liminal_space | dinner & a movie

* tomorrow will mark the 22nd anniversary of marriage and 24th year of togetherness for the mister and i. wow! we've had our ups and our downs, but i can -- with 100% conviction -- say that he has always wanted the best for me and our family. love that guy.

* kid ended her first semester of college with an A in each of her classes. GO KID! today i had to go through more hoops to get her in a summer class (art 101), but i'm so glad i did it instead of putting it off until next week. seems that art 101 class was down to just a few slots. o.O it'll be a nice, easy bit of credits for her after such a rigorous semester and she's looking forward to it.

beyond that, we are trying to figure out a few things for her to do this summer to keep her busy. she is working as a helper at a summer horse camp for a week during june and will be doing some volunteer work at the barn, she can hit a few ceramics classes, and she wants to earn some money with side jobs (through us -- there are a few things she totally can do!) before we leave...so busy but not TOO busy.

she needs that down time.

* to celebrate her success this semester, i bought her a few books to read. i LIKE that kind of reward!

* yesterday i renewed my CA teaching credentials. i'm not 100% sure i ever want to go back to the classroom, but i'm also not 100% sure i don't -- if i let my credentials lapse, the headache of getting them reinstated would probably not be worth it to me. it looks like getting licensed in wi/mn will not be difficult at all, so that's good. it's also not surprising; CA has some of the most rigorous education requirements for teachers in the country.

i do find myself missing teaching and when i imagine going back, it's always with middle school kids. *sigh* i love me some of those middle school kids. they may be a HUGE pain in the ass, but they're so...FUNNY. and weird. mentally and physically they oscillate between being grown up and being nothing but awkward elbows and knees.

* as a general rule, i don't like cooking with canned cream soups. or any soup for that matter. but yesterday i was trying to figure out what to make for dinner that could use up a huge bag of rotisserie chicken that didn't get portioned, and i wanted enchiladas suizas...without the work. so it was time for that lone can of emergency cream of chicken soup can to be useful. the dish was AMAZING. i sort of forgot about them being in the oven and they ended up caramelizing on the bottom and were like creamy flautas instead of enchiladas.

i'll never be able to make them again that way on purpose. :(

and, like always, i made a completely separate meal for the kid so her vegetarian sensibilities were not harmed. :) it would be so much easier if mister and i just went vegetarian, too. maybe once we move through the meat in the freezer.

tonight, though, it's MORE chicken. i'm making the creamed chicken on toast w/bebe peas and i am REALLY looking forward to that! my mom used to make me creamed tuna on toast and while it sounds sort of gross to me now, the thought of it evokes a sweet nostalgia that's comforting to me.

* so far, sticking to healthier eating and exercise (call me michael, because i'm rowing that boat ashore) has been pretty easy. since this week is about finding sea legs, i'm giving myself all sorts of grace. :) no sugary drinks, no sweet desserts, sticking with the IF plan -- all going swimmingly. i do think i need to switch lunch meals and dinner meals so i'm not eating so much at night: last night before dinner i wasn't that hungry so was all "oh, one enchilada and a salad will be fine!" but they were SO GOOD that i pretended i was hungrier than i was and had 1/2 of another one. =D

* i binge watched season 1 of "from" on amazon prime and REALLY loved it! if you liked "lost" i think you'd like "from" -- so many of the same elements (and one of the same actors!) but done, at least in my opinion, much better. plus, there are monsters.

i LIKE monsters.

* mister got chatgpt or whatever it's called for work and i've been playing with it. i'm going to tell you this and i mean it -- AI is going to fucking put people out of jobs, no doubt about it. :( but right now? it's still just a bebe and loves alliteration, so i'm having fun with it. i mean, look at the names it came up with for gnome bards!