Whoa! It’s already the middle of August and I’m just getting around to posting July’s numbers? Sorry folks! It’s been that kind of summer!
I’ve been busy hanging-out with the kids a lot this summer, and July in particular was filled with a lot of fun family activities at very affordable prices…
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If each moment in life has a season, then June was definitely one of the busy seasons. The month just flew by! For starters, Tako Jr. #1 finished kindergarten and I went back to my full-time stay-at-home-dad gig. I decided to take it easy on blogging this summer, so I could spend a lot more time with Tako Jr. #1. So far it’s working out great, and I think he’s having a lot of fun…
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The school year is over and summer is finally here! My oldest son, Tako Jr. #1, just finished his first school year as a kindergartner! I’m amazed at how much kids learn in kindergarten these days. They seem super-smart now! Tako Jr. #1 learned a ton of new stuff — reading, writing, and math. All in just a few short months!
It was an amazing school year…
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I think May has to be my favorite month of the year to live in the Pacific Northwest. Everything is green and blooming from previous rain showers, and the weather finally gets warm and dry enough to spend an entire day outside with the family.
Most of the year here is cold, cloudy and wet. We spend a lot of time indoors playing board games, reading books, watching movies, hanging out with friends, and trying to stay dry….
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One of the more frequent criticisms I hear about early retirement is that, “I’d be bored if I retired and quit my job.” (As if an interesting life doesn’t really exist outside the confines of a job.)
Personally, I hate the term ‘retired’. It comes with too much emotional baggage to be a useful word. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t self-describe myself as ‘retired’ on this blog…
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Yep, I survived my week of solo-parenting! Nobody died, and very little blood was drawn. I’d call that a success! More importantly, I survived a week almost completely disconnected from the internet (other than checking the weather forecast at night)! No blogging, no email, no web browsing, and absolutely no social media…
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being a parent, it’s this — Parenting is a tough job. Everyone tells you this when you prepare to have a child, but you don’t truly understand just how tough it is until you’ve actually walked in the parenting shoes.
This goes doubly-so for single parents. When there’s two parents you can tag-team away some of the difficulty…
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Now that spring is here, the rain is finally starting to dry-up in the Pacific Northwest (PNW). For all the readers that don’t live in the area, we have a very bipolar weather pattern — 4 months of constant rain and clouds in the winter, and then 4 months of absolutely no rain in the summer.
It’s a weather pattern as regular as clockwork…
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Raising kids isn’t easy under the best of conditions. Most of the parents I know work a 50+ hour work week. To deal with after school care, they enroll their kids in after-school programs, at considerable cost to themselves. It’s a kind of “two steps forward and one step back” situation that makes raising kids and saving money difficult.
The average family I see, only gets to spend nights and weekends together…
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