On Why I Haven’t Been Blogging

I have to say I haven’t really felt like blogging much lately.  My days are full and I’m tired.  Is this any different than other times before?  Not really.
There are plenty of things to blog about, but getting the pictures downloaded has been a challenge.  Who am I kidding?  Getting pictures taken has been a challenge.
J is home this week for Winter Break and I have been trying to plan fun things for him.  We’re going to pay the cable bill today.  Does that count as fun?
Since I’m usually pretty real on the blog and in real life.  You know I can’t just gloss over something.  If you don’t believe me, I’ll tell you that I cleaned up a puddle of dried urine from behind a chair in my living room this morning.  Seems that someone had to go and didn’t quite make it to the bathroom.  He also didn’t feel the need to tell me.  Don’t just hate it when your husband does that?  I kid!  Pretend I didn’t say that um-kay.  I’m nothing if not real.
I haven’t really known how to bring this up.  I still don’t, but I'll just say it.  I could tell you that life here is great. That is absolutely true.  The thing that I haven’t said on the blog is that life here is also hard. 
Not the kind of hard that people with actual problems have to deal with.  But hard as in yesterday I had to take 2 boys to 2 different stores to find fruit snacks.  Those suckers are a staple of M’s diet.  After the second store didn’t have them, I gave up.  I think I’ll go to 2 more stores after the cable bill.
That’s what I mean by hard.
Nothing is more fun than taking 2 kids to 2 stores after we wait in line at the cable company.
That’s what I mean by hard.
Are you wondering why I don’t just send in a check for the cable bill?  That’s because we don’t get a bill.  You just have to know when your bill is due and then drive 40 minutes to the other side of the island, find a parking space, go stand in line and then give them CASH for your bill.  Forget online bill pay!
That’s what I mean by hard.
The gathering of food is a chore here.  Every week I go to a minimum of 2 stores.  Usually I go to the store many times a week.  I recently joined a food group that buys in bulk from a restaurant supply company.  We buy in bulk then split it up.  It is much less expensive for fruits, vegetables and meat.  Too bad they don’t have Fruit Snacks!
That’s what I mean by hard.
What if they don’t have yogurt that day?  Or what if yogurt is $5 in that store, but I know last week it was $3.50 at another store.  Do I suck it up and pay?  It’s hard to say, but it is like that for most things.  With a grocery bill of about $200 a week, it is just hard to swallow sometimes.
That’s what I mean by hard.
They say you should go to the store and then decide what you are going to make.  That requires a real change of thinking and is totally out of the question when you are buying for kids.  Also, it’s not really practical to run up and down the aisles over and over again buying ingredients for a week’s worth of meals while shopping with a 2 year old.
That’s what I mean by hard.
Have you ever been on a trip to an island and gone into a store to buy something simple like juice or sunscreen?  When you find a store it looks a little shady, but you go in anyway.  Then you find what you need and you see the price and it is like $18 for Coppertone sunscreen.  You think, “I must have picked the wrong place”.  Then you go ahead and buy the thing you needed and think “Well, I’ll make a better choice in stores the next time I’m in a situation like that.”  The thing is that those stores are what I have to choose from every time I shop.  They look a bit shady.  They are all pretty shabby, and the prices are exorbitant.
That’s what I mean by hard.
It takes a while to realize that there is no Target here and this is what I can choose from.  It isn’t terrible, but it is hard.  I keep reminding myself that these are problems worth having.
I don’t want you to think that I am ungrateful.  We know how good we have it.  I also don’t want you to have the impression that we are walking the sunkissed beaches all day.  Life here is good and if I am being honest with you, life here is also hard.
Now that I have that off my chest, I feel better.
So yesterday, while it was snowy in Gaithersburg, I went to the beach.  It was gorgeous.  It wasn’t at all hard!