Still Digging Those Rocks

It actually took me all of Thursday and most of today to finish putting down my rocks. By the end of school on Thursday I had finished all the digging. However, once I starting laying the rock I realized that I had gone a little overboard on on the digging. I was not about to pick up the rock just to put some dirt back. It seemed easier to just go buy more rock. (!) A total of five trips and over fifty bags of rock later I finally had enough rock. I think it will look great. It's a little hard to tell as the rocks are covered in dust. We'll see what they look like after a good rain storm washes all the dirt off.

I'm Diggin' This

Wow, really on a streak this week - four good days in a row. Started the day on a high note by having breakfast with a friend. Breakfast ran almost all the way to lunch, we were having such a great time. Then I started a yard project I've been meaning to do for several years. I'm putting landscape rock along the fence in the back yard. I'm tired of growing weeds back there. I'm also hoping that the rock will help with the rainwater runoff back there. Before I can put the rock down though, the old mulch and some of the dirt has to come up. That meant three hours with a spade, a shovel and a hoe and a five gallon bucket. Ended the day with a bit of a downer - rehearsal for Theo's confirmation was BORING! However, since the rest of the day was so good, I'm willing to overlook a few things.

Keeping Up the Good Work

Today was another good day, which makes three in a row. I treated myself to a pecan sweet roll for breakfast. I then proceeded to work it off by cleaning the living room and dining room. I was supposed to plan birthday parties for the boys, but decided that I'd done enough work for one day. The boys and I ended the day in front of the tv again as today was TV Tuesday: NCIS and NCIS Los Angeles, our favorite shows. I watch Top Gear, but my heart isn't in it. I live for Tuesdays. Mark Harmon is still handsome, if not as young as he was on St. Elsewhere. The original McDreamy, in my opinion.

On this day in history:
1945 - my mom is born - Happy Birthday, Mom!
1990 - Tim proposed - on the beach, at sunset, on one knee with ring

Getting Off to a Good Start

For the second week in a row, I had a productive start to my week. I planned my meals for the week, bought my groceries and still had time for a nice lunch at Panera before going to Theo's volleyball game after school. After dinner, the boys and I watched the season finale of Top Gear on BBC America. All in all, a very good day. I got done what needed to be done and still had plenty of time to do a few things I wanted to do as well. I think I even got the dinner dishes done.

A Day Off

Today should have been a very busy day. We were supposed to go to 9:30am mass followed by Theo's final confirmation class. Then we were going to rush home to make two soccer games. When I woke up this morning, I decided that I just couldn't do all of that. So we skipped the only thing I had any choice over - mass. Theo still had to go to confirmation class, but that didn't start until 10:45am. Brendan and I went to a nearby bakery during class and had a nice leisurely breakfast. As we left church, it started to pour. Just as I was trying to come to terms with standing outside in the rain for four hours through two soccer games, the phone rang. The park district cancelled all the games! I got my entire afternoon back! The boys and I did do a little housecleaning, but mostly we enjoyed listening to the rain while we rested. I love rainy Sundays!

Running Around Again

Today I finally got Theo registered for summer track camp, something I've been meaning to do since registration opened on April 6. My sleep till noon teenager is voluntarily signing up for a running camp that starts at 6:45am every week day. Which means I have "volunteered" to leave the house at 6:30am every week day to run him across town in my car. Ought to be an interesting four weeks for both of us. I'm not exactly a morning person myself. After all, I spent the entire morning on the couch watching tv. The only thing that got me going today was my promise to be the flower lady for church this week. I had to run to Home Depot for new flowers for the altar, run up to church to drop off the new flowers and take out the old ones and run back to the middle school before band ended at 4pm. I ended the day "helping" our friend Julian install a new wireless access point in our house to replace the two outdated ones Tim installed several years ago. Now we're running around the house finding all the electronic devices that talk to the wireless network and moving them to the new access point. Whew!

Last of the Lasts

Tonight was the spring open house at the middle school. This was the last of the lasts. The last time we did something with Tim, like the last Boy Scout camp out, the last movie we saw together or the last Christmas. The 2009 spring open house was the last school event that Tim attended. A week later he was back in the hospital and never came home again.

We are also nearing the end of the year of firsts. The first father's day without Tim was a week after his death. That was the first first. Theo will be confirmed a week from tomorrow. That will be the first big life event without Tim. I have no doubt that we will encounter many more firsts, but after this June 13, the first anniversary of his death, they will come less often. At least, I hope so, although I don't expect them to be any less painful.

Back and Forth

Today I spent a lot of time in the car going to and from various events. Both boys got rides to school since they both had band today. (Have you ever lifted a euphonium?) Theo leaves for school at 7:00am, Brendan at 8:00am. Then I made a trip into Evanston. I treated myself to breakfast at LePeep. That was the only time I was in the car because I wanted to go someplace. The other trips were mandated by my children's schedules. At 4pm, I picked up Brendan from band at the middle school. Right after that, I drove to another middle school across town to watch Theo play volleyball. Got home just before 5 o'clock. We had forty-five minutes to make and eat dinner before Theo and I were back in the car headed across town again for soccer. I dropped Theo off at soccer and drove home. I had half an hour to help Brendan with his homework before I had to get back in the car to go pick up Theo. Dropped Theo off at home to do his homework and took Brendan to Boy Scouts. I went back home to "supervise" Theo's homework. At 9:00pm, I went back out for my ninth and final trip of the day to pick Brendan up and bring him home.

Bad Lunch, Good Dinner

Today I had to do some reverse shopping. I had a gazebo to return to Menard's and a coffee maker to return to Macy's. After returning the gazebo, I decided that even though I hadn't planned on eating out, I really needed to have some lunch before heading to Macy's. There aren't many options on my route from Menard's to Macy's. I ended up at a Panda Express. Eating at Panda Express is a bit like eating movie popcorn. It always looks and smells better than it tastes. When I got back from my errands, I had planned to work on my Quicken files. I needed to clean my desk first, though. By the time I got to the bottom of the pile it was time to start dinner. Oh, well. Tonight was my turn to pick the dinner menu - baked chicken, baby carrots and sour cream & chive potatoes. I had plenty of food in the house and no one had any activities that interfered with a good sit down dinner. Nights like that are extremely rare during soccer season.

When Had To and Want To Meet

Today was one of those rare days when I actually wanted to do many of the daily chores that had to be done. In a totally unplanned and amazing feat of productivity, I cleaned my kitchen, did the laundry, planned meals, did grocery shopping AND helped set up the middle school book fair. The only thing I wanted to do but didn't get around to was working on my Quicken files. Since I got so much else done, I don't feel too badly about not doing this one thing. While I don't expect to be this productive every day, it made a nice change from last week when it took me all week to finish the laundry.

Finally Folded the Laundry

Today I finally folded the laundry. I also made a Tres Leche cake to take to a friends' house for dinner. I love this dessert, but it takes forever and makes a huge cake, so I only make it for company. We had a great time. Well, Brendan had a great time because these friends have a son his age and he was spending the night. I had a great time because I got to have some adult conversation. Theo tolerated spending the evening with a bunch of younger kids after spending all afternoon at a confirmation retreat. It just wasn't Theo's day.

How Not to Fold Laundry

1. Go pick up a gazebo that is on sale at Menard's.
2. Decide that gazebo from Menard's isn't going to work.
3. Take all afternoon to check out gazebos at three other stores.
4. Take youngest son to soccer practice.
5. Decide it's too late to fold laundry and write a week's worth of blog entries.

Being Florence Nightingale

Today I was going to give that laundry another go. Just as I was sitting down to fold clothes, the school nurse called. Theo wasn't feeling well. I picked him up and got him settled on the couch at home just in time for his stomach to reject his lunch. Apparently, the stomach bug is making the rounds at school. There are many things that get easier as your kids get older. Handling the stomach flu is definitely one of those things. Both of my boys are now old enough to recognize the signs of imminent hurlage and can actually hit the basin. Long gone are the days of unexpected projectile vomiting and with it the extra laundry and cleanup of mom and kid. They are also old enough to cope with illness with the application of large amounts of TV. Theo in particular, when he is not feeling totally wretched, is quite happy to have an excuse to perfect his couch potato skills. The DVR is a big boon in this department, as we usually have an average of 7-10 hours of recorded shows waiting to be watched. I will admit that I would not have chosen to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I had the stomach flu, but it seemed to suit Theo just fine.

Doing my Taxes

Today I had planned to fold the clothes I washed yesterday. I told you that I can't grocery shop and wash and fold clothes in one day. But first I had to finish those taxes. Uncle Sam doesn't care if my laundry is wrinkled. Once I finished writing the tax checks, I just didn't feel like folding the laundry. I wish I could say that finishing the taxes took longer than expected and wore me out. The truth is, all I had to do was write and mail two checks, one to the Feds and one to the state. I actually hired someone to do my taxes for the first time ever. Tim usually did the taxes. I did them last year under his supervision. This year I just didn't want to worry about them at all. So back in February I got some recommendations and hired an accountant. He was worth his hire. He found a deduction that I never would have found. That deduction was for more than his fee. And just like the MasterCard commercials, the piece of mind I got from having someone else do the fiddly bits was priceless. Anyway, I wrote my two checks, addressed and stamped the envelopes and put it all in the mailbox. After virtuously doing about 15 minutes of work, including the walk to the mailbox on the corner, I rewarded myself by sitting down to read the book I bought yesterday. And read and read and read. I never folded the laundry and never got around to making dinner. So even though I hadn't planned on doing so, I caved in to the request of my children and ordered pizza for dinner. Again.

Chores

Monday is usually chore day for me, since I spend most of the weekend ferrying the boys to and from various activities. Today was no exception. I had to go grocery shopping. We had plenty of food in the house, just not enough of the right variety to provide what might pass for a complete and nutritious dinner. I had not planned on doing laundry as well, but Brendan requested clean socks. I usually try to do laundry and grocery shopping on separate days because when I combine them on the same day they don't get done well. Sometimes I'll buy the groceries but not get around to putting everything away. Or I'll do the laundry but run out of steam before folding everything. I had planned to finish my taxes, but just couldn't face one more chore after washing clothes and buying groceries. The one thing I did just for fun was to buy a book while out doing my shopping. As I've said before, you don't have to twist my arm to get me to add to my book collection.

Lazy Day

Today I had planned on getting several things done around the house. Instead, I wasted most of the day watching television. The only thing I did do was the dishes, and only because we'd run out of glasses. I didn't even make dinner. It was just Theo and I, since Brendan was off with the Boy Scouts. So we ordered a pizza and watched some more TV.

Time with Friends

Today I had planned on having coffee with a friend. Of course, neither of us planned on her getting so wrapped up in her work that she forgot our appointment. Fortunately, she was free for lunch, so our meeting was merely delayed instead of cancelled.

After school, I had to help Brendan pack for this weekend's Boy Scout camp out. He leaves right after school tomorrow, so his packing needed to be done today. It's his first tent camping outing. I hope it won't be too cold or too wet. April weather is very chancy around here.

This evening I got to do something truly fun for a change. A friend from church is a musician and composer. He was playing in Evanston this evening. So I left the boys at home and went to listen to him perform. I didn't arrive until the second set. Some of the audience had clearly been drinking since well before the first set, so it was a very amusing evening.

Running Around Town

Today I had to go to the bookstore. I love going to bookstores. I love buying books. I go to the bookstore and buy books much more often than I should. However, today I had a legitimate need to go to the bookstore. Theo needed a book for literature class. His lit class is reading cross cultural autobiographies. He is reading a graphic novel written by a young woman who grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is called "Persepolis" and according to Theo, it's a pretty good book.

I hadn't planned on leaving the bookstore with more than Theo's book, but all the romantic comedy DVDs were 40 percent off. So I picked up copy of "Under the Tuscan Sun." I really admire the main character's guts for seizing the chance to rebuild her life when the opportunity presented itself. It would be really cool if my chance was as neat as rebuilding an old Italian villa. Anybody want to buy me a ticket to a gay tour of Tuscany?

While I was out, I stopped into Macy's to spend a gift card I had received. It's so much more fun to spend other people's money. This gift card was given to me with explicit instructions not to spend it on anything practical. It was so much fun to look only at those things I would never buy if I was spending my own money. I picked up a fancy single cup coffee maker. After I got it home, I decided that it makes terrible coffee. So I'm returning it and I will get to spend another afternoon looking for impractical gifts for myself.

So, I had to go to the bookstore, I hadn't planned on buying a DVD and I bought a coffee maker because I felt like it. What had I planned on doing but didn't? I had planned on running all over Skokie with Theo after school. On Wednesdays, Theo has volleyball games after school until 5:30pm, soccer from 6-7pm and scouts from 7:30 until 9:00pm. Lucky for me, today's soccer practice was cancelled due to bad weather. There was still volleyball and scouts, but no soccer meant that we all got to eat dinner at home instead of in the car on our way to or from someplace else.

Catching Cold

I had all sorts of plans for when we got home from vacation. However, those plans did not include catching Theo's cold, which is what I did. So all my plans went out the window. I did only what I had to do, which was enough laundry and cooking to get by. I did only what I wanted to do, if you can say that I wanted to be sick and sleep on the couch for the better part of a week.