More (boring) purchases I made online
Remember when I told you about my goal to simplify, and part of that included less annoying errands? (Like running out of liquid hand soap and dishwasher tabs)
I promised to let you know how it went, so here we are — one month into our let’s-have-a-monthly-Walmart-AutoSave-order so I don’t have to go out in public.
- Irish Spring soap (6-pack)
- Royale napkins (240-pack)
- Softsoap hand soap (1.65L)
- OxiClean dishwasher tabs (42-pack)
- Aussie shampoo in a pump (778ml)
- Razors for me (four-pack)
- Kitchen garbage bags (60-pack)
- Gain laundry detergent (32 loads)
- Palmolive dish soap (1L)
- Dove soap (two-pack)
- Tear-free shampoo/body wash for the kids (440ml)
- Deodorant* for me (45g)
Sheets for C’s new bed, since I wanted to have an extra set. She has white and pale pink chevron cotton sheets on now and that’s all she has. D has two sets of the same soft jersey-knit sheets for his two beds and I’ve always liked how they feel like well-worn T-shirts.
A new drying mat because we use ours constantly with our new sink. I haven’t been washing it very often since it’s always in use, so yayyyy for having two in rotation.
Cleaning supplies (other than products for dishes + laundry) was completely forgotten during the first order. So, yeah, that. and that.
It turned out the garbage bags I’d ordered were too small and annoying for everyday kitchen use. I suppose our kitchen garbage can is larger than, uh, the norm?
So I ordered 80 clear outdoor garbage bags, which I are sturdier and larger and more like what I’d choose to buy if I was out in public. Like, actually picking things out in a store, like the olden days.
Dog treats were something I’d forgotten to put in the first order, and I think that’s a good staple to keep on the AutoSave. It’s not like the dog is going to stop peeing and pooping (and expecting to be rewarded for doing it outside).
The parchment paper is something I don’t use very often but SHOULD, so I guess it’s an aspirational purchase? I picked the smallest roll and it was less than $3, so it will probably last me a lifetime.
Oh, and a scrubby dishcloth for washing dishes. I admit, I was sucked in by the fact it was made by KitchenAid and the fact that it was black and would match our sink.
***
I think ordering these kinds of “boring basics” online is really working for us — so far, at least.
I get flustered in crowded (and uncrowded) stores. I suck at comparing prices (something that’s easy to do online). I forget what we need (well, this happened anyway).
And I’m too tempted by impulse items.
Pop-Tarts!
Cute sweater!
New dishes!
Tights!
New packaging on that cereal! NEED!
Keeping a running automatic order of the basics means our grocery runs are completely food-focused, we’re not stockpiling dozens of bars or soap or disposable razors, and we’re not running out of frigging hand soap (EVER AGAIN).
Plus, I get really excited when there’s a package at the door. Even if it contains garbage bags and toilet cleaner?
The 90-minute (totally free) bedroom makeover
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen sneak peeks of what we’ve been working on in C’s room. Her room hadn’t really been changed since before she was born (with the exception of the rainbow bed and the amazing nightstands) so it was due for something fresh.
The decor changes in our house regularly as I DIY new pieces and re-do older ones, and a question I get a lot is “What do you do with the stuff you don’t use anymore?”
While furniture is usually sold, we tend to donate most of the decor pieces. We have *very* limited storage space in our house and I get anxious about clutter. Rarely, though, does it go to someone we know.
Until today!
While I was tearing apart C’s room and piling up the items that weren’t going to be put back in, I saw on Facebook that the mother of one of D’s friends was looking to redo her daughter’s room and wasn’t sure where to start.
Bailey is a super-sweet little girl who’s been in D’s class for two years in a row now, and I knew she liked Shopkins, Barbies and Frozen so clearly she had a lot in common with C! Bailey is going to have a new little brother soon, so I liked the idea of doing something special for her as a soon-to-be-big-sister.
I messaged her mom, Heidi, to see if she wanted any of the decor for Bailey’s room makeover. She did, and she was kind enough to let me bulldoze in and do exactly as I pleased with it!
Here’s a look at Bailey’s room when I arrived …
We weren’t going to paint the walls or the furniture, but I was still able to change the room quite a bit. Here’s what it looked like 90 minutes (and zero dollars) later …
Tissue paper poms: Originally for C’s nursery
Paper pennant banner: Meri Meri
Wooden shelves: Originally for C’s nursery
Audrey Hepburn sign: Painted by me, originally for C’s nursery
Pink polka-dot curtains: Originally for C’s nursery (tutorial here)
Tiebacks: Just scraps of tulle leftover from a bedskirt I’d made
The gallery wall is a mixture of Bailey’s pieces, pieces from C’s old gallery wall, pieces from other rooms (remember those yellow mirrors) and a couple of items I had in my stash that I knew would work.
Throw pillows: Made by me, originally to match C’s nightstands
And some before-and-after comparisons, too!
What do you think? It was a sweaty 90 minutes but it was exhilarating! I wish everybody would just like me take over a room in their house and do whatever I wanted with it.
Thank you to Heidi, Alan, and Bailey for letting me have fun with this makeover!
So now our other kid can’t hear?!
Longtime readers will remember the many, MANY issues we used to have with D’s hearing.
We suspected a speech delay, learned and used ASL, confirmed he had hearing loss, went to see an ENT (Ear Nose Throat doc), D had surgery to put tubes in his ears, and we saw an improvement in his hearing and speech (pretty big improvements, after speech therapy). But tubes don’t last forever, so they fell out and the gluey fluid (ew) came back — taking his hearing with it. He had a second surgery and things got much better again.
D continues to see his ENT (who is wonderful, BTW, if you’re local and need one) every few months to monitor his ears. Sometimes they’re filled with a bit of fluid, sometimes they’re fine, but he hasn’t needed a third set of tubes and probably won’t at this point.
(Even though there are times when I swear his hearing is “off” and apparently there isn’t a problem. Darling Husband tells me this is “selective hearing.”)
But!
This is not a post about D and his hearing.
This is about C, the one who supposedly has GREAT hearing. Or did, at least.
During D’s last visit to his ENT, I asked if he’d mind taking a quick peek at C’s ears. She hadn’t been hearing well at all for a solid few weeks and I suspected something was up. It was so bad, actually, that I could be standing in front of her, loudly and clearly saying something as she gazed up at me, and she wouldn’t hear me.
“What?”
“What?”
“… What?”
I’d keep repeating myself, more loudly and clearly, until I’d finally explode in a rage of WE DON’T SAY ‘WHAT,’ WE SAY ‘PARDON’! AUGHHHHHH!
So our wonderful ENT (who is awesome with kids — ours adore him) graciously looked at her ears. And yup, I was right. Something was wrong.
Except …?
It was something different than I expected.
Are you ready for this? Seriously?
It was EAR WAX!!!
SO MUCH EAR WAX!!!
I was horrified.
Who knew this was a thing?!
Oh wait, apparently SO MANY PEOPLE KNEW. Several people in Darling Husband’s family have experienced it, which he never thought to mention to me.
I felt super embarassed, like I’d handed over a really dirty kid, but the doc assured me that there wasn’t anything I should have been doing.
He’s vehemently against putting Q-Tips in ears (which Darling Husband is addicted to doing daily, and I do about once a week) so I’m still unclear on how ears are supposed to get clean, way in there?
(Related: We saw our family doctor yesterday, to get the referral for the ENT, and he suggested leaning her back when we’re rinsing the shampoo from her hair and trying to rush water through them a bit that way. I think she’ll claw my eyes out but we’ll see. We obviously need to do something about the Wax Monster.)
So, in the end, he said there *could* be fluid behind her eardrums (like D) but her ears are such disgusting wax-y messes (my words, not his) that he can’t see the eardrums at this point EW EW EW.
Her hearing loss could be caused by fluid, but it could also just be from the nasty wax build-up plugging her heary-holes.
We are now eye-dropping olive oil into her ears every day, for two weeks or so, to soften the wax *throwing up a little* so he can suction it out when she goes back as a real patient.
Two kids, two different hearing problems.
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so gross.
Do you really need ALL of those "meaningful" baby clothes?
You can never have too many nicely-organized storage bins, right? Especially when they’re storing the most precious thing of all — memories!
What about those bins of baby clothes, though? I’d limited myself to one bin per child, but they were really big bins. And I’d only kept the items I really loved, having handed down the rest to friends.
Surely there was room in our house to store the outfits they wore home from the hospital? What about the little sleeper I always plucked first from the clean laundry because it was so cute?
Oh wait, more than one bin each — I was also saving every single item I’d sewn them. I mean, how could I get rid of something I slaved over creating? So that meant there were a few more bins filled with everything from little sunhats and dresses to T-shirts, tunics, button-ups, leggings, sweaters, shorts, pyjamas, skirts, pants and bathing suits.
I was drowning in tiny outfits that didn’t fit anyone in the house. We never opened the bins or admired the contents, either; I just cracked the lids occasionally to cram more inside. I wasn’t keeping everything, but I was definitely hoarding anything handmade or “sentimental” — like the T-shirt they wore as part of their soccer uniform.
I think I had vague ideas about saving items for my sister to put on her own children, one day down the road. Or maybe even for my grandchildren to wear? But really, I think I just didn’t like the idea of parting with it.
I finally got fed up with myself one day recently. Yes, the kids’ closets could continue to store those bins. Yes, I could keep adding to my little collection. But these days I’m sewing almost everything they wear — even undies, sometimes — which means I’d be saving nearly every piece of clothing that touches their bodies . . . for years …
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene
The family sleepover solution
I was in no rush to send my eldest for his first sleepover. He’s a homebody and he is especially fond of his bed — the same bed (sheets, pillow, blankets, everything) he’s had since he was a year old.
He once cried before a family vacation and begged to come home the same day because he thought he’d miss his “cozy, cozy bed.” I certainly didn’t want to get woken up in the middle of the night with a phone call to come retrieve him from a friend’s house. Heck, a phone call after 9 p.m. would be annoying.
I also wasn’t eager to host a sleepover here. What if our little guest cried at bedtime and I had to make the decision to call their parents or see if they’d perk up with another story? What if they took the idea of being homesick literally and threw up all over the bedding? What if they woke me up every half hour saying they couldn’t sleep?
What’s the right age for the first sleepover, anyway? Do you wait until your kids are old enough to understand a sleepover and beg for one? Do you suggest it, all on your own, as something they should try?
The perfect solution, I discovered, is the “family sleepover” …
Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …
As featured on …
