I have so many things to write about, from my trip to see Odysseo, camping with friends, and *gasp* firearms, but this is what made it out through a crazy week that ain’t over yet….

So I’ve been sharing a bunch of happy pictures on Instagram lately, full of good food (baked eggs, steak, grilled chicken, campfire sausages) & enjoyable events (camping, Crater Lake, road trips, friends, Tom home).

Yesterday was a bit trickier. And by trickier I mean flat out exhausting.

Tom’s alarm went off at 3 freakin’ am, for his flight back to San Jose leaving at 6am. I always try to go back to sleep but this one is hard, as he’ll be gone for three weeks this time.

I eventually got me & the kid up & going, to drop him off with a friend to be taken to school so I could high tail it to Salem for an appointment. I made it into work just after 11am & worked my six hours, clocking off after 5 when traffic is at it’s most vicious. I picked up my kid who looked as tired as I did, fighting traffic all the way to the grocery store only to find they were out of the one thing I actually needed-Bailey’s coffee creamer. By now it’s pushing 630 & I’ve been loaded up on coffee & Goldfish all day, so instead of the ‘cooking’ I was planning to do (chicken salad sandwiches) we swung by those big Golden Arches & loaded up on processed meat & salt for dinner.

This, of course, mildly overjoyed my offspring, but my fogged up brain considered how unsnobbed I’ve become. Just over five years ago, my son was born at my ex-MIL’s organic farm in Vermont, where we tried to eat as local & low impact as possible. Before that I’d spent four years at the hippiest college around, again eating as local as possible, including what the school farm grew. We still ate fast food, but it was few & far between, considering the effort necessary to drive nearly half an hour over backcountry roads to the nearest one, which I didn’t even like.

Now I’m shoving McDonalds in my face at 8pm on a Tuesday night, a meal so quickly cleaned up & yet will live in my thighs for weeks. I’m sure there’s more of a lesson there, but the one I take from it is I have to plan my meals better, both to avoid the McD in the future, & save the money as well. But sometimes, you just don’t have the extra umph to deal with it all, & that’s okay too.