1. Lost Notes. A small tragedy befell me last week. Small as in not very important in the grand scheme of things, but big enough that it made me cry and feel sad for about two days. What happened? One morning Sam somehow quickly deleted ALL of my lists from the Notes app on my iPad. All of them. Gone forever, just like that. They couldn't be recovered--believe me, I researched and tried. Mission impossible. "The cloud" didn't come through for me this time. These are lists that I've been keeping for years, way before I got an iPad. I transferred them to the iPad because it was convenient to have them on there. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to me, it wasn't secure. I try not to think too hard about the content of the lists because I don't want to face the full realization of all of the information I had in them that was lost. Some of them were practical lists and some were just for fun and some were pretty important. Sob.
But life goes on. It's not the end of the world. I found a new app that's much more secure and I've started making new lists there. And I banished Apple's Notes app to the very last screen all by itself. It's getting a permanent timeout. I tried to delete it altogether but it comes free with Apple products and can't be deleted. Thanks for that Steve Jobs!
2. Hair. I recently blow-dried my hair for the first time in over a year. At my last hair appointment I decided to start getting my hair washed, cut, and blow-dried again. Because of the damage that happened to it two years ago I've been getting dry cuts whenever I go in because blow-drying was too damaging. Fortunately my hair has slowly but surely
finally been getting healthier and I felt it was ready to experience the blow-dryer again. Plus it just feels good to have someone wash your hair and massage your scalp and blow it all dry, and my hair looked nice afterwards, much better and fuller than usual. So I thought that maybe I'd start blow-drying it every once in awhile, like sometimes for church or a special event. Unfortunately, I can't seem to remember how to blow-dry properly, because my hair felt stiff and stuck out at funny angles when I was done. What a waste of hair products and ion-blasted warm air! I think I know what I did wrong and I might try again this weekend. A new chapter is opening up in Donna's Hair Chronicles. Stay tuned! (I know. I'm ridiculous!)
3. Cooking. I've been making new recipes for dinner lately. I try to do two new recipes a week. Most have turned out pretty well, but I was disappointed by one of them this week. I made broccoli cheddar soup in the crockpot from
this recipe that I got from (where else?) Pinterest, and it had a funny bland sort of taste to it. John, my soup-lover, didn't like it, Sam wouldn't touch it (no surprise there), and Peter thought it was okay. Last night's recipe was better. I made these
Chicken Enchilada Puffs and they were good. The thing I'm finding with cooking and making new things is that it takes more time and it costs more money. But I'm going to keep it up because I'm tired of making the same things and I'm ready to become a good cook, even if it means making some duds now and then!
4. Potty-training. I've been potty-training Sam for the past week and it's going fairly well. I think we're about halfway there. I have a pretty good rewards program set up to help keep him motivated. It's been really fun to look at the underside of the toilet lids and the parts of the toilet that I try never to look at every 30 minutes during the day. Oh, and dumping the contents of the little potty is a real treat too! But you know what? I really shouldn't complain. I'm so thankful for Sam and that he's in our family and that I get to be his mother. Who knows? He may turn out to be the last child I'll ever have to potty-train. So in spite of the inconvenience and the ick factor, I'm grateful for the experience of potty-training this sweet, special blessing of a child because it means that he's healthy and he's here. (Even if he did delete all of my iPad lists.)
5. Snowstorm. There, not here. The Northeast is supposed to get a huge snowstorm this weekend with up to 2-3 feet of snow! I live for these kinds of storms, but they just don't seem to happen in Iowa. I miss Nor'easters! Stay safe and enjoy the storm, my lucky family and friends back East!
