I don't know why. It just felt like the week that would never end.
Last Saturday, the girls participated in our church's Makers Market, where folks from church got together to sell what they produced (and purchase things from each other). It was really neat - we have farmers in our congregation who were selling grassfed meat, homemade cider, fall decor, home canned jams, fudge, popcorn, etc. Others folks were selling coffee and cinnamon rolls. One gal had beeswax candles, some teenage girls from church sold children's books with hand-crocheted stuffed animals to match the books. One guy has a 3D printer and was selling the neatest toys. One gal sews and made all kinds of cute little girl hair items. Another lady has does high-end cookie decorating. One guy was selling handmade toy wooden trucks. One gal was selling the most beautiful bouquets. And our girls teamed up with some friends and sold baked goods and chai lattes. They had a wonderful time!
It was kind of an eventful morning. I took Penelope over around 9:15 to set up the table, and then came home to help the littler girls get ready to go. When we got back there around 10:00, the police were there and things were in kind of a stir. It turns out that while I was gone, a driver on the street in front of the church fell asleep at the wheel (or was maybe on drugs? At that point things were still in confusion) ran into the truck parked on the street where our van had been parked just a little while before. He remained asleep after he hit the truck. One of our elders called the police, but when one of the neighbors saw the cops coming, she ran out to wake the guy up and he sped off across the lawn of the church where all our church families were gathered. He almost hit a five-year-old. By the time I got there, some police were chasing him, but I still don't know if they were able to catch him. Wild. I'm glad everyone was okay, and I'm glad our van hadn't been parked there at the time and gotten hit.
It was kind of an eventful morning. I took Penelope over around 9:15 to set up the table, and then came home to help the littler girls get ready to go. When we got back there around 10:00, the police were there and things were in kind of a stir. It turns out that while I was gone, a driver on the street in front of the church fell asleep at the wheel (or was maybe on drugs? At that point things were still in confusion) ran into the truck parked on the street where our van had been parked just a little while before. He remained asleep after he hit the truck. One of our elders called the police, but when one of the neighbors saw the cops coming, she ran out to wake the guy up and he sped off across the lawn of the church where all our church families were gathered. He almost hit a five-year-old. By the time I got there, some police were chasing him, but I still don't know if they were able to catch him. Wild. I'm glad everyone was okay, and I'm glad our van hadn't been parked there at the time and gotten hit.
Although, maybe it really made no difference to our van in the end, because when I went to drive us all home, it wouldn't start again. I'm glad we were with our church folks at the time - one family lent us their minivan to drive home and to borrow to get everyone to church the next day; another couple of families came up with tow chains and got our van pulled back to the house for us.
Our neighbor Valente came over to help us run diagnostics.
We think we may have unwittingly gotten a bad replacement starter when we had to fix the van a few weeks ago, so Todd and Atticus are going to take the new one back to O'Reilly's to exchange it, and hopefully third starter's the charm.
Saturday morning while I was gone with the girls, Todd and the boys brought my new dining room table in! Oh, I just love it.
BEFORE:
It has a few more leaves, too.
Saturday night, Todd took me to see Gin Blossoms! It was so random - our city festival was happening, and usually we could care less about it, but I just happened to be browsing the flyer they sent out a few weeks back and saw that Gin Blossoms would be playing - FOR FREE - TEN MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE. If you are new here, I love 90's alternative rock, and I love Gin Blossoms. It was so fun, except for the lead singer guy (who, startlingly, is no longer twenty-five years old? How long ago was 1992?) kept trying to make us clap along to every single song. It was giving Wiggles. But that's the new millennium for you: everything is a sad shell of its former glory. We thought we'd be driving flying cars and wearing metallic pants by now, but we're just being told to clap along to songs from the last time music was actually good. A teenager next to me with a high-top fade asked me who this band even was, and all I could answer was, "You're too young." Everything old is new again, and everything really old knows who Gin Blossoms are.
Anyway. The music was still great, and they closed with a great cover of Folsom Prison Blues, which was funny because they kept competing for volume with the trains that kept passing on the tracks right next to the stage. It was a fun evening!
This week's school work has been a fight, but I think we're finally getting on our feet this school year. Callista finished out last week a full week behind, but she's almost completely caught up at this point. I finished this week's assigned read alouds with most of the kids already, freeing up my morning today so I can go grocery shopping.
I got one of those little lullaby-and-lights players for the babies, to hopefully give them something to keep their attention for short bits so I can get some school done sans toddlers. Alas. They enjoy it, but there is no magic bullet for homeschooling with little people underfoot, as I should have already known.
I haven't gone grocery shopping in five weeks! I cleaned out the fridge before we left on our trip, and we've been home for two weeks now without replenishing, and the pantry is looking like we're living in wartime. I just haven't had time to go - it is such a major ordeal around here. I try to be really organized about it, which means a time investment on the front end. I look through what we have and take an inventory of what we are running low on. Then I make out a menu plan for the month, taking into account special events or appointments or anything else that I need to keep on my radar and plan groceries around. Then I make a grocery list based on the menu plan, and then I put in a Walmart order and put the remaining items on my Aldi list. So all of that takes a good couple of hours before I even head to the store.
Then there's shopping, and then there's putting away, and then there's the time it takes to declare my will to give up the ghost, sign over power of attorney, and collapse into catatonia. It's all very time and energy intensive, as you can imagine.
So anyway. I think I've carved out some time this morning to actually head out, as long as I can finalize my lists and get those in order first. We'll see. Then once I get home and get groceries put away, I'll still have some read alouds. and science lab to do this afternoon, and then I really will kick the bucket. It's been nice knowing you.
2 comments :
your weekly recaps are just the best. it was nice knowing you.
I'd love to hear/read/see a walk-through of your grocery process! Mine has really fallen off in the last couple of years ... or maybe it hasn't? It doesn't feel like what I think a large family grocery experience should feel like; 🤣 it feels more European?? We plan about 2 days at a time and run to the store for those couple of days. We do do one bulk run a month at Costco and we buy meat in bulk so we always have that. It has felt way more sustainable. 🤷🤷
Post a Comment