You are currently browsing the archives for 26 April 2012.

Personal Blogging

  • Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:30 pm

So the personal blogging has been a little… sparse… lately.  I’m trying to balance how much I want to write, and how much I have time to write, and how public I want my writing to be.

To be honest, I’m struggling.  Time is my biggest issue, and balance in just about every area of my life.  I have more work to do than I can get done in the time allotted, and leaving things undone stresses me out.  I’m trying to prioritize things, and streamline the non-negotiable tasks, but it’s hard.  Work is stressful. Trying to keep the house in order and running smoothly is stressful. Parenting is fun, but stressful. Second-guessing every decision a billion times, very stressful.

I have had a few successes – I mean, the laundry is fairly caught up (less than two loads dirty in the house) – Chad’s helped a lot, and there’s often clothes in a basket or on the table to be folded, but no one has had to scrounge for underwear or socks anytime recently.  So that’s a win.

I spent a weekend with Chad in Denver – and no kids.  Also a win, as it’s the first time we’ve been able to do that!  My house was clean enough that I didn’t mind my mother-in-law and father-in-law staying there with the kids, and I worked hard on not stressing over it being perfect (It wasn’t.  They didn’t mind).  In fact, they arrived about 5 hours earlier than I expected them – and I was ok with it, even though I hadn’t finished all the chores I was going to before they arrived.  I didn’t stress about the kids while we were gone, and we had a great time with friends, living it up, staying up late, and sleeping most of the day.Exactly what i needed for a getaway.

But the day to day management of home, work, and kids – now there’s my struggle.  And probably something I’ll hash out more than once here, as I try and figure it out. And as I have time to write.

 

 

Things I Love Thursdays! Amazon Prime

  • Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:07 pm

So when Amazon.com first announced their Amazon Prime service, I thought it was crazy.  Who in the world would buy enough books to pay $79 a year for free shipping?  And if you pay $79 a year, is it really free shipping?

But then.  When I was searching for bargain deals on diapers, someone pointed me to the Amazon Mom program.  Which offered free prime shipping benefits, in addition to a discount on diapers and other baby things.  And it was free.  I did some quick math, and discovered that the price on the Pampers diapers I had been using was cheaper on Amazon than even at Sam’s Club – and thus I discovered that Amazon was not just for books, and also Subscribe & Save.  I could save on things we use, every day! And have them ordered and delivered on a schedule!

So when my Mom benefits ran out?  I forked over the $79.  Because honestly, we order a couple of packages a month from Amazon these days (paper towels, soap, diapers, wipes, etc.) – and not all of it is subscribe and save.  It makes it so easy to just sit down and order something (a book, say, or whatever) and not worry about putting together a $25 order to save on shipping.  And the shipping is FAST.  Two days, but sometimes faster.

Since then, they’ve added a lot more services to the Prime Membership – free streaming movies & TV, including some of my kids’ favorite PBS & Nick Jr. shows, a free kindle lending library, and more.  And now that i can access the streaming video from my PS3 – it could fast become a replacement for Netflix, in my house at least.

I cannot say enough good things about Amazon Prime.  For our house, it is totally worth the money we pay – and they are looking at adding even more services in the future.

Links to Amazon are affiliate links, but they didn’t ask for this review or give me anything for writing it.  I just really like Amazon Prime.

Find more Things I Love Thursday posts at Be The Difference!