There’s nothing quite like some daddy-daughter time. Sometimes I overlook that and realize my mistake when my daughter and I spend some time together.
It could be doing anything – cooking, shopping or even cleaning.
If it’s with Brenna, it’s quality time to me.
A couple of weeks ago, it was the aforementioned house cleaning. This time around, some lunch and shopping proved excellent time sharing activities.
What better place to eat than Bayside Brew Pub in Erieau?
Our kid is a scented candle fan. Among a diverse selection of cool stuff, Antiquated Joys in Blenheim has some awesome candles. Naturally, the kid had to smell each different candle to determine which ones she wanted.
With the food and fun shopping out of the way, it was time to focus on needed items. As you can imagine, my wife usually handles back-to-school shopping with our daughter. I generally have only a tertiary role.
But this time around, I’d say Mary and I shared the load. OK, she still did the lion’s share of it, and I helped fill in the blanks.
Late last week I took the teenager to scoop up all her school supplies.
Well, that and some toiletries.
Yep, there we were at the grocery store shopping for shampoo. I grabbed a big, green bottle of 2-in-1 for myself, and Brenna had a dilemma. So many choices. Time to call Mom.
Razors next. She knew what she wanted, but wasn’t sure what her mother needed. Another call. More giggles from me. May as well talk deodorant while on the phone, right?
She picked out her own face wash in a relatively short time period, much to my appreciation.
I laugh at her indecision and phone conferences with her mother, but when I’m out grocery shopping on my own, I often call home for advice on what to choose as well.
The apple indeed does not fall far from the tree.
At least I could offer advice on binders, paper, pens, pencils, etc., etc.
And from a price point, most of it was wrong.
Brenna had an idea on where she wanted to go for her school supplies, but we were at a store that sold everything, so I thought the price point would be better at the bigger box store.
Nope. Fortunately, we weren’t impressed with some of the prices and only made a few purchases there.
The next day, we hit the other store – yes, both in Chatham-Kent, because we believe in shopping locally whenever possible. As Brenna thought, the deals were better at her selected store.
And we received much better customer service.
Win, win all around. And more laughs as she looked over most every lunch bag on the rack. The ones I picked out were too gaudy. In the end, she selected a black-and-grey one – Silver & Black – Oakland Raiders colours, my favourite football team.
Excellent choice. Maybe I can slap a Raiders logo on there when she’s not looking.
My work can often interfere with the time I spend with our daughter. But this past weekend, it was hers. She worked Friday through Sunday at her part-time gig.
Ahh, they grow up so fast.
One thing we didn’t do together this weekend was hang out in the backyard. She’s not a fan of bugs, especially wasps, and it’s definitely wasp season, despite our wasp trap working overtime.
Wasps galore have met their demise in our backyard. Let’s face it, we are just hastening their demise, as the annoying bugs will die off with the first frost anyway.
But a friend, Janice, offered a new twist on the trap. Rather than cut the top off and turn it upside down, she suggested poking holes with a screwdriver up near the top and letting the wasps get in that way. She said they can’t get out in this trap either.
I haven’t tried the new style yet, but we do have a bottle of pop in the fridge. Just have to invite a few of Brenna’s friends over to drink most of it.
I did spend a little time in the yard recently, despite the wasps. I cooked chicken on the barbecue last week. Huge boneless, skinless breasts from Schinkels’. More than we could eat at one meal. Heck, even after making chicken sandwiches a day later, we still had some on the weekend.
Mary came up with a really simple and tasty way to finish it off. She spread tortilla chips on a pan, heated the oven to 500 F, spread shredded cheese over the chips, added some Queso sauce and then the chicken. After less than 10 minutes, we had our meal.
Next time, we might add some salsa, or perhaps a little barbecue sauce, but it was delicious.
