Jeremy was gone this past weekend for the youth group's senior retreat.
While that was happening I was once again living the youth pastor wife's life of tending to people shorter than me and doing my twice yearly baseboard deep clean.
My main goals for Christmas break this year were to wash the couch (y'all Lovesac is AMAZING with how easy it is to clean), rent a carpet cleaner and get after all the rugs, and then crawl around this old house cleaning baseboards.
Back in the Covid cleaning Instagram days I was turned onto the Go Clean Co. and have never looked back. A gallon of hot water with a tsp of powder Tide + a microfiber cloth is revolutionary.
I just about finished, the only room left is our bedroom and bathroom. Plus any area I walked through without glasses. I hate cleaning with glasses on, it quickly points out everything I missed when I was cleaning without glasses, and honestly if I'm not at work or driving... I kinda live life blind.
So don't ever judge anything you see at the house. I shoot for tidy, not sterile.
In the home alone activity calendar, which I am already out of order on, the kids had their KidStrong day, and everyone is beyond happy to have leveled up to Alpha. All that really means if they can now be picked for Class Captain. Which Harry did get picked for. He was probably more excited and silly than helpful.
Little Elliot finally leveling up!
I'll dive into this more in another post, but he has been struggling with recurrent fevers, and I think we finally have some answers. But.. the fevers have gotten him behind Harry on his KidStrong level. So when he finally leveled up a week later he was beyond excited.
Don't judge me, but trying to get a photo of an outfit is a daunting task.
1. I don't take myself serious enough for it.
2. Lighting is a full on joke at this house.
3. I don't have a decently placed full length mirror.
Regardless, this top is the best thing I've purchased in ages and I hope everyone can ignore me wearing it constantly from hence forth.
See also, the failed attempts at getting a photo meant I was way behind my usual time for Sunday School.
In the name of girl food and not having to cook for a husband, I bought a rotisserie chicken and lived my best life while he was gone. The go-to was a chunk of that chicken, half a sweet potato with butter/cinnamon/raw honey, and a salad with everything I had on top of it. Plus a LaCroix for good measure.
Can we talk about the crime that is the grocery store not having regular radishes? They only had organic and I am not paying $5 for regular radishes.
Back at work, and back to girl food, means back to protein shakes.
The current ones is as follows:
8 oz almond milk
frozen strawberries
chocolate protein powder
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp powder peanut butter
This is a late addition to the blog post, but in the land of girl dinner. I present to you "Healthier Utah Soda."
I don't recommend this as an every day way to get in protein, but when you need a treat its a great 30 grams of protein for 200 calories that doesn't taste like yet another protein shake.
The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Break at work took this to another level and I used Coke Zero with Fairlife protein, leading me to consume more soda than I have likely had in the last decade combined.
Maybe it's who I am now, on the cusp of 39, worried about protein intake, and tired.
But on a more positive note, this tastes like a Coke float.
Last but not least, Santa Gigi brought the kids a zoo pass. We found ourselves at the zoo twice while Jeremy was gone. My theory is if they aren't at home, they can't make a mess.
Also, if they're outside... they'll get tired.
Both of which are very important.
Our local zoo seems to have been updating not just the animals, but walkways. It's been really nice, especially in this cooler weather. It's honestly so hot down here for so much of the year that we really squeeze in our outdoor activities between November - May. Other than that I better be in water to be outside.
