To kick off the week, we celebrated Karissa’s birthday. We had a lunch with friends out at our favorite Middle Eastern place for chicken shawarma sandwiches, falafel, and their killer lentil soup. Adelaide loves the yellow rice and pita sandwich while Emerson loves falafel.
The kids and Karissa then watched my park district basketball game that evening. Emerson really enjoys watching basketball. Karissa had to keep him from running onto the court. And at halftime and the end of the game, a very happy little boy greets me and wants to attempt a few shots.
Adelaide fell asleep on the way home from the game, so Emerson got a rare night for Mommy to read to him. He enjoys different books being read by different people. For example, he loves when Mommy reads “Room on the Broom” but could care less if I read it. Meanwhile, I read “Goodnight Construction Site” and he flips his lid. Mommy reads it and he gets mad. Something about the way different people emphasize different words. And pacing. And who knows what else. We’ve had fun comparing his favorite books and finding out how different they are for us.
The kids had their 6-month dentist appointment this week too. Adelaide is a great little patient for the dentist. She listens very well and cooperates with them. She’s been that way forever. She had a cavity at 2 1/2 and didn’t flinch when they drilled and filled it. Meanwhile, every day brushing Emerson’s teeth is a 3-person job while he screams and bites and thrashes around. He was a nightmare at the dentist. But both kids had a good result: no cavities. They said Adelaide needs to do a better job brushing her back teeth. And that our fights to brush Emerson have made his teeth great. My mom joined the kids and me and treated us to a late breakfast at a fun little diner place.
Carne picada salad. 
Empty gym. 
Lunch date with Mommy. 
Messy face after Doritos.
After being on the road, I felt like crap. We ate at McDonald’s for 4 days in a row and had crappy hotel breakfasts. I needed real food, and I’m sure the kids did too. So in addition to my weekly soup, I made a wonderful carne picada “salad”. I added homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. It was tasty, healthy, and rejuvinating. We try to eat “salads” like this a few times a week. They’re very protein-centric with lots of flavors too. Not a boring salad in any respect.
I also enjoyed an empty gym at the YMCA. After taking nearly a month off from working out, it felt good to lift some weights and shoot some hoops. There’s nothing like an empty gym.
We met Mommy to lunch too! We normally go to McDonald’s for lunch with Mom, but because of our yucky feeling from too much fast food, we chose Subway. The kids do a good job of eating subs and chips. And know that a cookie is waiting for them at the end. Much easier to get veggies at Subway than most other fast food options.
The forecast called for snow on Friday night into Saturday morning. And the forecast was right! We got at least 5″ of snow, probably more, and I had the pleasure of removing it from our driveway. Like I said earlier, the forecast calls for single-digit temps starting Sunday, so the snow needed to get shoveled ASAP.
That was our week. Just a typical week.
The only other notable thing is our continued debate to add another vehicle to the fleet. A big diesel truck isn’t the best vehicle for our normal lifestyle. Short trips are especially bad on diesel engines, so we try to avoid taking the truck on short trips. Thus, we’re effectively a one-car household. It’s not a problem most of the time, but when it is…we wish for the 3rd car. Or a gas truck. Because we’re keeping the RV and love our big truck, we’ll probably get a 3rd car rather than some sort of truck swap. Plus, despite having tons of miles, we know there’s nothing wrong with it.
