the results of a poorly planned weekend

The weekend came before I knew it and I had a couple of things on my planner that I wanted to do as a family. We had soccer games both Friday night and Saturday morning. My favorite store was having their 50% off sale (it only happens 4 times a year). The parks and recreation were offering a free weekend to try out outdoor sports and the Irish festival was going on all weekend.

Just curious, does this sound like to much? Would you have attempted to do all of the above, or would you have picked your 2 favorites?

Well, since I am Ms. Incredible I decided we were gonna do it all, and we did, but not without a lot of regret.

Our first mistake was not packing a lunch and water bottles for the outdoor experience, and that leads me to our next mistake, not having cash on us to purchase food and water at the outdoor experience. The third mistake was that we parked at the park entrance and walked to the main event (that left little energy to do fun stuff, and we still had to hike back to our vehicle a mile +) We did get to try out a few of the sports, but had to cut our adventures short so that we could leave the park and get food, which brings me to the fourth mistake and the reason why I'm putting this whole entry on my food journal. What do most people eat when they are in a hurry, don't want to spend a lot of money, and have limited options? the answer is probably most often fast food, so that's what we had.

After wolfing down a burger and some chicken nuggets we headed to the Goodwill and spent a couple of hours rummaging through clothes for the whole family. We were leaving as they were closing the store, and that leads me to mistake number 5: Without anything quick to make at home we stopped and picked up a couple of frozen pizzas (yeah, real quick. We had to pre-heat the oven and then wait another 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes because the kids ate the first pizza.

I don't remember what time I went to bed, but the next morning started to early, and with more unhealthy food choices; coffee cake and cinnamon bread. We were going to go to the early service at church, but didn't make it and then found out that in order to get into the festival for free we needed to be there by 11:30 with a food donation. (That would have have been mistake #6).

We made it to the festival with little time to spare and tried to make the best of our $60. Does $60 seem like a lot to you, it does to me, especially when all we bought was 3 kids meals (hot dog, chips), tenderloin sandwich, salad w/chicken & cranberries, roast beef sandwich, 1 beer, 3 corn beef sandwiches, popcorn, 3 soda pops, and 1 lemonade.

On the way home, it was late again so we opted to stop and grab something for supper, we were a little smarter and got Subway and only got the $5 foot longs.

Upon arriving home I nursed the baby and then put on my running gear, I was not going to let the week-end be a total waste. Hubby fed the kids and I headed out to the trail.

My jog redeemed my pitiful week-end. I was energized and I jogged the entire stretch (roughly 3 miles) it got dark while I was out there, but the weather was nice and cool and the exercise helped me to sort out my frustrations and disappointments.

Hind sight, Hubby and I would have gotten a sitter for the kids and gone. We would have spent the same amount on a sitter, and the kids were constantly reminding us how bored they were and asking us to "buy them this, and buy them that", and then we could have had some much needed couple time. I also would have liked to have packed some of our food, so that I had the option to eat healthy, and that would have saved us money as well. In addition, if I'd had our evening meals in the fridge ready to eat when we got home.

Next week-end I'm going to work at being better prepared, so that I'm not so regretful.