At the end of May we visited my husband's family in Florida, and one day while we were there I ran into the food co-op, called Ever'man's. Each visit I try to get there at least once, because otherwise we'd all subsist on fast food and meals at chain restaurants like Red Lobster and Ruby Tuesday's (MIL's personal favorite). I can't go a week eating that way and neither can my kids. I picked up some yummy things like Thai dumplings and an avocado sandwich on sunflower bread, and on the way out picked up a free magazine called Delicious Living.
That night back at the hotel, I read the magazine cover to cover and realized it was my kind of mag; about organic/natural living but not in your face, and not the more commercialized type of natural living magazine that seems to be popping up more and more lately. I entered an online contest that ended the next day, and was for a year's supply of free children's products made by companies like Nordic Naturals, Santa Cruz, Nature's Path. I enter contests and I've won a few over the years (Free weekly flower delivery for a year was probably my favorite.), but as I entered this one I knew I had no chance since it was a month long contest and I was only entering once the last day of the month.
So of course I won, I was one of ten lucky winners. This week I got the box of a "year's supply" and while it was more like a month's supply, we were so excited. The boys and I have been anxiously awaiting the UPS delivery for the past month. There are all types of vitamins, including the fish oil my 5 year old takes, a few 10 packs of boxed juice (banana, which no one liked, but it's great in the morning smoothies with frozen strawberries!), coupons for free Panda Puffs and Gorilla Munch, and four jars of peanut butter. Pretty cool for the small amount of time it took me to enter the contest.
Thanks Delicious Living! The link to the magazine is on the right; they have a great blog and most months they offer some type of contest. Good luck!
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Three Months?
I could go on and on about how busy we've been since last I posted, but I'm sure that's implied. Instead I'll just catch up on where we are now.
Our house is still for sale, I am still planning to homeschool my oldest, the middle child is enrolled in private K, and the baby turned one three weeks ago. I am doing much better with eating and preparing healthy foods, but I'm not where I need to be yet, nor am I exercising as much as I should be. But I'm trying not to beat myself up and instead focusing on what I have accomplished. Such as:
1. Being the queen of storage bin organization.
2. Initiating a total deck rehaul, which included staining an hour a night for five nights.
3. Planning a big party for my daughter's 1st birthday, including an intricately beautiful cake.
4. Starting to map out a curriculum plan for homeschool.
5. Agreeing to co-chair our school auction for the second time.
6. Negotiating a killer deal on the facility for said auction.
7. Being an adult and realizing that a Caribbean cruise was not in our best interest financially at this point in time.
Next month's project, other than teaching my kid, is to paint the front door and continue my Total Photo Organization project, started in February, abandoned for a few months and picked back up again in June. I am putting all photos prior to June 2004 (when I began using a digital camera exclusively) on CD. This has involved going through old albums and choosing anywhere from 100-200 of the year's best pictures, taking them to Target and waiting five days for them to be done. Last time, Target decided they no longer offer this service but after many phone calls and complaints, I got them to do it one more time. Yay me! Now I'll be moving my business to Walgreen's, and after careful consideration, have decided to scan negatives instead of photos, since the clarity should be better. This will be a little more time consuming, I think, but worth it in the end. I am halfway through 2000 so I have four more years of post-kids pictures. After that I'll tackle the four years of pre-kids life with my husband, and if I'm super ambitious, I will scan all of my childhood photos.
I'm tired just thinking about it. At night all I have the energy for is a chapter each in two books I'm reading, Positive Discipline for Teenagers, and It's All Too Much, which is essentially about how American homes are overloaded with crap. One of the most shocking things for me to read is that Peter Walsh thinks I should get rid of all of my storage bins. His rationale is, if you're not using it and haven't used it in a year, there's no need to keep saving it. Not sure if I agree with Peter, but we have at least decided to look through bins that haven't been opened in years, and we have a garage sale scheduled for next weekend.
Our house is still for sale, I am still planning to homeschool my oldest, the middle child is enrolled in private K, and the baby turned one three weeks ago. I am doing much better with eating and preparing healthy foods, but I'm not where I need to be yet, nor am I exercising as much as I should be. But I'm trying not to beat myself up and instead focusing on what I have accomplished. Such as:
1. Being the queen of storage bin organization.
2. Initiating a total deck rehaul, which included staining an hour a night for five nights.
3. Planning a big party for my daughter's 1st birthday, including an intricately beautiful cake.
4. Starting to map out a curriculum plan for homeschool.
5. Agreeing to co-chair our school auction for the second time.
6. Negotiating a killer deal on the facility for said auction.
7. Being an adult and realizing that a Caribbean cruise was not in our best interest financially at this point in time.
Next month's project, other than teaching my kid, is to paint the front door and continue my Total Photo Organization project, started in February, abandoned for a few months and picked back up again in June. I am putting all photos prior to June 2004 (when I began using a digital camera exclusively) on CD. This has involved going through old albums and choosing anywhere from 100-200 of the year's best pictures, taking them to Target and waiting five days for them to be done. Last time, Target decided they no longer offer this service but after many phone calls and complaints, I got them to do it one more time. Yay me! Now I'll be moving my business to Walgreen's, and after careful consideration, have decided to scan negatives instead of photos, since the clarity should be better. This will be a little more time consuming, I think, but worth it in the end. I am halfway through 2000 so I have four more years of post-kids pictures. After that I'll tackle the four years of pre-kids life with my husband, and if I'm super ambitious, I will scan all of my childhood photos.
I'm tired just thinking about it. At night all I have the energy for is a chapter each in two books I'm reading, Positive Discipline for Teenagers, and It's All Too Much, which is essentially about how American homes are overloaded with crap. One of the most shocking things for me to read is that Peter Walsh thinks I should get rid of all of my storage bins. His rationale is, if you're not using it and haven't used it in a year, there's no need to keep saving it. Not sure if I agree with Peter, but we have at least decided to look through bins that haven't been opened in years, and we have a garage sale scheduled for next weekend.
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