My day off - say cheese!

If you have read about me being busy then you will be glad to hear that today I had a day off. No fix plans, no obligations except making lunch and dinner.

This is how it went down:

After hockey practice last night I slept pretty well and only woke up quickly when Colin did his nightly thing... leaving his own bed to sneak into ours.

I got up and had coffee while he was still getting dressed and packing his school bag.

"This is going to be a nice, relaxing day" I said to myself. "Lots of me-time."

Still in my PJs I went online and almost fell off my chair. I don't know how or why, but over night I have gotten tons of new post views on something I wrote a year ago. The hits have been going on all day long.

I also got a message from Le Shop Drive that reminded me about my order that was going to be ready for pick-up between 10 and 11am. Oh, right! It contains stuff I want to send to our friends in Canada!

This "gingerbread" house filled with miniature chocolate bars has been around since I was a kid. It's the ultimate holiday treat, especially if you grew up here but don't live in Switzerland anymore.

Which reminds me I also wanted to stop at cheese paradise and buy some raclette cheese for them.

I took a leisurely shower (because I had more than 25 minutes to spend, HELLO MEREDITH! :-) thinking of the things I was (not) going to do today.

After all it was my day off!

Well, laundry happens, day off or not. Nobody else is going to do it...

Then off to the cheese place!

I had to keep in mind that I should not exceed the weight maximum for international "mini parcels": 2kg = 4 pounds.

I got home in time to throw the laundry from the washer into the dryer and make lunch. Miniature cheese quiches. After all I just shopped at cheese paradise!

Since I was thinking of Annette who is a gifted baker I remembered that I needed to make some bread myself. Now of course I could totally buy it at the store, but there is something to it to make your own bread from scratch. With a kitchen machine it's not a lot of work, it just takes some time, so I can only do it when I have - you guessed right - a day off.

"Donations needed for Syrian Refugees" said the title of an e-mail message I got while I was waiting for my yeast dough to rise. Coats, boots, sweaters for adults, teenagers, kids, babies, you name it! My friend was collecting everything we might be able to part with.

There was a deadline, too. You know how that works, right? It makes you think you've got plenty of time only to end up not doing anything at all by that date.

Well, not this girl, not this time! I wanted to help, and I can always use a good reason to purge, so - no time like the present! Bread dough can rise without me, and I have this Cheese & Chocolate package that needs to be taken to the post office anyway, so let's go before Colin's school is out!

What was I doing holding on to that baby snow suit? I have no idea!

What a gorgeous day! I should use my day off and just take a walk, enjoy the sun!

Somehow time went by faster than it should have.

What is it with you traffic lights, can't you go green for me, I'm in kind of a hurry!

I texted my friend to ask if she was at home, but by the time she saw my message I already dropped off my stuff and raced home with quite some time to spare.

Because Mr C only ever comes home early on the day that I am late.

At some point I thought I heard him running toward our house, but then there wasn't the bell going. Instead I kept hearing some strange thud-like noises.

When I peeked out of the kitchen window I saw him working on his wrist shot ;-)))

When he finally decided to come inside he didn't feel like doing his homework, and I didn't feel like insisting, so we agreed to set the timer, and he'd take care of it.

Usually it's snack, homework, play, but recently he's kept trying to do it the other way round or skip the homework part altogether. Maybe I should let him deal with the consequences. Sometimes I am so sick of that part of parenting.

I was gonna cook Red Thai Chicken Curry for dinner, but again, didn't feel like it.

Instead we had freshly baked whole wheat bread,

cheese from you-know-where and a glass of wine.

I know you have been wondering since the morning coffee picture.

It's the South African Haskell I have been talking about.

Colin's books were still on the table, and I asked him to put them back in his bag.

"Why would I do that, I haven't done anything yet" he said.

I tried not to freak out. That's what you get for giving him some autonomy and independence. While I was cleaning up in the kitchen, I kept catching glimpses...