yippee for friday!

I have been writing this blog for five and a half years now. Day after day, mostly, week after week, ect. It really brings it home exactly how fast those days fly by. I mean, it's Friday again, and how many times have I sat here with my fingers on the keyboard, waiting for my brain to think of a nice original title for a Friday post? Seems like it as yesterday when I did it last, but whoa, it was a whole week ago.

Today is lovely. The snow is swirling down from the sky, it has re-covered all the patches where the grass tried to show itself. The driveway and the road are coated, the trees and branches aren't just brown today. I plan to stay home today and take the kids to the pool later, then to Emily's house for a bit.

Yesterday, I did not stay home. I was out the door before 9 a.m., right after I got the kids on the bus. I went to the rec. center and took a nice morning swim. I actually swam some laps, and exercised in the water, for a full half hour. Then I picked up my sister Cheryl, and headed to my brother's house for breakfast. My brother retired from his job of 30+ years, and is now babysitting for a few of his grandchildren. He has 10 grown kids, was a great dad. He made us omelets with green peppers and onions and tomatoes and cheese, sausage and bacon and hashbrowns. He served us coffee and juice. We stayed there all the live-long day and talked, it was so relaxing.

Then home to pick up Margaret and head to the eye doctor to get her contact lenses. Hurry hurry hurry, we were on time but the dr. was running late...and we had to get back home, 35 minutes, drop off Margaret, and pick up Sonja and Suzanne. Sonja had to be at a birthday celebration in the small city, and we had to stop in town to buy a birthday bag for the gift I had pulled out of my closet (it was a nice set of five different perfumes, all my girls wanted it.) We dropped Sonja off, and there next door to the party venue was...the Chinese buffet. I did not want to go there. Suzanne did. So since I am nice, I took her there. I stayed away from the rice and noodles and those yummy-yucky fried biscuits covered in sugar. But that chicken must be just loaded with salt and calories. I had only chicken, and green beans and broccoli and a small bit of ice cream afterward with my tea and fortune cookie...okay, I know, just because I avoided some of the junk, doesn't mean it was okay. Sodium overload! blah. But Suzanne and I had such a nice time together.

We then went to the grocery store, one we rarely go to...to get vinegar and steel-cut oats and dishwash liquid....and I bought seven chocolate rabbits, and two bags of Hershey's eggs for Easter. The bunnies were on sale for $1.99, and rang up $3.49. I mentioned it to the cashier, and he brushed it off, said they were coming up whatever they were supposed to be. I excused myself, went back to the Easter aisle, took the sign off the shelf, and brought it to him. He looked from the sign to the bunny, back and forth, with this skeptical look on his face. rrr. Like I am making it up! He finally called the manager over, and got it fixed. People, you have to watch things ring up and check those receipts! This happened to me three different times this week!

We stopped at the craft store after picking Sonja up from the birthday. Suzanne is working on a school project and needed gold paint. I also picked up a bag of glue gun sticks...which rang up two dollars more than the shelf tag. When I pointed it out, the cashier just casually said that price must be for a smaller package. I don't mean to be a jerk, but when I make the decision to put something in my cart, I read the signs. I asked him to wait a minute, and returned with the sale sign from the shelf. He said it was the right item, but...the date of the sale was last week, in small print. But, he said, he would give me the sale price since they forgot to take the sign down. (the date was written very small, I didn't even notice it).

The other time it happened this week was the small store in town...I bought water bottles that were on sale, according to the shelf tag, rang up wrong. I am not a contentious person, I am rather shy in some ways, and would rather not speak up. As soon as one speaks up, they become That Difficult Customer, the people behind in line start the eye rolling, the loud sighs, looking at their watches. I smile innocently at them, knowing they think I am a huge jerk. But. It is sort of the principal of the thing....I feel like I have to speak up, get over my Caring What People Think.

Anywway. That Chinese food. Could I have gained three and a half pounds since yesterday? Because did. I am not happy about it, but am hoping it was mostly from the sodium content. I WILL exercise today, and get in that pool later. rrr.

Miss Charlotte Claire is home from school today. Her ears have been hurting her on and off this week, she has a cold too. I have been putting Kathryn's old antibiotic drops in her ears, big No-No, but. It has helped. She has no fever, and is up and about and chattering non-stop. I just hope I don't have to end up bringing her into the pediatrician and having to 'fess up that I used her sister's prescription on her.:)

Well, the dryer is humming away, the clothes in the washer are waiting to go in, and the pile of bedding in the laundry room doorway awaits it's turn. The dishes are spread out on the counter, ready for a ride in the dishwasher, and the floors look like I haven't swept them in days, which is not true. There is a small couch monster, and the smocks for the Dome need to be folded and packed into their rucksack. Paul and I aren't on the list for this evening's Dome event, but lots of our older kids are going. We are, however, working tomorrow. Sign-in, in the big city, at 10:00 am. blah. No sleeping in this Saturday.

Some days, as I open the computer and browse around the 'net, reading those inspiring weight-loss stories and catching up on new babies on Facebook, I wonder what I will blog about. Nothing new and different, that's for sure. I didn't lose another ten pounds, and I didn't win the lottery. I am not pregnant, and I have not decided to go back to college. I am realizing that spring is coming soon though...March is here, March which can't make up it's mind whether to be gentle and warm or scary and frigid. So it goes back and forth. Then April with it's sogginess...but that sunshine, oh I am gearing up for a dose of that.

There are some short term goals I want to set about accomplishing, like going to the store less, planning and keeping track of inventory here more. Just plain spending less money...so that perhaps it won't be impossible to sneak in another trip to Jamaica one of these days. Just the thought of that...oh so heavenly. Paul and I, no responsibilities, just each other and the beach....yum.

Yeah, so I have obviously not run out of things to say yet, even if they are the same things every day. One of these days I think I am just going to stop writing for a while, I just bore myself so....