The last week of November/ 1st day of December
The last week of November was memorable for a number of reasons and I thought I'd document them here:
Sunday, November 25- We went to church. I wish that last sentence wasn't part of the "memorable" part of the week. However, we hadn't been to church in FOUR weeks prior to this weekend so, attending, was in fact, out of our recent norm and was something for which to be grateful. Alyssa's soccer team had soccer games four Sunday mornings in a row (10/28 they played in TN, 10/4 they played in STL and 10/11 and 10/18 they played home ECNL matches). Looking forward to regular church attendance....
After church, we had a very low key afternoon at home. We relaxed and did things we had to do including a trip to the grocery store for me. Many Sunday evenings, instead of me cooking, we go out to eat or order carry out. Sometimes I actually want to prepare a meal at home and this Sunday was one of them. I made chicken fried rice and everyone liked it quite a bit. I used to make chicken fried rice regularly but that was years and years ago. At some point, it fell off of our dinner rotation. But given how much everyone liked it on Sunday, I will be making it again.
Monday- It was back to work for Donnie and back to school for the kids. When everyone besides me left the house in the morning, the house was quite quiet and quite cold. Resting my eyes on my pillow for a few minutes beneath the warmth of my down comforter didn't seem too indulgent. Thirty five minutes and two dreams later, I felt a little bit guilty :). However, it's very rare that I fall asleep during the day so I gave myself some grace. I hadn't slept well all weekend.
Abby had play practice- it was the week of the performance so practices these week were long. She had play practice from the end of school until 6:30 pm. About a week and a half ago, Abby was given a new part in the play (this was in addition to the parts she already had). One of the students who was given a role failed to memorize her lines and regularly attend practice so the director made the decision to take the part away from the girl and give it to Abby. The new role easily doubled the amount of lines she has in the play- and she received the lines less than two weeks before the first performance. Anyway, on Monday, after practice, I asked Abby how it went and she said she messed up all of her new lines. She didn't sound too upset about it and I didn't want to stress her out (although my stress level for her skyrocketed) so I remarked that she still had time. Like, three whole days, most of which would be spent sleeping or being in school or at play practice leaving little time to memorize lines but I didn't add that :).
Tuesday- I worked for half a day, in the afternoon. In the morning, I attempted to put up our twelve foot Christmas tree in the family room. It appears I'm aging out of putting up the tree all by myself. I've done it by myself for years but this year I struggled to get one of tallest portions of the tree attached to the the portion beneath it. I gave up on it as I realized that Donnie and/ or Jacob being taller and stronger that I am could much more easily do it.
Donnie's work is super busy right now and Tuesday was his busiest day in a long time. He called me on his way home from work saying how hungry he was because he had no time to stop working to eat lunch. He went on to get two phone calls on his way home from work and as soon as he walked into the door another client called him.
Abby had play practice again from until school ended until 6:30 pm. At one point, before I picked her up, I sent her the following text, "Do you want to go to Paris?" That question was in reference to a trip to France that Abby's French III teacher is planning. Tuesday was the last day to get a discount rate for it. We had talked about Abby going on it but had not definitively decided on it. I wanted to make sure she was on board (no pun intended) with the trip before I put money down on it. The question, "Do you want to go to Paris?" struck me as potentially blasé sounding, as if we regularly make decisions about going to Paris or not :). Most days, mundane things like whether or not to buy M&M's (see below/ Wednesday) are the headiest of decisions about which I make.
Wednesday- I worked in the morning and then swung by CVS on my way home to pick up a prescription. I noticed one of the coupons that I received in my pharmacy purchase receipts was for $1.00 off two large bags of M&M's. I thought if the M& M's were on sale, the coupon on top of the sale would make them a pretty good deal. Sure enough, they were on sale for 2 for $6.00 so with my coupon, they'd be 2 for $5.00. That was good enough for me. At the check out, the CVS cashier pointed out that I also had a $3.00 off coupon which I could use for my purchase. So, I received two large bags of M&M's for $2.00. And, since the Peanut M&M's contain protein, and protein is such an importance component of a healthy diet, I decided that opening the bag of Peanut M&M's and eating a few of them or most of them was probably the right thing to include with my lunch.
Later in the afternoon, Jacob and I drove to Dayton to get his picture taken for the yearbook. His picture is so good!
Abby had play practice until 6:30. Then she texted me a little before 6:00 and said that practice had gone well and they were done with it for the evening. One of her dance friends, who's also in the play, needed a ride home so we took her home and were back home before 6:30. Which was a good thing since Abby said she had a ton of homework and would probably be working on it until midnight. Oh dear, while I'm thrilled she's in the play, I won't mind her next week's much less busy schedule.
Thursday- Nothing too out of the ordinary although I did take one child to a doctor's appointment in the morning. Nothing was terribly wrong and we were back home quickly. I worked in the afternoon.
Abby's play practice ended close to six and we were all able to eat dinner (copy cat Chik- fil-A chicken tortilla soup- it's soooooo good) after I picked her up. Play practice was the last one before the show opened and Abby said all went well.
Friday- Both schools that I regularly sub at really needed subs and normally if I have nothing I have to do like go to an appointment, take a kid to an appointment, etc., I'll pick up a sub job in the morning. I didn't have any appointments but I felt I like I needed the day at home to catch up on things, tidy up, do a quick grocery trip run, etc. And that's what I did. I spent some time on working on ornaments for A Christmas Carol theme Christmas tree that I was planning on surprising Abby with. Nothing else exciting or noteworthy (unless you count buying extra crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth at the grocery store and planning to take it back but before you get around to taking it back the kids see it and think you're going to make them consume it and they freak out and you have to assure them that you're going to exchange it for smooth peanut butter and ALL will be right with their PB&J's).
Friday evening was first night of the high school play, A Christmas Carol, that Abby is in. She did such a good job! All of the students did well but obviously it was Abby whom I was watching and observing the most. After the show I drove her to Steak n' Shake where most of the cast went to eat afterward. By the time I picked her up, it was way past both of our bedtimes :)).
Saturday, December 1st- We had no plans until Abby's Saturday evening performance. That was the first in a long time and it was most surely welcome. The weather outside was frightful- from rain, not snow- and it was truly delightful to not have to go anywhere during the day. Prior to Saturday, we didn't have the tree in our family room decorated so we did that. Abby and Alyssa both needed/ wanted a few things that we could get at Drug Mart so we were out briefly and then I didn't leave the house until I had to drop Abby off at the school a little after 5:00.
A few pics from the week:
Two bags of M&M's for $2.00!! I'm still thrilled about it days later :)
This was what our family room looked like from Tuesday until Saturday when Donnie put together the tree that I couldn't put together on Tuesday.
Thankfully, I had two trees up already and focused on my pretty trees that were up and the sweet ornaments that adorned them.
This ornament is one of several that I made for a special tree for Abby- her Christmas Carol tree
Abby after the first night's performance- I have many more that I'll put in a separate post. Here are just a couple of Abby from night one.
Sunday, November 25- We went to church. I wish that last sentence wasn't part of the "memorable" part of the week. However, we hadn't been to church in FOUR weeks prior to this weekend so, attending, was in fact, out of our recent norm and was something for which to be grateful. Alyssa's soccer team had soccer games four Sunday mornings in a row (10/28 they played in TN, 10/4 they played in STL and 10/11 and 10/18 they played home ECNL matches). Looking forward to regular church attendance....
After church, we had a very low key afternoon at home. We relaxed and did things we had to do including a trip to the grocery store for me. Many Sunday evenings, instead of me cooking, we go out to eat or order carry out. Sometimes I actually want to prepare a meal at home and this Sunday was one of them. I made chicken fried rice and everyone liked it quite a bit. I used to make chicken fried rice regularly but that was years and years ago. At some point, it fell off of our dinner rotation. But given how much everyone liked it on Sunday, I will be making it again.
Monday- It was back to work for Donnie and back to school for the kids. When everyone besides me left the house in the morning, the house was quite quiet and quite cold. Resting my eyes on my pillow for a few minutes beneath the warmth of my down comforter didn't seem too indulgent. Thirty five minutes and two dreams later, I felt a little bit guilty :). However, it's very rare that I fall asleep during the day so I gave myself some grace. I hadn't slept well all weekend.
Abby had play practice- it was the week of the performance so practices these week were long. She had play practice from the end of school until 6:30 pm. About a week and a half ago, Abby was given a new part in the play (this was in addition to the parts she already had). One of the students who was given a role failed to memorize her lines and regularly attend practice so the director made the decision to take the part away from the girl and give it to Abby. The new role easily doubled the amount of lines she has in the play- and she received the lines less than two weeks before the first performance. Anyway, on Monday, after practice, I asked Abby how it went and she said she messed up all of her new lines. She didn't sound too upset about it and I didn't want to stress her out (although my stress level for her skyrocketed) so I remarked that she still had time. Like, three whole days, most of which would be spent sleeping or being in school or at play practice leaving little time to memorize lines but I didn't add that :).
Tuesday- I worked for half a day, in the afternoon. In the morning, I attempted to put up our twelve foot Christmas tree in the family room. It appears I'm aging out of putting up the tree all by myself. I've done it by myself for years but this year I struggled to get one of tallest portions of the tree attached to the the portion beneath it. I gave up on it as I realized that Donnie and/ or Jacob being taller and stronger that I am could much more easily do it.
Donnie's work is super busy right now and Tuesday was his busiest day in a long time. He called me on his way home from work saying how hungry he was because he had no time to stop working to eat lunch. He went on to get two phone calls on his way home from work and as soon as he walked into the door another client called him.
Abby had play practice again from until school ended until 6:30 pm. At one point, before I picked her up, I sent her the following text, "Do you want to go to Paris?" That question was in reference to a trip to France that Abby's French III teacher is planning. Tuesday was the last day to get a discount rate for it. We had talked about Abby going on it but had not definitively decided on it. I wanted to make sure she was on board (no pun intended) with the trip before I put money down on it. The question, "Do you want to go to Paris?" struck me as potentially blasé sounding, as if we regularly make decisions about going to Paris or not :). Most days, mundane things like whether or not to buy M&M's (see below/ Wednesday) are the headiest of decisions about which I make.
Wednesday- I worked in the morning and then swung by CVS on my way home to pick up a prescription. I noticed one of the coupons that I received in my pharmacy purchase receipts was for $1.00 off two large bags of M&M's. I thought if the M& M's were on sale, the coupon on top of the sale would make them a pretty good deal. Sure enough, they were on sale for 2 for $6.00 so with my coupon, they'd be 2 for $5.00. That was good enough for me. At the check out, the CVS cashier pointed out that I also had a $3.00 off coupon which I could use for my purchase. So, I received two large bags of M&M's for $2.00. And, since the Peanut M&M's contain protein, and protein is such an importance component of a healthy diet, I decided that opening the bag of Peanut M&M's and eating a few of them or most of them was probably the right thing to include with my lunch.
Later in the afternoon, Jacob and I drove to Dayton to get his picture taken for the yearbook. His picture is so good!
Abby had play practice until 6:30. Then she texted me a little before 6:00 and said that practice had gone well and they were done with it for the evening. One of her dance friends, who's also in the play, needed a ride home so we took her home and were back home before 6:30. Which was a good thing since Abby said she had a ton of homework and would probably be working on it until midnight. Oh dear, while I'm thrilled she's in the play, I won't mind her next week's much less busy schedule.
Thursday- Nothing too out of the ordinary although I did take one child to a doctor's appointment in the morning. Nothing was terribly wrong and we were back home quickly. I worked in the afternoon.
Abby's play practice ended close to six and we were all able to eat dinner (copy cat Chik- fil-A chicken tortilla soup- it's soooooo good) after I picked her up. Play practice was the last one before the show opened and Abby said all went well.
Friday- Both schools that I regularly sub at really needed subs and normally if I have nothing I have to do like go to an appointment, take a kid to an appointment, etc., I'll pick up a sub job in the morning. I didn't have any appointments but I felt I like I needed the day at home to catch up on things, tidy up, do a quick grocery trip run, etc. And that's what I did. I spent some time on working on ornaments for A Christmas Carol theme Christmas tree that I was planning on surprising Abby with. Nothing else exciting or noteworthy (unless you count buying extra crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth at the grocery store and planning to take it back but before you get around to taking it back the kids see it and think you're going to make them consume it and they freak out and you have to assure them that you're going to exchange it for smooth peanut butter and ALL will be right with their PB&J's).
Friday evening was first night of the high school play, A Christmas Carol, that Abby is in. She did such a good job! All of the students did well but obviously it was Abby whom I was watching and observing the most. After the show I drove her to Steak n' Shake where most of the cast went to eat afterward. By the time I picked her up, it was way past both of our bedtimes :)).
Saturday, December 1st- We had no plans until Abby's Saturday evening performance. That was the first in a long time and it was most surely welcome. The weather outside was frightful- from rain, not snow- and it was truly delightful to not have to go anywhere during the day. Prior to Saturday, we didn't have the tree in our family room decorated so we did that. Abby and Alyssa both needed/ wanted a few things that we could get at Drug Mart so we were out briefly and then I didn't leave the house until I had to drop Abby off at the school a little after 5:00.
A few pics from the week:
Two bags of M&M's for $2.00!! I'm still thrilled about it days later :)
This was what our family room looked like from Tuesday until Saturday when Donnie put together the tree that I couldn't put together on Tuesday.
This ornament is one of several that I made for a special tree for Abby- her Christmas Carol tree
Comments
Post a Comment