Balloons make me happy

I am so ready for August to be over.

For one, it’s blazing hot. I looked at the weather report and saw that it will only be 97 today and did a tiny little celebratory dance. That’s just sad. Dear summer, please go away. Love, Jen.

For another, I’m ready to start spending money again.

I haven’t been perfect at this spending fast thing. We ordered pizza for dinner one evening, because the previous night the girls took turns waking us up every hour or two and consequently we were all incredibly cranky that day. I bought finials for the curtains in the pink room while on a bookcase-measuring excursion to Ikea. David treated himself to lunch a couple days this month, and I went out to dinner with some friends last Friday night. Oh, and lest you forget, we totally bought iPhones. But other than that, we’ve done really well. So well, in fact, that our kitchen remodel fund has almost doubled. I’m so proud.

Not only have we managed to save a ton, but I’ve had to step up my parenting game. On days when I can’t think of anything to do–there’s no story time at the library, it’s too hot for the zoo, and we don’t have plans with friends–my default is to go to Target or Home Depot and wander around in the air conditioning. When I do that, I inevitably drop a few dollars here and there on things we may or may not need. And then, more often than not, we stop at Wendy’s for a frosty on the way home. I didn’t want to tempt myself, so we’ve avoided our usual retail haunts all month. Which means we’ve stayed home a lot more than we usually do.

One day when we were all bored and rather grumpy, I realized my options were either drive myself crazy doing nothing or get creative. So I made this:

It’s an upside-down card table, a fitted bed sheet, a little duct tape for reinforcement, and a whole bunch of balloons. It’s super ghetto, but Mila thought it was the BEST THING EVER.

She called it her balloon tent and played happily in there for several hours. Throwing balloons out. Throwing them back in.

Climbing in and out and in and out. (The elastic on the sheet kept the balloons in but made it easy enough for her to access without my help. I am a genius.)

She even brought in a pillow and blanket and her stuffed kangaroo and told me she was going to take a nap there.

She didn’t, by the way, but it was pretty cute nevertheless.

When it was time for lunch, we had homemade mac and cheese–made from whole wheat pasta and rBST free white cheddar–with organic grapes on the side. No joke. I know. Could I be more pretentious? I doubt it. But it’s the truth, and it was delicious, so I’m not even a little bit ashamed.

The moral of the story is: when the goal is to avoid spending money, even a lazy mom like me can turn a retail-therapy-and-chicken-nuggets kind of day into a magical morning full of balloons and healthy foods because it’s either that or kill each other over the lack of anything better to do.

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