Hello friends! Happy three-day weekend! This weekend we have our first visitor coming from Arizona, Mr. Hungry’s cousin who is baby girls Godmother is coming to visit! It will be a fun time hanging out and catching up. Also, Mr. Hungry legitimately ordered a basketball hoop from Amazon that he will assemble, so prayers are appreciated.
KJ is SUPER excited about the three-day weekend. It’s obviously a hard adjustment going into Kindergarten full-time, so when I told him that we have a three-day weekend, I could feel his excitement and see his eyes light up. People keep asking me how he likes his new school, and of course, they want to hear that he LOVES IT and he can’t wait to go to school every day. I think it’s just one of those things people say, like how are you? I’m good, how are you? It’s like there is no real response other than he loves his school. But in reality, I think KJ is still getting used to going to school full-time. And that’s okay. It’s okay for him to prefer home over school, which doesn’t mean we have to homeschool. It just means that he feels safe and loved at home. I think that’s good. He has had a lot of changes, moving states, starting a new school, and being older.
He’s slowly learning the routine, and he loves routine, so that’s good for him. He has a wonderful teacher who is kind, caring, and patient, everything he needs. He is making friends. His class is small, with only 14 kids, 10 of which are boys. I know, pray for the teacher, the whole grade is like that this year. He started some extracurriculars like gymnastics. He is in an all-boys gymnastics class after school that he absolutely loves. It’s all 5-8-year-old boys, and it has really given him a whole new love of the sport. Since it’s all boys, the emphasis on flexibility is gone; it’s more on mobility and strength now. It’s great, he does love that. So, he’s finding his groove. He comes home in a good mood and does his homework without complaint, even doing extra when he struggles with handwriting. I expected a lot of emotional outbursts as he adjusted, but really, it’s been pretty smooth after school. I’m actually kind of impressed with him, so I’ll take that as a win.
Mama is finding her groove, too. I’m figuring it out slowly, from school pick-up to fitting in homework, dinner, and anything after school. It’s my first year with a kid in a big kid school every single day, so it’s a learning curve for me, too. Mr. Hungry takes KJ to school a couple of days a week, so that helps a lot. KK will start school next week, and I will have to figure those logistics out, too. But, I feel super blessed to have a flexible schedule, it’s always a struggle to figure out what most wisely uses my time. It’s always a balance. I don’t always get it right, but I learn from my time management mistakes and move on.
Have a wonderful three-day weekend, friends!
Friday Favorites
Hungryroot Meals – We’ve been using Hungyroot until I got my feet under me and my pantry stocked.
The blackened chicken was good but VERY spicy!
Butcher Box Lobster
KJ LOVES lobster. So I ordered some in our last Butcher Box and he went wild for it. He was so excited to eat it after school he could barely stand it. It was super easy to make as it came pre-cooked. Just defrost int he fridge overnight and then can be eaten cold or hot. Came with a seasoning pack you can mix with butter. He was in heaven!
Plasma Car #3
The boys LOVE their plasma cars and often give baby girl rides on theirs, but she’s getting a little big to ride with them. And she can ride pretty well by herself, so her grandparents sent her a pink plasma car!
She’s pretty small to be riding by herself, so I got her a helmet that I have to hide from her except while she is riding, or she will never want to take it off.
KK Meet the Teacher
KK is going to preschool next week, and he had so much fun meeting the teacher. Sharing wasn’t a strong suit, but he’s a young three so he will learn. I really love the preschool we found and can’t wait for him to have a new experience of his own! He really loved it too, so that made me super happy!
Kinder Lunches This Week
A big hit this week was blender pancakes. KJ loves eating them cold, so they went to school with him 3 or 4 times and the rest salami. (See tips on building lunchboxes here!)
Cheeky Monkey’s
We had a play date at Cheeky Monkey’s, which the kids loved! Baby girl hung out in the toddler room for a little while, but of course, she wanted to be with her big brothers, so she didn’t stay there for long!
Blood and Ash Series
So, apparently, I stumbled into another metaverse. Because the Blood and Ash series meshes with the Flesh and Fire series (which, of course, I just started.) I personally love the story, despite its predictability, between the main characters. You have a young girl, living life as a pure, untouched maiden, caged and veiled, not allowed to talk to anyone but a servant and a guard. And the predictability of Poopy, the maiden, falling in love with her guard, Hawke, who is of course not who he seems to be, and shedding the cage feels like it wouldn’t be interesting, but yet, it is, and that’s pure because of the Authors’s writing. The vivid way the author brings characters and the story in the moment to life is indescribable. She uses tastes and smells to describe sensing people’s emotions. I’ve loved every book more than the last as the complexity of the characters grows. Surprisingly, I even loved Book 5, which was Book 1’s story retold from Hawke’s perspective. I keep thinking some people probably hate Book 5, but I really loved it. It fills in gaps in the story and brings perspective to Hawke’s character. Probably my favorite book yet in the series. Very different than ACOTAR, though, romance or not.
War of Two Queens (book 4) was good, too; like I said, I feel like each one gets better. The story of Poppy’s origination and the truth about who Poppy is was a plot twist in the best way. It definitely felt a little suspenseful and kept me on my toes. I think that’s why I liked Book 5 so much, it was a little reprieve from the suspensfulness of Book 4.
Fitness
Look who’s finally working out again! We don’t have a dedicated gym anymore in this rental, so you’re getting either bathroom pics or stand-alone skinny mirror pics. Neither is ideal, but it’s life right now ha ha. PS I’m a big fan of this running jumpsuit from Free People. It’s way nicer than the knock-off one from Amazon (it has a little zipper pocket and smoother material), but I like both.
It’s been a long road, and since we got here, I’ve been dealing with some health craziness. First diagnosed with mastitis, then thrush, then shingles. It may have been a neck injury all along. I really don’t know; it was either a neck injury or shingles, so it was a fun time. I never had the “shingles rash,” so it’s unclear. But I am so grateful to finally be feeling better. (PS I was on a lot of meds, so next week, I’m going to share my detox protocol/gut rebuild protocol from that shitshow.) But I’ve been able to walk Nala more consistently, sometimes with the kids and sometimes without while I listen to training. (I like the Rupa Health recordings.) In what I do, I feel like I can never learn enough.
So last week I got one lower body workout in that made me sore for like five days. Then this week I went to the chiropractor and got one run in and one lower body workout in (today.) I have child care four days a week and use the gym as a backup for any days my sitter isn’t available/is sick and one day a week. The gym has a sauna, so I used that after I ran, and it felt heavenly. When I worked at Lifetime I used to sauna all the time, probably more frequently then I worked out, I’m so glad to get back to it!
That’s it friends! See you next week! Have a wonderful 3 day weekend 🙂
Sharing this perspective in case it’s helpful. If not, ignore. I am a September birthday, and my mom used to joke that I always “had trouble turning a new age.” And she was right. I struggled every year in September. As an adult, I think I’ve figured out why. I’m a social introvert and always have been. I think that after a quiet summer at home, returning to school was just a lot of inputs (good ones! I liked school), and I’d get overwhelmed. So September turned out to be my adjustment month from the quiet summer to the activity of school. And I always did adjust, but there were always tears and fatigue on the path to getting there. Home was always my relaxation place, and it remains that way today; even though high school, I loved home – I had a great relationship with my parents and home was a centering place to be and a bit of a refuge from the world. I still have wonderful friends who I enjoy seeing, but I also still like to retreat to home after seeing them. I think it’s a compliment to you guys that KJ loves being home, and I hope it stays that way.
If you haven’t tried St. Ann’s in Coppell, I highly recommend it. I just met another family who drives from Garland to go to St. Ann’s because they say the community is outstanding.
I love this! Mr. Hungry is like that too! I too think it’s a good thing the our home is a refuge. My home growing up was often not a refuge so I’m happy to see home is a refuge for my kids! I have heard wonderful things about St. Ann’s in Coppell, it’s a bit of a drive for us but we want to go at least once!