tuesday thoughts

do you ever have plenty of things you could write about, but not really enough to put together a coherent & interesting blog post?

or several pictures that are really fun, but not related to each other or your writing in any way?

i'm sure this doesn't happen to anyone else... : )

well, it happens to me, and i'm going to do something about it.

i hereby proclaim that thoroughly random & unconnected thoughts are okay on tuesdays...

there. it's settled.

so here are my tuesday thoughts:

matt has a follow-up appointment with his oncologist today. he has already been declared 'cancer free' after his last CT scan, but he will continue to do bloodwork every 3-6 months & CT's annually for several years. i'm not really nervous about today's appointment- it seems highly improbable that his type of cancer (testicular) will return after such aggressive treatment. still... i'm not completely relaxed. cancer and chemo really suck. ALOT.

my children are eating fruit & muffins for breakfast. me? cookies & coffee. double standard, i know.

i'm also training for the STL half-marathon in April. it's going well so far. i run in the mornings before everyone gets up, which is very cold. but it's also peaceful & gives me a headstart on my day, which is nice. days like today, when i don't run because matt leaves home at 6:00, i feel less motivated. more rested, for sure- but less productive.

speaking of productive... i have been following Flylady's program for about 6 weeks now (flylady.net). if you have never checked it out, i highly recommend it! to be brief, she has simplified my routines & helped me feel like i am caring for my home & family well without cleaning & folding laundry 24-7! (i'm really bad about folding laundry...)

i have established morning & evening routines, a weekly routine, and a manageable meal plan. i love her almost as much as my Swiffer vacuum & my magic eraser... almost!

my new favorite home cleaning tool is my shark steam mop. it's so easy to use & makes mopping a much easier, quicker job! i also like that it doesn't use any chemical or product- just water. my floors get as dirty as ever (2 kids, 1 dog, 1 cat, lots of friends & their kids...), but it's a simple task to clean them again. no buckets, no rinsing, no puddles. love it!

my last staff meeting as nursery director for my church was yesterday... bittersweet, but i'm really excited for our new director & the talent, experience & creativity she brings to this ministry. i'm probably going to write more about this another time... no promises, though! : )

we had our first parent-teacher conference at caroline's school last week. i didn't think much about it, but matt was apparently pretty nervous! he was something of a 'discipline problem' in grade school, so P-T conferences were not happy occasions. caroline is just in preschool, and she has another year of pre-k before she begins kindergarten.

so in the next months, we will be working on a few things with her:

hand strength for holding pencils, crayons, etc.

drawing/writing

cutting with scissors

interacting with others in social situations

no huge red flags, but she is pretty uncomfortable in group settings & tends to do her own thing. this could make school more difficult for her, so we want to help her to relax & join in the playtime & engage in conversations. as for the pencils & crayons... well, i am 31 & have the same problem (poor hand grip, not low muscle tone). i hope to help her so she doesn't have a funky grip & bad handwriting all her life! : )

julia will be starting 'parents day out' in the fall, and i'm SO excited! mostly for me- 2 mornings a week with both girls in school!! but also for her- she is so social & loves playing with other kids. i know she'll love being in school! she is kind of the opposite of caroline- more social, more physically coordinated, less verbal, less book-oriented. she's also into EVERYTHING- can't keep her off the tables or out of drawers. she's a child-proofing nightmare, but she's so cute!

we drilled a hole into the drainage pipe for our master bathroom. i don't recommend doing that, by the way. messy.

(no, not on purpose- we were hanging a towel ring).

we also (and by we, i mean matt) added shelves to our pantry, hung a new light fixture upstairs and painted the dining room chandelier. the upstairs fixture caught on fire, but it wasn't matt's fault. and it was not the first time that particular fixture ignited. but i like it- fire is a small problem compared with how cute the light is! i'll add pictures soon. spray painting the dining room chandelier turned out decently well. turns out the moving parts don't stay painted, but it just looks shabby chic.

pictures soon- i promise.

now for the random photos with no stories to go with them:

there you go... those are my tuesday thoughts.

have a good day!