Checking In: Swimming, House, and Home

I have been super busy at work, which is great given that we don't even know if the SEC and/or democracy will exist in a few more weeks, but I have absolutely not been able to blog, photo book, watch TV, or do anything that isn't working, sleeping, enjoying my family, or finishing Onyx Storm.

Right now it is 7 pm and I am in my pajamas in bed in a hotel in midtown Manhattan, with the Super Bowl on mute on my room TV and my phone playing downloaded episodes of The West Wing (volume on), my computer in my lap, and a glass of wine I got at check-in on my bedside table. I already went to the hotel gym to do my incline walk (I've been doing 30 minutes with a 12% incline at 3.2 speed as many days as possible the past couple weeks; it's not a lot of days, but it feels good when I do it) and I am contemplating an 8:30 pm bedtime.

But first, I thought I'd do a quick update. Mostly house stuff- the kids are big and doing big kids things and they're awesome and I enjoy them so freaking much, but they're busy and their own people and I've noticed that these days my photo app is largely dominated by the cats, Maggie, me, and the house.

(This gorgeous girl celebrated her 6th adoptiversary a few weeks ago, making her roughly 10 years old, and she's doing so great!)

But I do have very recent news involving my first baby: he had his high school regional swim meet this weekend and he did SO GREAT and he won the 100 fly in a best time of 50.04 and he's seeded FIRST going into the State meet in two weeks and we're so delighted for him.

He works so hard and is SO dedicated, he never complains or tries to get out of a morning practice or extra weekend workout and even as a former swimmer myself I can't imagine his level of committment to this sport.

My parents stopped at our house on their drive home from the mountains so they could watch his meet. It's always a joy to have the OG swim parents in the stands with us.

They wear the school colors, mark up their heat sheets, and cheer along with the best of them. Landon's 100 fly in finals made my mom cry it was so darn good and she knew he was so darn happy.

We had delicious pasta with tomato cream sauce and chicken meatballs, per Landon's request, for dinner between prelims and finals.

It was a great weekend. He got 3rd in the 50 free and is going to state in that as well. He's the only kid from his whole school who made state and he now lives in fear that they'll still do the school-wide clap-out for him to send him off (the marching band goes down the hallway with the qualifiers as they get on the bus) and I've promised I'll call the principal to ask that they not do it. Claire would say she wouldn't want the clap-out if she had to do it alone, but she wouldn't really mean it. Landon means it. (Cora would too.) One of my favorite things about being a mom is learning how incredibly different each of my children are from me, their dad, and each other.

On to the house!

As noted above, my friend Shelly got me onto this 30 minutes of walking a day at a high incline workout and I have to admit, it's the rare thing that I feel like I can do even when I'm tired and have billed 12 hours and spent 9 hours on video calls. I'd been packing workout clothes and stopping at my building's gym on my way home at night, but I'd rather workout in the morning, I just hate packing everything I need to get ready in the building locker room. Enter, my new treadmill!

I found her on Facebook Marketplace for a STEAL from a family that was listing their house and moving across the country. James went to get it one weekday night, quickly realized this was a larger operation, and returned days later with tools, a Landon, and a youtube video on how to dissemble a treadmill to load it into a car and reassemble it back at home.

It weighs about 400 lbs. Landon had to stuff a muffin in his mouth halfway through to "carbo-load" to get it up the stairs. I am so thankful for the strong men in my life because seriously, this thing was unwieldly and INCREDIBLY heavy and I love it so very much.

Once carefully ensconced in her forever home by the window in the gameroom, I decided the whole gameroom needed an update to make her feel more at home.

After an early birthday brunch with friends, fueled by two mimosas and a short nap, I emptied out all our drawers and cabinets to reorganize the toys and art supplies.

Luckily my label maker and I were up to the task.

I had to make a few new labels. I have big kids now- permanent markers have entered the chat.

I reorganized the furniture a bit too.

The sectional we got for the gameroom is too big, which I've accepted, so I added the curved middle piece to a straight one in front of the TV and moved the second straight piece to the back window as a little reading nook.

The couch pieces are too big to fit through the doorway without removing the door, so for now, this is working for me.

I have used my new treadmill 4/5 mornings last week, which is pretty great given that I also billed 50+ hours and had Landon's swim meet Friday. I really love having it as an option to get on when I roll out of bed a few minutes early in the morning and then get ready for work in my own bathroom and closet.

What's annoying is that Landon hopped on it and ran a 6 minute mile with no warmup. "It works." he announced as he walked off without even breathing hard.

I also got two new light fixtures. I've been wanting to add one to our bedroom. There's a junction box cover over the little sitting area at the back of our room and a switch that currently doesn't do anything and I figured must be connected to it. It seemed an easy add. This little guy was under $100 and I love him.

I particularly love having him on while the overhead recessed lights are off.

It's cozy and the perfect final touch. I continue to love our bedroom so very much- there's not a thing I would change.

I got one other new light fixture - this one for the kitchen dining area.

Lucky lucky Landon, mere days after lugging a giant treadmill up the stairs, got to help me unwrap every individual little capiz shell string. As did his siblings. We may not be farmers, but having 3 kids does often come in handy when it comes to home projects.

I did really like the first one we bought 2+ years ago, but we quickly realized a rectangular fixture would be better int he space given our long table that seats 8. I've been looking off and on, and when I found this one a couple weeks ago I knew it was EXACTLY what I'd been looking for.

Soft, elegant, nice without being stuffy... I adore how it looks in the room and it makes the table so much brighter.

And that's it! Now it's bedtime, with a fitness room walking workout in the morning, some big NYC meetings during the day, and dinner wtih a friend Monday night. I speak at an IPO conference on Tuesday, have dinner with some of my favorite NY colleagues Tuesday night, and then I fly home Wednesday morning. This is only my 2nd work trip of 2025, which is pretty great for me- I've been trying to restrict my travel to business-critical items and it's been nice for everyone to have me home more.

I turned off the Super Bowl a little while ago- I assume Philadelphia is still winning? The West Wing staff is feeling inspired by the Stackhouse filibuster, so I'm going to luxuriate in this world of smart, constitutionally-focused politicians for a little while. I hope you all are well.