The Juggle

It seems my new strategy is to retreat from the blog when I am feeling like my to-do is suffocating me, so I am going to push myself out of my comfort zone and just deal.  There are people out there dealing with a LOT more than I am and definitely stuff more IMPORTANT than mine, and I have always tried to steer clear of thinking it's because I am a working mom, because I had weeks like this long before I was married or had kids, it is life.  There seems to be this unspoken of state in blogland where moms that work judge moms that stay at home and bloggers that are married or have kids seem to claim the high ground over singletons.  In my personal opinion we as a country like to glorify the act of being over scheduled and at the end of the day there is nothing really luxurious about it other than the reward when you cross everything off of your list and take a break.

So here I am and I am here to stay.  I said I would keep it real and in the case of today's post, it's all over the place.  We ran into our friends at Lowes today...we squeezed in a trip between last minute camp packing shopping (I'll get to it) and a rock climbing birthday party, because I needed Mr. G to help me pick some tile for a shower insert.  Let's not even discuss that it was for a shower we never intended on re-tiling, but I promise after this week all I have left is a few more pieces of furniture to cover, 4 area rugs and the driveway.  We agreed to put off the new range and fridge until the end of the summer because I am driving myself crazy with spreadsheets trying to decide between 3 models of each!  Anyway, my friend sent me an email that made my day, and made me stop, she missed the blog posts about shopping and wanted to schedule a time when the adults could get together and the kids could play and it made me realize that in the end life is about those memories and the emails and calls that make us feel like we are a part of something bigger than our to do lists.

Now, I will admit my to do list for tomorrow is done, and waiting for me in my planner, and I will tackle with gusto...TOMORROW.  Mr. G is watching Game of Thrones in the other room.  I will confess, I am not into that show, I need subtitles to understand it so I am blogging.

That birthday party I mentioned....well here is a little snapshot of it:

Mr. G took Mini K and let me tell you NOTHING says adult supervision like your spouse texting you a photo of your child rock climbing while blindfolded that says, she is having a blast and hasn't broken anything.  What would we do without them?

We have 3 1/2 days of school left and field day, and Mini K will be a rising 2nd grader.  A week from tonight she will be heading to bed in her bunk in her cabin at camp!  Our front room is now officially the packing staging area.

As with everything I seem to do, I turned to EBATES for camp prep.  I mean if I have to purchase a page full of items (and YES I monogrammed EVERYTHING) I might as well get cash back right?   SO we ordered her lime green camp trunk from Wayfair.  If you need a camp trunk, join EBATES and then head to Wayfair.  Their prices were 25% less than everywhere else, free shipping, no sales tax and cash back!  My mom sent her a trunk organizer that fits in the top of her trunk and has these 2 page protector like openings so I wanted to fill them with photos.

I typed in collage prints on EBATES and Snapfish came up so we spent yesterday morning uploading photos and creating 2 8.5x11" collage prints on Snapfish and picked them up a mere 35 minutes later at our local Walgreens.  The best part, well besides crossing it off the list?  10% cash back!

As a child I LOVED camp, but I will confess there is a word that when I see it on a note from school or an email or anywhere it makes my skin crawl:  LICE.  I think it might be one of the worst 4 letter words ever!  My fabulous hairdresser told me about a line a year ago that I consider a camp and school must have:  Fairy Tales.  The line is all natural and I am a believer.  You can purchase it online at Amazon and our Ulta also carries it.  There is a lice be gone treatment that I use on Mini K once a once.  It smells nice and I always let her watch tv while it is on her hair.  The week before she goes to camp or starts school I use it twice in one week.  It literally kills and repells lice, nits and eggs on contact.  They also make a lice repelling shampoo, conditioner and detangling spray that are already labelled with Mini K's name and ready to go in the shower caddy when I picked it up from my monogrammer tomorrow.  I want her to have a great time at camp, but I do NOT want any little friends making the journey home!

In the middle of all of this prep, the Grove is in party mode.   Or I should say our customers are in party mode and I love seeing what theme each new order brings!  I have gotten some great ideas so I thought I would continue the party spirit!  ALL invites are 30% off with code: GTA3.  The sale will run through June 25th so you have some time to plan your soiree and save!  All invites are on sale so if you have a shower or party to throw save yourself some money so you can get a little something for yourself!  There is something about seeing an invite in my mailbox that makes me smile.  Is it just me or can you identify an invite over any other piece of mail?  You can see all of the designs on sale HERE.

I kept it real, and this post might be the written equal of a sleeping pill, but I will be back tomorrow and seeing as how we are swimming in fabric over here I might have to do a post!