February drags on

So we continue with February, the month of pink things and chocolate. This wasn't a good week for me, I must say. Oh, nothing bad happened. In fact, it was kind of dull. The first few days were part of the Presidents Day holiday, and then the kids went to school Wednesday through Friday. No one is sick. There were no appointments. 

Mostly it was a bad week because I'm in sort of a fragile state right now and things set me off. So. 

I don't feel bad today. Last night we ate at the restaurant at the golf course, and I had a delicious salmon dish (blackened salmon with mango salsa, sauteed spinach, lemon white wine sauce, and jasmine rice) which later made me feel like throwing up. But I managed not to! And today I feel pretty good, perhaps because I had such a good dinner. Also: got a good night's sleep, have already done some homework with both kids, laundry is in the dryer/hanging up, dishwasher is running, brownies are in the oven, we've done our Starbucks run, and I'm writing this blog post. 

I do still have to clean the litter boxes. But there's always something like that lurking in the wings.

Yesterday, Teen B, Rocket Boy and I went to Costco. I hadn't gone in maybe a year and a half, let my membership lapse a year ago and all that. But they're always happy to have you back. I really wanted to get a special lantern, as recommended by both our nextdoor neighbor and someone in my book group, to have in the event of a power failure. But we couldn't find it. Someone said it was probably seasonal. I thought, February is still power failure time (actually, every month is power failure time). But it wasn't there.

Still, they had all sorts of other things I needed. Brownie mix, for the brownies I am making right now (that have to be delivered to the school tomorrow). A giant tub of sour cream, a giant tub of guacamole, and two large bags of shredded Mexican cheese, all of which I have to bring to the school on Friday. I will have to go to the regular grocery store to buy the ingredients for fruit salad (Tuesday) and lemon bars (Wednesday), but that's OK.

I also bought a big jar of jelly beans (Easter is coming), a three-pack of Poopourri, a lifetime supply of Sensodyne toothpaste (four tubes), and a big package of tissue boxes (Teen A goes through tissues like water), and Rocket Boy got two big boxes of granola bars. And we got a lot of vitamins. And RB chose a fancy tuxedo cake that we did not need. Maybe there were other things too, I don't remember. But the total, OMG. Almost $350. Later, when we spent almost $150 at the restaurant, RB announced that we had spent $500 that day! Not quite, I said. But yeah, just about.

And today I found the lantern on the Costco website (for $30) and ordered it. If you add that to yesterday's purchases, plus what we spent at Starbucks today, yep, it's over $500. Money just doesn't make any sense anymore. Fortunately, we have plenty of it.

After Rocket Boy's job ends, whenever that is, and we have to depend on Social Security and distributions from our retirement accounts, we'll try to spend less at Costco. But for now, I figure might as well spend the money and enjoy it. This reminds me of what my parents used to call themselves: "The last of the big-time spenders." They really weren't -- they were fairly frugal. But my father bought himself new books and records, and we always had nice clothes, and they ate out once a week, and many of my friends' parents didn't spend money so freely. So, whatever. 

When we're spending vast sums of money on not much, like yesterday, I always think about what it was like ten years ago, when the twins were in elementary school and we were living on my part-time teaching and going on and off reduced-cost lunch. It would have been so nice to have more money back then. 

Right now it seems sort of unimportant. I guess it's good to be able to buy the twins things they need for school this year, like their "senior jerseys," and the "graduation swag" that I really didn't need to buy. And Teen A's suit for prom. That was fun to shop for.

Next year, when they're in college (maybe, maybe), we'll start spending their college funds. That will be interesting. I don't even know how to access that money. But we will learn. 

So, the week ahead. A lot of food preparation for the dinners at the school, but less so at home. Teen B doesn't have to go to practice tomorrow, and he's requested tacos for dinner, so I'll make those. Tuesday through Friday, he'll eat at school, so Rocket Boy and I (and Teen A, but he only eats with us now and then) can have something Teen B doesn't like. Maybe we'll have fish a couple of times, or, I know, potatoes! Teen B has a weird aversion to potatoes, so I never get to make potato dishes. I should do something with potatoes this week.

Other than that, I think it will be a quiet week. I do have to go to the Social Security office in Louisville, just to drop off the forms, so I'll call on Monday and make an appointment. But that's about it. Hope it ends up being as quiet as it looks right now.