Plan Your Taquitos

So apparently, when I set out her clothes for the week, I had paired this pink, red & black shirt with pants that were actually navy. So when Jeff was getting her dressed for school this morning, he grabbed the first pair of black pants he could find, but it appears they are just a teensy bit too short for her! But she’s still cute, either way. And she was just being weird & silly, waving her hands around and doing all sorts of funny little moves.

We grabbed her a cranberry orange biscuit from the front (their new cook {after the other had her baby} has been making some fun experiments lately, that are really good!), but she was eating around the cranberries because she said she didn’t like them. But she was happy and content, and we had a good drop-off!

For my lunch today, I had the leftover lemon chicken orzo soup from Saturday night. It was a little less “soupy” today, because the orzo had absorbed some of the liquid, but that was fine and it was still really tasty. I would definitely want to make this recipe again. Since Jeff didn’t like the orzo though, maybe I’ll use it as my new go-to take-a-meal-to-friends-and-family dinner (you know like, after they had a baby or they’re sick or something), and scoop myself a bowl before delivery 😉 Would that be terrible!?

Anyways, I’ve got about 40 pages left in this book now, and I’m just itching to get to the end. I’ve really enjoyed it! It’s reminded me a little of “Ready Player One” (rich guy dies and leaves a puzzle for the world to play for the inheritance), and also season two of “The OA” (haunted house full of puzzles), but in a good way for both of those instances.

Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned signing up for daily update emails from the New York Times? I have really enjoyed all the interesting things I’ve read. But one of my favorites is the Modern Love column. Amazon Prime even created a tv series based on the stories, and Jeff and I started watching it last night. And it’s really cute! The first episode was about a single girl living in NYC, whose doorman helps look out for her, and vet the men she’s dating.  Today, I loved this article I read about a book-loving couple and their cute proposal story in a library.

When I walked outside after work today, I was blasted with unexpected cold wind! I didn’t even have a sweater on. I was not prepared. But by the time I picked up Emmie and we were heading home, it was super windy and cold, but the sky was beautiful! Normally, the sky is kind of only pretty in one direction, but tonight, it was literally 360 degrees of gorgeous skies. I just couldn’t get over it! Each of the pictures below was facing a different direction within just a few minutes of each other.

At home, Emerson, Daddy and Pretzel all snuggled up watching Emmie’s new favorite Netflix show, Robocar Poli. And I made a super simple repeat dinner of chicken taquitos, yellow rice & black beans. After trying three new recipes over the weekend, I wanted to make something I didn’t even have to think about. Plus, Emmie & Jeff both loves these taquitos and eat them really well, so it’s a win all around. Plus, I get the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Actually, this blogger/podcaster/Instagrammer I follow, Kendra @TheLazyGenius, shares ways to make normal life easier. Her whole deal is to “be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don’t.” She also says when making your weekly meal plan, to “plan your hot dogs,” which just means not every meal has to be fancy or new or impressive. It’s OK to repeat meals everyone likes or are just easy. Plan your hot dogs, plan your easy meals, so you don’t have to stress over it. And I love that. This meal is one of our “hot dog meals.” For me, this is like, “plan your taquitos.”

Emerson literally ate two entire taquitos! She also just LOVES dipping them in all the sour cream.

After dinner was bath time, and I love doing crazy things with her shampoo’d hair. Tonight, this reminded me of “Free Willy” when they talk about his fin being curled up in captivity, vs. standing up straight when he was free. (Megan and I were obsessed with that movie when we were growing up. And I was obsessed with the Michael Jackson song that played during the credits.)

She helped pick out her jammies tonight, and she was excited to find she had a pair of Elsa PJ’s in the drawer. She has only recently started getting into “Frozen,” so when she saw them and we put them on, she said, “I’m a princess girl!” These were actually purchased last winter, and were too huge for her then. But now, the little shirt is just a bit too short, and the pants barely meet her ankles, but they’re still so huge on her!

She was trying my patience a little bit at bedtime, trying all of her old stall tactics. But with a little perseverance on my part, I finally got her all settled in her bed, and sang “Jesus Loves Me.”

I was able to get all the dishes washed relatively quickly, and then finish up this blog. So now it’s time for an episode or two (they’re only 30-ish minutes each) of “Modern Love,” with some hot tea. And then I’m going to read a little before bed, because I really want to finish up that library book I’ve been working on for like, three weeks! Night friends!