Friday April 10, 2009

I woke up this morning very grateful that I was going to be able to go to the grocery store alone. This has always been a rare occurrence in the past for me. Lately for sanity purposes I have been trying to schedule my grocery store trips on the days that Toby will be home.

I always hated to do that before. Usually when he is off I like to schedule in fun activities and not mundane chores. Now that he has only one job, we have 3 days a week for family activities. I figured it didn't hurt to use up one of those days on errands and stay at home activities like yard work, family movie day, or errands and grocery store day. Doing this also frees me up to do an extra day of schoolwork so that Summer and I don't have to cram so much into our day.

Of course, I do have ulterior motives with this strategy. The Texas Thrift Store is not far from the ghetto H-E-B where I grocery shop when I am on the "spaghetti road" side of town.

Today I got a much needed break from my daily routine. It sounds odd to call a grocery store trip a break, but it is when your are free from little ones deterring your attention from concentrating on the task at hand.

As I was leaving out of the neighborhood I spotted this:



I had been hunting one of these at the Goodwill's lately. I didn't want to spend the money on a new one because I knew that Summer was a little too old for something like this. I figured if I could find one cheap enough it would put a twist on school for her. Ya know, like she could be the teacher and teach her stuffed animals kind of thing or letting her do her spelling words on it, etc.

See thoughts really do become things don't they?

First on my agenda was to hit the thrift store. When I pulled into the parking lot it was fuller than usual. When I got to the door I realized why....it was 50% off everything in the store. Today was my lucky day!

I'm sure that I don't have to tell you that this homeschool mama racked up on some very good finds. Recently Summer has been reading chapter books....really reading them, not just "hunting and pecking" at the words.

The thrift store is the best place in the world to find children's chapter books. I got everything from Boxcar Children to the Prairie Skies Series.

Summer was feeling much better today, so after I got home from my trip we all took another trip to Walmart to grab some essentials that could not be gotten at H-E-B.

Although I was beyond tired after my full day of shopping, I managed to put on my walking shoes and trek around the block a time or two.

I was glad to see Summer back to her old self outside running around with her neighborhood buddies.

I was grateful for a day of "mental" rest.