SQTF 74: Meltdown, Meals, and Mitten Memories

I

I take it back. Pleasantly-warm weather in January should still never exceed 30 degrees Fahrenheit. This morning it's 43, and sleeting. That's an April temperature, and in April there's enough sun to keep the rain a liquid! January? Not so much. Roads are horrible today, and pretty much everything is shut down; police are warning people to stay off the roads if possible. At least my meeting is cancelled! And Matt shouldn't have to go in to the office, although he's still waiting to confirm that with his boss because the campuses in other parts of the state obviously aren't shutting down just because we have bad weather.

II 

You could say that I'm not exactly a happy camper at the moment, because if we'd known ahead of time about the closures and cancellations, I could still be asleep. Given that Little Bear was up almost every hour last night, that sure sounds nice... but I got up and dressed before we found out, and now I'm too awake. Not that I have anything at all to complain about compared to all the people in the ditch this morning.

III

It's not exactly something you'd record in a baby book, but one thing I want to remember about this age is that Little Bear has picked up this hilarious fake laugh, and he only does it for one specific thing: when he pulls his mittens off while we are driving. Every single time we are in the car, roughly halfway to wherever we are going, we'll hear this self-satisfied little "Heh heh heh heh" from the back seat, and he'll be sitting there smirking and waving his mittens at us.

IV

So far this week our shift in eating habits has gone better than expected. I know they say it takes 30 days to form a habit, and we definitely aren't at habit-stage yet, but not eating between meals and eating salads for lunch every day has actually been manageable, which is better than I expected. It definitely helps that Matt has been putting together the salads, because he puts more thought into them than I would. For example, yesterday's:

Leftover bourbon-glazed chicken, a bit of smoked Gouda, dried currants and balsamic vinegar. Not vinaigrette--I just put straight vinegar on my salads. Don't worry; Matt does a good job of reminding me of how weird I am.

V

Our kid, the inverse picky eater: Little Bear happily eats things like pickles, olives, pesto, and beets. Offer him something normal little kids like, though, like fish sticks or mashed potatoes, and he turns up his nose. And cheese! Sharp cheddar, smoked Gouda, Swiss? He can't get enough of it. Medium cheddar? Won't touch it.

VI

When I think about shopping at Sam's Club, I generally just think of the usual grocery items. Food, paper products, etc. This past week, though, we re-discovered that they can have incredible deals on good brands of clothing as well, and you never know what you'll find: we found heavy Eddie Bauer plaid flannel shirts for less than $7.00! I need to remember to run through their clothing selection each time I'm in there.

VII

After spending a half hour in a video meeting with the rest of his coworkers--because they're the video conferencing department, so of course the boss can't just call them on the telephone--the verdict is: Matt is staying home. I'm so glad. He's working from home this morning or as long as it takes to finish up some projects, then burning a couple hours of annual leave to round out the day. It would be so nice if his boss have them the option to work from home more often--they really can accomplish most of their work from anywhere with an internet connection--but I'm grateful that it's an option today.

Have a wonderful, safe weekend! Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary, and don't forget to vote in the Sheenazing Awards, for Catholic bloggers who follow the example of Ven. Fulton Sheen in evangelizing through the media, over at A Knotted Life.