A Week In the Life - Day 1

So I thought I'd try a "week-in-the-life" bit this week.  I think it might be foolish.  The primary reason I haven't been writing as much is because the time I might spend writing is spent working more (for work, not for home).  I just checked my calendar, and it's pretty awful through Wednesday.  So be it.  Perhaps I'll just make that part of my week in the life.  I just hope the secondary reason -- writer's block -- doesn't rear it's ugly head.

It's 10:47pm on Sunday, day one of A Week in the Life, and I'm just starting to write this. Great.  Once again, I'll be starting the week off low on sleep with a lot to get done.  I'm going to try to make this quick.

It was my turn to take Ella to her swimming lesson today, the usual first thing that we do on Sundays now.  The "before" and "during" part of that was fantastic. Watching my kid love what she's doing and act like she's just killing it gave me so much pleasure that it didn't seem possible that I'd leave that swimming facility without a smile on my face.  Oh, but I did.  I don't even remember what triggered it, but I took a verbal bashing from Ella in the changing room that left me sad and announcing I'd be grocery shopping today without my usual grocery shopping partner.

While we were gone, Dan and Cal shot hoops.  I love that I can say that now.  Just yesterday, we finally finished putting up our new basketball hoop in the driveway.  Dan worked pretty hard on this periodically throughout the week, calling me in to assist when two hands just weren't enough.  A lot of muscle, head scratching, problem solving and patience went into this.  A lot.

Once we were home, Dan and Cal made a trip to Dunkin Donuts for a dozen and returned pretty quickly.  Since it's Sunday, I ate mine guilt-free.  I decided last week it was time to do my diet-and-exercise program again, and Sunday is my free day to eat whatever I want.  So I do. 

I really don't enjoy shopping and just couldn't get myself to make a plan for dinners and the grocery list that supports it.  So I found a week-of-dinners plan in some "Parent and Child" magazine that Cal brought home from school and just bought what was needed for those.  The list was already made for me, so all I need to do now is follow those recipes.  They seemed reasonable at a glance   And they must be healthy -- the check-out lady at Trader Joe's commented about how healthy my purchase was.  "Right?!" I responded, genuinely excited about it, still not sure exactly what I'd be making.  Later, I saw that I'd be making tomato soup with those 8 roma tomatoes -- oops.

Once I was home, I brought in the groceries and put them away alone while Dan and Ella enjoyed some time at the hoop while Cal hit me up to use the computer.  I told him to get outside instead.  It was too nice not to be outside.

I eventually joined in the hoop shooting, and Dan eventually made his way inside.  Jordan Speith was still in the lead at the Masters, something he had started on Thursday with round 1.  He wanted to see it.

Eventually, Ella declared that she wanted to ride in "this," pointing to the Burley bike seat that we're borrowing from my friend, Jen.  This was exactly what I wanted to hear.  I love riding my bike, and I love riding my bike with my kid(s) in tow.

"Do you want Cal to go, too?" I asked her.  She did and somehow managed to get Cal to want to ride in this thing, too.  (He was still on his computer kick but said he wanted to go.)

So we filled up the tires in my bike and the Burley, assembled it and hooked it up to my bike.  The kids hopped in, and we proceeded to head to the prairie path near our home.

Crammed in the Burley

So, together, they weigh about 100 pounds.  I think that's pushing the limits of this Burley. That and Cal's height -- his head was rubbing on the flap hanging over it.  We may very well have set a record for oldest/biggest kid in a Burley.  Most kids his age are probably more likely to ride their own bikes.

I think I enjoyed the ride.  I was outside, on my bike, spending quality time with my kids.  The "think" part of that is important only because I spent the first 3/4 of the ride listening to them point out all of the dog poop we were either riding over or around.  I corrected them once when we rode around some horse poop, and I asked them a few times why they don't look for birds or dogs or COYOTES.  It was risky that I said that there are coyotes on the path -- I fully expected Cal to overreact and be incredibly scared that we'd actually encounter one.  I don't even think that Ella knows what a coyote is.  But it went over okay, and they were unaffected, still pointing out all of the poop on the path.

There were a lot of potty words and some spitting (I didn't mention that yet) exchanged during our ride; but this ride reinforced the fact that the Leatherkids are friends. Crammed in that Burley, they didn't complain once, laughed a lot and were really just little assholes together.  I'll take that... mostly.

Less than an hour later, we were home; and they were shooting hoops again.  I wished I could have simply watched, but I needed to get involved to do some rule-setting -- they needed to share that... I can hardly stand that we actually have this ball because I really can't stand Calipari, Kentucky and what they're doing to college basketball... mini Kentucky basketball that Ella's former teacher gave to Cal when she heard he... I can hardly stand saying this... told her that Kentucky is his favorite team... bleh.  I've spent many a time at a basketball hoop shooting and passing balls that I'm rebounding -- I don't remember anyone telling me to share them, but I needed to today. A lot.

Jordan Speith did eventually win the Masters. Tied with Tiger for the lowest 4-day score in Masters history.  We all watched his finish, Dan watching intently, Cal and Ella asking questions as he finished.

I eventually fixed dinner while Cal and Dan got some more hoops time in.  Did I say I love that we have that hoop now?  Ella played a bit with them but came back in and set the table for me.  We actually had a pleasant dinner together where the Leatherkids ate all of their food without obnoxiously spewing potty words despite our pleas that they stop, their latest thing to nip in the bud.

We took showers and then lay down as a family on mine and Dan's bed and watched the Yankees-Red Sox game.  (I love that it's baseball season!)  Ella, Cal and Dan fell asleep; and I eventually got up and moved the kids to their respective beds.  It was the perfect way to put them to bed -- no attitudes, no rules, no special requests.  They didn't even wake up.  I think that's a sign that it was a good day.

Dan transitioned his way to his side of the bed, and I made my way downstairs to get some stuff done.  I needed to do some work and to prepare for the week.  It's now 11:42pm.  I think I'll call this one quits for today.