Good news: I remembered to make overnight oats last night. Bad news: I forgot salt, again 🤦🏼‍♀️

Nothing says last day of winter break like frantically grading exams while the toddler naps and the big kids play video games in the tent that has taken over the living room

Not the morning to discover there's no coffee in the house

TIL tonies still work after a trip through the washing machine

I have so many questions about how/where one procures these

If you're ever looking for something to do in Chicago, I highly recommend seeing the U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry. Amazing story and really well done exhibit. taskandpurpose.com/history/germ...

Kids think I have access to the Santa tracker on my phone because I work for the military and I'm not going to tell them otherwise

Kid 1: If you're on the naughty list you still get presents on your birthday

My ongoing effort to teach Kid 1 and Kid 2 to choose and wrap gifts for others severely tested my Christmas spirit today

PSA fellow parents: night terrors are a thing look it up before your kid creates housewide chaos at 1130pm

Last week the Main Street trolley drove itself off the shelf to its doom, now I finish Santa's post office only to discover this fresh Lego nightmare 🤦🏼‍♀️

*Kid 2 looks at my sweater* Mama is that supposed to be ugly? Me: Yes Kid 2: And it IS ugly!

Always fun to start the day with your kid crying bc you're "never" home to meet the bus since telework authorization was revoked

Listening to the annual Poscast Holiday Draft is one of my marriage's foundational holiday traditions. Time to plan a road trip @davidmglick.bsky.social

Well this is a relief after slipping to top 0.5% last year.

The ch that @profjessblankshain.bsky.social and I wrote focuses on how the Total Force Policy affected the reserves: “Combined with the post–Cold War security environment, it fundamentally changed the way the reserve component is employed, increasing its operational use and professionalization.”

That moment when the book is actually real! @lindsaypcohn.bsky.social and I really enjoyed working on our chapter on the future of the Total Force.

Any recommendations to help a kid with sensory issues stay asleep at night? I'm seeing a bunch of weighted/compression blanket/pod/sheet options but not sure where to start.

Do we think Robert Irwin would partner with me for a video tutorial on how to change a toddler doing a death roll?

Wow Anne with an E season 3 is just one gut punch after another

*Listening to TLOAS with preschooler, who I have been assuming does not pay attention to song lyrics* Him: Mama there aren't keys to the city Me: uhoh

Eating canned peas (straight from the can, obvi) for an after work snack, as one does

It has been 0 days since Jess got way too fired up talking about Marbury v Madison

I regret to inform you that waking up half an hour earlier does make mornings less stressful

Help I'm "Halloween candy is too sweet" old and I'm not ready for this

Finally watching K Pop Demon Hunters. The children refused to watch it with me.

My kids are going to understand that the combination of the time change and this game means they should sleep in tomorrow, right? I assume they can just absorb ambient stress levels in their sleep or something.

Ok Lego app can we stop with the "prove you're an adult" math because that is not where I am cognitively right now

Got word I'm back to work on Monday with or without a paycheck. Catching up on @sirenspod.bsky.social to ease back into the foreign policy decision-making headspace.

Happy "panic ordering a new Halloween costume bc your child changed their mind again" week to all who celebrate

Being the parent who knows which trash is trash and which trash is NOT trash is a lot of pressure

The main thing I have learned as the parent of an early elementary school aged child is that I hold a pencil wrong

We've reached the "watching Dancing With the Stars while I clean the kitchen" stage of furlough

Watching Boots is making me realize how much I normally rely on hairstyles to tell characters apart

Just realized that Hop Little Bunnies is basically training my toddler to do burpees. This feels unwise.

Toddler asked me to do three different floor puzzles so she could take them apart and put them back in the box. I went along with it because it's less destructive than some of her other activities.

The thing I most often yell at the TV while watching any version of The Traitors is "chill out no one is really dead!"

Furlough can't keep us from morning PT! @theomilo.bsky.social and I beat the nor'easter at the Newport Half Marathon this morning (one of us by a somewhat more comfortable margin)

Been playing a lot of "is that marker or blood? lately

Figured out how to play my vinyls on my giant over ear Bluetooth headphones. My constant dancing around the house lip syncing is about to get even more annoying!

Some days just opening the draft document and writing a few sentences of word vomit feels like a major accomplishment.

TFW you have a migraine and your children have turned on every light and sound emitting device in the house

I'm seeing a) assertions that no one has been thinking about the issues raised by these NG deployments and b) confident assertions about complicated legal issues. So a friendly reminder that we do have experts on domestic use of the U.S. military, and even they don't have clear answers! ⬇️

Has TLOAS made anyone else want to rewatch Bunheads or just me?

After a dozen times through TLOAS, Spotify has finally given up and started looping the album instead of trying to auto play a different Taylor song at the end

In my mind "keep it 💯 on the land, the sea, the sky" is an ode to Goldwater-Nichols

I truly was not expecting to like this album this much on first listen. I love Taylor but I also hate change.

Furlough Day 2

By the time shutdown ends I will be 80% pumpkin spice

Please applaud my restraint in not setting my voicemail to "I'm sorry, the old Jess can't come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, 'cause she's furloughed!"