Type Suitable Title Here

I used all my 50% off coupons at Michaels' yesterday - this activity involved purchasing only one item at a time, walking with it out to my car, walking back in, purchasing the next one....seems silly, right? But I saved $6.25 for just 15 minutes worth of effort, which translates into earning $25 an hour. Without taxes. And I got some very nice wool yarn for $2.50 a skein.

Hey, it makes me happy.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried to get out of pushing Susie around the neighborhood on her tricycle by running into the house and telling her that I'd be "right back." I figured she would wander off to play at the tot lot with the other kids. 20 minutes later, Anna reported that Susie was still sitting there on her little pink tricycle, trusting that her mommy would come back as she had promised. Makes me feel sort of bad for forgetting all about her, you know?

Perhaps I should finally invest in one of those trikes with the long handle to push by. I always thought that the people pushing those expensive contraptions around the block were money-wasting idiots; but now I realize that buying one just might save me on chiropractic bills. Raising little ones is a younger person's game, it turns out.

At 5:30 this evening (that is, a mere 15 hours before Easter Mass) Anna announced that her Easter outfit was not at all satisfactory. You know, the outfit I spent all last Saturday afternoon taking her to stores to find, the one she loved, and that I decided was just barely long enough to be acceptable. But it turns out that there is a shoe issue. Isn't there always? Heels versus flats....you don't need the details. Suffice it to say that today she balled up the dress, shoved it into a bag with the new shoes, and handed it to me, saying, with a sob, "I can't wear these tomorrow."

I don't know when it became her job to make me feel lousy, but she certainly is good at it.

Larry and I took the younger 4 on a forced march through the woods today. (Why? To keep them from driving us crazy at home, that's why.) They did all right until it started to rain. Brian totally freaked out because he was getting wet. As Larry said, "What is wrong with him?" We hiked damply back to the car (well, Susie was on Larry's shoulders), getting lost only once. And Brian didn't melt. There was a slight crisis in the car on the way home: I had brought only 3 granola bars as provisions, so Rachel and Susie had to share one. Did I mention it was only a 5-minute drive? It felt way longer. But no one starved to death, I promise.

Where was I? Oh, yes, Larry took me out to dinner tonight. We shared a burrito, and then he bought me a kids' size hot cocoa at Starbucks. Big spenders, that's us. And then, as if that weren't enough, Larry bought me a book at B&N - Alan King's Great Jewish Joke Book. The cashier was a little put out when I presented my homeschooler's teacher discount card at the register. "We only give the discount for items actually used for homeschooling," he sniffed. But he gave in when I said, "That's right - we're studying ethnic humor." I guess he was too tired to argue. After all, we all know what happens when you mess with homeschoolers. (I'm linking to paragraphs 4 and 5 of that article - but I don't know how to link to just part of an article, so just skip the first part)(I mean, unless you want to read about California court decisions, then go right ahead).

Time to put some jelly beans in plastic eggs and hide them around the living room (the ones I don't eat, that is)...have a Happy Easter!