were out of the house (!), back on a schedule, and playing with friends. The camp does an excellent job with safety (temperature checks, questions upon arrival, masks inside, etc.) so we felt comfortable with the kids there all day. Wes had about two weeks of rough drop-offs because he wanted to be home with me, but got back into the schedule and enjoyed being back with friends. I'm happy to report NO COVID cases for either camp!

Enjoying the dinosaur sprinkler, the baby pool, and the watermelon beach ball given to Wes by my sister for his birthday.

Watching Hamilton our outdoor movie screen on July 3rd. Izzy LOVED it and cried at the end when Hamilton died. Wes stayed awake the entire time. Both kids frequently request us to play the soundtrack- parenting win!

Wes obviously helped decorate his cake. :-)

Enjoying ice cream during grandma week.

Michigan beach

Wes came home to open a lot of Star Wars-themed gifts from family members.

We ended up having a very small birthday party for Wes in our back yard with our "quaranteam families" where our slip and slide that CP bought earlier in the year made an appearance. 

Oh and halfway through July I read an intermittent fasting book because I had gained some weight during our shelter in place and started fasting for slightly longer periods than I had been doing. I also started to try to drink black coffee which I still choke down, but it's getting a little better every day. 

I also got fed up with my daily plantar fasciitis pain no matter what I did so I saw a doctor and decided to get a cortisone shot. It's been nice to walk/work out without pain but I'm not sure I will ever run again......

AUGUST

So far in August the kids finished up camp. We learned that Izzy would be starting off going remote for 1st grade so we have essentially enrolled her in 1st grade daycare (*groan*)....but it will be outside of our house, she will be with 9 other friends, and will have teachers helping her do her e-learning. CP is back at work every day but with remote e-learning he has gotten the go-ahead to work from home two days a week starting next week. 

We were supposed to go to Wisconsin for a week of camping with friends but didn't go because then we would have to quarantine for two weeks as a family and Wes couldn't go to daycare. Sadly, I didn't get my badly-needed vacation time.....hopefully soon.

Today was Wes' first day of Pre-K and he had a great day ("Mommy, I didn't have any consequences!"). This week is going to be tough as I found a camp that will take Izzy from 9-3 (school/1st grade daycare doesn't start until next week) but I generally have calls from 9-6 so she will be watching tv/amusing herself while I am on those calls until CP gets home with Wes.

Izzy has now lost 7 teeth!

We are trying to make sure the kids get out and get a lot of exercise. Our local pool is open for up to 100 people during a two hour block so we often reserve time slots when we can. Both kids are going off the small diving board and Wes is actually swimming without floaties! Now that Wes is on a two wheeler we have been doing long family bike rides too- up to 7 miles for the kids and they are doing great!

I thought it would be fun to get this bird feeder so that the cats could watch birds come to the window. Cocoa is OBSESSED and the birds couldn't care less these days that he is jumping at them in the window. Keeps him nice and occupied for some of the day.

Brain dump over. Time to get back to work (*sigh*).

Quarantine Diaries- Week Nine

Week Nine of Sheltering in Place

Wes randomly running around the house in a Spiderman costume

Wes created a Millenium Falcon (he continues his Star Wars obsession)

Izzy has gotten quite good at climbing trees. She gets quite sad that we don't have a good climbing tree at our house, so this is a tree in a nearby church parking lot.

Needing to get outside picture #104958934 of quarantine.