Saturday Fun

Today was sooooo busy,and except for not really feeling well, it was a blast. Along with the rest of the gang, I had that respiratory, cloggy nose thing that seems to be sweeping across America. It hangs on. And on. With strong hairy arms! The thing is, I don't feel terrible. I have to feel like impending death to want to stay in bed. I am way not there. But I remain somewhat congested, and with a sort of heavy feeling on my chest. But not all the time on the second. And allergies could be complicating things, so I am letting it ride a bit. It has only been 3 weeks. I waited 6 months one time for a weird pain in my hip to leave (incidently it did!) But I was determined to not have the sort of under the weather malaise impact our day and i don't think it did.

It started with our 3 banking errands. You'd think we were Rockefeller or something with me having to go to three banks this morning. And we so aren't. But I did the 3 banking chores with the kids and then we went to KC's dance class. Right after that we always go to the library. A good time for Lissa to move around and get the wiggles out after waiting through KC's class. And a bit of down time for KC who can sit and do a puzzle or read and relax after an hour of focus and activity. From there we went to Sears as I had noticed that Rob needed new sneaks. In a huge and wonderful deal he found the pair he liked and then we saw a clearance rack. I asked if he would like to get a second pair and reserve those just for church and visits to Nana etc. He agreed and found another pair on that rack that looked cool enough to wear. When we got to the check out we found they weren't just on clearance, it was buy one get one FREE!!!!!! You have to know my little shoe loving soul was doing back flips at that! LOL

I also picked him up a couple of shirts as his arms are doing that scarecrow thing again making his long sleeved ones that we bought the end of last spring looking silly. He picked up a pair of jeans while we were in the clothing dept and asked me why he didn't have any of "this kind" as he put it. I said that was because he told me he hated jeans. I was just really quiet and matter of fact about it and you could see that he suddenly actually remembered saying that. He nodded and said, "oh yeah." I told him that sometimes I change my mind about styles and would he like to try a pair of jeans now. The answer was of course yes. He has girls interested in him at church and I suspect that the sweats he favored till now are not snazzy enough when dressing for impressing the person you are interested in. Anyway, this is going to sound crazy to some people but for Rob and I this was a huge wonderful interaction. First off, the remembering of his part in a situation is something that he struggles with. It is easier to fob blame off on someone else, and over time that became a pattern that is hard to break. It is also a risk in Rob's eyes to let on that you really want something. If you don't ask, someone can't say no. So this feeds into the changing the story to suit your skewed reality. Except that today, it was the reality that really happened and indirectly he asked for what he wanted. (I am not silly enough to think he would actually ask outright at this point. I am over the moon when he can set up a situation where I can see what his deepest want is and structure the conversation to get him to own that wish.) So I walked out of Sears a lot poorer and a great deal happier.

From there it was food shopping and the kids were super helpful. Due to the location of Sears we shopped at a different branch of the market we usually use. For some reason every single one of their stores is set up totally differently from each other. Drives me mental as it makes it hard to find things. My secret weapon? I bring 3 children, and that is 3 sets of extra eyes at varying heights. I told them we were going on a spy mission (yup I really said that!) and we had to find where the store had hidden the things we like to buy. We were out in jig time. But it was still nearly lunch time. I had bought lunch fixings there and packed them on the topmost bag. We then we to the apt complex where Kirsty is the clubhouse director and I brought the lunch things in and we sort of picnicked with her. While we were there a boy from the site came in and KC and Rob played a game with him. I like that KC seems totally able to interact with almost any kid of almost any age. This boy was 12 and it didn't matter a whit to KC or to the boy he was hanging with.

Then it was home to unload groceries and swap my washes and check in with Chet. Then back in the car to head out to our cities Apple Festival at the city owned apple orchard. About 10 yrs ago this orchard was going to be sold to a developer and the city wisely ponied up money to preserve the orchard and stop the development. This is the same place where we have our community garden plot. We hung out at the bounce house to KC and Lissa's delight. Rob did an admirable big brother thing and stood in the bounce house when his younger sibs were there. I am paranoid about some bigger kid plowing over my 2 year old or my shorter than average 5 year old. Then we went on a hay ride, visited the petting zoo and picked a big bag of apples. By the time we were h ome again it was 4 p.m. and the natives were hungry.

Nothing fancy on the menu tonight, just beans in sauce over rice, with a big hot from the oven apple brown betty for dessert. I wish there was still some left in the fridge!