I think we all know that having kids comes with sacrifices, but as I parent, its easy for me to see the benefits more so. But the one thing that I’ve struggled the most with “losing” is my spontaneity. Brady and I were big on going away for weekends without any notice, random midnight movie dates, etc. before having kids. And the truth is that I really do miss those days. However, I’ve discovered that we can be spontaneous with the kids! In a very different way, of course, and to less extremes, but spontaneous nonetheless. I’d rather be able to be a little bit spontaneous with the kids than totally spontaneous but not have my little ones!
We had a super funny morning, full of strange fashion choices, and cuddles.
This afternoon, while the kids napped, Brady started to put the first coat of putty on all of the dings on our walls in preparation for painting sometime this February, while I lay in bed. Super helpful I am, I know. He came to hang out with me soon there after, and he offered to paint my toe nails. Its kind of difficult for me to get there anymore, so he painted mine and I painted his 🙂 Not because he necessarily loves to have his nails painted, but Dekker has requested that they’re painted, as Brady is the only one in the house without nail polish. While we painted nails, I mentioned that I was feeling a bit twitchy, and like I wish I had a good excuse to get out of the house today. You know those days? I had one. Even though Brady is out of the house almost every day, he tries really hard to help me when I’m feeling like that. Plus, I think going out with his family feels different than when he goes to work every day. So we brainstormed a bit and decided we had a few things we could do in the city. Not lots and lots, but enough to justify the trip and maybe even get home at a reasonable time.
So we did! We had put the kids down earlier than usual, so they woke up earlier than usual. We got them dressed and were out the door in pretty good time. They weren’t super impressed to be back in their winter coats (We’ve been rocking spring coats for a while now) but they looked ridiculously cute!
We hit up Costco for gas first, and I ran in for milk, yogurt, and cheese. We love our dairy products, apparently. I really wanted to go scan through the clothing section and the baby products, but I resisted the urge. I have a big bad shopping itch these days. But I’m proud that I came out with everything I needed, and only that.
Our next stop was much more exciting for me. Again, Brady dropped me off and I ran into the mall. For Christmas, Laela bought me a pair of shoes, but she didn’t know which size would fit me, so she ordered me two sizes online. To help her out, I picked the right size and finally brought the other pair in to return today. It was the easiest return ever! For those of you who don’t know (because I didn’t!) you can order from Aldo, and return anything without any time limit whatsoever. I just brought in the box and the papers that came in the parcel and it was over. Its scary to know online shoe shopping is so user friendly. After Aldo, I ran to Mac and embarrassed myself totally by saying my retractable liner wouldn’t roll, only to have them tell me I had to sharpen it. So that was good. I resolved the situation by buckling and buying a new lipstick. Don’t judge me, but its a BEAUTIFUL color, and their formula there is sooo good! So “Lady Danger” now belongs to me!!
Brady forgave me for buying lipstick. It probably helped that our next stop was Home Depot. Home Depot makes my husband happy. And as it turns out, it makes me happy too! We thought it would be fun to go in and get the supplies for the next stage of getting our house set up! Primer, plastic floor covering, new rollers, paint tray liners, etc. etc. etc. I went right to the paint desk area to ask for some advice, and knew we had come at the perfect time. The worlds nicest, most helpful paint guy was chomping at the bit to help us, and did he ever!!! We had done some quick measurements of the house before we left and judged that we probably needed about five gallons of primer. Buying it by the gallon would make it around $150, but the employee showed us a promo that offered us six gallons of the exact same paint for $120. So that was awesome!!! We’ll be more than covered, and we paid less 🙂 Yay! He took the pails of primer over to the shaker thing and we went down the nearby aisle to pick out the rest of our stuff. Once he had one pail shaking, he came back over and asked if we needed any help. We kind of hesitated and glanced into our cart, unsure. I had been pretty honest that we don’t know much about painting, but a quick look into our cart told him what we were looking for, and he helped us so much along the way. For instance, we had a three pack of roller liners, and he said that there was a four pack of higher quality ones for the same price. Boom! He helped us know which edger brushes were the best for their price, and a bunch of other stuff. He really didn’t up-sell us anywhere along the way. He was super helpful, and saved us a lot of money! So we all walked out of there feeling really good and accomplished. Yay!!!
We did a quick stop for supper on the way home, but the kids were pretty finished. Their nap was only about an hour long, and it showed, so we ate quickly and got our butts out of there. The ride home was a bit touchy, but we made it, and everyone is in bed, hopefully to be sleeping soon. My broken parts will do well in the tub tonight, that is for sure, but it was a really good day. The spontaneous trip to the city was fun for the kids, and for Brady and I. No, its no movie date or Edmonton trip, but its something, and I’ll take it!! (Plus, if not for this trip, Brady and I wouldn’t have coffee and donuts for our bubble bath!)
Time to sign off! Tomorrow will be another really fun day, I think. Finally getting our butts back to church (pretty sure its been since Christmas!!) and then spending a bit of the afternoon with my parents 🙂 So many good things so close together! We are truly blessed.