I'm sick and I can't concentrate...

...so I'm coming over here to do some stream-of-consciousness blogging.  There are many many things I could and maybe should be doing, but when you feel like your head is underwater and your lungs are on fire, it's a bit hard to focus.  Maybe I'll be able to focus on blogging.  Maybe not.  Excuse any rambling or incoherence.

Yes, that's right, I am sick with my second bad cold of the winter.  The last one was back in December.  But I managed to escape Flu A when the rest of my family had it, so that's something!  The trouble is that these colds have both timed themselves to align with my heaviest teaching days.  I told myself I'd decide by 3:30 today whether to cancel my 5 PM lesson.  It's on Zoom but blowing my nose every 5 minutes and coughing a lot is never attractive.  And... as I already mentioned... concentration is an issue.  The trouble with being a freelance private lesson teacher, however, is... any time off is unpaid.  So it makes the decision to call out sick that much more complicated.  Wish me luck with that. lol.

Life lately has been a constant state of not knowing whether our (extremely busy) weekend schedules will be disrupted by massive snowstorms.  Two weekends in a row, the meteorologists have started off the week predicting close to a foot of snow over the weekend, and then by Friday of the weekend in question, the forecast has downgraded.  I know these have been tricky storms to predict, but it hasn't been fun to have to come up with a plan A plan B plan C and spend a lot of time and worry over it, and then have everything be okay after all.  I know, I know, #firstworldproblems but I just feel old and tired of it all.  Haha.

(Here's M posing with his shovel after clearing the 3-4 inches we did end up getting.  We thought we would escape this after moving down to the mid-Atlantic from New England???)

So, as of right now, our upcoming weekend will consist of N and M jetting off to Virginia for a college dance audition, and then racing straight back to Delaware before the snow begins Saturday night.  I'll be driving L 1.5 hours upstate to her orchestra rehearsal in a van borrowed from my parents since our car is in the shop, picking up a new shelf for C's bedroom at Ikea while I'm in the neighborhood, and then racing back home before the snow starts.  J and C will possibly be attending chess club at the library while I'm gone if Grandma and Grandpa are available to take them... J's latest obsession is chess, isn't that the best?

Another latest obsession: Hogwarts Legacy.  I have not played it, but the girls purchased it for the Switch with their own money and have really been enjoying.  It has inspired them all to re-read some of the books, too, so that's a win!

We have taken to having the Hogwarts Legacy ambience videos on while completing our homeschool.  Not such a bad way to spend our shut-in winter hours.

Another obsession of mine lately: Reeses cauliflower oatmeal.

I've already mentioned jumping on the cauliflower oatmeal bandwagon and this one is just a variation on that same recipe.  It's cauliflower, soy milk, oatmeal, PB2 powder, and a scoop or two of either powdered almond butter or pea protein.  I think the creation pictured above also had a little quinoa thrown in.  Then I throw a ripe banana in the blender with a tablespoon of cocoa powder and blitz it up to make a chocolate sauce.  Very yummy.  As you can see I enjoyed this one while driving the girls somewhere, which seems to be my typical MO these days.  Lol.

And a not-so-healthy obsession-- these coffee creamers from Aldi:

When you can buy an entire container of flavored coffee creamer for less than the price of a Starbucks latte, and make probably about 15-20 fancy coffee drinks at home that rival Starbucks in flavor, the temptation is great.  3/4 of my children have inherited my obsession for iced coffee, so one of these doesn't last as long as it used to, but still worth every penny.  I highly recommend the flavor pictured above-- iced sugar cookie.  Divine when you need that afternoon pick-me-up to get you through a long afternoon of teaching or homeschool.

Just don't look at the ingredients list-- or keep yourself in denial about the fact that it's a pretty terrible list of highly processed ingredients and nary a drop of actual milk.  But we make our own whipped cream instead of using the stuff from the can, so at least it's just the creamer that's terrible.  Hopefully my cauliflower oatmeal the next morning makes up for it.  Wink wink.

Well, it's almost 3:30, so I suppose I should put my brain on the topic of teaching this evening.  I'll leave you with a picture of N at her first dance comp last weekend with a new studio this year!  It's going so well for her after some struggles and adjustments in our new location.  I couldn't be more happy for her and proud!!

Hope that you are all healthy, and staying safe in the weather if it's snowing near you!  See you next time.