Day 35 (January 19, 2010)

I had a Saturday yesterday. I know it was Monday but here's what happened:

-We all slept in. Not as late as I wanted but a couple extra hours helped.

-We went out to Friendly's for a late breakfast. You can't beat their $3.99 special.

-We all went to Target. Usually, the goal for shopping is to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible. Yesterday we looked in a variety of departments, tried on (and bought) some clothes that were on clearance, and just looked around. Onalee also spent some gift money from Christmas.

-We stepped in a couple other stores in the shopping center (Michaels, Old Navy) and picked up a couple of things.

-We walked over to Barnes & Nobel so that the kids could get books with the gift cards they got at Christmas time.

-It was a beautiful day. So, even thought it wasn't planned, we stopped by a park. The kids played on the equipment while Vonceil and I visited.

-Next we walked around Arundel Mills. Bryce spent his Christmas money at the Lego store. We watched the fish in the Bass Pro shop and poked around in a few other places.

-We drove back into town and picked up a few groceries at Aldi.

-Chick-fil-a was the location of our early supper.

-At home we got haircuts, watched TV, checked email, and worked on a jigsaw puzzle.

As the day wound down I found myself ready for to go to church in the morning.

Most of you are probably not thinking this is too profound. The thing is, I don't recall a day quite like this in the last 14 years. In 2009, there were only 9 days when the schedules of the public schools, the catholic schools, and my job all lined up when the whole family had the day off when no one was taking a vacation day.

Because of that, those days are usually spent doing something "bigger." Day trips and major household projects top the list of what we usually do. A day were we go out and don't really do anything but do that together is just something we don't do.

I guess as much as anything I was surprised that a day like I had yesterday still felt like a Saturday kind of day. I might want one again in the next 14 years.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff