Things have been quite nerdy around here as of late.

It’s rained for the past three days and we’ve had to get creative in order to entertain ourselves. As I type this I can look up to see a circus tent sitting in my living room. Penelope is going nuts not being able to play outside and Brent has been off at the fire station seven of the past ten days. Without him here to keep us normal we have completely nerded out.

Yesterday Bridget was having a bad day so I dressed Penelope up in an old pillow case before picking her up from school. When Bridget got in the car she squealed to see that her sister was now Dobby the house elf from Harry Potter. Penelope actually enjoyed the airiness of her new clothing and threw a fit when I tried to take it off. So, that’s what she wore for the rest of the day.

When we got home Bridget checked the mail like she normally does and found a letter from Mrs. Weasley inviting her over for tea. If she knew I was posting this she would die. But it’s one of my favorite things about motherhood, pretending with my kids. Of course, she had to write back…

This was how I got her interested in writing when she was little. I would write her notes for everything. When she was in princess mode I would write her and ask her to attend a ball, then later we would pretend like she went off to Paris to study abroad. I would send the letter to her “apartment” and I would ask her what it was like to live there and if I could come and visit some time. Then we would make something French(ish) for dinner and pretend like we were in a cafe.

This day for an after school snack we had pumpkin chai tea and ginger lemon cremes while she worked on her homework.

I helped her with her homework speaking in a British accent the whole time. Only it kept getting messed up because I’ve been watching The Only Way is Essex on Hulu so my accent was getting thrown off.  (It’s like a British version of the Hills.) If you ever watch it, you will judge me. I’m sure of it.

After Bridget was done with her homework and we had enjoyed our tea we headed downstairs to watch the first Harry Potter movie. It’s a Fall time tradition for us and with the weather being so Fall like I thought it was only appropriate. Penelope doesn’t usually allow TV watching while she’s awake so that is why I have a circus tent set up for her pleasure. Surprisingly it worked.

I didn’t write a post yesterday because I was spending the evening with Bridget and giving her some one on one time. It’s hard with the little one. So after we put Penelope to bed I had Bridget crawl into bed with me and we read side by side all snuggled up. I found The Cuckoo’s Calling at the library.

J.K. Rowling wrote it under the name Robert Galbraith hoping to get feedback on it without it being attached to her name. But it got leaked out earlier than she had anticipated. I had heard about it in an article but forgot the name of the book. I picked it up in the lucky day section because I liked the title and the cover I didn’t know until later that this was the book they were talking about until I read the back cover.

On the weight loss front everything is going perfectly. I even accidentally made the most delicious oatmeal ever made this morning by adding vanilla coconut milk instead of almond milk. I decided to roll with it and made pina colada oatmeal.

Pina Colada (and getting caught in the rain) Oatmeal

(serves 1 for big bowl or 2 for smaller portions)

1/2 C oats

1/2 C water

1/2 C vanilla coconut milk

1 banana

salt (pinch)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbls brown sugar

cinnamon (to taste)

1 tbls shredded coconut

1 tbls sliced almonds

Combine the oats with the water, coconut milk and thinly sliced banana and salt in a sauce pan on medium heat. Squish the banana with a spoon as it cooks to desired thickness (I like it to stick to my spoon). Take it off the heat,  add the vanilla, brown sugar and cinnamon. Top with almonds and coconut and serve.

This would be really good with fresh sliced pineapple or mangos on top with maybe some chopped up macadamia nuts as well. The coconut would also be great toasted a little but I think we’ll stick to the original because it’s quick and easy. The girls LOVED it! Bridget and I shared the portion above because we had it with eggs for added protein. Then I shared my portion with Penelope and she was seriously ticked off when we ran out. So I’ll have to make more in the future.

I’ve hit the gym every day and I’ve eaten really well (aside from my ginger lemon cremes… so good by the way). I took a sneak peek at the scale and was happy with what I saw so I can’t wait to share it with you guys tomorrow.

As for now I’m going to sit with a nice warm glass of hot tea and read my book while the little one is still asleep and before I have to run Bridget all over town to get her from guitar to swim lessons. Hope you guys have a good day and I’ll see you tomorrow for the weigh-in!