Saturday, January 18, 2020

#OneMonthGoals Check-In #2



Our #OneMonthGoals of trying 31 new things is going very well. I'm glad that we made the allowance of being able to double, or sometimes triple up, on new experiences to work ahead. Week nights can sometimes get busy with pick-ups, lessons, practices and not feeling obligated to do something has been a relief. Two weeks ago I posted about #1-8 and here's a recap of new experiences  9-21:

#9:  Brian worked from Valentine Coffee as a break from his routine Colectivo.

#10:  Recipe Roulette:  We tried a new recipe called, Rene's German Marinated Chicken. Brian put it in the crockpot and in retrospect, I don't think that's a good way of cooking chicken. It was pretty dry. I ended up shredding it and adding barbecue sauce.

#11: Logan taught Brian how to play Spiderman on the PS4

#12: Ethan taught me how to play Minecraft. He's a great teacher but I don't think I'll be playing independently anytime soon. One hour of 1:1 time with my son was wonderful and I'll gladly play video games with him if it means we're spending time together.

#13: Recipe Roulette: Ethan made Strawberry Bread and it was delicious!

#14: Recipe Roulette: Pasta Puttanesca...wow, this was yummy. We had some leftovers and it made for a great lunch a few days later. It came from the Binging With Babish cookbook.

#15: New Game for Family Game Night:  I borrowed Century Spice Road from a friend. We really enjoyed this game - so much I'm considering ordering my own copy or adding it to a wishlist. It took a little less than an hour to play and was perfect for a group of 4.

#16: New Game for Brian and I:  Backgammon! I've never played Backgammon before, which is somewhat a surprise because we got the game from my parents as they were cleaning out a closet. I remember seeing the game as a kid but never played it. Brian and I enjoy playing games together so this is a great addition to our 2 person game options.

#17: I learned how to snow blow. This was important to me. November 11 was a rough day. Logan broke a bracket on his braces and needed to go in for a 10 minute appointment which meant I had to take a half day off. Our dog, Arthur, had been sick the day before, couldn't sleep and was in obvious discomfort. I ended up taking him to the emergency ER at 4:00 in the morning after he had spent the last 4 hours pacing up and down our bedroom hallway. To top it all off, it snowed that day. A lot. Brian was traveling for work that week so the snow removal was all up to me because the boys had wrestling practice until 6:30. Around 11:30 I got a call from Brian - panicked he was having a stroke. He handed the phone to his boss who assured me that he'd stay with Brian as an ambulance was coming, he would go to the hospital and keep me up to date as every piece of information became available. I weighed my options and decided that I really needed to just remain calm until more information was available. I had a sick dog and two children - it's not like I could jump in the car and start driving to Cleveland without a fair amount of organizing our life. Not very much time passed before he was diagnosed with Bells Palsy. Even though not life threatening, there is a family history of strokes, at young ages, so he was kept over night at the hospital. That afternoon, as I shoveled all the snow on our long driveway I made the decision that if something ever happened to Brian, the boys and I would move into an apartment or I needed to learn how to use the snow blower.

#18: Homemade Tortillas:  YUM! Can we have these everyday?

#19: Recipe Roulette:  Korean Style Beef Tacos from Skinnytaste Fast and Slow cookbook. This was delicious and enjoyed with the homemade tortillas. We will be enjoying this again sometime!

#20: Brian chose Stoney Creek Coffee to work from rather than the normal Colectivo.

#21:  Ethan gave me a bass guitar lesson. I really wish I had a basic understanding of music because he was so excited and I had no idea what he was telling me to do. Ethan has six years of music and three instruments of knowledge to draw from. I have none. He was very patient but I know he was frustrated that I couldn't read music.

Ten more experiences to go!


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