Summer can be super expensive. However, it doesn’t have. Here is a small list of places you can go this summer and not spend a lot of money!

1. Your Backyard! Your backyard is fun of fun. You can camp back there, create a garden, explore, etc. Best of all, most things you can do in your backyard are free!

2.  Go camping. Now, this will cost you a little money.  However, it is great to get away sometimes.  We recently booked a camping trip for July that is running us $30 a night.  It is fairly inexpensive to camp, and I know, my kids love it.  (We personally camp in a tent.  However, I draw the line and do bring a blow mattress to sleep on.  We could get our site even cheaper if we didn’t pay for the electric, so I could blow up my bed.)

3.  Library.  The library is great.  It is free to check out books, games, activities, movies, etc.  The other great thing about the library (well, at least my library) is that they offer free (or low cost) classes!  My library also has scheduled activities going on each month too! The key is to return your book on time, so you don’t get any fines!

4.  Your Local Park District.  I know not every state has these.  However, you have something that offers classes.  Our local park district offers nature classes all summer for very cheap. It definitely something to check out.

5.  Your Local Craft Store.  I know my local craft stores are constantly offering classes to teach you awesome crafts, cake decorating, etc.

6.  Your Local Hardware Store.  I know the closest hardware store to me has adult classes all the time that will show you how to do things around your home.  They also offer kids workshops too that are free!

7.  The Mall.  My local mall has a play area that is free to play in.  It is also a great place to walk in.  Now, you have to manage to not go shopping while you are there to keep it inexpensive. 

8.  Forest Preserves.  Here in Illinois, we have forest preserves though I know other states have places like these and they are just called something different.  They are free to enter and you are able to hike in them.  They are a great way to get the kids outdoors and a great place to have a picnic too.

9.  Local park.  Your local park is also free and most kids can spend hours in them!

10. Head to a lake, river, pond, etc.  You can usually swim, skip rocks, fish, etc at your local watering hole for no cost.

Hopefully, you have a few free and inexpensive ideas to keep you and your kids busy this summer!

Related articles

• KinderCare Learning Centers Summer Camp (mythoughtsideasandramblings.com)
• Beat the Summer Heat with a Backyard Pool Party (table4five.net)

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With the crazy weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks, it is hard to believe that it is really summer here in Chicago.  Last weekend, for Will’s birthday party, it was hundred degrees.  At one point (since we can’t have a birthday of his without rain), we had some pretty severe weather come through here too.  We had put up a tent outside and everybody had to grab on and hold.  Little did we know, but about a mile or two away, that same wind uprooted pretty large trees!  We also lucked out, because many parts of my village lost power.  I lucked out that it wasn’t mine!  Just as the storm started, I was starting dinner, so life would have gotten really interesting without power.

It’s hard to believe that Will is 4 now though!  He officially turned 4 on Tuesday which also happened to be his last day of school.  After his presentation at school, we surprised the kids and took them to Kung Fu Panda 2!  They loved it.  Heck, I loved it!

Then we had crazy weather.  We sustained over 100 degrees for several days in a row.  I also remembered that our air conditioning unit is on its last legs.  It was put in in 1994 (I have the paperwork from the prior owners).  When it was so hot outside, we couldn’t get the house lower than 78.  (It was set at 74).  We luck out that we have a basement that was even cooler than that.  However, I still want my house to get as cool as I want it!  However, air conditioning units are expensive.  You are going to spend a lot more on that than an antique vanity with mirror or really any bedroom vanities on the market.  At this point, I think we are just going to put up with it.  However, it gets much hotter here I’m not sure. (We have lucked out now that we had some thunderstorms come through and cool us down.  I think we are in the 60′s now!)

With the start of summer, I also have some projects I want to get done.  One of them is painting the front porch.  I’ve asked for advice of what color I should paint the porch.  Everyone I have asked I told me a different color!  It’s enough to drive you insane. 

I also think I need to repaint the bathroom.  Right now, it’s a light green.  However, it is tiny, so it has to be a light color.  (We did a complete remodel a couple of years ago, so I don’t need any new bathroom decor.  Just new paint.)  I can’t decide if a light yellow or brown would go good in there.  I don’t mind painting.  I just hate taping and picking out the color. Sigh.

How have you spent the summer so far?

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I’ve been busy, so I’ve not gotten a chance to post this. However, here we go . . .

Our worst week ever start on June 25th. We were heading to Wisconsin for our first camping trip as a family. Everybody was excited. Except for the car. We go to turn on the car and all we heard was “click click click”. Now, remember that our other car is a Prius. A hybrid. Let’s just say you can’t jump off those (actually, if you look at the owner’s manual you can, but to replace a Prius battery it’s like $5,000, so we weren’t about to try it). I found a neighbor home (which is amazing in the middle of the day), and we tried jumping. No can do. Nothing worked. Now, at this point, we are all in the van and its packed. We are screwed. I took Bill’s car and ran and got a new battery. While I was gone, Bill took the old one out. Luck was on our side at the battery store, and I bought the last battery they had and drove home. Bill puts the battery in and the radio and most of our electronics in the van were out. Bill figured it was a fuse, so we got and in the car and went.

We weren’t even driving an hour, and Madison had to go to the bathroom. We stopped at a gas station and I took the kids to the bathroom. Since we were there anyway, Bill filled up the car with gas. That ended up being a good thing. For some reason, everything worked after that. We thought we were in the clear. Little did we know –

Friday night it stormed. That wouldn’t be so bad except we were in a tent. And there were 50 mph winds. At one point, Bill and I were holding up one side of the tent. The good news is that the tent didn’t tip over and we stayed dry. Saturday night it stormed. However, Sunday morning was the whopper. Here are a few pictures:

Good times.  At one point, we were lifting the tent, so the stream could go underneath.  Sooo you’d think this was the end of it — not quite.

We get home and Madison is covered in mosquito bites.  It’s about 8:50 pm and I ran to Walgreens to get some AfterBite.  What I didn’t know was that they had mopped their floors and didn’t put up a wet floor sign.  You can guess what happened next.  I didn’t fall but I twisted my ankle (and ended up at the dr Monday to make sure nothing was broken).  But my week got even better on Tuesday.

Bill and I were sitting at dinner and he goes “Lisa, your eye is really red”.  Well, I ended up at the eye doctor that night, and I had pink eye too!

Thankfully, the rest of the week went better!

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These pictures were taken as the flash flood was dying done.  I was too busy holding my tent up in the air when it was at its worst.

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I know I have talked about how much I love Entrecard.  They are a great way to drive traffic to your blog and have a great community.  Today, some cool changes took place and some not so cool changes too.

First, the cool changes.  Now, you can see how many times a person has dropped their Entrecard on you.  It also lists your last 5 posts that you have done on your blog.  Both are very cool changes that I think are great.

Now, onto the not so good changes.  The change that I absolutely hate that happened today (without any warning) is that you can only drop 600 cards per ip.  Now, if you have one blog this is no big deal.  However, if you have more than 2 blogs in the system (I have 3), this royally screws you.  How?  Normally, you can drop 300 cards per account you have.  Since I have 3 accounts, I was dropping up to 900 cards a day.  Yes, I actually do read the majority of those blogs I was dropping my cards on (not everybody updates daily or weekly).  It would take me several hours a day to do.  However, the traffic that I received from that made it well worth me doing.  By looking at my entrecard stats, I can definitely see the difference in my traffic depending on the number of cards I dropped.  More cards = more traffic.

Now, this not only effects me.  This effects every person who has more than 2 blogs in the system.  If I drop evenly between my blogs, I will drop only 200 cards per blog.  I am losing out on potentially 100 more drops (if everyone reciprocates).  If this is the case, this blog will never make the top three spots nor will my other two blogs since I won’t be able to reciprocate everyone who drops on me.  I am also going to assume that the top three blogs are people who only have a single blog in the system.  If that is the case, they will be dropping 300 cards to my 200 on a daily basis.  Tell me how I ever catch up to the lost traffic.  The top spots got there by dropping 300 cards daily.

This change effects anyone who uses a shared computer and/or ip to do their drops.  Husbands and wives won’t be able to both have accounts and not effect each others ability to drop.  People won’t be able to drop (or be limited) from work if anybody else in the building does Entrecard.  And heaven forbid, if you have to use an internet cafe or library to drop.  Who knows if somebody already used up the 600 drops off those ips?

What’s the reason for this change?  Well, according to Phirate (one of the head guys of Entrecard):

It’s not a penalty, it’s just our only real rational response to people creating multiple “spam blogs” and going nuts dropping a thousand + per day. Unfortunately, some legitimate users will get caught in the cross-fire.

Well, go after the spam blogs.  Set up a system where the blogs have to be 30-60 days old and have 10 posts or so.  That should weed out a bunch of them right off the bat.  I would think they would rather be able to say that they have 7,000 good blogs in the system instead of 6,000 good and 1,000 not so good.

Another issue with this is that it is pretty easy to change your IP.  If you use AT&T like I do, it is simple (just a pain in the butt to have to do everyday).  I won’t go into how you do it, but if I know how to do it, the spammers definitely do to.  Also, another way around this is to use a proxy.  Again, if I figured this out, so can the spammers.

Entrecard, I love your system.  It does exactly what it is suppose to — it drives traffic to my blogs.  However, you are hurting the very people who make the system great.  I would think that you would want your best users to be able to put more of their quality blogs into the system.

If you agree, please let them know.  From the few people I have talked to like Jenn, I am not the only one who doesn’t agree with this change.  Entrecard has made tons of changes based on what the users want.  I am hoping that the users can bring about change again.

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