Cristina is in Seattle for her cousin's wedding, so I'm a single parent for four days. Last night, we needed to go grocery shopping. I'm having a potluck at work on Friday, and I offered to make Costa Rican-style arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). It's kind of time consuming to make, and if everyone hadn't gotten so excited about it, I probably would have changed to something easy (i.e. store-bought) at the last minute, but it was too late for that. Knowing I had to make arroz con pollo on top of grocery shopping and getting the kids to bed meant I did not have the energy or time to cook a real meal for the family. So on the way home, I picked up Panda Express (just for the kids). That way I could get them to bed, make my arroz con pollo, and eat a little of that for my dinner before hitting the sack.
Well, I didn't finish the arroz con pollo until 11 pm. While I was fixing it, I ate a bowl of ice cream. That turned out to be my dinner. Nice.
Usually Bella wakes me up at 5:30 (half an hour before my alarm goes off), but for some reason, she slept snuggled up to me through several rounds of me hitting snooze on my alarm clock. So I got going a little late and barely got Sofia and Lindsay to school on time, and didn't have time to feed Alex and Bella breakfast! So I bought them a breakfast burrito from Sonic. Man, I've done a pretty lame job of single-parenting! Cristina often runs late, but she's never had to resort to buying fast food.
I got to work a mere 5 minutes before my first class, but at least I have the arroz con pollo for the potluck, all the kids are fed and at school, and we now have at least a few groceries.
The fuel light came on in the van. Hope I don't run out of gas!
Tomorrow: service project with some Baha'is (we're painting a mural on an elementary school), then Horton Hears a Who with Peter and his kids. I'll grill hot dogs for dinner Saturday night. I'll just keep the junk food theme going!
I don't think there's anything planned for Sunday, except for picking Cristina up Sunday evening. Then we have 5 days to get ready for my mom, who is coming for 3 weeks.
Man, life is fast and packed chock full. When I have times like this I sometimes think of an old James Taylor song: "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. Any fool can do it. There ain't nothing to it. Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill, but since we're on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride. Isn't it a lovely ride?"
4 comments:
That james Taylor is a cool dude. I think you did wonders as a single dad. I am glad Cris got a chance to be with family at this exciting time of her cousin's life. She is having a real treat not having to do her usual running around time. Guess you can appreciate even more how hard it is to be a stay at home mom who also has to work sometimes. You are such a great dad and I know you and Cris both will cherish these wonderful memories with your children. Can't wait to be there. I hope to help out a lot, not just when Cris is in training but the whole time I am there. While I do have limitations with my back, I can still do a lot.
Need to start packing, after I measure all of my luggage to be sure none are too big.
Love, Mom
Sounds like a fun weekend to me. At first I thought you had given the kids icecream for dinner and I thought "he's going to be in so much trouble" but since it was just you who did it you should be OK. Love you M
The title made me think of Bill Cosby's album where he wound up making chocolate cake for breakfast for his kids. "Dad is great! Feeding us chocolate cake!"
Ice cream, HUH!?! Well, well, we'll just have to talk when I get back....
Cristina
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