And How Was Your Morning?

Today was Field Day at the boys’ school. Dummy me forgot the camera in the car and after all the hassle of signing in and dragging Boo’s stroller across the sand on the playground to get to the spot where oldest son’s class was, I just didn’t think it was worth it to trudge back to the car for it. The fact that forgetting the camera has become a regular occurrence for me is just one of the many reasons I’m no longer a scrapbooker. Hard to scrapbook with no fun pictures of the event you wanted to journal. Maybe I’ll write a post about the other reasons one day. The boys seem to be having a blast with all their relay races. I think they were glad Boo and I came, and I enjoyed bouncing between their two groups, cheering them on and talking to some of the other moms and teachers for most of the morning until Boo petered out and I took her home for a nap. I missed the big tug-o-war competition, but I’m sure I’ll hear all about it this afternoon. J’s class is also having a big ice cream social this afternoon.

Sounds like a great last day of school, doesn’t it? Well, you’d think so, but, the same people who have implemented all the frustrating red tape of background checks and approving volunteers (read parents who want to help out in the classroom or come for field day) also planned out the school year so that the required 180 days are not actually fulfilled until next Tuesday. So, we have all this wonderful last day of school fun today, and the boys get to go to school for a full day Monday and half a day Tuesday. How much learning do you think will be happening those two days? You’d think the powers that be in the school district would plan out the school calendar to end on a Friday. That just makes more sense. If I were making the decisions, that’s how I’d vote. But, since I don’t think I’m cut out for the school board at this time in my life, here we are.

Oh, and I must share my grocery saga/frustration/imponderables. Because I ran out of Boo’s juice this morning, I had to run to the grocery this morning. Yes, again. I’ve mentioned before that it doesn’t seem to matter how far ahead I plan, I still end up there many days of the week. So, anyway, in the quest for table foods I can fix quickly for Boo now that she’s moving beyond baby food, I grabbed a bag of frozen peas. The first bag I pulled out of the freezer had a hole in it, and a few peas escaped into the floor. I put it back and got another bag. It had a hole, too. So, I dug around and finally found an intact bag of peas. We proceeded to the checkout, where the really nice man bagging the groceries had a fun time making faces and singing at Boo. She thought he was funny. I was smiling and biting my tongue in half so I would not say something to hurry him along because I was wanting to get on home with the groceries and back to field day.

So, I hurried home and put away the cold things. Lo and behold, no peas. I searched every bag and the car. I checked the receipt – yep, peas were purchased, but they did not get home with me. Argh. Mr. Really Nice Bagging Man at the store must have missed them while singing at Boo. I still needed to get to field day, so I just decided to write it off this time.

The irony of this is, though, that I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gotten out to my car and found some item that had inadvertently been left in the cart and not paid for that I have run back into the store to pay for. This used to happen a lot when Boo was still in her car seat and things would slip under it and I or the bag person would miss it when unloading the cart. Every time that happened, however, I made sure I went back and went through the line again and paid for it. The boys were with me when it happened one time, and J couldn’t get over how mommy “stole” a bag of rice. I kept saying, that, no, I didn’t steal it because when I realized it hadn’t been paid for I went back and paid for it. If I’d just taken it on home and never paid for it, that would have been stealing. Now I check and double check the cart when loading things on the conveyor belt to pay for them. The cynical, fleshly part of me just thought, "Yes, but had you not paid for that rice that time, it would now be a wash since you don't have the peas you did pay for." But, that is not a good thought, and I'm banishing it. So, now someone else has my $2.00 bag of frozen peas. Hope they enjoy them.

Grocery shopping is not my favorite thing to do.