Friday

Tonight is a big deal in this house. It is my son's first school dance. I can't believe it! Of course, it is a middle school dance. It is 2 hours long and the cost of the ticket was $5.00. We were not required to buy him a new outfit, instead he will be wearing shorts to ward off the heat of an overflowing middle school cafeteria. Alec is very excited, he is going with his group of friends after having pizza at one of their homes.

My daughter, Hannah, will be at a birthday party tonight. It is not a sleepover, but will keep her busy during the active hours of a Friday evening. So, I find myself a bit excited at the prospect of having one child at home on a Friday while my others are out, socializing and having fun with their friends. I am excited, until I realize that I will have to leave my cozy home at 9:00 to pick up a group of sweaty, excited middle school boys at the same time the rest of our communities parents will be picking their own children up. Should be fun:)

Happy Friday!

Increased work hours

I have started to work more hours. I am grateful for the extra hours and time away from home. I have been a stay at home mom for 12 years. I started to work part time 2 years ago, working about 10 hours a week. I am now working 20 hours a week. This increased work schedule, thankfully, gets me out of the house from 10-4:30 three days a week.

I am so grateful for the extra hours. I am getting to the point of being completely bored at home. My kids do not need as much from me and a toilet can only be cleaned so much before it has been cleaned too much. For the most part, my household chores are caught up daily. My children are helping more and volunteering at the school now bores me. Work is good. I like the adult conversation. I like the extra money. Finally, I like having a reason to get out of my house every day. I am happy.

Why I will never move!

My husband and I have a very modest, older, ranch home in the suburbs. Our home, needs a lot of work. It is sad to say that, because we have already put a lot of work into it. Our home is a work in progress, I know that it will never be done. Molding will always need replacing, wood work will need staining, floors sanded, painting, bathrooms. The list goes on and on. I make it sound like our home is in shambles. It is not in fact. I find it very nice, lived in and comfortable. The cosmetic work that needs to be done is probably only noticed by me, but of course I am going to be our homes worst critic.

We bought this house in October of 2000. On Halloween, we moved our toddlers into our new house, vowing that we were going to make this structure our home. Almost 2 years later we brought our last baby home, establishing this as her first and only childhood home. A decision I have never regretted.

I know that in the day and age that we live in, families move. Job transfers often require a cross country move that uproots and entire family. When this happens, obviously a family has no choice but pack up and move on. Sometimes that is a good choice, sometimes it is not. We are fortunate. My husband has a very stable job that will in all likelihood keep him here in Milwaukee. Unless something terrible happens, he is set. Given that he is in the financial industry and he weathered last year's storm. I think we are safe.

So, why do I insist on staying where we are? We could move to a different suburb, build a new house, find a house that doesn't require so much work or find something that is more practical. It is simple. I want my children to have a place to call home, forever. When they talk about their "home" as adults, I want them to remember our house and community as that home. I envy the fact that when they graduate from high school they will be graduating with people they have known since they were 4 and 5 years old. When they go to high school reunions as adults, those reunions will mean more to them because they will be able reminisce about events and memories from childhood. They are establishing bonds with their peers that will likely last a lifetime. Even if after they graduate they don't see those people ever again, they will remember them. By doing this, I believe I am giving my children roots. They will know where they came from. That they were raised in a home where family was what was most important. With friends and community coming in closely behind.

Maybe I am naive. But, I hope I am not. There was a time when family, extended included was took precedence to everything else. When grandparents, aunt, uncles, cousins and siblings were active in the raising of children, giving us pride in where we came from. I think it is sad that so many of us have moved away from that tradition. Myself included. But, maybe by taking one small step, like having my children live in one home for their childhood, I can help my family move more toward tradition.

Well, I hope to be back. The last 2 weeks have been incredibly busy. The kids started school, in addition to soccer, cross country and swimming lessons. To top that off, I have started working about 20 hours a week. My days are filled and I find myself falling into bed at night exhausted and often times very crabby. I know that once we establish a rhythm to this crazy routine, all will be well. Until then, well, it is any one's guess how well we all handle it.

Since my last post, we ended our post card project. We ended with 97 cards. So close, and yet so far. I am very sad that we did not accomplish our goal of 100 cards. Maybe we can try again next year. My guess though is that the kids will not be interested in doing this next year.

I started working more hours. The extra money is going to be nice. More money coming in, less time to spend it. Seems like a win win situation for everyone.

Alec started middle school. He decided to join the cross country team. It is an excellent way to maintain fitness. It does take up a lot of his time. He has practice everyday 2:45 to 4:30, in addition to his extra homework, it is proving to be a bit difficult for him. Thankfully, it ends on October 8th, which really isn't all that far away.

We hemorrhaged money in August. School registration, school clothes, sports fees, my husbands birthday and the last minute outings I wanted to take my kids on added up, fast! Eric and I both agreed that September and October have to be especially frugal. I guess I better clip more coupons and scan more sales. Time to get our finances under control again.

Finally, 9/11 always makes me so sad. I remember that day so vividly, as we all do. My 3 year old son (now 11) was getting ready for his first day of preschool. I was so scared to drop him off, but felt that it would be best to keep things normal for him. I even remember what I was wearing that day, down to the shoes. I can't even remember what I wore yesterday, but an outfit 8 years ago has left a lasting impact on me. Every year on 9/11, I have that sad day on mind the whole day. It is never far my thoughts. I guess that is how it should be.

Well, off to bed. My days start early, so I try to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

I will be back to normal blogging Thursday

I want to just post a short note that I will be back to normal blogging on Thursday. The new school schedule, in addition to my increased work hours and additional activities has left me a bit frazzled. I think that by week's end I will be back to normal and ready to blog.

Last Day of summer vacation

Today is the official end of summer, in this house at least. Tomorrow, the kids go back to school. For me, the beginning of the new school year has always been more like New Years for me than January 1st. This is the day I have resolutions that I try to implement into my life. They are typical resolutions. Lose weight, exercise more, get organized, spend more time with family, etc. I suspect that by September 5th, I will have given up and gone back to life as usual. But, for a few short days, I will be healthy, well rested and organized. Maybe blogging these resolutions will help me keep them this year?

Tomorrow will also be the start of our fall schedule. Soccer, swimming, cross country, after school dances and all the other activities children bring to a family will begin. As I try to organize these schedules onto my calendar I feel tired just looking at it. Why do I agree to all of these commitments? I feel guilty that I do not insist that the kids lighten their load a little bit. They over schedule and I allow it. But, my son and youngest daughter love being busy. They love the fact that with these activities, they make new friendships, meet new people and learn new skills. It seems as like they really thrive in such conditions. My middle daughter, takes violin 1 day a week and is truly content with her one activity. She plays because she loves to and appreciates that free time one activity allows her to have. She really is more like me in this aspect. I remember that as a child I preferred time with my friends in unstructured activities.

Post card update, nothing has arrived since our card from Chile. One week and counting. Labor Day will be the unofficial end to our summer project. Of course, we will continue to map out any cards that continue to arrive after the 7th.

Airfare to Italy

As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I took our children to Italy last summer for a summer vacation. I have decided to document the frugal steps I took to make that vacation affordable, while being fun. I can't think of a better place to start with this blog, than the beginning, which is airfare.

We knew that we were going to take that vacation for about 18 months before we left. It is not possible to buy tickets that far in advance. Knowing that, I had several months to save the cash that we would need for airfare. You can buy tickets about a year before departure, so we knew that we had 6 months to accumulate what we would need in savings. When we hit the year mark before departure, my husband started to stalk the fares. He also did a lot of research about what time of year is cheapest, how far before departure, what cities have cheaper departures, would it be cheaper to fly into one city versus another. The list went on and on. He knew that it was cheaper to take the train from Florence to Venice and fly out of Venice than it would be to fly directly out of Florence. This knowledge helped us make informed choices about our flights. We finally decided to fly out of Chicago (MUCH cheaper than flying out of Milwaukee) into Zurich Switzerland with a connection into Rome Italy. Our flight home was a bit different. We flew out of Venice, into Zurich, back to Chicago. We saved a lot of money taking this route, plus, we were able to see the Italian countryside by taking the train to Venice.

We decided to fly Swiss Air. It was OK. To be honest, I am being very generous with that OK rating. The food was inedible, the seats were the worst international seats I have ever sat it and there was a mix up with our passports in Switzerland with the airline. I think I would need to use that airline again to get a better idea of the service. Of course we chose Swiss Air because it provided the most affordable fares.

When we bought our tickets we used a credit card that gives a rebate and than paid it off right away. The rebate was applied to that credit card while we were on vacation. We had accumulated $120 cash from the tickets which we turned around and used in Italy. We were able to buy a very nice dinner in Florence, in fact my parents were able to stay with the kids the night we had that dinner. It was a memorable date for us in Italy.