Spring Break

This week was spring break for the boys. We spent the week in Florida with my parents. They rented a very nice condo on the beach. Unfortunately, the boys and I had to travel late at night and early in the morning to get reasonable air fares. We had planned for better weather, but we had the Florida equivalent of a Chicago lake breeze. The temperatures were actually cooler on the beach than at home in Skokie. There was still plenty of sun, however, so we all ended up with sunburns. That was definitely not planned.

Today is Tim's birthday. He would have been 43. The boys and I chose not to formally mark the day, but Tim was definitely on our minds. Tim was not a big beach fan. He didn't care for the feel of sand between his toes and usually wore tennis shoes when we'd go for walks on the beach. However, there were two things he always liked to do when we would go visit my parents. Tim loved to fly kites, particularly two-line steerable kites. I had packed a few kites. Since we did have such a strong breeze, the kids and I took turns flying Tim's favorite kite. Then we put up a single line kite with a lot of line laundry. Line laundry is what you call things like wind socks and spinners that you attach to the kite line with clips. The kite carries them up into the sky. We put up two wind socks, two small spinners and a giant circular spinner. They attracted a lot of attention, which is the whole idea, of course.

The other thing Tim enjoyed doing at the beach was building elaborate sand castles. I always found this a little hard to reconcile with his dislike of sand, but accepted it as one of those quirks that made Tim who he was. I have many pictures of Tim with sand castles built over the course of our marriage. So of course the boys and I built a sand castle. We went out just before high tide and built our castle right at the high tide mark. I don't ever remember doing this with Tim before, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We all enjoyed watching the tide gradually undermine and wash away our castle. It was a lot better than abandoning our sculpture and hoping that no one would crush it. I even found it more satisfying than the Godzilla imitation that the boys were planning.

Wandering Through Evanston

This morning I had coffee in Evanston with a friend who lost his father as a teenager. He very generously shared his memories of his father's illness and death with me. Sometimes it is very helpful to trade stories with others that have experienced the loss of a loved one. I ending up spending the rest of the morning and all afternoon in Evanston. I went to the bank to deposit a check, something I needed to do. But instead of going straight home to start packing as planned, I decided to go to Lulu's for dim sum and then to The Italian Coffee Shop for gelato. I hadn't planned on doing more shoe shopping, but the shoe store was between the coffee shop and my car. I'm glad I went into the store because I finally found a pair of sandals for our trip to Florida next week.

Dinner Dysfunction

This morning I had to finish up the laundry. As a reward for my good behavior, I spent some time writing. I keep daily notes in a hand written journal and turn them into blog entries later. I spent longer working on the blog than I had planned and ended up eating a very late lunch. I had hoped that the boys and I would eat dinner together, but of course it didn't work out that way, again. In fact, not only did we not eat together, we each ate at a separate time. Theo came home late from school and didn't get snack, so he was ready to eat early. Brendan did get an afternoon snack but was ready to eat at the usual time. Since I'd had a late lunch, I wasn't ready for dinner until late. It just hasn't been my week for effective meal planning.

Making Plans

Today I couldn't put it off any longer. I finally had to go grocery shopping and do some laundry. To make the laundry go down easier, I watched a movie on the DVR while I folded the clean clothes. I had hoped to spend the afternoon reading a book. Instead, I spent it on the phone with my mother and brother. We're trying to rent a house in Wisconsin this summer. It's very difficult to find a house and location to suit five adults with very different ideas of leisure, not to mention the accompanying teenager, middle schooler, preschooler and toddler.

Food Fight

Today I had planned to go grocery shopping. Somehow I ended up shopping for shoes instead, which was a lot more fun. No groceries meant a change of plans for dinner. Since I had to take Theo into Evanston for a confirmation class requirement, we got takeout for dinner. The boys and I couldn't agree on a restaurant, so I gave them money for Uber Burger and I went next door to Mt. Everest. This made everybody happy except Brendan. He didn't enjoy getting dragged all over town when he had a lot of homework to do.

A Night at the Opera

This morning I had to pay my bills. I hadn't planned on spending all morning on the task, but I recently moved all my finances to Quicken and I'm still learning how to use the program. That meant I didn't get to planning my menus for the week as I had hoped. Instead, I had to stop and get ready for my big night out. A good friend took me out for a night on the town. This night actually started at 4:30 in the afternoon and lasted until midnight and included dinner and a ticket to the opera. The boys were in bed and the house was still standing when I got home, so they obviously survived being left to their own devices for that long.

A Morning of Mourning

There was no Sunday School this morning, so I left the boys at home and went to church alone. I don't know if it was the music for the day or the fact that it's been just over nine months since Tim died or that it's his birthday in ten days, but I cried all through mass. Sheil (our church) was an integral part of our relationship from the very beginning. Going to Sheil and singing in the choir has been a source of immense comfort to me both throughout Tim's illness and after his death. As much as I draw strength from the Sheil community, it can also be very painful to be in a place that holds so many memories of Tim. It's not just my memories, either. A friend once told me that she liked to watch Tim when I sang, because his love showed so clearly on his face. I often think of that story when I am standing up front with the choir. It makes me very sad to know that Tim is no longer sitting in the pews with the boys, listening to me and smiling.

So after doing something I wanted to do (go to church) and something I hadn't planned to do (cry a lot), I went home and did something I had to do - laundry. I had planned on serving leftovers, but, surprise, surprise, my dining companions rejected that choice, so we settled for frozen taquitos.

Snowy Science

Today was the regional Science Olympiad in Naperville, an hour's drive from our house. Theo had to be at school at 6:30am to catch the bus. Brendan and I followed a couple hours later to show our support for McCracken. (They came in sixth and will not be attending the state contest in April.) While I felt obligated to attend, I did not feel obliged to leave at the crack of dawn. Particularly since it snowed this morning - a very wet, heavy snow that made driving very unpleasant. So much for yesterday's lovely weather.
I had planned to have a good family dinner after our day's adventure in Naperville, but I didn't realize how long the competition would run. We were at Naperville from early in the morning until very late in the afternoon. That meant we ended up eating fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not my idea of a good food day.
Actually, between the weather, the length of the competition, its unhappy outcome and the bad food, it was a less than great day all the way around. Here's hoping tomorrow will be better.

Spring Fever

Our string of beautiful days continues. I was so inspired by the weather that I pulled a spring skirt out of my closet to wear today. I did manage to get to the library and return all those BBC mystery shows that kept interfering in my life earlier this week. That's about the sum total of my accomplishments for the day. I had planned to sit down at my computer and pay bills, but the weather was just too nice to be stuck in the basement. Apparently I haven't recovered from my cooking frenzy on Wednesday night, either. I couldn't summon up the energy to go grocery shopping or cook something as I had fully intended to do. Instead, I splurged and ordered takeout from The Noodle in Wilmette.

White Screen of Death and Big Blue Skies

Do you remember the Window's "Blue Screen of Death?" Well, Theo's iPod Touch did the white screen of death the other day. We tried rebooting the thing. We tried re-synching the thing. Heck, we even tried restoring the thing from backup. Nothing. So today I promised to take it to our local Apple store and see what they could do for us. As it happens, I had recently been through all of last year's credit card slips while doing my taxes. This meant that I was able to find the receipt and prove that the thing was less than a year old. I handed the iPod to the "Genius" at the "Genius Bar" and waited. Less than ten minutes later, the Genius comes to me and says, "Congratulations, you are getting a brand new iPod!" I was pleased to learn that there was actually something seriously wrong with the thing. The alternative was proof that I am an electronic moron whose chief technical geek left her in the lurch last June. While this may be true, iPods are supposed to be idiot proof, so while I may be a moron, at least I'm not an idiot.

The other thing I had planned to do today was finish the dishes from last night's dinner party. The ones I didn't do because Theo brought out his iPod with the white screen of death. I still didn't get them done. After running my dishwasher three times yesterday, I just couldn't stand doing anymore dishes. So instead I sought refuge in yet another season of Foyle's War from the library. Then I went to pick up Brendan from school. We are still enjoying unusually warm sunny weather. It didn't take more than one glance up at the intense blue skies overhead for me to give in to Brendan's request to stay after school and play. My dishes will still be there tomorrow.

Dinner and a Movie

Today I invited a friend over for dinner. This gave me an excuse to mess around in the kitchen. I welcomed the chance to cook adult food for someone that might actually enjoy the meal and not complain if there were vegetables on the plate. I tried out some recipes from a Barefoot Contessa show on Food Network. I made Ina Garten's Company Pot Roast, Irish Soda Bread and Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream and Yogurt Dressing. Then, just for fun, I made my Grandma Gus' sugar cookies in the shape of four leaf clovers for St. Patrick's Day.

All that cooking meant a lot of dishes. I have a very small kitchen with an equally small amount of counter space. I had to do yesterday's dishes before I could even start cooking. Once the dishwasher was running, I started to put the pot roast together. I love trying out recipes from the Food Network, but these chefs clearly don't do their own dishes. After the pot roast was in the oven, I realized that I'd have to clean the kitchen before I'd have room to make anything else. So I unloaded the dishwasher and cleared off my counter. Next I made the sugar cookie dough. It has to chill for an hour before cutting and baking the cookies. Into the fridge it went and into the dishwasher went the mixing bowls and measuring cups. The dishwasher was now full, so I ran the it for the second time that day. I mixed up the sour cream and yogurt dressing. That only took one bowl, one measuring cup and one spatula, thank goodness. So I didn't have to clean the kitchen again before rolling, cutting and baking the sugar cookies. Again, not a dish-intensive operation, so I was able to move right on to the Irish soda bread. It was actually very easy to make, but did make another sinkful of dirty dishes. So for the third time, I unloaded and reloaded my dishwasher.

I had planned on having all my cooking and cleaning done well before my friend arrived, but this was not to be. I had been to the library a few days before and checked out entire seasons of several BBC mystery shows. Once I dropped the boys off at school, I came home and made a huge pot of tea and sat down to enjoy a television show. One show lead to a second and a third and before I knew it, I had watched an entire set of Foyle's War. My marathon cooking and cleaning session began well after I meant to start. Throw in time for the shower I had neglected to take earlier in the day and suddenly I found myself worried that dinner would be late. It was, but, lucky for me, my friend was coming from downtown and he was late as well.

After a very good dinner (if I do say so myself) accompanied by a great deal of wine and good conversation, I had planned to do the dishes one last time and go to bed early. Again, this was not to be. Theo informed me that his ipod was on the fritz. That was putting things mildly. I don't know if you've seen the flashlight app for the ipod, but that's what Theo's ipod looked like - a blank white screen with no sound. So I was up quite late trying various things to fix Theo's ipod. I gave up around 11:30pm and went to bed.

Had To, Wanted To, Planned To...

Today I had to go grocery shopping. Sometimes I enjoy grocery shopping, especially when I'm planning for a dinner party. Today was not one of those days. Today was all about keeping my boys supplied with Poptarts, Gatorade and Crunch Bars. All those things that the First Lady tells me I shouldn't feed my children. All those things without which my children swear they can't survive. All those things that make my life as a single parent just a little easier. Since Tim is no longer here to listen to his share of gripes, I have decided that a little extra junk food goes a long way toward keeping not just my children happy but keeping me happy.

While I was out doing the shopping I needed to do, I decided to do a little shopping that I wanted to do and stopped in at the shoe store. I did severe damage to my best black heels over the winter. I had the misfortune to be wearing them one day when it just poured and poured. I knew it was going to rain very heavily that day. Under normal circumstances, I would have worn sensible shoes but I was dressed up to attend a funeral that afternoon. To make matters even worse, I was parked quite a distance from the church. It was a long, wet slog through some very substantial puddles. My feet and the bottom several inches of my pantsuit were soaked by the time the funeral was over. The shoes have never been the same. I wasn't able to replace my shoes today. As too often happens, all the shoes where either the wrong size, the wrong style or the wrong price. Guess I'll have to try again another day.

Today was one of our first truly warm spring days. It was sunny for the first time in days and the temperature climbed well above normal. This being Chicago, I am well aware that it won't last. Spring in Chicago is a chancy thing. Fall weather is generally more consistent. It is more likely to be warm and sunny in October than March. That being said, I have learned to take advantage of the good weather when it presents itself. So today we had an impromptu barbeque. Thankfully, there was still gas in the grill and it lit on the first try. Brendan and I enjoyed mini pub burgers, chips and soda for dinner.

Where was Theo you ask? He was at school preparing for this weekend's Science Olympiad tournament. The teacher warned us not to expect our children home for dinner. However, I did not expect Theo to be out until after 9pm. This ruined my evening plans for a little family time. The boys and I have become big fans of NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles. We look forward to Tuesday evenings and a little family togetherness on the couch. Tonight it was not to be. Oh, well, thanks to our DVR, our family time is postponed, not gone for good.

So there you have something I had to do today, something I wanted to do today, something I hadn't planned to do today and something I had planned on doing, but didn't. For the next week, I am going to try blogging around the idea of had to, wanted to, planned to and didn't plan. I haven't written in a long time because I couldn't decide what to write about. I have missed writing and I hope that having a format that can give structure to writing about even very ordinary things. Looking forward to sharing more with you...