Finally Shopping for School Books

I have been uncharacteristically procrastinating over choosing next year's school books. Now, I KNOW I procrastinate about a lot of things, but choosing books isn't usually one of them! In years past, once the kids are done with the school year, I spend time we would have spent on lessons going through my ginormous Rainbow Resource catalogue, circling every single text that interests me for any child. Then I winnow the lists down until I have covered all the subjects for each child, and place an order. I usually have all our books here by the 3rd or 4th week of July, at the latest.

Not this year! I have been basically pretending that September is never going to come, and so there is no reason whatsoever to choose books. Yes, I have felt pangs of guilt about this. Yes, I have told myself again and again that I need to get moving. And yet, somehow something more interesting comes up every time--including scouring the kitchen sink, sewing Brownie patches onto Julia's vest, and watching grass grow!

But face the music we all must, and my wakeup call came in the form of my letter from the school district, accepting the fact that once again, my kids are opting out of their wonderful system. In short--time to file paperwork. So I have to have my plan together.

Now, this year I am doing things differently. I have mentioned my love of the Rainbow Resource catalogue. The reason I love it is simple: it has about four thousand choices in every subject and grade level, and because the family that runs the business is a huge one, they have personally tried every product in it. So each has a lengthy description of its strengths and weaknesses, and which type of kid does best with it. I love that! Most of the time, when shopping for texts, the goal of the company is to sell the book. Therefore, everything written is pretty positive. One great thing about homeschooling is the vast choice we have over which books to use--but that's also a drawback because it can quickly become overwhelming. And once you spend a bunch of money on books, you're loathe to stop using them, even if they aren't working. With Rainbow, I have a better chance of making great choices.

HOWEVER. To say that the family who runs the business has "different ideals" than we do is putting it mildly. We are homeschooling for educational reasons. Religion plays absolutely no part in our homeschool. And when your husband is a Ph.D. scientist, talk of creationism does not exactly go over too well. In this catalogue, evolution is a nasty word, books are put down for mentioning magic or fantastical elements, and curricula that include Bible study are the norm. They have a whole section for teaching your daughters how to be meek and subservient----do I even need to say how well that goes over with me? I even saw a few books that bashed Democrats as being "evildoers who are using their liberal agenda to make money..." ??????????????????

So in years past, Matt has suggested that we might not want to funnel our money into the pockets of this family. I have always told him that it is by far the easiest way to order books, and while we do not see eye to eye with them, at least we are supporting a homeschool family business. However, this year I (for once) do not have a toddler or infant sucking up my time. My kids are at a much more independent stage than they ever have been, leaving me more time to search out other options. So I did go through Rainbow, but rather than automatically buying from them, I searched Amazon, Overstock, Half.com and ebay for better deals. And I found them. Even when I was charged for shipping, the totals still came out to be some fraction of Rainbow's prices. In several cases, I bought used copies in new condition for a penny, with $2.99 shipping--where the book in Rainbow's catalogue was ten or twelve dollars!

It's a messier process, that's for sure. I can't just enter in thirty five items with Rainbow and get one giant box. I had to spend a couple of hours searching for and comparing prices. I had to check out several times. I will be getting books in a dozen shipments. And I placed bids on ebay--so those books I could lose and be back to square one. However, so far I have spent $112 on books that in Rainbow would have cost $206 so far. I am not finished, but I feel better now that I am on the way.

And it even makes me the teensiest bit excited for the new school year.

--Jen

Have You Met Mrs. Meyers?

OK...you all know I am not a fan of housework. I do it because it needs to be done, but I get little if any enjoyment out of the act of cleaning--my happiness comes from it being over! That said, I love Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products. They don't do any animal testing, they all smell gorgeous, they are all biodegradable and made from plant extracts, and they just make me happy if I have to clean something. Target carries their products, but not at an very inspiring price. I've been buying the all purpose cleaner there in geranium (my favorite scent so far) because you can water it down so much that basically they can charge whatever they want. I fill a spray bottle almost to the top and add perhaps 1/4 cup of cleaner to that. The smell is still beautiful and it cleans very well. And that way, I can let the kids spray the counters as much as they want to without worrying they are wasting this expensive cleaner or poisoning themselves.

That said, I was shopping on drugstore.com the other day. I was looking for Mutt Mitts (which are degradable dog poopy bags, because we all know how much I loathe plastic shopping bags and all the damage they do to the environment!) and this site seemed to have the best price I could find. I noticed that the site gives free shipping for orders over $25, so I certainly wanted to take advantage and started poking around. I was ecstatic to find the entire line of Mrs. Myers for a lot less than Target sells them for, so I kind of went a bit berserk!

Let's see, what did I get? In geranium scent, I got the laundry detergent, hand lotion, liquid soap and room freshener (which I will NEVER stop buying! It smells so good sprayed on the beds and near the kitty box!) In rhubarb, I got dish soap, countertop spray, window spray, and all purpose cleaner. Finally, in lemon verbena I got the surface scrub (like Ajax or Comet but natural). I was going to get the dryer sheets, fabric softener and I think there were even more, but I figured that was enough cleaning to get me started! I was surprised not to find a floor cleaner...maybe you're supposed to use the all purpose cleaner for that. So I ended up getting another all natural product for the wood floors.

The best part is, I never left the house, I didn't pay shipping, and my products arrived in two days. Go drugstore.com! I am your friend for life now.

--Jen

Is She My Kid, or What?

The kids convinced me to take them to Target after History Club today, because they wanted to spend some of their allowance money. I agreed, and we went. Julia wanted a stuffed horse, Ben wanted a Transformer, and what did Emma want?

A new dress! I kept asking her if she was SURE she didn't want a toy? (I was afraid that once she saw the toys, she'd want both a toy and a dress!) She stuck to her guns, though. She chose her own sundress, which is actually a bathing suit coverup (it's a striped terrycloth tank dress, but adorable) and she also found a pair of adorable white Mary Janes that were on clearance for $5, so I got those, too.....

Are we going to have fun together someday!!

--Jen

Amazing Bargains

Yesterday we were at a friend's house, talking amongst moms while the kids played, and The Children's Place was mentioned. Someone said that she went and got all these clothes, which reminded me that yes, when the seasons are changing you can go to the outlet store and scoop up loads of clothes dirt cheap. So we decided to head over before we went home...

Oh, joy! I got two pairs of pajamas for each child--the girls' are matching, one thermal with a cute monkey design in bright pink on the brown fabric, the other gorgeous fleece with sparkly butterflies on the pants and babydoll tops. Both with matching scrunchies! Ben's are striped in bright colors. I also got Rachel a newsboy hat, Rachel and Julia sweater coats, and Ben a bathrobe, which he has wanted for months.....all this for $34.90!

Not that I have any excuse getting new clothes for any of my kids--they have so many clothes it's really kind of amazing. But at those prices? I couldn't pass it up!

--Jen

Christmas Shopping

I really should start my shopping. I hate this, every single year. Anyone who knows me I love to shop--but Christmas is too much pressure. I have a list a mile long, there's always the decision of which friends are close enough to actually buy for, who I should bake for, who should just get warm holiday wishes. The pressure of finding gifts that people actually want and need and will like. Not to mention everything else going on at the same time: baking cookies, decorating the tree and outside, trying to fit in parties and special activities and traditions, packing and visiting relatives, Rachel's birthday and party, our anniversary, etc. etc. etc.

Not to mention the frenzy of the stores, everyone desperately hunting for gifts and eventually not really even caring what they buy, just that they're bringing home stuff. And as soon as I get home,I realize that I need more wrapping paper or tape or gift tags or chocolate or ribbons or whatever. Plus the yearly decision about what the kids actually need--we have so many toys that we could supply most third world countries with enough to make every child there ecstatic.

Every year I vow that I will shop all year to take the pressure off. I don't. Every year I vow that I will do everything online and never go into a store at all. Sure I will! Every year I shop all in December and go crazy doing it.

I guess 2008 will be the time to actually stick to a New Year's resolution!

Borders

I took the kids to Borders today to pick up some birthday presents. As usual, we made a stop at the cafe for a snack, then headed to the children's section to poke around. I decided to get a caramel latte, something I rarely indulge in because of the thousands of calories it has, but I did it. Ordered a small caramel latte.

The girl was new--after spending 10 minutes making it and figuring out what everything costs--did you know that a Rice Krispie Treat is actually listed under "marshmallow" in the price list at Borders? I didn't!---she handed me my drink and asked me to taste it, because it was the first one she'd ever made. I tasted it--of course it was about a billion degrees--and reassured her that it was fine. I have a pretty bad cold, so it didn't taste like much, but I figured it was too hot to really taste yet.

As I sipped it, however, I kept thinking that it tasted pretty bad. It tasted weak, and kind of like cinnamon, which is not what a caramel latte should taste like. While the kids talked and ate their marshmallow treat, I absently looked at the receipt. Well, no wonder! I was drinking a TEA latte! Ever see Lucy on the Peanuts cartoons after she gets a nice kiss from Snoopy? That's how I felt! Lattes are coffee drinks, not tea!

I took it back and explained, and was very calm and apologized that I didn't catch it sooner, but it was hot and I have a cold. The lady on duty (my incompetent girl had gone home or on break--or maybe to a different department where she couldn't abuse law-abiding coffee lovers...) apologized profusely and upgraded me to a medium. And made it correctly.

Although now I have a few extra hundred calories to burn, what with the bigger drink and all....

Jen