Wherein I discover that I'm no more organized in 2026 than before...

Here we are, a little over a week into 2026, and you've clearly discerned that one of my New Year's resolutions was NOT daily blogging, haha. I hope you all had terrific, fun-filled, peaceful, enjoyable holidays and have started off the year on the right foot. I have begun a jigsaw puzzle that we received for Christmas, but it is on the poker table in the basement and I'm rarely down there so I keep forgetting to work on it. Need to read more books and assemble more puzzles this year and play fewer games on my phone...

I've also, despite my hope and precautions, ended up with lymphedema, but that it not a story for today. We'll get there eventually. Right now, I'm just... I don't even know. But while I'm thinking about it, for whoever is taking notes, petite medium shirts aren't working. Some mediums also aren't working at all. I very much resemble a preschooler insisting on dressing myself, including getting arms stuck up over my head, because between the compression sleeve and the swelling in my arm sleeves are giving me fits. Please don't shop for me. It's going to be a case of me having to try stuff on to see what works. =/ Gah. Bah. Humbug!
 

On a better note, especially for those of you afraid to break a New Year's resolution, I have boldly gone there already. I possess a ridiculous amount of tea, including fun ones shared between my amazing sisters-in-law, below:

I decided I would have a cup of tea each day in 2026 since I have plenty. 

January 6, I forgot. 

So, you know, not even a week into the resolution. You're welcome. 

So far this is my run down:

Day 1- I admit, I was a little apprehensive to read "green tea, roasted buckwheat, and almond". However, it was delightful! I was not expecting to enjoy it.

Day 2- Grand Jasmin Chun Feng- green tea with jasmine flowers. Here's the thing. Had I not read it, I wouldn't have been consumed with giggles and probably would have liked it more, BUT because my Grammy had a jasmine air freshener in her tiny bathroom that my brother and I loved to hear "pssssst" when we pushed the button, my brain had a problem with the juxtaposition of that scent being in tea I was drinking. I let Dada try it and he thought it was fine, but I noticed he also didn't finish it.

Day 3- Detox- that word kinda scared me so I was apprehensive again but then I read, "rooibos, honeybush, moringa, and mango" and even though I don't know what honeybush or moringa are, I do like rooibos tea. This was no exception. Delicious! Bring on the detox!

Day 4- blend of Assam and Yunnan black teas, which was fine. Nothing stand-out-ish, but good.

Day 5- lemongrass, ginger, and carrot- didn't really expect much from this one but was pleasantly surprised about the delightful lightness of it!

Biggest letdown of the week was Day 6- long jing, "delicate and vegetal green tea". Probably fine if you're a green tea fan. I think vegetal was the right word and this one didn't get finished. I'm trying to drink them all straight and undoctored and this one didn't feel like much would improve it to where it wouldn't taste like honey or whatever versus the green tea taste itself.

Day 7- "blue mountain"- black tea, strawberry and flowers. Yum! Yes, please! Made up for the Day 6 even though I drank both of these on Day 7 to catch back up. 

Should probably mention I'm working my way through an Advent tea calendar that didn't get opened at Advent so I'm kicking off the new year with it before I work my way through all the other stuff I have. I'm also drinking all of these as hot teas, in case anyone wondered.

I don't know what today's will be, so I'll let you know later!

Have a wonderful week!

Mid-March moments

We celebrated Grandma Barb's birthday with chocolate donuts, which we all knew she would appreciate. They hopped into my cart at the store the day before her birthday, so I blame her. She was a huge chocolate fan, often smuggling me Dove chocolates, and hiding M&M's in her pockets. She's been gone five years already and we often giggle about her love of bananas, which bordered on addiction, how she would have gotten a kick out of the things the kids say and do, and how I hear her voice in my head when I ask, "how's everybody doing today?" Gone but not forgotten, for sure. Happy birthday, Grandma Barb.

And because I do have a wee bit of Irish in me, I felt I should represent for St. Patrick's Day:

And, heaven help me, I decided to clean out the boys' closets and dresser. I told Zita to send in a search party if she didn't hear from me again in a timely fashion. 

Holy Moses, does this kid have a lot of clothes! For someone who has been in pajamas for the majority of the last eleven months, I was blown away by how much he has. These pictures are all from Damon's closet!
 

I made a ton of progress. We have a large box to give to a friend with slightly smaller guys than ours, and bags to head to goodwill. That Cuisinart box in the background was full of clothes for him to wear in fall of 2020, but as I've stated already, he stayed in pajamas because we didn't go anywhere, so I never even opened it. I'm fairly certain none of it will fit him in the fall/winter of 2021 because the kid got LONG. Things tend to get boxed up around here and then hang out a week or two before making it to their final destination, so if you of anyone who needs size 10-12 shirts, long or short sleeves, let me know!

I should have taken pictures of Liam's dresser drawers. We discovered a long time ago that rolling his clothes works better than folding them, but during the pandemic he's also been in mostly pajamas and has taken to just yeeting stuff in the drawer any which way. The drawers have never closed well anyway, so they just yawn open and patiently receive whatever he's trying to jam in there. Well, I discovered that he had shoved dress shirts in there as well, and was not pleased. First of all, those suckers are long sleeved and take up more room, and second, I do not iron. Ever. He assured me the wrinkles will fall back out now that they're hung up, and let's be honest, we're not going anywhere for awhile that he would need them, but still. To quote a friend and fellow karate mom, "the child isn't right!" 

Anyway, we got his dresser mostly sorted but did not even attempt to deal with the huge bin of rolled up clothes that has been lurking in his closet. Divide and conquer. If he'd just quit growing, that would help. Looks like he's grown two inches in the last year and that's just eyeballing it. Yiiiiiikes. Good thing it's almost shorts season because I don't know how we'll keep him in pants otherwise...