busy(ish) week

This week has flown by!  I'm not really sure what happened. I worked an extra half day, which sometimes makes a week go by faster, especially when my days off are not all together.  I'm working all weekend, but then I have three days off in a row...I'm looking forward to that.  Except that I might have to go in for jury duty...I'm not looking forward to that possibility. I discovered that I am sympathy nesting for my (pregnant) friend Brittany.  It all started when I was looking up people's weekly menu plans online.  John and I have started making a weekly dinner plan so that we don't have to hurry up and come up with something for dinner between the time he gets home (5:30ish most nights) and when I go to work (6:30...well, 6:36 to be exact).  It's worked out pretty well, except that I have always HATED trying to come up with a dinner plan.  How am I supposed to know what I want to eat for dinner in three days?? Anyway, I thought I would see how other people accomplish this task, which of course led to a million other tangents.  I won't share all of them with you.  Anyway, back to the point.  I stumbled across an interesting concept that I needed to share with Brit, which resulted in an entertaining email conversation: From me to B: Don't you think it would take more time to make one of these than save time by using it?  Who are these people and how to they have so much time on their hands?? http://orgjunkie.com/2010/08/making-a-household-notebook-work-for-you.html Wait...maybe it does save them time and because they are organized they have more time?  Hmmm, maybe I need to become a better "housewife" so I can have a cleaner house and always have time to make dinner and walk the dog... (Also, just so you know, I'm NOT putting down people who use that system.  If it works for you...fantastic.  Totally not my thing.) From B to me: "Not only do I not "have" time to make one, I don't "have" time to use one.  It is probably because I spend so much time on the internet trying to learn to cook and organize and be a good wife.  And sometimes I get distracted by other more interesting stuff... Oh dear.  Now I won't sleep contemplating all the ways I'm failing cause I don't have a notebook!  I can't even keep my Guard Pay notebook up to date!  And there is a toilet in what should be the nursery!  Me = failure at life! Okay, I'm going to go peruse the internet and see what I can think about buying to make myself feel better. ;-) Do you think any of the other girls have notebooks?  ... Probably not, those type of people couldn't be friends with someone that doesn't have a notebook. Plus, it's better for our weight to not make dinner and walk the dog.  Yah!  Good for us!" From me to B: "Woah!  I didn't mean to cause you any grief!! First of all, I'm pretty sure that the toilet in the nursery does not mean you are a failure at life.  However, if said toilet is still in said nursery when said baby arrives...we might need to talk.  I'd offer to let you store your toilet at my house...but I'm such a bad "housewife" that we pretty much don't have any place to put it...except in the living room (I guess it could serve as a larger water bowl for the dog while it was here), and if anyone came to our house while I was storing my friends toilet in my living room...I might lose some credibility.  You understand, right? I've been doing a lot of internet perusing related to weekly meal planning, "freezer" cooking (i.e. cooking food and freezing it to be reheated later).  This perusing led me to how I should organize the pantry so I can fit more in it...which led me to why I need my house to be clean and organized, which has led me to feeling badly about myself because I can barely do any of those things.  My house is a mess, my weekly meal plan has three things on it, and our freezer isn't big enough to store anything extra in it. Also, I've just failed John miserably because I can't speak Spanish very well anymore!  I called him to make sure he wasn't lying dead on the side of the highway and his response involved the word "nightmare" (which is never a good thing).  When I asked if I could do anything to help, he asked me how my spanish was...I told him the only things I can say in Spanish anymore are "breathe," "push," and "don't push."  So yeah...me = failure too!" From B to me: "See, people with notebooks aren't friends with people like us.  :-)  Their loss.  You sound like you are nesting.... more than I am... My house is also a mess, I fed my hubby mac and cheese for lunch today, and there aren't really any meals in our second freezer that is big enough.... Hopefully we have other redeeming qualities. That's okay on the toilet thing.  If it's not installed by Friday night it'll have to be put in the backyard so that there is enough places for two pregnant women to pee. I can say "beer", "bathroom" and "Keren has chicken legs" in spanish. "breathe" seems like it might be useful... Perhaps we could work up "don't push me" between the two of us?" So, apparently I'm nesting.  Maybe I should go stay at Brit's house so I can nest there and she can reap the benefits.  Yesterday, despite only sleeping for 4.5 hours, I managed to start containerizing the pantry, go to Costco, walk the dog for 45 minutes, make homemade granola, run for 45 minutes, and make a dinner plan for next week.  Seriously...I might need to get help! Here's what happens when you make your black dog run for 45 minutes when it's 70+ degrees out: If this weather keeps up, she's going to need a puppy pool in the backyard.  If you aren't from AK, I know you might think that 70 is not hot.  For us, it's hot.  The summer before last it was like this the whole summer, which was awesome because here, you have to get outside and enjoy the summer because it doesn't last long.  But it was hot.  Last summer, it rained all summer long.  Which made enjoying the summer (and 20+ hours of daylight) hard. Alright, off to start dinner (we're having quesadillas if you were wondering...)!