Friday joys

Learning the joy of the selfie stick

Art

Learning 

Tshirt selfie

My loves 

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (taking a cue from Coodence)

Yesterday:

• craziest storm I've seen here in NorCal. High winds and lots of rain. The main road to our house was closed due to a tree fall and electric wires down. Had a rough time getting home, trees down all over the place; took the long, dark way home. Felt lucky when we got there.
• electricity stayed on, which was very nice
• I couldn't watch Obama's speech, but I will try to watch it today. 
• we ate soup for dinner. Our fridge is pretty bare
• finished a book - I've read four books so far this month (one of my goals for this month)- two short Rosamunde Pilcher books, a book on saving money on groceries (another super short book) and Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover (my second time reading that book)
• Alex submitted his paper

Today

• trees still down and many roadways closed so we took a circuitous way to work today. One of the places where a tree fell last night had a significant erosion too. I'm thinking they are going to have to close our main road into work sometime soon to shore up that mountain.
• it was pouring rain, but now it is sunny. I saw a rainbow.
• we need to go to the grocery store after work today. I am hoping we leave early and there are no more storms
• I hope I can get my R script to run

Tomorrow

• is Thursday
• we have lab meeting
• I hope I have some figures for my paper

Appreciate

Sometimes it really takes something drastic to make you appreciate what you have. We were warned that this past weekend would have bad storms, so we planned nothing and decided to hunker down at the house and make the best of it. Saturday turned out that way. We played with toys, watched TV and just hung out all day. Sunday was looking to start that way, but the power went out. And pretty much stayed out all day. The day was fine, although a bit dark. We lit candles and played with toys and played games. D and Alex went for a walk and both fell in the mud. It was quiet. But it was also stressful. Without power, I couldn't cook and meal prep like I normally do on a Sunday. We couldn't take showers or baths, couldn't do laundry, couldn't even make coffee because I had to grind the beans. I was worried about the food in our fridge and freezer (I have some stuff stocked up) and we started a fire in the fireplace that continually blew smoke into our house (it was really windy and rainy that day). That night? No power. Dinner made on the grill and eaten by candlelight. Played with toys we could barely see. D was in bed by 7pm. I was in bed around 8:30. It was a weird night and should have been restful and peaceful, but I couldn't stop feeling stressed. D was upset his room was so dark and in fact, sleep talked a couple hours after he went to sleep about how dark it was in his room. I slept poorly. Didn't get up at my usual time. Felt completely out of sorts.
Monday morning, no power still. No coffee. No shower. We made it into work and thankfully got some coffee (and brought the contents of our fridge with us). Showered here. Started to feel more normal. I got a text that the power was back on around noon. Hallelujah!
We left a bit early last night, and got home a bit early. Ate our leftovers for dinner and delighted in watching some terrible cartoons. I did my yoga that I should have done that morning. I turned on heaters and lights. Read to D in his room and left a nightlight on. It was so lovely.
I woke up in the middle of the night, heard the heater turn off. Thought, oh no! The power is out again! But rolled over and went back to sleep. Woke up at my normal time. Did my yoga. Made dinner in the crock pot. Packed lunches. Normal morning. I feel good. Life is good. Appreciate what you have.

New Year, New Ideas

Last year was a rough one, for many, many reasons. I'm making 2017 better and here are a few ways I am doing that, in no particular order:

1) Declutter. I am unsubscribing from all emails that I get that I don't want. My inbox is still full, but more full of things I want to see instead of things I need to wade through. I'm working on our stuff, but that will take longer - probably the whole year. It's a process and I am going to enjoy it

2) Be kind. I smile at people I don't know. I joke with people serving me. I look people in the eye. I thank people for their help. I ask for help. People are not scary, as much as social media wants you to think they are. I need people. I like people. This also includes being kind to myself, and accepting myself for who I am and where I am right here and right now. We can all use a little more kindness in this world

3) Notice. Am I stressed? Am I tired? Happy? Sad? Grateful? Where am I right now and why? Much easier to notice and acknowledge my feelings.

4) Less. Less TV. Less shopping. Less social media. Less stuff. Less judgement.

5) More. More books. More goals and priorities. More love. More time spent with family and friends. More music. More dancing. More family fun time.

6) Budget. I've just realized my biggest obstacle to budgeting has been that I don't do it! I would track our spending over and over again - months and months, but I could never figure out why we weren't sticking to the budget. Now, I've realized that if I want to keep our spending down, I need to use some extra tools, like putting up some of our budget on the fridge so I can track how much we spend on food and household items. And trying to make one big trip to the store every two weeks instead of every week. And meal planning. And using the things in our freezer and cabinet. I've already seen this make a huge difference in our lives, so I am looking forward to making this a habit.

What are you doing this year?

D's current favorite story

Once upon a time there was a big, big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big,big, dinosaur and he was eating something.
He ate <insert current favorite character - could be Rescue Bots, or people, or an animal>
This character fell into the dino's tummy.
Something happens and the character (or someone helping the character, like Optimus Prime) makes the dino barf and the character come out of the dino and take a shower.

Wknd pics

Lab decor

Pretty

Goofing 

Pony

Frost brrrrrrr

Not afraid of heights 

Roller coaster

Lemur by the heater

Not afraid of Dino anymore 

Red panda

Lemur feeding time

Foosa 

Cold watching Rescue Bots

Weekend Wrap-up, bullet point style

• Friday night, we headed to a party at a friends' house. It was mostly adults, but my kid played with their super cool Lego Star Wars stuff and we had a really nice time
• Saturday, it rained. And rained. And rained. And rained. All day. It never stopped. I left the house once to get the mail and buy some milk at the market down the street. Other than that, it was a movie and chill day. We watched Dory - a super cute movie that D got for his birthday. We all loved it. My favorite part? The driving octopus. You should watch this movie. It's so good!
• Sunday, D and I stayed home while Alex went to work and ran some errands. We watched a lot of Rescue Bots and I tried to clean up the house, with little success. D wouldn't nap, wouldn't eat, wined and refused to do much. In the afternoon, we went over to some friend's house to have a playdate. They live in this super nice, super lovely gigantic house. Dad's a doctor - guess I know what occupation I should have gone into :)
• The kids had a good time, we had pizza for dinner and just enjoyed being around adults. It was super nice and I hope they invite us back again :)
• This morning, wouldn't you know it? My son woke up with the cold Alex had last week. And with Alex not yet completely better, and D whining about being sick - man was this a rough morning. I am hoping some coffee and good music will set it back on track...
• I'm usually not glad to be at work on Monday, but today ....
• Have a good one, folks!