Summer Bucket List

For the past couple of years, our family has made a summer bucket list of things we'd like to do. We don't have many rules about what goes on the list; we don't limit it to free or local activities, but as long as it is something we can all agree on and doesn't break the bank, it goes on the list :)

Now, just having a regular bucket list is all well and good, but we like to kick it up a notch and make it more fun and exciting: we put it on a BINGO board!

We always get super excited to get a BINGO, and when one box can make multiple BINGOs, that's just even better!!!!

Our goal for this year is something we have not been able to do yet: fill in our entire board.

It's a big challenge, I just hope we're up to it!

What's on our list this year:

• Dewitt Park to Blondie's. Our friend Jess mentioned that this park has a trail that leads to Blondie's, and what's better than taking a long walk and getting an ice cream all at the same time?
• Mario Kart night. A video game night of some sort always ends up on our list! This year the kids chose Mario Kart :)
• Glow stick bowling. We had this on our list last year, and we never were able to accomplish it. We have all the supplies still, so a free activity is a great thing to have!

• Camping. We've been meaning to go camping with our friends Stephen and Vanessa the past couple of years, but we've never been able to make the schedules work. If it doesn't work again this year, we kept it fairly general so camping in our backyard will also work for this square.
• Tim Horton's trip. We don't stop here often (unless we have a gift card or someone needs a donut after a shot/blood work), so this is a cheap and super special treat!
• Drive in movie. We LOVE the Silver Lake Twin Drive In, and I think we're going to go try and see Despicable Me 3 when it comes out soon! This is one of our favorite things to do during the summer, so it is a must for our list.
• Fishing at the cousin's house. Pete's sister and brother-in-law just got a new house last year, and it has a stocked pond. The kids love to fish, so we were invited to put fishing at their pond on our bucket list!
• Applebee's. We have a couple gift cards here, and it's the kid's favorite restaurant (and there's food I can eat there, too!).
• Game night. We love our board games! We have a closet filled in our play room and 3/4 of our coffee bar is filled with more board games. This is always one of the first things the kids ask for on our bucket list!
• Make cookies for a neighbor. I want to try and have the kids be thinking more of others and doing random acts of kindness, and this is a great way for us to bond as a family as well as think of our neighbors!
• Family baseball. This is Ryan's favorite square! He keeps asking to do this one, but it's always when we have someplace to go, it's pouring, or it is so humid out we can't breathe without breaking a sweat!
• Letchworth. This one was added a few months ago when I was thinking about applying to the Letchworth Arts and Craft Show in October. I have lived in this area for almost 11 years, and still have never made it to this park. It's quite sad. I'm hoping this will be the summer we finally go!
• Berry picking. This could be any kind of berry at any location. We try and pick blueberries every year, and we used to do strawberry picking. We love to take hikes in the Genesee County Park, and they have wild berries there, so we'll stop and pick them when we've completed our walk. Any of those can fill up this square!
• Buffalo Museum of Science. We went over spring break, and loved it! The kids can't wait to go back. We just renewed and upgraded our membership, so each time we go, we can take one extra kid. Pete and I will be taking Ry while Paige and Nate are at camp, so we're anxious to see who he chooses to bring along.
• Play date. We try to get together with Pete's coworker and her family at least once every summer, but we're also thinking about having the kids each pick a friend and having them meet us at the school playground as an option (or addition!) for the summer.
• Dinner at Five Guy's. Pete and I love this as a date night option when we have errands to run, and the kids are anxious to try it as well. This was Nate's #1 pick for the list this year!
• Bike riding. Ryan just got a new bike for his birthday, and all the kids want to ride this summer. We don't really have a place to ride where we live, so we don't really do it. Ever. So this would be a special thing!
• Movie night at home. Oh how we love these! Eating dinner in the living room while watching a glowing screen with moving pictures? Amazing.
• Fireworks. Last year we saw an amazing firework show at the kid's school for their field days, and we're hoping to go back again this year! If we miss it, sometimes we can see them at our house when neighbors put on a show.
• Make a new flavor of gelato. This is another favorite of ours! We have a gelato machine, and we love trying new recipes. Last year I think we did a peanut butter cup, a lemon blueberry, and peanut butter. So. Good.
• Geneseo Movie Theater. We have movie tickets there that were given to us, it's just trying to find the time and a movie we all want to see!
• Campfire cookout and s'mores. We LOOOOOVE cooking out over a campfire, and then roasting marshmallows afterwards for s'mores!
• Take Mason on a hike. Our pupper LOVES taking a walk, especially at the park where there's shade and a breeze, and the kids love bringing him for snuggles in the van on the way to the park!

If you're a math person and have tallied up how many things are on our list for our 5x5 BINGO board, two boxes should be empty. One just happens to be the free space, and the other one...well, we just can't decide what activity to put there! We have so many to choose from, and are really having a hard time picking from the list of other possibilities. 

Some things we have on the list of possibilities are:

• Air and Space museum in Washington D.C. We really really want to do this either on our way down or way back from the Outer Banks. However, we're not sure when Paige's middle school orientation will be, so once we know when that is, we'll know if we're going to be able to make this happen or not.
• Virtual Reality. Our library has this now, and I think it would be really fun to try as a family!
• Geocaching. Pete especially has wanted to do this for awhile, and I just saw that our county just set up a geocaching trail all over the county, so I think this would be a fun thing to try!
• Move. A lot of people suggested this one, and we LOVE this idea!!!! However, that's kind of out of our hands, so we'd hate for this to be the one square that would keep us from filling in our board!
• Memorizing scripture. Nate has been asking about this one, and we love this idea. But we're not sure what or how much we'd do, so that's the only reason it's on the back burner.
• Go swimming. We have a pool, so this one should be easy to do. However, it's either been too rainy or too cold, so we're not sure when this would actually happen!

Finding things to do that work with our schedule and won't completely blow our budget is what's challenging at this point!

I'll be posting updates regularly on how we're doing. If you want to do a BINGO board bucket list, this is the board we use (and it's free!). 

What would you put on your summer bucket list? We're always looking for new or additional ideas!

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Our year is starting out not as expected, but in the grand scheme of things, we are so blessed. We all woke up tired and fairly cranky, then went out to run errands, and either the stores we wanted to go to were closed, or we forgot the gift card we needed to purchase things at the stores. We were able to get some things, and I'll go back tomorrow to get the big item (a new living room light) with the gift card. The kids refused to nap, so the crankiness has gotten worse.

But we have a warm house, food cooking for dinner, running water, clothes on our backs, and love to spare. I was also able to work on some projects today: cleaning up the basement, putting together an organizational system for the kids' school papers, and I made two American Girl sized silky blankets for Paige's best friend's birthday gift (they match the twin sized one I made her).

A lot of people make resolutions this time of year, and in years past, I've done that. I've fallen short every time, and all I do is get depressed. Last year we did something different and made a Family Bucket List. It worked pretty well; we crossed off about 80% of the things on our list, and we were okay with the ones we were unable to do.

So here's my bucket list for 2013:

- Tackle my book list. I started The Hobbit today and have finished the first paragraph. Not bad for a busy day!

- Hug more, yell less. When my kids are cranky and disobeying, it usually means something is bothering them. I tend to yell, only to find out later that they're not feeling well, they're tired, their best friend was mean, etc. After I give them a hug, they feel better and are ready to start listening again. Wouldn't life be easier if I just hugged in the first place?

- Date my husband. With our busy lives and trying to stick to a strict budget, going out on dates weekly or even monthly is difficult. In December we started implementing Date Night, where we would take turns planning one date night a week. It's been just movie nights so far as December was busy, but even just sitting next to each other on the couch with the phones and computers off was a great way for us to connect. Best part? It's free! I would still like to have at least six nights out with just Pete this year. Birthday/anniversary dinners can count towards this number :)

- Have family night once a month. We put this on our bucket list last year, and it worked pretty well. We tried to have game night once a month, and it didn't always work out. Some months were just crazier than others, so we'd have a movie night with a picnic dinner on the living room floor. Movie nights or game nights count towards this; any ideas of other things we can do?

- Finish The Magician's Nephew with Nate. We started this last summer and made it through the first three or four chapters. He's been asking me to read it again, so I'd like to finish it with him this year.

- Overcome one fear. I don't know which one yet; it might be touch a fish after I've caught it, remove a snake from my garden, or fly on an airplane. I really want to go visit my best friend in Florida, but I'm afraid to fly....I can't let that stand in my way!

- Redecorate our basement. The plan is set, now just have to tackle it! I'm thinking it'll be a summer project. We'll be repainting, finishing the stairs, hanging new curtains, putting up new art work, and making lots of new pillows.

- Launch my Etsy site, SEA Creations! I think this will also happen later in the year; I don't have time to fully devote to it right now.

- Teach Paigey how to ride a bike without training wheels. We were going to do this last summer, but never made the time. This year will be the year!!!!

- Exercise more...but more for health instead of weight loss. I tend to get frustrated after I've been exercising for a few weeks and quit because I'm not losing weight. I forget that having a healthy body is more important, and the weight loss is just an added bonus. Maybe changing my focus will help :)

- Be silly more often! I love being silly with my kids. I don't do it often enough, and laughter is the best medicine!


What are your goals for the year? May it be a blessed year for you and your family!

Summer Bucket List Bingo Update #3

We're slowly making our way through our bucket list!

Over the past week or so we've crossed off:

Dinner at Five Guys! This was Nate's biggest wish for the bucket list this summer, so it made perfect sense to have it double as his birthday dinner! The kids absolutely loved it and are begging to go back.

Pretending to be sleepy :-P

Dewitt Park and walk to Blondie's for ice cream with our friends! It was a great afternoon hanging out with our friends Jess and Aaron. We don't get to see them outside of church that often, and we really enjoyed catching up with them. We haven't really explored this park before, and I can definitely see us coming back to explore more, especially now that we know the secret path to Blondie's!!!!

Proof that Ry will talk to Jess!!! He loves pretending to be shy around her.

Aaron playing with the kids

Family baseball! Okay, so I wasn't feeling well and while I technically didn't play, but I was umpire, so that counts for something, right? Pete and Ryan were on a team against Paige and Nate, and while we didn't officially keep score, it was a really close game. We're really looking forward to our bigger yard so we're not playing around our vehicles anymore :)

While we probably won't be crossing everything off of our list this summer (yet again), I have to remember to cut us some slack. We've been so busy with house things, but I'm loving how intentional we've been about taking time to fit in some fun things along with the chaos as well!!!

What fun things have you been up to lately?

My Book List

I love books: I love to read, I love their smell, the way they sit so nicely in your hand. I'm not usually picky about what I read. Granted, I have my favorite authors and subjects, but I'll give almost everything a chance.

Lately I've been in a reading rut. I'm reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen for a second time, and am loving it more this time than when I read it last year. Part of that is because I'm addicted to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a modern day adaptation of the book done in a video blog style. It's fantastic, and even though they've changed things a bit, it's helping me understand what's happening in the book better. If you're interested in becoming addicted like me watching them, start with the first vlog here. Other than P&P, I'm kind of stuck as what to read next. I've read all the books I own and most that are at our library that my author's have written or are in the genres I like, and don't know where to go from here.

Along the same lines, I'm thinking about what I want to do in 2013...almost like I'm making a bucket list for next year. Then it hit me:

Why don't I figure out a list of books to read for next year?

And so my Book List was born!

My goal is to read 100 books next year that I've never read before. I'll read other books as well, because there are some I just have to read over and over again. I'm not going to write out a full 100 book list, because I want to leave room for my favorite author's putting out new books, new finds at the library, or my mom sending me books (cause she's awesome like that). The list I'm working on now is just to help me get started, and actually find time to read some that I've been meaning to read but have never gotten a chance to.

Here's what I have so far:

1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - I promised Pete that this would be the first book I read next year. He and his brother nag (in a loving way!) me all the time that I haven't read the series...I'm finally giving in! 
2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - Okay, so I was going to count this as three books, but then got lectured by my dear husband that it is actually one book in six parts. I learn something new every day :) 
3. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
4.  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - I won't forget my towel. Why, you ask? 42 :)
5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
6. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - It's the next one in my Sherlock Holmes collection to read, and I think this will be the first thing to read after Tolkien!
7. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - I read Dracula, so on to the next monster! And apparently there's a rumor that I'm actually related to Shelley...
8. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - Only because it's a prequel to #9 on my list....
9. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - "A must read!" says my hubby
10. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
11. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
12. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
13. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - I first heard about Dorian in a movie, and am fascinated by his story!
14. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells - Same thing with Dorian Gray, I find the idea fascinating!
15. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - Nate has a copy of this. Maybe we can read it together :)
16. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
17. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
18. Emma by Jane Austen
19. Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
20. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine - Paigey will be getting this for her birthday, and she likes it when we can discuss the books she's reading/has read
21. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Another one Paige will get for her birthday. How have I not read this one???


Do you have any recommendations for what I should read? It doesn't have to be the classics!

Summer Bucket List Bingo Update #2

We're about halfway through our summer already, and we've been able to cross off more activities on our bingo sheet!

We did our play date square! Okay, so there's no picture of this, but the kids got to go hang out with some friends for a couple hours while Pete and I were at the inspection appointment for the new house.

We made cookies for neighbors! We made them for two of our current neighbors that we are going to miss terribly. However, we also made them for our next door neighbors at the new house! Yay!

Chocolate chip, peanut butter chip and M&M cookies!

We tried out the newly discovered play ground at the park square! We did this during one of our house showings. It had been rainy most of the day, but it stopped and cleared up nicely so we could burn off some energy.

Mason loves the park!

It was Mozzie's first time at the park!

We did fishing at Pete's sister's house! Well, Pete and Ryan fished. Nate and Paige chose to go in the boat instead ;)

Pete caught the biggest fish!

And Ry got to throw it back

Ryan's fish!

Fly fishy, fly!!!!

Paige and Nate with Pete's mom and sister

To see other posts about our summer bucket list (including the full list of activities), you can find them here.

Summer Bucket List Bingo Update #1

We're about two weeks into vacation, and we're making pretty good progress on our board!

On our very first night of summer vacation, we did our movie night square! We had Pad Thai for dinner while watching Lego Batman.

On one of our crazy busy days (weeding and yardwork all morning then looking at houses #5 and #6 in the afternoon), we surprised the kiddos with Applebee's for dinner.

And then we did two boxes at once! We took Mason for a hike at the park AND picked wild blackberries all in one afternoon! We were tired of house projects and it was a gorgeous day, so we took the afternoon off for some much needed family time.

We also played at the playground for a bit afterwards.

And as you may have noticed, our board is all filled in with activities! We ended up choosing something that wasn't on our possibility list. On the way out of the park today, we noticed a bigger playground that we hadn't ever noticed before. Because we all love the park and it won't be in our backyard once we move (actually it's our front yard...), we decided going back to try out that playground would be the perfect last square in our board!

What fun things have you done so far this summer?

Financial Friday: Intro to the dreaded B word

I remember when Pete and I took Financial Peace University, we took it with another couple. Vanessa and Pete are very similar in that they save their money. Stephen and I, on the other hand, like shiny things. Shiny things distract us from saving. Money burns holes in our pockets. Budgets were evil things that made us not have fun anymore and we hated the word. But if you ask us now, we're kinda fond of our budgets!

Why are budgets important? A budget is a great thing to have because it helps you tell your money what to do, rather than your money tell you what to do. It helps keep your money in line, and forces you to prioritize where the money needs to go.

What isn't a budget? When I was talking to Pete about this post, he mentioned that I should talk about this. Stephen and I thought that budgets were really restrictive and controlling, but really they're not. Yes, they do keep you in line with your spending, but they give you freedom to spend as well. And if you use them right, you'll have extra money at the end of the month for other things like saving, paying off your debt and new shoes!

I mentioned before that when we started FPU, we were so proud of ourselves that we knew how to budget. Some months it worked, others not so much. So imagine our shock when we discover that we had no idea how to budget. What we did was write down every penny we spent over the month into categories (food, utilities, clothing, etc.). At the end of the month, we checked that against what money we had brought in. Most of the time it balanced out, but there were some months where we'd be off by a few hundred dollars...and not in a good way. Fortunately we never spent more money than what was in our account, but there were times I couldn't pay off the entire credit card bill (something we strove to do every month).

We were doing part of it right: keeping track of every penny we spent. But the part we were doing wrong was checking at the end of the month. In order for you to be in control of your money, the key is to write down how much you plan to spend in each category before the month starts. Yes, it's hard the first few times when you're trying to figure out how much to put in each category, and some months are going to be off more than others. You'll have to make hard choices (like seeing deck furniture you want for $75, marked down from $300...but you have to pass on it knowing that there really isn't money in the budget available for it...). But you'll be telling your money where to go, and life will be less stressful in the long run.

Next week I'll go more in depth about starting your first budget! The first month's budget is very easy, so don't panic!

This week's money savings tips are in regard to those of us who have swimming pools. Pools are a wonderful thing to have during a hot summer, but they can be super expensive!!!

Buy supplies in bulk. A couple years ago we bought the cholrine pucks in a huge bucket; if we bought them in bulk, it worked out that each puck was about half the cost of buying little packages. We still have a lot left, and they're still good!

Check the ingredient list! We had to just put a bunch of chemicals in our pool as the levels were off. There's a pH buffer powdered product that comes in a big bag; the bag was over $20 at the pool store. My chemist husband looked at the ingredients and noticed that all it was was baking soda. I just went to BJ's yesterday, bought a bag of baking soda that was bigger than the bag of pH buffer, and paid less than $7 for it. Score!

Thanks to reader Jennie; last week she mentioned a way she saves on money for laundry: she cuts her dryer sheets in half! I tried this tip all week, and I didn't even notice a difference in how my laundry felt and it still smelled super fresh.

Do you have a budget that works? How do you save money if you have a pool?