Managing the MotherLoad by Jennifer Applin

Fall, Y'all! Bloggy Giveaway!

  Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is doing it again!  Remember the Dog Days of Summer Giveaway with over 500 giveaways?!?! Well now it's time for the fall version!!! She's hosting this carnival on her bloggygiveaways.com blog.

As far as my giveaway...I'll picking three lucky winners to each receive a $5 Starbucks giftcard! The last time I gave away Starbucks giftcards because I had them but didn't think I'd want them since I didnn't drink coffee. But...since hundreds of you raved about Starbucks when you entered my giveaway I thought I better check it out. Now...I'm an official addict, making a Starbucks run at least a few times a week! (of course it is oh-so convenient when there's one in my grocery store :-)

So if you'd like to please your tastebuds with Starbucks just simply leave me a comment on this post this week (only enter once please). The comments close Friday, Nov 2nd at 10 PM. I'll randomly draw the winners and annouce them here Saturday morning. When leaving a comment make sure you have included your e-mail address or linked to your blog if you have once so I can contact you!

Check out the rest of the Fall, Y'all Bloggy Giveaways to enter to win what is sure to be hundreds of great giveaways!

ETA: and the winners are...Tabitha at 123Pizza's, Michelle at Heart of the Prairie, and Mom Chatter! Congrats to our winners! I'll be sending these out in a few days :-) Thanks to Shannon at BloggyGiveaways for hosting this fun carnival!

Conscious Consumer Meme

Megan at Having Enough tagged me for this Conscious Consumer Meme (fun, fun!-I haven't done one of these yet :-) Here's the description:

Here’s how it works: post the directions on your blog, tell everyone who tagged you, answer the questions, and tag five or more people. That’s it! And if you want to grab the graphic to put on your blog as well, feel free.

The purpose of this meme is to inspire some reflection about how we shop and what we purchase. The idea isn’t that consumption itself is somehow bad, but that we all could probably stand to put a little bit more thought into what we buy. And, of course, it’s supposed to be fun.

So here goes! Pick a recent shopping trip — for clothes, shoes, groceries, doesn’t matter. The only guideline is that it will be easier to play if you purchased at least a few things.

Now tell us, about your purchases:

1. What are you proud of?
2. What are you embarrassed by?
3. What do think you couldn’t live without?
4. What did you most enjoy purchasing?
5. What were you most tempted by? (This last one may or may not be an actual purchase

Okay, I'm not much of a shopper, but I did recently purchase a bunch of items online at Kohls (I heart Kohls!) Now what is truly rare is that all of my purchases were for MOI! Ideally I would have actually gone into the store and spent a few hours browsing, trying clothes on and buying what I really wanted, but those hours weren't showing up in my schedule. So I took advantage of the 30% code, spent enough to get free shipping and stayed up late "shopping." Here's my take on my purchases once they arrived:

1. What are you proud of? I'm proud that I was being very selective about what I decided to keep. Even if it meant making the trip to return some items I wasn't going to keep it unless I really loved it and it fulfilled my purpose of updating my wardrobe to look nicer and get me out of yoga pants on a daily basis.

2. What are you embarrassed by? Actually it's the way some items fit now compared to my pre-birthing four babies figure. I really don't need to lose weight, but I'm definitely feeling the need to tone some areas. The only good thing is that this kept me from keeping all of my purchases and my little spending spree didn't cost as much.

3. What do you think you couldn't live without? I thought I couldn't live without this really cute long plaid wool skirt. Not something I would normally buy but I loved how it looked in the ad. This was also the most expensive item. But when it turned out that I wasn't as crazy about it in person (the colors didn't appear the same) and I wasn't thrilled with the shirt options, I was fine with "letting it go."

4. What did you most enjoy purchasing? There were three other skirts that fell in the "sure I'll stick it in the cart and check them out" category, but I LOVED them in person.

5. What were you most tempted by? (This last one may or may not be an actual purchase!) More yoga pants ;-) But I did good...well, okay, I did buy one microfleece set, but in a bargain with myself I did purge a few older similar items from my closet :-)

Okay, I tag: Sparkly Like a Holiday, Owlhaven, Ramblings of a SAHM, April Showers, Motherhood...and My Crazy Life

Featured Resource Friday: It's that time again....

Yep, I'm talking about Christmas! For those of you who have been enjoying this unusually warm fall, like we have, this may not "feel" quite right. But according to the calendar Christmas is just a little over 10 weeks away. That sounds like a long time, but when you really think about EVERYTHING you need to get done, it really isn't. Plus, maybe you're like me and you'd like to get the "work" of Christmas out of the way so you have the time and energy to truly enjoy the holiday season. Well, here's a few tools to get you motivated and organized:

Thanks to the Internet we now have plenty of places to turn to come up with a great holiday prep plan. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Many people have the same tasks on their holiday to-do lists (shopping, wrapping, making cookies, sending out cards, etc.). A great site to turn to for a ready-made plan of attack is Families With Purpose (don't you just LOVE that title?-we should all be families with purpose!) You can sign up for their "8-Week Plan to a Frazzle Free Christmas" which includes a free e-book along with weekly and daily reminders to keep you on track. Don't delay-the plan actually starts Monday (although if you jump in a little late and play catch-up you'll still be way ahead of the game). The 8-week plan concludes on December 10th leaving you a full two weeks to sit back and enjoy the festivities!

If you like to move at a faster pace then check out organizedchristmas.com. Their Christmas Countdown plan runs from Oct 21 to Dec 1st. It is complete with weekly themes, a printable holiday planner, daily messages, and even an interactive community at Organized Christmas Message Boards. The site also includes great ideas for holiday gifts and crafts (nothing beats giving a homemade gift-and savings a little $$$ while you're at it!).

A round-up of sites keeping you organized this Christmas wouldn't be complete without visiting Flylady. Anyone who has ever had an issue dealing with controlling clutter is familiar with Flylady. Well, she also has a plan for "Cruising Through the Holidays." Download Flylady's Holiday Control Journal and baby-step your way through your holiday to-do list. Before you know it you will have accomplished it all and have time left to savor the season!

ETA-Okay this will supposed to post on Friday before I went out of town for a wedding but something screwed up. So just pretend it's still Friday (don't we all wish!) ;-)