Category: triplets

It’s pa-jammy, you know

Today I did my 200th Peloton ride, and I got a shout out! It was very exciting, except the instructor said “pee-why-jammy” and after posting about it on Facebook, I now realize everyone thinks it’s either pee-why-jammy or pie-jammy and it’s neither, it’s pa-jammy. Like pajamas! That’s the whole point! I guess spelling it the British way was the problem. Except the instructor who gave me the shout out is British! So who knows.

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I guess I should have spelled it like that.

I registered my domain in March 2002 and only now am realizing no one knows how to pronounce it. But it’s okay. It’s not meant to be spoken aloud, right? It’s fine.

So what else? I started a sourdough erm starter. It’s only day 2. I’m fairly sure this is not going to go well. That reminds me, I should water my plants.

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I hung up the boys’ soccer medals, and Ziggy got a dog bed for their room, which he has been sleeping in! Very very very very very very very very cute.

The LED lights make everything look funky.

One night for dinner I made these zucchini fritters that the boys didn’t like. I was adorably optimistic. Alas.

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This beer can is ridiculously pretty.

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Also yummy.

The end!

 

The boys’ updated room {ta-da!}

Finally! We are (almost, nearly) finished with the boys’ room makeover. Since there wasn’t going to be on a vacation this summer, I figured, why not spend that money on sometime more tangible. And the boys’ room was ripe for a makeover. The last time I did anything substantial to their room was 7 years ago when their beds were built.

Now. If I could go back in time, I’d tell myself NOT to paint the room dark navy and the beds dark gray. (Well, one would hope I’d use my time travel for more important purposes, but trust me, this weekend there was nothing more important.)

Let’s get to the good stuff first…before and after pictures. I admit, their room was in quite a state when I took the before pictures. But if I’d waited for them to clean it up just so I could take before pictures, well, I wouldn’t have paint in my hair right now.

Okay, so I didn’t do a great job taking pics of the same angles, but you get the idea. Here are a few more:

Here is what we did:

  • painted the walls Alabaster (Sherwin Williams) and the trim (beds included) ultra reflective white (SW.) I wish I’d gone with Behr paint, but SW was having a sale. I feel like the good Behr paint covers better and is about the same price as Sherwin Williams Cashmere on sale. Oh well.
    Aside: on the advice of a friend, I got a paint sprayer and it really helped the primer go on quickly. And it was fun. But I didn’t want to put expensive paint in it (it has to be thinned) so it didn’t get as much use as I would have hoped. But it’s nice to have.
  • got these LED lights. This was basically what the room was designed around. They wanted light walls to show off the LED lights better. Ha!
  • got a rug from Amazon. It’s soft and squishy and was super cheap. We don’t do rugs in our house, so I didn’t want to spend a ton in case it didn’t work out.
  • removed all of the posters and (sniff, sniff) stickers from the walls. The original theme of the room (when the boys were 3, mind you) was “under the sea” so there were sea creatures everywhere. Linus was particularly sad to have to remove these Easter stickers he got from his preK-4 teacher.
  • took down the ratty “curtains” that have been up forever (really just pieces of fleece on clips) and got light blocking 2.5″ faux wood blinds.
  • put a set of their cubicles that were next to the old dresser into the closet instead. IMG_7192
  • bought a new dresser! Real furniture! The one that was there before was a hand me down from a friend. I really think this was the first piece of furniture I’ve ever bought that didn’t have to be put together. (I mean, I love IKEA, don’t get me wrong, but I wanted something a bit more grown up, and that I could see in person first.)
  • used some of the 46 zillion soccer jerseys the boys have to decorate the wall behind the dresser. Hung their team scarves on the walls around one of the windows.
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  • moved the TV and Xbox to the dresser so the desk can be used for school, since it will be at least partially virtual this year.
  • got a butterfly chair from Target to make it more comfortable to rot their brains.

There are still a few things left to do, but I am burned out, so they’ll have to wait a bit.

  • install hooks on the back of the door for coats and jackets
  • re-hang a shelf with hooks in the desk nook for all of their medals and whatnot
  • hang the soccer team photo

I think that’s it? Overall, we are all very happy with the updated room. But I swear, I am never painting again.

Mid-month check in

I mean. It’s mid-July. Whatever. Time has no meaning. Certainly the date doesn’t. But here’s what we’ve been up to, anyway.

We finally saw Grandee and Larry again this weekend. Steak was eaten. Yum.

I made Oliver a Manchester City mask.

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No idea what’s going on with school.

Since we can’t go on vacation, we are re-doing the boys room starting tomorrow. Here are a few very very very messy before pics. There will be a full post after.

Here’s a bit of the dresser we bought. This is the first piece of non-IKEA furniture I think I’ve ever purchased myself. (Or non-Walmart or Target, or that I don’t have to put together myself!)

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Ziggy is still cute.

I got a plant for my desk.

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I haven’t been sewing much lately, but I’m about to start sewing masks again for school. Blah. (I mean, who knows what school will look like, but I’m helping prepare just in case.)

Anyway, stay tuned for the boys’ room before and after!

Happy 4th: 151 months

I photographed and edited and posted this all from my phone. What can I say, I took Friday off work and didn’t want to go near my computer.

Not a super exciting fourth for us. I made pita bread and cake though, and we used some old sparklers. So yay.

What’s up?

Same old, same old.

Lots and lots of work.

Sewing:

Made myself another Artists Box Top out of the Liberty lawn I bought in May. Cotton lawn is by far my favorite fabric in the world. So light but crisp and easy to sew and doesn’t wrinkle horribly. Perfect for summer. Also I’m rather proud of this one because I made my own facings instead of trying to use bias tape, which I’ve never been able to find a good tutorial for using it on a v-neck.

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I also made George another button down shirt for Father’s Day. I couldn’t find any more Doctor Who fabric, but I found this one covered in cocktails at a local sewing store. (I had to make an appointment to shop. I felt v important.)

And I made myself this Holyoke sundress from Cashmerette. The top ended up a little big, and I’m not super comfortable with my arms out like this, but I’ll get over it when the temp is 100. This one is made out of a linen/rayon blend.

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Baking:

Bagels that looked funky but tasted good.

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Dinner rolls that look and taste amazing.

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Beignets from scratch!

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The boys and I ate at a restaurant for the first time since March! We went to Tartine, which friends of our own. It was delightful and the food was delicious and nice to feel sorta normal.

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Premier League games started up again, so now it’s even harder to get the boys to focus on summer reading.

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And when they’re not watching soccer or avoiding reading, they’re playing Minecraft with their cousins, which warms my heart.

My cilantro is practically thriving.

And Ziggy is as ridiculously cute as ever. He got a new collar! And I got a lick to the face!

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Until next time….

Twelve and a half!

Happy half birthday, boys! Also, this is number 150! We decided to change venue again this month, this time in front of the jasmine, which still smells sweet.

Six months til they become teenagers. Hold me.

Last day of 6th grade

Well that sure was a weird school year.

Linus, Miles, Oliver

They were going to wear their uniforms but lost steam about halfway through. Close enough. (That yellow hoodie is definitely Linus’s quarantine uniform…)

I can’t tell if they grew much this school year but their hair definitely did! (I should have made them stand up straight for this picture. Oh well.)

First day:

Linus, Oliver, Miles

May stuff

It looks like I’ll be writing one post with more than a dozen words in it per month. I don’t know why I can’t motivate myself to blog more. It’s not like I’m not sitting at my computer all day, every day. (Work is busy.)

So let’s see.

Mother’s Day was great. I usually leave the house and go see a movie with Terry on Mother’s Day but that obviously wasn’t an option this year. But George got me a picnic basket full of goodies from Tartine, and I relaxed and spent the day outside (the weather was outstanding) and drank a bottle of rose that Kiki had sent me. Delightful!

And then later that week, George turned 50! George doesn’t care about birthdays as much as I do, but I tried to make it special. Dinner was from Tartine (shepherd’s pie), I got my friend Angela to bake a cake, and I got him a bottle of expensive whiskey and this portrait of Ziggy. His favorite gift (and I don’t blame him) though was the cards the boys made him.

I’ve been sewing quite a bit – some masks, of course, but also clothes. It makes me happy. I need to do separate posts on these, but I’ve made shirts, mostly. This is all leading up to me deciding which pattern I’m going to use when I sew up this length of Liberty cotton lawn I bought when a fabric store had a sale. All the heart eyes!

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I’ve been enjoying my Peloton too. It is so nice to have the outlet for stress relief. Yesterday I hopped on it three different times when I was stressed out of my mind. Just a ten minute ride really helps! In five and a half weeks, I’ve done 80 rides! (I mean, yes, some of those are 5 minute warm ups or cool downs, but plenty are 45 minutes or longer!)

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If you use the Peloton app, follow me! I’m…guess what…yep, pyjammy. Easy to find.

I’ve been watching all of the Marvel movies in the order suggested here, because Kiki was doing it, and it sounded fun. I realized I’d missed a couple of the movies over the years, so it was nice to get caught up. (And now the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War makes sense!) Sometimes I have it on my phone while I sew and kind of half-watch (I mean, I don’t want to sew over my finger or anything) or sometimes I have it on while I work on a puzzle. The boys watched Spiderman: Homecoming with me the other night, but otherwise it’s just me.

Speaking of the boys watching things, they were so happy last weekend to have a soccer game to watch on TV again!

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Ziggy likes to watch sports too.

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And he’s just generally cute.

Tomorrow is the boys’ last day of sixth grade! Last night they put on their school uniforms because they missed wearing them. So hopefully they won’t mind putting them back on for a last day of school pic!

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Second monthly pic in quarantine. 😭

They wanted to do something different, so I let them take the pic in front of their soccer goal. If only that was not also in front of a chain link fence and our plastic shed. Oh, an behind the astroturf mat we have because they destroyed all of the grass. No, it’s fine. At least we have the World’s Cutest Dog Ever In The History Of Dogs in the pic.

 

Things and stuff

Oops, it’s been almost two weeks since I posted. My bad!

So let’s see, what’s been going on since my last update post?

I got my Peloton last week, that’s pretty exciting. I have been doing about 45 minutes a day of classes or “scenic rides” but I am still waiting for my butt to acclimate. It’s getting better.

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Going for a ride through France, no biggie.

The boys have also been riding it, which is great. They haven’t been going outside enough, even though the weather has been pretty great.

Last week was spring break so they didn’t have any school work. So their brains rotted and oozed from their ears.

I’ve been baking a lot, still. The highlight was when King Arthur flour commented on my hot dog buns.

We got Pictionary, which was fun until SOMEONE stormed off because he didn’t think me saying “looseleaf paper” when the answer was “paper” should count.

We haven’t been watching movies as much, since we started watching Brooklyn Nine Nine. I love it, but I also miss movie nights. We’re about halfway through, I think. Maybe next week we’ll be back to movies.

My hair is long and gray. I can’t wait to cut it off. I wonder if it’ll still happen in May.

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Very gray. Digging it!

The Grand Meetup for this year (slated to be in September) was cancelled, which is sad but understandable.

I started this post three days ago. I can’t say a lot has changed since then, except my butt is getting more used to the Peloton seat.

Oops. I started this post 8 days ago. My bad!

My butt is definitely used to the Peloton seat. I’ve done 35 rides since I got it two weeks ago! Sounds impressive until you realize that includes the 5 minute cooldown rides. Anyway, who cares?

I am even closer to chopping off my ponytail myself. I long for the day I can wash my hair in five minutes.

Sunday I drove over a glass bottle and got my first flat tire in my new (I still consider it new) car. Bummer. I had another tire with a slow leak, so I figured I’d just end up replacing all the dang tires today, but I just had to get three of them repaired! (Yes, that means two tires had nails in them and one a shard of glass.) Only cost me $45 instead of the $700 I was anticipating. That was exciting!

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Boo.

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Yum.

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My green thumb strikes again!

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Boys watching the NFL draft. Who are these people?!?!?

Ziggy being cute all over the place:

Well. I’m going to just go ahead and post this now or else I never will.

12 years, 4 months

I took this on time, but I mean, you know, who cares if it’s not posted on the right day? What is a day? What is time? So here you go, the 148th monthly pic. Ooh, we’re almost up to 150! I wonder if we’ll still be locked down for 150? I don’t want to think about it.

The boys are doing well. They miss their friends. They miss school. (This is unusual.) But they are handling all of this much better than I’d have expected. I used to complain about them never wanting to go anywhere. Now I’m grateful they’re homebodies.

Also, they are all the same height, despite what the picture might indicate. Just different levels of slouchiness. Getting them to take the picture is enough of a battle, forget posture.

TGIF

Ha ha yeah right like day of the week matters.

Well, actually, work has been super busy (my team has been going through a lot of changes that started about a month ago) so I am grateful for a break this weekend. But I will be mostly sewing masks, like I did last weekend.

Speaking of masks, I made a tutorial for the kinds of masks I’ve been making. These are very no-frill. No filter pocket or anything. You just need fabric and ideally bias tape. Take a look.

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Since my evenings have mostly been devoted to mask-making, we haven’t been watching movies as much. However, we did watch Ocean’s 11 the other night, and the boys loved it. They want to watch Ocean’s 12 next. We also started watching Community since it was added to Netflix this week.

Oh, and the boys suckered me into a game of Monopoly which lasted until well after midnight and let’s just say they know better than to ask me to play again. (Not because I won, but because THE TEARS involved with this game. Ugh.)

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Lots of bread baking this week too. And I think pizza for dinner tonight.

I’m getting a Peloton delivered in a couple of weeks – not working out is doing a number on my mood. It means I’ll have to quit Orangetheory, probably, which is a bummer. Hopefully I can still swing a couple of classes a month. We’ll see. But I’m looking forward to being able to work out at home and not have to drive across town.

So I guess that’s about it for this week. Hope everyone is staying well!