Time Flies...

when you're overwhelmed!

I mean, when you're having fun! Right? That's it, I've just been having way too much fun, and that would explain why suddenly it's Friday. Yeah, right.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I've been trying to get things back on track. One of my new routines, thanks to my friend Julie, is trying to do grocery shopping twice a month, with the exception of milk and bread of course. Here's what I've learned:

1. I expect this might change, but I do not particularly enjoy meal planning.
2. When you actually plan for meals, you should also probably plan for side dishes.
3. I did not plan for any side dishes - what's wrong with canned fruit and veggies?
4. When you go on a shopping trip of this size, you should not bring children.
5. Stick to one store - no matter what.
6. OK - one grocery type store, and Costco - which is in a class all by itself.

All in all, I think this really might become a new habit for me. I spent less than I thought -- all together I spent $250, but this also included approximately $40 of 'play stuff' (halloween supplies and stuff), and probably another $30 or so of things like toilet paper, toothpaste and cleaning supplies that needed to be replenished. So $180 to feed a family of 4 for approximately 15 days equals $1 per person per meal. I don't know if that's fantastic or not, but I do know it beats eating out. :)

The Pink Princess would like to be a bird for Halloween. She got a bird costume in Fall of 2004, and she wore it for Halloween that year, Halloween the following year, and wants to wear it again this year. I have a mix of pity and pride for the girl, who reasons "Well, it still fits, so I should wear it again, right?" I mean, it's good and all to make do with what we have, but it's Halloween - and I love Halloween - and if she wants a new costume, a new costume she shall have. But she doesn't. She wants to be a bird - and that's OK with me - as long as it's what she REALLY wants to be. I don't want her being a bird because she thinks she HAS to be a bird because we can't get her a new costume. We CAN get her a new costume, it's not an issue. Does this even make sense???

The Purple Dragon was of the same frame of mind about her costume. She was a puppy last year, and The Pink Princess was the same puppy three years before that. And of course, she wanted to be a puppy again. But then, OH JOY, she saw a dragon costume at the store, and she just HAD to be a dragon. Her friend Sam has a dragon costume that she always attempts to squeeze into every time she goes to his house to play, and she LOVES it. So now she has a dragon costume of her own - and even though it was probably designed for boys, she looks quite adorable in it.

Here's a funny from a week or two ago. King Isepik was helping The Pink Princess with her homework, and while I don't quite remember what the homework was, he was trying to get her to come up with two types of people: boys and girls. The Pink Princess was really struggling with this (overthinking the problem I guess), and just didn't have a clue what King Isepik was fishing for. She finally shouted out... "I KNOW! There's JEWISH people and then there's... " She never got to finish the sentence because The King and I were dying with laughter. I'm pretty willing to bet that the end of the sentence was going to be Mormons or LDS people though.

It's been a fairly dreary week here - not raining all the time - but lots of cloud cover. Where's the sun?