cleverly disguised as a responsible adult

Work is being annoying today. I have things to do that are monotonous and annoying. They need to be done, but they're not fun or intensely interesting. And I have to log in at 9 pm to do some work that ABSOLUTELY MUST be done after hours. Tomorrow will require more coffee than usual.

I have 11 working days left until my xmas break. I'm really, really looking forward to this.

Downwood racked my amber ale from the primary fermenting bucket to a carboy today. As he was prepping all the stuff, Alex ran back to the den and brought my new 1-gallon test batch equipment in. He tried to set it up so that he could do what Daddy's doing. So cute. He'll get to help me when I put together my 1-gallon test batch of cranberry mead. I don't want to commit to 5 gallons when I'm not sure this will work. We'll see.

I made it all the way through dance last night. The choregraphy is a Reda/Yousry mashup that's delicate and deceptively fast. My lungs didn't fall out. WILD SUCCESS!

I'm slowly filling up my work notebook with elaborate doodles. Intricate doodles. Mehendi-inspired, Zentangle-inspired, fantastic doodles. Art helps. It's centering and meditative.

I put on new Espionage Cosmetics nail wraps today - Treasure Map. I haven't seen the glow in the dark easter eggs yet, but I will later tonight. I don't actually love this design on my nails though...they're an antiqued parchment color that's just not working with my bleached porcelain complexion.

Life does not suck. It's frustrating and sometimes boring and worrying, but it doesn't actually suck.

Friday ended well. That is, it ended on time at work. I was able to get home, have dinner, and actually see my kids for a bit. It was lovely.

Saturday morning we all slept in a bit. Daddy took Alex off to his final soccer game of the season. When Momma goes to soccer, he comes over for hugs, snuggles, and refuses to play. When Daddy goes, Alex actually plays...mostly. He's still 4 and doesn't really have the attention span for an hour-long game. But he had fun, so that was good.

Emi and I went down to the basement to get some stuff done - I wanted to sew and she wanted to clean up the giant box of American Girl doll stuff my dad mailed us. They have a dog, so I refused to let her play with the stuff until we cleaned it. Everything that could be washed went into the washer. The rest...well, I gave her a box of Clorox wipes and told her to wipe everything. I'm not sure how good of a job she did, so we'll see how badly her hands break out as she continues playing with this stuff.. I hemmed a pair of leggings, then cut out, sewed, and hemmed matching leggings for Emi and me! They're a space-dyed lime green and teal spandex knit. I adore them. Emi adores them. We both decided we needed to wear them that day. Alex was jealous and wanted to know where *his* new pants were.

Then, we went out for lunch (Culver's) and went up for apple picking! It was a gloriously sunny day and it was wonderful. The kids are finally big enough that no one needed to be carried, pushed, or pulled. We picked apples, ate apples, and had a lovely long walk. We bought some cider, the apples we picked, and some apples for sauce. On our way home, we stopped by a local farm and bought pumpkins and squashes. Downwood got to recreate a viral video when he put the apples onto a drill to peel faster. It worked surprisingly well - only one exploded from the G-forces. We made apple sauce, ate apples, and hung out for the rest of the day.

Sunday morning we all slept in LATE. Emi came in and snuggled with me, which was lovely. She's getting so big and most of the time I'm up and doing stuff long before she is, so this was a wonderful treat for Momma.

I did a lot of laundry and a lot of sewing. I started getting pieces cut out for Emi's Hogswatch present (tons of princess dresses). I also pulled out the leftover green fabric and a blue jersey remnant and put together a shirt for Alex. It's super cute and he loves it. Now I need to make a similar shirt for Downwood and trim it with the last little bits of the green fabric and we could have an ADORABLE xmas card picture.

We also did a lot of cooking. Downwood boiled apple juice down into apple juice concentrate, then mixed it with more cider and honey. It's currently sitting in the brewing closet with Campten tabs, killing off any unwanted bacteria. Tomorrow, he'll put in the yeast and let it do its thing. I decided that I was tired of stopping at the gas station every morning to grab a breakfast sandwich and coffee, so I made some english muffin egg sandwiches and some breakfast burritos and put it all in the freezer. This will work. I will make it work.

I did NOT get over to the tattoo place to get my pumpkin done. They were super busy and I had too much anxiety to call early enough for them to get me in. UGH. So now I'm Fbook chatting with the owner and we're setting up a time. I finally decided that this can go on the back of my left calf. That way, it won't interfere with my plans for my right leg, with my back phoenix, or clash with my ideas for my right arm. Also, I didn't feel like dealing with the potential embarrassment of a high hip placement. My calves are lovely and deserve to be decorated, too.

So, yeah, I accomplished a lot this weekend. I was decent at adulting, even if a couple of times I just said "Heck with it" and tried to enjoy the moment. I did NOT want to get out of bed today, but werk's been reasonably quiet. This is a nice change of pace and one I will be embracing.