Monday Madness

I spent most of the day sorting through bins and wading through stuff. Joel and Kezia sat very quietly on the couch most of the morning, reading books and listening to stories on tape. I think they were recovering from the last 48 hours. It seemed like such a daunting task of going through all our stuff. But I had to start somewhere.

I organized the kids' room so that they all had a place for their clothes. I wasn't foolish as last year where I packed 100 million hangers for Fresno, but now I kind of wish I did. Here I was piling clothes in bins laid sideways because we don't have dressers and of course, I was short on hangers. Oh well. It's only for a few weeks and Joel, Kezia, and Asha don't care. I felt good after 90 minutes; their rooms looked liveable and I could check one thing off my list. Ah, satisfaction.

Downstairs was a bit crazier, but I compartmentalized. I ignored the back entrance and went downstairs. I think the hardest thing was just to get started. Though in theory it's exciting to purge your stuff, who are we kidding, it's OUR stuff, we have sentimental attachment, it OURS, why get rid of it?

"C'mon Kathy, it's only casserole dishes, blankets, clothes you haven't worn in 7 years. That's right, reach into the bin, grab the stuff and put it on the pile to the left. You want to keep that pretty outfit? That china dish? Okay, just put it on the pile to the right".

And so the day went like that. Carl was off and about trying to get our phone hooked up, get his driver's license and the van insured. He came home with a bit of inconvenient news. First, our phone wouldn't be hooked up until Wednesday. Also that we needed to have a new safety on the van to register it and a driving abstract from California DMV to get our licenses. It's because we are from out of the country. ARG! Well, he left again and managed to get his license, just not the merits. Oh, who cares, we're leaving anyways.

I had no idea what to make for supper, since we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet. So I put on a pot of black beans and figured we could add the leftover farmer sausage that Mom brought on Saturday. Once Carl came home, Kezia and I left for grocery shopping. I regretted not having a snack before we left....

Our list was pretty long and I had not realized that I had no idea where anything was in Superstore. I wandered around with Kezia in tow trying to find tortillas (okay, why can't they just have them in one place? Why do they have some by the Mexican aisle and then some by the bread aisle? Are they trying to confuse you? And where are the corn tortillas? I don't want the flour ones!) So after about an hour, we still had some stuff on our list and we both were getting weary. I wondered what time it was. At the checkout, Kezia was fading fast and I felt like I was going to pass out. I didn't even think of ripping into a bag of something in our cart to eat. I guess I was delirious! The total bill came to a staggering amount. I hadn't spent that much in groceries in such a long time. I guess food here is more expensive. Plus, I bought little bottles of things instead of the cheaper bigger bottles. Sigh. Such is life.

Once we got home, we both headed straight to the table. We wolfed down our beans and rice while Carl and Joel brought in the groceries. For dessert we had some cantaloupe; it was probably shipped from Fresno area, but strangely enough, it didn't taste as amazing as I remember cantaloupe to taste and we probably paid $5 for it!