I have a wide variety of circumstances in my head which would all constitute as a “perfect” morning, day, afternoon, evening, what-have-you. One such afternoon involves a LONG time spent perusing books at Barnes & Noble (one of my all-time favorite stores) with a venti latte in one hand and the hand of my love in my other. Okay, maybe the hand-holding is a little too corny-romantic-cinema, but I’m sure you get the idea. And today I had that! Well, almost. As parents of young children, I know you can all relate to the fact that these perfect afternoons seem to only occur in our minds. 😉

You see, I can only longingly glance at the “grown-up” books in the bookstore because the reality is I have NO TIME to read any of them. So whenever I’m in this favorite store of mine, I tend to scurry into the kid section (which I love almost just as much, it’s true) and look for books I would like to read to my kids or books they can start reading themselves. It’s fun, but it’s not the same. My face says I’m happy to be shopping for (and often with) my children, but my heart says, “Dear Woman Sitting in the Comfy Chair casually flipping through that Magazine, you have no idea how jealous I am.” 

And today while I walked around the children’s section and even timidly genre-hopped through the grown-up books, I wasn’t holding a venti latte. I was holding a small cinnamon tea. No milk. No sugar. No fun. As far as tea goes, it was quite good. But it wasn’t my mocha latte. Today is Day 25 of my Whole30, so no fun coffee drinks for me. Just 5 more days. Sip. Just 5 more days…

Today we had our 5 month old with us. Let me back up and say that the reason my husband and I had this spontaneous “free” afternoon to begin with is because my wonderful cousin and her wonderful boyfriend WANTED to spend time with our wonderful children! What a gift! But as Elijah is a nursing baby, he tends to go a little nuts when he’s far from Mommy; so Randy and I decided to bring him along. And he was great! He didn’t cry or fuss once. But, (and parents, I know you feel me on this…) he was there. We weren’t alone.

Finally, the B word. That’s right. Ladies and gentlemen, the Dattolos are on a Budget. We are at a place where we’re aggressively paying down some (embarrassing) debts, and saving for projects, trips, and other big things like our second house someday. So while my husband browsed the theology, politics, and economics sections, (please believe me, he is much more fun than his current book taste would make it appear), I sat on the floor in the cookbook section, drinking my cinnamon tea, and reading word-for-word the new Ree Drummond cookbook which I desperately want but restrained from purchasing at this time. Sigh. Being on a budget is hard. Being a parent is hard. Being an adult is hard.

But you know what? Randy and I got away for the afternoon (almost alone). And we DID make some purchases for little projects and for pleasure, which thanks to coupons, gift cards, and returns, cost us almost nothing. And our kids, who have no idea how very blessed they are to have so many adults in their lives who really LOVE them and enjoy spending time with them, had a blast with their surprise visitors. I’m rockin’ this Whole30, and I’m actually really excited about where our fiscal responsibility will lead us. And at this stage in life, I really couldn’t ask for more.

So now I’ll finish my tea and hit the lights early because you know I don’t want to lose that hour of sleep tonight! Ahhhh, parenting.