The History of My Life in Errands

Several months ago I wrote about the evolution of clothing in our house. 
I shall now attempt to relate The History of My Life in Errands.  Prepare to be riveted.

Stage 1
When the Man-Child was very small, I looked for any opportunity to get out of the house.  Target was a favorite destination.  If I needed anything--one thing-- I would take a trip out.  The grocery store was great.  The library, the zoo, the museum, the park, a friend's house.  Needed to make copies for something at church?  Let's take a trip to the copy store. 
It drove me nuts to stay home too much.

One day when we were visiting Spokane, my father-in-law told me about when my mother-in-law was raising her brood of 9 little people.  She would group her necessary errand-running together so she had to leave home as infrequently as possible. 

I swear, I thought to myself--WHY?
Why would you not want to get out of the house and go run errands.  It's fun to get out of the house and run errands.

Foolish, foolish girl that I was.

Stage 2
Then my people started coming.  My own brood started growing and "pleasure errand running" became a thing of the past.  It really changed right around the time of Cannon's birth.  He was... how shall I say... unpredictable.  It was very challenging to take him out and about.  And I was completely sleep deprived for months on end.  Clark was nine and not old enough to leave home alone tending the other kids.  So I basically stopped running all unnecessary errands and became much more resourceful.  I started grouping my errands so I didn't have to take Cannon anywhere if I could possibly help it.

This was hard for me because I still really liked getting out and about.  I liked running errands.  I still got stir crazy after being home for too long.  I felt a little trapped that I wanted to get out, but couldn't.  Well, I could, but it just wasn't worth the effort.

Stage 3
Nowadays, Clark and Bethany are both old enough to leave home tending the younger ones for relatively brief stints.  I can freely go to the grocery store, relatively unencumbered.  Of course I take George, but he's a cakewalk compared to Cannon at that age.  Here's the thing, though.  I don't want to go do the errands anymore.  I have so many things I want to do here at home with the kids, that very few things are worth leaving them.  We have a full schedule each day of jobs, reading, practicing, playing, school work, meal prep and eating, piano lessons (I teach), and taking care of the little ones.  I just don't like leaving home much anymore. 

My food pantry is suffering.  I really need to go do a big grocery store run, but our resourcefulness keeps finding us meals we can make without a trip.  A child needs a haircut, but I'll just get out the scissors and do it myself (scary).  I need more eyeliner.  I need to go peruse the library shelves.

I am grouping my errands together and I have an extensive list of all the things I need to go do.  The question is--- How long does my list have to get before I go out and run errands to actually accomplish any of my errands?

Please understand that I consider it a personal triumph that I no longer feel compelled to get out of the house so frequently.  I am so glad that staying at home with my children is such a pleasure to me.  I enjoy what we do here and I enjoy my children's company.  I didn't like it when I was younger and felt unable to be content calmly being at home. 


I have a wonderful sister-in-law, Mary who is married to Abe's youngest brother.  She has three little ones and has always been an example to me of contentedly being at home.  She has used her young motherhood time so much more wisely than I did.  She has seriously continued her education and learned great homemaking skills. 


Stage 4?

I wonder if my errand aversion will fade when I am through with the baby and toddler phases?  Will I go back to what I once was?  I guess I hope not, but perhaps somewhere in the middle.  I'd rather not have this aversion to errand running, as there are errands that must be run.  I'd just so much rather spend my time with friends and family, investing in relationships and learning new things.