I feel like I've had lots of short weeks lately. Last week, I took Friday off to go the MN State Fair. This week, I took Thursday off and my job gave me Friday and (of course) Monday. So I had a three-day week and will have a four-day work week next week.

We've been running lean on shared spending money; AS hasn't tapered off too much, but my job in particular is being slow and clunky in getting her POs and checks. We've had enough to do some fun stuff, but this week we may go in the hole a little on shared spending. Luckily I'm confident the money is coming soon, just not WHEN.

For the State Fair, we probably spent $60 each on food and beer! We went without the kids and just made it a big foodfest, trying new offerings and old favorites.

The reason I took yesterday off is that daycare is closed, which means SL needed people to stay home with her. AS had a teaching-related appointment on Wed. and her first class on Thurs. So NT took Wed. off and I took off Thurs. Today, AS and I are both home with SL. Right now AS is attempting to have her "help" bake a pie.

We tried to plan a fun activity for each day, since we don't get much one-on-one time with either kid, but especially not with SL. So on Wednesday, NT took her to a nearby lake with a beach and let her play in the sand and water. Then he took her to our favorite pizza place for lunch. Yesterday, I took her to a kids' bookstore that has lots of pets wandering around and/or in cages. We browsed, read, hung out with the animals and bought a book each for her and AA. Then I took her to lunch at the cafe next door to the store. Today, she went grocery shopping with us, which is about a mile walk total, and is getting some hands-on kitchen experience. And we let her watch a ton of TV today, since she'd been out and about a lot the past couple days.

Our shared spending covered all of that, but with no new checks in the mail today, we'll have to go in the hole this weekend. We want wine for the long weekend, and we're heading out to the State Fair again, this time with the kids. Don't expect to spend as much because we already have some ride tickets, and we won't be able to stuff our faces quite as much. But a day at the Fair does add up.

Oh, and we need to pay for a carshare for an alumni event we're going to tomorrow. We have a line item for carshare, so we'll pay for it there. We've really gone through the carshare budget this month, though, so other rentals may have to come out of shared spending.

It's not a dire situation, though. AS is expecting $13K in freelance income through the end of the year, and that's without booking any new work, which she'll still do a bit of even with her teaching gig. $3900 of that will go to tax/retirement and $4550 toward our UK trip. But the other $4550 is up for grabs. If my company weren't being so disorganized, we'd have some of it by now!

Speaking of AS's work, her first class went really well. It's going to be interesting because she's using my NaNoWriMo novel for a semester-long mock publishing exercise, where they edit, print, develop a marketing plan, etc. Part of it is learning to correspond with authors, so I'll be helping AS with that (though she'll guide me on what to say if there are certain lessons she's trying to get across; I'm not a typical author so she may want me to act more typical in my correspondence).

Also speaking of her work, she got an interesting LinkedIn message from a local Fortune 500 company regarding a high-level job opportunity. She's not at all sure she's qualified or even wants it, but she emailed back to say she's interested in learning more. So more on that once we learn more about it!

I've been going kinda crazy on the food this summer. I haven't weighed myself, but my clothes tell me all I need to know about that. I've given myself until after the fair this Sunday. Then I'll weigh myself to see how bad it is, and start to formulate a plan to deal with it.

I guess that's it for now!