Money, Love, and Change

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This is not a political blog, so the purpose here is not to reveal who my preferred candidate is, and why the other candidate sucks, etc. I just wanted to give you this heads up, so that you may be more inclined to read on.

This weekend, we went to visit some friends, and took some time to walk around Washington DC since the weather was so nice.  As the kid was attempting to scale the Washington Monument, I was looking around and saw the White House from a distance.  As I turned back around to check on the kid, he was laughing happily with a couple other kids from a different country as they all tried to scale the wall.

It just kind of struck me that regardless of who we all go in and vote for on Tuesday, people aren’t really all that different.  Perhaps it is because this is the first election where I have a child myself (and therefore am more aware of the daily political news), but I feel that this is an election where so much hatred, ugliness, and division has bubbled to the surface.  Sometimes it is easy to forget how lucky we are to have the right to walk around our nation’s capital freely, and talk about how much we love (or despise) a candidate, and be able to vote.

I guess that I found myself to be a bit surprised to become humbled when visiting our nation’s capital, instead of being more fired up for Tuesday.  I also can’t wait to take my son back to Washington DC when he is old enough to start learning the significance of the monument he was trying to scale…

We’re back from a weekend camping trip. It was a lot of fun, even though we got rained on for a whole night and part of a day. Trying to keep a 2-year-old contained in a tent while waiting for a storm to pass was challenging, but somewhat manageable. I have made a mental note to bring more books/toys in the event of rain (we try to keep it simple, but in this case having more than a dump truck and 2 books would have made life better)!

In general, I love camping because it is so simple, and there is a lot of time for reflection. One of the things I spent a lot of time thinking about is that we’ve actually done a good job over the past couple of years making life less complicated. Now when we’re camping, it’s nice to get away from the computer and phone for awhile, and cooking over an open fire, and sleeping on the ground. Other than that, camping is really not as different from home as it used to be.  My husband and I get to spend more quality time together now, and we’ve prioritized things so that we both spend a lot of time with the kid.

Camping this weekend did strengthen my resolve to working harder to become debt free. I would love to have freedom to camp and travel more often, but with my husbands limited vacation time, that’s not possible. We’ll see what happens…

What about you? Do you like camping? Why or why not?

After traveling last weekend, everyone was ready to take it easy.  We wanted to get out and enjoy nature this weekend, and were thinking about taking a short trip (less than 2 hours) to a state park.  However, on Friday evening, we pulled out our atlas, and found a nature center that was only 15 miles away!

We decided to head over there on Saturday morning, and had a lot of fun.  If it hadn’t been for the humidity, we would have stayed longer (our bassett hound is a trooper, but she doesn’t do well in high heat combined with humidity).  We plan on going back soon, since there is another trail that we can take the kid on.

While we were at the nature center, I picked up a brochure for a local self-sustaining farm.  We’re big on local and organic foods – come to find out, we’ve been living about 12 miles away from this farm, complete with a store, that sells in bulk!  I checked out this place over the weekend, and was really impressed.  The prices for the bulk food are really affordable, and some items that have been treats for our family, such as quinoa, are now going to become more of a staple.  I also like the idea of supporting a local establishment.

We also met up with some friends this weekend, and our kids had the chance to play together.  They get along really well, and it was nice catching up.  On Sunday, my husband met up with a friend to play disc golf.  He took the kid, so I got to sleep in.  It was awesome!

Other than groceries, we didn’t spend any money this weekend. We had a great time, though!  What about you?

We got back earlier today from our travels.  I am glad to be back!

On the way home, both my husband and I were really tired.  At a rest stop on the turnpike, I purchased a really big (I’m not sure what it is called in Starbucks language, but I said “really big”, and the girl knew what I meant) coffee to wake me up for my leg of the trip.  I haven’t purchased a Starbucks coffee in almost 10 years (my last one was when I was driving my old car to graduate school in 1999).

It was really good.  And, more importantly, it woke me up.  I drove for 4 hours straight, and I don’t think I blinked the entire time.

Despite being frugal, I am going to endorse Starbucks.  But only when you are on the turnpike, really tired, and no other coffee options are available.

Are you a Starbucks addict?   Can you justify the amount you spend on coffee?

We’re going out-of-state this weekend to visit my husband’s family.  While I enjoy being there, I dread the 6-7 hour drive.  Our close friends from Arizona will be in town with their son, so it will be extra special!

I can’t promise that I will be able to keep up with Entrecard drops or posting, but I’ll be sure to drop cards on everyone early next week.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

We took our 2-year-old to Sesame Place on Wednesday.  Sesame Street is the only television show he watches, and since Sesame Place is relatively close (within 3 hours), we thought it would be a nice family outing.

Overall, I think this is a great place to take your younger kids.  The park is not huge, and it has a lot of water attractions that are geared towards little ones.  Since we went on a Wednesday, it was not crowded at all.  Characters from Sesame Place are outside during different times of the day, and you can take pictures with them for free.

Here is a breakdown of our costs:

$126 – 3 tickets; these are 2-day passes, and we got a AAA discount.  We plan on going again in the fall.

$13 – general parking; there is preferred parking, but it is not worth it.  It took us about 3 minutes to get from the park entrance to our car.

$30 – food;  this is the one area where we did not plan well.  We were going to pack a picnic lunch, but we had a family crisis to deal with the night before and didn’t have time.  That being said, for $30 we got 2 chicken salads, a kid’s meal with a take-home Elmo container and souveneir cup, a fruit cup, a banana, and a soda for my husband and I.  I was pleased with the healthy selections, at least.

$30 – souveneirs;  I know, I know.  We went a little crazy here, but I have to say that the items in the gift shops were not too overpriced.  We got the kid a Cookie Monster ball (this kid loves balls!), a miniature basketball hoop, stickers (his other passion!), and a tub of popcorn (with souveneir bucket).  The basketball hoop is well-made (it doesn’t have suction cups, but has a clip that fits well on doors and drawers).  We’re going to start a reward chart for potty training, which is why I got the stickers – there are 550 of them, so if he’s not potty-trained by then, I’m not sure what I will do!

$30 – gas and tolls

Total: about $250, and we can go back again once more this season.

It wasn’t the cheapest trip, but we had budgeted $300 for a summer trip this year.  When we go again, we’ll definitely pack a lunch.    Have you been to Sesame Place?  What did you think?

We had a blast today – my husband took the day off, and we took the kid to Sesame Place.  I’ll write more tomorrow, but I give this place three thumbs up if you have little ones!