Life hacking

Who else can believe that July is almost over?!?! Who else is ready for fall to just come already?!? Is it just me, here suffering in the South?!  I know my daughter, for one, is ready....she heard my friend talking about Pumpkin Patches the other day and has asked to go every day since. She even resorted to some mind tricks by praying about it during her nightly prayers, "..and thank you for letting us go to the pumpkin patch soon." ...well played, daughter but sadly even Jesus isn't gonna conjure up a pumpkin patch for you in 112 degree heat.

Anyway, as the summer has rolled on and we've dealt with the hubs being gone for business several times, plus fussy babies, and hot hot hotness....I've collected a few "life hacks" that have helped me survive. Here they are:

Hack #1: Smuckers PBJ Uncrustables.  Sure, its not hard to make a PBJ and I make at least 3 of them basically 350 days out of the year- because that's all my children ever want to eat for lunch, ever. HOWEVER, there is something truly magical about dropping a few dollars at Costco to get the 18 pack of these puppies and then come lunch time just throwing them on a plate next to the Manna from Heaven that is Pirates Booty and a giant pickle and calling it "lunch". It will take approximately 65 seconds after walking in the house from swimming lessons for lunch to be on the table. This is very important because that is also 65 seconds TOO LONG for a certain hungry baby who wants to be nursed. Now. Basically whether its Uncrustables or some other food that you've found to be fast and "mildly" nutritious, I'm telling you to just GO WITH IT. Not ever meal has to be filled with the food pyramid. Sometimes something's gotta give...so cut yourself a big fat break ( or a piece of zucchini bread made from all those zucchinis that are in season, I bet if you cut yourself some of that too...life will be better, guaranteed)

Hack #2: Swimming lessons. If you spend money on ONE THING this summer, let it be swimming lessons...but if you DON'T want to spend money on this, did you know that MOST cities provide FREE swimming lessons!?! Look it up! Because, in our house, if Daddy is going to be gone then we're gonna need something to do every single day. This is important for many reasons. Tiring out children. Also it is a ready answer for when Ransom asks me "what are we going to do today?" for the trillionth time.-swim lessons are at the top of the list for ALL summer lists, and if you haven't done yours yet, you need to RECTIFY. Also, I suppose its icing on the cake if my children actually learn to swim. The jury is out on that one. As a former lifeguard going to the pool can by highly stressful. I mostly want to spend the whole time scanning the pool for drowners and yelling at children who aren't my own to "stop running". That said, it is VERY important to me that my children are able to swim without floaties- because, turns out, my kids don't actually wear floaties 24/7 in the off chance that they are near a body of water. How many kids have I saved who fell in the pool when their families were either just arriving or just leaving the pool!?! Yup. A lot.


Hack #3: Baths. I've trained my older two children to "go take a bath" without any oversight at all. This is wonderful for lazy me, but maybe not so wonderful when you're trying to get "clean children" out of the deal. But I gave up on that a long time ago so we'll just settle for "wet children". And, if you play your cards right- it can take up a whole 20 minutes of your day. That's gold.

Hack #4: CD player. I wrote a whole post on this. So I'll save my breath here. But let me just say, this puppy is getting a work out, and I'm loving it.


Hack #5: grocery shopping help. This summer, due to the insane heat and also me being me and therefore excessively lazy- I've hated going grocery shopping MORE THAN EVER. This is when I've started incorporating two different services into my life. One, Walmart Pick up , (ps if you use the code here, than you get $10 off! ) is AMAZING. Sure, they don't have TONS of locations yet, but I suggest you at least clicking on that link and putting in your zip code, because you never know-there might be one close by, and also if their isn't I have a feeling that if we all put our zip codes in over and over maybe they'll get a clue and put in more locations ( this is just a theory and not at all confirmed. Abigail Wishful Thinking, if you will). People have asked, and yes, I have gotten produce this way and I was actually surprised at the selection. I feel like in some cases they had a better apple selection then when I had picked them out myself.

Anyway, there is NO FEE for using the service ( only a $30 minimum) and you literally shop online and then drive up and PICK UP YOUR GROCERIES FROM YOUR CAR at the assigned time. Um. That's basically God's gift to me. We live in the golden age, people. GOLDEN AGE.

Two, I've used Amazon Prime's NOW which guarantee's to deliver certain items within two hours. This is a much more expensive endeavor, and I save it for "emergencies".  But I have used it to have Butter brought to my door when I had forgotten it and just could not face the 100 degree afternoon heat with my 3 children. A girls gotta do....


So, enough from me! What are your current Summer hacks?!? I've got another month of summer to get through, so I'm gonna need all that you've got! Let's get through this together...