—1—
The 14-year-old got back from her church youth conference! The plan was to go visit church history sites in New York, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was restored in 1830. (If you're not sure what that means, you can read more here.)
My daughter was skeptical. In fact, she was convinced it would be awful because the last time we went it was hot and she was grumpy “and the only good memory was staying in the car and eating a granola bar with Grandpa.” (This was when she was a preschooler, by the way.)
So I really didn’t know how it was going to go this time. For all I knew, it could be worse: maybe her youth group leaders wouldn't even bring granola bars.
Well, this time she got stung by a bee while they were eating lunch and it gave her a huge, swollen cankle for the rest of the youth conference, so at least she made a new memory to treasure.
—2—
The 12-year-old was invited to a group that plays pick-up soccer in the next town over, and for the first game Phillip and I thought it would be fun to drop him off and then go have a date night together.
We found a local ice cream place, and on the way there we were wondering if the 12-year-old would have a good time. It was mostly kids he didn't know, and in the few moments we'd stuck around we got the feeling that this particular group was going to take a while to find their rhythm.
Once we got to the creamery, we scanned the list of flavors on the wall and Phillip saw gluten-free salted caramel Oreo. Turning to me, he said, "It doesn't matter whether he likes it or not, he's going every week and we're coming here."
Phillip tries not to complain about being gluten-free, but honestly it sucks sometimes. Cookies and cream used to be his favorite ice cream before he knew that wheat made him feel like crap, and now not only can he not get cookies and cream when we go out, I can't get it either because I feel bad eating it in front of him.
—3—
For the last few months, I've been optimizing our credit card cashback strategy. And because I love sharing frugal tips with anyone who will listen, I'm going to share our strategy with you.
If you're going to use any of this credit card advice, though, you have to promise me that you will never, ever carry a balance. Going into debt (even a teeny bit of debt for a short time) cancels out whatever you gain in cashback and is like flushing your money down the toilet. So if you don't plan to use credit cards just like you would cash, skip to the next Take and forget I ever said anything.
With that said, here's what cards I use to pay for everything in order to maximize our cashback:
(I personally have and use the cards I recommend here, but full disclosure, I do get a referral bonus if you sign up using some of these links.)
- Groceries, Entertainment, Dining, and Streaming: Capital One Savor Rewards - unlimited 3% on all of those things (if you can't get that one, American Express Blue is 3% on groceries and gas up to $6K each and 1% on everything else, so it's a great all-purpose card that even my college student got pre-approved for)
- Gas: Citi Custom Cash - 5% on $500 per month of your highest category spending (unfortunately you can't still apply for this but if you have another Citi card you can call to request a product change, which is what we did)
- Amazon: Prime Visa - unlimited 5% on Amazon purchases
- Utilities and Internet: US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature - you can pick two 5% categories and those were the two that made sense for us
- Travel and Parking: TD Cash - you can choose 3% and 2% categories on up to $2K
- Everything Else: Wells Fargo Active Cash - unlimited 2% on everything
- Just In Case: Chase Freedom - 1% on everything with rotating quarterly 5% categories up to $1,500 (this is my very first card so I keep it for the longevity effect on my credit score; sometimes the 5% categories still come in handy)
Again, if you've read this list and you think you want to apply for any of these cards, put up your right hand and repeat after me: "I solemnly swear that I will only buy what I can afford, and pay my balance in full every month." Don't make me come over there.
—4—
We took a really nice family hike/walk over the weekend. (I never know what to call these: "hike" sounds like we're climbing a mountain with trekking poles and backpacks, but "walk" sounds like we're circling the block in a suburban neighborhood a couple of times. This is in between.)
 |
| I took this thinking "What an amazing nature shot!" but now that I see it here all I can think is "Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to work we go!" |
—5—
Phillip hasn't been traveling this week, but I still haven't seen him very much. He's been very busy at work entertaining the emperor. At least that's what I think is funny to say when the kids ask where Dad is. The CIO of Phillip's company is in town, and my husband is the one showing him around and escorting him to work dinners and stuff.
It will be nice when this week is over so we can see more of Phillip again, but I don't really mind. It sounds like it's been a good visit, and he even brought us a tin of cookies from as a thank-you gift so long live the emperor.
—6—
I've finally started staining the inside of the French doors we had installed in our house a year ago. I've spent forever testing out different colors of stain and then procrastinating because I can't find the right color to match the rest of the woodwork in the house.
But done is better than perfect, so I started with the least visible door this week.
Two coats in, and I'm pretty sure that the color isn't going to work. I have about 5 other stains in the basement from all the trial and error, so at this point I'm thinking about going rogue and just mixing some together to see what happens.
—7—
Besides the doors, I had a laundry list of other DIY projects that I wanted to complete before we have company staying at our house in August. But recently I realized they're coming in 2 weeks, and until then I'm going to be focusing on getting the 18-year-old ready for college move-in day so none of those other things are happening right now.
Hence my stress dream that the railing along the hallway to the guest bedroom splintered and broke apart, and I was freaking out thinking their baby was going to fall off and get hurt because they were coming in two days. Which hopefully doesn't happen.
(Also, I say "guest bedroom" like we're all fancy but we're not. We're kicking two of our kids out to sleep on the couch and giving our company their room.)
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