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We took a day off today. Well, not "off" in the sipping margaritas on the beach way but "off" as in I didn't go anywhere today. And it was SO nice. We used to have one car-less day almost every weekend, but we haven't been able to stay home all day in a long time.

Today's non-adventure happened due to a variety of factors. First, and most importantly, the Bengals had a Thursday night game this week. I had been toying with the idea of a pajama day today all week, but then yesterday morning, after spotting the insane prices of vegetables at Harris Teeter, I decided I would make a run to Trader Joe's this morning (there was definitely not time to go yesterday) to get more affordable veggies. Then I decided I really didn't want to to do that, but I still needed some ingredients for dinner tonight. So Ree and I bravely stopped at a grocery store last night, on our way home from a costume party. You get some funny looks when you are shopping for bell peppers  at 9pm on a Saturday night dressed as a gypsy two days after Halloween. This morning I realized I forgot to return two DVDs to the library that were due yesterday. I realized I had two options. I could quick run them to the library before it opened today (hence avoiding fines) or I could suck it up and pay. Suck it up I did, even though it killed my inner child who long ago learned the importance of always following the rules. I wasn't going anywhere.

Being my annoying Type A self, I had a long list of what I planned to accomplish today. I got through, eh, maybe a third of the list. But I also got to do lots of things not on the list. I sat on the floor with the kids looking at toy catalogs while they made their Christmas and birthday wish lists. I got pictures from the last month uploaded to the computer and sorted. And I ate well. Really well. And not just Halloween candy, although there was quite a bit of that consumed. On Thursday, our Produce Box came with the first sweet potatoes of the year, and I knew I had to have some baked sweet potato fries. (This is such a great recipe. The boys and I always end up finishing the entire batch at once. It works well with a half recipe using 1.5 grocery store sweet potatoes or about 3 farmers' market sized sweet potatoes.) We didn't really have anything to go with them, so I made a Mediterranean soup with chickpeas and tomatoes. Amazingly, the kids all ate it. Dinner was good too. Steak fajitas with mushrooms, a rainbow of peppers (my late night grocery shopping was not in vain), red onion, and grape tomatoes. We also ate the last corn on the cob of the season from our Produce Box.

So maybe it wasn't a day off in the traditional sense. But it was still a great day.