Back to Work?

Why do I spend so much time and effort thinking about going back to work? I don't want to go back to an office and leave my kids in daycare or with a nanny but I want to bring in some money so we can have so more flexibilty or maybe send our children to private school someday if we save, save, save.

What a waste of time to type into google over and over "work from home not a scam" or "work from home mom" or any other similar combination. It's all a joke - or at least a lot of it.

A year ago I sold Avon. That was ok except I was my best customer. I had one friend who regularly bought from me as well and that was about it. I'm not into door to door sales and direct sales is not for me. No challenge and certainly not using my skills. Oh, you want the pink lipgloss on page 36? Sure I'll deliver it to you as soon as I get my next order. That will be $4.50 plus tax. BLAH!

I do have a lot of interests and some ideas of things that I can do but I'm not really that into any of them. I also don't posess alot of money to go after any of them including getting a training certificate.

High end travel planner? Life or executive coach? Leadership seminars? Selling princess gift bags on ebay? HELP!

Looking for something to do part-time, from home, interesting, using some brain power with the real possibility of income greater than $50 a month!

Maybe I'll be enlightened someday but until then I'm open to suggestions.

Costco = Cost Savings?

We are a family of four with two little children. Are we really saving money by shopping at Costco? For things like toilet paper and paper towels I'm sure the answer is yes (especially since I don't track sales to match our coupons at our local grocery store). For food, not exactly a great deal. What is it about Costco that makes it irresistable! I go in for milk and come out having spent $200! I could say it's self control but at least I know I'm not alone. All of my friends go through the same Costco spending frenzy.

I'm not sure why I let myself go there once a month and sometimes more. Initially it was because my super skinny daughter would eat her way through Costo and then top it off with some of their pizza at the food court. (by the way, Costco food court pizza is the only pizza that she'll eat). Well, I'm preparing for another trip this week. Now the big decision is if I go with one or both children. The Costco coupons expire on the 28th so time to get ready!

Here's the list that I'm walking into the store with.... Will I get out for under $200? Unlikely. What will come home with me? I'm hoping it's just the list below:

Carnation Instant Breakfast
Cookies for kids
Tide HE
Charmin
Bounty
Kleenex Tissues (or Kirkland)
Diet Pepsi
Swiffer Duster
Bounce
Huggies Diapers and Wipes
Paper Plates
Huggies Diapers and Wipes
Crest Toothpaste
Toothburshes - Cross Action Vitalizer
Choc Chips
Apple bread
Laughing cow cheese

On the Cell with Barbie

My three year old was in the back of the car on the way home from school today and had the following conversation on her Tigger phone:

Hi , Barbie! How are you?

I love you.

What are you doing?

Are you at work?

Oh, you're dancing with Angelina? Ok.

Yeah, I'm going home.

Ok. See you later Barbie.

She also had a fabulous conversation with her Dad and several of her friends. If she can talk for 10 minutes on her play phone, I'm in trouble when she's a teen and asks for a cell!

Picky Eaters

So everyone talks about their toddlers and preschoolers with these fabulous appetities. Not me. Two kids, two terrible eaters. With our oldest, we went to every feeding program out there on the east coast (or so it seemed). She was just so skinny and fragile (she still is super thin). We thought that something was wrong with her. After seeing a million doctors, she's fine - just not as hungry as her peers. Now our son is eating about as much as our daughter, essentially milk and nothing else. Luckily, he is still gaining weight but it's slow and honestly, we don't know how. Maybe it's all the chocolate milk and chocolate chips and animal crackers and other small cookies that we give to him out of desperation.

What is a parent supposed to do to get their child to eat. We all know the rules - don't be confrontational, give them lots of nutritious options, don't let them have more than 16 - 24 ounces of milk a day etc. How do you avoid showing your child frustration if day in and day out they eat like a bird? I really thought our son would be a eater. One child at least! Now our daughter is 24 lbs at three and a half and our son is about 21.5 at 16 months. At least he's on the growth chart and I guess that should make us happy. I wish that there was some magic out there though.

Redistricting and Property Values

So my oldest is only three and a half but it looks like they're moving the district boundaries for our high school. The current high school is ranked as one of the top 100 in the nation. The one we may change to is also ranked (650 or so) but has gangs and a totally different curriculum and is generally known as just a scary place and not a great learning environment. When we bought our house, we not only bought the home but we thought we bought into an area with a great public education.

What happens if they move us to the "bad" high school? Do we move before it happens (in 2008) so we can sell our house more easily? Well, the market sucks right now in general. Do we move in 10 years or so to make sure that our kids can go to a better school? Do we send our kids to the "bad" school and hope for the best and that they are some how protected by academic paths that they choose and the "right" kids? If we know that we're going to move, it will undoubtedly impact how much money we put into our house too. Do we put in wood floors? Redo bathrooms? Kitchens? Different story if it's the forever house that we thought. Unless we come into money - lottery perhaps - private school around here is out of the question. This stinks.

I wish that the voice of the community could impact the outcome by influencing the school board but what's the chance. Of course nobody wants their child to be the one to change schools. They say that they'll listen to their constituents but how is that possible if they want to get the numbers up in one school and down in another. All I do know at this point is that even though my kids are not yet school age, I'm going to stay involved in the process.

Hello

Welcome to the life of TALES - better known as Ted, Allison, Lindsey and Eli Steinbrenner. Life is crazy here these days but there are lots of wonderful moments too. The kids are hysterical and overall, life is great.

Currently, both kids have colds, Ted is taking a vacation day to watch the kids while I lay around on the couch hoping that my knee heals.

I'll blog about what's going on with us and with just some of the general silly stuff that we sweat and laugh at too.

I'm sure I'll post alot about potential high school redistricting, the kids lack of eating anything but chocolate and other junk, going back to work and the longing to travel, fix up our house, buy lots of toys and clothes and other general stuff without having real money to do any of it. I know that is sounds familiar to so many people but when you're the one figuring it all out, it doesn't seem like it's the same issues. Each one feels unique and worth sweating. Time to do more laughing...

Until later...