2018 Highlights

I did make cookies after all, I went with my go-to recipe. The party was fun and I'm glad I went, but I was every-so-slightly hungover this morning and it took a while to recover (I didn't even drink that much! Stupid aging!)

I am skipping tonights meet-up with another group of friends, because I just can't be out two nights in a row, I'm still sick, and (the icing on the cake) I found out that G is home with B who is throwing up (I left super early before B was up yet).

So...2018 isn't quite ending on a high note, but I needed to remind myself that overall its been a great year.

Highlights of the year

• Disney trip with my family 
• Getting a car!
• Camping trips 
• Kid-free time this summer and the trips to visit family to drop them off
• Hamilton! (going to see it, and enjoying the music as a family before & after)
• My book club: the monthly meetings and expanding beyond to other activities and a constantly entertaining messenger thread
• Harry Potter Halloween and reading books 4 and 5 this year (finishing up 5 currently) accompanied by my own listening to not one, but TWO, HP podcasts (HP and the Sacred Text and Binge Mode HP)
• Girls trip to NoLa

I really had to narrow this list down, too, and it made me smile. Now to finish work so I can go relieve G for a bit and settle into our first weekend with all 4 of us at home in a while (before we leave again next weekend...)

A little nuts...

So...didn't mean to completely stop writing for 6 weeks. I've honestly been sick with one thing after another the ENTIRE TIME (still coughing and feverish today with the third/fourth (?) back-to-back virus). Plus I traveled to 4 different states for various work/fun/family reasons. And gearing up to travel again, for winter break. 

Add on a week of call, lots of clinic sessions, every single medical appointment for me and the kids squeezed into 2 months, 2 papers and a grant I'm working on, the PTA and another volunteer project I took on, and the usual holiday socializing ramp up...oh, and weaning myself off the P@xil and the resultant lingering anxiety, and I just quite honestly could not make the time to update here. 

G asked me if I felt over-scheduled and I had to admit that I may have taken on a bit more than I can handle. In fairness, I did not know that everything would happen AT THE SAME TIME nor that I would be sick during all of it making it 100 X worse. 

By the time I got home from my last trip (girls trip, super fun but constant interaction) on Saturday evening, I got to unpack, feed the kids, and freshen up in time for the sitter for our neighbor's holiday party. On Sunday, I was DONE. Just done. I did not go to the gym. I took the kids to a birthday party and anti-socially sat in a corner at the ice skating rink on my phone, avoiding meeting other parents and 0% interested in putting on skates and getting on the ice myself. I put my headphones on and had a cooking and laundry marathon, so I wasn't useless, but I just needed a day to recover before I plunged back into a full day of clinic on Monday.

I am trying to get work done this week and parent my sick and acting out kids and gear up for the holidays (teacher gifts sorted, kid gifts not yet thought about). I have a cookie swap to go to tonight (with my lovely neighborhood book group gals) and I'm debating whether I should just buy some cookies, or swing by the store for ingredients for a quick chocolate chip dough. 

Things I've got planned to write about: 

• Guilt
• 2018 reflections: what went well and what did not 
• 2019 Goals! 
• Favorite books of 2018

More soon (or not, we'll see...)