Every year at JCP at about the 3rd Monday in July and the 3rd Monday in January children’s clothing is clearance down. Markdowns are determined by the store and not corporate. So you could go to another mall and they haven’t marked down the clothing yet, or they may not mark the clothing down as much.
My 1 ½ year old held the longest potty strike, but is now willing to use the potty on a regular basis while she is awake. Although she generally has a wet or messy diaper after naps and waking in the morning, while awake she has been initiating using the toilet consistently for the past week. In the end she is potty trained at about the same age as her older sister and before baby #3 is born. Now, if we can only convince her to use the potty for her BMs. I’m working on her sister to convince her of this (I’m slowly realizing the power older sibling has on motivating a younger sibling to do and learn stuff.)
I was just thinking back to when my oldest started sleeping in her bed without the side and how big of messes she made. She emptied her dresser about every day for about 2 months and then would crawl into bed 2 or 3 hours later and collapse.
I was thinking this because our second hasn’t been making big messes. She picks a few toys and plays with them for 15 minutes to an hour and then collapses on the floor. Yesterday she fell asleep looking at a picture album of her best friend.
Today our oldest emptied 2 drawers and now she gets to pick up her big messes. I asked her why she did this and she said because she was angry about not finding the top to her marker. So we talked about being angry. I also asked her if she was having fun emptying the drawers and she admitted that she was having fun (gleeful bliss as she tossed the things up in the air.
I tried to get her to clean up the mess for a few hours. I let her take a nap and then tried to get her to go back to pick it up. I tried everything to motivate her; however NOTHING worked. So I finally did something I told myself I would never do. I called my husband to talk to her. She talked to him for about 30 seconds and then ran into the room and started throwing stuff into the drawers. I went behind her to help as I told her I would help as long as she started to pick up. We were done in less than 10 minutes with everything mostly sorted and folded in the correct drawer.
I’m always amazed at how easy it is for Daddy to motivate my daughter. I first noticed it when she was about 1 1/2, but he still has a better time getting her to do things around the house without much complaining. It try his same tactics, but am not usually as successful.
End of June and the month of July brings some great clearance prices to IKEA.
Every year IKEA comes out with a new catalog where the prices are effective at the beginning of July. The store redesigns their floor model rooms and main display areas. They try to have them done before July 4th. This means that all that stuff is put into the ASIS area where you can find some really great deals. As well, they clearance out anything that hasn’t made it into the new catalog on the floor where you can find some great deals.
Last year we were shopping for a new cabinet in July and we were able to purchase our cabinet doors for $1.00 each. Before the sale they cost about $120 each. We were putting the cabinet in the basement, so the design didn’t matter and it turned out I really liked the doors. We also picked up a few other things to make out cabinets cost less from the ASIS area.
The displays at IKEA change every 4 months in a minor way with the seasons. The items are placed into the ASIS areas so you can get some great deals on a good product… if you need the stuff.
When my husband and I moved a few months we were told we moved over 14000 lbs of stuff. Not only was this 4000 lbs more than we were quoted, but we had already moved 2 van loads of stuff and over 3 van loads that were brought to Salvation Army. We even had to rent a bigger house to keep all the stuff in.
We are determined to reduce our stuff. We are in the process of selling off more stuff and trying to be mindful of what we bring in. Our main goal in our stuff reduction is to have a smaller home so we can pay less rent, but our end result should make us more conscious of what we buy and save us some money in what we
So watch out Craig’s list here we come. Watch out bank account you’re about to grow. Watch out advertising world, we’re teaching our kids, and ourself about how to look through marketing to see what we really need.
Here’s an online movie of the Story of stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com/. It is very biased on being over consumers; however, it does have some good views that make you go Hummmm on our over consumption.
Today was my birthday, but I was going to ask for a Do Over on a different day.
I woke up as normal, had breakfast and then went to dress the girls. The youngest had about 10 spots on her back and arms. So we spent the day inside waiting to see if more spots showed up. I didn’t notice any more, but we will have to see if she was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes or if it really is Chicken Pox.
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I consider Trader Joe’s to be the Aldi of the healthier food world. Their stores are small grocery stores; however, most of the items are their own label so they don’t have 10 selections of the same product.
While obtaining my Undergrad degree I studied Early Childhood Education. After finishing school and starting a family, I went back “to my roots” and am developing a “center based” play area for my children. Essentially, by rotating their toys regularly, they don’t get board. I don’t always remember to change the toys, but when things are getting thrown, or broken, I know it is time to rotate the toys.
Tonight I stood looking at our “new” house with my husband in between holding my baby daughter and my older daughter off to the side in the field picking dandelions. I was over whelmed with joy. I know I am blessed beyond what I could ever imagine.
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I was gung-ho with starting to use the potty from birth with baby number 2 and all was going well until we needed to move. Then my darling daughter decided to throw the longest potty strike that has lasted over 6 months. Although not totally abandoning the concept of toilet usage for my young daughter, my daughter is refusing to use the potty even though she knows what it is for.
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