Oof. I’m so sorry, you guys! I totally flaked on you. I promised that last week I’d show you the kids’ Advent book haul and some of our seasonal fun to date, and then I went completely dark. Everyone’s fine, by the way. (I have friends who still remember that time in 2012 when I went dark for two weeks because I’d had a surprise baby. That hasn’t happened – swear.) I don’t have a great explanation for you, just a parade of excuses. It was a crazy week at work. One of my colleagues is leaving our firm (heading to a dream job, and we’re all delighted for him!) and I’m probably going to be the one who will be absorbing most of his work, so it was a bit of a whirlwind of a week. (This is a welcomed professional development for me, too.) And then at the end of the week, Steve went up to Buffalo for a work obligation and took our family laptop with him. I had my work computer, so no trouble working, but I don’t blog from there, and my plans to get my posts scheduled in advance went awry. As did my reading – it’s been that sort of a week.
As weekends go, this was a pretty good one. I didn’t get everything done that I’d hoped for – my garden, which died in the first frost of the season, still desperately needs cleaned up – but I did a ton of food prep on Saturday, and finished my Christmas shopping on Sunday. (A few small tasks remain – like getting something for my secretary, and having Nugget make a gift for his nanny – but the main list is done.) And in the meantime, we fit in a trip down to Mount Vernon to visit with Aladdin the Christmas Camel. The season is never complete without a trip to see Aladdin, and the kids had fun racing around the wide green lawn, playing tag with a new friend, and admiring the cows, sheep and hogs on the farm. And now it’s just one more week until Christmas! There’s so much I need to do – I haven’t wrapped a single gift, and I need to get packages mailed out – and so much I want to do, like checking out the holiday trains at the Botanic Garden and squeezing in one last play date with my law school BFF and her family before they pull up stakes for Malaysia in early January. I’m trying to take some time and soak in the fun stuff, too. It’s all good.
Reading. Bit of a slow week, which should not surprise anyone (see above). I finally finished The Shell Seekers, which was delightful. (I recommended it to my BFF, Rebecca, who immediately downloaded it on audio and twenty minutes after I’d originally texted her recommending it, texted me: “This Nancy character is a trip!”) And then I went back to my kindle, and Christmas at Thrush Green, which is gentle and slow and warm and comforting and everything that I have been needing.
Watching. Is there any question what I’m going to say? We are enjoying the hell out of The Crown and already dreading it ending. How will we ever wait until Season 3? I know – I’ve been itching to re-watch the Africa episodes from Season 1, so we’ll probably do that.
Listening. Podcasts, as usual, but the most fun has been – I found our Laurie Berkner Christmas CD, which we’ve had for a few years but which was AWOL last year, and the kids and I have been having a ball driving around and singing along loudly to the carols. (Parents: if you haven’t discovered Laurie Berkner yet, you’re missing out.) The only bad thing is that I admitted to the kids that the song Do You Hear What I Hear makes me cry sometimes, and now Nugget asks me if every song on the CD makes me cry.
Moving. Uhhhhh, well, I haven’t really done much. It has just been such a hectic week with the school Christmas concert, all the changes at work, and the impending holiday – I haven’t had time. Unless you count running up and down the stairs after Nugget, which I suppose should count.
Blogging. Let’s try this again, shall we? Kids’ Advent book haul on Wednesday and our December fun to date on Friday. I promise for real this time. Check back!
Loving. Can I brag about this mom hack, guys? I had about 250 extra breastmilk storage bags left over from my pumping days, and a ton of homemade broth that I needed to portion out and freeze, and I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out how to store the broth in small enough receptacles that it wouldn’t take three weeks to thaw when I wanted to make soup. How about killing two birds with one stone? (I hate that phrase.) On Saturday, as part of an epic food prep marathon (that seriously went on for hours, you guys) I portioned out and froze about twenty five-ounce baggies of homemade broth, thanks to Medela. Moms: if you have four boxes of breastmilk storage bags knocking around your pantry, as I did, DO THIS! I am so excited, I’ve been peeking into the freezer about five times a day. It’s almost as satisfying as seeing all of those bags full of breastmilk (I imagine; my supply was terrible so I never had that many bags in the freezer at any given time).
Asking. What are you reading?
covered in flour 
I’m reading Finding Mr Goodbar by Judith Rossner, a book published in the 1970s that is based on a real murder. My mom recommended it to me. My sweet ma. And now I’m certain she’s twisted.
Yikes! Although I loved “In Cold Blood” (and have read it multiple times) I’m not much for true crime or grisly novels otherwise. Cozy mysteries for me, please!
1. Yay for colleagues leaving as long as 1) they’re leaving for a dream job, and 2) you get more work, which is welcome. I hope it works out!
2. The Crown wasn’t on my radar at all until Chelsea Handler interviewed Claire Foy on her next-to-last Netflix talk show. I found the interview so interesting that Paul and I started watching the series last week (we’re only about four episodes into Season 1, so we have some catching up to do).
3. I love your alternative use for the breast milk bags. What a great way to get them out of your house but also put them to good use!
1) Yes, it’s a good development all around! I think the shakeup will do us all some good.
2) Would love to hear if you’re enjoying “The Crown” – we are obsessed! I’m not overly thrilled with some of the decisions that the showrunners have made about what characters and plots to feature as the main arcs, but I can’t argue with the gorgeous settings and costumes, and Claire Foy is one of my favorite actresses.
3) I am really pleased with my hack! I told Steve that it was a “mom hack” and he responded: “Literally!” Ha! I’ve given away all of the other leftover breastfeeding and pumping supplies that I had, but held onto the milk storage bags because I had a hunch I might be able to repurpose them.
Yes, I remember that time you disappeared for two weeks! I had just found your blog. 🙂
“I portioned out and froze about twenty five-ounce baggies of homemade broth, thanks to Medela.”
Ha! I love it. Now that Zayla is six, my memory of pumping is a little hazy. I think I’m blocking it out because of how many times I had mastitis with her. Anyway, I don’t think I used storage bags. I pumped into bottles. Old school, I guess?
Heh, pumping – ugh! I am so glad that’s behind me. Never had mastitis, fortunately, but pumping never agreed with me and I never got much output. Most of the storage bags are from N, since with E I had such bad supply issues that I also pumped directly into her bottles, to avoid wasting a drop, and was done pumping by 4.5 months with her, as opposed to 15 months of nursing and pumping for N. The bags were good for giving to the daycare. But somehow I ended up with a LOT of them! I’m delighted with my solution of using them for homemade stock (dusts off shoulders). 😀