Summer is my Happy Place

I blog to help families Save Money And Stay Home with their kids. Time with my kids is worth so much more than money could ever buy me. Today is not the last day of Summer according to the calendar but school starts tomorrow so the pace of Summer will change. We will still go to the pool, have dinner on the deck, go see the eclipse, have cookouts and so on but the part of Summer I love the most is coming to an end. I love spending time with my kids in the Summer.

I will always be thankful for Summer. Summer has always been my happy place. Some of my best memories in life have happen in Summer. My birthday is in the Summer, I met Logan at a pool in the Summer of 1988, easy days at my grandparents pool growing up, fun swim team times at Spring Lake, road trips, fishing and skiing at the lake, Kings Island, watching the Summer Olympics, stepping foot on the campus of EKU as a freshman on a hot Summer day, tons of trips to the beach, getting married, and no school in the Summer.

As an adult Summer is extra special because my kids are free from the worries of school and I have made choices in my life that have given me the time to enjoy Summer with my kids. Summer of 2010 when Logan IV was in the hospital fighting cancer makes every Summer past 2010 an extra special. I am thankful for time. I am thankful for motherhood. I am thankful that God has seen my through every season of life. I am thankful that Summer will also come again.

FREE Chick-fil-A Sausage Biscuit Aug. 17 in Lexington, KY

FREE BREAKFAST!? Try a FREE Sausage Biscuit, Thursday, August 17th until 10:30am at any Greater Lexington Area Chick-fil-A Restaurant. One biscuit per guest

I HATE What the Back to School Supply List Teaches Kids

I am so proud of my kids. They are finding hardly used or not used at all school supplies from years past around the house to fill their back to school supply list. I am proud because they are thrifty and don't have to have all new and shiny paper and etc. Half of the list has been filled shopping what they already had. 

Teacher friends this is not a rant about teachers this is a rant about the system. I HATE what the back to school supply list teaches kids. The list calls for 6 packs of paper, 96 pencils, 1/2 a dozen glue sticks and so on. The teacher takes all the supplies up on the first day and the kids have to go to the teacher and ask for their supplies as needed. The kids do not learn to be good stewards of what they have because they can just keep going back to the teacher and ask for more. You should see all the pencils in the dust pile at the end of the school day. Dozens of good pencils just dropped and never picked up. I know you might be thinking what about they kids who can't afford pencils. Those kids are taken care of in a number of ways. YMCA backpack school supply giveaways, FRC, Community and Corporate partners who giveaway school supplies. I want to teach my kids that they are in-charge of their belongings. It is their job to keep the tools he needs to do his job in good working order. I think they are learning what I am teaching.

$300 worth of Back to School Clothing for $18

I did some great back to school shopping yesterday! I bought $300 plus worth of Old Navy clothing for $18. How did I do that? I used rewards points to buy an Old Navy gift card for $80, value of the card was $100 (Rewards points used so $0 out of pocket) I shopped on a Monday because Old Navy offers a Military Discount on Mondays and I bought clothing that was on sale for Back to School. It gets even better. I have $30 worth of Old Navy Bucks to spend in Sept. One of my best shopping trips ever.