Demerits and Gold Stars: February — April

Apologies for the unusual double post today. But…

Gah. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve thought about writing about my Demerits and Gold Stars over the past few months. I’ve even gone as far as jotting some of them down, but I’ve been dragging my feet on actually posting,

Which, technically, is fine. There’s no boss breathing down my neck for a performance review. But I know these check-ins are helpful for me, so no. more. stalling!

I’m not going to give myself another day to sit on this. Publish.

DEMERITS

• Broken Contact Form. I’ve been ignoring a set of auto-generated email reports for months that would’ve alerted me to the fact that my blog’s contact form was broken. It shows I’ve received dozens of messages (some, though definitely not all, were spam), but none of them actually came through. If you’ve emailed me since January and I didn’t respond, I’m so sorry! I’ve gone ahead and removed the form for now and replaced it with a direct contact email.
• Church Scrollers. There’s someone at church who spends the majority of the service scrolling on their phone. Ironically, they’re always looking at sales flyers and rewards programs. It’s distracting every single week. We could sit in a different spot, but they always seem to be within easy view. And when I spot broccoli on sale for $2.99, it’s hard to resist a glance. I know, I know — I was mildly obsessed with The Knitter a few years ago, and I even went so far as to befriend her. But knitting in church feels much different than making a grocery list. Thoughts?
• Potholes. Canadian winters are tough on our roads (plows, frost heaving, you name it). What drives me nuts is how quickly the patches they put in the potholes get destroyed. Not only do the holes remain, but now we have these big chunks of asphalt scattered across the road.

• Yoga/Gym/Lifting Weights. I walked every day in April and have been exercising fairly regularly, but I’ve completely fallen off with stretching and yoga and lifting. (I still have some passes for the yoga studio, but they’re expiring in a few months, and I… haven’t used them.) I just don’t feel like it. On one hand, that’s okay, but I was enjoying the feeling of getting stronger when I was consistently lifting weights and stretching. Help!

• Hole in the Drywall. You may remember that one of the kids accidentally put their foot through the wall in our main hallway a while back. That hole is still there. For months, we covered it with a picture one of the kids painted at school. Then, that fell off, and now we’re left with… an unpatched hole. This will require outsourcing.
• Screens. I feel like my default activity for the kids (when there isn’t something going on) has been screens lately. Indy is obsessed with Minecraft (he’s relatively new to the game, and of course has many friends that were already familiar with it), and Belle likes to e-mail her friends, read short stories she’s written, and play a series of truly mindless computer games (though they are good for hand-eye coordination). Both kids love watching tricks shots on YouTube. It’s harder to convince the kids to go adventure with me and I don’t really feel like summoning the energy to head out. To be fair, they have fairly busy schedules with soccer, church, choir, drama, friends. But neither of them likes to read (*sob*) and their screen time hours on days they’re home is definitely creeping up. I can’t decide if I care enough to work on this? Also, I appreciate their screen time because it gives me time to read or blog or do other things sans kids.
• Deep Sleep. I know sleep trackers have their pros and cons, but I’ve been really enjoying my Oura ring for tracking sleep/menstrual cycles and other metrics. Unfortunately, according to Oura I am consistently not getting enough deep sleep. It’s recommended to get 1-2 hours a night, and I often get less than 45 minutes. Eek! I’m working on tweaking a few things. On average, I’m sleeping about 7 hours and 40 minutes, but not enough of it is deep sleep. Maybe that’s one reason why I’ve been feeling tired all these years?
• Showers and sheets. I’m back to not washing my sheets enough, and… it’s been several months since I deep cleaned the shower stall. I mean, it looks okay, but there’s just so little motivation on my end to stay on top of this. I clean things and then IMMEDIATELY they look filthy again. I mop floors, and the kids run over them with wet feet. I wash the door handles and someone comes inside with muddy hands. Sigh. Things are neat (ish), but they aren’t necessarily “clean.” On the gold star side of things, I’ve turned cleaning the main bathroom (minus the shower — maybe I should include the shower?) over to Belle. She actually requested this job, so it’s hers!

GOLD STARS

• The Cool Bloggers Walking Club. It brings me so much joy to know that people all around the world were walking daily in April. It’s amazing to see that so many of you made movement a priority.

• Belle and Indy. They have their moments, of course, but the kids are at a really great stage lately. Mostly happy, respectful, and just enjoying being kids. They were also phenomenal travelers when we went to Paris.
• Belle’s Phone Use. So far, Belle having a phone has been a 10/10 experience. There are lots of guidelines (she’s not allowed to use it in her room, there is no access to Safari, and she can’t download apps without us using bypassing parental controls, and the phone charges in our room), but her being able to communicate with me during the day or when she’s at extracurriculars is very handy. I’m thrilled with how smoothly things have gone thus far. No doubt I’m jinxing myself…

• Organization. Love!

• Painting My Nails. I really enjoy having painted nails, and I’ve finally gotten into a good routine of doing my own manicures at home once a week.
• Prepping for Fall. I’ve started working on making the transition back to my university job easier in the fall (my contract all but pauses — down to 2 hr/week — in the summer). It feels good to tackle things proactively!
• Summer Planning. I have a general idea of how we’ll spend the summer, with key elements booked, paid for, and scheduled. We still have a lot of flexible time, but I know there will be plenty to do — including, hopefully, several trips to visit my parents.

• Post-supper cleanup. A week or so ago, John and I asked the kids to clear the table, load the dishwasher, and deal with any dishes that need hand-washing. They BOTH retorted that they knew what to do because — and I am quoting them here — “We do it every night.” I just cannot even. They may have done a full cleanup of supper twice in the last 6 months. They continued to insist they did it every night (reality distortion complex, anyone?). Well, then. FEEL FREE. So now, the kids are responsible for clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, and clearing off the counters. It backfired for them, but it’s pretty awesome for me.
• Phone calls. I paid the car insurance. I made a PAP appointment. Adulting things that required a phone call and I summoned the courage to get it done.

• Two-year anniversary from PRK. Today marks 2 years since I had laser eye surgery. The road was initially VERY bumpy, but today I am thrilled with my decision to go for it.

Your turn:

• Recent Demerits or Gold Stars?
• What’s one thing you’ve been putting off that you know would make your life easier if you just did it?
• Any tips for getting more deep sleep?
• Are there any “little things” in your life that have the potential to drive you crazy, like the potholes or phone scrollers I mentioned?
• Do you have any fun summer plans?