Case of the Mondays

Are you watching any good shows right now? We haven’t had a show that we’ve both looked forward to watching in awhile (which I don’t understand because who doesn’t love Flipping Out? I am Jeff Lewis and Nick is Gage, btw.) but we just found out we have free HBO for the next few months and have both gotten hooked on The Night Of. I didn’t listen to Serial but Nick says they are similar.
Do you always go out to eat on vacation, or do you usually stay somewhere with a kitchen and cook, or a little of both? Our Cape Cod trip is quickly approaching and I’m starting to rack my brain for meal ideas, since it’s not practical for us to do much eating out while we’re there (or anywhere, really). I’ve been getting some ideas from Jenny as well as here and here. I’m considering making a few things ahead of time to freeze and bring with us, and possibly even doubling the recipes so I have a small freezer stash for once we’re home. To me there’s nothing worse than getting home from vacation with piles of laundry, no food in the house, and a million other to-dos, so I usually try to have a couple things in the freezer for when we get home. (If we’re not going away for more than 3-4 days I sometimes even do all the meal planning and grocery shopping for after vacation before we leave.)
Fall is upon us, meaning I need to make sure my health + wellness stockpile is in order. We were around a sick toddler last week and sure enough, a couple days later Amelia woke up with a runny nose. I put both girls and myself on my oil routine, and the cold amounted to almost nothing for Amelia, Eloise may have sneezed a couple times, and I was able to avoid it altogether. (And my household oil resister/skeptic who will remain unnamed has a full-blown cold.) Three words: Thieves + Frankincense + Lemon. This is a magical combination. I do a drop of each mixed into a pump of fractionated coconut oil and rub it up and down the girls’ spines, and on the bottoms of their feet. If there are any oils you need, these are the three!
My hair salon offers free kids’ cuts each Monday in August, so I took the girls today for Eloise's back-to-school cut. I usually don’t think too much about what I look like before leaving the house because the places I frequent—playground, grocery store, etc.—don’t require me to. Let’s just say that in a beauty salon with two kids, I was suddenly aware of my messy hair, unmoisturized legs, toes that are in desperate need of a pedicure, unmatching outfit, sweaty sheen thanks to wearing Amelia in the baby carrier, dark circles under my eyes, etc. etc. etc. There was a woman there who was probably in her 40s and had her teenage daughter with her, and she looked so put-together and un-disheveled. She had beautiful pink driving mocs on and had not a hair out of place. She looked so well rested, and was calmly conversing with her logical, rational offspring. It made me wonder if that will ever be me, or if I will continue to live in a black hole of craziness until I die. Today is one of those days I need to read my own advice.