NOVEMBER SATURDAY

'Whole milk! Yay!' the three exclaimed as I set a glass full of whole milk in front of them. The full fat kind with the cream on top. The children always look forward to the milk at my place as they are not partial to the nonfat milk at their father's place.

Saturday morning breakfast was simple. Challah bread with freshly ground peanut butter and wildflower honey along with milk for the children. And strong Croatian coffee for me. Black.

The plan for today was to go somewhere we rarely go. The mall. I might be one of the exceptions of womankind in that I dislike malls. Indoor malls especially. I can handle places like The Domain for half an hour or so or The Arboretum but only because of the two kitchen shops I enjoy browsing.

Today my intention was to find small Lego sets for the children to keep them busy until their books arrive tomorrow. Christmas is the time they will get their larger sets albeit at the speed with which they build these sets, their Christmas break will be far from over by the time they complete the large sets.

I bought the girls the Lego Friends vet clinic set. Saffron claimed the set as hers and built it all by herself today. She explained they would each get to build it from scratch after playing with it for three days. I also bought the girls the Winter Fun set. The small holiday set with a mere 107 pieces. Sage also got a small Christmas set in addition to getting to work on the large Winter Village set with me.

Lego sets are fun to build even at my age but also fun to watch my children build them with such enthusiasm and focus. I wondered why I did not have any to build when I was a child. I am now making up for the lack of Lego sets in my childhood as I set about to acquire various sets throughout the year. The Winter Village series I began collecting over again as I did not get to keep these after I left the marriage. But it is never too late to start something new.

The day continued with my girls using and abusing their time on their iDevices. If it was up to me, they would not have access to such devices for years to come. Seeing how I did not buy them, I can only limit their time on them when the three are at my place. And that is exactly what I did.

I watched Cinnamon sitting on the daybed couch watching something on her iPad. Not too long thereafter, she went upstairs where she called her father and his new wife on Skype. They chatted for a long while. After their first call I told the girls to inform their father of my rule of no iDevices on Sundays. My house, my rules.

Before the three acquired their iPhones and iPad they spent more time reading books and being creative. Now they were wasting time watching mindless videos on YouTube. I was disappointed and saddened to see their love of books waning and thus made it a point to limit their use of these devices. Tomorrow we have other plans. The kind which takes us outdoors.