It's been forever since I've written -- and I apologize for that. But as one faithful reader once told me, the beautiful thing about a blog is that your readers are there when you write, and they understand when life gets in the way.
Well -- 2010 has been quite a whirlwind, with the usual day to day of a family of five, plus a college search, some family health concerns, and a job that had my head spinning for months...spinning so fast, in fact, that I launched myself right into a completely new job with a new organization. Yes, this has been a whirlwind year -- and as a result, I've neglected to take time 'Round the Kitchen Table.
But this morning - on the eve of my favorite holiday - Thanksgiving - I can't help but pause and count my blessings.
Today and every day, I'm thankful for...
...the food on my plate, and the roof over my head.
...a job that interests and challenges me, at a time when so many are struggling to find work.
...my friends, who understand and forgive me for not being in touch more often
...and the friends I see regularly who listen patiently, laugh heartily, and are always willing to help me drink a bottle of wine.
...my siblings, aunts and uncle who I don't see often enough -- but I know each and every one of them are there to hold me up if I'm about to fall.
...my husband and children whose smiling faces, brilliant senses of humor, and unconditional love fuel my every move.
...and my parents who provide living proof every day that "love is patient, love is kind....It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."
Wishing you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!
November 24, 2010
August 10, 2010
Let's Talk - Your Favorite Reads
No. Not more textbook talk. I'm getting ready for a couple days at the beach and am looking forward to spending hours at the water's edge reading. It got me thinking about a possible table talk question.
Imagine that you're downsizing and only have space for five books. What are you top 5 personal library essentials?
My answer: Let me just say, it's a joy to know that I would never be faced with that challenge!! Now that I have a Nook I will never have to worry about having space on my bookshelf! It's a beautiful thing. But...for the sake of my question I'll say:
How about you?
Imagine that you're downsizing and only have space for five books. What are you top 5 personal library essentials?
My answer: Let me just say, it's a joy to know that I would never be faced with that challenge!! Now that I have a Nook I will never have to worry about having space on my bookshelf! It's a beautiful thing. But...for the sake of my question I'll say:
- The Bible
- Charlotte's Web
- Bridges of Madison County
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Shack
How about you?
August 8, 2010
Saving on College Textbooks
It's hard to believe, but two weeks from today we'll bring our daughter back to school and she'll begin life as a sophomore in College.
Amy is a pretty organized and responsible kid, so it didn't surprise me when she whipped out her notebook yesterday, and went over the list of things she needs to do in the next two week to get ready to go back. The list included the obvious things, like shopping for dorm stuff and clothes -- but she impressed me when she thought of things like replenishing prescriptions and getting her banking in order. [excuse me while I enjoy a proud mama moment]. The biggest shocker was that she even remembered that she needed to buy her books for next semester!
Last year, she got very lucky in terms of books. Unlike her friends who shared horror stories of single books costing $150 - $200, her total for the whole year was probably less than $200. I'm not sure what this year will bring, but while she was at work this morning, I thought I would do a little leg work to see what resources were out there to save on textbooks. I was so astounded by what I found, that I wanted to share this with my blog friends, in case you have children who are getting ready to go back to college too. Hopefully this will help you (or your children) keep your hard earned cash in your pockets where it belongs!!
I just did a quick comparison of four different online textbook resources to see what kind of savings we could come up with. In each instance, I compared the same book - Calculus (Stewart's 6th Edition), hardcover ISBN10:0495011606. List price: $224.95
Here's what I found:
New Used Rent e-version
Amazon.com
$162.56 varied -- $143.96
Barnes & Noble $200.43 $139.18 $ 99.25
Textbooks.com $191.48 $143.61 $ 64.49
I'm pretty amazed by the potential savings at Bookbytes.com -- but I have to tell you, I'm equally curious about the e-version available through B&N. Having recently received a Nook, I have fallen in love with the idea of being able to carry your library around with you. Apparently though, the Barnes & Noble e-version does NOT need a Nook. There is a free application called NookStudy, that you download to your Mac or PC -- then when you purchase your e-books, they're accessible through your computer -- and you're able to highlight, tag and organize content in a way that makes sense for you.
It's been a long time since I had to study from a textbook, but it sounds to me like it would be a God send for organizing your studies. And with textbooks available at a fraction of the cost, it could really be a great way to save money and work smarter! If anyone has used NookStudy for school, I'd love to hear what you think.
Since I started my research this morning, Amy has since gotten home from work. So when I told her about the textbook savings deals that I found, she informed me that last year she purchased the majority of her books at half.com and also saved a boat load of bucks. The one caveat there was that the books she purchased there were definitely used.
Out of curiosity, I visited half.com to do a 5th comparison, using the same Calc book as my point of reference. They advertised a "best price" of $120.65 -- but it looks like it's more of an auction environment where individual sellers determine the asking price and name the condition. The prices I saw ranged from $120 - $160.
It's pretty curious really -- with all of these great deals available through the Internet, I wonder how it is affecting college bookstores? I can't imagine why anyone would shop there anymore.
Would love to know what your experience has been with any of these sites. Happy shopping!
Amy is a pretty organized and responsible kid, so it didn't surprise me when she whipped out her notebook yesterday, and went over the list of things she needs to do in the next two week to get ready to go back. The list included the obvious things, like shopping for dorm stuff and clothes -- but she impressed me when she thought of things like replenishing prescriptions and getting her banking in order. [excuse me while I enjoy a proud mama moment]. The biggest shocker was that she even remembered that she needed to buy her books for next semester!
Last year, she got very lucky in terms of books. Unlike her friends who shared horror stories of single books costing $150 - $200, her total for the whole year was probably less than $200. I'm not sure what this year will bring, but while she was at work this morning, I thought I would do a little leg work to see what resources were out there to save on textbooks. I was so astounded by what I found, that I wanted to share this with my blog friends, in case you have children who are getting ready to go back to college too. Hopefully this will help you (or your children) keep your hard earned cash in your pockets where it belongs!!
Here's what I found:
New Used Rent e-version
Amazon.com
$162.56 varied -- $143.96Barnes & Noble $200.43 $139.18 $ 99.25
Textbooks.com $191.48 $143.61 $ 64.49
Bookbytes.com $161.80 $114.45
I'm pretty amazed by the potential savings at Bookbytes.com -- but I have to tell you, I'm equally curious about the e-version available through B&N. Having recently received a Nook, I have fallen in love with the idea of being able to carry your library around with you. Apparently though, the Barnes & Noble e-version does NOT need a Nook. There is a free application called NookStudy, that you download to your Mac or PC -- then when you purchase your e-books, they're accessible through your computer -- and you're able to highlight, tag and organize content in a way that makes sense for you.
It's been a long time since I had to study from a textbook, but it sounds to me like it would be a God send for organizing your studies. And with textbooks available at a fraction of the cost, it could really be a great way to save money and work smarter! If anyone has used NookStudy for school, I'd love to hear what you think.
Since I started my research this morning, Amy has since gotten home from work. So when I told her about the textbook savings deals that I found, she informed me that last year she purchased the majority of her books at half.com and also saved a boat load of bucks. The one caveat there was that the books she purchased there were definitely used.
Out of curiosity, I visited half.com to do a 5th comparison, using the same Calc book as my point of reference. They advertised a "best price" of $120.65 -- but it looks like it's more of an auction environment where individual sellers determine the asking price and name the condition. The prices I saw ranged from $120 - $160.
It's pretty curious really -- with all of these great deals available through the Internet, I wonder how it is affecting college bookstores? I can't imagine why anyone would shop there anymore.
Would love to know what your experience has been with any of these sites. Happy shopping!
Once Out of Control ...Now Liberated
Like so much of my day-to-day life, lately my email has spun out of control. I used to love to come home from work and check my email to see what funny stories my friends where sharing, or to get caught up in virtual time with a college or high school friend. But about two or three months ago, I realized that I wasn't doing to much of that anymore.
When I'd come home from work, I'd check my email, and watch as one of 36 or 40 emails would download into my in bin. One by one, I'd watch as the little envelope graphic floated through mid-air, and mail would be collected out of cyberspace. Sadly, after all the downloads were complete, I'd look and realize that most of the mail was nothing more than sale fliers from the stores I've shopped with online, or an occasional newsletter from HGTV or Real Simple magazine. Real Simple is the pretty ironic one -- because for all their strategies to "simplify" they've really managed to muck up my mailbox!!
Truthfully, I was receiving so much junk mail from stores, that half the time I wouldn't even bother going through my mail at all. I would let the junk email pile up in my inbox the same way that it piles up on my kitchen counter. It was so frustrating to me to try to sort through all the newsletters and ads, that sometimes the "real" mail from family and friends would get lost in the shuffle.
Well - I've made a bold move to gain back control of my inbox, and I'm trying to use modern technology to make my life easier -- and I have to tell you, it's very freeing. I've unsubscribed from all but the handful of email newsletters that I actually enjoy reading -- and decided to put Twitter to work for me, by following those merchants and websites that I'm interested in following. According to all of the "unsubscribe" message confirmations that I've received, it's going to take a week to ten days for all the changes in subscriptions to take effect, but hopefully before long, my inbox will be mine again! I'll let you know if I see a noticeable change (though something tells me that it is going to be an ongoing battle to keep my inbox in control).
Admittedly, Twitter can be a little bit daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty cool. Tweetdeck has been a real help for me in trying to sort through it all. I can organize the people/merchants/websites that I'm following by topic, and quickly scan the latest sales, news, magazines, school information, celebrity gossip, etc. to see what's what. No more need to open a zillion emails, delete, save, purge, mark as junk. I log on when I want, see what I want, log off and it manages itself -- and best of all, my mailbox will be mine again! Not too bad.
There's definitely a risk in what I'm doing -- not everyone has gotten on board with a social media strategy yet, and I'm not on Twitter 24/7, so I might miss a sale or two -- but you know what? That's OK -- no puppies are going to die if I miss out on free shipping from Sports Authority (I seldom shop online with them anyway!).
In this age of information overload, technology can be a mixed blessing. Information is constantly at our fingertips -- whether through your iPhone or Blackberry, Facebook, Twitter, email or the Internet -- information is coming at us all day, every day.
In my constant effort to make life more manageable, I'd be really interested to know what are you doing to take control of the information overload monster?
When I'd come home from work, I'd check my email, and watch as one of 36 or 40 emails would download into my in bin. One by one, I'd watch as the little envelope graphic floated through mid-air, and mail would be collected out of cyberspace. Sadly, after all the downloads were complete, I'd look and realize that most of the mail was nothing more than sale fliers from the stores I've shopped with online, or an occasional newsletter from HGTV or Real Simple magazine. Real Simple is the pretty ironic one -- because for all their strategies to "simplify" they've really managed to muck up my mailbox!!
Truthfully, I was receiving so much junk mail from stores, that half the time I wouldn't even bother going through my mail at all. I would let the junk email pile up in my inbox the same way that it piles up on my kitchen counter. It was so frustrating to me to try to sort through all the newsletters and ads, that sometimes the "real" mail from family and friends would get lost in the shuffle.
Well - I've made a bold move to gain back control of my inbox, and I'm trying to use modern technology to make my life easier -- and I have to tell you, it's very freeing. I've unsubscribed from all but the handful of email newsletters that I actually enjoy reading -- and decided to put Twitter to work for me, by following those merchants and websites that I'm interested in following. According to all of the "unsubscribe" message confirmations that I've received, it's going to take a week to ten days for all the changes in subscriptions to take effect, but hopefully before long, my inbox will be mine again! I'll let you know if I see a noticeable change (though something tells me that it is going to be an ongoing battle to keep my inbox in control).
Admittedly, Twitter can be a little bit daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty cool. Tweetdeck has been a real help for me in trying to sort through it all. I can organize the people/merchants/websites that I'm following by topic, and quickly scan the latest sales, news, magazines, school information, celebrity gossip, etc. to see what's what. No more need to open a zillion emails, delete, save, purge, mark as junk. I log on when I want, see what I want, log off and it manages itself -- and best of all, my mailbox will be mine again! Not too bad.
There's definitely a risk in what I'm doing -- not everyone has gotten on board with a social media strategy yet, and I'm not on Twitter 24/7, so I might miss a sale or two -- but you know what? That's OK -- no puppies are going to die if I miss out on free shipping from Sports Authority (I seldom shop online with them anyway!).
In this age of information overload, technology can be a mixed blessing. Information is constantly at our fingertips -- whether through your iPhone or Blackberry, Facebook, Twitter, email or the Internet -- information is coming at us all day, every day.
In my constant effort to make life more manageable, I'd be really interested to know what are you doing to take control of the information overload monster?
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