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...