January 12 and 13

A tired week, this one.

This three day weekend could not come at a more welcome time.

It's going to headline my gratitude list for this evening, in fact.

Tonight I am grateful for:

3-day weekends
Frosty windows
Powdery snow coating the world in a gentle white
Real winter temperatures and that strange way they make you feel really, truly alive, the cold air bristling in your lungs...
Field trip days and well-behaved students
Wonderful books on tape and the joy of sharing them with kids
Hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies
The entertainment value of bathtime
The generosity of grandparents
A warm house to shelter in
A warm dog to snuggle with
Children tucked into warm beds
Children who slept well last night
(So very grateful for that one)


Tonight Nat and I were strong and did NOT order a pizza.  Instead we enjoyed Melinda's scrumptious soup and ate up the rest of dinner swap and had a perfectly wonderful, healthy meal.  Savings: $15

Also this morning I did NOT stop at Burger King as I thought about doing when I found we were out of cereal.  Instead I pulled a "Becca" and had a bowl of baked ziti for breakfast.  Savings: $3.00.

A good day on that front.

Savings goals for next week: 
Make phone calls to reduce or even cancel out our land line phone bill.
Set up a better way to purposefully save my tutoring income

This weekend has its own goal:  Three days off and many of our usual leisure activities center around shopping.  What shall we do instead?  I predict that we can find a way to both save money and do something far richer with our time...