New Reality

I took the day off early last Friday to pick up Oliver and head to the store for pot roast fixins. Jay was bringing Quinn home from school and this is her favorite dish of mine. I wanted to have something special for her on the first night she had with us that week. So as I was driving home down 6th street and Lamar I passed lots of old haunts and longingly watched the patrons enjoying their beers outside in the sunshine. I miss those old days of spending Friday afternoons at a long happy hour enjoying many (too many) pints. But then I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Oliver's pudgy little face smile back at me, so I got over it.

We made it in and out of Newflower with no problems. I scored lots of fruits and veggies on sale so I was super proud of myself for stretching our grocery budget a little bit more. But then, on a whim, I stopped by at Tuesday Morning to look for a bigger dutch oven. The one we have was a wedding gift - a smallish lime green Le Creuset that I love. It's just the smallish part that's the issue. We really need a bigger one. I was hoping to find a cheap Lodge cast iron dutch oven or something similar. Instead, they had the perfect grey 5.5 qt. Le Creuset marked down from $250 to $99. NINETY-NINE DOLLARS!!!! Oh man, in my pre-new house, new baby days I would have snapped that up. But with another one on the way and SO many other things taking priority, spending that $99 absolutely could not be justified. I think I shed a little tear - and of course instead of smiling, Oliver was tossing all of the nearby shelf items on the floor as fast as he could get his pudgy little hands on them.

I drove home feeling sad, but determined to make what we have work for our growing family.