I took the girls to a concert downtown on Saturday night. It cost us $25 for the tickets. With a 7 pm start, it was too late for the youngest and we left after the first song. Note to self: This was not time well spent. On the bright side, we arrived early enough to find a free parking space. To make this better next time, I could choose an earlier event or hire a sitter and leave the children at home. I find myself leaning strongly towards the latter.
My new scarf is working out well, both indoors and out. It's not like I don't have other ones, but it's nice to have a new thing in rotation.
The girls put up the artificial Christmas tree, and decorated it. We've been accumulating a mix of home-made and store-bought decorations since we moved into this house a few years ago. We clearly did not need any of the approximately $50 worth of new decorations I picked up at a Michael's sale a few weeks ago.
While they were working, I changed the sunflower wreath on the front door for something more in keeping with the festive season. It was one we had been storing in the garage, freshened up with a red bow that we found in the box of decorations.
Our family activities this weekend included a walk in the forest this morning. We fed chickadees and watched woodpeckers working along the way. After lunch, I sent the girls outside to play in the park across the street with neighbouring dogs and children. Also free!
This afternoon we found an hour together at the pool. We pay a monthly membership fee to use the upscale facilities at a nearby hotel, and it's open most of the time, including evenings, weekends, and holidays. Swimming is an activity that our family enjoys together.
Last winter, we often enjoyed ice skating as a family and with friends, but the cost of replacing two pairs of skates (even second hand) is not one I wanted to incur this weekend. I will take a closer look at the options in two weeks time when the three of us have our next weekend together. It will be approximately $100 to outfit them.
While we live a fairly active life, I am also trialling the Netflix service on the iPad for $8 per month. I like that there is no clutter associated with it. We live across the street from the local branch of the public library, so it seems kind of silly in a way because most of the content we are consuming is already available to us for free. We don't have cable TV.
Since starting this blog and with the recent return of the snow, I have been giving more thought to taking care of things that are expensive to replace. Today, I placed the cover on the air conditioning unit outdoors to protect it from the winter. Earlier this year, I subscribed to a monthly service which covered one very expensive repair of the unit last year.
Around this time last year, I tarped up the porch swing to protect it from the snow, although I have not yet done so this year. Something tells me that I should, although the rain does not seem to damage it in any obvious way. And yet, when spring finally came around this year, untarping it was the last job I actually wanted to do. The other thing I noticed is a chip in my windshield that has been there for a while.
The children are already asking for a second pair of winter boots. I suggested instead we buy waterproof spray for the ones that I bought them two weeks ago. I will look for some this week, and patches for the knees of a pair of snow pants that probably have one more season left in them.
