Economic slow down

Jesse is starting a new career on Monday selling Aflac insurance (so if anyone needs that, let us know :). We are very excited about this change and think it will mean great things to come for us. The problem is that for a few months our income will be drastically reduced. Does anyone have tips on how to save money on things like groceries, etc? Any tips on how to get through this time would be appreciated also. I know we are definitely not the only people in America going through this right now and I am sooo grateful we have a home and food.

Thanks for your ideas.

Early to bed, early to rise makes mommy very unhappy

Ever since the Daylight Savings time change Sunday before last Jackson has gone from waking up at 6:30 or so to 5 or 5:30. Since I do transcription after he goes to bed until around 11:30 this is not a pleasing development. I've tried putting him to bed later, I used to put him down around 7:15 and now I put him down closer to 8, but that hasn't worked.

Anyone have suggestions on how to get him to wake up later? Am I just doomed to wake up this early until he is old enough to get up on his own? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated or even tips how to survive with such little sleep.

Crud in tub

So does anyone have any great methods for cleaning all the hard water crud left behind in bathtubs? I've tried all sorts of cleaning products and scrubbing until my forearms ached, but it didn't do much more than remove a tiny portion of it. I'm tempted to try the pumice stone thing, but I'm worried it too won't work and I didn't want to if there were a better method. Any thoughts?

Success!

Thanks for the advice on the discipline. So far it seems to be working great. Like an article I read recently "it actually was easier than I thought" Jackson is willing to behave, he just needs to know what that means to me. He was a very good boy while I met with the primary president about my class so I took him to the park as a reward. Then today we were going to the park when he started refusing to be in his stroller. I told him if he did not sit in his stroller we wouldn't go to the park. He hesistated for a second and then sat down in his stroller. Next step: The Dreaded Grocery Shopping Experience.

Thanks again everyone!

How much do you have to spend to get a really good camera?

I'd like to get a better camera- I currently have a point and shoot- but the quality is not so great.

Emily, how do you take such good pictures?

Any camera recommendations?

What a friend should be and how to organize your crap

A big thanks to Kari for starting this blog. What a great idea and way to keep in touch/get info/share stuff/praise each other on our fabulous friendship.



Does anyone have any great ideas/resources on storage for incoming mail, keys, papers, coupons, handouts, flyers, advertisements, etc.? I've seen a couple of organizer things at Pottery Barn. But talk about pricey! I have a very small organizer now, but with the kids starting school and dance and all the ads I'm saving and bills I'm collecting, I'm running out of space on my counter, on my microwave and tiny storage slots.

Welcome!

Okay, here goes nothing! I'm hoping this blog can be something we can trade advice and fun stuff. I am certainly no expert at blogging and I hope anyone who has better ideas on how this thing should work will chime in. I am thinking we can all do posts with questions we have and then if people have answers they can put them in the comments section. If we label the posts like "Discipline" or "Food" or "How Fabulous Kari is" then if we have a question we can look through posts with similar labels to see if it has been asked yet.

So here is my first post. Jackson is getting close to 2 (in December, how time flies!) and is harder to control. All in all, he is a good kid but sometimes he runs crazy around my visiting teachee's house and doesn't stop when I ask him to and church is hard because he doesn't sit when we ask him to. What I am wondering is should I expect him to understand and do what I ask or am I ahead of myself? Any ideas on how to have him listen better to me?

Again, this is a work in progress so please feel free to comment on how to make it better. Or just make it better yourselves! All of you should have the ability to change the blog around, just let us know what you do and how to use it if you change things.