It feels like I woke up this morning, started running, and didn’t stop until after dinner! Yesterday I learned that a regional furniture store, Art Van, was going out of business and liquidation sales would start today, so I steeled myself to take Alice and Will to see if we could score some deals. Matt and I have been incredibly lucky to inherit most of our current furniture from family and friends, but I’m sloooowly trying to upgrade some things and fill in the gaps with new or vintage finds (fighting my penny-pinching nature all the way).
One thing I’m in the market for is a narrow table to put in the little room next to our kitchen, and I needed to find a tape measure to figure out the dimensions I would be working with. Of course, this morning none of the half-dozen tape measures we own could be found. While I was in the basement searching, I popped a load of laundry in the dryer. Five minutes later, I smelled something burning. When I opened the dryer door, the smell got MUCH stronger. I freaked out, unplugged everything I could see, and climbed into the thicket of spider webs behind the dryer to feel for hot spots. Matt hasn’t had a chance to go down there yet and figure out what happened, but thank god for those missing tape measures because if I hadn’t stayed in the basement to look for them, the house probably would have burned down—or at least gotten very, very smokey.
Tape measure-hunting helper
Tape measure finally found and dimensions in hand, I set out for the furniture store with a three-year-old and a newborn. There was a line at the door five minutes before opening, but we got in with the first rush of people and cruised around to scope everything out. Alice bopped around trying out every chair and couch, Will fussed and then eventually slept, and I pestered Matt with too many texts and pictures to make sure he wouldn’t hate whatever I bought. We ended up with two lamps and no one to help us carry them to the car, so we took two trips across the parking lot, with each lamp balanced very carefully above a snoozing Will on the stroller handle.
We hustled straight from the furniture store over to Alice’s tumbling class, sprinting in ten minutes late. I sat on the floor in the hallway and nursed Will, not the comfiest experience ever. Then a meltdown over veggie straws and the shortest nap ever launched us into the afternoon. We had a playdate at Alice’s swim buddy’s house, which involved Connect Four, painting, trying on of many old Halloween costumes, and many other activities, all while bouncing a fussy baby. By dinnertime I was happy to drop Alice off for a sleepover with her beloved Aunt Katie and head home with Will to find Matt grilling burgers. I had grand plans to go grocery shopping after dinner but we took advantage of our toddler-free evening and watched Lady Bird instead (it was okay—mostly it just made me desperate to see Little Women again for more Saoirse Ronan in my life). So there’s no food in the house, the dishwasher hasn’t been run, and the trail of magazines Alice laid out on the floor two days ago to avoid stepping on “hot lava” hasn’t been picked up, but I’m going to finish my ice cream and hop into bed with Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner because it has been A DAY.