For the love of shopping malls

I used to think malls are for shopping – shoes, clothes, handbags.

I now understand malls are for moms.

A few days ago I had a one hour window with a mile-long list of errands.

With two littles to buckle in and out of car seats and pack into a stroller or shopping cart, an hour is nothing.

But I managed to get to the post office, the bank, the pharmacy, the grocery store, one other quick errand, and a stop at the mini-jeep for a two-minute pretend ride with Levi. And I did it all within the space of an hour.

To say I was thrilled is an understatement.

I floated out of there feeling like superwoman.

We tore around that mall like it was nobody’s business. I swear it was made for me, and women like me, to make a dent in our lists while not completely losing our sanity.

My days of browsing for belts and earrings are few and far between these days… but words cannot express how awesome it is to send mail, pick up milk, and fill a prescription all in one building.

Hooray for the mall. It may not be beautiful or inspiring, but is sure is practical.

STOP.

 

Q for you: Have your “must have” components for a good mall changed since becoming an adult? (Or a parent?)

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited.

An inconvenient errand

The streets were fairly quiet as I was driving to the grocery store at 10:45pm tonight.

It was the first time I’d had a chance all day to get to the store. We needed milk for the morning.

As I drove there I thought about what a novelty it was to be able to grocery shop at that hour.

The supermarket I go to at home closes as 9pm, or 5pm on the weekends.

All of a sudden I was excited for my little errand.

I’m. in. America. I thought to myself.

It’s the little things I miss about home. (Well, the little things and a few big things like my family and church.)

But I miss being able to grocery shop late at night when I’m free to roam the isles slow and steady and feel like the place is there just for me.

So tonight, even an inconvenient errand didn’t seem so inconvenient.

In fact, it seemed kinda fun.

Fancy that.

STOP.

 

Q for you: Before I moved to Australia I used to do my grocery shopping most Sunday nights around 10pm. I enjoyed my late-evening weekly ritual. Do you ever do your grocery shopping at night? Or is that only when you need to run in and grab a one-off for some special reason?

 

Love,
A

p.s. This is yesterday’s post. My internet wasn’t working when I tried to post it last night.

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited.

A fifteen hour work day. Again.

At 10:00pm tonight I had finally finished with unpacking the groceries, putting away the clean dishes, loading the dirty ones in the dishwasher, finishing the laundry, and giving a quick wipe of the kitchen sink and counters.

That’s a fifteen hour work day right there. And that’s not including checking or responding to emails or anything ‘admin’ related. (Or personal stuff – like writing here on my wee blog!)

I’m not saying that to complain (though sometimes I desperately want to complain about it).

I’m saying it because I used to think it really sucked when I had to work late – until 6:00 or 7:00pm.

And now here I am at 10:00pm and I’m just now sitting down alone for the first time today. (When your job is like mine you work through your “lunch break” on a daily basis.)

The thought of sitting down in the evenings and zoning out in front of the telly is very appealing, but even that seems hard to come by these days.

I’m not sure why it’s taken me almost 2.5 years, but I think I’m just now figuring out how different my life really is since having kids.

I’m just now figuring out that I actually can’t compare it to “life before” when it comes to work hours and down time or else I just get depressed!

I wouldn’t trade my job if I could. Really.

But it is hard, and tiring, and consuming.

I have days (like yesterday) when I’m ready to call up a day care centre and see how much it costs to send the kids there. Seriously.

While at the same time I know what an absolute privilege it is that I’m able to stay home with my kids. (Something not every mom who desires to is able to do.)

I’m blessed. Tired, and blessed.

(And for the record, I know that everyone has days they want to quit their job. Being a SAHM isn’t any different – I realize that.)

Anyway.

Tomorrow morning I will get up and start all over again.

Rejoice!

STOP.

 

Q for you: Are you a SAHM? If so, are you deliberate about “clocking off” at a certain hour? Or do you find yourself pulling lots of late nights like me? How do you build in margin??

 

Love,
A

 

Click Clink Five | Five minutes a day, unedited. 

I thought I had hit the jackpot

With much reluctance I drove to the grocery store.

It had been a long day. Kids had been crazy. I was in no mood to be running errands. And yet I was glad to be doing them alone. I had left as soon as Ryan got home from work so I could pick up some things for dinner and milk for the next morning.

Did I mention that I hit every. single. red. light. on my way there? (Okey, there are only three lights between my house and the mall, but still.) *sigh*

I had exactly 50 minutes before I needed to be home. 50 minutes before I needed to get back and feed Judah and put him to bed before meltown happened.

The race against time was ON.

Imagine my delight when I pulled into the parking lot only to find there were very few cars! Now triple that delight as you picture me pulling into a front row spot!!

Feeling rather pleased with my luck (I really needed to catch a break that day!) I went up the people mover and landed in front of Woolworths…

Only to find their doors closing.

CLOSING THEIR DOORS AT 5:30PM.

Trying not to fly into a fit of rage I decided there was only one rational thing I could do: go and grovel on my knees and beg and plead for them to let me in.

Ok, i didn’t actually beg or grovel (and I managed to stay upright) but I did go and plead for them to let me in for “just one thing”.

Afterall, I really needed millk for my babies, er, my toddler.

I raced through the store and got the milk I needed.

Driving home I wondered if they had changed their hours and marvelled (angrily) at how in teh world a shop could close that early. How do normal people do their shopping if they have to go before 5:30pm?? (Or sane people that don’t want to take all of tehir children with them?)

It wasn’t until the next that that I realized it had been New Years Day adn that’s why they closed early.

That, my friends, is one of the downsides of my line of work – we don’t really take/have public holidays. (But for the record there are many, many upsides!) To me it had been a regular day – just another Monday where I was rushing to get stuff done in the few minutes I could squeak out.

And now we’re on Thursday and I still haven’t made it to the grocery store. Who knows what my family’s been eating since then, but we did have milk.

I’m out of milk again.

STOP.

Q for you: Do you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot when you find a good parking space?

Love,
A

 

p.s. I created a Click Clink Five fan page on facebook if you’d like to follow (“like”) and have posts come up in your facebook feed. So far I haven’t been able to figure out how to put the cool “thumbs up” button in this blog yet… But here’s a link (the old fashioned kind) anyway: Click Clink Five on facebook. (You’d think I’d be more cluey with this stuff by now… but my attempt didn’t work and I don’t have time to mess with it!)

p.s.s. I came back and added the p.s. later. It totally doesn’t count in my five minutes. So there.