37 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer on the Wall...

It's February 29th! My very favorite month gets an extra day and I'm celebrating by sending Claire off very early to go run the Cowtown 5K with friends and wearing jammies and going through pictures and shopping lists. I've done my Crest Whitestrips, scheduled my car care appointment for Monday, and entered my new skin treatment plan into my calendar after an hour-long consult with Orange Twist yesterday. It's a good Saturday morning.

Not me

But going back to why February is my favorite month, besides it's short! everyone is ready for a party and candy again! it has my birthday AND Valentine's Day! we'll look at photos from the actual day I turned 37.

As predicted, it began with Maggie in a party hat. Unfortunately, she couldn't turn away from me and her deafness meant she was hard to redirect. A for effort for everyone!

I wore a new shirt and earrings my mom treated me to during our birthday shopping trip and I just love them. Even if it was technically too cold outside to be wearing a thin and breezy shirt.

As part of our family traditions, James and I decorate the kitchen table for the kids' birthdays. It's simple, involving table cloths and decor we already own and keep stored in a little dresser in the living room, and we do it before we go to bed at night so the kids wake up to it in the morning, but everyone GREATLY looks forward to walking out to the living room on their birthday morning.

This year, the girls woke up early and did the same for me. They put out a table cloth, hung hand-made signs, and pulled out some party decor. It was the very cutest and I love that they're all getting old enough to turn traditions back around on us. Everyone headed off to school and work where I was in trainings and on calls for most of the day. I got to have a delicious lunch with coworkers, including one whose birthday is exactly one day before mine, so we celebrate together and give everyone the excuse to spend more on lunch than normal. I taught barre on my way home, because it seemed like a good day to keep the calorie burn high, but then the lights went out in the gym the last 10 minutes of class, so I took that as a sign from the gods that I actually shouldn't try to burn calories on my birthday. Noted.

I evacuated the room, using cell phone flash lights to put away our equipment and headed home. To a table with gifts from James and a plan to make tacos and take delicate sips of my birthday Ranch Water (silver tequila, lime, Topo Chico). Luckily, I had just the glass for it thanks to a gift from a friend a few years ago. It sits patiently in the cabinet all year just for this moment.

We opened presents before dinner. James and the kids picked me out a beautiful beach cover up for our trip (which I actually returned because I had just bought one that was similar, but it was beautiful!) and a Kendra Scott necklace in my favorite color- sparkly burnt orange, which I love. The kids, who of course all went with him for the shopping because he hates to run errands alone, told me he agonized over the necklace selection, which is also completely on brand.

Love him.

And so it was a lovely Tuesday. The rest of the week was work, dental appointments (me), lots of swimming (not me), and a night out with my mamas on Thursday. This weekend James is at a swim meet in College Station, making this maybe the first whole weekend I've ever been on my own with the kids? We're commemorating it by eating foods James doesn't like, like nachos (with Velveeta processed cheese for "REAL fake" queso cheese, as Landon calls it) for dinner, and trying not to stay up too late. It's hard when our enforcer of bedtimes is missing.

Also this week, Cora interviewed my mom to ask about "growing up before cell phones and other personal electronics." It was adorable and she drew a picture of her Gigi playing tag. (Gigi is the blonde girl in the purple dress; importantly, everyone has a belly button.)

Gigi grew up all over the world on various Air Force bases, so even though TV did exist (Landon), they usually didn't have one, so outside play and reading were the dominant activities. Other than the lack of Kindles for road trips, Cora found this very familiar and delightful and liked that her Gigi played tag and hide-and-go-seek just like her!

At school pick up on Friday, I got to see a little bit more of Cora's art. Kindergarten art is just the best and Cora takes it all VERY SERIOUSLY.

"When I am 100 years old I will have a cat and dog and I will be happy."

A worthy goal for us all.

In other news, our President, who gutted CDC and other public health funding, is declaring an actual virus to be a hoax and silencing health experts from speaking to the public, requiring all statements to run through the Vice President's office, a man who doesn't believe in science, so that's all fine. I'm not so much concerned about the virus itself as we're blessed with relative youth and strong immune systems, but I'm unnerved by the fact that for the first time, I simply don't trust anything the White House says. Trump's press office has just been a spin room of lies since day 1 and things like truth and facts seem to have no value there. And, to the frustration of worldwide epidemiologists and health experts, the US hasn't been testing many people, so while our Coronavirus infection numbers or low, they're almost certainly falsely so and the virus gets to spread undetected, which is bad for people more at risk than we are.

Luckily, I have very informed medical and policy friends who have provided good sources of information (WHO, @HelenBranswell and @KaKape on twitter) and measured advice (wash your hands; stop touching your face; seriously wash your hands; ensure you have two weeks worth of essential items in your home; leave the face masks for medical staff). So we've done/are doing that, and since we're leaving the country in a week, with a long layover in another airport, everyone in the family gets their own Lysol pack to wipe down every damn thing they might touch!

And since I'm normally anti-hand sanitizer (bacteria are mostly good! washing with regular soap and water is better!), the kids are SO excited to get their very own tiny bottles with full authorization to use them as much as possible while traveling.

Maggie can't wash her hands, so she is just going to try to keep her tongue to herself.

Also, Super Tuesday is this Tuesday and Texas is part of the Superness, so we'll be voting! I'm #TeamWarren all the way and found this voter guide very affirming.

Though to be clear, I will ultimately vote for any sentient creature who is not a bloviating proudly uninformed racist who profits off the presidency and sets the Constitution on fire on a regular basis. So you know, we can only go up. Maggie looks forward to it.

And now, food!

Saturday: Nachos! Taco beef, black beans, queso, chips, tomatoes, black olives, cilantro, lettuce, sour cream, avocado. Literally everything I could think of.

Sunday: Lasagna Soup with beef ravioli instead of broken up lasagna noodles.

Monday: Greek night! Gyro meat (from Trader Joe's), over a bowl of cooked farro with diced up veggies (tomato, bell pepper, cucumber), Kalamata olives, feta, and tzatziki sauce. Naan bread on the side.

Tuesday: Science Night at the elementary school, so steamed tamales (these are from Central Market, but Costco's are very good), black beans, rice, leftover nachos toppings.

Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken and Wild Rice Soup. Love this recipe.

Thursday: Mexican Rice (recipe in this post), with toppings. Apparently I had a craving for Mexican food while meal planning this week?

Friday: Pesto Chicken Sandwiches (with Costco pesto because it's amazing), chips, fruit.

Saturday: Leftovers to clean out the fridge before we leave for Spring Break!