it's really happening!

Rhys and Achilles

Jamie and Sunny...

We went to the play space yesterday, it's a county subsidized play area for kids, a former blockbuster building.  It's a huge carpeted room, with little areas for play:  a grocery store with carts, registers, groceries...a restaurant area, a sensory area with kinetic sand, play dough, chalk...construction with foam cement blocks, building blocks, ect., toy power tools and hard hats, farm toys, dollhouse, camping area with toy grill and tent, baby area with foam mats and baby toys, a ship with a slide and fishing area...it has nice bathrooms, a snack area, and everyone walks around in their socks to keep the floors cleaner.  It only costs ten bucks for a family, and that includes a second visit for free.  The kids really like it, and it's easy to keep an eye on them because it's big and open, bright and airy.

 Paul has started ripping up the tile.  It's super dusty in here, and we've not hung the plastic up to keep it out of the living room yet.  He just wanted to "see what we're dealing with." Dust, that's what we're dealing with.   Tomorrow, the real work begins.  I planned to get the tables out, the coats covered or removed from the entryway, the odds and ends taken off the counters, and we will, but haven't yet.  blah.  dust.  I think we need to rent a tile remover, because the tile itself will come up with the sledge hammer and tools, but the cement underneath is stubborn and thick.  Oh, it's going to be a big job.  

This fine morning, I was up before the birds.  Margaret started back to work, and had some important meetings today, so Camille and I drove up and watched the kids for a bit, then took Wulf and Tenny with us to Target.  Wulf wanted to make a deal when we got there:  I buy him a toy, or he wasn't getting out of the car.  (We went there not long ago, and found some really fun after-Christmas deals, and he remembered getting his Dino mask, ect.).  I told him my deal:  go in with us and have lots of fun, or we drive him back home.  He reluctantly got out of the car.  I did let them pick out yo-yos, then found a really cool science set marked down from $19.99 to $5.99, so I took it off the shelf and handed it to him.  He was beyond thrilled.  

We got chicken and popcorn and some pretzels, then headed to Aldi.  Tennyson wanted to go in, Wulf and Camille stayed in the car.  

The science kit was actually really cool, we made a volcano.

Tennyson likes to weigh things.

We got oranges and grapes, five 8-packs of pumpkin seltzer, it was marked down to 37 cents.  I don't LOVE it, but it's good, and I enjoy seltzer.  We got cheese and milk and sausages, and bagels, which Tennyson picked out.  

Home...ahh, home.  I made bacon and eggs and sausages and cut up some oranges, toasted the bagels, and we had brekky/lunch.  I had planned to make some cookies, I really want to try keto molasses cookies, and was going to make some regular molasses too, but the day got away from me.  We played and puttered around, and I made dinner:  chicken breast cut into strips, marinated in lime juice, dried and rolled in the baking powder/cornstarch/flour mixture with salt and pepper, and roasted in a 400 degree oven, in some olive and canola oil on parchment paper.  It gets nice and crispy, and we had it in tortillas (fajitas), with peppers, onions, fresh salsa, ect.  We also had rice.   Margaret came after work and had dinner with us, then packed up the kids and went home.  

It's quiet here now, the kids aren't home, Sonja is working, and Paul is working now too.  So it's just me and the pups and the kitties.   (we've paused the project until tomorrow, moved most of the furniture from the kitchen)

Ah well, I don't have much to say tonight.  I'm tired, but happy tired, it was a good day, a good week.  My hip is behaving, but my lower back, not so much, so leaning over - ugh.   ha, I'm old.  Oh dear me, my hip is acting up.  As if I'm ninety.  I was talking to a grandpa at the play place yesterday, about how it doesn't seem like our kids were as rambunctious and defiant as the grandchildren seem to be.  He says we just don't remember, and we were young then so it wasn't such a big deal.  There were a lot of grandparents there, one grandma in particular really struggled...her grandson fell from a bench, and it took her a good few minutes to amble over there, then to pick him up, and I commiserated with her from across the room, sent her some I feel your pain vibes.  It is a whole different ball game, chasing toddlers when you're older.  

If I could have a redo in life, I'd take better care of myself.  I would find better coping mechanisms when I was tired and couldn't get a nap, better than a stack of cookies or two.  I had a mindset that I was already fat, what did it matter?  I feel sorry for my old self.  I didn't have any hope, in that sense.  

Ah well...have a really good night and take care of yourselves.