The Cure for Craziness... Roadtrip!

P.A. days make me happy... normally.  Today was supposed to be a lovely day reminding us of summertime memories and giving us all a break from routine...

I always look forward to those days "off".  There is no doubt I enjoy school days especially because we have been blessed with children who love school (so far) but I really love a day off from the routine.  The kids haven't really hit the stage of relishing days off school - they love going to school, seeing their friends, teachers and doing the many amazing activites their teachers have planned.  Having a P.A. day really didn't mean a lot to them but I looked forward to it.  I have been on my own in the daytime for the past 3 weeks and despite the fact that I am thoroughly enjoying my time, I miss them.  Well, that thought was about to change...

Today was day 3 of just the kids and I.  Ian had to work at the Farmers' Market both Saturday and Sunday and then began harvesting our soybeans today.  I have always made a point of making sure I could take the kids places on my own.  I travel over 6 hours back to my hometown with them, on my own, I take them on outings, on my own and I shop with them, on my own.  Ian has a very busy job being a farmer and I cannot just sit at home waiting for him to spend time with us.  He spends as much time as he can but I want to make sure that we get out and that the kids have experiences with and without their parents. 
Today I wanted to take the kids out shopping.  We needed some groceries at Costco and I had many boxes to drop off at Value Village.  I thought today was a good day for that because we had spent the whole day at home yesterday.  We spent most of our time inside the house yesterday and the kids were constantly bothering eachother so once I was done "my jobs" we went outside for a hike in our forest.  It was so much fun - we love our forest and Grace and Alex are getting to be very adventurous.  Jean had to be encouraged to walk on her own but we went through the fields, walked through the brush into our beautiful forest and took pictures of some unique things we found.

Well today was a lot more difficult.  I woke up with quite the head cold and had a lot less patience than I normally have.  The kids spent the morning entertaining themselves and getting into a lot of trouble and then we went to Kanata shopping.  I gave them quite the lecture about behaving in the stores, staying with me (I lost Alex recently in Walmart... another story for another time) and just plain being good.  Once we got in the van they were good as gold!  We had a lovely afternoon browsing around Value Village and leaving with almost nothing (quite a feat normally) and then went to Michael's Craft Store (a favourite with us) and then to Costco.  My biggest challenge was making sure they were not in the way of our shopping cart... Jean was hit twice by my cart but she was warned!  I was able to get everything we needed and we left in a very good mood.  Sometimes getting out of the house is the cure for craziness...

Three days on our own is enough.  I think everyone is happy to get back to normal tomorrow... even the twin Snow Whites (although the smaller one might make an appearance in kindergarten tomorrow - we'll see if she makes it out of the house in her plain clothes!).