Thursday's Thoughts

Today we are like Winnie the Pooh, starting out with a cold, blustery day.  Once again it was 47 degrees this morning, and the expected high is around 68.  For us, that's pretty chilly.  To all those Northerners out there thinking, "That's not cold at all!  That's springtime weather for us!", yeah, whatever.  Haters gonna hate.

My daughter wanted me to go with her this morning to get the ultrasound done on her leg, but the appointment was at 9:00 and I was running late.  I'm glad I didn't go; the place where the doctor sent her doesn't do the ultrasound she needs.  She spent an hour and a half there for nothing.  Thankfully, the people there were extremely helpful and not only found her another place that actually does the ultrasound she needs, they made the appointment for her.  It's too bad she didn't know this beforehand: the place she went to today is two cities north of us.  The place that she's going to tomorrow, that has the equipment to do what she needs, is in our town, about a 5 minute drive away.  That's annoying.

Once again my son's school day is light.  The biggest assignment he has today is math.  He has to do the work for the lesson that was taught yesterday.  He finished his music portfolio and did his leadership reading, so once again he's ahead of the game.  I'm hoping this trend will continue.  No one (especially not my son) wants to do schoolwork during Christmas break.

The menu for today is the quinoa turkey chili, which I will post the recipe for.  It is so simple to make, full of good stuff like veggies and lean meat, and it is so filling!  You can spice it up if you like, or keep it mild.  I don't go overboard on spicyness because my youngest son will complain, but it does have a tiny bit of a kick.

After schoolwork was done my son and I headed to Old Navy to return a hoodie.  My son had gone to Old Navy with his sister and had seen this blue hoodie that he loved.  My daughter told me he wanted it, and I told her to go ahead and get it for him and I would give her the money.  Well, somehow the message didn't get related correctly, and he was unsure of the size, so he didn't get it.  He wouldn't stop talking about this hoodie, and when I told him he could have gotten it he was upset.  He kept telling his sister he wanted to go back and get it, so she just went after work and picked it up.  Problem was, she got it in a large.  My son had tried on the medium and insisted it was too snug, so she got him the next larger size.  It was huge.  That hoodie looked like it was swallowing him up.  So of course he then kept begging to go back to Old Navy to exchange it.  We don't have any malls in our small town.  All we have is Main Street with a few shops, and a few restaurants around there.  To go to a mall we either have to go south to one city or 2 cities north.  The mall south of us doesn't have an Old Navy; it used to but for some reason it closed.  I don't particularly care for the mall south of us anyway.  It's small and always super crowded.  The good thing is, we live right off an expressway, and the Old Navy is also off the expressway, so it's normally a quick trip.  The not-so-good thing is that there's road construction going on, and the traffic to get to the expressway is ridiculous.  Honestly, it took longer to get to the store than it did to get the exchange done, and there was a line when we got to Old Navy.  I was so glad to get home.  I hate traffic, but it was nice to see my son so happy.  He hasn't taken the hoodie off since we got out the store.

It was my intention to switch out the Christmas lights today, but it was already starting to get dark by the time we got back from the mall, so it's gonna have to wait another day.  Let's just hope I get them fixed before it's time to take them down again.

My son just reminded me that my birthday is just 3 days away.  He asked me if I'm excited.  I said, "Did you get me something nice?"  He answered, "I think you'll like it."  To which I quickly responded, "Then I'm excited!"  LOL!  It made him chuckle.  Then he said he doesn't remember what he got me for Christmas.  I guess that gift isn't quite so memorable.

I watched one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies, definitely my favorite Lifetime Christmas film, Comfort and Joy with Nancy McKeon.  My oldest son got it for me for Christmas last year and I was so thrilled because I can watch it over and over.  I've gotta go clean up the kitchen now.  There's enough chili left for lunch tomorrow, so we'll have that and sandwiches.  A mini vacation from the kitchen, woohoo!  I'm gonna shower early and then maybe watch another Christmas movie.  My collection is calling out to me :-).  Have a great night!