Decisions, Decisions

The thing about being a WOTHM (work-outside-the-home-mom) — well one of the myriad things for me, of course — is that your weekend rolls around, at last, and you have about 36 hours to figure out the best use of your time. Do I want to have what I call a chore-based weekend (cleaning the house or the yard, doing laundry, etc.)? Or do I want to spend good, quality time with my children, chores be damned?

Ideally, of course, I want a lovely balance of family time, my time, and chore time. Unfortunately, I do have to actually sleep. I guess that falls under “my time”.

This weekend I was staring down Saturday morning. On one hand, I wanted to make a Costco pizza for dinner. Which would require a trip to Costco. And I had a number of other things I had to get at Costco while I was there, so…

On the other — and more attractive — hand, I had received an email from a friend about an event the Pittsburgh Opera was hosting especially geared toward children.

And in the meantime, Bun was ready for some puddles.

Doing both just wouldn’t work out. The opera event was in the Strip District at noon. Cosco doesn’t open until 10 a.m. I couldn’t shop and then go right to the Strip because it was too warm to keep food sitting in my car. DearDR couldn’t help out on this one (in general, he has no problem doing the shopping, as long as he has a comprehensive list) because he was going to be seeing patients until 6 p.m. I was on my own.

Finally, I said, “Screw Costco — I’ll go tomorrow.” And I’m so glad I did.

Because we got to eat lunch at the opera.

And there were puppets, and pretty pink dresses (with matching hot pink cowgirl boots — I am so sorry I did not get a picture of them!)

And David Newell!

This was such a fun, fun event. And it was free, and they were giving away lots of cool stuff (for kids). If you ever have the chance to check out one of Pittsburgh Opera’s Brown Bag Opera Concerts, you should go. It seems like it would be a great thing for girlfriends, moms and moms-in-law, or even couples interested in opera in Pittsburgh. When they have another one for children, I will definitely be there with my girls.

Of course, the girls liked the music and the singing. One of the numbers performed by one of the sopranos, “The Girl in 14G”, had Bun crawling into my lap, surprised by how suddenly loud the woman’s voice got. “Dat ‘cared me,” she told me when it was over. Monkey put her hands over her ears during this one, but still stood, transfixed, watching the soprano belt it out.

The girls also liked the balloons, the Smiley cookies, and the apple juice — all FREE — plus the books we won in the raffle. I would have chosen a basket of food from the the new natural foods grocery store in the Strip District (I think it’s called Nature’s Way? The Right Market? anyone?) — including a gift card! — but another winner cut in front of me as I chased down the girls. Still kind of cursing her. However, the books include glow in the dark stars, and Monkey is just fascinated with them.

I’m glad I chose to do something fun on Saturday. I don’t get to every weekend. But I really want my girls to have lots of different experiences, and when an opportunity like the one the Pittsburgh Opera presented comes along, I just have to jump on it. Pittsburgh offers a lot of these, and although I miss aspects of city living, I’m glad I’m close enough to take advantage of events that are a little bit different than a “chore-based” trip to the store.