Chewelry

Several weeks ago I was at my wits' end about Henry because he all of a sudden couldn't stop chewing on everything. His shirt, his hands, the Disney infinity players and Wii controllers. He wasn't a chewer growing up but all of a sudden, age 5, he was a CHEWER. It was like having puppy in the house - nothing was safe. It didn't seem to be anxiety based but more of a habit that had developed and now could not be broken.

I took my gripes to the twitters and one of my sweet people recommended chewelry. This would not have occurred to me to be for anything other than teething babies, but I went ahead and ordered a piece and lo, it's amazing. He loves it, and he loves that it just looks like a Lego so it's not particularly noticeable that it is what it is. He still chews on things but if I notice, I remind him about his necklace and off he goes to retrieve it from his door knob, where he keeps it most of the time, or his bed cubbie where it sometimes hides when he's sleeping.

Two unchewed thumbs up.

And man, I hope he grows out of this soon.

Meal Plan 1/18-1/21

I only cooked for four days this week, but I did almost all the cooking Monday night. It was an exhausting night but it's nice that I don't have to worry too much for the rest of the week.

Monday: meat and veggie chili this is the second time in two weeks I've made this. It's delicious.

Tuesday: Italian marinated grilled chicken and roasted brussel sprouts (not made yet, but already marinated)

Wednesday: tom kha gai Thai coconut chicken soup I wasn't good at all at following this recipe and put in too much mushrooms. Good thing I love mushrooms - it's delicious. I also brought this for lunch today, since it's already made.

Thursday: Asian meatballs with carrot and zucchini noodles. The meatballs are fantastic. I'm looking forward to the noodles too.

These meals will also be my lunches, and I scrambled some eggs into the leftover shallot, sweet potato and mushrooms from the leftover veggies for two breakfasts. As I already had my breakfast today, I can tell you it was delicious even though it was cheeseless. Cheese still would have been better.

In 18 days I have only been 100% at no alcohol and no cheese. How's that, the only two I really felt like I really want have been the two things it's been easiest to stay completely away from.

Boring.

Friday after I finished my lame Friday Five I thought, I should do a day in the life post of THIS day! It can be my Day OFF in the life! So I blogged throughout the day about what I was doing and holy heck, I’m boring. Basically all I did all day was clean my room, run and fold laundry, took myself to a movie, shopped for socks for Spencer and watched Downton Abbey. It was a very very long post to realize that.

It rained. A lot.

So that’s what I did. I made breakfast for C and I, watched tv extensively, cleaned and did laundry. I saw Star Wars in the refurbished theater that now offers those large Barcaloungers for seating. I bought S socks and khaki pants for school. Thus endeth my day off.

I do have a question about this coming Friday, which is another day off. We’re taking the kids to Disney for the weekend to celebrate Spencer’s birthday before our passes run out. I want to pick the kids up early from school but S is concerned about missing science and math. Not because he thinks he’ll miss anything, but because he loves those subjects. Do I pick them up after school? Do I go ahead and take them a little early? I think I’ve decided to take them a little early but I feel guilty because we do not take the kids out of school for any reason, and last semester we took them out for our trip to DC (which was extremely educational). Disney doesn’t count for that reason. It’s only two hours of school and I don’t even schedule doctor visits during school days. (Update: twitter was overwhelmingly supportive and I have decided to go forward, however in true me fashion I’ll let the teachers know ahead of time in case they want to send school worksheets home with us.)

Anyhow, I’m having all kinds of bellyaching thinking about this weekend. I’m pretty certain I will not be following my food plan while we’re there and while I’ve made this decision, I don’t want to undo my hard work either. I think I’m going to make meal by meal decisions and drink lots of water.

One day my writing will be more interesting but I’m just going to hit publish on this anyhow.

Friday Five

I’m OFF today! (does a little happy dance!) Of course, there was a work thing that had to be scheduled today and couldn’t be scheduled for a different day so I’ve got my phone about me in case. Blargh. It’s always the way, right?

-  So on my list of things to do is that I want to get all my expected house chores that I want done, DONE. In the morning, before I have a change to sit down and do nothing. I want to run laundry, clean my bedroom and bathroom and reorganize my shoes. And clean the kitchen. This honestly shouldn’t take long but it will be nice to have it done before the weekend.

- Then I also have on my list to go to a movie, but I’m still deciding what that should be. I want to see Star Wars but C wants to see it again too (he already saw it with the boys. Would it be fair to wait? Will I get screwed? Or should I see Joy or The Big Short or The Danish Girl or any other of the movies I hadn’t heard of until the Golden Globes. I wish there was a good romantic comedy out. I love them and C doesn’t, and it’s the perfect thing for me to watch on my own.

-   It was a bad week for deaths in entertainment. And really, a bad last 30 days.

-   Two weeks into Whole 30 and I’ve lost 7.8 pounds. It hasn’t been completely clean but I’m working at it. Last night I honest to God cheated in a hurried hormonal mess. I felt terrible about it but I'm going to keep going.

- I missed the last season of Downton Abbey and I haven't watched this one yet, so I started rewatching the first four seasons over the last week. I stayed up late last night to finish the fourth and now I'm starting on new content for me. I'm not good with new content - I watch so little actual television (even though actually I'd like to watch! I just lose time somehow!) and I'm afraid of it, somehow. I don't know how to explain. I don't want to get hooked and miss something. I don't want to get too tied to the characters. I ... oh I don't know. I'm enjoying it though.

A good little martyr

My feelings about food have gone up and down this week and I’m pretty sure it’s hormonal. I’ve stayed 96% true to the Whole30 diet, except I did lick the spoon after giving my kids the last of my favorite ice cream so it wouldn’t tempt me and last night I ate three m&ms. You aren’t going to tell on me, right?

I’ve worked out when I could and when I wasn’t feeling down too down, but I also allowed myself sometimes just to feel down and not do anything that needed me out of my chicken lounge pants. All my meals have been compliant, all my snacks, and I’ve fed all the good carbs to my kids.

My dinner last night:

My kids’ dinner last night:

Don’t get me wrong, my Italian wedding soup was fantastic (I loosely followed this recipe) and I brought it for lunch today too. However, look at all of that beautiful fake cheese and macaroni.

(I’m also right this very minute sitting 10 feet from a giant bag of bagels that my manager brought in and 40 feet from three bins of various candies at the office assistant’s desk. The fact that I’m not stuffing my face with all of it is a genuine miracle.)

Free time.

So I went to ask off for a day next week and realized I’m maxed on vacation, so on top of the one day next week, I’m also taking this Friday off and an entire week in February.  All of these days off are by myself. Does that seem excessive? I have no plans, although there are a lot of things I feel like I should do. I don’t know if it’s a woman v man thing or just a me v my husband thing, but if C was to have the day off to himself, he would play video games all day. This is not an exaggeration, and it’s not a judgment of him either – I don’t mind that he plays video games (except when I walk in and have to ask him if he’s in battle or how long until I can get more than grunted answers from him).

It’s more a judgment of me. When I’m off, I feel like I should be cleaning the house, doing laundry, cleaning out the garage, scrubbing showers. Why do I do these things to myself?

So anyhow. I’m trying to decide what to do with myself for these days off. I might go see a movie by myself (would you see Joy? The Big Short?) or spend some of our Macy’s credit on a new wallet. Go for a very long walk and not worry about time (if it warms up). Buy cat food (darn it, adding in errands again).

On the first day of my week-long vacation it is Spencer’s birthday, and while he’s going to be going to school I think I might take him McDonald’s and have lunch with him (I’ve never done this before and it feels daunting somehow) but the rest of the week is completely free. Should I volunteer at the school? Get a massage? Make a chiro appointment/dentist appointment/dermatology appointment?

I’m not good at downtime or free time or time for me. Someone come spend time with me not doing errands. Please.

Friday five

The name Friday Five isn't new or groundbreaking or even mine - I've seen it all over the internets (I should probably google who to give credit to even though I don't read them right?) but I've struggled to find a Friday groove ever since I stopped doing seven things or whatever that was way back when (and I'm still a little sad about Chelsea not doing her Ten on Tuesday lists, TBH) so FIVE. I can do five, right?

1. Today is the seventh day of my January plan. I ... have lost 5 lbs. I have logged 14.5 miles run and walked, worked out five times separate from runs and walks, drank holy cow ounces of water (approx 80-100 ounces a day). I have not cheated on no dairy/no alcohol/no sugar/no grains. Not once. I also haven't had any beans and the only soy I had was a scoop of miso in my sauteed veggies one dinner. I had one hard moment (of three hours) one day where I really really wanted some damn m&ms, but I got through it. I'm currently blogging from an airport where I'm eating a steak salad (sadly with no cheese) and drinking Pellegrino and this life is not half bad. I can do this. FIVE POUNDS, GUYS.
2. There was a kid that just wheeled by me on those wheelie shoes and holy hell, I hate those things.
3. We are allowing our Disney passes to expire and I'm kind of sad about this. I'm having second thoughts. I know it's the right thing to do, we have other expenses we need to think about and other parks we can go to when we get the itch for theme parks but Disney has been such a big part of our lives for three years and I'll be really sad to let it go. Watch me buy every bit of theme park memorabilia between now and then. I do need a Magic Kingdom Starbucks mug. That much I know. We're trying to plan a last Disney resort weekend and H's pass expires 2/1 and the rest of us expire 3/9, so between the expiration dates I'm hoping for a day date or two with C and one day of the Flower and Garden Festival with S because it's his favorite. Sigh. 
4. You know what drinking 100 ounces of water in a day (plus 40 ounces of Pellegrino) gets you? A lot of trips to the bathroom. I hit the bathroom before I started my meal and I'm already dancing. So much pee. You're welcome for that.
5. I read Bridge to Terebithia on the flight up this afternoon. I never got around to reading it when I was young and I knew it was sad but still I cried. I cried. I am always crying on planes, it seems.

Okay, I found it. Friday Five.