Sunday, December 16, 2012

Cooking, Walking, Reading, Cleaning, Playing, Partying, Cooking (again)

I usually like to rest on Sunday, but today is an activity Sunday. I woke up this morning and loaded 1/2 cup of water, 4 chopped up turnips and one whole head of cauliflower into my slow cooker. Around dinner time, I will be mashing it into "Faux Mashed Potatoes." This week, I gave up my bi-weekly purchase of a small tub of Brummel and Brown for a small tub of Earth Balance vegan spread.  I also made french toast out of the Vegan Yum Yum book for the boys and I this morning. I'm trying to take steps to embrace my impending change from a lacto-ova vegetarian to an ova vegetarian. This basically means that I am a vegetable/fruit/grain eater who also eats eggs and honey.  Because my body has decided to get rid of dairy.

I've changed the oatmeal I use for breakfast in the morning. I started exploring the Amy's freezer case for quick meals on the run (since I'm working on M/W this week and will be going back to the pre-school two days a week in January -- whenever they need me. Amy wasn't sure if I'd be in a classroom, floating or subbing, so we'll see as it gets closer).

After cooking, I took Lily for a walk around the lake at Colbert Park. It's my practice walking on uneven surfaces because the path is gravel. It was hard to walk heel to toe like I'm supposed to concentrate on, so when we were done around the lake, we walked an extra 1/2 mile around the block on flat surfaces, so I could make sure that I was hitting the ground with my heel on my bad foot and pushing off with my toe. I found out why my body doesn't naturally do this any more -- it hurts in the joint at the ball of my tiniest toe. This makes sense because it's where the peroneal tendons run... but when I do walk on it correctly on flat surfaces -- it crunches like crazy. And it both feels good and kind of burns/pinches. Almost like it's stuck from non-use. So, I guess we'll be working on that joint's mobility on Tuesday.

I'm currently reading "Work Hard. Be Nice" by Jay Mathews. A book about two Teach for America teachers who are re-inventing education for children who live in poverty -- and are getting some amazing results. I'm only able to fit in a chapter here and there, but it's invigorating as a parent and as an educator.

Today is conquer the laundry mountain day. Clean sheets for everyone!

Today at 2 p.m. Awesome is coming over to play with X-man. MacTroll is going to hang out with them if they decide to play the Wii. X-man is usually a pretty good teacher, but he could use a reminder here and there about being a positive coach rather than a, "Hey, do you want me to use your remote to do that for you?" kind of person.

At 4 p.m., MacTroll and I are wandering across the street to a holiday open house for one of our new neighbors. According to my Christmas card from my aunt, the woman used to be her college roommate. We have a babysitter coming from 4-5:30 p.m. because it's an adult-only thing. What will I wear? I'm guessing my current wardrobe mixing my "Fat Ass" sweatpants and Zella zip up hobo-sleeved sweatshirt isn't ideal. Alas, I lack Christmas sweaters. :-)

Then KTDID is coming over and we are going to make some black bean burgers that we can both freeze and eat as we need at our homes.

My goal was to get some things hung up on our walls today, but MacTroll seems -- unmotivated to do anything but sit in bed and go to the gym at noon. He's home from now until the end of the first week in January. That's 3 weeks. We're pretty happy about it.

No comments: