Hello everyone, I hope you’re having a lovely morning/afternoon/evening! This week I had virtual schooling, so I had A LOT of chill time. Not as much as Spring Break, but it was still really nice to have a balance of productivity and relaxation.

On Sunday, I missed church, but I read from my Devotional (ps if anyone has any devotional recommendations, DEFINITELY drop them in the comments. I’m always on the lookout). I did some blog work afterward but got distracted and began working on some of my WIPs. My older sister, Emma, made me a peach/cinnamon milkshake while I was working, which was really lovely. However, the first inch or so of the shake was pure whipped cream which I had no problem with; I could eat whipped cream by the spoonful. I did some Dictionary.com crossword puzzles while I finished my shake. It’s really odd. I keep getting into the phases of wanting to do a crossword. I’ll forget about them for a few days, and then one day, I do like, five in a row. It’s odd. Anyway, I played some video games and overall chilled the entire day. I had to keep reminding myself that it’s okay to take a chill day. It’s okay to not do anything. I have an odd part of my brain that tells me that I HAVE to be doing something all the time. But, it’s okay to relax and step back and give yourself some rest after your work.

Monday was my first day of virtual school for this week, and I hit it off by missing homeroom and being late for my first class! Woohoo! However, it turned out that I didn’t even have to sign on for first period that week, so then I had an extra hour of my morning to do stuff every day. I used that time to begin using/syncing Google Calendar across my devices which made me unnecessarily happy. I now get excited when I have an event just so I can mark it down in my up-to-date fancy-schmancy calendar. I did some more blog planning then I had my only class that day. It was Theology, and we were talking about the book Revelation. I had a terrible ‘entomophobia attack,’ which resulted in me concluding that I will buy myself a stuffed therapy cat to help. Speaking of therapy, I went to my first physical therapy appointment! There, I learned that I have about two more weeks of wearing my sling, but I won’t be returning to my baton twirling classes for another few months, aka near the end of the season. That night, my sisters and I rewatched Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper, and after the movie, we were fooling around a lot and ran out of time to get snacks and watch something else. Oh yeah, my older sister also got her lightsabers, and I kinda wore my bad arm out playing around with them.

Tuesday, I had more virtual schooling. In between all my classes, however, I got some YouTube channel prep work done! Sadly, I can’t begin filming again until I’m out of my sling, but at least I can get everything organized and ready to go. After virtual school was done, I went over to our school for musical rehearsal. I did some one-on-one work with my music teacher/director concerning my solos, and I feel A LOT more confident in them. I got most of my To-Do list done that day, and I was feeling pretty good overall.

On Wednesday, I got my braces… my younger sister, Briana, and I left pretty early in the morning to go to the orthodontist’s office, and we were there for about three-ish hours. I got the bracket-thingies on my top and bottom teeth, but only the wire on my bottom teeth because we’re still waiting on my expander. It’s great. I hate it. When we got home, we were having lunch. I was briefly scolding my brother about something when my youngest sister (age 7) said, “Guys, I turned on the relaxing music… so it’s time to chill.” For lunch, I made myself a banana-and-peanut-butter milkshake and left to work on some yearbook club business. I foresee myself making A LOT of milkshakes while experiencing braces-make-my-teeth-sore-for-a-week-or-two. In the afternoon, I held a mini Student Council meeting that really calmed my nerves about an upcoming event, then I had to book it for musical rehearsal. That day was our first rehearsal on stage! When I got home, I wasted some time scrolling aimlessly through TikTok and realized that I’d been doing that a lot recently. How fun. While feeling in the dumps because of my braces aching, I began working on some meal plans for braces-friendly eating. Stay tuned for a special post in the near future about that!

In between virtual school on Thursday, I did some more meal-planning and prep work. Then, I worked on some future story planning and set-up, which I became really excited about. I had musical rehearsal that afternoon, but it was just my director and a fellow co-star. We worked on a few adorable little scenes, which were super fun! When I got home, I watched a ton of YouTube and wasn’t really up to eating much because of my braces. However, that night, Briana made me some hot chocolate, and we watched Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Due to virtual school and a relaxed Friday schedule, I only had one class. In my free time, rather than working on an assignment, I played Duplos and built a train track with my younger brother. However, after a while, he wasn’t even playing anymore, and I realized I was actually enjoying myself. When I got back to work, I did some creative stuff, then went to musical rehearsal. That rehearsal, I was working with a dog, and it got kinda messy and sticky. How fun. That night, Briana and I made homemade pancakes for dinner since we couldn’t eat the pizza. We made fifteen, so there was plenty for us to stowaway and save for later days. After dinner, my family and I watched a movie called Mousehunt, but I really didn’t like it all. Apparently, none of my siblings really did. After the family movie night, Emma, Briana, and I watched more Miraculous while eating some ice cream. Emma brought home some food from work that night, and I got some fries which eased my want for some fast food.

Some of my Duplo/train track creations 🙂

On Saturday, I woke up pretty late, around 11 am. While my sisters were at work, I baked some apple muffins. It took me an hour or so because I’m slow in the kitchen, but they turned out really good! I watched some YouTube for a while then played a few video games. At dinner that night, I learned that I really can’t chew anything. However, I have gotten pretty good at just swallowing food. Dinner is still pretty rough because there are some foods that I can’t eat at all yet, and what I can manage to cut up and swallow takes me forever because I can only eat it one tiny piece at a time. I’m having great fun. Don’t worry. Before and after dinner, I finished watching the movie Upside Down Magic, which was really cute. As someone who HATES standardization and telling kids they’re smart if they can do this or dumb if they can’t do that, I enjoyed that movie a lot. That night, Briana and I made some applesauce with orange Gatorade mix (trust me, it’s not that bad) and watched even more Miraculous.

That concludes my week! I think I had a pretty good balance of productivity and relaxation each day, which was really amazing. I hope you all had terrific weeks as well, and feel free to share some highlights in the comments below! As always, keep on inspiring folks and loving yourself!