Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day, we did nearly all of our errands on foot today. The Boy came home from school yesterday with a fever, so he stayed "home" an extra day to ensure that he was sufficiently recovered. A little sunshine (such as it was) and fresh air certainly can speed that process, too.

In the morning, we loaded up the stroller and walked in a large loop to the dry cleaner, post office, and CVS. Our local post office, the Daniel J. Dolyn station, has gotten a facelift since I was last there. The clerk helping me was still a curmudgeon, but the office itself looks nicer. I prefer to use the automated postal centers whenever possible, but they are not set up to accept media mail, and I was mailing a book to my sister-in-law in Seattle. In October, The Boy, The Girl, and The Baby are getting a new cousin!

I had prescriptions to fill at CVS and after 2 hours of pushing around the e3, I was ready for lunch and a nap. Unfortunately, the only person who got a nap was The Baby. The rest of us waited out the rain-that-wasn't as slugs on the couch.

When The Baby woke up, we loaded back into the stroller and up to McDonald's to meet our friends for a quick pre-teeball dinner, and then over to Athletic Field Park for teeball practice. I never really played softball as a kid (my mother was pretty flaky about park district sign-ups when I was a child), but I found myself itching to get a mitt and get out on the field during today's practice. Instead, I played in the dirt with Kathy, the younger sister of one of the kids' teammates -- until she and The Girl dumped themselves behind first base to do the same -- and tried to keep The Baby from grabbing the ball off the tee. The Dad met us and walked us home.

After the kids were in bed, I ran errands by myself in the car: Cost Plus for wine, Whole Foods for yogurt, and Border's for a parenting book. Being able to concentrate on a single task without interruption for 20 minutes at a time while shopping was hugely revitalizing.