grocery shopping

For Abigail, Mirielle and I, taking Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Camille shopping should be a piece of cake. First we went to Target, which I should just stay out of completely. I got Jonathan a new coat and snowpants for kindergarten (YIKES, I do not want to send him to KINDERGARTEN!), for 75% off, and some boots and shoes, which we really NEEDED, ha, for very cheap. A few pair were less than $3.00. A pair of footie pajamas that will fit Kathryn for her 11th birthday, for $3.24. I should stay out of Target. But I really really like to keep the kids looking neat and clean and well dressed, and I can do it so cheaply when I shop there.

Next stop, McDonalds, which we go to way to often, too, but it was then almost 3:00, and we were so hungry. We each got one thing, and a few fries to share. And of course our free Lattes, Mondays through April 27th. At least around here. Poor Jon, he took a drink of Abigail's and didn't realize how hot it was....poor thing. I saw the look on his face right as he started to drink....way too hot for a little boy. When those things happen to kids, oh, I cannot bear it. He was okay pretty quickly though. Then, grocery store ho. We put Camille in the stroller (the Inglesina Zippy, to be exact), and she was pretty content in there for most of the store. She could lay back, drink her bottle, then sit up and grab things off the shelf. Abigail was nice, and took them to get balloons, they give free helium balloons to the kids. Jon let go of his up at the check-out, and a nice cashier-boy went and got a broom to get it down. Camille held out all day, stayed awake, then fell asleep as soon as she got into her carseat.

Home: the chore list was done just fine, but I forgot all about the most important thing: what is for dinner? We had ham yesterday, and there was some left, so I made a quick pot of soup. Here is what I did: opened 2 cans of cream of celery soup, stirred in two cans of water, turned it on to boil...added a stick of butter. Put 1/4 (aprox, I don't measure) cup flour in a mug, stirred in some milk, mixed it thoroughly, stirred it into boiling soup, and added a bunch more milk until the pot was more than half full. Then I stirred in some ham cubes. I added a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. In the mean time, I had quickly peeled and cubed 5 potatoes, put them in the microwave, and covered with plastic wrap, cooked for 6 minutes, stirred, 6 more minutes, almost done, maybe 3 more minutes, then stirred them into the now boiling soup. Voila, chowder in less than a half hour. Served with two fresh loaves of Italian bread that were 99cents each, and yum.

It is hard to concentrate, as Paul is strumming his guitar, and Mali and Mirielle are singing, practicing for going to a nursing home tomorrow to sing for the residents. They haven't done this before. Mirielle has a beautiful voice. They sound like angels.

Joseph and Samuel are playing Wii, Abigail is laying on the couch with a headache, Kathryn is heading to bed. The little ones are in bed, and all is quiet. From their room, I mean.

Things I am thankful for tonight:

Our house is a place of happiness and laughter. Abigail just reminded us of a funny thing that happened in one of her classes a while ago, that I probably posted about, but here it is again. She had to give a speech. So she talked about her large family, how it was with 10 sisters and 5 brothers, ect. The next kid had to do his speech. It was about over-population.