Yes, I have bought myself another pair of slightly outlandish runners. What can I say? I love slightly outlandish runners.
I’m also feeling very encouraged by my modicum of success on Poshmark (I listed two pairs of sunglasses and sold both pairs, a 100% success rate) and have been selecting lots of things I want to sell, and despite the fact that I haven’t actually sold them yet, I feel like they have already made room for new things – like these slightly outlandish runners!
I later saw that Vans has a Sesame Street collaboration that is adorable, and I could almost be matching with Atlas, but decided that this pair of Pumas is probably enough for now. FOR NOW.
Monday
We’re all up bright and early this morning, because it’s day one of soccer camp for our middle son, Finn, who’s eight and loves soccer. It starts at 9am and I decide to get there a bit early because he can also be really shy, and often signs up to do things and then feels too scared and overwhelmed to actually partake, so I’m hoping that having a little extra time to warm up to the idea will help.
It doesn’t.
We walk in and he immediately refuses to join his group, so we walk around a little, Atlas trying to make friends with everyone, while hoping he’ll change his mind. (He doesn’t.)
I feel incredibly frustrated, which is manifesting as my being quite pissed off, but I’m actually frustrated at my own inability to encourage him and convince him that he’ll be glad he takes part. So we drive off in semi-silence but by the time we’ve driven out of the car park I’ve thawed, and decide to get a coffee and cake pops for the boys from Starbucks ($20.79) so that the morning isn’t a total bust.
He decides he’d like to try again in the morning, but I’m not entirely sure I’m up for another go, so tell him we’ll see.
Then we head home and hang out there for the day. I consider going to the park or splash pad with them, but I’m still feeling rough and finding motivation – to do almost anything – hard to come by. The thought of having to drive to the park, bring a change of clothes and towels, deal with the inevitability of someone falling and hurting themselves… it just feels like too much for right now.
So we just chill out in the house, the boys very frustrated because their neighbour friends are at their own camp this week and they’ve no one to play with. So I break my. own no-devices-before-4pm rule and let them play Xbox.
For lunch, the boys have leftover pasta bake from the weekend and I make grilled cheese for me and Atlas.
Then he goes down for his nap and I take my laptop downstairs to try to do some work, because the office feels a bit too far away from the boys (although I will tell you it’s quite difficult to concentrate on work with Xbox in the background and regular breaks to be updated on exactly how this or that Lego creation is coming along).
I realise, while writing my money diary for last week, that I’m accidentally subscribed to Adobe Acrobat as well as Audition (my subscription payments come out, $33.15), which I did not mean to do. I try to cancel online but it tells me I’ll have to pay an $83 penalty (!!) if I cancel, so I open a chat and manage to negotiate a downgrading of the service from Acrobat to Photoshop, imagining that some day I might have the time to teach myself to do some Photoshopping. I get a partial refund for today’s subscription payment. (-$14.02)
Two Substack subscriptions come out, for Doree Shafrir ($6) and Virginia Sole-Smith’s Burnt Toast ($4).
When Brandin gets home, we begin the great dinner discussion. It’s Finn’s turn to choose – our new family tradition (lol, we’ve been doing it for about three weeks) is that we go to a restaurant once a week, and each week the restaurant is chosen by a different family member – and he wants to go to a buffet, which… is not appetising to either of us adults.
His other obsession is sushi, so we coax him towards opting for that and we go to Sakura, where we order far too much food. But William (10) loves it, which nobody saw coming, and Finn eats almost all of his salmon sashimi, which is almost equally surprising.
In fact, we all enjoy it – but it seems like a pretty hefty bill for a casual Monday dinner en famille, even if we end up with enough food for everyone’s lunch tomorrow, too. ($169.51)
When we get home, I make decaf while Brandin gives the baby his bath and puts him to bed. Then the boys shower and have some popcorn in front of the TV before it’s time for them to go to bed, too.
Finn is determined to try again tomorrow morning, so I set my alarm for 7.30am and cross my fingers.
Daily total: $219.43
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