How did I spend my morning

I am trying to save some fresh fruits and veggies from making their way to the trash. I have great neighbors that have gardens. They have been dropping off tomatoes and bell peppers. I hadn't gotten to all of them yet and I don't want them to go bad. So, I cut up the peppers and sauteed them and put them in the freezer. I then cooked up the tomatoes and put them in the freezer to make sauces later. I wanted to make some banana bread with the three bananas that are too ripe. But, that didn't happen.

Morning has come a gone now. My parents came over for a visit so we played and had lunch. Then when my daughter was napping I did some more pricing for the garage sale.

We have plans for the evening with friends. It should be fun. I kind of wish I had some more time to work on things around the house. Tomorrow is a busy day so I can't get anything done then. I guess you can only do as much as you can.

All Over The Place

Right now I feel all over the place. There are so many little things I want to get done that I can't keep my mind wrapped around one to even start it.

I did go grocery shopping while my daughter was at school. Tada for Saturday. But, I want to move it to Thursday since I am without child during that time and Saturdays are going to start getting busy.

I recently read you will be more productive if you get two little things done quickly before tackling any bigger jobs. The act of getting them done, and that sense of accomplishment helps motivate you to get more done. That makes sense to me. So I am going to find my daughters monitor, she is napping, and clean her bathroom before tackling the kitchen.

I will let you know how it goes.

Memories and Garage Sale Pricing

I just finished pricing two more large bags of clothes for our garage sale. Yeah! Still so much more to do.

I got a little sad while pricing this morning. The clothes are so small, just like my baby girl used to be. Now when shopping for new clothes for Elena I pick out clothes that are too small. When I hold up the clothes that are the right size I can't believe how big they are. I know she has gotten so big. And I know that my just turned 3 year old is still small. But, she is growing so quickly.

I have never been one to look towards the past and miss it. I generally spend most of my time looking towards the future and the fun to be had. Becoming a mom seems to have changed that. I don't miss a day of being a single woman out on my own. Or a day of my fun college or high school years. I don't miss the care free days of my youth. But, I am going to miss helping my daughter with every single thing that she can now do on her own. And every year that passes of her youth. But, I still have the ability to look towards the future and see many great years of learning and teaching, in both of our lives, together.

Who knew that garage sale prep could bring a girl to tears?

Bill Paying TaDa

I just got done paying my bills. I try to do this every Wednesday. Yeah, only one bill to pay this week and it was just a water bill.

Have you noticed that some credit card companies are getting their bills to you just in time for you to pay them. We basically use two cards in our home, Discover and one Visa. Luckily, we have always been in the habit of paying off the whole balance every month. (If you find this habit hard to do, I highly suggest not using credit cards.) Our Discover card bill comes about 3 weeks before it is due. This is great. If I get to the bill on Friday instead of Wednesday, not a big deal.

Our Visa bill on the other hand generally gives us less than 2 weeks to pay. That means that if it comes on a Thursday I might have to get on my electronic bill payer (through my bank) by Tuesday to give it the 5 business days to get the bill there in time to not get hit by late and interest fees. I think that is crazy.

Four ways I know to combat what I consider to be an unethical practice of some credit card companies are:

1. Set up an automatic payment of an average credit card amount through your electronic bill payer. This way you just have to go in and change the amount when the bill comes. And, if something comes up in the short time they give you to pay the bill at least they got some money.
2. Keep track of your purchases and when the credit card bill is generally due and send the amount due. (I use http://www.mint.com/ to keep track of my spending. It is super easy to use.)
3. Call or get online to check your credit card amount and send when due.
4. Cancel the card. I would make sure that you explain why you are canceling. The only way to curb this practice is to hurt the company where it matters, their business. (Note: I recently learned from Clark Howard that you can hurt your credit score by cancelling credit cards. Can you believe that? I need to check into that more, but keep that in mind before canceling any cards.)

Do your credit card companies send their bills to you in what you would consider at timely manner? Let me know.

Crayola.com

I just recently learned that at the Crayola website www.crayola.com you can print free coloring pages. Since yesterday I have printed two different pages. One is to help my daughter learn her letters with her preschool class. Tomorrow they are going over the letter A. My daughter knows the letter A already. But, to help reinforce the learning I went out to the website and printed out a coloring page.

The website has many other fun things to check out. Go to www.crayola.com to see what you can find.

Productive Preschool Time

I had two hours to myself in my home while my daughter was in preschool today. I am working on getting ready for a well over due garage sale. It was great. Although, the house was still a wreck when it was time to go pick up my daughter. I had decided not to pick up and just continue when my daughter went down for a nap. The only problem, my daughter would not go down for her nap.

I am thinking that I am going to need to revamp my routines now that school has started. I have been having productive days but they haven't been going to plan. I am going to worry about that later.

Mondays (A fresh start)

When I was a 9 to 5 worker (actually 7:30 to 5:30 worker) I used to dread Mondays. It meant back to the grind of my desk job. It isn't that I didn't like my job. It is just that I liked the weekends that much better.

Now that I am a stay at home Mom, I enjoy Mondays. With everyday being a work day now, or none work day depending on your perspective, Mondays feel like a chance to start fresh. I almost feel like it is a new year. January 1 and a chance to start a whole new year without the baggage of the last one. Of course, it is all in my mind. This week is impacted by the last one. But, it feels good to get that fresh start.

Today, I go to my Mom's Group. It has been out for the summer. I am looking forward to a chance to sit with other Mom's and just be. My daughter will, hopefully, enjoy the time too. She will be in a room with many toys and children to play with. (Although, her friend Ava will be in school and I am sure will be missed by Elena.)

The load of laundry I put in this morning just beeped. Time to move it to the drier. Today is off to a good start!