My 5th Little Thing

Recap: We stopped and smelled the tulips at the grocery store. We hung out at the mall bookstore for hours, just being leisurely. We didn’t hurry, and it was nice. I am more patient and the kids are happier if we just assume any given event can take up hours. They’re kids, so they should enjoy the hours while they still seem long.

Week 5: Go out of my way

This week for Valentine’s Day, a “holiday” I classify as kind of weird, I decided to find a way to carry on our tradition of Whataburger chicken barbeque sandwiches minus the gluten and the assistance of Whataburger. It’s one tradition that we’ve tried to always keep, and we wanted to include the kids this year even though we all have some similar, some conflicting food allergies, and these sandwiches can equal disaster for at least one person in the house at any given time if not done properly.


The kids and I were in Carrollton by 9:45 yesterday morning picking up gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free, soy-free hamburger buns (the BEST buns ever) from Local Oven. We then hiked it up to Lewisville to Cracker Barrel which is the only place that seems to be carrying the Bone Suckin' Sauce that is gluten-free, tested for possible contaminates, and doesn’t contain anything offensive to anyone in our house. Also, it tastes awesome and I would eat it on chocolate if I hadn’t eaten all the chocolate already.


Wren then somehow talked me into a trip to the mall before we went to Sprouts to pick up the chicken. Her argument was solid: she had been in a car picking up bread that was frozen which kept her from eating it for hours, to a restaurant with delicious food she couldn’t eat, though she did get to walk out with barbeque sauce, and now I was taking her to the grocery store and trying to pass that off as fun. We spent an hour at the mall. Then we got our chicken.


We went home and assembled our sandwiches and had a picnic dinner on the floor last night, not for Valentine’s Day as much as to celebrate tradition, to celebrate knowing people in this world who are worth going out of our way for. To rejoice in being loved by people who don’t question your motives, people who are always appreciative even when you just make them a sandwich. The whole day felt like a good use of time even though laundry piled up, dishes piled up, and I went to bed an hour later than usual. I felt energized, and it was a good reminder of what making the extra effort can do.