I am attempting to post every day in May and I’ve skipped a few and forgotten once or twice and always feel like I’m playing catch up.
So here is a catch up photo of Panther sitting on my closed computer. She loves to sabotage computer use, and sitting on it while it’s closed is a pretty effective way to keep me off it. Touché Panther. Touché.
I have struggled with this day in the past, with not feeling seen, appreciated or celebrated by my family, and with feeling pressure to see, appreciate and celebrate my own mother enough. I know it’s much harder for so many people, people who have lost their mothers, or never had the relationship with them that they needed. And for those who haven’t been able to embody the role mother in the way they so desperately wanted. It’s minefield to be sure.
Today I got three heartfelt notes, one from each member of my family. I absolutely felt seen, appreciated and celebrated.
My mom is joining us to see Project Hail Mary, which is exactly how I want to spend this afternoon.
I am feeling immensely grateful.
The 15yo and I watch a lot of reality TV. One of our favorites is Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. We started watching the first season over a year ago and just finished season 4 last night. At the end of the finale we heard an iconic line that has been quoted in articles about the show for years, but that we’d never actually seen. We both freaked out, and this is a shot of the 15yo losing her mind in front of the actual moment when Heather Gay yells, “Receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots, ducking everything.” An iconic piece of Real Housewives history, that we’ve been quoting for months, that we finally saw.
Last night, as I finished a 45 min Arms & Intervals ride and queued up a 10 minute core class, I realized I was about to hit 500 workouts on Peloton. 500 is a lot of workouts! Especially since I’ve only been a member for 2-3 years and I was repeating Bike Bootcamps that I Zoom recorded for a year before I bought a used Peloton bike. Peloton is not the only way I work out, but I’m clearly using the app a lot!
I swear I posted this on Monday! Boo! Oh well, I’ll post it now.
This is a table in my classroom. It’s right next to my teaching desk and it acts as a depository for basically everything I put down. I try to clear it off every week but eventually it looks like this again.
And this is what my life feels like right now. Every day I have 1-2 extra things, on top of regular life requirements. I just feel so, so busy.
Which is why I should probably go to sleep right now…
Last night the husband and I met two friends out for dinner (at Cubita’s rooftop bar – the weather was beautiful for the first time in ages), then we all went to an early concert. We rarely make it out on weekdays, and this was super fun. We even had a few drinks!
This lizard makes me laugh. Especially when he’s falling off his hammock so magnificently. Truly, who falls off a hammock like that? He’s always good for a laugh. (And yes, we helped him back up again. We always do.)
{I know my blog has been a little broken lately. I still can’t access it on a browser… le sigh. But I think today the photo should post and that comments should be open. Apologies for the mess around here lately!}
There is no way I am posting every day in May! Ha! It’s been two weeks since I last posted here. I also just met up with a blogger I read years ago and have “known” for over a decade but never before seen in real life, and it was awesome and got me thinking a lot about why I first started blogging and why I’m still blogging now (she mentioned feeling compelled to write in the beginning., and oh how I felt compelled to write so long ago. Now, not so much…). I hope to write more about all that, but I know how infrequently I end up circling back to topics I mention wanting to circle back to…
Maybe in May I can’t post every day (like SHU, and Kae and Jenny), but I can probably post a photo with a caption every day, so I will try to do that.
My husband sent this screenshot this morning. He has his lock screen set to cycle through photos of our cats (how does he do that?!) and today this one came up and it might be the most perfect lock screen. I’m not sure, I’ll let you be the judge.
I can access my blog on my phone, but not my computer right now. That is making posting difficult. Here are my final days of time tracking. My next post will answer some questions people have posed on these posts, plus some of my own insights.
8:30 Alarm
9:00 Out of bed
9:20 Feed cats, get 12yo breakfast
9:45 Chat with husband about plans for the day, putz around upstairs
10:20 Decide on workout, decide to do it outside because it’s beautiful out
10:50 Finally start working out
11:35 Finish workout, clean up stuff, jump into shower, get dressed
12:00 Leave with family to the Cherry Blossom Festival
12:30 Drop family off when we can’t find parking
12:45 Reunite with family after parking + walking back
{Have fun at Cherry Blossom Festival with family! See Godzilla Art Show, check out lots of vendors, congratulate 15yo when she finds out she was accepted into the Zoo’s Leadership Fellows program this summer, brave the super crowded book store, get shaved ice and Japanese rice dumplings,)
2:25 Walk back to car
2:40 Head home
3:10 Get home, grab stuff 12yo needs to attend a birthday party, take him to the birthday party
3:25 Come back home and then return to the party with some stuff for the 12yo, stay for the cutting of cake
4:00 Chat with husband about our plans for that night, play Two Dots while listening to La Chica del Lago
5:30 Communicate with 12yo about pick up, change
5:40 Leave to pick up 12yo
6:00 Home, finish changing
6:15 Leave with husband
6:20 Get on the SLOWEST bus in history
6:50 Sit down at ABV, order drinks and dinner
7:45 Walk over to the Roxie, watch Kurasawa double feature
10:00 Take Bart home
10:30 Get home, get kids into bed
11:15 Hang out with husband a little longer
12:00 Go to bed
9:30 Get out of bed, hang out upstairs, wake up 15yo, make kids breakfast, clean cat boxes
10:00 Start laundry
10:10 Vacuum upstairs
10:45 Move laundry to drier, hang up a bunch of stuff (I hang up all of our bras and workout clothes), putz around
11:20 Start making pancakes (listen to Star Splitter)
12:20 Finish first batch of pancakes, hang laundry (slacks + husband’s button down work shirts) make kids lunch
1:00 Start second (smaller) batch of pancakes (I make LOTS of pancakes and freeze most of them for the 12yo’s lunches)
1:45 Finish in kitchen, get changed, pack up for Dave & Buster’s visit with 12yo and a friend
2:10 Leave to pick up 12yo’s friend
2:35 Enter Dave & Busters
{Plan next week, work on my computer, write this post – still listening to Star Splitter!}
4:45 Leave D&Bs
5:10 Home (after dropping off 12yo’s friend), play Two Dots on couch with black cat on my lap.
6:30 Drive to pick up 15yo and her friends
6:55 Home
7:15 Eat dinner as a family, watch an episode of Monarch
7:45 Put in a load of laundry
8:35 Switch laundry, start 30 mins on elliptical
9:15 Start 30 minute Pilates
10:00 Get 12yo in bed, fold laundry
10:30 Shower, pjs
11:00 Work on yearbook
12:00 In bed
12:20 Lights out
You guys I might have broken my blog! Blerg. And there really could not be a worse time, the next month is going to be nuts. I’m going to see if I can publish this. Wish me luck!
3:05 Bell rings. Plug in computers and turn off TVs. Book it to the parking lot.
3:12 Pull out of the parking lot (I can either leave work by 3:10 or after 3:25, but if I leave during that 15 minute window it will take about 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot).
3:45 Park at 12yo’s school. Call husband and chat for 10 minutes.
4:05 12yo and friend get into car, we head to swimming.
4:17 Drop them at swimming, look for parking.
4:20 Park car. Call friend who is interested in a Chevy Bolt and wanted to talk about our experience with it.
4:40 Walk over to pool. Play Two Dots and read The Cut while I wait (I couldn’t bring myself to do work after my day of teaching four 85 minutes classes).
5:25 Swim is over, wait some more
6:00 Boys FINALLY come out of changing room!
6:20 Home after dropping off 12yo’s friend. Make kid dinner. Eat snack. Feed cats.
6:40 Eat with 15yo while we listen to the If Books Could Kill x Maintenance Phase Crossover (Peter Shamshiri and Aubrey Gordon together at last!)
7:45 Try to rally for a workout. Feeling tired and full.
8:20 Finally start my 45min Interval & Arms ride (Tunde, 4/05/26)
9:25 Finish workout (another brutal workout! And I got an output PR!) Check in upstairs, ask the 15yo to shower, so I can get in when I’m done with abs + stretching
9:30 Do 5 min ab routine + 5 min of stretching.
9:45 Shower, pjs
10:00 Check in upstairs. Help 12yo get into bed. Clean up around house.
10:30 Bedtime Prep.
11:00 Get into bed. Talk with husband for longer than either of us probably wanted.
11:30 To sleep!
3:05 Bell rings. Plug in computers. Sort papers. Make some copies.
3:43 Leave right before the high school across the street gets out. Listen to La chica del lago in the car. Talk to husband a bit too.
4:30 Arrive at mall to get One Piece cards for 12yo’s friend’s birthday tomorrow.
4:45 Procure said One Piece cards.
5:00 Resist temptations for shopping and food and head home.
5:20 Actually, fist stop at Grocery Outlet. Grab a couple things. Forget a couple things.
5:40 Home. Reheat pizza (Again! So much flatbread pizza left over from book club!). Watch part of Real Housewives of SLC ep with 15yo.
6:10 Feed cats, start making 15yo’s dinner.
6:22 Leave to pick up 12yo from dojo.
6:55 Find parking and go up to ask if I can not be there tomorrow (it’s a test and normally I would run warm ups, but my friend said she would do it for me)
7:05 On the way home with 12yo
7:30 Home (we stopped to get a treat on the way back), park my ass on the couch, don’t do much for a while
8:20 Start sorting laundry from all over the house
8:35 Finally put in a load of laundry. Fart around. Lie on the couch.
9:11 Wake up after dozing off! Switch laundry. Fold laundry while watching Summer House. Mess around but accomplish nothing (or not much).
10:15 Fold 2nd load of laundry. Hang out with family. Get 12yo into bed. Play with cat.
I’m really not sure what else happened between 10:15 and when I finally went to be sat midnight but I checked and it was exactly 12:02 when I put my phone down and closed my eyes.