5 on a Friday - Oven Update, Wacky Weather, WhatsApp & Phones, and a Reading Update

I am currently posting from Friday twin naptime. I have a list of things to do and the house is chaos and also... it's time to write a blog post.  All the other stuff can be done later (probably).  So here's some random Friday updates for you all

Oven Update:

Start with the most exciting - we got our oven cleaned!  I loved all the replies about my cleaning adventures.  I am so curious why my oven gets so so gross, or whether everyone's oven is gross and other people just aren't bothered by gross ovens.   I've never been bothered by anyone else's oven so maybe I need to lower my oven cleanliness standards.

Either way, a clean oven is nice.  Here is before:

And After:

It turns out the glass window can be see through. Who knew??!

May Weather

I almost wrote March weather because yesterday it HAILED!  It's been so cold recently that we've started turning our heat on again, overnight temperatures around 40f/5c and the house is 60f/16c.  It really feels like February and I am not cool with it. (I mean, I'm literally cold with it)

The kids were very intrigued by the hail though:

Whatsapp

Well after 4 years of not using WhatsApp I decided to sign up again.  No major reason why...  I think primarily I felt like it would be easier to batch my texting if I could use the web to send texts.  I basically feel Whatsapp is a new iteration of email threads, which is why I think everyone hates email and then just uses email adjacent things and kind of hates those too.

I probably should write a bigger reflection post on what 4 years of no whatsapp has taught me, but like my travel blog posts and recipe posts this may never happen.  The main thing I realized is that I like seeing people and hanging out with people and the rest of the stuff that happens on phones is just... stuff.  I didn't lose anything social by not being on it, and I'm hoping I won't lose anything social by actually being on it either.

If you want to read lots of thoughts on my complicated relationship with WhatsApp, I've got a lot of posts here

Phone Stuff

I still feel like my use of phone is too interrupting.  As in, I don't spend a lot of time on the phone, but I use it frequently during the day as a distraction device.  I've been at about 2 hours a day for a while now.  I know sometimes that's google maps or taking videos or facetime... but I also pick up my phone 70 times a day. That's 4 times an hour, every 15 minutes of my waking life.  Not ideal.  It will be interesting to see if the addition of whatsapp increases or decreases this or has no impact at all.

Reading Life

I just realized that the Modern Mrs Darcy Summer reading guide is out soon! And then I checked and it's out today! I am excited to flip through it and start crafting my summer reading life.  I have slowed down a bit on my reading recently, however I've really enjoyed some recent reads.

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

I felt this had mixed reviews but I LOVED it.  I loved the characters. I loved the smarts. I feel like this was written specifically for me, and also Rachel who comments on this blog, and also anyone who went to Reed College.  I mean, it's a book about smart people thinking that being smart is the best, while also generally being unhappy about their entire lives, and especially the bits related directly to being smart.  It's a book about social awkwardness.  In my opinion, it's a book about neurodiversity.  I loved it and I also feel all the criticism I read about it is valid and I can see why many people would not love it.

How To Read A Book by Monica Wood

This was a Lisa recommendation and I loved it.  Very different than what I normally read, but I super enjoyed reading perspectives of multiple characters in lives very different than mine.  

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is for book club and I am really enjoying it.  It would probably be even better on Audio.  Plus the main character is a blogger! So that's extra fun.

Have you had any great reads recently?  Is it annoyingly cold where you are? Is being overly interested in our phone use still a thing or is that something of the bygone 2024 era?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Food Plan

Babies on the stairs! Up Up and away.

My first full week of work started with me coming down with cold-zilla. I basically haven't been ill for the last 11 months, except for one bout of mastitis in December where the vomiting started at 7:30pm and ended at 2am when it was time to do my 2am onward baby care shift.  I think I finally got ill on Monday because I actually had time to get ill.  I took a 90 minute nap at 3pm, but I had to be better at 5pm so I could do dinner and kid bedtimes etc.  For the rest of the week I have basically had EVERY cold symptom that exists. Sore Muscles, headache, tiredness, upset stomach, digestion problems, inability to sleep, shivers, one hand is cold, runny nose, sore throat.  

I don't mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist here but if I was to genetically engineer the perfect cold then whatever I have is definitely that.  I don't remember colds completely wiping me out when I was younger.  Then again, I probably had more capacity for being completely wiped out while younger. 

Anyways, this week was mostly feeling rubbish while still having to do all the kid things.  It's way easier to feel terrible in work than it is to feel terrible while watching kids, but my brain feels super dumb now and I hope that I can get back to regularly scheduled thinking soon.

Reading

I finished Spitting Gold and it was a perfect start of fall read.  

I started reading You Only Die Once and I think it's good but I need to actually pay attention, which is not the headspace I'm in right now.

Sports

I did leg day with my gym buddy on Thursday because I do not miss leg day gym buddy.  I am still sore 4 days later from doing a few sets of lightly weighted squats and I think this because of cold-zilla.  Otherwise, it was survival week.

Sleep

I have averaged 7.75 hours of sleep, which is good but also probably a sign of not being well.  Also, I started randomly waking up at night (hello woman entering her 40s life??! or perhaps nearing the end of nursing babies life??! either way, I blame hormones) which you can see in my time log:

Luckily the awake time helped me get some more reading time!

Food Plan

Sunday: Tacos
Monday: Veggie Burgers, Chips and Sweet Corn
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Quinoa Enchilada Bake
Wednesday: Nanny cooks dinner (fingers crossed this works well!)
Thursday: Freezer Curry & Naan
Friday: Macaroni and Cheese

We are trying to adjust our family schedule a bit with dinner at 6pm instead of 5:30.  So far we have had OK success with two days at 5:45.  I need to stop eating meals at toddler time and am trying to move my lunch from 11:30 to 12:30 with the addition of snack.

Also, I am on a vegetable lull.  Isn't now the vegetable time?  Shouldn't I be enjoying a bountiful harvest of veg (as reflected in affordability at the store?).  Instead I think I am just eating endless broccoli.

Misc from the blog-o-sphere

San does an awesome link list every month.  September is as awesome as usual.  Especially her link to sheet pan gnocchi meals.  I love sheet pan gnocchi and need to eat it more. 

I loved Elisabeth's post on Clean, Neat, Both or Neither.  Comments are gold too!  Thanks for the admission Elisabeth.

Jenny lives in Florida and loves pumpkins. I also love pumpkins, and I love people who write about pumpkin love.  Many of her recent posts have been pumpkin gold.  

-----

I am excited to be at the end of September.  I am ready for October.  Bring on pumpkins.  Let's get rid of this dumb coldzilla.

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

It's a Sunday again!  This week had some definite highs and some lows.  Let's dive right in, shall we?

Reading:

I finished The Wedding People by Alison Espach and I LOVED it.  It was a book that was so good I wanted to read it slowly.  I want to hang out with the characters longer.  I want to go to a fancy hotel.  It was such a dark premise and then... joy.  MMD review here for more info.

I have so many holds for which I am first in line for BUT I didn't time it right because I wanted to read The Rom-Commers by Catherine Center and I had pushed that hold forward too much.  I would also read The Blue Bistro by Elin Hildebrand or The Stand In by Lily Chu, both of which I am first in line for.  But when I finished The Wedding People I was still first in line for all!  Then a copy of The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez came through, which I started, but it feels too late summer for "he loves/she loves".  When I checked Libby today my copy of The Rom-Commers was ready and so I will hopefully finish both books in the next 21 days since they both have a lot of holds.  Libby hold balancing/planning is hard!

Sports

This week was not a sports week.  

Monday: 20 minutes yoga

Wednesday: Totally awful trip to the gym.  

Thursday: 20 minute run

I don't have enough childcare to do sports right now.  Our nanny started this week for two days, but it's primarily for settling in.  And the babies are... unsettled.  I am unsettled.  Lilah is still in nursery some days, but Isaac is home all days, and it is all unsettling.  Also it was a full moon last week! And I felt terrible. Wednesday was the most unsettling.  Thursday and friday were entirely childcare days.  I don't even have baby naps now to do sport because I have Isaac on Thursday and all kids on Friday.  

Also the gym confrontation has really knocked me back.  I haven't decided what to do about it.  But some other pieces that have bothered me since the event (where a trainer at the gym accused my friend of training me - blog here) have registered as follows:

• Why did the trainer not ask my gym buddy if he was training me?
• Why did he wait to catch me alone (while my friend was getting his weights)?
• Why did he assume I wanted a trainer or to be trained at all? 
• Why did he feel it was OK to be aggressive to me but not to my (male) friend?
• Why did he do this in front of everyone at the gym, such that so many people saw the interaction and strangers even asked me what happened?  Was it to make me extra uncomfortable?

I also realized that for the last month I always felt like people were watching me, but I always told myself I was being silly.... that I deserved to be in the free weights space as much as anyone else.  That even though I was doing "dude" exercises it was OK and I was allowed.  And that people were probably just minding their own business and it was all in my head.  Apparently... I was being watched.  It wasn't in my head.  And I just feel... embarrassed.  

Mostly I feel profoundly uncomfortable about ever going back there.  My friend says we should go as we haven't done anything wrong.  He thinks that by *not* going they will think they "caught" us or that we were doing something wrong.  But I don't think I have the resilience for this right now.

Also, my friend feels very complimented (as he should be!) that gym workers think he is a trainer, since he is actually a small business owner.  I think I feel equally crappy that gym workers look at me and think "she looks like she wants a trainer".  

Anyways, I want to do more Peloton workouts and running.  I need to get out of my head more.  Hopefully this week.

Sleep

Babies are waking up around 5:15 but sometimes staying in bed till nearly 6.  I had a lot of trouble sleeping after gym incident.  I am sometimes waking up too early.  And writing buddy came over one evening and we stayed up later.  So for a combination of reasons, some my fault and some not, I have been averaging 7.1 hours of sleep this week.  I would like a bit more.  But without baby naps and without childcare I have so little me time that 7:30 onward feels like my only time for myself and it's hard to get myself to bed before 9:30.

Speaking of that - time for bed!

Did you have an unsettled week? Do you think full moons are unsettling?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep

My brother left on Wednesday, which was also the first day of summer camp for Isaac.  He's in camp 2 days a week for the next 3 weeks.  Lilah is still in nursery 3 days a week. The house was suddenly very quiet.  The twins were suddenly on good form as well.  They dropped their 10:30am feed and I am suddenly free to leave them with Andy for bigger adventures... such as taking Isaac and Lilah out to a local open air museum for 4+ hours, which we did on Friday.  

The weather has been HOT and then slightly less hot.  It's hovering around 70 for the next week which is perfect for me.  Last week I did not want to cook anything because apparently 75 degree weather means my brain doesn't work and the last place I want to be is in the kitchen.  

Anyways.. 

Reading

I finished The Postcard and it was immensely good.  I bet it would be even better if I could read French.  I highly highly recommend this book and it will probably make a best read of the year book for me.  Next I have a paper copy of Sandwich by Catherine Newman, which I find hard to read because I do most of my reading at night and in bed when other people might not want me to have the light on.  Maybe I will borrow certain other people's reading lights.  I've also got a Libby copy of This Summer Will Be Different by Carly Fortune, but I haven't started it yet because Libby says I am first in line for The Wedding People by Alison Espach and I *really* want to read that next and I keep checking the app to see if it's available.  1st in line with 8 copies in use.  It must be coming soon right??

Sports

I got my office workout room back on Wednesday (this is another downside of a combined office/guest room/gym) and so I have done a tiny amount of sport this week!

Thursday: 15 minute Flash 15 with Jess Sims.  Turns out workout out when it's 75 degrees makes everything super hard.  This was also a super hard workout to do after not exercising for a week.  I probably should have moved back into it more slowly.

Saturday: 20 minute run.  20 minute Peloton arm workout with Robin Arzon.  Also, I feel like this instructor is kind of annoying.  I used to find her inspiring and endearing.  I'm so mildly and inconsequentially conflicted! I need to try some new instructors.  I finished with a 5 minute stretch.

I've got more excercise scheduled in for tomorrow and this week, so hopefully I will get some more sport/me time now.  Especially with childcare for the big kids 2 days this week.  If the twins continue their solid 8:30-9:30 nap I should be able to do at least some exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

Sleep

I have averaged 7.2 hours of sleep which seems low BUT I feel like it's been pretty good sleep.  I wake up naturally at 5am now, before the babies start making noise at 5:30.  Babies havent needed to get up until after 6am all week.  Fingers crossed this continues.  Kids are also going to sleep well at 7pm again, so everyone it my house mostly sleeps from 7 to 5, and I am aware of how good this is.  I don't feel like a sleep deprived mess all the time. Sometimes I don't have my first coffee until *after* breakfast! And most of the time I don't take ibuprofen and coffee as a first breakfast at 5am like I used to. 

Highlight of the week:

This week we went to an open day at our local fire station.  Fire and Police and Ambulance were there.  It was really really cool

Nora Police

Sometimes you just have to ask random people to take family photos because with this many kids there will never be a right time for a family photo.

Isaac and Lilah learn CPR from the friendly paramedic

Have you ever heard of or been to a Fire Station open day?  Is 75 degrees too hot for you or too cold? Have you read The Postcard?

Sunday Update: Reading and Workouts and Sleep

Hey! It's Sunday!

We had a surprisingly productive weekend, which included a massive sort out of my office in preparation for an eventual room reshuffle.  Also, the kids have been staying awake far too late recently so I decided to switch their room layout from two separate beds to bunk beds in hopes that not seeing each other might cut down on the shenanigans.  It didn't instantly help, but it has meant that their room has a lot more space.  I've called it their summer room:

Old layout:

New layout:

Anyways, on to the anxiously awaited Reading, Workouts and Sleep Sunday Update!

Reading

This week I finished The Husbands.  I liked it!  I am not great at writing book reviews.  At first I had trouble getting into the fantasy element of it (I hate the idea of being in a new life that I don't know while everyone else lives their lives that they do know and thinks I am living my life normally to... if that makes sense?) but about halfway through I really got into the book.  And it managed to not be boring while still having a somewhat Groundhog day premise.

Then I learned that I had been using Libby wrong.  I thought that when a book became available I could either put it back on hold and stay in the queue or just do nothing and stay in the queue.  Apparently the doing nothing option actually deletes my hold.  So I went back through and re-held a number of items.  I sometimes couldn't decide which hold I wanted and I would just let the hold lapse, but I'll be better about changing the "deliver after" date from now on.  I pretty much use holds as my TBR (as well as a short TBR tab, and a much. larger "notify me when available" list).

Although I am first in line for a number of things I didn't have any holds come through in time for evening reading so I randomly checked out a skip the line copy of Happily Never After.  It was under the "popular now" section and fits my summer lighthearted chick lit reading.  I am enjoying it so far but will enjoy reading something a bit more cerebral or literary next. 

Workouts

It was a pretty good week for exercise culminating in a great 5k time for me!  I think there might be something to both strength training and interval training.  "Surprise!" says no fitness person ever.

Monday: 

    2.2 mile run (while listening to a Robin Arzon Peloton class).  

    50 minute workout at a friend's house (arms and core class from Courtney Black).  

    10 min Peloton Robin Arzon Postnatal Core 2 Class

    10 min Peloton Healthy Back Yoga class

Tuesday:
    15 min Peloton Arms & Shoulders with Tunde

    1 hour hike with a friend up and down a hill

Wednesday:

    1 hour gym session with gym buddy (Legs & Core)

    45 hour super casual bike ride out to dinner and back (22 minutes each way)

Thursday: 

    20 min Postnatal full body with Robin Arzon

Friday

    Watching all the small children all day (can't really call it rest)

Saturday

    Ran my local parkrun (5k Race) while listening to a Robin Arzon interval training program.  Strava gave me a 5k time of 29:20 which is among my best! Parkrun official time was 31:20 which is still pretty good. I felt really good and was able to increase and decrease the pace a number of times.  I got all introspective on how running doesn't get easier, I just get faster.  How twins don't necessarily get easier - I just somehow do more.  How I often look for sustainability in my running pace and in my life pace when actually sustainability might mean unsustainable efforts followed by more sustainable efforts.   It was a very introspective post run!

But also, these results.  Yay.

Sleep:

This week has been a fairly unsustainable one on the sleep front.  I stayed up late one night going out to dinner with a friend. The big kids have suddenly somehow realised that they don't have to fall asleep at 7pm and it's like the seal has been broken - they are sometimes up past 8:30 and it's driving me insane. I am generally having trouble sleeping past 4:30am, and often Audrey is up around that time and although she doesn't need me, hearing her chatting in her room makes it hard for me to fall back asleep.  She seems to fall back asleep just fine.

My average for this week has been 6.83 hours.

I've finally caught some sort of kid disease so I am hoping it doesn't last long.  Sore throats should be illegal in the summer.  All the kids currently have runny noses.  I had hoped that a good night of sleep would fix me, but unfortunately I was up with a sad Lilah and a grumpy Audrey last night.  Maybe tonight will be the night I get lots of sleep and feel better.  And if not, I will continue to thank the world for ibuprofin and coffee.  

Did you get enough sleep this week?  Have you read anything great in July?  Do you have kids and if so do they stay awake past 7pm and if so how do you have any grown up time??  Is ibuprofin your favourite painkiller?

Friday misc - reading and more

This week greats:

• New Yoga Conditioning class with new friends
• Overnight in London and meeting London colleagues
• Writing club at a pub!

Weekend greats:

• Out to dinner with friends tonight
• Local Christmas fair on Saturday afternoon
• Cooking Thanksgiving meal on Sunday!

This week improvements:

• House is disorganized chaos (for me)
• Yesterday's dinner was beans on toast so probably shouldn't serve it to the kids again tonight
• in a Meal planning lull

Reading News:

• Finished Tranquillity by Tuesday.  Even better than expected.  Thinking I need to buy a copy to refer back to... just wish it wasn't' £20 for a hardback.  I love a paperback.
• Went on a massive library hold spree after listening to the holiday gift giving episode of "What Should I Read Next"

Full hold list here

• Emailed the library to request more books.  The Cardiff Library has been amazing at ordering me books.  I'm hoping they will get Work Parent Thrive soon

Five on a Tuesday

If this post seems a bit... scatty... it's because I am still doing #NaBloPoMo and getting a blog post written on a scatty day is still a blog post!

1) Today I did a 15 minute Barre3 Stretching video before work.  Thank you Barre3 for including stretching!  It was great and much needed.

2) The kids are hopefully going to nursery tomorrow, for the first time since October 29th and hopefully healthy enough to last the day.  We are all still varying degrees of general winter ill.  Why is it that ill kids want to run around and bounce off the walls and ill adults want to sleep?  

3) I went to bed at 8:30 last night, after taking a long bath, and had a great sleep, only waking up at 2:30am for a while before getting back to sleep without reading or listening to an audiobook.  Sometimes the fear I won't be able to fall back asleep is worse than the actual waking up.

4) I have two work overnights in the next two months, which I am trying to be excited about, but I'm not sure whether I actually want a job with travel.  I know life is lived in hours and I love everything Laura Vanderkam writes about career/kids, but what if instead of being around for most bedtimes I want to be around for all bedtimes?  What if I want to miss no breakfasts?  What if I like sleeping in the same bed as my husband every night?  What if I like routine more than travel...?  This is especially odd coming from me, since I moved to Wales specifically because I loved travel and wanted to travel all the time.  

5) I started reading Tranquility by Tuesday yesterday and it was definitely the right choice - thanks Elisabeth.  On page 2 Laura summed up my current state perfectly:"You can keep the plates spinning. With your calendars and your planners you are very good at that, but the performance can consume so much effort that it's easy to become aggravated about the little things. Life can feel like a slog"  I am going to read more right now.

A Failure to Plan is a Plan to Fail but a Planned Plan Might Also Fail.

On Sunday night the social/hobby schedule for the week was ideal:

Monday PM: Run Club

Tuesday AM: Breakfast with G

Tuesday PM: Writing Club with N

Wednesday PM: Date Night

Friday PM: Drinks with colleagues

On Monday my run club buddy texted to say she wasn't well, followed by G postponing breakfast until next week for very legitimate work reasons.

I went for a short solo run Monday evening anyways, and realized that a fortnightly run club isn't an ideal way to maintain fitness.  I'm glad I got out, even if my running buddy couldn't join me.  And we've tentatively rescheduled for Thursday.

Thankfully N was able to come for writing today.  It's great having a once a week hobby of me time, especially as it overlaps with Andy's MTB night so I have to be home anyways.

I remember even as a child getting upset when my perfect schedules were uprooted.  I sometimes struggle to tell the difference between "going with the flow" and "being directionless".

Andy swapped his office day now, so we're redoing our own weekly schedules.  Running will be on Thursday and breakfast/writing on a Tuesday, with a backup morning open on Friday.  This all comes back to Laura Vanderkam's  Rule #5: Create a backup slot.  On that topic - my library ordered a copy of Tranquility by Tuesday and it's on it's way to me.  Very excited.

Tomorrow my schedule is disrupted once again, as the kids will probably not be in nursery due to generic toddler illness so Andy and I are taking half days for childcare.  We managed almost two months without being off nursery for illness - the longest stretch of uninterrupted childcare since.... having children?

Reading Update - The End of Absence and I Miss You When I Blink

I just finished my 48th book for 2022.  This is rather astounding as I basically didn't read at all between 2010 and 2020.  

I Miss You When I Blink was just as good as I hoped it would be.

I read The End of Absence this month.  It was interesting to read a book about the internet written in 2014.  It was interesting to remember that fairly recently the internet used to be so much different.  It was also interesting to realize that 1985 really is the cutoff point of pre and post internet life... and internet free childhood.  

I wonder what those born 10 years earlier that me think about this - do they relish the fact that they didn't have ubiquitous internet until after college?  I don't think internet was a great addition to my college experience.  

People 5 years either side of me probably didn't use GeoCities.  Or StumbleUpon.  Or forge friendships through the chimes of AIM (Aol Instant Messenger)

Remember when we thought the internet was an unexplored world of limitless possibility?  

StumbleUpon was the start of the internet entertainment lever.  "Show me a thing" you told the button and the button showed you a thing.

The End of Absence had some fascinating points.  Firstly, Michael Harris thought of Analogue August before I did.  On day 24 of his internet abstinence project he writes:

"Behavior that seemed utterly normal on the 30th of July now looks compulsive and animalistic. Now when I see teenager girls burrowed into their phones on the sidewalk I think of monkeys picking lice out of each other's hair"

That's what resonates with me, in my own internet experiment.  What if instead of a phone everyone was holding a banana? And every few minutes each person checked their banana?  Families at a table in a restaurant showing each other their favorite bananas?  Sitting down on the sofa after a day of work and staring mindlessly at a banana?

Harris was also on point with the following: 

"Nothing is as enthralling as the lovely, comforting, absence destroying internet"

Tuesday Timetable

5:15: Woke up before my alarm.  I am working on trying to wake up at a certain time without an alarm.  I'm not sure if I am getting better at it, or if I am just frequently waking up and then eventually it's 5:30.  I'm always afraid if the alarm goes up the kids will wake up and that will be much harder than an extra 15-20 minutes of sleep

5:30-6:00: Coffee and reading.  I finished reading A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine.  This took me a while as I started in August.  I found the first half quite compelling and the second a little less so.  I am really interested in the idea of a Philosophy of Life, but I'm not sure I like books which casually mention the Aberfan Disaster.

6:00-6:30: Got bike out to ride to Geraint's.  but it was raining.  So I drove instead

6:30-7:30: Standing breakfast date with Ger.  Good friends do breakfast dates, and he make the most wonderful Ham and Eggs on Toast.

7:30 Drive home and listening to Caliban's War (Expanse book 2).  I have 2 hours left and it's all kicking off in that universe.

7:45-8:30 Get kids dressed and happy, put away laundry

8:30-5:00: Work From Home.  Andy had the kids.  He took Isaac swimming, Andy's mum came over to watch Lilah.  They all went to the library in the afternoon and picked up my new books!

5:00-5:30: Kid time

5:30-6:00: Make/reheat dinner (leftover fish pie & broccoli)

6:00-6:30: Family dinner

6:30-7:00: Kid bedtime

7:00-7:30: Tidy kitchen and lounge

7:30-8:00: life admin and emails

8:00-8:30: blog!

Now I need to pack for work tomorrow and pick my next book.  I'm deciding between these two library books: