A Blog for Blogging @ablogforblogging - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Isla had her hair appointment today. The stylist talked her out of bangs; which tbh is a relief. She didn’t take as much length off as I wanted but Isla didn’t want much taken off. It looks cute and now I don’t have to worry about her inevitably trying to grow out bangs.

Stopped at the antique store before we went grocery shopping and found this absolute nightmare fuel:

No idea how much it cost because I was afraid to touch it lest it steal my soul.

I’m taking the girls to Hilton Head for a girls weekend with my mom, aunt, sister and nieces (plus my pap because he can’t be left home alone for multiple days). I really need to get things ready today but I feel like I cannot get ahead enough on regular things (laundry, dishes, feeding the kids, etc) to get anything done. We might just lean into screen time today so I can finish laundry, clean the car and pack.

My husband is staying home so he’s going to get started on the bathroom demo. Fingers crossed we don’t find anything too bad once the shower comes out. Mostly worried the downstairs ceiling drywall under the shower will need replaced due to mold- we have textured ceilings (not popcorn but something harder to replicate) so replacing any ceiling drywall is a pain because it’s hard to match the texture pattern to the surrounding area (we should have had all this sanded down before we ever moved in but at this point the hassle of removing it throughout the whole house doesn’t seem worth it). I’ve narrowed down some options for the bathrooms but haven’t decided on anything yet. Kind of overwhelmed by all the options. We’re replacing literally everything except the toilet so it’s a lot. I think I at least know which vanity we want, now I just need to wait for it to go on sale (it was $550 on sale last week but we weren’t ready to decide, now it’s on a different sale but is like $800 so that’s annoying).

I swear I cannot leave the house without spending $150+ anymore. Isla had her eye exam today and then we had to hit up Walmart and Publix. Spent close to $300 in the span of 2 hours 🥴

We did get super soft matching pj sweatshirts on clearance for $1 a piece so at least there’s that.

Day 1 of the first full week of summer break is off to a good start. It's "Make it Monday" meaning we do some crafts and bake/meal prep some stuff. So far today we've made Starbucks copycat egg bites, mini muffins and cheese crisps (literally just shredding and baking Asiago cheese but it's a good easy snack). Breakfast and lunch were pre-planned so there was no fussing about what to eat. Both kids have "task charts" for morning/night routines so I'm not having to repeat "go brush your teeth" 500 times. Isla has a daily chore (today is emptying the dishwasher) and she's already done that (and now I don't have to empty the dishwasher!). We have to run to Publix after Ava's nap and then they can do some crafts.

I ramped up my reading (listening) this month and really liked all of these except I Who Have Never Known Men. I just didn’t get the hype, it was well written but it was lacking plot and the only way it “stuck with me” like everyone else said was that I wished it’d actually done something because the premise was interesting.

But I really loved Yesteryear and the Correspondent. This Story May Save Your Life was good, nothing mind blowing but a quick fun listen. Seeking Shelter is kind of a niche one but I love narrative non fiction about social issues so I found it interesting (and also depressing).

Obviously the bathroom is the priority but now I’m kind of convinced we should put a stock tank pool in the backyard…

#because of our septic drain field we don’t really have a good spot to put an above ground or in ground pool #not to mention I don’t want to spend $$$ or do a lot of upkeep #but a little pool to splash/soak in would be nice

Excuse the AI but I really couldn’t visualize anything without its help (and this is just about the only thing it’s good for, imo). I think this is basically what I want to do in their bathroom. Except a lighter shade of pink and probably no board and batten on the left side (in my head it’s weird to have the board and batten at two different heights which is why I only planned it for the right side; in the photo I think it looks fine but idk). I found the shower curtain a long time ago online and have wanted to use it in this bathroom so that’s kind of what everything is based around.

Now I just need to research showers combos and actually pricing everything out.

The girls’ bathroom shower leaked again this morning while I was showering. This is like the 3rd time over the last few years and each time my husband has fixed it but at this point I think we’re just going to remodel the bathroom because obviously something keeps failing. I’ve been wanting to remodel that bathroom for a long time so it’s a good excuse. It’s small, just a shower/tub combo and single vanity, plus a linen closet. But we’ll probably rip out/replace the tile floors, replace the vanity (it’s super outdated, they don’t even mass produce the type of hinges the cabinets use anymore), replace the tub/shower and paint. I expect we’ll find water damage and maybe some mold so we’ll probably have to replace some of the framing and remediate the mold (I think we can do that ourselves unless it’s bad bad). If we do a shower/tub insert we’ll install that ourselves. If we do a tub insert + tile we’d probably pay someone to do the tile since I’m not confident in our ability to do that perfectly.

So now we’re going to go to Lowe’s and price out/look at options.

We spent so long at Target and 5 Below (and Petsmart so Ava could use their bathrooms, then they wanted to look at the animals) that we had to skip grocery shopping to get Ava home for a nap. Everyone and their grandma (literally in many cases) seemed to be out today- toy department was filled with kids, I guess everyone had the same idea to let them celebrate the end of the school year with stuff. There weren’t any Nee Dohs to be found but we did spend way too much money on other stuff.

New microwave is here and my husband installed it so that’s back to normal. We’re finally a white appliance free household, how bougie (garage freeze doesn’t count).

My husband just left to run and errand with Isla and Ava is napping so I’m going to watch Dexter Resurrection while there’s no chance of accidentally traumatizing anyone.

Isla has requested to spend the first day of summer “Nee Doh hunting”. Which I guess just entails driving all over town trying to buy these squishies. I’m going to indulge her but we’ve had some of the Nee Dohs for years so I don’t get why suddenly these are a hot sold out toy that people are running all over to track down.

While we’re doing that I’m also going to try to find another motivator to get Ava to go poop in the toilet. She hasn’t had any accidents in a while but she’s definitely holding it as long as she can and then she just uses her pull up (which she gets at night and nap time). We have 2 months before preschool starts and I think she’ll be fine (it’s only for a few hours 2 days a week) but it’s still stressing me out having a deadline and this being a WIP.

My in laws usually visit in the spring and my husband hadn't mentioned anything about it this year at all so I figured they weren't visiting this year. But he just asked if it'd work for his mom to visit over the 4th of July 😩. I know my MIL isn't that bad (she's at least sane and generally not outwardly bitchy) but the vibes when they're here truly stress me out. Coming from a family that talks non stop when we get together, the lack of ease of conversation around his just drives me insane.

Also between this, Hilton Head next weekend, my husband and Isla going camping later in June, sometime in Charleston to see my family and a possible trip to Pittsburgh for my cousin's baby shower right before school goes back, I feel like our laid back summer is actually pretty scheduled out already.

On a roll this morning. Rescheduled my dentist appointment, made Isla an eye doctor appointment (current eye doctor sucks and the last 2 times we’ve gone we haven’t gotten a prescription because she’s said her eyes are too dry??), called to get the info I need to pay Ava’s preschool supply fee + email her immunization record and I’m not making Isla a hair appointment (mercifully they have online booking) because she wants to cut off some of the length (it’s all the way down her back and wayyy too much for her to manage so I’m 100% for this) and get bangs (this makes me a little nervous 😬).

Ava is watching Frog and Toad (much like Puffjn Rock I think this is wholesome enough not to even count as screen time) and I’m giving myself 5 minutes to play on my phone and then I’m going to shower so we can run to Publix. If I’m lucky the universe will reward me for my productivity and they’ll have Stok Slightly Sweetened in stock because the last 2 times I’ve gone to buy it it’s been out of stock and I’ve been surviving off less than ideal substitutes and I really just want a perfect cold brew right now.

My dad is apparently in the US currently, renting a beach house a few hours away (near my brother's house) with his wife, wife's son and the son's girlfriend.

Meanwhile my mom goes back to work tomorrow after her double mastectomy and has an $8k attorney bill she needs to pay before she can do anything else with the alimony stuff. So she either pays it and continues to throw money at the situation with no guarantee of the outcome or she drops it and has wasted $8k for nothing, no longer gets alimony and maybe also has to pay his attorney's fees (he had the audacity to ask the court to make her pay his alimony fees even though he's the one trying to resettle something he agreed to 14 years ago- even if his claims that he can't pay due to his medical issues were true, how is that her fault or her problem??).

I'm just so angry at the unfairness of it all. My mom is legitimately a good person. She always put us kids first (including my dad's kids from his first marriage, when it was his weekends but he wasn't around), has worked her ass off her entire life (ie, getting a 2nd job doing the census in the worst St. Louis neighborhoods so she could afford a new car because my dad refused to put money towards it- he then eventually took over that car and ran it into the ground), and has been nicer to my dad post-divorce than he ever deserved but I feel like she's gotten a raw deal. Meanwhile he has literally treated almost everyone in his life like garbage, has done stuff that should have wrecked his career, has been a liar and a cheater and a narcissist since forever but gets to live a comfortable life that he frankly doesn't deserve. At this point I truly think I actually hate him.

And I know the standard advice is to ignore him, move on, etc. but I just can't get past how unfair it is. I honestly want to wreck his entire life and I know that's not healthy but it is what it is. Once the court stuff is done I think I'm going to write a very long, very scathing letter letting him know exactly how I feel about everything (and send a copy to his wife as well) and then maybe I'll be able to close the door on him entirely.

I told Isla she could set a timer on the microwave for something she was doing. I said “hit the button that says timer”. Instead she ran the microwave for 10 minutes with nothing in it and eventually it overheated and won’t turn back on and it’s still super hot to the touch. I’m pretty sure it’s now toast 🙃

Not the biggest deal since it’s long overdue for replacement (it’s the only appliance original to when we bought the house 10 years ago) but also not something I planned on dealing with today. At least we’ll be able to get a Memorial Day deal I guess.

Ava barely ate anything all day, was fussy for 75% of the day (except, miraculously, during Isla's award ceremony), fell asleep for nap before I could even leave the room and then while watching a movie asked me to go to bed a full hour before her normal bedtime. So I have a feeling she's sick and this is going to be a long weekend (it's also supposed to rain all weekend and beyond + Isla has a GS thing on Sunday).

Also just now realizing that, because Ava was in a bad mood, we forgot to go to the library and return a bunch of books so now I'm going to owe fines and have to go return them tomorrow.

Isla has 5 more days left of school (2 are half days). I’m trying to get super organized/Type A because that’s the only way my ADHD procrastinating self can make sure we don’t just end up slowly descending into chaos.

So we’ll be meal planning all 3 meals instead of just dinner, using checklists for daily tasks, and roughly scheduling our fun in advance (obviously not going to be super rigid about it but I think we’ll actually do more if we schedule out splash pad days and craft days and movie nights than if we just play it by ear). We just need some sort of plan/routine before everyone goes crazy.

It’s a cruel joke of the universe that the inside of the car at 2 pm in the school pickup line is like the perfect nap environment and yet I must stay awake.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

A Blog for Blogging