Stepping Out

I enjoyed a special treat yesterday: I went outside twice. I try to make it outside everyday except Sunday* to check our mailbox some 100 yards beyond our front door. My special treat was an unplanned trip to the hospital to drop off Ellie’s breast pump. She was almost 30 minutes late pumping when I dropped it off; much longer and something might have exploded.

I don’t go outside much anymore. I used to worry about gas prices, now I worry if we’re driving the cars enough to keep the batteries charged. Part of the reason is it’s January in Iowa; it’s too blasted cold to take the kids outside, and even if we get to enjoy one of those rare 60-degree winter days, the sun has usually set by the time I realize the weather is nice and put shoes on Abbie. Dressing three children for cold weather is almost impossible to do by myself, especially when the oldest of those children can take one shoe off as fast as I can put the other one on. I long for those warm summer days when I can open the door, watch a barefooted Abbie race the dog into the backyard, and step outside with a baby in each arm dressed in nothing more than a diaper if I’m feeling especially lazy that day.

Mostly I don’t get outside because I have three young children to watch. I’ve already decided that I’m never ever taking all three kids anywhere by myself. All doctor’s appointments will be for Abbie or the twins. I can entertain Abbie by myself, I can entertain the twins by myself, but I have nightmares of holding a screaming child in each arm while praying that Abbie doesn’t run too far away or stick anything too dangerous in her mouth.

I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to get to the grocery store. We have enough cans of things like creamed corn and cloves in the cupboards to give us a year’s supply of food as long as we’re creative and desperate enough. We’re still going to need perishable things like milk though, and I’ll be darned if I’m just going to run to the corner supermarket when the one 10 minutes away is 50-cents a gallon cheaper. I suppose Ellie and I will have to tag-team, she watches the kids while I run to the store. The drawback there is I now owe her a round of watching the kids while she runs to the store, and while she’s on this trip she feels compelled to take, she feels compelled to buy something, and next thing you know we have another crate of creamed corn to stack on the shelves.

* Duh.