I’m so relieved swim season is over now! It is SO FUN and there’s sadness when it ends too, but I was soooo excited to see nothing on the calendar this weekend.
I spent Saturday mostly in a relaxed catch up mode. Nothing was “urgent” but I have a long list of things to do or catch up before spring break in a couple weeks.
I spent a long while doing my monthly planning. Back in January I created a Google doc to walk myself through the various monthly planning steps laid out in Sarah’s Best Laid Plans. It works SO well for me! (She includes checklists in the book, too, but I love using the Google Doc to have space to reflect, brainstorm, etc. I copy it forward and make a new one each month.)
The process really helps me catch upcoming things I need to plan for that could be easy to miss otherwise. It spans a big picture view down to a more granular level.
When I’m done, I then add many/most things directly to either a Google Task list or my actual Google Calendar. For me, this monthly planning session has become probably the most important one, more so even than weekly planning! (I think since many things are already in place by the time the week rolls around.)
Other things I caught up on yesterday:
-cleaned my office!
-made the boys do a big clothing purge/drawers clean out (much over due)
-a BIG Monarch/finance catch up – now totally up to date which feels so good!
-took a long walk (nice to not be rushed)
-did my planned Heather Robertson workout (-> I absolutely LOVE these workouts!! I really recommend and she has a ton of long (12 week!) full programs. I have just been doing her workouts 3x/week to supplement my gym workouts but they are awesome.)
-watched Your Place or Mine on Netflix with Ivan (Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon movie).
-Ivan had soccer later at night (like 9 pm!) so I ended up in bed snuggling with Charlie and watching episode 2 of The Pitt (which I decided I think will be a solo show for me. Started it with Ivan the other day and he promptly fell asleep- I think there was WAY TOO MUCH medical jargon for him, especially as a non-native English speaker! lol! It was totally speaking my language though! 😅)
On the agenda today:
-gym for full body strength
-lunch out??
-little shopping spree with Ivan to browse a few things possibly for boys for spring break/ maybe use my Lululemon gift card in person??
-clean out our kitchen junk drawer!
-email catch up
Asher worked yesterday morning, went to hit golf balls with a friend, cleaned a bathroom and his room + drawers clean out, went to the gym to lift and later ended up sleeping over at a friend’s. Asher is a busy bee who likes to always be doing something. I think he is also enjoying swim being done so he can do other things again!!
Ethan slept late, lounged around, cleaned his room/drawers/etc., and then went to the Milwaukee Bucks game with a tennis friend’s family all evening. (The family had some kind of passes to go down on the court and really awesome seats which was cool!) Ethan “invested” in a $145 Milwaukee Bucks jersey at the arena shop which he was excited about because he has been super into the Bucks and didn’t even own a Bucks t-shirt. (He literally said, “this is an investment piece. I’ll still fit in this when I’m 40!” (Never mind that the player will be long retired by then, lol…) Ethan is NOT a spender at all though (unlike someone else whose name rhymes with thrasher 😆), so this purchase seemed valid and reasonable. 🙂
Today Ethan works from 2-9 (he can pay off his Bucks jersey, lol!). (Actually, we will probably chip in on it because like I said, he’s not a spender!) and Asher lifeguards this afternoon.
Speaking of teens and money, I just remembered that Emily had asked me to write a post about how we manage teens/finances in our household. I should write that soon! Let me know if you have any specific questions. (Not that I’m an expert on finances!! But would be happy to share our experiences with teens + money.)
Hope you’re having a good weekend!
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for OPEN weekends. I realized this morning that Asher’s spring golf stuff will be primarily just weekdays (I think!), as will Ethan’s spring tennis season! We may be looking at a long stretch of more breathing room on weekends, which sounds awesome.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Hooray for some more open space on your weekends! Great to have a “catch up” day on Saturday, and those puppy snuggles watching the Pitt looked lovely too. Owen was sick with fever (not too unwell luckily though), and it was raining all weekend, so I ended up having a catch up weekend too! Did a lot of tidying, cleaning, decluttering, online banking, and laundry. And naps. 🙂 Owen’s now better and starting the week a lot more sorted. Its still raining though – boo.
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Ooh, I love a rainy day lazy day!! I’m sorry Owen was sick though- that is not fun. But at least it wasn’t too bad?? I bet it felt so great to get all of that stuff caught up- you did a lot!
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It’s nice to slowdown after a busy season. I’ve had 2 months of that and I soaked it up. March travel is starting soon but will try to make it as slow and not rushed as possible. Those busy moments make us appreciate and enjoy more of the slow season.
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Yes, it’s hard when it’s just so busy that you can barely think. You had a very busy fall I feel like too and a lot of big travel etc, so I’m glad you got a bit of a break more recently.
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Before you even mentioned Ethan not being a spender I thought – oh that’s not like him, he must really be a fan! That is great that he had such great seats for the game! I feel like Paul will likely be the saver and Taco will be the spender, based on their personalities. We will see if my hunch is correct!
I’m glad you finally had space in your calendar after a super busy month! Ours was much quieter than the last several have been but we had enough going on to keep the boys entertained, which is crucial. Too much time at home is not a good thing! And the beautiful weather today really helped!
I love The Pitt! I have to have the captions on so I can understand what they are saying. It is definitely not a show for Phil. He does not like shows set in stressful environments at all. I didn’t start watching it until January of this year. I watched several episodes on my day off on my birthday so now I am all caught up and have to wait for an episode to drop each week!
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Well, I spoke too soon- Ivan told me this weekend he DID want to watch The Pitt! So he caught up on the 1st two eps (I had gone on without him, thinking he didn’t want to…) and now we are watching it together. 🙂 We put the subtitles on too- thanks for that tip! I am not sure the medical dramas are his “favorite” genre, but there are very few shows he flat out won’t watch. (Only things he doesn’t like would be like kind of quirky humor/ silly shows. Like he just could NOT get into Modern Family… he found the humor dumb. I thought it was hilarious! haha. But Ivan also cannot stand Sofia Vergara- he finds her so obnoxious! lol.)
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Phil also finds her very annoying! And does not like silly humor. I would say he is VERY particular about what he likes to watch. It can’t be sappy. Or have really fast, unrealistic dialogue that feels too scripted. He has more tolerance for violence and dark themes than I do. So our overlap is narrow! We are watching The Sopranos now which is a bit dark for my liking but it’s such an iconic show, so I am putting up with all the violence.
I’m glad Ivan is liking The Pitt! I am excited for the next episode to drop!
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This must have felt good! You have been insanely busy lately.
I’m intrigued about the Heather Robertson workouts. I looked at it, and they’re free? I’m looking to focus on strength starting next month. Have you ever done Caroline Girvan? I’m wondering how HR compares.
Yes, I would like the post on teens and finances! My daughter is currently looking for a job and is talking about a car (meanwhile she still doesn’t have her permit, so that’s funny…) Anyway I’ll be interested to hear how you manage things.
I hope today was a fun day for you!
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Yes, they’re free! She does have a paid version now I think, but there are probably like 5 or more twelve week free plans, plus at least another 6-8 shorter programs for free. Some of her workouts include cardio and some don’t- if you wanted to try them, you could always just skip the cardio workouts and just only do the strength. Not like you’d do video workouts 7 days a week anyway since you run, so I’m sure it would fit in just fine!
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I am excited for your teens + money post! I also wanted to add that I would find it interesting to hear more about the teen job process–if I recall correctly, both your boys got their first jobs at 14. My 13-year-old wants to get a job next year but also I…have a hard time imagining someone will want to hire him haha. Or that he would be well equipped for the fast-paced environment and stress of a fast-food job which I am imagining is one of the only jobs a 14-year-old can get? My younger kid really wants to be a lifeguard starting at age 15, which is the minimum age for lifeguarding in our area, so I think she will be a little more focused/motivated by that goal. Anyway, I’m curious how you handled the job hunting process with the boys, whether you pushed them to work at a certain age or they wanted to themselves, what kinds of jobs they looked at, etc.
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Haha, mine both ended up doing okay at McDonald’s, while it lasted! He’d probably surprise you. I’ll have to share a picture of when Ethan first started at McDonald’s. He was totally a late bloomer and at 14 when he started, he literally looked like a CHILD wearing a McDonald’s uniform. 😅😅 It’s hilarious. He said people used to ask him all the time, HOW OLD ARE YOU?!? haha.
I can definitely talk more about the job stuff in that post, too! Short version is that my boys asked to work- we didn’t force it, but we did encourage it, and we talked about it some in the couple years leading up to them being old enough. So I think by the time they turned 14, they were just like, yay, finally old enough to really work! They were both excited by the prospect of having their own money.
(Not sure if you were reading back then, but they both also did a local farm job for ~6 weeks in the summer a couple years cutting down rogue corn and they could do that at 11-12 (agriculture has different labor laws!) (The farm is owned by a teacher at their middle school’s family, so it’s popular with the local kids here and paid A LOT for that age- like $11/ hour!) So they actually had gotten paychecks even before they turned 14, albeit temporary ones.)
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We are in the thick of busy season and I miss my weekends!!!
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It really is hard to not have any time to really reset!!
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