A Day to Myself

So guess what I did on Friday?  It's a shocker - you better sit down.

I TOOK THE DAY OFF.

Can you believe it?  Me neither.  I felt guilty the whole day.

See, usually - for the past few years anyway - I've been off work on Fridays, but all this school year I've been working on Friday mornings.  The original intent was to try to earn a little extra money, but somehow it seems that just about every single week I end up missing a few hours of work here and there during the week for some reason or other, so pretty much all my Fridays have ended up being makeup time instead of extra time.

Oh, how I have missed my quiet, all-by-myself, do-whatever-I-want (even if that means grocery shopping and laundry) Fridays.

So last Friday, I took the day off!  I took the kids to school with no makeup.  In my slippers.  Oh yes I did.  Then I went home and made myself some BREAKFAST.  What a concept.

What to do with my wide-open day?  Ohh, the possibilities.

First, I spent a little time with Karen.

Oddly enough, I'm having a hard time getting into this book.  If you remember, I had never read any of Karen Kingsbury's books before my cruise, but I've loved every one of them I've read since.  This one's just not grabbing my attention.  Maybe because I have so many other books calling to me from the back of my mind.

After that I spent a little time with Stormie.

I love this book.  My copy is worn and highlighted and written in and dog-eared and paper-clipped and full of wisdom and conviction.  Have you read it (or any of her others)?  Love.

When Stormie and I were done, I went to volunteer my usual Friday time in the school office, and then I had lunch at school with Jacob.  That's always an adventure.  :)  There is one lunch monitor who is always so....well....just plain mean.  She is sweet as pie to adults - kind, helpful, friendly - but she talks ugly to the kids and never says a word without yelling at them and telling them how bad they're being.  I hate it.  I've hated it every year since Jacob was in first grade.  Every single time I go eat lunch with him, I start writing a letter to the principal in my mind.  But I'm sure you can guess it's never made it to paper.

I totally get that I have no idea what it's like to deal with that many kids every day - many of whom act ugly and disrespectful themselves.  TOTALLY get it.  But that's no reason to treat them that way even when they're not acting up.  Or really even when they are.  Meanness and yelling don't change kids' behavior.  In fact, it just makes them angry and resentful.  And there's no reason to presume they're going to act up and so be ugly to them from the get-go.  All I can think every time I eat lunch with Jacob is, "These are somebody else's kids.  You just don't treat other people's kids this way."  If you just don't LIKE kids....perhaps some career reconsideration is in order?

Sorry, where was I?  Oh yes, so after lunch I went home and started the crockpot.

I LOVE cooking in the crockpot.  I don't do it nearly enough.  Mainly because I can hardly ever remember to start it in the mornings.  But my day at home was a perfect day for it, and I was so happy to have dinner practically done!

Then, after getting dinner going, I remembered.....I had a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby!!  PERFECT!  I headed for Utopia HobLob, as we affectionately refer to it around here, and spent one whole blissful hour, all by myself, moseying and meandering and perusing to my heart's content.  I found a beautiful scrapbook album cover to use with my new Project Life system (that I've been wanting FOR.EV.ER. and asked for for my birthday...and Christmas...but didn't get, so I got one for myself!), and I was so happy to get to use my coupon for it!  I also bought another album cover that was on sale for 40% off, so it was a bonus!

And that was my happy, all-to-myself Friday.  Which, of course, only lasted until it was time to pick up the kids from school.  But still so totally counts in my book.