Mama Moody's Bummer Summer

It's Back to School time for the chil'rens. August 1st marks day one. Suddenly, it's back to 5 a.m. wake-ups, packing lunches, and homework.

I'm sure the boys have their gripes, too.

In the days leading up to the end of the last school year, I swore to myself that I would make this summer more productive and most importantly FUN.

I reasoned that because I work from home, part of the beauty in that is that I have a bit of flexibility in my
day.

So why not do things like:

• Bowl for free
• Free (or super cheap) movies
• Go to the museum
• Go to the zoo (okay, we did do that one, but Big Daddy totally gets props for it.)
• Or some other event that we could get in for a discount because they all have them if just took the time to look for them 

I don't know what really happened, but things took a downfall and the chance of doing anything fun seemed like a long shot. 

Crappy Things That Happened This Summer:

• The upstairs heating/air unit was pronounced officially dead*
• Jessica left for boot camp**
• The water pipe broke at the meter
• Big Daddy had to have his wisdom teeth plus two others removed ($$$$$$$)
• The dishwasher broke (it also went to appliance heaven)
• Big Daddy's blew a tire on the interstate
• And some other things I can't remember but KNOW happened. 

Here are the things I did manage to cram in:

• Movie Night- Our city puts on a free movie in the park-type deal at the end of each month. Food, movie, mosquito bites: it's all free
• Bowling. But not where the free bowling takes place because we wanted to other stuff 
• The aforementioned zoo
• Nashville Shores (I didn't take them, but they went.)
• Lots and LOTS of games. Especially our new favorite, Skip-bo

I struggle a lot with the whole, "We are on such a tight budget, why can't we do more? And what effect will it have on them when they grow up?" We scrimp and attempt to save and make sacrifices so that I don't have to work outside the house. This year they are both in Pep Band, which is (our) middle school's version of marching band. Two weekly practices plus the games. Football and then basketball. I am also the secretary (and social media mogul) for the band boosters. Trying to coordinate their schedule against a schedule against the only type of work I am qualified for- retail - is/ and would be impossible.

So ends another summer. One might reason, "You grew up with less and look how you turned out!"

And therein lies the problem.

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