Taking the day off.

My husband has every other Friday off, and today was his day off. These Fridays are usually a blur of trying to get things done--household projects and trips to Lowe's for him, trips to Target and Hobby Lobby for me, whatever errands we've had waiting to be tackled. We usually run out one at a time, leaving the other parent behind to watch the little one. Well, today was different. There was no need to go shopping, no need to go to Lowe's. We have lots of little projects going on around the house, but first and foremost we are SIMPLIFYING, so we decided to take the day off. At first my head swirled with all the things we could do--go to lunch, see a movie. Then I thought about it again--we are simplifying. So we went to the gym. Each of us usually goes to the gym, but he goes before work and I go later in the day. But its good for us, its relaxing, we enjoy it, and who couldn't stand a workout?? So we went together, and since our son is allowed two hours in the child watch (which he loves) we spent one hour exercising and the other in the hot tub. We actually got to talk without being interrupted by kids, and to talk about things that didn't involve the house or our finances. It was like a date, only better!! When we came home, completely and utterly relaxed, we had leftovers for lunch and then got the little one down for a nap. Then WE took a nap. On most days off, even if we aren't doing anything we don't feel relaxed. But today we did, through and through. You just can't buy that kind of feeling.

Tonight, in the spirit of having the night off, we made homemade hot chocolate and had family game night. We wanted to do something we could all play, so we played charades. We made everything up ourselves and had such a ball. Even the two -year -old had fun being a cow, a dog, a dinosaur. My husband had to be Hannah Montana and I spent about 15 minutes acting out my daughter's brainchild, a "wild cow". We had a ball.

And while I will say again that this is about simplifying our lives and not necessarily about saving money, I have to share this--I opened my purse today and noticed that I still have the same $20 that's been there since New Year's Eve. I don't know why that was a surprise to me, since I haven't bought anything, but I guess I'm just not used to seeing cash hang around so long. I like it!