I have been a little scattered these last few days. Our house was broken into. My sister brought her newborn home from the NICU. My parents visited twice. We had major renovation work done. (There will be pictures later this week.) Our boys have managed to cut themselves (tape measures are not good toys), bruise themselves (several incurred while O was being dragged behind the four-wheeler driven by B at its highest speed), puncture themselves (HH stepped on a lapel pin which had been dropped on the kitchen floor face up) and contaminate themselves (one has ringworm – which I learned only involves a ring and no worms, thank goodness.)
To top things off, I have been on a steady diet of 
and 
and 
. This is not brain food. The scale is up a few lbs. and I am mad at myself for letting things get to me.
It is time to use this wonderful Monday to get back to the basics. I have seven areas where I want to focus and looking ahead, this week is as good as any to get back to work. The Florida legislature is taking a break this week for Easter and passover (except for a brief stint for the House on Thursday) and that means I will have lots of time to focus on other things like my social media project and my Leadership Florida skit and, as it relates to this blog, the most important work…work on myself.
In no particular order:
Family: I was able to see my nephew yesterday for the first time since his birthday. He is a real cutie! I drove down to lil sis’s house with a casserole and spent 10 minutes mooning over the little guy. Lil sis had him home all of 3 hours and was preparing for her first all-night run at motherhood. It was the the least I could do to feed her for the journey ahead.
For my immediate family, dealing with the aforementioned injuries along with countless disagreements over who’s turn it was, who was not sharing and what crime was committed in the preparation of meals, baths and attire made this weekend a tough one. For the upcoming week, I have decided to read a book that I received from a friend months ago.
A fellow
fellow recommended this parenting book to me last year. I promptly ordered it off the site and then set it aside. Now is the right time to pick it up again.
Friends: I did get to see a bunch of great ladies at the
Junior League’s River City Hunt on Saturday. The event was a success and everyone I talked to had a good time. I was most impressed with the Patel family (including two children under 6) who made it though the whole course. They rock!
In the week ahead, I am excited to be joining some of my beloved Cruise Girls for brunch this weekend and looking forward to more curbside chats with our neighbors. They all came out of the woodwork to check on us after the burglary on Thursday. As in the case of many emotional situations, offers of food came in – the key lime pie actually did help.
Fitness: What better way to segue to health and fitness than key lime pie, right?
I have nothing positive to report here. I have been eating terribly and even got a sunburn yesterday while chasing the boys at a birthday party.
I hope to take advantage of this wonderful April weather and get a walk in one night this week. If nothing else, I will be sure to moisturize and apply sunscreen regularly. Hey, it’s something.
Order: With the large TV no longer in the house, we moved the remaining TVs around and the ultimate result is that we do not have one sitting the garage collecting dust.
I was able to remove the giant bag give my sister the baby bedding meant for my nephew’s crib on Thursday night. It was supposed to be a shower gift, but the shower is postponed until the baby is a little older. The bedding, once delivered, left a beautiful vacancy on the floor of the office.
On the flip side though, one more of the
7 doors was shepherded to the house and is leaning up against its friend in the garage. Coupled with the upper cabinets that were removed from our kitchen that HH wants to use in his workshop, the garage looks like it should be featured on an episode of
Hoarders. We are in a state of flux that may be long-term. The renovations on the house are going to be slow-going as we will only make purchases as good deals happen. I should just get used to it.
As for the week ahead, I will focus on what I can control and work on getting the top of my dresser cleared off.
Food: In addition to the casserole for the new parents, on Sunday I made a
new recipe for dinner. The clipping for this stromboli is hanging on the front of the fridge, but lucky for me, it came from a recent issue of Real Simple (May, 2010) and is still featured on their website…no scan is needed. HH loved it, I loved and B even loved it. The only thing I would do differently is use better quality salami – Walmart’s deli – fail.
And for the rest of week – we will have veggies! We have fresh asparagus, broccoli, spinach, cukes, celery, and carrots in the crisper and I vow to use all of these items in my cooking this week.
Creativity: The renovation updates will come later in the week. I am so happy with the progress and self-satisfied with the way that my plan is working out.
Marriage: You, my dear reader friend, can probably relate. This is undoubtedly the hardest area to focus on with the other 3,321,012 things going on. Yes, HH and I will enjoy quality time one evening this week at a local open house for a school we are considering for O, but that is not exactly a romantic evening out.
Instead, I am going to plan a little Easter surprise for HH. This will be the first one since his mom passed. I know it will be tough since she was totally into holiday traditions and her absence will be acutely felt. He has a sweet tooth so there will be a trip to the store for a few
, his favorite . Hopefully it will make the day a little brighter.
I think that is it for now.
I will work on a post on the renovations.
In the meantime, I hope you are having a great day.
Thanks for reading.
Jennifer/Da Boss Lady
I'm The Boss Of Me 