Money Monday: Stretching Products

I am trying to become a wise consumer and not purchase as many one-time use products. For example, when I need to wipe up the kitchen counters, I know that I should get out a clean dishrag and add a little soap and water and wipe away. And despite the fact that the rag drawer is 100% reachable from where I keep the disinfecting wipes next to the sink, I am way more likely to reach for a wipe. I'm not a monster, I sometimes do opt for the rag, but usually not.

My bad.

I also use too many paper towels, but I now only purchase the make-a-size kind and use a half of a regular sheet to wipe my mouth when I'm eating spaghetti. 

But I do try my best to stretch these products. If I pull out a wipe to clean up a small spill, I will continue to use the entire surface area of the wipe until it is all used up. So if there are a few drops of milk I want to clean off the counter, I would wipe those up and then possibly wipe up the kitchen sink until it's shiny. 

Here is another I stretch my disinfecting wipes: If you use these products with any regularity, you may notice that there tends to be quite a bit of fluid remaining after the wipes are used up. So I don't let that go to waste. I will usually rip off five half-sheet paper towels, ball them up individually, drop them into the container, and shake. The fluid saturates the paper towels and you have bonus wipes! It's so simple and that buys me about another week of use.  

Of course, you could just pour that fluid onto a cloth rag and wipe away, but if you do you are a better person than me. 

Family Friday: Mother of Leah

One thing is certain, my Family Friday posts are the easiest to plan and to write. Today I'm talking about my oldest child, Leah.

10 months old and the first to wear the duck costume for Halloween

Leah was born after a long night of labor. What made it long is that she had some trouble on her way out, and was in distress. But she finally made it and I was excited to see that she had hair! I had been bald forever as a baby, and so had my husband. Little did I know that it was just temporary hair and that it would soon fall out and she would actually follow in her parents' footsteps hair-wise.

As Leah was my first child (and I was the baby of my family), I had no idea what to expect. My husband actually had to teach me how to change diapers. But I soon learned what people were talking about when they said you will love your children like nothing else. I remember just sitting there, holding her and crying because I was so overwhelmed with my love for her. It was pretty intoxicating.

I think she was objectively adorable. Sure, she had no hair and was often mistaken for a boy even while wearing pink from head to toe. But she had the sweetest, biggest grin and as it turns out, people love grinning babies. We would go out to eat and the whole restaurant seemed to stare at her (in a nice way). We would have people over and she owned the room. It was as if the only reason they came was to look at her, in her mind. And that became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I was so amazed by her and my love for her that when she was only 5 months old I knew I needed another one, and that's how Patrick came to be.

First Day of First Grade

Leah was a sweet young girl. She loved singing, and dancing, and princesses. Oh boy, the princesses. She had to wear pink all the time. She wanted long hair, poor thing. She was all girl. 

She also loved to read and write and draw. She loved school in general. She was always so empathetic. When she started kindergarten and I was crying about her starting that huge new chapter, she cried with me. She was a social butterfly, which was truly baffling to an introvert like me. As she enters 5th grade this fall and her roster of former teachers grows, they continue to tell me that she finds them at recess to give them hugs. 

Nine Years Old, 4th Grade Picture

I did write those last paragraphs in the past tense, and much of that is still true. At her core she is still sweet and empathetic, and she still enjoys clothes and fashion. But she hates princesses and pink and seems to have made peace with the fact that her hair will never be full and voluminous and long. She is very smart and uses big words and loves to write and create, and read. She still loves hanging out with her friends, but she has a very sweet, shy quality as well.

*But*...she is 10 now and has always been precocious, which means that she is basically in full-on teen mode. I've learned enough to know that I can say that and still have no clue what sort of trouble I'm in for when she actually is a teen. But wow, the drama. She can be so extremely sweet to her siblings one minute, and then scream at them the next. She has mastered the practice of unnecessarily slamming dishes when we make her do them, and stomping off to her room to slam the door.

Programming a NAO Robot at School

But that's okay. It's good to know that she's fired up, right? I don't know what the next few years will bring, but it will be fun to watch this one turn into an adult.

Often timid, but eager to try new things like jumping on a velcro wall.

I'm watching the Gilmore Girls series for the millionth time, but this time I'm bringing Leah along on the journey. I see so much of Rory in Leah, and lord knows I need a road map for navigating the teen years with my daughter, this amazingly complex creature.   

Thoughtful Thursday: Leadership

Here are some observations of how not to be a good leader, from someone who has been an employee. This list is inspired by actual events. 

1. Hold meetings where you tell your department it is everyone's responsibility to know everything, and to stop referring every question to yourself. Then get mad at people when they answer someone's question without consulting you first. 

2. When someone asks you a question, blow it off completely. But when you ask them a question and they don't answer within an hour, spend a half hour at the next department meeting demanding to know everyone's schedule because you can "never" find people. 

3. Spend large amounts of time at meetings talking about your adult son even when no one asked about him, but when you talk to employees about their kids, be sure to mix up their names. 

4. Promise to host retirement parties and baby showers, but forget to plan them and/or tell the honorees they are to attend. 

5. Be sure to drop everything when loud, annoying employees want something from you or they tell you about yet another free app for your work-issued technology toy. However, don't bother to praise the people who wrote the grant that brought you the toy in the first place (that part is boring). 

6. Demand to be copied on every email everyone sends out, but never include people on emails you mention them in. Let them be surprised when they get a request from someone out of the blue and with absolutely no context! People LOVE to feel like idiots. 

7. Hold a meeting outside someone's office, loudly mention that person by name at least 10 times during that meeting, but do NOT invite that person to be a part of your meeting. Let them wonder what you're saying about them. 

8. Buy some people flowers after putting in a few long days, but not others. 

9. Never remember to say happy birthday to employees. Instead, hound them for a report you need that day that you never asked for in the past. 

10. When you have a series of minor operations and everyone pitches in for flowers, do not send a thank you email. 

11. Talk to your employees about other employees. Trash them like crazy! Then don't ever confront the original person about the problem. This makes everyone feel insecure about their performance and what you might be saying behind their backs. 

12. Promise people certain unsavory aspects of their jobs will be phased out, but then out of the blue resurrect them! 

13. Schedule meetings months in advance, send out a reminder a day in advance, then just when the meeting should be starting, send an email to cancel it. 

14. Schedule meetings months in advance, then don't say a word about the meeting again so people have to go out of their way to ask if it is still going on. 

15. Hire the candidate who is the least experienced and most annoying, even when everyone on the hiring committee is against it. 

16. Micromanage! Don't trust the people you hired to do their job! Then, gripe constantly about how you have to do everything. Never, ever make a connection between being a control freak and having to do everything yourself.

17.  Even though you spend a lot of time out of the office for sick leave and appointments, make sure to approve everyone's vacation leave requests. But, only approve these while stating how nice it is that someone gets to take vacation, since you never get to. 

18. See how long you can make it between sitting down one-on-one with your employees. Cancel annual evaluations. Don't provide any meaningful feedback to them. Expect them to still know everything that's going on. 

Wellness Wednesday: Decluttering

I had my WW weigh-in last night and I was unsurprised to see that I was up 1.8 pounds. That is the exact amount I lost last week. I say I was unsurprised because I got my period on Monday. That's instant weight gain. I'm sure most of it is water weight, but I know I overindulged this past week as well.

And I've actually been sick for the past two weeks. It started with a basic cold and then when I usually would have started feeling better I felt worse. I have diagnosed myself with a sinus infection for the second leg of the illness. I never had a fever so I didn't go to the doctor (I've been hearing that most sinus infections don't respond to antibiotics anyway). But that seriously impacted my gym schedule--in the sense that I didn't go at all for two weeks. I was so tired and my throat burned every night as it was I guess from all the drainage, so I figured extended cardio activity causing me to breathe heavily would have made that situation worse. All of this to say, I miss my gym and I've felt lost in the afternoons. It really wrecked my schedule. If I go to the gym after work, I leave feeling calm and refreshed enough to make good choices for the rest of the night. When I don't go to the gym I tend to spend a lot of time staring at my phone and eating ice cream.

I am not trying to excuse my weight gain, but I do take it in stride. Weigh-in is a chance to start over and now that I've gotten the worst of the illness out of the way, and the worst part of my period is over, I really can start fresh. The WW meeting topic this week was also about starting (over in a sense)--decluttering.

I, like many others, have read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I recommend it. It is actually a fun read, Kondo has a delightful narrative style. You can probably find out the gist of the book by searching online, but at the heart of the method is to gather all items of a certain type in your home (e.g. if you have winter coats in your bedroom closet and also an entryway closet, bring them all together). Hold each item in your hand and if it "sparks joy" keep it. Otherwise, it goes.

Spoiler: "Tidying Up" is code for getting rid of all your junk.

I have not followed the method faithfully but I have certainly cleared out a ton of clutter in recent months. As someone who's ridden the weight-loss/weight-gain roller coaster, I have my fair share of clothes that don't fit at the moment. I truly hope I will fit into most of the clothes at some point, but I still managed to get rid of a lot of my aspirational sizes. It turns out that even if a lot of those clothes eventually fit me, I wouldn't want to wear them. They don't spark joy, so they don't belong in my life! Easy.

There are so many ways I can imagine clutter impacting my health. I've been on a decluttering bender lately, and one thing I have come to enjoy very much is walking into a room after I've cleaned it out. I just stand there and marvel at the beauty of the open space. I spent so many years trying to fill empty spaces and I have no idea why. (Kind of like feeling the need to eat to fill time, to procrastinate?) Perhaps this is just a sign of maturity. I want to empty and downsize.

Now, when I look at my closet, I can get a peek at the smaller sizes and I like everything that I see. That is so motivating! I'm no longer looking at some dress in a smaller size that I wore once and didn't really like, but didn't get rid of because it cost money. Now I'm looking at that outfit that I wore all the time and felt so great in--that's what I want to feel again. That's why it's worth it to track everything I eat and go to the gym.

I also have spent a lot of time decluttering the kitchen. This is important for health because when the kitchen is clean, I want to spend more time in there. When I'm willing to spend time in my kitchen I end up eating healthier food. I take the time to wash fruit, cut up vegetables, and marinade chicken breast to grill. When I don't want to spend time in my kitchen, I am more likely to eat out. And when I eat out I rarely make healthy choices.

But there's an indirect impact on my health as well. When I have clutter, what I have is something that made its way into my life, either because I purchased it or someone gave it to me. For example, when I saw a bread machine in the corner of my kitchen, I saw this big thing that took up space and that I used a few times years ago. I regretted making this purchase, but I felt if I kept it perhaps I would start using it again, and my purchase decision will be redeemed.

But. I don't really go out of my way to eat bread. Bread is one of those staples you can purchase at the store for not a lot of money, even the fancy stuff. So when I want to have good bread with cheese and wine on a Saturday night, I can still have it. Or, if I want the house to smell like baking bread, I can just find a recipe and bake it in the oven. And to be honest, I didn't like the bread from the machine all that much.

We had a yard sale (my first ever!) about a month ago and I sold the bread machine, a bread cookbook, and a homemade bread loaf keeper, all for $10. I would have given it to Goodwill to be honest, but it's nice to have gotten something for it. I sold a bunch of other kitchen gadgets, uni-taskers, as well. I have that extra space in my kitchen now and that's great. But I also have that extra space in my mind because I don't see all these purchases I made that I regret. That lightens up my mood, and a good mood signifies health to me.

Tuesday Ten

It didn't take long for me to run out of Transformation Tuesday ideas! I have projects in the works but nothing very photo-worthy at this point. So when possible, I will share projects I've completed. When I don't I will try out this idea: Tuesday Ten (I found the idea here: http://www.the-golden-spoons.com/p/tuesday-ten.html )

For my first Tuesday Ten, I'm going to share some pins I've saved on Pinterest in a board called "Why did Pinterest pick this for me?" If you use Pinterest, you are probably aware that there are auto-generated recommended pins based on your supposed interests. I started thinking some of them were strange. Like, what in my pinning history suggested I would enjoy that pin? I'm sure I exacerbated the issue by actually creating the board and pinning the more questionable pins, but that's okay. Here I share with you my favorite head-scratchers of recommended pins.


1. I just want to graduate. 

 


I completed my PhD 11 years ago and haven't gone back to school so...?


2. Easy Copycat Nesquick Powder

 


Yeah, I like to save money but I also like to save time and Nesquick really isn't that expensive in the grand scheme of things. I'll just go buy some, okay?



3. Be someone's Sunday, Not Saturday night.




I haven't gone out on a Saturday night in forever and if I did it was with my family, and even if I was a party girl would that be so wrong? This whole pin is like "be a good girl" and frankly, I resent the implications.



4. The Fate of the Romanovs



I'm not interested in reading about history. But thanks for thinking I'm that deep.



5. Tongue coming out of a ketchup bottle.



Gross.



6. "A smile can get you far in life, but a smile and a gun can get you a whole lot farther."



So just a couple things wrong with this...I am not a Miranda Lambert fan (if she even said this). I'm very shallow but I just can't get past her whole face situation. And also I'm for gun control and not using guns as a threat to get your way. Nice try, Pinterest!


7. Easy Creamy Mushrooms




I hate mushrooms, which Pinterest would know if it actually read. Yes, I pinned mushrooms once, but it was in my board entitled "Products I Hate."



8. This sentiment. 




I mean, why with the minions? And at my age, I pretty much just text my husband when I'm shopping to ask if I should buy something for dinner and "k" is a perfectly acceptable response.



9. "Man is not free unless government is limited."




I guess I like the picture of the barn but otherwise, this pin is not something I enjoy. Reagan was the president for most of my childhood so he was the last president I was able to respect 100% because I didn't know about politics yet. Now that I know more, I do not like most of his policies. And I am not a fan of the whole "small government" ideology for many, many reasons I will not get into here. So this was a fail, Pinterest.


and #10: Give it to God and go to sleep.



Nope, doesn't work. I've tried repeatedly. You know what does work? Nyquil!

Money Monday: Saving at Target

Our town has a Walmart and a Target. I occasionally go to Walmart but Target is always my first choice. Not only is it closer to my home, but just...Walmart. Ick. The crowds, the dirt, the fact that when you need to go to the bathroom, it's closed so you go to the other bathroom and it's closed. It's a guaranteed frustrating experience.

When I was talking to an acquaintance about shopping at Target, he snarled and said "But it's so expensive! Walmart is so much cheaper!" I suppose that could be true on some items, but I'm not sure it's generally a true belief. I also remember passing someone in Target who must have been a regular Walmart shopper, and she was so surprised that the Soda Stream was actually cheaper at Target than it was at Walmart. I don't want a huge influx of Walmart shoppers to adopt my beloved Target as their favorite store so I generally keep my mouth shut. But if you know all the ways to save at Target you will enjoy a calmer, nicer shopping experience for probably a lower price tag overall.

I probably strategize more than many others are willing to when they go shopping, but part of that may be due to the fact that I get paid once a month and I do about 95% of the household shopping for our family. So on payday I pay all my bills for the month and I get most of the basic household stuff I know we'll need. That usually include toilet paper, paper towels, pet supplies, and enough applesauce for 32 for Emma to take to her preschool for her monthly special day.

So typically on payday after I've paid all my bills, I will bring up Target Cartwheel online (as described last week) and search for the items on my list to see if there are any offers to match those, and to also search for really big discounts for other things that may not be on my list but that would be useful. I am really working on not purchasing things that will just become clutter, so I admit searching for big discounts may be counterproductive.

I like most of Target's brands, like up & up and Market Pantry, so I tend to save money just by purchasing those as compared to name-brand products. There is almost always a Cartwheel 5% off offer for up & up paper products, so I always keep staples like those in my account. But sometimes I will find it is cheaper to purchase the name-brand due to a sale and/or Cartwheel. For some things like dog treats and cat litter, I don't have a major brand preference so I will happily choose whatever is the cheapest given a Cartwheel offer or a sale. It's in this case that doing a Cartwheel search by discount can really save you a lot of money.

How much money? Well here is my total Cartwheel savings before...

...and after my last shopping trip. (I've been using this app since 2013, so I'm saving about $237 a year). You can see that it took me an hour to shop by looking at the time on my screen shots, which is sort of a long time, but I enjoy shopping so it was fine. It helps that I don't have to take kids with me when I do this kind of shopping. This was also a Friday evening so the store wasn't crowded. That can help a lot too--you don't feel like you're getting in the way when you stand there contemplating all your options.

Just by adding purchases to my Cartwheel account before and during my shopping trip I saved $11.96. (My total purchase was around $139 after all my discounts were applied). That is more than I usually save when I shop, I admit. A lot of that came from big discounts like 25% off Mott's applesauce pouches. If I didn't have that Cartwheel offer I probably would have purchased Market Pantry applesauce, but in this case it was worth it to get the Mott's.

I also scored by purchasing two boxes of cat litter, because there was a Cartwheel offer and an in-store offer for a $5 gift card if I bought two boxes. I would have had to purchase another box in a few weeks anyway, might as well buy it now and get $5 back. You get the idea--if you just shop with a slightly open mind you might save quite a bit of money!

I know it's hard to see but if you look at the bottom of the receipt, it says I saved a total of $30.42 on this shopping trip. $11.96 of that came from Cartwheel, and $5 came from that gift card I received for buying two boxes of cat litter. There was $2.50 off on Dunkin' Donuts coffee (another staple in my house)--it all adds up. But the final way I saved money at Target was by paying with my Target REDcard.

When you check out at Target the cashier will likely ask you if you are paying with a REDcard. You can get it in credit card or debit form. I resisted the REDcard for so long because I assumed it was only credit, and I knew I could get into trouble with Target credit. But once I learned there was a debit option I signed up right away. It's linked to my bank account and I track my transactions immediately. Just by using that card instead of my regular debit card I saved over $6 on this trip.

If I had any traditional coupons I would have applied them as well, but I don't have a lot of coupons to use at Target. I don't look through flyers or anything for coupons, but I sometimes get some at the checkout and I save them for later. I do have a lot to use when I shop for groceries--but I do the bulk of my grocery shopping at Kroger and Aldi.

So that's how I save a lot of money at Target. It's a little more work than just popping in but that's something I don't mind. It's like a game to me! Don't get me wrong--there are many times I just stop at Target for one thing and I don't go through all this. But it's nice to know I'm set with all my basics for a month and that I've saved money too.

Family Friday: Mother of Patrick

For my second Family Friday post, I will talk about my only boy, Patrick.

3rd Grade Picture, Last Fall

Patrick is a good boy. I know moms just say that kind of thing, but he is so good! If I ask him to do something, he is the most likely to just do it out of all the kids. Even when he was young and did something he shouldn't have, if I told him to go to time out, he dropped whatever he was doing and just...went. And he went quietly, too.

First Halloween-All of our kids wore the same duck costume.

He was always a good kid. He was a good baby, from what I remember. That sounds terrible, but he was born when his older sister was just 14 months old. She kept me running like crazy, and I didn't have much bonding time with him, unfortunately. 

6th Birthday

He's a sweet, sensitive kid. He loves to snuggle with soft things. He's a best friend to Leah and Emma, and can relate to both of them on their respective levels. It's so fun to see him in his big brother role. He was the first person to get a laugh out of Emma when she was a baby, and he takes good care of her. 

First day of Kindergarten

So he's good and he's sweet, but he's also very smart and creative. He doesn't like to be bogged down in details, but when he starts thinking about something you never know what crazy but deep insight will come out of his mouth. He loves math and science and video games like Plants versus Zombies and Skylanders. He also likes to read but he's not a big fan of having to track what he reads for assignments. 

One time when he was at recess in first grade he thought of a poem, which he shared with me that night, and which I recorded and transcribed. Here it is: 

Up High

I’m going so high,

High, high, high.

Higher than the trees,

Higher than the sky,

Higher than the clouds in the sky.

So high,

I’m higher than Earth!

I’m going so high up,

I’m past the moon.

Past the sun and stars!

I’m so high up,

I’m past the Milky Way!

So, so, high,

That I’m at the end of space!

But I want to go back down again.

So I go

Down, down, down.

Down past the Milky Way and Pluto.

Down, down, down.

Past the stars and the moon.

Down, down, down,

Down at Earth.

I go under the sky, clouds.

Under the trees.

Back on the ground,

Where I belong.

Isn't he the best? I love him and I just know watching him grow up will be full of fun and surprises.