Painting a room

Kate has wanted to redecorate her room in the last year or so. Wants it painted, wants a whole bunch of new furniture, and "decor." LOL isn't she cute? ;) Last fall, in desperation for her to stahhhhp bringing it up, we told her we would do it for sure by her birthday. 

Her birthday's in 2 weeks! But no worries, Shawn got most of the room taped off yesterday, amazingly. More impressive, Kate did all the packing up of existing furniture herself -- books off all bookshelves, dresser swiped bare, cabinets cleared, everything in plastic bins -- so that when it's time to move those pieces around, we can do it. I was so proud of her for doing that, and she only once asked me to help her. I brought her a garbage bag and left her to it! Our girl is GROWING UP. 

I remember when my friend Ashley's daughter turned 10, and they redecorated her bedroom to be less pink and princess-y, and more Pottery Barn Pre-teen. I'm excited that we're doing the same for Kate. She wants three walls to be a lovely teal, and one accent wall to be a lavender, I think. I hope it turns out lovely. (I'm unsure about the accent wall, to be honest, but I'm letting her decide.) 

I know it's going to make me/us want to do MORE painting, which is good. We promised ourselves we would not wait until the 12th year, like we did in our last house, before making it the way we want it! (Or even before doing any touch-up paint.) Of course, in our last house we were raising babies and toddlers, and time/motivation was much more difficult to come by. 

I was just sure we wouldn't have time THIS weekend, actually. We had so much going on. Basketball, drama, a classmate's birthday party thrown in for good measure, and the usual groceries/laundry/cleaning. But we -- SHAWN, all Shawn -- got it done. Thank you, DH, for being awesome and making our young lady very happy. :)

More Snow Days!

My goodness, this winter! We had another little snow event Tuesday night in the Atlanta metro (2 inches), so now it's Thursday and we're on our 2nd Snow Day. This was already a short week with the MLK holiday (one of my favorites, because it helps soften the blow of the regular routine after the holidays), but now it's been barely a week at all.

I'm not complaining. I like that the city authorities are taking weather seriously, I HATE driving on ice, and I don't mind AT ALL being forced to work from home. However, this time it's so cold that the kids don't even want to go play in it! How about that?! Their teachers are frustrated with the dent in their lesson plans, and therefore sending assignments via email and the school portal, which is helpful. I'm not sure my kids have ever practiced piano 4 days in one week before this. All good things. But I think I'm all done with snow, now, thank you very much Mother Nature, and can we please get on to spring-like temperatures? Kthanks. (It's supposed to be 61 degrees by Sunday, ha!)

One of the articles I worked on yesterday afternoon somehow was not on my computer this morning. I don't have a clue what happened, and luckily I was able to recreate the work, but argh, that's annoying.

We've met our Unicorn (VP of Marketing). Finally! It's been a year and a half without a boss. We started calling her "The Unicorn" during the hiring search, because it seemed like we would never find this special person with all the perfect qualities and qualifications. I liked her well enough when I met her on Tuesday. Of course there's the cultural difference of personality/tone of voice that kind-of causes everyone to stumble over conversations and squint our eyes, at first, until we get to know her better (she's Danish), but I think she sees our challenges and is here to help us by making good decisions... I hope, too, she'll be able to argue for some additional help within the department -- and she mentioned wanting to reconsider roles/responsibilities, so that might be an improvement. I don't know.... it's possible she'll be my hatchet-man. It's possible she won't.... we're all in a bit of flux until we know what her M.O. is. I'm trying to think positively, be open to her ideas, and not feel defensive if she starts critiquing things. That's part of her job, I guess. Just keep my head down and do my work until I'm told otherwise. ;) 

Work. Bah. 

On the side, I'm reading Defending Jacob -- it's really good. A courtroom drama. Makes me want to read some of the recent John Grishams. I gave him up after The Firm, I believe, LOL. I'm also trying to gear up for the WLC! Yesterday I made lists, for family meals and for lunches, so that when I'm meal-prepping and shopping this weekend I'll know what to get. I think the first thing I'll make will be gumbo, which is no sacrifice at all (EDIT: Phooey, I guess I can't really make gumbo. I could try to find organic andouille, but there's no getting around the roux. I'm going to call the flour in the roux negligible and anyone who wants to argue with me is welcome to it)! I do love this health plan. Snacks are the hardest part, but there's a Whole Foods near my office now, woo hoo! Game changer.

Nothing to Say? And 2018...

We had an unexpected day off Monday, because of a threat of ice. Nothing at all happened, but it was lovely to work from home. (Except I hadn't brought home my laptop, so I had to drive to the office on Sunday night at 9pm to get it, after we got the school closing announcement. I really must start bringing that thing home every night. You just never know when someone's going to get sick or the weather will threaten. WHY don't I do this already? Because it's heavy.....so lame.)

I find myself wanting to write something, but don't seem to have much to say. I feel like my phone conversations are like that too, lately -- definitely want to talk, to Jill, to Mom and Dad, but don't have much to talk about, except the daily round. The weekend's activities. It's a life of doing, right now, I guess, without time to reflect and create feelings around the to-dos... just to do them and move on to the next ones.

It's good, really, and I do try to make time for introspection -- at my desk before I start really working, and on weekend mornings when I can get outside (where it's quiet) with my coffee and my Calm app/Bible app/journal/brain. But a lot of that time is simply a release -- a moment to be still, grateful, to breathe and let my mind wander -- rather than process big feelings (am I feeling big feelings lately? Not sure). I trust that the self-care of releasing and breathing allows my brain to process what needs processing. I hope so.

But as a result of all that, I feel like my 2018 has started completely Mindlessly. I did a small 2017 review in my pen-and-paper journal, and scribbled out some little, brief ideas about this year's goals:

• professionally -- Grow / Learn from my new Development Action Plan (ugh, terminology) which has me visiting clients (medical professionals) with another team member. To learn about marketing to doctors, essentially. Maybe interesting. And to also get some kind of Content Marketing certification.
• personally -- what areas need refreshing? Fitness, definitely. I've let it slide but I know I feel better when I'm active  -- what do I want to focus on (4-6 things): being PRESENT for both kids and for Shawn. More self-compassion practice. Trip to Seattle. Maybe making up the trip to Disney. Whole Life Challenge/creativity in the kitchen. Back Porch remodel.

And that's as far as I've gotten. Doesn't feel very deep, but maybe it doesn't have to.

Moving on.

This week's menu is pretty decent, in the 2-week build-up to the next Whole Life Challenge... let me share it for your perusal:

Sunday - We had Lag Liv's Mexican Rice, for the 2nd time, and it was well-received again. Yum  yum with Fritos.

Monday - Breaded Chicken Breasts. I used to make this when I was newly married, and I remember thinking it was one of my "fancy" recipes. It sort-of is, but... not really. Served with frozen broccoli and parmesan noodles.

Tuesday - Took the kids to Jason's Deli, where I tried their new Papa Verde Sweet Potato. Oh my! This thing is delicious, people. Totally worth missing out on their awesome Salad Bar to try it.

Wednesday - Chili with rice!

Thursday - Is an eat-out-between-activities night.

Friday - Crock Pot Tortilla Soup. Have made this so many times, even I'm a little tired of it. But no one complains! I'm sure I'll freeze some and then eat it during the Challenge, even though it has beans and corn.

**I've been writing this post for 3 days. Yesterday at work I got nothing done and today has started out similarly, plus a server difficulty that was frustrating, so I've got to get out of blogger and get going. Some days are like that, even in Australia, I guess.

Update: Allergy/Asthma, says the Nurse Practitioner

The best thing about the doctor's appointment was I met with an NP who told me she herself has FOUR cats, and a young son with asthma. So it kept the (dumb) guilt factor out of the conversations. I've heard doctors before say, "When people knowingly have allergies to pets, but they have pets anyway, that's their fault." It may be true, but it's not very nice to say.

Anyway, I'm armed with Singulair, Symbicort, albuterol for emergencies, and an instruction to not let the kitties sleep on my bed (or in my bedroom, probably). She admitted that part would be hard. Last night Ash snuck up onto the bed and I didn't even realize it until I woke up, so... yeah. But we'll get it worked out.

I should have known it would happen, really, but no guilt. The kitty love is worth it.