I don’t have any excuses, other than it’s 2020. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed at work. I’m playing Paperwork Person, Zoom Scheduler, Blog Setter-Upper, Anecdotal Note Enterer, Phone Answerer and occasionally, Teacher. Needless to say, I’ve been exhausted. Regardless, I love the babies in my class and I have a lot of fun watching them develop day by day.

Asaiah, my oldest is going to be moving to the toddler room soon. He’s turning 17 months this week. KJ just turned 12 months and has been perfecting his walking skills. Denison, my baby with an old soul, just started crawling last week. He’s already showing interest in pulling up. Londynn, my youngest, has mastered the art of rolling over and is holding her own bottle.

I dressed up as a gumball machine for Halloween. Over the last 3 years, my costumes have gotten more ambitious. My first year at the center, I was a black cat. Last year, I went as a crayon. I like to find/make costumes that use regular clothes I can wear again. I can’t wear the shirt from this year’s costume, but I can rewear the leggings and skirt.

My vegetable garden was extremely fruitful. I just used the last of the peppers today in a Tex-Mex inspired zucchini cheese muffin. My flower garden was actually pretty good. I got these two sad looking little white flowers off the clearance rack at the end of spring. I planted one by the garage and the other next to the front step. They grew like weeds. Even the snow we had a few weeks ago didn’t kill them. Each must take up about an 18″x18″ area. I never had a green thumb. I guess mine showed up later in life.

I’ve been doing a lot of baking. I participate in a Saturday morning baking club via Zoom. I’ve been making a lot of muffins and/or quick breads, both sweet and savory. I’ve baked a few cakes and a few pies. And cookies… two recent batches have been chai sugar cookies and chocolate bacon brownie cookies. Today I made a loaf of raisin bread that had a chocolate cinnamon swirl in it.

I had gained about 15 pandemic pounds, and I was very disappointed in myself. I had bariatric surgery a few years ago and lost 2/3 of my body weight. Needless to say, I knew I had to crawl back on the healthy lifestyle wagon. I bought a fitness tracker and I’m averaging about 8500 steps a day right now. That’s even with not being in the classroom the first 1.5 hour of my day. I’m usually in the office, sitting, doing paperwork or data entry. I’ve been jogging in front of the TV 5-6 nights a week. I’ve started to log my calories again. All this has led to a 6 pound weight loss so far. I’m back on track and feeling better. It’s amazing that now I’m a more normal body weight, the impact that 6 pounds makes. I look better and I’m feeling better. Maybe one of these days I’ll post a before and after picture.

Gidgette and Ivory are doing good. Ivory got shaved earlier in the fall. Her hair is coming back in and she no longer looks like a sad little rat. She has been spending a bit more time hanging out with me. In the last few months, I’ve had a lot of pain issues. I’m getting migraines more often and the sciatica in my right side has been flaring up. Add to that a fibromyalgia flare and I’ve not really wanted to do much of anything. I wouldn’t say I’ve been forcing myself to exercise. I’m actually looking forward to it. But I am listening to my body more. Ivory seems to know when I need some kitty love.

Gidgette is as lazy as ever. She’s sitting right outside my door and looking at me right now. I just tried calling her over and she just gave me a slow blink.

Yes, this is her snoozing under the heating pad. I left her alone for 5 minutes, came back and she had crawled under it. She also nestled herself into the quilt. She doesn’t like it very much when you move her, even if you need the heating pad.

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