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.