This post took 2 weeks to write and I only have this to show for it

The last week was a long one. It's always longer when I start the week in another city, then you add a silly beloved holiday right in the middle, and a lot of work, some angst, and honestly just missing having a local friend who could have met for a margarita after work on Friday. But this morning James took Cora to her swim meet at 6 a.m. (I went yesterday) and I woke up at the indulgent hour of 7:30 and am currently downstairs on my fluffy couch with an even fluffier cat curled up beside me, Love is Blind Season 6 (episode 5; I don't like Jimmy, Trevor deserves the world) on TV, the big kids still fast asleep, two cups of tea brewing next to me, and my personal laptop on my lap.

(*Author's note: I did not manage to finish on Sunday, so now it's Monday morning which I very belatedly realized was both a school and work holiday, except it's really only the former, so I'm sequestered in my study between calls and the kids are doing who knows what throughout the rest of the house. Maggie has sought sanctuary here with me.)

(**And now it's Thursday. [shrug emoji] I don't know. What is time?]

[OMG IT'S NOW FRIDAY. I'm sitting in the stands waiting for the Texas High School State Meet to begin and I will press publish before it does. I'm not writing the great American novel here.]

Today Bonnie comes over at noon to make new outfits and I cannot wait. She has changed how I look at my clothes and put together my outfits so much. [Update she did and it was awesome and is getting its own post.]

Back to (last) Monday. Chicago was great. The weather was pure perfection and I felt like it was taunting me with what I could have if I lived there instead of the Hades inferno of my current locale. I treated myself to one medium sized bag of Garrett's Chicago Mix popcorn and enjoyed every single cheesy caramelly kernel. Then I held myself from buying more for the next 36 hours.

Wednesday was the first time I've woken up away from my Valentine's since James and I met.

As I've documented every year, we have a bunch of Valentine's traditions that we've gathered over the years. Decorating the kitchen table after the kids go to bed with the $3 Target plastic table cloth I bought many years ago and the fake rose petals I picked up at a dollar store many years before that. James picks out a special card for each kid and some sort of treat- candy or, now that Landon won't eat it, a $2 lottery card. Our Valentine's is simple, repeatable, and can be done even when I'm not there.

James sent me that picture below on Tuesday night right before I went to bed and it made my heart happy.

I was able to jump on an earlier flight home and getting up at 5 a.m. was worth arriving in time for a sushi lunch date with James.

We made our traditional heart-shaped pizza with the kids for dinner and opened our cards. Everyone had saved theirs until I could be home to open mine too.

We learned that James picked out the exact same card for Cora two years in a row. He works really hard to find ones personalized for each kid, so of course the puppy with the googly eyes was going to accidentally get selected twice for Cora. At first he didn't believe her but she ran upstairs to her special memory box and immediately produced the receipt. It's all very Cora.

We also learned that Landon doesn't understand how envelopes work.

Cora surprised us all with painstakingly hand-crafted cards personalized to each one of us. Mine is on my bulletin board at work where it makes me smile every day.

Valentine's Day is a silly holiday, but I love our version of it quite dearly.

Also Claire met up with a friend and borrowed my white velvet jeans, jean jacket, and necklace and I cannot. Sharing jeans was a parental milestone I did not foresee having an impact on me, but man. Also this picture reminds me that I still haven't gotten any of those things back. She needs a sign-out sheet.

Thursday dawned and I found it quite shocking I still had two work days left in a week that already felt sufficiently long. I did still work out every day, one day solely because my sister's apple watch makes me (her watch brags to my watch and my oldest child self is powerless to resist) and I mean, whatever it takes.

On Friday I finally wore this super cute outfit Bonnie pulled together for me seasons ago and I loved it.

And then we made it to Friday night, and that was good.

Until my alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. for Cora's swim meet Saturday morning, but this is our current chapter of life. I'm here for it. Literally, with my little stadium chair, water bottle, and very strong black tea.

And now a whole other week has happened, so I might as well include a bit from that. I did not travel, which is always nice. (Well, I didn't travel for work, I'm literally in Austin right now as I type this, so my trusty suitcase did not go empty.)

I wore the most fun dress on Tuesday for a client CLE and then dinner with all my women partners to celebrate our newest female partner! She's currently on maternity leave, so it was wonderful to see and celebrate her since we haven't seen her since she made it.

On Wednesday Landon finally got his class rank (top 5%!). We know he is so very smart and he's the only sophomore in his school currently in Chem II AP and Pre-Cal AP and he's in English III AP with all the juniors and he swims all the time and gets up at 5 a.m. and meal preps his own lunches and we have absolutey zero involvement in any of this. We're so proud of him. We also had this conversation on Monday night:

Landon: “Mom you never really hear about the coast of Montana.”
Me: “Landon, Montana borders Canada.”
Landon: “Huh. Probably not much of a surfing scene then.”

I mean.

I continue to love texting with teens. This is basically Claire's whole world view in one text message:

Also James and I went out for a random date Sunday night at 5:30 p.m.

I corrected her grammar in response and got a DON'T BULLY ME in response.

The meet is about to start, so we'll close with how Milo arranges himself after our housekeepers come on Monday. They always arrange Cora's myriad of pillows and animals in a cute we and Milo adds himself to the arrangement.

Happy Friday and go Wildcats! Our meet begins!