Between sick kids that prevented me from going to church a week ago Sunday and the snow that prevented us from going to 4-H or church on Wednesday and the absolute negative Fahrenheit cold that just made us huddle in the house for 3 days, I started going a little crazy and having horrible stress headaches. On Saturday, I really wanted to get out of the house. Jeremy thought he had the solution by hitting the grocery store to get a few things, but we had 4 kids, 2 of whom were cranky, with us during that half hour excursion and it was stressful and not nearly long enough. On Sunday, we went to church which helped a good amount. (We had a baptism of one of my children’s choir kids. I was so excited.) We also went to Panera’s for lunch, but having my church responsibilities and all the kids around just kept me so busy most of the time, so though I felt a bit better, I was still having a little stress headache. Today, we needed to pick up James’ first pictures (film camera that someone gave to my parents and they let him have it.) We also had a $5 Borders gift certificate that I needed to use before the end of the month, so I decided that I’d let James pick out what non-fiction book he would like to read next… with the requirement that it must be either a biography or US history. He chose a book and timeline of the Civil War. He wanted something about the American involvement in the World Wars, but we couldn’t find a good book for his age. He is interested in wars right now. After looking at a few different books, he said he might think about checking out the Revolutionary War next and then maybe a biography on Daniel Boone and the fighting in Texas. I have a few books that I’m wanting him to read this year that we have at the home… two of which will go with the Civil War book… they are biographies: Harriet Tubman, President Abraham Lincoln, and Helen Keller. The two former were big people in the Civil War, so he is excited to read those and put all he reads together. I love his enthusiasm.
Anyway, the two of us headed out and picked up his pictures, then went to Borders and picked up the books as well as a photo box to store his pictures in, and then we had lunch at McDonalds while he read his school assignment on Martin Luther King Jr. We had a quick stop back at Walgreens to return some photos that we found in his envelope that were someone else’s and then came on home. The relaxed time walking around Borders and looking at books and then eating at McDs with my boy was so fun and helped quite a bit. Next, I need to take Christine out. I still need a one-on-one time out with AnnaBeth and Noelle too sometime in the next few months. I guess since I can’t get a Girls Night Out up here, this will help me until I get one. These dates with a child or the mini-dates with DH help me quite a bit. I don’t get silly like I do with my friends, but that’s okay.
So how did the pictures turn out?
Some came out very well, but he is still learning how to use the focus thing and would focus on something in the background instead of his subject and then sometimes he just moved the camera when he snapped the picture. We’re going to scan the good ones when we can get down to Walgreens again and get a few copies for Jill and Rob. We’re going to put them on my USB card so we can put them online.