Prior to having a child, I never knew, never even imagined, some of the things I would have to do as a parent. It's an unexpected and surprisingly disgusting journey. Today I got to experience five of those wonderful (sarcastic) new things; I share them with you for your amusement:
1. Sniff someone else's bottom (to check for poop)
2. Forcibly brush someone else's teeth
3. Read someone a story while I'm going to the bathroom
4. Catch vomit with my bare hand(s)
5. Use random noises and gestures because my brain is so tired that I can't form real words
I think I'm supposed to be able to make another list of the truly wonderful (not sarcastic) things that I never expected about parenting. Things like the thrill of being called mama or the smile-erupting joy of watching my daughter toddle around. There are, after all, a lot of upsides to being a mom. But since it was a diarrhetic, triple poop, vomit catching, five-hours-of sleep kind of day, I'm really not in a happy-sunshine, I-love-being-a-mom mood. Although I am feeling a tad more sympathetic to and grateful for my own mother these days. (Thanks mom.)
That said, I've got about ten minutes until I need to shut down my computer and call it a night. So I think I'll try to bullet point out the highlights from this week:
- Remember my friend who watches my daughter a couple of times a week? She moved last week. The difference is only about a mile, but it's a mile of steep downhills (from here to there) and makes for a totally different trip to work. Instead of going to her house, back to my house, and then on to the office, I have to go straight from her house to the office. On a very different, less safe route. I'm not thrilled. I don't at all mind the little bit of extra time or distance (I like that I'm getting a bit more and more challenging exercise), but there are a couple sections of road with no shoulder and crazy drivers. I love to bike. I don't like worrying about my safety when I'm doing it. Thankfully I traverse only a very small section of bad road with my daughter. Then there's the long uphill ride at the end of the day to get us home.... brutal. I did it twice this week; both times I had to stop and walk for a section of the hill because I don't have the cardiovascular strength for it. We'll get there.
(^^^So much for a brief bullet point. Sheesh.)
- Remember how I applied for a promotion recently? This coming week, I have an interview for the position. It's the first round of interviews; there will be two rounds. I feel confident that I can make it through the first round. It's the second round that's going to be the most challenging. But one thing a time! This week's goal is to knock one out of the park for Round 1.
- A lot of banks these days have an e-deposit program for checks. If you have a smart phone, you can take a picture of your check, send it to the bank, and it will be deposited. Amazing! My bank has this program. Unfortunately, we don't have smart phones, so I still have to go to the bank branch when I get a check. (Actually, let's be honest, my mom has been depositing most of my checks for me. Have I mentioned lately that she's awesome?) So speaking of my awesome mom, she pointed out to me this week that I can actually use the document scanner on my home printer/copier/scanner to do the same thing! I can scan the check, log into my bank account on my computer, and e-deposit. I tried it out on Tuesday and it was incredibly easy. Yay!
- Nate took down the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. We got out our lights this morning and put them up. (But I just remembered, we forgot to turn them on! Ha!) I'm not going to rush into the Christmas decorations, but I am happy we're getting started a little earlier this year. I think maybe it will help me get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can get my shopping done really early, too, and then I can just kick back for the rest of the month. Amazon is definitely going to receive the bulk of my transactions. I do not like holiday traffic on the roads and crowds of people in the stores. Makes me claustrophobic.
- Cooking. There's a lot I want to say about cooking but I have only one minute left before I need to wrap things up. Oh well, I'm just gong to go over time...
Remember my friend Kimmy who is oh-so amazing? She made some pea pesto this summer and gave me a batch. It was delicious. I finally got a chance this week to try the recipe myself and it turned out yummy! It's really easy, too. I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a triple batch of the pesto so that it would have protein and thus be a "one stop" dish. I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth, which I think helped preserve the good flavor. I also made Moroccan Tofu this week, which is a variation of Nate's "famous" Moroccan chicken recipe. It turned out well. Surprisingly tasty. And my rice-and-quinoa stuffed bell peppers were so good that even after several bites, Nate hadn't noticed they were meatless. ("Wait, there's not any meat in this? Really?") Maybe just maybe my vegetarian ambitions will come true.
This coming week I'm going to make some tofu pad Thai. Nate scowled at me several times already ("I want chicken pad Thai!") but if it goes as well as the Moroccan tofu, he'll hardly notice. Let's all cross our fingers.
Finally, if you're mouth isn't watering yet: cranberry orange muffins. I want these, have been thinking about them all day. I'll have to print the recipe and get the ingredients next weekend... unless someone wants to show up at my door with a bag of groceries? I'll make the muffins and give you some in exchange? Anybody?
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