This summer has been jam packed with fun-filled weekends for us. While we are enjoying them immensely, it means that all the house work that I generally put off until the weekend, is being pushed further and further behind.
It has been pretty bad, and by pretty bad I mean horrendous. We almost had to become nudists 2 weeks ago because no-one had any clothes to wear.
Last weekend, I didn’t have time to go grocery shopping, so we made it through the week on what we had... we ate a lot of eggs. So, this weekend when we returned home from a trip up north, our fridge was pretty barren. (Thankfully, we had stopped for dinner along the way)
Once I got the laundry going (I learn from my mistakes), I hopped in the car and headed to the grocery store. As I wandered the aisles, with nary a list in sight, I thought about how fortunate I was to be able to go to the store and buy whatever I needed.
That’s when I decided now would be a good time to remind people that the food bank needs donations all year round.
While we all remember to give food around the holidays, the food banks can get pretty dry in the seasons when we are not so into giving. So grab a few extra items and donate them this week. Often, the stores have a donation bin right by the exit, and if not, your local food bank should take donations directly. You can also make a monetary donation here.
I didn’t make my donation yet because I want to return with the kids and let them pick out what we are going to give. It’s a good time to teach them that not everyone is as fortunate as they are.
Here are just a few stats to think about:
27% of food banks lack adequate funding
31% do not have enough food to meet their needs
50% have been forced to give out less food
38% of people being helped by the food banks are children
I didn’t like having an empty fridge for one day... I can’t image feeling that way every week.
Kids of divorce go through a lot, and as much as we like to think that they forget it, they don’t. With good communication, and lots of patience, they may learn to overcome their emotions, but it never goes away completely.
We were reminded of this one evening at dinner.
We were discussing all sorts of things, and it came around to our family and marriage. Inevitably, we also discussed divorce.
It was then that Ethan said “You guys better not ever split up”. It was kind of heart warming... until he added “I don’t want to go through that again”.
Last Sunday, on a very rare occasion, Tom and I went into Toronto by ourselves... let me say that again, Tom and I went somewhere BY. OUR. SELVES... like without kids... just the 2 of us. I can’t even remember the last time we went anywhere without at least 1 kid in tow.
What did we do with our “date”? We drove cars... FAST!
I am a thrill seeker. I love roller coasters and any other amusement park rides that might make your heart jump. I like motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATVs, you name it... if it goes fast, I’m into it.
So, when I got an email asking if we wanted to take part in the VW Freedriving Tour, I said “HELL YA!”
Tom has always loved the VW GTI, so I booked him to test drive that while I was going to test drive the VW Tiguan. When we got there, it turned out that we could each try both cars.
The VW Freedriving Tour is not just a test drive though, it’s a driving course, and each car has a driving coach in the passenger seat to teach you the tricks of the road.
To show how serious I was about learning my driving skills, I changed into my non-sparkley, very serious driving shoes.
Then we tried out the VW driving game on the ipad... note how serious I am even while just pretending to drive. If the iPad game was any indication of how I would perform on the actual course, all the driving coaches would have ran screaming from their vehicles.... thankfully, I control the car way better than I do an iPad.
And, of course, Tom was awesome on the iPad.
Okay, serious student heading to the driving course now, got my driving shoes on, I’ve done a warm up on the video game, I’ve got a driving instructor. This is going to be very serious... or seriously fun!
Wanna see what I learned? Here is a video of my turn in the VW GTI... watching it back, I learned that I bite my lip when I concentrate, and I giggle when I’m nervous.
And in this video of Tom driving the GTI, I learned that I am not a very good passenger, and that Tom looks way more calm than I do when he’s driving.
After our test drive, Kristi (our awesome contact for the day) told me to come pick up a little gift... I was certain it was going to be the new VW Beetle that was on display at the event. It wasn’t, so I guess I’ll just have to convince Tom that I need to buy one! It is so very cool.
As you can imagine, when Tom and I are child free and we get time to do something together, we don’t want to waste our time, and I am happy to say that the VW Freedriving Tour was anything but a waste of time.
We both had an amazing time, we got to drive fast, in a cool car, and everyone at the event made us feel like super stars. The event staff were absolutely amazing, and it’s that kind of customer service that makes me want to go out and buy a product. Good job VW.
For the record, this blog is not sponsored. VW did not pay me to say all of this; I just really enjoyed myself and wanted to share my experience with you.
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