What's up Wed-nes-day (October 2020)

What we're eating:  

I wish we were eating something fun or special. I'm not feeling motivated. I follow a particular food blog and I cannot fathom how someone cooks as much as this blogger does. It's just not something I love right now but do out of practicality, like most of the population. 

Last night, we had Coconut Lentil Curry Bowls, which is easy and tasty and I always have the ingredients for it. 

Over the weekend, I made this veggie chowder, which wasn't as good as it was last time so I'm not sure what went wrong. 

Otherwise, I have a tortilla soup pinned for this weekend. Tonight, I'm probably making stir-fry and maybe spaghetti/zoodles/meatballs tomorrow. 

Extremely boring. 

What I'm reminiscing about:

Baby Wells. A simpler time for all. 

What I'm loving:

Wells and all of his talking. Guys, it's so much easier to handle a toddler when they can actually talk. I wouldn't say he's a late talker but this kid has never done anything early. He's always done everything right on time. In fact, he was born technically a week early by one calculation, but if you go by the original due date I had, my water broke between midnight and one a.m. on his due date. Always on time. 

So he's communicating so much more and it's so much more enjoyable to get him to repeat and clarify instead of guess-and-cry, which has been the strategy of the last 27+ months.  

What we've been up to:

Not a lot? I mean, a lot, technically, but it got really cold, really fast, so Scott has been duck-hunting a lot and I've been home doing absolutely nothing on the weekends and I enjoy it. 

(If you have a recommendation for waterproof toddler gloves/mittens, send that my way. He won't wear gloves, so he doesn't have any. I usually stick of pair of mine on him and he rips them off.)

And this kind of brings me to the crux of my current mental state: I am so much happier when I'm working. It's funny because I don't *feel* like I have a full-time job because I don't have schoolwork to bring home, but I very much am working full-time. Usually, teachers work 24/7 if they allow themselves to, so this actually feels like a break. 

So I am working, Wells has a sitter for about 6 hours a day, and Scott keeps going back and forth from in-class to virtual to in-class to virtual based on their numbers of Covid cases and quarantine requirements. Some days he's home, some he isn't. 

Wells had his first visit to a military hospital last week to get a flu shot. They only give them at on-base facilities this year if you are under 6 or over 65. He did not take kindly to this experience. I took M&Ms to bribe him with and he wanted none of that. After it took 3 of us to hold him down for the shot, the receptionist gave him a lollipop. When I told my mom this, she asked if I actually let him have the lollipop. 

Yes. I did. Only because Scott was there and Scott will do anything to keep Wells from embarrassing us in public. Me, I don't care. Also, I am 1000% that parent who will not let their kid have candy and I don't even apologize for it. He's never had juice either and ice cream only a handful of times. He thinks "cookies" are only gingersnaps and "tea" is La Croix.  No regrets so far. 

What I'm working on:

Christmas gift lists. Keeping my Google calendar updated. It's what keeps me on track right now, since every week looks different. 

What I'm excited about:

Wearing my contacts again. It's been a long week or so. 

What I'm watching/reading:

I just finished The Vanishing Half. Right now I'm reading The Night Swim. Just got The Mall and Anxious People from the library. 

We're not really watching anything amazing because all TV is awful right now. We've been watching Tehran on Apple TV and it's interesting. Scott was watching Friday Night Lights for the first time, but I had trouble rewatching (for the 6th or 7th time). It's too different from how life is now. I can't relate. 

What I'm listening to:

I haven't really been watching The Bachelorette because it's too cringe-y. Maybe in a few weeks? But I am listening to podcasts about it over the weekends. Also, Ben Shapiro on my way home from work each day and usually something true crime in the evening when I'm cleaning everything up. 

What I'm wearing:

Again, it got really cold, really fast, so my motivation to stand outside for 16 seconds and take a picture is not there. 

This sweater is from Knox Rose last winter at Target and it's very pretty with some lace on the shoulders and and buttons on the side. You can't see that though because of my giant Alaska Eddie Bauer coat.

I have noticed that teachers here are not shy about pulling out the warm, long, down coats. In Pittsburgh and in Colorado Springs, I always got weird looks for wearing this. 

What I'm doing this weekend:

I have Friday off since I don't have parents to conference with, so it'll be a long weekend for me and I have a few projects I want to tackle. As for Halloween, we're not doing anything, but I will pull out my Thanksgiving decorations. 

What I'm looking forward to next month:

Christmas shopping? I don't know. What are we looking forward to these days, guys? Maybe finding out where we're moving next? Lots of question marks in this post because I do feel like we're living day-to-day at this point, still. Nothing new there :)