What I Do When the Kids Aren’t Home

Since the other parents and us are switching turns with our kiddos every Thursday for summer, I have to keep myself busy when they’re not home or else I become extremely bored, and a little weepy at times 🙁 .

One of the afternoons 2 weeks ago when I was picking Jaylen up after work (he’s going to his dual-enrollment classes during summer), we saw a pile of cacti waiting for brush pick-up in front of a house. When I got to Mario’s, I asked him if he had any old tarps or anything I could pick up a cactus with. He said he had an old pool, so he cut some pieces up and Jaylen and I stopped in front of the house.

We both stood there, hands on our hips, figuring out how to roll the cactus on the plastic. Jaylen said we’d pull the plastic close and roll a cactus with the other plastic and we’d each hold a side of the plastic and place it in the car. As we’re contemplating, the owner of the house walks out. I get nervous, and slightly embarrassed since I’ve never done anything like this, but I wave and smile. He comes over and tells us to pick the ones we want and he put two in the car for us, just like that with his bare hands!

So I had two giant cacti I had to somehow get into the ground, somewhere in the yard!

On one of my trips to Walmart for some cacti soil, I found this adorable baby!

We had a busy week coming up at work, and since my boss wouldn’t be in on Monday we crammed all the to-do’s into Friday, which included finding transportation for a group coming in from Irapuato. So as we’re waiting for someone to assist us at this one car rental place, this kitty jumps on my lap!

Then we stopped by this Mexican candy shop on the way to another place: Dulcerias Pinkies! My first time there, ever, and it was just like the isles and isles of awesome candies we’d buy in Reynosa for the kids’ parties (back when we weren’t scared to cross 😕 ).

We had a photo shoot for Mr. Kirk Clark at 4pm so we rushed over. After the photos were done, Mr. Clark invited us to SALT for drinks and hors d’ ouvres!

I love hearing his wonderful stories and the inspiration behind his beautiful artwork! He invited us all to stay for dinner, but Jorge had just gotten out of work so I thanked him profusely and excused myself. At least my boss and Gerry stayed to join him.

My love got home and we decided to have a date-night that evening. We used our gift certificate, so that was even better!

Saturday came around and I decided to make myself some breakfast instead of going jogging or to yoga (again 🙁 ) since I was still pretty sore from my procedure on Thursday. Breakfast on my porch is one of my favorite things, ever. If the darn mosquitoes weren’t so abundant I would have totally done some yoga right there.

I repotted some of my overgrown cacti and my new prickly one into clay pots.

While I was at it, I decided my poor large FREE cacti had waited long enough, and finally planted them (very carefully).

I showered, then Mom and I were going to go visit Gramma and grocery shop. We were talking about plants and she tells me to stop by the nursery near the house, so I oblige, heh.

We found so many awesome plants, and for cheap!

I even got a few extras in one of them!

We dropped them off at home and then visited Gramma and did grocery shopping. I had an awesome lentil soup made for when my love got home from work :).

I cleaned and repotted some plants on Sunday after breakfast.

And made us some awesome salmon sliders for lunch.

I took down all my succulents from my windowsill garden in the kitchen and vacuumed/dusted everything. I vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom, too. I always spend all day on my days off running errands and doing housework and then I regret when Monday comes 😆 . But I put on my big girl panties and conquered the entire day, completing all bullets on my to-do list at work. And that deserved some homemade Fancy Ramen when I got home from work, and later, Salty Dogs for the hubs and I.

Jorge and I had actually made plans to go to Suerte Bar & Grill since the weekend on Monday evening since we were kidkess, but when the day actually came…we kinda stalled at getting ready until we thought, why go out when we can have drinks at home? And it was glorious!

On Tuesday, I stopped by Valley Garden Center after work. I needed some big clay pots to repot the cacti from Saturday that didn’t fit in the ones I already had, and ended up getting some adorable tiny cacti!

And then came Wednesday and along with it the whirlwind of gluttony during work for the next few days!