Change of Plans

Due to a sick child (not my own, fortunately) today's visit by L's aunt and grandmother has been canceled.

I feel like my day has just opened up tremendously.

L wants to go to Chili's for lunch. I'd hate to disappoint him, so I suppose he'll just have to drag us along. ;)

I'm sure that will mean he won't be up for lasagna for dinner. I'm beginning to think that this lasagna is destined to not ever happen. Although I guess if I have the energy to make it, I could then just stash it in the fridge to bake tomorrow. That would probaby work pretty well, just depending on if I can get to it today. Because despite it being a holiday, L will be working.

Dinnertime Scramble

I've got potato cheese soup cooking for dinner, but it's not looking or tasting right, so I'm not sure if we'll be eating it or scrambling for something else instead.

It's been a rough stretch recently for dinners - unsuccessful new recipes and uninspired meals scrounged up when I haven't had a plan at all.

Lasagna would have been good, I'm pretty sure anyway, I just never managed to fix it because the baby wasn't letting me put him down long enough to make it. I'm hoping to try tomorrow since L has the day off and should be able to wrangle his son.

The only reason I'm not sure it will happen is because L's grandmother and aunt are both coming over to see the baby and may make it so I can't get to the lasagna. You'd think it'd be easier with them around (and it should), but I'll probably have to visit with them. (These crazy extraverts who otherwise get their feelings hurt if I'm trying to hide in the kitchen.)

I'll guess I'll just see what happens...

Turning into a Stereotype

G and I had quite the outing today. I took him in to my old workplace to show him off. He was so good throughout his time being handed from one person to the next. Then we went to lunch together - he fell asleep during the drive so I went through the drive-thru and then ate my sandwich in the truck so I wouldn't disturb him by moving him. After I finished I went to Trader Joe's and read in the parking lot until he woke up (I was trying to avoid him having too short of a nap leading to extreme crankiness later in the day.) We made a semi-quick trip through the store once he was awake, then it was back home.

He's fallen asleep again now, I think all the excitement did wear him out. And I need to see about getting some more accomplished with my day. Like perhaps paying bills and laundry and wonderful things like that.

So Successful

At this blogging every day thing I mean. I lasted less than a week. Gah.

So it's Sunday and that means FOOTBALL. In addition to watching the Colts play, I plan to make lasagna and tollhouse pie. Yummm. We'll see how that goes because the baby does not always cooperate with my plans. He's snoozing now, which gives me the chance to get a post up and then get myself some lunch.

Thanksgiving

It's only three weeks away. I repeat, it's only. three. weeks. away.

How is this possible?

I'm kind of freaking myself out with thoughts of what I'd like to accomplish before the end of the year. I think I need to rein myself in a bit, even if I'd like to go for it all. (sound familiar?)

I should probably start with a list of absolute, must do's, then expand from there into would like to do's.

New Door!

Our new garage door is in and looks great! We've got a new motor, keypad, trim etc. Much better than the old one with the huge crack and large hole in it, as well as a motor that needed lots of encouragement when the temperatures dipped. It should make it much warmer too this winter - the new door has significantly more insulation than the old one (something like a 10 versus a 3 I think it was).

Happily, they even had one available in a good color that coordinates with the house already and doesn't seem to need to be painted. I say "seem to" because it might be a little too glossy and end up looking odd, but it'll make it through the winter and in the spring we'll reevaluate it and may paint it if it'll look better with a flatter finish.

Baby Stuff

How do I balance enjoying the baby & all of that with also documenting/preserving memories? I thought of a story about him today that I should blog. Of course right at that moment I was in the midst of feeding him, so I couldn't write it down. Now, I have no idea what it was.

I don't want to forget his babyhood, but I also want to enjoy it while it's happening and not ignore him to write things down or photograph him etc.

Things I Haven't Been Doing Lately

• Posting the books I've read. I've read them, just haven't updated my widget or posted the monthly lists.
  
  
• The exercises my physical therapist gave me. And my back and wrist are letting me know I've been neglecting them.
  
  
• Sending those last few thank you notes. They're not really that late; I got a couple of gift cards in the mail in the last month, so it's not like they're from before G was born. But still, I need to get them written.
  
  
• Walking with G. The weather is beautiful right now, but it seems like I only think about it when he's sleeping or about to go to sleep. Such as right now, he's napping but I'm ready to go.
  
  
• Driving my car. Our garage door is broken, and the car is trapped behind the non-working door. At least the truck was outside when the door broke so we can use it.
  
  
• Stopping by my former place of employment to show off the baby. This I blame on L who has had doctor's appointments every morning since our return due to his back. He's got the truck, so I can't go anywhere, and by the time he gets back it's been too late for me to leave. However! We're getting our garage door replaced on Wednesday so we will now be able to get the car out of the garage so we can both go to different places at the same time. Amazing how that will work.
  
  
• Returning a few phone calls. No good reason other than by the time they'd be home from work, I'm tired and not up for talking, and they're going to want more than a five-minute conversation. I think I need to try and reach them on a weekend.

The above may make me seem like a huge slacker. Not true, I've been busy and have gotten lots of other stuff done, some items even that had been waiting awhile. I just still have more before I feel caught-up from, oh, last fall.

NaBlPoMo, Again

I did it in 2007 (more or less, but the effort was there). So I'm trying again.

And this counts as a post, as far as I'm concerned. I spent the day baking and cooking and cleaning. Oh, and taking care of a almost-four-month-old. Now it's late & my bed is calling me...

Time Management

During a discussion at lunch today, I came to a sad realization. I can't do it all. Earth-shattering, I know.

I want to be able to do more. But it really hit me this afternoon that no matter how much I want it, I can't manage to do everything I'd like. I'm not sure why I'm having such a hard time accepting this, but there you have it.

Outside of the "have-to's" that I'd be happy not doing (house cleaning, grocery shopping, bill paying, etc.) there are four big areas where I choose to spend my time: pleasure reading, baking, blogging, and watching tv. I can do two of them easily. I can generally manage three of them when things aren't completely crazy on the home front (say, with a new baby or a husband disabled by a bad back and unable to do ANYTHING. It's been exhausting.) All four just doesn't happen.

My preference would be to drop tv. Other than Colts games and Top Chef I could skip it all and not miss it. But L really prefers me to watch some with him in the evenings, and so I do. This month it's pretty obviously been blogging that's been ignored. Actually, it's been baking too but that's due to L's injury requiring so much more time from me.

I'm debating how to handle it. So far I'm leaning towards lumping reading & blogging and alternating them; one day I do one and then next day the other. Or more likely, two days reading, one day blogging. That should hopefully keep my reading needs satisfied and still keep me writing (because I don't want to stop).

What I really need to do is stop the aimless internet surfing which I find myself doing at times. Why do I do that?