Making Home the Best Place To Be

This is one of those posts which has been swirling around in my head for a couple of weeks.

As we were doing stuff around the yard the other weekend, doing yard work while the kids were playing, the thought struck me: This is the best place to be. We don't need to be constantly going somewhere (especially with gas prices the way they are!), rather, let's make our home a desirable place to be.

Let's find fun recipes so we don't have to buy a lot of pre-packaged, processed foods or go out to eat.

Let's use our library to find movies (most are free, some can be rented for $1.50/week), rather than going to the theatre.

Let's use our library to get great books to read (fun to do outdoors).

Let's take some field guides and nature books and explore our yard, as well as taking walks to spot what we can.

Let's get some basic sports equipment (baseball gloves, balls, bats and so on) and play catch or shoot some hoops ... as a family, rather than signing up for leagues.

Let's get some marshmallows and toast them in the chiminella or over the grill after grilling out, rather than going out somewhere for a treat.

Let's want to stay home; let's want to make home a desirable place to be!

We've been working hard to reduce our trips into town, and we've gotten our family trips into town down to about 3 per week, and I'm seeing the benefits of doing so:

• We save on gas
• Kids are less restless (they get used to being gone constantly and then are buggy and restless when we're actually home)
• Trips are more productive because we have to plan things out
• We're spending less overall (because we plan things out and don't make unplanned trips)
• We're spending more time connecting as a family
• I'm able to come up with a better schedule and stick to it