Back-to-School Deals: Week of 7/7

School just got out a couple of weeks ago, but the back-to-school deals are already starting. Here are the deals for the week of 7/7:

Target

Crayola Markers, 10 ct $0.99

Crayola Colored Pencils, 12 ct $0.99

Crayola SuperTips Washable Marker Color Can, 80 ct $7.99

Crayola Twistables Colored Pencils and Crayons Color Can, 80 ct $7.99

Sharpie Markers, 10 ct $5.00

Elmer’s Disappearing Purple School Glue Sticks, 3 ct $2.49
Buy 1 Elmer’s Disappearing Purple School Glue Sticks, 3 ct, Get Free Elmer’s Liquid School Glue, 4 oz.

Scotch Magic Tape, 3/4″ $2.00

Blue Sky Wall Calendar, 15″ x 12″ $8.00

Blue Sky Planner, 10″ x 8″ $8.00

CVS

Mead Five Star Notebook, 1, 2, 3 or 5 Subject
Buy One Get One 50% Off
Use $1.00/2 Mead Five Star Products, Limit 4 like coupons per household per day from PG 7/7 (exp 7/31)

Buy 2 Mead Five Star, 3 Subject Notebook, College Ruled, 150 sheets $9.29, regular price
Buy One Get One 50% Off
Use one $1.00/2 Mead Five Star Products, Limit 4 like coupons per household per day from PG 7/7 (exp 7/31)
Final Price: $6.47 each, when you buy 2.

Rite Aid

Crayons, 24 ct $0.29

Crayon or Pencil Sharpener $0.29

Erasers $0.29

Index Cards $0.29

Playskool Glue, 4 oz $0.29

Ruler, 12″ $0.29

White Posterboard, 22 x 28″ $0.29

Walgreens

Crayola Art Supplies
Buy One Get One 50% Off

Crayola Colored Pencils, 12 ct $2.99, regular price

Buy One Get One 50% Off

Final Price: $2.24 each, when you buy 2

Mead Five Star Notebooks, Composition Books or Folders
Buy One Get One Free
Use $1.00/2 Mead Five Star Products, Limit 4 like coupons per household per day from PG 7/7 (exp 7/31)

Buy 2 Mead Five Star Pocket and Prong Folder $2.99, regular price
Buy One Get One Free  
Use one $1.00/2 Mead Five Star Products, Limit 4 like coupons per household per day from PG 7/7 (exp 7/31)

Final Price: $1.00 each, when you buy 2

Elmer’s Glue Stick $0.99

Wexford Scissors, 5 inch $0.99

Wexford Construction Paper, 96 sheets $1.99

Wexford Mechanical Pencils, 30 ct $1.99

Wexford Multipurpose Paper, 400 sheets $2.99

Wexford Binder, 1 inch $2.99

Wexford Index Cards, 70 or 100 pk $0.33 each, when you buy 3

Wexford Memo Books, 50 or 60 sheets $0.33 each, when you buy 3

Three Things I Learned on a Field Trip

 A couple of weeks ago I went along as a chaperone on Alex's Make Way for Ducklings field trip. It was a fun trip into Boston to trace the steps Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings take in Robert McCloskey's classic children's book, Make Way for Ducklings.

Here are three things that I personally learned on the field trip:

1. Teachers do not get paid nearly enough. Keeping an eye on 18 first graders is exhausting work. They are full of energy and questions. I was exhausted when I got home from the trip which, by the way, lasted just past lunch time. I gained much admiration for Alex's teacher who does the important work of teaching these kids every day. She probably thought the field trip was an easier day than her normal day where she has a full day of teaching assignments. Plus, she has to go home every day and prepare for the next day's class. Meanwhile, I was completely wiped out. Teachers have my undying respect for the important and challenging work that they do.
2. During lunch, first grade boys talk about their favorite cheese and then sports.
3. Boston is a beautiful city. The picture above was taken from our ride on the Swan Boats in the Public Garden. Riding the Swan Boats really gives you a view of the beauty of the Back Bay. It's a relaxing ride around the pond in the Public Garden. Alex and I take a day off every summer to go into Boston and riding the Swan Boats has become part of our tradition. It's also a bargain at $3/adult ticket and $1.50/child ticket. I highly recommend it!

Free Fun Fridays

Now that school is out for summer, you may be looking for affordable family friendly activities or places to visit. How about over 60 museums or cultural venues to visit for free every Friday this summer? Courtesy of the Highland Street Foundation, six venues are open for free each Friday. Here are the free venues for this Friday, June 28:

Freedom Trail Foundation

Mass MOCA

Stone Zoo

Worcester Art Museum

Heritage Museum and Gardens

Tanglewood

Click here for a complete list of venues.

Stop & Shop Gas Rewards

This week, I only paid $1.40 per gallon when I filled up my car. I was pretty excited to save $2.00/gallon. The last time I paid that little for gas was during the Clinton Administration. How did I gas up my car so cheaply? I took advantage of Stop and Shop's Gas Rewards program. The way it works is that you earn 1 point for every dollar that you spend at Stop & Shop when you use your Stop & Shop card. You save $0.10 per gallon for every 100 points that you earn. You can earn up to $2.20 per gallon. You have to use your points within 30 days of earning them.

I was always skeptical of taking advantage of the Gas Rewards. I don't usually spend enough at Stop & Shop to earn enough points to make it worth my while. Occasionally, Stop & Shop has a sale that allows you to earn more points. Recently, they had a sale where buying 6 of certain items earned you 400 points or $0.40/gallon. Part of this sale was yogurt that I knew we would eat. Plus I had a coupon. Then the following week, Cheerios was part of a similar sale. Before I knew it, I had accumulated over 2000 points.

In the future, I probably won't shop at Stop & Shop just to earn gas points. However, if there's a good sale that racks up gas points that I can combine with coupons, I might as well save some gas money.

Done Is Better Than Perfect

 

I just finished reading Sheryl Sandberg's best selling book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead" I have already heard many of the points that she makes and anecdotes that she tells from her book tour interviews and her well-known 2010 Ted talk. Still, I enjoyed reading it and did agree with her call to get women to lean in and work toward pursuing their ambition.

In the introduction, Sandberg explains why she felt compelled to start a Lean In movement and write the book. As she advanced in her career, she noticed that many of her female peers had dropped out. She shares a story about visiting a private equity firm and needing to use the rest room during a break. When she asked for the location of the ladies room, the male executive didn't know. She asked if she was the first female executive to visit their office. He replied that he thought so or maybe she was just the first one that needed to use the rest room. Sandberg realized that she was one of the few women at the top and wanted to investigate why and what could be done.

In the book, Sandberg makes the case that a lot of the obstacles that women face in pursuing their ambition are internalized. Girls are told not to be bossy when instead they should be told that they are showing "leadership skills." The truth is that women in positions of power are not well liked. Women also lack confidence to promote themselves. She noticed at meetings that women were reluctant to literally sit at the table. Instead, they would sit at the chairs against the wall away from the table when they had every right to sit at the table and take charge.

How do women work to overcome these obstacles? Here are Sandberg's suggestions:

Seek and Speak the Truth

Sandberg urges women to speak up and truthfully say what they think, solicit constructive feedback, and ask for what they want in the workplace. 

Don't Leave Before You Leave

In this chapter, Sandberg tells the story of a young woman at Facebook who wanted advice on how to balance work and family. As the woman urgently fired questions at her, Sandberg asked about her situation. It turned out that this young woman didn't have a boyfriend. She was jumping the gun a bit about planning for her family that didn't exist yet. Sandberg's point is don't stop yourself from pursuing what you want in life for what may happen many years down the road. You can always figure out how to balance work and family when you are at that point in your life.

Make Your Partner a Real Partner

Sandberg points out that women will have a better work life balance if they let their partner share in the responsibilities at home. Reading this chapter, I felt very lucky to have a partner that helps out at home as much as he does. I mentioned this in last year's Father's Day blog post. Sandberg says that what keeps women from having a real equal partner is that women are often gatekeepers. I am guilty of this. Recently, I came downstairs to Craig folding the laundry. I said, "Oh, I was looking forward to doing that." Yes, I actually said that. Crazy, I know. Yes, it's weird, I enjoy folding laundry. Instead of thanking him for taking care of something for me, I scolded him. I should remember that the next time I get annoyed if he doesn't notice that something needs to be done and I have to do it. Ideally, marriage should be a partnership where you work together as a team to accomplish your shared goals. This is still a work in progress for us.

The Myth of Doing It All
I probably got the most from this chapter. Sandberg's quote that "done is better than perfect" really hit home with me. Striving to do everything perfectly is impossible. Working in software, I know that if we waited until the software was absolutely perfect, we would never release anything. It has to work as well or better than the customers expect and then be improved upon with each release. That's true for many things in life. Do the best you can with what you have and feel good about what you've accomplished.

Let's Start Talking About It and Working Together Toward Equality
Right after Alex was born, I was reading a message board for new moms and noticed that any posts about working moms and work at home moms most always turned into a divisive, ugly debate. With the anonymity of the Internet, a woman would post that she wanted to stay home because "she didn't want strangers raising her kids." Then, on the other side, a woman would post that work at home moms didn't do any work. Reading these exchanges were entertaining, but I often thought, wow, why don't we all work together to make things better for everyone? That is what Sandberg is urging in the last couple of chapters of her book. I think the defensiveness comes about because women feel very sensitive and some guilt about their work/family decisions. If we could all just start talking about and asking for what we want and then work together for that, it would make life better for everyone. Personally, I feel very fortunate for the work/life balance that I am lucky enough to enjoy. I have a job I love, an employer that offers flexibility that I truly appreciate, and a wonderful husband and son that make it all worthwhile. We should all work to allow women to pursue whatever their ambition is. We all benefit when women are encouraged to succeed.

For more information on the Lean In movement, visit leanin.org.

Spring Bag Sale Results

 This past Saturday was the biannual children's used clothing and toy sale in my community. I bought two bags ($10/each) this time. A friend was going through the line selling the bags. She was short on change because most people in line only had a $20 since that's what ATMs dispense. She saw me holding my twenty dollar bill and said, "You want to buy two bags, right?" How could I say no? I ended up finding plenty of great stuff so I most likely would have ended up buying a second bag. So I saw it as a win-win and a blessing in disguise.

Here is my haul:

1 suit jacket
2 ties
1 pair of practically new tennis shoes (The tag claimed that they had been worn only once.)
a pair of baseball cleats
8 polo shirts
5 jeans
two sweatpants
one pair of shorts
1 pajama set

Starbucks: Half-Priced Frappuccinos from 3-5 p.m. May 3-12, 2013

 

Starting tomorrow, Starbucks is offering Half-Priced Frappuccinos every afternoon from 3-5 p.m. May 3-12, 2013 at participating locations. Enjoy!

Target Mobile Coupons

Text PICNIC to 827438 to get some new mobile Target coupons.

Show the cashier the bar code in the text message to use any of the following coupons:

$1.00/1 Market Pantry 80/20 Fresh Ground Beef, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Kraft Sliced Cheese Items, void in CA, LA and TN, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Lunch Meat, 7 oz or larger, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$0.50/1 Best Foods or Hellman’s Mayonnaise, 15 oz or larger, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Honey Maid Graham Crackers, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Fresh Vegetable Purchase, $1.00 or higher, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Fresh Fruit Purchase, $1.00 or higher, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Market Pantry Frozen Fruit, 8 oz or larger OR Smoothie, 8 oz or 1.5 qt, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Market Pantry Pasta Sauce or Dry Pasta, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Market Pantry Frozen Chicken Items, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Market Pantry Fruit Snack Items, excludes single-serve, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$0.75/2 Ziploc Storage Items, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Bounty Paper Towels, 6 pk or larger OR Charmin Bath Tissue, 9 pk or larger, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$0.50/1 Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, 35 ct or larger, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Windex Touch-Up Cleaner, 10 oz, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Glade Air Care Item, excludes PlugIns Oil Warmer, 8-oz Aerosol and 32-oz Carpet Powder, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$0.75/1 Shout Laundry Care Item, excludes trial/travel size, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/1 Tide Laundry Care Item, excludes Pods and trial/travel size, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.00/2 Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene or Aussie Hair Care Items, excludes trial/travel size, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

$1.50/2 Always Radiant or Tampax Items, excludes trial/travel size, limit one coupon or offer per guest, Target Coupon from Target Mobile Coupons (exp 6/12)

Target Coupons

You can get some great deals by printing some of the current coupons at target.com.

$2 off women's sandals. Some of the flip flops currently sell for $2.50. With this coupon, pay $0.50.

$1 off three Market Pantry pasta items. Market Pantry pasta is currently $1/box. Get 3 boxes for $2.
 $2 off kids' C9 apparel item.
$3 of men's C9 apparel item.
$5 off women's Merona shoes.

Happy shopping!

Support The One Fund

 

"Never underestimate the charitable impulse of the American people." 

- Ken Feinberg, Administrator of the One Fund Boston.

Our hearts are heavy in Boston in the aftermath of the tragic bombings at last week's Boston Marathon. Most Bostonian have a connection to the bombing, shooting in Cambridge, lockdown of the city, or manhunt in Watertown. Despite the tragedy, there are so many stories of goodness and people coming together.

Today's Boston Globe has a story about how the Lenox Hotel cooked food for the crime scene investigators. When the hotel ran out of food, other restaurants and hotels sent food. The law enforcement officials left money to pay the workers who lost wages and were volunteering to work to feed them. The workers then told their managers to donate the money to the One Fund for the bombing victims. This is just one of many stories of the kindness and generosity of those dealing with this tragedy.

The One Fund has currently collected over $20 million dollars. The bombing victims will need money to pay for rehabilitation, prosthetics, lost wages, psychological counseling, etc. Many will need a great deal of financial help putting their lives back together. Please consider making a donation the One Fund to help the bombing victims.

Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's 4/9

 

Three words: free ice cream. Now that I've got your attention. Tuesday, April 9 is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's. If you are an ice cream fan, you can stop by your local participating Ben & Jerry's and enjoy a free ice cream cone.

Bring On Spring

It's that time of year when I look forward longingly to the warmer, longer days of spring. Winter is hanging on strong. Today the temperature was in the 30s with a cold, winter wind. Despite having to still wear my winter coat and gloves, I have seen the signs that spring and warmer weather will be here soon. Patriot's Day, a mere couple of weeks away, is usually the turning point around here where all of a sudden everything blooms and the weather is warm.

To bring on spring, here are the top eight things about spring that I am most looking forward to:

1. Everything blooms. Red tulips blooming in our front yard is the first sign on spring. The green tulip stems have already broken through the ground. The purple crocuses are up in the front yard. In the next couple of weeks, the red buds of the tulips will bloom. We also have a container garden in the backyard with a couple of strawberry plants. Last year, we totally neglected it and we were rewarded with a couple of ripe strawberries a day during late spring and early summer.
2. Ice cream at the Bubbling Brook. Every year on the first warm weekend of the summer, we go to Bubbling Brook in Westwood for dinner and ice cream. They have a take out stand and a grassy area near a bubbling brook (hence, the name) with picnic tables.
3. Volante Farms for fresh produce and ice cream. As the days get warmer. Volantes has more fresh, locally grown produce available. Their home grown strawberries are the best I've ever had. Last year, they opened an ice cream stand that we frequented often. 
4. Longer Days. I so enjoy having the sun stay up until the early evening. I like to go for an evening walk in spring/summer to see the glorious sunset as I walk down the hill back to our house.
5. Dining alfresco. The longer days mean that we can eat dinner outside on our deck. The evenings that we do this seem to be more relaxed. We take advantage of it whenever the weather allows.
6. Baseball. Alex's baseball schedule came out today. I'm looking forward to the evenings when we get to see his games. Also, listening to Jerry and Don's banter during a Red Sox game means summer to me.
7. Iced coffee. I love iced coffee, but I can only drink it when it's warm out. A Dunkin Donuts hazelnut is my favorite summer treat. I also enjoy McDonalds iced coffee and you can't beat the $1 price.
8. Wearing flip flops. Goodbye, boots. Hello, flip flops.

Okay, so come on spring. Get here soon so that I can start enjoying my favorite things about you. Boston.com has a list of 25 things to do this spring in Boston for under $25.

March Money Madness

The NCAA college basketball March Madness tournament has dominated our television watching this weekend in the Morrison household. My two guys have both filled out March Madness brackets so they have a vested interest in what teams are winning. One of them picked Kansas to win. The other one picked Gonzaga.

In today's column, Michelle Singletary shares a link to www.financialfour.org created by the National Endowment for Financial Education and the Financial Planning Association. It's an interactive bracket of 32 financial goals that you can use to pick your most important money issues.

The winning pick is "Live within your means." That's what I picked too. My final four were:

• Emergency savings.
• Adequate insurance.
• Tackle debt.
• Live within your means.

What are your picks?

 Also in her column, Michelle Singletary shares a link to www.smartaboutmoney.org. It's a program of the National Endowment for Financial Education with 10 basic steps to meet your goals.

Good luck with your March Madness bracket picks, financial or otherwise.

How Mint Changed My Life

A couple of weeks ago we signed up for Mint. Mint.com is a free, online personal financial site owned by Intuit. It consolidates all of your saving, checking, investment, and credit card accounts in one place. I have seen it recommended at other financial planning blogs and websites and had been meaning to try it. I'm so glad that I did. It's one of those things where I asked myself why I had waited so long to give it a try.

What I love about it is that I only have to remember one user name and password. I log on and Mint updates all of my accounts in one place. Before using Mint, I had to log into each account separately. There were some accounts like my 401K or IRA that I rarely checked because it was a pain to remember or look up the site, username, and password. Now, I log onto mint.com and I see an overview of all my accounts and their current value. I can click on any account and see all of the recent transactions.

Initially, it was a little bit of work entering all of our accounts. Craig entered his accounts too so that we can see his accounts, my accounts, and our joint accounts. We have also entered our mortgage, estimated home value, and car values. With all this info entered, Mint gives us an overview of all of our assets and debts with our net worth. This is a great motivator for saving. We want to see the net worth number go up so I hope that will make us spend less and save more. It goes back to the Suze's third rule from last week's post to "simply try to get as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending."

Mint has a Take a Tour function that will guide you through the following sections of the site:

• Alerts - Tells you when bills are due or when you have gone over budget. You can set it up to get an email and/or a text message. Coincidentally, when Craig signed up, he saw that some criminal had fraudulently charged tickets on Air India on his credit card. He called the credit card company and got it cleared up. If he hadn't noticed the charge on Mint, it would have been more of a headache to correct.
• Advice - Offers advice on saving opportunities and recommends ways to meet your goal. The explanation says, "As we get to know you, we'll begin to offer easy-to-follow advice based on your lifestyle and goals." The "as we get to know you" seems a bit creepy to me. I've been avoiding the "Advice" section because my feeling is that it's there to sell me products that they've identified I might be interested based on my buying/saving history. This is most likely their subtle advertising and what makes Mint free.
• Bills - Organizes your bills and sends email or text reminders about upcoming bills.
• Budget - Based on average amount spent on each category, Mint sets up a recommended budget.
• Taxes - Claims to help prepare taxes, estimate your refund, and find deductions. This is a tie-in to TurboTax which is also owned by Mint.
• Goal - You can set certain goals and use their calculators to see if you are on track to reach your goal.
• Investments - Gives you a high-level view of your investments with fancy charts.
• Ways to Save - Suggests best offers and ways to save. See the description for Advice.
• Trends - Shows charts and history of your accounts.
• Accounts - Shows you all of the balances for your accounts with your net worth.

The other cool thing is that Mint sends a weekly report of the changes for that week to your accounts. Although, I usually check it on a daily basis so the weekly report really doesn't tell me anything that I don't already know. Still, it's nice to effortlessly get a weekly summary of how your spending went for the week. Overall, I've really enjoyed using Mint and being able to view all of my accounts in one place.

People First, Then Money, Then Things, Then Jackets

 I have a confession to make: I watch the Suze Orman Show. I don't always agree with her advice, but I do like her fundamental advice to get people to face up and deal with their financial problems. I enjoy her "Can I Afford it" segments where she reviews a viewers finances to approve or deny a purchase that they want to make. She shouts, "You've been approved!" or "You've been denied!" depending on what the case may be. We like to guess which way she's going to go. Craig does a mean impression of her "You've been denied!" Suze has a very wacky personality. Kristin Wiig did a great impression of her in an SNL skit a few years back where she altered Suze's catch phrase to "People first, then money, then things, then jackets." Suze does have quite a unique collection of jackets. If you watch the show, you have to put up with Suze calling people, "Boyfriend," "Girlfriend" or cringe "Love Bug."

This week Suze gave the following three rules of financial advice to live by:

1. Ask yourself is this a want or a need:
   "If it is a need, then buy it. You have to buy something that you need. If it is a want, you are to walk away and let it go. Now you have to understand, you need food to survive. So you go to the grocery store and you buy food. You want to go to a restaurant. Get the difference?"
2. Simply lived below your means but within your needs:
   "If you can afford a 3,000 square foot house to buy, you don't need a 3,000 square foot house. Maybe all you need is a 2,000 square foot house. buy what you need not what you think you can afford. So live below your means but within your needs."
3. Simply try to get as much pleasure out of saving as you do spending:
   "Why is it when you're depressed you have to go out and buy something that you don't even really like after you purchased it? Why is it that you feel that the only pleasure you can get in life is when you go out to eat or spend money at a bar? Why can't you just simply get as much pleasure out of sending in that extra mortgage payment, sending in that payment to do what, deposit into your Roth IRA for your retirement?

The Magical Age of Six

Today Alex turned seven. As his birthday was rapidly approaching, I really did my best to savor the remaining days of life with a six-year-old. It seems like Alex's childhood is flying by making me so aware of how fleeting and sweet this time is. In December, we were cramming in as many fun, kid, holiday events as we could realizing that we may have very few Christmases left believing in Santa. Then the tragic shooting in Newtown, CT happened. It hit close to home because I know what six looks like.

Six is that magical time of toothless grins, laughter, singing, and playing from waking in the morning until going to sleep at night. It's the time of finding knock knock jokes hysterical and learning a new thing every day. It's the time of being independent enough to do things on your own, but young and innocent enough to carelessly enjoy everything before the reality and sometimes disappointing outside world takes that away.

It's the sweet spot of parenting. Your child is old enough not to be watched every second and to do things on his own like get dressed. He's also still young enough to sit on your lap and cuddle. You can still hold his hand while you are walking home from school without him pulling away so as not to be embarrassed in front of his friends. I feel like these are the golden years and that I should cherish them.

As Alex gets older, I grieve the previous age. I realize, though, if we didn't move onto the next age that we would miss out on experiencing Alex and what he's like at each age. Sure, we miss how cute he was as a baby and toddler. (Although, I'd happily skip age three which Alex spent in a permanent state of time out.) If we didn't move on from the baby and toddler age, we'd miss out on the fun of the early elementary years. We'll have to say goodbye to Alex at this age to see what he's like in middle school and during the dreaded teen years. We'll have to get through the teen years to see how he turns out as an adult. Until that happens, I'm going to savor these early years. Happy 7th birthday, Alex!

MFA on MLK Day

Yesterday, Alex and I had the day off. We took the T into Boston and went to the Museum of Fine Arts. On these days when we both have the day off, I like to make a special day of it for some one-on-one time. Our lives are so busy and scheduled during a normal weekday that it's nice to spend our day off doing something fun. I also like to take him into Boston at least a couple of times a year.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the MFA is one of their free open house days. The other open house days for 2013 are: Monday, May 27, 2013 (Memorial Day) and Monday, October 14, 2013 (Fall Open House). Another way to visit the MFA or other museums is to get a pass from you local library. If you visit a certain museum regularly, it could be worth is to get a membership. Some memberships have reciprocal admission with other museums. For example, Boston's Museum of Science has a reciprocal admission with the Roger Williams Park Zoo and the Providence Children's Museum. I think that my parents my have used their MOS membership more at the Roger Williams Park Zoo when Alex is visiting than they have at the MOS.

Alex and I had a great day at the MFA. We saw ancient musical instruments, mummies, Egyptian artifacts, impressionist paintings by Manet and Van Gogh, portraits of the Royal family by a famous fashion photographer, and contemporary art. After the museum, we went to Copley Square and had some subs for lunch. Then, we caught the T home. I made Alex watch some of the inaugural coverage until he made me switch over to the end of the Bruins game. We had a great day.

Of the several MLK Day quotes that I saw posted on Facebook yesterday, this is my favorite and seems fitting for Inauguration Day and how important it is now for our government to work together to fix the problems that we face:

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." - MLK, Jr.

And, if you own a computer, smartphone, or television, I'm sure that you have already seen this clip of Malia Obama photobombing her sister's picture during the inauguration. It was my favorite moment so I'm sharing it anyway.

Free Family Circle Cookbook

To get a free Family Circle Good-for-you 20 minute meals cookbook, like Family Circle's Facebook page. Then, click on the green banner to download the cookbook.

Amazon Mom Appreciation Event

If you are a member of Amazon Mom or are interested in becoming a member, Amazon is having a Mom Appreciation Event to get 20% off select baby items.

Amazon Mom is similar to Amazon's Prime membership. It's a membership program that provides ways to save on products your family needs. Benefits include 20% off diapers and wipes with Subscribe & Save, free two-Day Shipping on millions of items with Amazon Prime shipping, as well as exclusive deals for members. If I was still in the diaper phase of life, I would probably be using this with Amazon's subscribe and save program for the cheapest way to get diapers delivered to our door.

The Mom Appreciation Event allows you to use Amazon Mom-exclusive promo code BABY2013 and get 20% off. Save on thousands of eligible baby products in select colors and styles, for up to $100 in total savings. Qualifying Amazon Mom members can use this code on eligible items from January 18, 2013 until 11:59 PM PST February 1, 2013. For more information, see their FAQ.

Get Your Stuff Together

I read this article in last Sunday's Boston Globe that stresses the importance of having a will and getting your financial documents in order. The article talks about Chanel Reynolds, a widow who created a website, Get Your *Stuff* Together, in the aftermath of her husband's untimely death in a bicycle accident. She created the site to help others avoid the struggles she faced after his death by not having their will signed and financial affairs settled. Her site includes useful checklists for what to do to get your financial documents in order.

The Boston Globe article includes a statistic that 57% of adults in the US don't have a will. Why is this? I think it's simply that fact that we don't want to admit that we are going to die. I'm sorry to be Debbie Downer, but the fact is that we are all going to die eventually. Hopefully, it will not happen for a very long time. When it does happen, it's nice to leave your loved ones a will and your finances in an organized state. This way, they can grieve your loss without hunting down all of your financial accounts and figuring out who should get what. Also, depending on your assets, setting up a trust will help those you leave behind to avoid paying estate taxes. 

Craig and I just finalized our estate plan a few months ago. I'm embarrassed to admit that we put it off for as long as we did. (Again, it's the whole not wanting to admit that we are going to die thing.) In addition to our will and estate documents, our lawyer gave us a checklist for how to set up the beneficiaries of our accounts. She also advised us to make each other joint owners of all of our accounts so that we can access them right away. It's reassuring that we have everything written down and decided should the unthinkable happen and one or both of us pass away which will most likely not happen for a very, very long time...