Grateful

I realized this morning that 2 1/2 weeks with no kid respite is just a bit too long, for me.  Next time I will plan to embed chunks of time to/for myself.

Last night was a nadir.  I was chowing on pomegranate chocolate chip coconut ice cream (that Sag had picked out to make a milkshake with) while watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels at 11pm.  I'd been in a bad mood all day.  I've been putting the new pickles from the farmer's market to the comfort eating test (finished a quart and free pint bought Saturday tonight) and last night I finally turned to ice cream.

Then, I stayed up till nearly 3am.

Today has been quite fine, despite all that.

After yet another whatever's-in-the-fridge-or-pantry meal, I called the faraway health food store and they are kindly holding two bags of Gem's favorite spice cake mix for us till later this week.  This meant our errands today stayed quite local.

• the post office for some international stamps

• the hardware store to get what turned out to be a super expensive special size battery for our new car flashlight

• the ATM to withdraw cash from the savings account to cover us till pay day (le sigh)

• the bookstore where I sneakily picked up some birthday books for Gem, got some details about tomorrow night's Bloggess event, and plucked some Father's Day/get well/sympathy cards

• the library where this was waiting for me

• my fave cafe where we picked up local eggs, honey and the Irish breakfast tea I fell in love with last Fall

• the supermarket where we bought the bare minimum for today and tomorrow's needs

(I love living in this town...at every stop of our errands we were recognized and treated warmly.)

Once home, we lunched, I made some tea and then we played Carcassonne.  Sag was under the weather again, but the game seemed to cheer him up.  With the recent expansion set we got, the games are now close to two hours long!

Finally, the game ended and it was on to homework and reading for the kids while I made dinner.

After dinner, the kids were showered, the tea basket was decluttered, and the kitchen was cleaned.  Now the kids are watching a birthday gift which arrived in the mail today (thank you, Auntie Barbra :-) and we are all sipping herbal tea with honey.

And so, a pretty productive day draws to an end.  Not without its share of moans/groans and shrieks/eeks from each of us, but relatively mellow.

Here is a song we've been digging lately.  Peace and love.