Fun mom

I have a hard time fighting with my conscience.  I really struggle sometimes.  It wants me to be a cheapskate all the time and do the very responsible thing and sometimes I just don't want to.  I'm not talking about going crazy and blowing any significant amount of money on nothing or eating out every night or anything remotely crazy like that.  Yeah, I see that as crazy for us.  But, I wanted to be the fun mom for once.  I seems all the other moms on facebook are doing this or doing that and it all adds up to $$ we can't spend. 

So here we are with school closing in on us and I wondered if I'd look back at the end of the summer and wished I had done more.  It's been SO hot, so sometimes we were just plain limited by that.  To do much of anything substantial requires driving a couple of hours away which ends up costing at least another $30 in gas to travel.  We just can't afford that.  So much of days off this summer have been spent in doctors offices doing catch up for physicials, dental and ortho appointments.  Fun huh?  The other days we go to Lois' pool and swim while poor Lois is at work.  Today it finally rained, so while we sure weren't going to complain, it left us with no pool.  So, I decided to splurge and take them to the movies.  I hadn't taken my own kids since Cole was little and the original Toy Story was out.  Long time ago, huh?  It was cheap enough for a matinee and they had good deals on snacks, so I told them to load up.  The Smurfs was the only thing playing that all 5 kids were allowed to watch, but they were happy to be going.  For $2.50 they each got a soda, popcorn and candy.  Jaemin, much to my surprise did really well.  He sat in his own little seat with his little snackbox on his lap and enjoyed the movie.  For 2 hours I had all 5 kids sitting quietly still.  It was pretty nice.  It's a so so movie...for adults anyways, but the kids enjoyed it. 

Jaemin apparently listened to the movie too because I asked him what color a smurf was, when we got home, and he said 'bue'.  Smart boy!  Nice close to my summer with the kids.  Even if this is the only summer I ever get like this, I have to say it was absolutely worth every penny, or rather no pennies and no money, to do it.  I will never forget this summer and how nice it was to stay home and fix their lunch for them, sometimes their breakfast and drag them everywhere with me.  I thank God that it was possible even if only for a short while.