The other day, Rachel and I were discussing what we'd do if we just had a week to do anything that we wanted. (On a side note, I often take prompts like these too literally. When Jim and I were getting married, we met with other couples for a "retreat" that our church required. The "retreat" was all about marriage and communication and blah, blah, blah... One of the questions that we were all asked was, "If you were given a million dollars right this very second, what would you do with it." Pretty sure that everyone else lied, but they were all like, "Oh, I'd pay my parents mortgage." or "I'd donate it." Well, it just so happens that at that time in our relationship, Jim and I were locked in a bitter battle about his seriously out of date eye glasses (think over-sized, round, gold frames with nose pads) and whether or not he should replace them. He kept claiming that he didn't have the money (which wasn't true) and I kept countering that he needed to get a second job if that were the case. And, as luck would have it, I'd just received a million dollars that very day and felt like this may very well have been a sign, because now Jim could afford the glasses. So, when the religious man came to me, I was like, "the first thing I'd do is get Jim new glasses!" Let me tell you how, in my mind, that killed. Everyone roared with laughter and people shook their heads because it was too funny. Clip to the actual reaction: crickets and me sitting there feeling completely misunderstood. Years later, I still stand by my allocation of funds. And a few days later, when Jim got new glasses, I could not have been happier.) Well, here's what I'd do:
1. Watch Kathy Lee and Hoda every day at 10 am. In fact, my day wouldn't start until 10 am. Right now, the only time I get a taste of how much they bring to my life is when they're being lampooned on The Soup. And let me tell you, that's not enough.
2. Hire a professional photographer and do a family photo shoot. It would most definitely involve fields of un-mowed grass that's so high, it blows this-way-and-that-way in the wind. As opposed to what I do right now, which is to say that I just try to get them to sit still long enough to wait for my crappy cell phone camera to load and then snap a blurry picture. Boo!
3. Go to our local farmer's market. No more frozen, generic veggies.
4. Create a picture book (sorted by year) from 2009, 2010 and 2011. This has been on my "to do" list for like, 3 years-- (obviously.
5. Read a book. Any book. I literally haven't read a book since 2009. It's time; it's also one of my
30 before 30's.
6. Hit up a few good thrift shops. I'm always looking for crap and there's a good way to get inexpensive crap.
7. Dip dye my new, white t-shirt. Yolo, right?
8. Make homemade iced tea in gallon sized quantities. Chick-fil-a ain't got nothing on me.
9. Make a growth chart for my boys. My grandparents had one on the wall in their kitchen and I still think that's one of the coolest things ever. It was just so symbolic of what was important, not these material things but rather charting something that was meaningful to their kids and grandkids.
10. Properly hang this new picture that we got from Ikea. I want to put it over our bed, but it's heavy and I have nightmares of it crashing down on us while we're sleeping.
11. Run errands galore. I'm talking Michaels, Target, Ikea, DSW, etc., etc., etc. Running errands is only fun when you don't actually have to run them.
12. Day drink, because... well, why not?
13. Catch up on any current Real Housewives seasons.
14. Hunt around a few antique shops, which I know is similar to going to thrift shops, but whatever, it's my week off. And antique shops are hordes with lots of expensive things in them, which means that it's more like the thrift shop's eccentric cousin.
15. Find an ice cream truck and buy one of the over-priced items and eat it before my hands are all sticky.
16. Cook breakfast for my kids. Having to hurry out the door by 7:45 am means that there isn't much quality time to be had. I'm talking sticky, syrup covered fingers and
juice stains shirts that are wet from spilt milk before we even get out of the house. On a side note, cooking breakfast would make me feel like a pioneer woman and a mother who invests the time to make it happen, despite schedules and work and diapers and sick kids and everything else.
17. Go on a picnic.
18. Sit by a pool. Any pool.
19. Tackle a home improvement project; like a big one. I've been wanting to put back splash up in our kitchen for quite some time now. In a weeks time, I'd make that happen.
20. Revamp this blog. It needs a face lift of sorts that I just haven't had the time or the uninterrupted attention to complete.
Until this totally hypothetical week happens, which doesn't look like it will be anytime soon, I've gotta either make do, or do without... or my personal favorite (and on and off again motto) do everything on this list half as well as it should be done or could be done.
