Seriously – – how do you remember your passwords?
Do you:
This video is funny – but also real.
Tell me – – and others! What tool(s) do you use to remember all your passwords?
Happy Thursday everyone!
Amy
I’ve very intrigued by the recent craze in couponing. My husband’s aunt posts almost daily on Facebook how much she saved and what a great deal she got in her last trip to the grocery or drug store.
I must not live in a good coupon area, because the coupons we seem to get – I don’t buy that stuff. And, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a local store offering double or triple coupon days. Hey Washington – what’s up?
I wish I could partake in the coupon frenzy – I’d love to save more money.
Do you coupon? Is it appropriate to use coupon as a verb?
Have you seen this show on TLC that is dedicated to Extreme Couponing? Apparently there is a whole faction of the population who goes to extremes when using coupons. I believe they view it as a challenge to see how many items they can acquire with their coupons. Then they create stockpiles in their homes with all their free stuff. Check this out.
I posted a question on Facebook yesterday (did you see it, are you a fan of my Facebook page yet?) to everyone about their thoughts on this show.
I felt like Kristin had been in my head when I read her comment: “While I understand the thrill of saving, I often just shake my head when I watch that show. I understand if it’s someone who is going to donate a lot of the items to a worthy cause, but for those that just “stockpile” to me it just seems like another form of hoarding. The one person who cleared the shelves of 47 mustards because she could…..really?”
I find it really interesting how we as a society, can be fascinated with the hoarding that is a result of couponing – but disgusted by someone who hoards cats. I’m no psychologist – but it does seem very similar to me. Collecting and collecting, not being able to stop and not being able to let go of anything in their stockpile either. To me – the only real difference is that the coupon people are just cleaner. I guess I would ask them – when do you plan on eating all that Ranch salad dressing? Do they eat any of their stockpiles or do they just keep adding to it?
I’m not trying to insult anyone’s lifestyles – and Sara’s comment said it nicely – “firstly all shows with the word “extreme” needs to be banned from TV”.
Right on Sara, I’d say anything in extreme whether it is on TV or in real life – shouldn’t be. What’s that saying – everything in moderation?
On the contrary, I jealous of this lady in the video below. She claims she gets fresh produce and organics at reduced prices with coupons. Again – I tend to agree with Sara’s second point in that most of the items in our circulars are for processed foods or junk foods. I tend not to buy too much of that stuff ( I try at least). “Second, I think many of the products stockpiled/couponed aren’t particularly good for you. Lots of sugar, lots of preservatives, lots of sodium…. Don’t get me wrong, I love Doritos as much as the next person, but having 15 bags in your garage beside the 18 cans of Hormel chili….????”
I have a friend who has a genuine stockpile. She is preparing for a disaster of some sort – be it man-made or natural. She’s prepared. But she is rotating through her items and keeping her pile to a realistic quantity. And she’s storing items that can be eaten or used – like canned soup and vegetables and soaps. The stockpiles of condiments and deodorants – – what sort of disaster are they planning for?
What do you think? Extreme Crazy – or Extreme Smart?
Happy Thursday Everyone!
~Amy
Happy Thursday Everyone!
As I was lie awake in bed this morning at 3:30AM, catching up on some reading, feeling frustrated that once again I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, and wishing I could get my insomnia under control, I stumbled across an article about creating waste-free lunches for your kids.
For some reason this article created a sense of pride in me. Maybe because I am happy to report, I am already doing most of the things suggested to reduce waste in my sons’ (and husband’s for that matter) daily lunches. I work from home, so I don’t need to pack my lunch, but nine times out of ten, I pack three lunches a day. I’ve taken steps over the years and just last month, I banned all juice boxes from my house and discovered bags like these to help reduce the use of plastic baggies.
But as I was thinking and reading this blog, it occurred to me….one of the two things I am most proud of myself is how little trash my family generates. I know this sounds like a strange thing to be proud of, but for a family of four, we really generate only a tiny bit of trash. How? I’ll work on creating a list of how we do it, but they mainly revolve around choosing things that can be recycled, composting and using reusable things over the throw away options (sandwich baggies, juice boxes, paper plates and napkins). I’ll share this list with you in a future blog.
So – back to my trash….we, my family of four, only have trash picked up at our house once a week. And we opt for the smaller trash can and usually it isn’t even full. On the other hand, we have two large recycle cans that get picked up every other week. Luckily, we live in an area where we can recycle almost everything.
What’s the other thing I’m most proud?
That would be having earned my Master’s Degree. The decision to get my Master’s was an easy, the two and a half years to get it were tough. Kids, and more kids (I got pregnant with my younger son about half way through the program), a husband who traveled – A LOT during those years. It was many late nights and early mornings, but I did it. And the thing about it was – although the timing of it all was tough, the material wasn’t. I always thought the ideas and concepts obtained in a Master’s program were so complex that I’d struggle. But, you know what…I didn’t. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I had to apply myself and I had to work at it, but overall, the material wasn’t overly hard or impossible to grasp. Hey – I’m pretty smart!
As I continue to write, maybe I can’t limit my list to only two. I’m proud of many other things too, my kids, my work ethic, my rescuing of too many dogs and cats, my marriage of almost nineteen years….
What are you most proud of?
Happy Day!
~Amy
My older son started third grade the Wednesday after Labor Day. So this week marks the end of two and a half weeks of school.
As I’m sure with many school districts across the country, we’ve had to deal with some changes due to staffing based on enrollment numbers.
Last Friday, an email came from the superintendent explaining that enrollment numbers were lower than projected, thus, there would be the need to move some teachers around from one school to another, thus leading to shuffling some students into different classrooms.
This is a less than ideal way to start the new school year, in my opinion (or IMO if you read yesterday’s post). Kids and teachers need the first few weeks to get acquainted , learn the new routines, and just get the wiggles out. In addition, teachers use the first few weeks to assess where each student is academically.
As a result of the decrease in enrollment numbers, my son’s school lost two full-time teachers this week and has shuffled probably half the students into new classrooms or different configurations with split classes. Again, less than ideal. Tomorrow they will be hosting a Reboot 2012 – and basically start fresh and treat tomorrow as the first day of school all over again. Two and a half weeks later.
My friend posted on her Facebook status on Monday saying that she was hoping for strength and patience for the teachers and staff at our school with the decisions they’ll need to make and with also all the changes that are occurring. I backed her up and commented on her status that I was concerned with the changes, and I was as it was the beginning of the week when there was still a lot unknowns.
One of the comments on her thread from a friend of hers basically said “it could be a lot worse, a kid in my kid’s school just got diagnosed with leukemia.”
I had a couple similar comments to a status I posted on Tuesday afternoon saying I was frustrated, irritated and concerned with the changes that were being made at school. And in turn, some of my friends replied to me, that it could be a lot worse and went on to give examples of who they know are in worse conditions and situations.
OK, I’m probably going to sound heartless now but here goes. But first let me say, I consider myself a positive person and usually after I’ve processed a new situation (which might include a bit of venting and/or complaining) I usually turn to and roll with the punches, trying to find the best way to make lemonade out of lemons.
Here’s my point for today:
I get that there will always be worse scenarios than mine. I fully admit that I live in a bit of a Norman Rockwell world. I acknowledge that my life is much easier than others.
But because of all that, does that mean I should not be given the ability to process a sudden and potentially big change that has been thrown at me unexpectedly????
Timing people – timing. Do I really need to have a sick child’s situation thrown in my face six minutes after a statement is made?
I get that the situation of a child with leukemia is AWFUL. I have not idea what that entails, but I can imagine that learning that your young child has a life-threatening illness is probably the worst situation a parent can find themselves. And I get in the whole scheme of things, yes, shuffling around students and disrupting their new routine is minimal compared to that. But you know what – I still should get a chance to process my situation and then be allowed to move on and deal with it.
So again with timing – – if my rant and rave (which in my defense, wasn’t really all that, it was more of a statement of frustration) continued into next week and next month or even the next day – then yes, by all means…put me in my place and remind me of how worse the situation could have been, and how worse other situations are.
I would also say this on the flip side if I was expressing my joy over a happy occasion. I’m not sure I’d really appreciate anyone coming up to me saying “sure, your news is great, but I know of a situation that is even better.”
So how did it end? About thirty minutes after my frustrated status on Facebook, I felt better. I vented a little, got my frustrations out, received some reassuring and positive comments from friends and I felt much better. It cleared my head and I was ready to move forward.
I just needed the time to process it all.
What do you do? Do you rant and rave or can you see the bright side right away?
Happy Thursday,
~Amy
PS – a not so related part of this story was….my origianl Facebook status was on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday morning I woke up to an email from a reporter from the local newspaper asking me if I’d like to make a statement on the changes at the schools. Talk about Big Brother feeling…I mean, I know Facebook tracks stuff…but this was creepy. How in the world did I get on her radar and why was she contacting me regarding this? I called her back mainly to see how she got my contact information. Luckily, she got it off the PTA website, I happen to be the secretary on the PTA. If you’d like to see my quote: here it is……
Happy September!
HEELLLOOOO! I’m back! It’s been a great summer, very full of fun things happening.
I’m happy to be back in a firm routine and am happy the boys are more engaged in things besides running through the sprinklers and eating popsicles all day.
Before I jump right into my themed days (I’ll start that up again next week), I wanted to ask you a question. I’d love to hear other’s views on this point that I’ve heard from about three friends over the last few weeks.
Talking with these three very different friends of mine, none of them know each other and in each situation, the discussion took an interesting turn which lead to the same sentiment:
“I don’t have enough time for the friends I have now, I don’t want to make any new friends.”
I wonder what your thoughts on this?
Do you agree?
Do you disagree?
Why?
I’ll share my thoughts tomorrow, but I’d love to hear yours today.
Happy Thursday everyone!
~Amy
PS – it’s good to be back!
Minute by minute 