I guess blogging will be at a minimum this summer - we are busy doing summer things, and if Daisy is not occupied she is reading over my shoulder!

A friend of Daisy's is in a local production of a musical. The friend's mom gave me ticket information. I quickly went from "great" to "hyperventilating". The tickets were $32 for adults, $12 for kids. Fortunately for us, the same mom passed along information about a "preview performance". She said it was like a final dress rehearsal. There was a cost - $10 per ticket. Whew!

I had not heard of a "preview performance" before, and in the future I may look into it more for things like this. We went to the performance last night. It was excellent! Well worth the $10 ticket price.

We were out late and Daisy didn't make it to bed until after 11. She's sleeping in and can't read over my shoulder while I write this entry.

I suppose some people drop off on their blogs because they don't have much to say. I have plenty to write about, but a bunch of Real Life stuff to take care of and so have had no time for blogging.

The abridged version, with more detailed entries to follow:

* We went out of town for Memorial Day weekend, plus one extra day. We are keeping busy with end-of-the-school-year stuff.
* DH finished the Dave Ramsey book.
* DH has decided to replace his 1992 full-sized truck with a 2004 Honda Civic. He did all the leg work (insurance quotes, talked w/mechanics, worked with sellers) plus he's figured out how to pay for it. I'm shocked. Go DH!
* We are looking at Away School (as opposed to Home School) for Daisy next year.
* DH used Quicken to create an expense report for the last year. Neither one of us are really sure what to do with it, but he is interested in some kind of a budget.
* We still ran a deficit in Checkbook Number One in May. Despite my attempts to pin our money issues on DH, I'm definitely the culprit on this one.

I believe that one of my jobs in life is to teach Daisy about money. I have not developed a plan about this yet, but I try to take advantage of "teachable moments."

Daisy is a typical eight year old girl. She's very creative and balks a bit at routine. She'll tell you she doesn't like math in that dramatic way that only an eight year old girl can do. Nevertheless, partly due to diligence in teaching and partly due to the math program we use, Daisy has a pretty good foundation in math.

Yesterday Daisy and I went to Starbucks. The total of our drinks and snacks came to $7.19. As I was pulling out the cash Daisy said, "You can give her eight dollars." The cashier heard what she said, took my eight dollars and asked Daisy how much change I should get back.

Daisy thought, and the cashier waited patiently.

"90. . . no that's not right. . . 81 cents."

"Keep it up and you'll be a good cashier," said the cashier.

That's my girl! I can see the irony in teaching her to figure out correct change and teaching her undesirable spending habits simultaneously. . . but at least she can make change.