One more day...

So we are down one more day of summer. I know the first week and the last week are always the hardest. The first week, everyone is coming down from being busy and active all day and trying to figure out what to do with themselves. The last week, they can't wait to get back to that and are completely done being home all the time. We are almost through with the first week and hopefully, it will improve from here. The kids are still wandering around aimlessly trying to occupy themselves. For some reason, the only thing they can find to do is play on the computer. We have a 30 minute limit for each child and they are not allowed to get on before 9 am. This encourages them to sleep in, eat breakfast and brush their teeth (another requirement for having a turn). Once they have had their turn, they begin the begging to earn more time. This isn't so bad, I get a lot of work out of them, but it gets really annoying. Today, when I got back from grocery shopping, they had washed my van (in the garage), made my bed and cleaned the bathroom. Stephen and Nick cleaned the loft better than I have seen it in a long time and Rhett cleaned the downstairs bathroom. Yesterday he even loaded and unloaded the dishes. I have even gotten my back scratched and hair brushed for computer time. It definitely has it's perks!

I decided to make Wednesdays my shopping day so I could have a little alone time in the middle of the week. I have decided to make a very strict budget and try to stick to it. I'm not very good at that and spend way more money than I should. Making a menu and shopping for it actually makes it easier to spend less at the store. We have set a $50 per week budget for entertainment. This will be good for the kids because they get to decide how and when we will spend it. Of course, Stephen asked if we could have "roll over". Sheesh, too much TV. Anyway, it will be interesting to see them make decisions as a group.

For dinner, we had Poor Boys. I'm not sure where we got the name, but that's what we called them when I was young. It's just french bread made into a sandwich. Then you toast it. Very simple and plain, but I loved it growing up and my kids did too! Fajitas and Poor Boys, we are on a roll. Once dinner was done, we still had 4 hours of the day left....oh brother. Luckily the kids seem to settle down and are more content after dinner. No nap today so I am ready for bed! Most of the laundry is done AND put away, my room is mostly clean and the rest of the house is do-able. Tomorrow I will hit the gym and try for 6 miles, it's Bunko night so I'm going to have to make up for a lot of calories!