19 for 2019 update

I was curious, so I looked...overall doing pretty well and looking forward to 20 for 20!

1. Compost. We've been doing this all year. Its cut down on our trash for sure. 

2. Get glasses Done. Next up: "remember to wear glasses" 

3. Use Instant Pot I use it pretty regularly. Not weekly, but definitely once/month. 

4. Laser bikini/legs Need to schedule my next appointment actually. 

5. Find a therapist Been going for a few months now and its very helpful overall

6. Reach xxx weight (i.e. jeans fit comfortably) Hahahah. work in progress. 

7. Read War and Peace. NO, I have no idea why I wanted to do this and not planning on it...

8. Drive our car once/month. Now that I drive for work twice/month I'll consider this goal met. 

9. Renew passports & get TSA precheck No! Have to get on this!!!

10. Try going without housecleaner X 6 months 11 months later I'm looking for a new one

11. One-on-one dates with kids once/season Did not do this at ALL this year. 

12. Date nights out twice/month Most months.

13. Go to play on Broadway with friends We saw "To Kill a Mockingbird" in May. It was great.

14. Go to the beach 2 day trips in September

15. Plan a holiday/winter trip somewhere warm We decided against this one to save up for next summer.

16. Camping with the dog Once in July and going again this month.

17. Summer road trip somewhere cool Our camping trip counted for this

18. Host brunch 3 times with different groups of friends. We try to do this regularly. Its fun and low-key

19. Submit 2 big grants Decided against this to focus on papers. Next year.

13 completed, 2 I am trying do to before the end of the year (lose weight/TSA pre-check) and 4 I abandoned (War & Peace, kid dates, grants, and winter trip). I'm actually pretty happy with the progress!

Hahahahahaha

The happiness was short lived. Wednesday the NEW babysitter texted that her "other job" fell through and she can't commit to working part time for us without something else in the mix so she's looking for full time work. She did agree to cover the next 2 weeks and I am very very very grateful even though UGH.

So now we are going back to the drawing board. I have someone great (a friend's morning sitter) who is available MWF but...I need T/Th covered. We could send them to the karate studio but OMG they hate it there. Another girl who I didn't get around to interviewing last round is coming this evening. She's a college student in her senior year so hopefully won't need to leave for full time work, but I worry about reliability with the younguns.

The talk on Thursday was...OK. I dunno. Maybe not the right group for the subject? It was at 2 pm and 3 people were noticeably asleep...in a group of about 15. Others were interested & asking questions but the 3 sleepyheads were really demoralizing. I then had a very quick meeting with a faculty member in the group (one of the sleepers) who had to leave in 15 minutes to pick up his kid but even THEN it was hard to fill the time because we literally had NOTHING in common with our professional interests so I just kept asking him questions about his research. And I got what seemed like the last seat on the crowded train and came home to pouring rain and blah.

This weekend I was on call. It...went. It was really busy and there were some complex patients and sad stories. I was mentally/emotionally/physically drained when I got home and NOT in the mood to deal with the moods of the children/husband. And there were MOODS. Apparently the kids misbehaved Sunday on errands and G yelled at them and took away treats/screen time and nobody was talking to each other when I got home. Sigh.

I did manage to get up early to work out both days which was honestly the best part of each day. And going to bed early. So at least there was that.

I'm still on consults all week but there are some breaks in the day (like...right now). And I'm NOT on call tonight (though back on T-Th) so I'm definitely planning on a glass of wine or two tonight. More later on: my 19 for 19 list and goals for the rest of the year.

Happy Day

I'm writing this from a neighborhood cafe, where I came to get some work done while the sitter is hanging out with the boys. They had the day off school and I was originally planning to take the day completely off but panicked when I got behind last week and scheduled him to come for 6 hours.

But I spent 6 hours Saturday working on my talk and...it was pretty much done. I polished it up a bit (I need to practice it tonight or tomorrow), and did a few more nagging things and...its 3 pm and I'm taking a little break and will start outlining my next paper since I've got another couple hours of paid childcare.

Maybe its the time change? But yesterday and today I felt great, lots of energy and motivation to get &*( done. This morning I did my work out (BB extreme, ABC---abs/butt/core, I love this one), took the kids with me to the store for a couple things we needed (and picked up litter on the way home), and made a nice Africa peanut stew for our dinner (I made it vegan but also cooked up chicken & added it to half of the stew so that kids will---hopefully-- eat it). I played 3 games of chess with B (he won 2/3) and had a snack and then it was time for work. I could get used to a day like this :)

I really am trying to enjoy it while I can because call starts Friday night (after a FULL day of clinic, no less) and its going to be a long weekend/week before I can relax again.

Phew

Well, I didn't get much work done this week but I hired a babysitter. We met her yesterday, and while I was going to meet 2 more people this weekend, one already canceled and I got nervous, and she seemed great so I snapped her up before someone else did!

I am feeling incredibly relieved right now, and looking forward to finishing up here and going home for pizza/movie/wine night.

I will have to work this weekend, since I'm giving a talk next week that I have not even started preparing. But we have a family bike ride with my cousin, and a date night planned Saturday as well.
Also the incessant drizzle finally moved on, and its crisp and cool and sunny, which always cheers me up (it was nearly 80 degrees yesterday, the kids were broiling in their halloween costumes!)

I did NOT go trick or treating, so I owe one to G for going out for HOURS with the boys. I sat on the stoop to hand out candy for a little while but got bored since not too many people came by, so I just put a big bin of it outside (people don't really knock in our neighborhood, people just hang out outside and its usually really fun, but it was sparse this year).

G and I need a new TV show to watch together that is on Hulu or Amazon (we temporarily got rid of Netflix and HBO), any recs? I love when we have a show we look forward to watching a few times a week and we haven't done that since we watched Chernobyl this summer.