I find that I am still very much attached to this blog, even if these days it’s mostly just a diary update of our lives as we continue through the 2020s and everything that entails. There is plenty I would like to write about (unlike when I first started blogging in 2017 and was worried I might run out of content), but I just don’t have the time or bandwidth to commit to more than these (mostly) once a week posts about life.

A lot of that has to do with the time put into Women’s Personal Finance, which has taken over almost all of my online hours these days. It’s become a full fledged business though, and one I am so proud of, so I can’t be too sad about the lack of time here at Tread Lightly, Retire Early.

For those of you who do read these every week, I do appreciate you so very much. I hope to write here on different topics, but even when I don’t, I love the comments and the feed back I get on these updates as well. Plus, life is weird right now, so it seems worthwhile to have a public diary during this weird time to look back on again someday. (When life is less weird? A girl can dream.)

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. The kiddo went to theater camp last week, and he had an absolutely wonderful time. They actually have continued to require masking at all times while indoors, so it felt so much better to send him for a week.

While we didn’t need the childcare, and it was an extra cost, I’m glad we were able to send him. Getting to do fun camp stuff in the summer with other kids his age is pretty great, and he loved it so much we’ve signed him up for a fall after school camp as well.

2. Another reason we signed him up for camp, beyond him being really interested in the theater option, is that we are going to be putting him in school five days a week this fall (ie in less than two more weeks). We spent a lot of time considering our options, and I’m really excited about where we landed.

For those who aren’t up to speed, we pulled him out of preschool at the end of February, 2020, and then ended up homeschooling him for the last two years because of the pandemic. We’d originally planned on sending him last year once he was vaccinated, but that didn’t happen until the end of fall semester, and then with omicron, we decided to ride out the rest of the year at home.

Perhaps this deserves its own post, but we’ve decided to send him to a small private school. It’s dual language Spanish, which is a huge bonus for both of us. It’s a significant amount of money, but for a lot of reasons, this is where we’ve landed for this year. If you’re curious about digging into the whole thought process here, let me know. Maybe I’ll get around to writing some words specifically on the school topic.

3. I called to schedule my 250 mile tune up for my bike this past week since I just hit that milestone. I also need to get the integrated lights installed that were backordered, so the bike shop will install those at the same time. Pretty proud of hitting that 250 mile mark already, and I think I love my bike even more now than I did when I rode it home from the store.

I’m also looking at a tag a long bike attachment for the kiddo to ride with me. Since I travel some busy roads – and some longer distances – I don’t feel like he’ll be ready to bike alone for a few years at least. If you have any experience using one of those tow single wheel bike add ons, I’d love your thoughts. I’d much rather he have an active part in the bike ride than simply a riding seat.

4. We’ve – maybe – hit our last 90+ degree day for the year this week (breaking new records again, hooray climate change). We ended up having to finally install our window AC units last month when we had a week stretch of 90+ degrees, but we’ve tried to use them as little as possible.

Only when it climbs regularly over 75-80 degrees inside the house do we use the air conditioning, which have thankfully become less frequent as the days become shorter. I’m not ready for winter, but I’m glad to be heading back to the post-air conditioning part of the year.

For those of you who live in areas where it regularly gets hot in the summer, a quick reminder that most people in the Pacific Northwest don’t have air conditioning (or only have less functional window units like we do), so hotter summers thanks to climate change are pretty hard on a lot of people.

5. The kid is growing again, which means he needed new tennis shoes again. We went straight to the clearance aisle at the store, and he happily picked out a pair from the short list of options there. I was tempted to show him the rest of the store with the full priced shoes, but I stopped myself.

If he’s happy with the clearance options, why do I need to show him more expensive options? It’s funny. I haven’t bought clothes or shoes for myself for over five years now, and most of his come from the thrift store or hand me downs, but for some reason, I found myself drawn to the full priced shoe options. Well ingrained, I suppose.

Exercise Update

Friday and Monday were my typical bike to work days. Saturday we went to the Edmonds farmers market and then a Pokewalk along the waterfront (PokemonGo catching walk).

I went for a run both Wednesday and Thursday. A couple weeks ago, I asked Purple to adjust my Wednesday accountability badgering to be asking me whether I’d run that week. I’d have to say, I’ve definitely gone running a couple extra days to make sure I could answer “yes” on that Wednesday Twitter thread. Thursday we went swimming, taking advantage of one of the last hot summer days.

Are you still in full summer mode where you’re at, or are you looking toward fall now? Which season do you prefer?