Last week at home

I can not believe this is my last week of medical leave. Physically I am feeling nearly 100%, except for the allergies/cold that settled in over the last few days. I have really enjoyed this time at home with Aly, and having the time to rest, organize, and start new. I can not believe it's been five weeks since I had Aubree. Crazy!

Today I took Aly to MIL's house so I could clean and do some things on my own. Because grocery shopping and trying to clean the house with a 2-yr old takes 10 times longer than just doing it myself! I went through our freezers to get an idea of what we have. It turns out that we have enough meat to last probably 3 months, veggies for a month, and who knows how many bags of cheese. We also have freezer meals from friends & family still. They really stocked us up! I've also been stretching their pre-made meals with some items that I make the day-of (like a pre-made entree with veggies that I make up, or pre-made sides with fresh grilled fish). Freezer food does not taste like "freezer food" as much this way. I should be able to get us through the end of October with only a few quick trips for milk and fresh produce. DD could eat her weight in bananas!!

My goal this week is to plan for the next several weeks once I go back to work. I want to get all the laundry done and DD's fall clothes set out. Go through my wardrobe and make sure I have enough nice pieces for work that fit well. Plan out meals for weekdays. Declutter and put away things we are not using frequently, so that the house stays cleaner and the things we do use are accessible.

I think the home we had lined up for our dog fell through, so she's still with us for now. Aly has started to take an interest in her (instead of screaming in terror every time she sees the dog), so we are working on getting them both used to each other. The dog has also started to calm down a bit around Aly. Maybe this will be a good thing and we can keep Lucy. Otherwise we will keep trying to find her a good home with older kids or no kids. You never really know until you have little ones how the animals are going to react to them, and vice versa. So far, though, we've managed to keep them separated without any issue. Now that winter is approaching and it will be getting colder, and Aly now has free reign of the house, we will have to figure out something.