One Good Day

Sometimes you just need one good day.

Most weekends without plans scare me a little.  Particularly when Craig is going to be out of the house working.  I woke up Saturday feeling a bit crappy.  I was a few days into my second antibiotic for this sinus mess and wasn't noticing a lot of improvement.  I had a rough evening and an equally bad night of sleep again, and despite 12 hours in bed, I woke up feeling a bit cruddy.  But once I was up and moving, I started to feel better.  A lot better, like breathing through both nostrils and only blowing my nose a few times better.  It was a sunny day, I wasn't that congested, and maybe I could do this so much better than usual.

Carter's sun catcher looked so pretty in the bright sun (but just ignore the snow in the background)...

Then I noticed that my blooming violets sparkled so pretty in the sun.  Hard to get the camera to capture it, but there were gorgeous little pink sparkles on each leaf.

I had banned Carter from electronics early in the day, as he has no willpower and I didn't want to spend the day fighting him.  I know he can play with toys, but he just needs no other options.  He did a good job keeping himself occupied, and after lunch, he ran his Magic Tracks car through a magnetic tile tunnel he built and realized how it very naturally flipped up a tile at the end of the tunnel, almost like a doggy door.  Then he wanted to get it to automatically get back on its track.  And of course he wanted me to record it.  And after a bunch of bloopers, we finally got this one...



After that success, we went outside to play in the snow.  It was cold, but the sun took off the edge so it wasn't too bad.  We tried to make snowballs and snowmen, but the snow was still a bit too dry to pack well.  But it was fun to explore...  

Carter had fun with the snowballs we could make...even if they barely lasted after handling them once.

Fumble!

Another one!

He purposely liked to flop in the snow!

We were out for about an hour, and finished up by trying to sled down a small plow hill on a little "butt sled" we have.  Then I took him on a sled ride around the house.  We came across a giant icicle hanging from the back of the garage.  I figured I'd knock it down (which was probably dumb) to take the weight off the gutter, and finally this giant chunk (a "shield", as Carter called it) came down.  

So big compared to my boots!

The ice looked so cool!  It shimmered so pretty in the sun!

For the most part, the boys were pretty pleasant.  I had a couple fights to break up, but they were mostly fine.  I was struggling with what to make for dinner, but I decided that since Craig was gone, we could take advantage of the lack of lactose intolerance and the boys' love of shrimp.  Aldi's shrimp is pretty cheap and I had some in the freezer, so I quickly found a couple recipes on Pinterest--one for a lighter alfredo pasta that I had all the ingredients for, and another for garlic butter shrimp that could go with it.  It was so easy to make, and the boys loved it!

Bedtime went smoothly, and I had a nice evening just relaxing, blogging, and catching up on TV.  I had a bit of a sinus flare-up during that time, but by bedtime I felt so much better and I slept rather well without constantly waking up to blow my nose.  It really was a great day that led into a great night!  It felt so good for a change!

Today, of course, was a bit more mixed on all counts.  I still feel better in general but had a couple more flare-ups.  The boys fought a ton more.  We went shopping as a family (and me solo) with decent but not ideal results.  I washed our sheer curtains for the first time ever (gross, I know) and one had rotted a bit in the sun so it tore in the process.  You know, just a mixed bag.  Now we're facing down one full week of work and school before the long Thanksgiving weekend (for all except Craig...boo), and it seems like quite a mountain to climb to get there.  We will, one day at a time as usual...and then panicking when it gets here because there's too much to get done before the holiday and the official start of the Christmas season!  Here we go again...