Wow. Canadian Thanksgiving really crept up on me this year.
John arrives home later today from a work trip to Helsinki, and tomorrow my father-in-law arrives for a week-long visit. A turkey has been purchased! Pies (pumpkin and pecan) are in the freezer! All the ingredients for a variety of beloved family favourites are at the ready (most importantly: a traditional Portuguese codfish dinner, seafood casserole, and turkey dinner with all the fixings).
The last week has been… a lot.
Last Friday after school we had a friend (*clears throat*) of Belle’s over for dinner which was lovely. Indy biked to a friend’s house (rather spontaneously) for some trampoline play and ate his supper there. We played games (I am highly competitive when playing both Codenames and Scattergories, and I lost at both).
Then we headed out to a multi-generational church event and didn’t get home until after 9:00 pm. It was amazing (more on this below). It was also Friday night and my dream for Friday night is to be in my PJs by 7:30 pm.
Saturday involved several hours of driving (to accommodate kid plans), and some unexpected socializing. Sunday was church, John’s departure mid-afternoon, and then an evening meeting (in a large group environment which is exhausting for my introverted self) outside the house from which I didn’t return until after 9 pm. Indy was still awake and keen to be tucked in and read to. This is sweet. Also, Mama is tuckered.
Monday night was pickleball (not home until after 8:30 pm, then tuck-in, teeth, snack, reading and all that rigamarole).
I could go on, but you get the idea and likely can match and raise me. The short version is we had something every. single. night. this. week.
On the one hand, I feel like I shouldn’t be so tired and overwhelmed. On the other hand, there are days when I literally feel like I do not stop—until I have an energy crash around dinner time. And then there is usually somewhere to go, dinner dishes to deal with, bedtime routines to oversee.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
It’s all good, in a way. Meaningful activities, intentional time spent with friends and kids, the daily routines of keeping our house and family functioning, which mean I have the blessing of a home and family.
But boy howdy… IT NEVER ENDS. The second I feel quasi-on-top-of-things, some unexpected happens, a practice gets added to the schedule, or an appointment needs rescheduling (requiring dreaded phone calls). Laundry seems to multiply in the baskets, food seems to magically disappear from the fridge but never magically appear, garbage cans that were just emptied need emptying again, floors never look vacuumed even though they were A MERE FEW MINUTES AGO.
Also, my blog is getting attacked by bots, causing it to go down temporarily, which is… annoying. I’m currently with Bluehost which has been a great starter host, but they basically said to avoid this issue I need to buy a security package and… there are no guarantees it will work. Kristen uses Deep Roots and while they’re on the pricier side, apparently you ALWAYS GET HUMANS. (When I call Bluehost it takes a while to get past the AI agent which is frustrating because the AI agent—who has a very soothing voice, I will add—is not actually able to solve any of my problems and “she” also got my name wrong and kept calling me Alvira… hey, at least it’s not Anne.)
PSA: if you get a 429 error (“Too Many Requests”), unfortunately it’s because of bots inundating my site and I am working toward a solution. But one measly human against the AI machine does not feel like an equal match. I did alter something ever so slightly on the backend and we will see if it helps at all.
Moving on.
There were playdates and birthday presents to wrap and library books to return and bills to pay and dishwashers to empty. And despite occasionally getting a hit of dopamine that my list was looking quasi reasonable, life is mostly a Sisyphean trek uphill.
Thankfully, there are very Happy Things along the way. Let’s discuss.
THRIFTED DRESSES
I have had great luck updating my dress collection. I’ve found three new-to-me options at thrift stores. The one I frequent sells dresses for $5.95. That price is hard to beat!
I needed to be quasi-presentable on a video work call (also last Friday; it was two hours, fun but exhausting, and once I hopped off I immediately got in the car and went to pick up kids at school and then launched directly into supper prep when I got home before leaving for church) and dresses are the path of least resistance for me.
The next one is GREEN VELVET!!! It makes me feel a bit like Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas. (Minus the dancing ability and proximity to Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby.)
Okay. Maybe anything associated with Rosemary Clooney is a bit of a stretch but the fact remains that this is such a great fall/winter dress! This was my outfit for church on Sunday.
My Wednesday evening volunteering at church youth group (there was a lot of time spent at church this week: Friday, Sunday, Monday, AND Wednesday night) outfit was not a dress, but it was all thrifted (over a year ago… so none of this is “new”): the shoes, earrings, pants, sweater, tank top underneath and sports bra below that.
Why are my eyebrows raised in this photo? I have no idea.
BELLE’S ENTHUSIASM
We had an aforementioned worship night on Friday evening. It was great. In one row you had a 90-year-old woman swaying to the music, toddlers sprawled on seats in PJs, and 70 teenagers forming a tame Baptist version of a mosh pit at the front of the church.
At one point we broke into groups and were supposed to retell a specific Bible story in our own words (I happened to be in a group with the 90-year-old and perhaps the most adorable 10-year-old to ever walk the face of this earth). Belle was off in another group and at one point the speaker called everyone’s attention to the fact that Belle was ACTING all the key details of the story. She got a round of applause for that. And I’m still laughing about it.
Speaking of her enthusiasm… she sent me this the other day.
(And yes, she prefers 24-hour time.)
COOL BLOGGERS WALKING CLUB
Huge thanks to everyone participating in the Fall Edition of the CBWC. It’s always so much fun to receive photos and updates from various spots around the world.
The recap from Week 1 is live!
BONUS HAPPY THINGS
- E-mails from readers. I receive so much helpful advice (most recently with regard to staying warm this winter). I read each and every message and truly appreciate people taking the time to engage!!
- A good sandwich. I was on a sandwich kick this week. One day I had a tuna sandwich (John makes the literal best tuna filling) on an Ancient Grains bread that was delicious. Another day, I used a homemade cheese scone and panini-pressed it with (more) tuna filling and a few slices of bell pepper… SO GOOD!
- Instant Pot beef, veggie, and barley stew. The lighting is terrible, but the house smelled so good and this was yummy. One child (who has gotten progressively pickier as she has gotten older—oops, let that cat out of the bag) even went back for seconds.
- Coffee. When John’s away I tend to revert back to pour-over; one morning I treated myself to a full coffee maker brew and drank… a lot more coffee. Maybe not a great thing in terms of caffeine intake, but delicious.
- My kids’ love of oatmeal. It’s the one breakfast meal they enjoy that I know is actually filling them up for a long day at school!
- Sewing projects. Okay, the sewing part isn’t a Happy Thing because I despise all handwork. BUT, I had four different repairs that needed to happen and I not only got those done, I organized my little sewing kit.
- Trampoline time! This hand-me-down trampoline has brought so many hours of joy to Indy (and his friends). One day this week he and a friend were outside in the pouring rain playing volleyball (while jumping). They were soaked and covered in grass clippings—this is why my floors never stay clean—but had an absolute blast.
- Cold water. What a gift!
- Fresh-from-the-oven ginger cookies. I haven’t made my favourite recipe since last Christmas and they were every bit as delicious as I remembered, quick to make, and my secret is doubling the spices.
- John texted me a picture of our beloved Taiga rollercoaster at Linnanmäki when he headed past en route to the airport. What a happy memory for our whole family.
- Our fridge freezer was in SHAMBLES. Everything was a mess, the bottom was covered in crumbs and it just gave me major ick vibes. I finally pulled everything out, reorganized things, added a second riser and little storage bin… and I smile each time I open the freezer. It will look like this for approximately two days—and that’s being optimistic—and then start a quick and steady descent back into chaos, but it looks nice while it lasts.
- I read this tiny memoir yesterday and WOW it packs a punch. I had it confused with My Left Foot (I clearly remembered watching Daniel Day-Lewis—he won an Oscar for his role) where a man with cerebral palsy is able to paint (and do all sorts of other things) with his left foot. Wrong story! The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is written by Jean-Dominique Bauby who was the former editor-in-chief of the French fashion magazine, Elle. He had a rare form of stroke and ended up in “locked-in syndrome” and could only communicate and write this memoir by blinking his left eye to signal letter selection based on a modified alphabetical ordering chart. In case you were curious, the final version of the memoir required about 200,000 blinks. Equal parts fascinating, heartbreaking, and beautifully written. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was also made into a film (Mathieu Amalric plays Bauby).
And that’s a wrap. To all my Canadian friends, safe travels and have a wonderful holiday weekend! To everyone else, Happy Normal Weekending.
Your turn.
- What are your weekend plans?
- What one house chore seems especially Sisyphean to you?
- Best meal you ate all week?
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Those dresses look lovely, and that outfit is really smart! I wish we had more thrift shops in Zurich. The ones we do have focus on high-end designer labels, so everything is lovely, but still very expensive, as you can imagine!
I love Belle’s enthusiasm! What Bible story was she acting out? Not Jezebel, I hope! 😂 It sounds like such a lovely evening!
As for happy things, we went to visit a pumpkin farm with my parents yesterday. It was lovely! There weren’t many people around because it was raining a little, which was perfect for us.
My Sisyphean task? Believe it or not, my training programme! I know the big race will eventually come, and then all the training will be over, but right now it feels never-ending! 😂
It was the paralytic being lowered through the roof. I didn’t actually see her acting it out (my little group was concentrating on our own stuff), but I’m sure it was a hoot. She has a flair for the dramatic 🙂
When you said there weren’t many people around at the pumpkin patch, I thought: sounds perfect. We have a lot of pumpkin/corn mazes this time of year and almost every time I drive by and see hundreds of people/cars I think (or say out loud): I cannot think of something I’d want to do less!
I can imagine you are feeling very tired of training right now. I know you’ve been extra committed with the help of your coach and I’m confident all that hard work will pay off, but I’m sure it feels never-ending right now! Keep up the good work and your race will be here before you know it <3
something every evening could be a lot! I deliberately plan nothing for evenings for me. I got an invite to go to visit a show yesterday for 6pm, I kindly declined. I don’t usually work/function well in the evening.
Love your dressed, very classic and suit you so well!
best thing ate this week?! a big pot of multigrain rice with lentils and sweet potato. I know it could sound boring but that’s exactly the simple carb I need at this point of my training, with an endless hunger.
this weekend Sofia will be out mostly of it as one of her best friend last year who moved to Chile is visiting. I plan to do some date-outing with lizzy. oh… and my longest run before tapper.
I don’t like being out in the evenings, but it is hard to avoid with the kids getting older!
Your carb meal sounds delicious!!
That’s so special for Sofia! I hope she has such a great time <3
That tuna filling sounds too good not to share, please 😍
He mixes is SO well with mayo, so it’s not at all dry. Adds dried dill, pepper, nutritional yeast, I think a little mustard, relish, and a splash of maple syrup. It is SO good.
On Tuesday, groceries were delivered. I stared with something approaching horror at the amount of bags that I would need to transport to the kitchen, and then the driver offered to bring everything into the kitchen. All the hearts, it really made my Tuesday evening so much easier (still suffering from sinusitis here).
Wednesday evening my mom came over to help until this morning, and she made oatmeal for the kids on Thursday morning. Happy breakfast day!
Weekend plans = sewing weekend with friends, I left the house yesterday. Such a joy!
I am SO glad the driver offered to help out. What a kind gesture and I’m sure it was no big deal for him and yet a very big deal for you. Those little acts of kindness and generosity with time can have an outsized positive impact.
Hooray for support. And enjoy your weekend. It sounds like you’re getting beyond the worst of this horrible sinus issue. Onward and upward, I hope. Enjoy the sewing!
Well, not to state the obvious but YES IT’S A LOT and it’s going to get to you now and then (or most days by dinnertime, as the case may be).
The new dresses are so pretty. I love the floral print, and you can never go wrong with velvet. Or green. So that dress is a double win. BTW I keep meaning to watch White Christmas, so you just gave me another reminder to get on that.
This weekend is a Maine weekend. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll be doing yet, but I know it’s going to be gorgeous. I’m definitely getting Maritime vibes from the North East, which is, duh, because it’s so close.
BIRCHIE. YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED WHITE CHRISTMAS??? I can’t believe we watched Hitchcock x2 and not White Christmas. It is my absolute favourite movie, mostly because I watch it with Joy every single Christmas and every year I cannot believe it’s time to watch it again because it literally feels like a week before since we watched. We know most of the dialogue and laugh at all the same jokes. Such a delight. I think you’re really enjoy it.
MAINE! I hope the leaves are gorgeous, the weather is fabulous, and you have the best time exploring that part of the continent.
WHAT. Canadian Thanksgiving already???? I mean I know it’s early (compared to ours) but I didn’t realize it’s NOW! I’ve realized that our Thanksgiving is way too late. I would like to change it to the very beginning of November- then we could all immediately move right into the Christmas season.
I love those dresses, and you can’t beat that price! My daughter has gotten very into thrifting lately, and as a result has a whole new eclectic wardrobe, which she’s enjoying immensely.
Your schedule would wear me out completely. I’m hoping you get a little break with this holiday (why do I have the sinking feeling this will not be the case?) Anyway, I know Canadian Thanksgiving isn’t the enormous extravaganza that American Thanksgiving is (few things are) but I hope you have a wonderful time, and I want to hear all about it (and see photos!)
I have been dragging the last few days and have not been at ALL productive, but I have napped three days in a row for a least a short stint. I’m feeling optimistic that I’ll have a bit more energy next week and our evenings look MUCH less chaotic next week.
Having something going on every night is TOO MANY THINGS. In my humble opinion. Hopefully you can get some rest this weekend.
I do have the security pack on Bluehost and it truly does work (I think it’s Akismet?) I mean, there are going to be the occasional weird spam comments but generally it’s fine. That said, I had to get Mark’s roommate to do some trouble shooting for me wrt Bluehost, so, you know. It feels like it’s always something! Good luck!
Those dresses are cute and I love Belle’s Christmas enthusiasm! Happy Thanksgiving!
It really was too many things (for me at least). Sometimes these things can’t really be helped, but I am very excited to have a MUCH less evening-intensive week ahead.
Have a great holiday weekend <3
Great dresses!
I found a comfy chair for reading at the thrift atore- the 7th grade teacher asked for one and the next day- voila! I did.littke spot cleaning out in the sunshineyesterday, and it looks great. My son ( whos in this class) approves. Not bad for ten bucks!
And that’s it for happy this week., I had to cancel my visit to my granddaughter next week. We’ll, let’s say I’m happy an eye dr in town could fit me in to check my eye- it’s not my usual, but he’s has experience with shinglesgoes. And they were very nice and knowledgeable- makes getting a rotten diagnosis easier.
I hope you get some goid naps and alone time this weekend!.
My vision isn’t the best right now. Sorry for the incoherent spelling. My autocorrect also hates me.
That’s a great thrift find and benefits a teacher AND your son!
Ugh. I am so sorry about the shingles diagnosis. I’m sorry you had to cancel your planned visit to your granddaughter, but hope you are feeling better as quickly as possible. It really is a rotten diagnosis, but I’m glad you were able to see the eye dr quickly!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! It sounds like a busy but good week!
Those dresses are gorgeous, what great finds and the Cool Bloggers Walking Club sounds fantastic! All your happy things did make me smile.
It WAS a good week. So I’m feeling grateful for it… and also VERY grateful next week is shaping up to be less chaotic.
Randomness, as always, disguised by a list to look less random:
1. I really admired that velvet dress in your walking roundup photos and was curious about the part that didn’t show. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity!
2. Love the design of the floral one. If I found a sewing pattern like that, I’d consider making one for myself (and I severely dislike sewing).
3. Do Canadians always celebrate your Thanksgiving on October 12, or is it one of those squishy holidays that gets moved to a more convenient day of the week?
4. Why on Columbus Day? (Don’t answer if it requires a lot of work because I could always just look it up myself)
5. Things will be easier when Belle gets her drivers license.
6. All that activity, the constant going and pushing and being up and on, is the reason we are supposed to have kids when we are young, in spite of the fact that we don’t really know what we are doing (says One Who Never Had Children)
7. I’ve never seen White Christmas.
8. John’s tuna recipe sounds kind of weird, but maybe maple syrup is just a given in Canada.
9. I’ve been walking every day but not documenting it. Been carrying 13 lbs. in a backpack and walking shorter distances. (Stupid neuropathy.)
10. I could write you a very very long email about BlueHost and their very stupid robot who caused me to erase my entire website and then their human said the only way to fix it was to subscribe to ProDesignLive. It just goes on and on and on… I’m trying to figure out how to move it to another outfit without losing 18 years of posts. But you survived losing yours, and if I lose mine, I’ll survive. It has taken me 18 years to get my tens of subscribers, and then WordPress just erased them all. See? I am going on and on, and this is the abbreviated version.
11. Oops, it is supposed to be Happy Things. Okay, here is mine: WE ARE CLOSING THE CABIN THIS WEEKEND AND I GET TO PUT AWAY MY DUFFEL BAG, START BEING HOME AND WORKING IN THE YARD AND GOING TO CHURCH AND OH MY GOODNESS, I’M SO HAPPY!
Canadian Thanksgiving is always the second Monday in October, so it’s on/around the 11th/12th/13th each year!
I LOVE White Christmas, mostly because it has become a very special and treasured annual tradition to watch it with my friend, Joy.
Good work on the walking AND lifting.
I sent you some ideas re. the blog. Technology can be so very frustrating.
Those are lovely dresses! I read and saw the movie Diving Bell and the Butterfly and both were excellent. What a story!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
This week wore me out, too. I felt like a whirling dervish. Work has been so busy as fixed income markets have been volatile so it just feels like it never ends. I took photos of Will riding his bike for the first time on my work phone because I was responding to email while helping him riding with pedals for the first time. That’s my ‘tell me you are overwhelmed at work without telling me you are overwhelmed with work’ moment. Or one of many of the week. Sigh.
Happy Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving so much and am envious that you have more of a gap between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday. I love the food and there are NO GIFTS! Hurrah! And we get a long weekend (well technically I have to take PTO on Friday but nothing happens that day at work).
We have a somewhat busy weekend. I volunteer at chess club tonight. Tomorrow morning Paul has a soccer match and then I volunteer at our school’s fall festival. I don’t do much volunteering at school in general but try to volunteer for events and tend to volunteer for chess club since both of my kids attend. Paul’s class sings in church on Sunday so I’m excited to see them perform; Taco’s class performed last week and it was so adorable. Phil might take one or both boys to his friend’s house on a lake on Sunday as he’s helping take the dock out. I don’t expect him to take both but wow would that be a GIFT… I could use a silent afternoon. I haven’t had time to watch the GBBO so would love a mini-marathon session. It’s not Phil’s thing so I watch it when he’s not around and that just doesn’t happen often.
Ohhhh! I hope you get a chance to enjoy a GBBO mini-marathon (have to admit, I don’t love Nigella so far, but I seem to be the outlier on that front??)
You are SO busy with work and travel, not to mention having two young kids and all the lawsuit shenanigans. It’s… a lot.
I cannot imagine having social activities every night. But then I have a family of introverts.
Tuna melts are fantastic. Just the thing for a cozy lunch or dinner.
Happy things here: using the bruised apples that nobody wanted to eat (to be fair, they were VERY bruised up) to make cooked apples for my oatmeal. Yum. And Pumpkin Spice tea from Aldi.
The Sisyphean tasks for me are the oven (we do not have a self-clean model in our rental, and even if we did, I’d be too afraid to use it for fear of starting a fire or wearing out the oven) and washing floors! We have a small house and six people and it feels like even after I clean the floors, they feel….not clean again.
John and I are introverts, but the kids are not and it’s also just a busy season of life! I know this is probably about as intense as things will get (kids old enough to be involved in lots of different things but can’t drive).
Pumpkin spice tea sounds delicious!
What a fun and busy set of activities! I also love an organised fridge and freezer – baskets etc for the win! Any chance you could fit a wire magazine file in that middle slot? You could then use it for flat/long thin items (I love a frozen paratha or naan bread, and also have spring roll wrappers that I use instead of filo pastry for sausage rolls etc).
I’m still tired all the time but I’m so happy as I got my blood tests back today and my ferritin iron levels are FINALLY going back up after plateauing for 6 months (yay for the new regime!). This is so good as it’s giving me hope for my energy coming back eventually (I can wait if it’s actually improving but months of nothing was really dreary).
I also am abandoning a ridiculous property purchase plan that I couldn’t really afford but felt so close and was very exciting to dream about. I’ve realised it’s not achievable but am choosing to be happy as I feel much more open to moving again one day as a result (been a bit stuck on that one for a long time). Also I am happy that I’m not choosing to massive over extend myself in future – large scale frugality!
I’ve also got some nice things on Vinted recently that have rejuvenated my wardrobe. I have been on a bit of a vinted binge recently which isn’t great (partly due to the tiredness in the evening and not being well enough to do my usual activities) but now I feel I might be ready to muster the energy to put all the stuff I dont want back on it to sell so hopefully I’ll recoup some of the money and enjoy that.
Having lived with low ferritin for years, my heart goes out to you! It is… exhausting. I’m so glad you’ve found a treatment regime that has helped. Sending you the very best of wishes and return to much greater energy levels.
Large scal frugality! Love that reframe.
Oooooohhhh! Ahhhhhhh! LOOK AT THAT FREEZER. It is so clean and tidy! My freezer looks like a beaver tried to jam in a decade’s worth of food, dam-building-style. Hi, yes, I am the beaver.
Love your new dresses!
Your activities lately sound wonderful and satisfying and BUSY. I hope that you can find some balance between all the enjoyable things and time to breathe in silence.
Happy Thanksgiving!
“My freezer looks like a beaver tried to jam in a decade’s worth of food, dam-building-style. Hi, yes, I am the beaver.” Hahaha!
Yes, I think the balance will be in the form of doing almost NOTHING this coming week. I have one evening out and that. is. it. Also, John has a whole week of vacation while his dad is visiting which will be delightful for everyone.
You know what? As with most things, I agree with Canadians on the timing of Thanksgiving. We have ours in late November, which is JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS and it makes all the holidays smash together. Why can’t we be more like Canada?
I ADORE the timing of our Thanksgiving. Always have, always will. Late November baffles me!
Sorry you are having blog issues! Argh!!! Wonder if that’s why I didn’t get an email notification about this post… was worried to not have you find happy things post so came here to see if I’d missed a week off announcement since it’s a holiday weekend, and Lo and behold! You HAD posted! Anyway, tech problems are no fun and I hope you get your sorted out quickly.
Your week sounds utterly exhausting. That’s SO MANY evening things.
A really big and huge happy thing… Anna is officially caught up in speech. She made some sudden and dramatic gains recently. Gotta blog about it all, but somehow blogging is on the back burner a lot these days.
Happy Thanksgiving! I am very thankful for this blog and you!
I am hoping the e-mail issue is solved; there was something that happened on my end and I didn’t correct it until AFTER my post went live on Friday, so the proof will be in the Monday pudding, so to speak.
Maria, what WONDERFUL news. I am so, so, so happy to hear this update regarding speech. What a joy for your whole family.
Happy Thanksgiving and such kind words <3
Good Morning Alvira! I had to chuckle at the AI name selection (and you need to look up Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys because I might sing it around you from now on!) Sorry to hear about the bot issue – what a pain!! Anything that makes you go through multiple long rounds of customer service inquiries is such a drain! Hopefully it gets resolved soon!
The past week definitely sounds like a LOT in terms of activity and I wish you many slow, quiet evenings in the coming months!
Haha! Yes, of all the names it could contrive from Elisabeth… anyhoo.
This coming week looks much lower key and for that I am thrilled. Combined with my period and all those evenings… yeesh. But the coming week looks relatively laid-back and having John on vacation is going to be delightful for everyone.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I am thankful for you!! Oh gosh, all the computer troubles we’re having lately!! It’s so frustrating. Customer support is also frustrating. Hang in there and have a lovely weekend!
Technology is great when it works, but I do feel like it bats a 50% average.
I hope you had a fantastic Canadian Thanksgiving!
Loving your thrifted dresses—I don’t know that I could ever be that lucky.
I remember the days of running the kids to their activities, then adding in ‘social activities,’ and I was a certified unpaid Uber! Don’t worry, this won’t last forever- just another six or seven years. 🫣
I always wanted a trampoline, and now I’m thinking it might be too late for me.
Dang it with the bots! When I set up my WP, I initially went the route where you had to hire your own web host, and I used Bluehost. Ughh….I had so many issues. Eventually I got out of it and just went with the WP that self-hosts, and it was much easier. Best of luck my friend!
Unpaid Uber… that should be my official title on my business cards these days. Not only unpaid, some of the reviews aren’t complementary (Why are you late, Mom???)
I will admit I am tempted to use the trampoline but then think better of it. I’m not convinced I could get on or off it unharmed (let alone jumping and flipping).
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I hope you had a lovely weekend with your FIL (despite having someone in your house again for a week! I know that is a lot.) I can definitely commiserate about everything feeling overwhelming right now… I feel the same way and almost canceled the girls weekend that I had planned to go on but then didn’t and I am glad I didn’t… because it was a lovely time up at Lake Tahoe. Spending time with other women – hiking, doing puzzles, hot tubbing, playing board games – is good for the soul. But of course if you go on a trip, you return all the chores that you usually get done over the weekend and have to squeeze them in somewhere else LOL and so life goes!
My father-in-law is SUCH low maintenance and basically does not stress me out as company. It was a great Thanksgiving and a special (delicious) time spent together.
9/10 I am delighted when plans get cancelled 🙂