DITL - Wednesday, March 28

Today was errand day.

Every now and then I recall that I have a rough plan in my mind where the things I need to get done are allotted their day. It's a great idea. However, as it usually happens with such things and I, I actually pull it off once every 8 weeks or so.

So, today was errand day.

By some brilliant stroke of luck, I woke up at 6. Yes, A.M. I enjoyed some quiet time with a cup of tea at the computer. I like to read my favorite comic strips and the news. I like to poke around Blog Land and see what I can find.

Brian was up and out by 7:15. He was a little off kilter as I was so alert and mobile. The kids got up as he was leaving. We had a bit of a chat and Kori put a Star Wars movie on. Her latest creative writing is Jedi-esque and she needed inspiration. Raiden showed up with his mini hockey sticks and turned the kitchen floor into a goalie crease. I headed up to my room, read a few chapters in a novel that my mom passed to me and then jumped in to the shower.

When I emerged, the kids had made toast and granola for themselves. I ironed a couple of Brian's shirts while the kids got ready for their day. They did some household chores and I got some laundry started. The dog, who was outside, had lay herself in a puddle. So we chased her down when she came in. Got her toweled off. I asked the kids to join me at the table and we planned our afternoon out.

At 10, I started Brian's lunch. That usually includes cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast. Today I had the privilege of included last night's dinner dishes with breakfast's. Raiden worked on some math practice pages (I don't always remember to have the kids sit down to do side #2 of their daily math page). Kori finished Shane's card. I remembered I needed to dry my hair so I quickly did that and then we drove Brian back to work.

We zipped back home and had lunch. We gathered every library book in the place and, with a heavy conscious (they were a wee bit overdue), we loaded up the car. Got to the end of the driveway and pulled back in. Got the Girl Guide Cookies from the house. Headed out again.

First stop was Staples where a lady stole the photocopier right out from under me. Well, it was sort of beside me. Next time I'll sit a child upon the machine I intend to use. Rai's still kind of little. I can lift him. I soothed my frustration by browsing the stationary...the organizational tools...the markers, stickers and pens. I eventually remembered to mosey back to the copiers and I copied the activity pages I needed copied.

Then we browsed the books store. I have a gift card to spend and I have a good idea of the books I'd like to get. Unfortunately, our weeny book store (I really like it, I do) had none of the books I was interested in. For some strange reason, I like to hold a book before I buy it. Next, we were off to the small cafe to spend our gift certificate on cookies. $10 gets your 2 dozen really good cookies at Ogie's Cafe. We had to eat one before we left.

Drove downtown to the library making a couple of detours on the way. Kori dropped off some Girl Guide cookies. She had accidentally brought home 2 cases of the things. Turns out, that was a good thing as the chocolate/vanilla sandwich cookies pretty much sell themselves. At the library, we ran into the lovely children's librarian who has been away for a while. She asked Raiden if he would like to sign up for Spring Chess Club. He was very excited. This is the first time he's been old enough to attend. I exercised restraint in my literary selections today. We signed out only a small stack fitting comfortably in our canvas library bag. I also paid our library fine...they gave me a receipt. Is that bad? I've never got a receipt before...Turns out that when the library updated to a new and fancy software that allows you to control the library universe from the comfort of your own home, they also upped the library fines in the children's department by 150%. Glad to know. That makes 17 books overdue by 4 days cost me $17. Yikes. We headed back to the car with 3 minutes to spare on the parking meter.

Drove across town, which took us about 15 minutes as school had just got out and traffic was heavy. Landed at WalMart for only 2 small items. Well, one thing I bought two of. Small paint trays. I'm excited about our new paints, but that's a post for another time. The kids said they were tired so we left quickly without a plastic shopping bag. I'm trying to figure out how to do without such things. Again, a post for another time.

Our last-ish stop of the day was the grocery store. I had a few things in mind to get. You know, just enough to see us through the weekend. How the Europeans shop each and every day is beyond me. I suppose the tiny refrigerators have something to do with that. It was one of those days in the grocery store where the shelves were empty of most sale items and they didn't have a good selection of the stuff I like to buy. Like sprouts. And whole wheat wraps. And Kori's yogurt. And why doesn't Del Monte make a smaller can of Mandarin Magic?

On our way home, we took a long detour and dropped off the last of our pre-sold cookies. I called Brian on the way home to see if I had time to drop the groceries off before we picked him up. He thought we did. So we went home. We brought the groceries in. Brian called. I threw the fridge/freezer stuff away and we loaded into the car to crawl through the going-home traffic all the way across town again.

Once everyone had finally landed at home for good, we slowed the pace way down. Groceries trickled away. Raiden ate a dinner of leftovers. Kori and I watched a show about Red Pandas and ate omelets for dinner. Around 8 we took the dog for a quick walk around the block and up and down the street. I knew Rai was either tired or not feeling well as he stopped running ahead shortly into our walk. He insisted that we keep going quickly, he didn't want us to slow down. So he happily trailed behind. Gradually I slowed the pace so he caught up for the last stretch home.

I washed the last of the dishes as the kids were getting ready for bed. Instead of climbing into bed at 8:30, the kids came back downstairs to watch a little of the hockey game (Buffalo vs. New Jersey). Kori watched from the computer where she typed away at her story. Between periods, she and I talked about plot and character development and how to stick in important descriptions where necessary. Around 9 they trudged up to bed where they fell asleep quickly.

Brian and I watched a couple of shows. I read a bit (Lynn Truss' Talk To The Hand) and it was lights out for us as well. Tomorrow is a stay-at-home day. Math lessons are ready to go, if the kids want. As well, we might get to some SOTW pages. Hopefully, it will continue to dry up and we can spend some time outside.