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Ok, so first things first.

I should make an announcement!!!

Reckless Magic is now available in paperback!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!

You can get your copy here:



This is honestly a dream come true for me. I can hardly put my copy down. Which... my official copy just came today and I can hardly stand it.

So if you won a copy from me, you will also be getting your signed copy soon.

Probably sometime next week.

I don't do anything fast and I am embarrassingly forgetful. But I've marked it on my To Do List. So as long as I don't lose that we'll be good!! :)

Anyway!!! If you need a cuddle buddy, Reckless Magic is SO there for you!!!!

Or is that just me??

Probably just me....

It's so been forever since I've blogged. I keep thinking my life is going to slow down and I'm going to have just empty days where all I do is write and pump out a million stories...

So not the case.

Like this week. I volunteered to help with VBS and where I thought I was maybe signing up to help with snacks, I got put in charge of the Arts and Crafts Room.

This is the kind of joke that only God can play. And I really mean that. My own mother, you know the one that loves me unconditionally and birthed me and raised me and would move heaven and earth for me??? Yeah, her. She won't even let me go near a pair of scissors for an art project.

She says I just don't have the talent.

The talent for Scissors!!!

The worst part is, she is SO right.

I can't do something that kindergartners learn to do. It's amazing I know how to tie my own shoes... :)

I just don't have the art-bug. Like I am SO not crafty. I can organize because I like puzzles, but I have never really bought anything to even decorate our house with.

True story.

Everything we have in our house is either a gift, a hand me down or Zach's suggestion. I've done none of it.

And people expect me to be super crafty. Well, I'm such a hippy and I guess you could call my clothes artsy... I mean, all black, right?? I look like one of those serious art students, only I'm not one...

And I'm a writer, so people assume I'm really creative. Which I can be in that department.

It just doesn't translate to real life.

Anyway, so I'm in the Arts and Crafts Room and I keep berating myself on why on earth I thought I had the time to spend every day at church this week from 8-12. Which means I am gone from 7:45-12:30 and then have to feed the kids and squeeze in my other errands and pick up the house and yada yada yada.

So I'm not getting hardly any of my writing goals accomplished.

But here's the thing. I am loving it!! It is really turning out to be a great experience and the kids are having SO much fun.

We go to one of the bigger churches in Omaha, so when they do VBS, it's actually called VBX and it's awesome. Today they had a strong man there ripping phone books in half and bounce houses set up for the kids.

My children are just in heaven.

Even Stryker who is too little for any planned activities didn't want to leave his room today.

I'm like, Hello child??? I'm your mother. You are supposed to drop everything and run to my arms....

Right??

:)

I'm glad he's having fun.

And the other moms I am working with are fantastic. We have so much fun. So. That being said. If I don't get a book out this month, know that I had a really really good time NOT working. Haha!!

Plus, I've just been biding my time, thinking Oh, well my babysitter comes back next week so I'll get a lot done then... WRONG. I have either a doctor's OR a dentist appointment Tuesday-Thursday.

Oh my word. Not to mention at some point I should clean the house. And at some other point, preferably VERY soon I SHOULD do the laundry.

But when is it going to happen?? That's what I want to know.

And I don't mean to complain about my time. Because I know we are ALL busy. But that's my point. I think being a mom is less about raising kids and more about running errands.

Seriously. Isn't that all we do? Or if we're not running errands then we are definitely on the phone making ridiculously long phone calls that take three times as long as they should to the cable company or the kids school or signing them up for gymnastics which I STILL haven't done...

Being a mom takes at the very minimum fifty hours a day and I just don't think any of us have that kind of time!

I told my mom today that I'm pretty sure Errands were part of the Curse, after Adam and Eve sinned, God was like, "Eve you shall have pain in childbirth. Adam you shall always struggle to be dominant and Mothers everywhere you shalt be cursed with errands for all the days of your lives. And if you aren't learning your lesson with that then I shalt send the plague of prolonged phone calls and traffic jams."

Oh it's in the Bible. Don't question me! :)

I learned it this week at VBS.

Just kidding.

Whether you believe me or not... I do know that it is hard to be a mom in today's go-go-go-world. And it's even harder to get everything done that you need to!

All is not lost however, as we have each other. There is no greater resource than another mom. Together we know everything. And together we could rule the world.

I've gotten several helpful tips lately that I want to share with you all, because they are awesome. And I think they warrant me passing them along.

1. Diapers through Amazon.

I am a compulsive online shopper. I didn't know this about me until we left the poorhouse. But.. what I DID know was that in general I HATE to shop. I hate it. I loooooathe it. And that is mostly because it is so darn time consuming. And up until this summer when I have 12 hours of help a week, I used to take the kids literally everywhere with me. Plus lets face it, 12 hours ain't a whole lot of time to get everything done so for the most part they STILL go everywhere with me. Which then led to me not going anywhere. There used to be whole days at a time clustered together when we wouldn't leave the farm.

I miss those days.

Anyway, I'm a make-it-work kind of girl, so usually unless it is a absolute emergency you are not going to see me tromping around town just shopping for the heck of it. Although there was a day a few weeks ago... but that my friends was an anomaly.

Anyway, online shopping has become my bff and I can get SO much accomplished by just the movement of a mouse, that I am in love. Zach calls it a serious problem. Although... really... there's not that much being bought. But the kids needed stuff. Like clothes. And shoes. And I needed stuff like, new wooden bamboo spoons and a Father's Day Gift. Right???

Anyway, I learned today that you can actually buy diapers online at Amazon for way cheap. This is fantastic news.

Especially because we are Amazon Prime Members... On accident... I signed up for the free month during Christmas and totally forgot to cancel. At first it was frustrating, but now I adore the two-day free shipping. I adore it. And that means I can get my diapers for cheap and keep them that way by not paying for shipping.

It might be something you're interested in checking out!!

2. Almond Milk

So a little while ago I blogged about giving up regular milk and switching to organic. Well, since then I've had all these great comments and messages from mom's who have done the same. And most of them have recommended Almond Milk.

Which, let's be honest, sounds awful. So I politely listened to their advice, but thought "No thank you, I'll stick to regular organic.

Then I was in Hy-Vee picking up some milk and simultaneously grumbling about the price of it when I noticed my dear friend Mr. Almond Milk on sale for half the price.

That little sale sticker was enough to convince me to give it a go and see what the kidlets thought. Turns out it was a HUGE hit. It's cheaper than organic milk. Has three times the calcium of regular milk and your body can actually digest it properly so that it GETS the calcium and it doesn't curdle when left in a sippy cup in a hot car.

That's enough right there isn't it???? :)

I love it. Especially the chocolate kind. And so do my kids. And I feel really good about offering it to them.

3. My Care Credit Card.

Ok, if you know anything about me, you should know that I don't believe in credit cards. I don't have them. I don't use them. I have before... but they're just not for me. I have this huge issue with going into debt. And not with other people doing it, just for myself. Like the last time we talked seriously about buying a house, I got hives that lasted for a week and turned my entire body into a scratch pad. It was awful. Going hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt is a huge reason we haven't bought a house yet. But anyway.

I am also self-employed. And Zach works for a company that doesn't offer benefits. So for insurance we have turned, like so many others, to an HSA. Which I actually love for several reasons, but this blog isn't where I'll lay it all out for you.

One thing that we will never get because of our circumstances is Dental Insurance. We've looked into it, talked with our Insurance Agent, and our Financial Adviser and really, really thought about it and it doesn't make sense.

Don't mind the fact that I alone need $10,000 of work done, including two teeth implants and a whole mess of other stuff.... We won't talk about those facts.

Just know that I have TERRIBLE teeth.

That is also a different blog.

So anyway. While I was talking to my Dentist about my upcoming Dental plan... which is going to take me like six whole months to finish with two three to five hour appointments a month.... (Yikes, right!!!!) she mentioned the option of something called Care Credit.

And I'm blogging about this because obviously a LOT of families use HSA's and other creative avenues to pay for medical bills, and often dental work is overlooked. But take it from me that it NEVER should be. In fact, I'm willing to start a bad-teeth-support-group if anyone is interested. We can sip water and eat apples and whine about genetics and lack of fluoride as a child.

Anyway, my dentist recommended Care Credit. It's a credit card you apply for online that covers medical-ish things that your HSA won't, or whatever you have that doesn't cover a lot. It can be used for chiropractic stuff, optical, dental, even some psychological needs. And you apply online and then you get a credit card and take it with you and use it when you need those services.

But the best part about it is that there is no interest if you pay off the balance within a year. And not just the first year, every year.

So, even though I so don't believe in charging for things, the no-interest thing sold me. Along with the idea that the average family is not going to have $10,000 worth of work per person. The average person is going to have six month cleanings and the occasional cavity. Which is maybe not that big of a deal to pay cash for then, but if you are like me and schedule all your kids appointments together so you only have to go once every six months for the, then I think it makes sense. Plus, if your dentist office is like mine, they also offer a 10% discount if you pay with a check or credit card that day.

I haven't actually used it yet, but I love the idea of it. And even though, lets get real, they didn't approve me for all $10,000 of work I needed done... it still takes the burden off that upcoming experience at least a little bit.

That's it. I know there are a million more, but my much-depleted brain won't let me think of them!!!!

Rachel

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3 comments:

  1. I also have a CareCredit card and love it. Good to know it always there "if" it is needed for something we didn't see coming. :) Hang in there and have fun being a mom first, writer second.. well actually wife second, but you get the picture.

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  2. How do you buy a paperback copy?

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  3. Is there any way to update our kindle file to the new, edited versions? I want them!

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