Thankful Thursday

1. I don't go to the mall very often because it's definitely a stressful thing to do with my three kids. I had coupons for BonTon, JCPenney, and Target. I ended up not using the one for BonTon, but I did some Christmas shopping at the other two stores plus got Ian some underwear and Nadia some socks. At JCP, my total before discounts would have been $106.97, but I actually spent $25.95. I was glad I went even though it also reminded me of how it is a VERY nice thing to shop online when you have little kids.

2. Nadia participated in a 4.5 hour program today about whitetail deer and archery at R. B. Winter State Park today. She had wanted to do archery at Camp Susque this summer, but that didn't happen. She enjoyed using a compound bow today. Thankfully the torrential rain didn't start until the very end. Since I needed to stay with the boys, I am thankful another homeschooling mom was able to keep an eye on Nadia for me.

3. I am thankful that our church has a choir. Many churches only have a praise team and don't have a choir.

4. Although I am not keen on the two main candidates running for President this year, I am very grateful to be an American. It's so easy to take our freedom for granted, but in reality we are very blessed.  I can't believe it, but Paul and I have swapped places. He is going to vote "lesser of two evils," and I am voting third party. I understand his logic, but I just can't bring myself to do the same.

5. The weather turned a bit warmer yesterday. If I had to do it over again I would have taken the kids on a walk to the playground instead of going to the mall.

6. The boys and I spent some time at the public library, ate our lunch at a picnic table at a playground, shopped at Aldi's and my favorite bread outlet, and then they enjoyed playing in a McD's playland while Nadia was at the state park. I did more driving today than I'd prefer, but I was able to read some at McD's and the library, which was a treat (just got the newest John Grisham novel).

7. We have overspent our entertainment budget for the year. For most of our marriage it didn't bother me if we were over in a category because overall we spent less than I made so the budget was more for keeping track of things than actually limiting our spending. That is not the case now. We are trying to tighten our belt financially due to a smaller income plus some new expenses on the horizon (ex. orthodontist bills). Some categories we don't really have control over whether we overspend them or not because we can't control the price of say gasoline. I guess we could drive a little less, but that's about it. Next year I will make the gasoline budget MUCH higher than it's ever been before, and that's with the assumption of gas prices not going up (and they certainly have been higher in the past than they are now). Paul spending 12 hours a week driving to and from work definitely affects that line item. Some categories we are under budget (yay!) such as clothing (spent $502 for the year for clothes and shoes for 5 people). Our electric and natural gas bills are also a little lower than normal (a little part of that is due to us keeping the house a little cooler in the winter and a little warmer in the summer than we used to). Even though we stopped gymnastics lessons, I still went way over in the "kids" part of the budget. That line item covers textbooks for homeschooling, summer camp, tennis lessons, ice skating lessons, soccer, basketball, etc. Anyhow since the entertainment line item is something we CAN control, I have been trying to stay within budget. I didn't buy any tickets for plays at the theatre in Williamsport this fall for example. I am not going to the Big Daddy Weave concert at our church in two weeks. We didn't go to Knoebels or Hershey in October and don't plan to go to Hershey in December (we have gone to those parks in those months in the past). We skipped doing a corn maze this year. Next year we aren't going to Sight and Sound which will help that line item because those tickets aren't cheap. I do really
appreciate it though when I get a night off from cooking, and I put things like getting a take-out

pizza in the same category. Plus me cooking more meals has led to a little increase in our food budget compared to last year (although compared to 2014 we have spent less this year on food). Anyhow last night I went on the credit card website and used some of our points to get some restaurant gift cards. I selected Red Robin, Dunkin Donuts, Papa John's and Dominos. I figured this way I can still get a night off from cooking now and then without it costing us any money. Win/ Win!

P.S. I know this is a gratitude post (I am trying to do more of those this month in honor of Thanksgiving Day), but prayers for Paul's mom would  be appreciated. She had some abnormal results with bloodwork recently, which lead the oncologist to order a scan. She's having the scan tomorrow, and we're praying for good results.