November Recap: 10 Things

Well, November happened. As my last post anticipated, it was a lot.

But a lot of it was very good and now we're 1/3 the way into December and I'm just trying to keep up.

I usually talk through pictures, but I've been using an archival version of Picasa from about 2008 to edit my photos for the last 15 years and now my iPhone updated its iOS so photos are stored as HEICs which my vintage Picasa can't recognize because those files didn't exist when it was born, so I don't understand how to upload photos to my computer, edit them, and then post them because I've only ever had one system for doing that and Photoshop and Lightroom make me cry and Google photos doesn't make sense to me. I might now be too old to be a blogger. Internet operating systems have evolved past my rudimentary understanding of the magic that makes all this work.

[Which is to say, if anyone has an EASY photo program that works for them but also keeps your original organization in your picture folders I would love to hear about it.]

So, I don't know how to organize this. We'll see what the random uploads directly from my phone into blogger (another vintage interface that probably everyone has moved on from but it's the only one I understand) hold for us.

(Moose is not optimistic.)

(1) I had my uterine ablation and tubal ligation and it was easy and smooth and I watched TV and napped for a day and then was back to normal almost too soon. For the first time in 23 years I'm off birth control pills AND don't have periods and that's nice. That body system served me well, but I'm all done now. Yay and thank you, next.

(2) I gave the eulogy at my grandfather's funeral. It was a beautiful ceremony and having the dinner and day to celebrate and honor him with our close extended family was very special. There was laughter and tears and so much love. I miss him so much, but I know how lucky I was to have him, and I know both how much he loved me and that he knew how much I loved him. He would have loved all of us being together for him and I felt him there with us.

(3) The day after we got back from the funeral everyone 3/5 of our family had a swim meet (the same swim meet!) over the weekend.

They all did great, especially Cora (it was her first "real" meet) and James is quietly holding out hope she'll pick swimming over soccer one day. In his words, "oh my god, she's so good. the potential!" But for now she's a soccer girl who swims on the side and we're exploring the world of club soccer much to my personal overwhelm.

(4) Cora turned 10 on Sunday, 3 days post-funeral and on the last day of a long swim meet. We had her party that afternoon and I was literally making her cake as kids were walking in the door. We heated the pool and had a dog themed pool party and it was perfect.

Maggie was an honored guest.

Cora picked burgers for dinner (specifically "dad's burgers, on the grill") and said she had enough cake, so we put her candles in the burger bun. We love her so much.

My third baby is 10. I no longer have any children in single digits, which is... kind of sad really. We've truly loved having young kids so very much, but I also think we've enjoyed every phase and enjoy our increasingly bigger kids too.

(5) I had trips to NYC, Houston, and DC all in 2.5 weeks. It was a lot. I wore some great outfits.

This feels like my silk slipskirt era. I'm obsessed with that houndstooth one from Vince.

Also this skirt was my great Marshall's find of 2023. Gorgeous Elie Tahari for $79 instead of $400. It looks even better with heels, the other black top I paired with it, my Grandma Jo's gold necklace and some fab earrings, but this is the best pic of the skirt. I adore it.

I had an event at the St. Regis in DC for high tea and it was lovely.

I went full sparkle and faux leather for that one, and the evening events I had that night. Why not?

(6) We took the kids to NYC for Thanksgiving! Six days after I got back from my work trip there, we boarded a plane on Thanksgiving day and took the kids to the Big Apple for the first time and it was GREAT.

I love New York and my goal is for one of my children to love it enough to live there so I can visit often.

Landon told me it was "too much everything," so he's a no for now. Cora wants to study and rescue animals and she felt NYC was not the right habitat for that, but Claire loved it and I think she might be my big city girl.

We saw "The Play That Goes Wrong" which we HIGHLY recommend. The kids laughed so hard, I think Cora was crying. We all absolutely loved it and all three kids said it was their favorite thing about New York on the plane ride home.

The girls and I saw Six!. The third time for me, second time for them, I tried to convince them to see something new, but I also wasn't at all sad to see Six! again. It's so fun. We loved it just as much as the first time.

We didn't do nearly as much of the traditional touristy and sight seeing stuff I thought we would. They didn't care about seeing famous buildings, but they LOVED Central Park so we spent hours and hours there, watching them run and climb rocks and explore one of the best parks in the world. We walked all of midtown, enjoyed the store windows, shopped the Christmas market at Bryant Park, and ate rainbow bagels for breakfast.

It was a magical time to be in the city and a great way to kick off the holiday season.

(7) Landon had a big meet last weekend and my parents drove over to watch and he went all best times and qualified for Sectionals for the first time!

Interestingly, it was in the 50 free, and not the 100 fly or 100 back which are his main events. Turns out maybe he's a spring freestyler? Regardless, it was very exciting and now he's moving up to the National group for club practice and really seeing results from all the hard work he's put into swimming the last few years. I caught this picture of him leaving for school yesterday morning and wow. I really do have a 16 year old baby Landon.

(8) It's finally not 100 million degrees outside so Maggie and I have resumed our 4 mile lake walks in the morning before work.

She is relieved to get back to her fitness.

(9) This has been a tough month/semester for Claire. It hurts to watch your kid hurt and middle school can hurt an awful lot.

We also just got an ADHD diagnosis that explains a lot of unexplainable things we've been observing through academic, social, and emotional fallout, but which raises a lot of questions too. I'll delete this paragraph later, but if anyone has great resources for understanding ADHD in teen girls or therapies you recommend, I'm all ears. We've finally got her severe anxiety and OCD under control and nearly all ADHD medications are contraindicated (they're uppers that can make anxiety much worse and we CANNOT have that). So it's hard.

(10) I had my firm's client/partner holiday party this week. The dress code was "holiday chic" which to me meant black sparkly jumpsuit. James interpreted it differently.

(Bonus 11) I've been really focusing on getting back to a healthy maintenance phase of weight, food, and fitness. I travel so much, and so often for events, that it's hard not fall victim to a lack of regular exercise and too many mid-week multi-course meals and drinks. Even indulging in what feels like a very small amount (adding an appetizer and/or dessert at a nice meal, the champagne at hotel check-in because it's been a long day of travel, the m&ms on the plane... all reasonable, all not things I normally have on a Tuesday) still ends up being too much and I just wasn't feeling great.

For the last 2.5 months I have focused on: not drinking at work events (they're all during the week, they mess with my sleep when it's already sub-par when I travel, and I never drink more than 1-2 so why?), making healthy choices at restaurants (unless it's a special meal with a friend I'm meeting up with, the mantra I'm constantly muttering to myself is, "it's just a Tuesday, mimic normal Tuesday choices."), exercising EVERY SINGLE DAY no matter what (hotel room workouts and city walks are my go-to and even if I can only get 20 minutes in, I move my body every damn day), and going to bed early. I've re-convinced my indulgence-loving brain that worked on a government salary for too long that work trips are not vacations and not every meal in another city can be a treat. It's just a Tuesday.

After 6 frustrating weeks of absolutely no results, I'm suddenly down 15 pounds from where I started in late August and it feels so good and simple and maintainable. It's just acting like I act at home, but doing it everywhere else I happen to be. It also makes things like family gatherings and holidays truly special. Speaking of, we're doing sugar cookies this weekend and I will absolutely be enjoying a few (dozen) of those.

Happy Holidays all, I've missed you.