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 I ended the day "helping" our friend Julian install a new wireless access point in our house to replace the two outdated ones Tim installed several years ago.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.