School Time & Pool Time | How Much Did I Spend Last Week? Aug 4-10, 2025

Not a lot! I mean, by my standards!

Monday

I’d entirely forgotten that Brandin has taken today off – to “recover” from his six-day holiday at GenCon, you see – which is delightful, because it means that not only can he bring Roman to his babysitter’s, but he can also bring Atlas to his morning speech therapy while I work.

What would be truly delightful is if I could take this as an opportunity to sleep in, but unfortunately Roman’s caterwauling wakes me up and I decide I should just get up and get a start on the day.

It turns out it’s a solid plan; I get some decent work done this morning, completing and submitting a freelance project I’ve been working on and I even get a start on editing a podcast episode for this week (Not Without My Sister is currently Patreon-only, but will be coming back to the main feed in the next week or so, so keep an eye out!).

Brandin drops Atlas to Robin’s after speech therapy (much to Atlas’ horror, but apparently once he gets through the door, he happily runs off to play with his friends) and then comes home to relax for a bit before we decide to go to lunch.

We have a bit of a back and forth on where to go; since working at the farm, I feel like I should make more of an effort to eat at local restaurants that support local suppliers – Rune and Bravas are two that come to mind – BUT neither of them is open at lunchtime on a Monday, so we decide to eat at First Watch instead.

I have some kind of chicken quesadilla thing with little roasted potatoes and Brandin has a skillet, and we each have a juice of some sort. I also have coffee. The food is pretty good considering it’s a chain restaurant. ($57.27 including tip)

When we get home I do a little more work, and then we split up as Brandin goes to pick up the older boys while I pick up Atlas and Roman and head to Atlas’ school for their open night (he starts back on Wednesday) – where you see the classroom, meet the teachers and drop off your supplies (you’re sent a list of things to provide for the class: markers, crayons, glue sticks etc and a range of snacks – as Atlas only goes for a half day they don’t get lunch, per se, but they do have snack time every day).

Of course, I remember to bring the markers and crayons but nothing else (the snacks are at home, along with nappies, a spare set of clothes etc) – and also of course Atlas, the boy who wails each and every morning that he doesn’t want to go to school, finds the play area and begins an intense period of playing, so intense that I have to pick him up and carry him out while he bawls crying. Bear in mind I also have Roman (a dote, sucking his thumb and burbling) in the buggy. Nightmare.

What’s worse is that, on the way out, we’ve to stop and take a photograph for Atlas’ school ID – him crying in my arms, me laughing my head off. Can’t wait to see it.

I call Bea on the way home to fill her in on the trauma of it all, and she orders us four pints of ice-cream from Handels to make me feel better (a literal angel). So we all have ice-cream before the next trauma of bath and bedtime begins.

Our YMCA family membership fee comes out – with a $30 surcharge because the first charge bounced. Sigh. ($119)

Daily total: $176.27