Enjoying The Summer

I will finish off the Greece series in the next post but wanted to share a few things.  Flowers make me happy.  I had a couple of blue pots left to fill so although it is nearly the end of June last night I went and bought some more flowers - begonias and lobelia, I made two of these identical pots for the patio where we spend loads of time until October.  Our growing season is so much longer here than Alberta so I can easily invest the money knowing I will get at least 3 months out of them.

Baby tomatoes are on their way.  The four plants I bought at $1.49 day in early May are doing well.  The one below is almost up to my shoulder, I ended up having to buy a larger tomato cage for it.  It is in shade now but has full sun from noon to 7pm every day, the perfect place to grow tomatoes down the sunny side of the house in the small growing boxes hubby made me.  

We did a bunch of yard work last night so can enjoy the rest of the weekend.  We worked all of last weekend on Company business so this weekend we are fully caught up and no need to do it again this weekend.  Comox is experiencing the warmest weather so far this summer the next 3 days so we fully intend on having a light supper then going kayaking this evening and will invite Mom over for a BBQ on Sunday.

This week was an expensive one, yesterday we paid taxes on our home and the condo Mom lives in.  The two properties cost $4010 in tax for the year.  That includes water on both and on the condo as Mom is a senior we get a seniors discount.  Still, very glad we save money all year round and can simply write the cheque when the tax bill shows up.

We also replaced the toilet seats in both bathrooms.  Both had cracked at the hinge, and finally one broke right off so we decided to buy new mid-range seats for them - $75 and they are now installed but good to always have money in the house fund for unexpected expenses like this.

I have a small list of summer jobs that we need to get done around the house but we generally keep up with maintenance so it is not overwhelming.

We have several adventures already planned so socked away more money into the travel fund this payday (we pay ourselves once a month on the 15th).  Next month as my birthday present, hubby's birthday present and Mom's mothers day gift I have organized a one day fishing charter for 5 hours.  It is $450 but really something that has been on all of our bucket lists and it would have been $500 but I booked it prior to June 1.  We are going evening fishing for salmon, and as hubby is a huge fan of salmon I hope we all catch our limits.  In the mean time I am trying to eat down what is in our stand up freezer and fridge freezer so that we can fill it.

We also have four nights in Ucluelet booked mid-August at the small cabin we stayed in last year.  We can take Buddy and will go kayaking with him and just relax, my Birthday just so happens to coincide with it.

And next year we will take our middle two adult boys, 21 and 23 to Italy.  All the kids will go on one big trip at some point but our oldest likely will have signed his second Military contract by that time as he is delaying applying to be a policeman until his second contract ends.  The youngest is too immature at this point but seems to be getting her "stuff" together, she got her own apartment, ditched her useless boyfriend(for the umpteenth time), has a new boyfriend (not useless, might be interesting to see what plays out), and has adopted a cat.  She seems to be turning over a new leaf.  We think we might be taking her somewhere hot, maybe Thailand/Bali in 2019.

So, needless to say all these fun plans include lots of $$ but it seems that adventures is mostly what we spend our money on, not expensive eating out (*confession - I spent $6.5 on two hot dogs with fries and a drink at Costco last night so we could have a very fast dinner and get loads of yardwork done instead of cooking and we were there looking for something else so not a special trip), $6 expensive coffees or paying someone to wash the exterior of our house - our neighbors paid someone to do that $450, they took 30 minutes and left with their money, we do it ourselves.

Here is to many more fun adventures, nice sweet tomatoes for future Greek salads and enjoying summer!