Busy Things and Thoughts, plus Meal Plan

So, I've been away from the blog for a bit, as you can see... for several reasons.  The first is that the end of May is always a busy time for me, work-wise, with preparations for student recital... and it was even MORE busy this year because it all had to be done by video.  Let me just say that video editing is time-consuming, tedious stuff.  Luckily the SpaceX launch was happening as I finished my video work last Saturday so I put my feet up with an iced coffee and enjoyed watching while the girls built some new Star Wars legos that L got for her birthday.

All the work was worth it, however... the final videos came out great!  My "big kids" ensemble got a share to the school's Facebook page:

The second reason I've been quiet here is because the news of our world has been energy-sapping and depressing, has it not?  Posting about a meal plan here seems a little mundane with everything that's been happening this week.  It has kind of shaken my whole worldview, to be honest, and I'm doing a lot of thinking about how to move forward, both for myself and in the way I raise my children.  Maybe I'll be able to put some of that into words here soon... but I'm also feeling that real-world, practical action is more important than spouting off on the internet, at this point in time.

The third reason I've been too busy for blogging was getting together a birthday parade for our BIG ten-year-old!

In the style of socially-distanced birthdays across the country right now, we invited all of her friends to drive by and honk their horns.  She had about ten cars in her parade and couldn't have been more thrilled!

Her friends are just the sweetest-- we saw banners, balloons, noisemakers, birthday posters, and even pool noodles waving through a sunroof!  So much fun.

Afterwards we held a Zoom meeting and everyone attending sang to L and watched her blow out candles on an absolutely beautiful and delicious ice cream cake that we ordered from a nearby ice cream store.

As you can see in the above picture, her presents this year were ALL Star Wars Legos-- she had been wanting this Freemaker set for almost a year so she was pretty psyched that it was delivered ON her birthday.  She played with it all afternoon!

Now that the birthday excitement has died down, I'm setting about the work of planning my summer schedule for teaching, recruiting a few new students, and updating my website.  Never any rest for the weary, really.  But... all good things.

For the sake of our family's (read: my husband's) convenience, I'm going to post our meal plan here.  Thankfully, Peapod has resumed online ordering so I was able to do a grocery pickup this week rather than having to go to the store.  In the midst of the birthday preparations and all the usual remote schoolwork, video class meetings for the girls, and Zoom dance classes to manage... it was really helpful not to have to go to the store.

Again this plan is for two weeks, so we'll repeat it starting next Wednesday.

Suppers

Wednesday-- mac and cheese for L's birthday, strawberries, salad

Thursday-- monterey beans

Friday-- homemade pizza

Saturday-- leftovers

Sunday-- broccoli quinoa casserole

Monday-- sub night, strawberries

Tuesday-- quinoa/lentil tacos

Lunches

bagels

sandwiches (pbj, sbj, sub leftovers)

salads, smoothies, shakes

canned soups

Breakfasts

homemade pancakes or waffles

crockpot steel cut oats

eggs

cereal/granola

oatmeal

Snacks

hippeas

snap peas

made good bars

chips and salsa

oyster crackers and cheese

fresh fruit: strawberries, apples, clementines, grapefruit, pineapple

fresh veggies: cucumbers, carrots, peppers

peach/pear cups

applesauce

baked good

My workouts have been continuing in much the same fashion; I won't take the time to recap them now.  I will say, however, that my running buddy and I have been increasing our distance on the weekends, so that these past two weekends our long runs were 12.5 and 12.8 miles, respectively.  So we have pretty much worked up to half marathon distance without even trying, which is pretty cool!  We have agreed we will probably run the 13.1 next weekend just to say we did it.  M is currently doing a marathon training plan, because without the ability to travel this summer we've got the time, and he's always wanted to do it.  Races are all cancelled for the foreseeable future, obviously, but we can still run a "race" by ourselves or with a few friends.  It's a nice side benefit to quarantine that we have the extra time to spend on a sport we both love!  The mental health benefits have been vital for me, during a time with so many anxieties.

So, that's all for now.  Hugs and love to all my readers... I hope you are finding peace in these tumultuous days.  See you soon <3