Hope all the Mothers here had a great day yesterday! Mine was nice and low key, with a get-together at my parents' house. We spent $29.98 on beautiful hanging baskets of some flowering plant at Sam's Club. I also contributed $38 cash to my anniversary/MD gift - DH and kids got me charms for my Brighton charm bracelet (my favorite was a spacer shaped like a soccer ball with a diamond chip in it- so cute!)

I also ended up with cash from my inlaws and parents. I am in need of some work out clothes (34 miles run in May alone) and DH needs some gym shoes and socks, so I'll do a run to Walmart in the next few days. It is nice to cross off some of the "needed" items from the list.

We dealt with the unexpected purchase of a battery for the Kia Sedona ($115) on Saturday, and a $10 deposit for a ripped screen to be fixed.

I also spent $175 on groceries because we were almost Mother Hubbard in the kitchen area. I've pretty much adopted an open door policy with my kids' friends, as long as we are home and around you can have people over. Younger daughter has a friend in an unhappy living situation (parents divorced 3 years ago, mother remarried and divorced in that time, moved about 45 minutes away, girl lives with father who works 2nd shift concierge one town over and is always by herself) She's celebrated Thanksgiving and Easter with us in the past, and she was with us from after school on Friday to about 11:00 PM Saturday. I don't mind, but I need to have better stocked cabinets and bigger meals planned.

My brother is back with his long-time old girlfriend - they broke up recently but went into therapy, dated other people and are now back. Wedding is going to be next summer. That was a bit of a surprise, but the gf made an effort to bond with my kids (especially the boys) and taught them card games, and I imagine this will be a nice way to grow the family. She has two children and we met the youngest, a girl who is the age of my youngest.

Also will have the chance to earn $210 at the end of June taking care of brother's dogs when he goes to FL. That will be convenient before our trip to CA in July. I told the kids that will be their souvenir money ($25/each and lunch).

All is good!