Hi, everybody! Welcome, it is Must Have Monday and we are talking Back to School.
I'm Vivian Owen, this is Erika Foster, and we are contributing writers for Sarasota Moms Blog.
Our mission at Sarasota Moms Blog is to provide resources and
community for all SRQ moms. I am mom to Logan who is three years old and Dahlia
who is ten weeks. - And I have four kiddos.
The oldest is eight and then I have two six year olds and a five year old.
- Can you believe it's time for the kids to go back almost?
- No.
- Because we're in Lakewood Ranch, so we go back August 10th.
And I know other people go back August 14th.
So, it's getting down to the wire.
I personally don't want to go back. I'm a teacher. I teach at
Ringling College. We go back on the 21st, so I have about three weeks. But I don't
really want to go back to work. - Yeah, I'm not excited.
- And you're gonna have all four of yours in school.
- I have all four in school for the first time.
And I have no idea what I'm gonna do all day long.
I'm a little bit nervous. - You should just sit at the pool
and, like, drink a humongous glass of wine - Yes. I mean I feel like a few weeks will be okay.
It'll be exciting and fun and they'll be busy but then I think I'm gonna feel lost
and have no idea what to do with myself. - Yeah, well you can you can pick up a hobby.
You can, like, knit sweaters or something. - Yeah, for the Florida heat! Great plan!
All right, well tell us how you guys feel about your kids going back to school.
Are you excited? Are you nervous? Are you scared? Are you happy?
Are you ready to get them the heck out of the house?
If you're sad, give us some sad faces.
If you're excited, give us some hearts.
We're all in this together in solidarity, so we'll get through it.
So, Erika and I are going to talk about all of our favorite must-have products
for back-to-school. My kids are in daycare and her kids are in elementary school.
So we're gonna show you some different things that you need for those.
How do you know where to go and get the best deals for this weekend?
Well, I'm going to share a couple secrets with you.
I have a couple of apps and websites that I love to use when I'm shopping to
make sure that I'm getting the best deals and the first one that I'm going
to go over is called Retale and it's spelled R-E-T-A-L-E and it's an app and
a website and it's really cool because, I don't know about you, but I don't get the
newspaper. Do you get the newspaper? - I don't.
I don't think anybody our age gets
the newspaper anymore, right? So we don't get those cool flyers that tell you how
much everything, you know, what all the sales are and how much everything costs.
So this Retale app, which I'll kind of show you a little preview, this Retale
app does all of that for you. It basically finds all of the local
stores in your area, what all their sales are and it gives you all the flyers all
in one place so you can see that you can scroll and see what all the deals are in your area.
And you don't have to go to 55 stores with your four children following
you around the aisles wanting all the markers.
Exactly.
I'm just saying. I don't know if that's ever happened to anyone else.
Exactly. So, you can go straight to the
stores that you want to go to. And actually they have a banner right now
that says back-to-school sales, right at the top, when I open the app.
So, if I click on that, it will bring up all of the best back-to-school sales right now.
And, for example, did you know that at Staples this week and it goes
through this weekend that folders and composition notebooks and ballpoint pens
and crayons are only 50 cents each? - I had to buy like six composition notebooks.
Maybe 8, I think! - That's a lot! And you can see it's flashing in the middle an extra 20% discount.
So, this is really awesome. So, check it out. Retale, it's a website and an app.
You can get it either way and you can find all the best deals in your area.
And if you look in the comments we've linked both the apps and the
site for the sales tax thing and everything we're going to talk about
will be linked in the comments as you watch.
Yes, so click on those links, check them out.
The other thing that I love in order to find good deals is an
app and a website called RetailMeNot and this one is spelled the normal way,
so, R-E-T-A-I-L and I don't ever buy anything online without going to RetailMeNot first,
because what it does is it allows you to just type in, I'll show you what
it looks like, but there is a search bar at the top and you just type in the name
of whatever store you want to buy something at or if you have the app,
it has a locator in it so if you're at Bed, Bath & Beyond, it knows that you're at
Bed, Bath & Beyond and it will automatically pull up the coupons for you.
So you don't have to carry them in your purse like I do.
I have like 5,000 Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons in my purse.
Because I never know when I'm going to go and they never expire.
Well, they take expired ones. - Yeah they don't care.
So, I just have a stash in my purse. So, anyway, this RetailMeNot, you type in the name and the place
and it will give you all of the offers that are currently going on with that company.
So, see there's my Bed, Bath & Beyond 20% off coupon.
And it will tell you which ones are in-store only, which ones are online only, which ones
are just promotions that you don't even need a coupon for, so it's a really
awesome one to take with you when you're shopping. And I should mention that the
sales tax holiday works if you're shopping online as well, so you'll have
to look at the parameters, but if you, like, say you order and somebody...
Myrdalis commented on this earlier. She said what she likes to do is go and go online
and buy her purchases during the sales tax holiday weekend, but then she does
in-store pickup so she doesn't have to deal with the craziness of, like, fighting
the crowd and going all over the place and trying to find everything so she just goes
right to store, does the pickup, goes home. I think that's an amazing, genius idea.
I should have done this. Could you have done this last week before i did all my shopping?
Sorry! -Thanks.
So, now that we've talked about the
sales tax holiday weekend and we talked about how to get the best deals,
we're going to talk about some of our favorite products.
So, the first couple that I'm
going to talk about are for daycare and kind of the preschool age.
So, the first one I really love is called Oliver's Labels. And when you send your
kids to daycare everything has to be labeled. Their clothes, their bottles,
their food, if you bring their food in, their backpack and so this is a really
great way to get all of your stuff labeled without ruining it with, like, a Sharpie marker.
- And Sharpies don't last, just so you know. - And they don't last!
So, I was, like, how am I going to label? Because my daycare wanted me to
label not only the bottles, but the lids. And I'm, like, how am I gonna label these bottles?
And then what if I have more than one kid?
So, if I put permanent marker on it and it says Logan, when I have my second kid...
- You can't use it for the second one. - Yeah.
So, these are awesome you can see I've already used a bunch for Dahlia because today actually
is her first day at daycare. I'm kind of, like, stressing out but this is
distracting me from it. So, these are their mini labels and they're really
thin and I love these because you can put them on bottles you can put them on
pens, pencils, you can put them on eyeglasses, you can put them on basically anything.
I put these on her clothes, so, the tags... let me see if I can show you one,
the tags of her clothes, I put these little labels because all her clothes have to
be labeled, so there's her cute little label on the tag of her clothes.
And that makes it really easy, because when, you know, your kids have accidents
and then they can remember which kid's bag they need to send it home in.
They also make these really cute shoe labels, which are, like, adorable.
So, she's not in shoes yet, but once she is in shoes...they're even like the shape
of a foot, so you can put these inside of their shoes. Hi, Kaye, thanks for joining us!
If you're just now joining us, we're talking
back-to-school supplies and what our favorites are, so I'm talking about
Oliver's Labels right now. And then these are their original labels which are
great to put on Tupperware or food containers if you're bringing those in
and the great thing about these is that they are dishwasher safe, they are
microwave-safe, they are fridge and freezer safe.
Are they washing machine safe?
They are washing machine safe! - Yes! - They're, like, everything safe and I tell
you, we used these with Logan when he started daycare and here we are two
years later and those labels are still on. They were still on the bottles
when I pulled all the bottles out and so I had to peel them off. But that's the
other great thing, is that you just peel these right off, like, even though they
were on his bottle for two years and they'd been washed I still was able to just
peel them right off and then put Dahlias labels on. It was really easy.
They also have this cool thing called "Found It." I don't use it, but you can get it.
What it does, is it puts a little code at the bottom of your labels. So, say you
had these on, like, your kids favorite toy. - Or their sweater that they leave at school, maybe?
Or their lunchbox, maybe? - Yes. And somebody finds it.
And maybe they're not in your classroom or maybe you left it at the playground and they
don't know who you are, because, you know, it's a public playground.
There'll be a code at the bottom and they just type in that code.
And then it will email you that someone has found your item and you can
email them back and you can get it back. Isn't that cool?
Give me some hearts if you guys like that idea. So, they've got that. They also make
safety wristbands, so if you're going to, like, Disney for the weekend you can put
your kid's name and your phone number so if your kid gets lost they know who to call.
They also make allergy labels, so if your kid has a peanut allergy or a milk
allergy, they make allergy labels that will have their name and it will say,
"I am allergic to peanuts," and you can put that on their food
or their bottles or whatever you need to put them on. Right now, they have
a sale going on. They are offering 20% off all kids packages and their starter
package is, like, $26.99 and you get 20 of the original labels,
you get three mini bag tags and 35 clothing labels and so you would get 20%
off with the code EBTS2017, but that's only valid through August 2nd so make
sure if you want to buy some of these labels for your kids
you get them before Wednesday and again the code is EBTS2017. This is Oliver's
Labels and if you can't remember that code once you go to their website it's
right at the top of their website too and you can get 20% off of any of your
packages they have like a pre-made preschool package already they have a
pre-made sports package if your kid is, like, in baseball
and you need to label all their jerseys and all their stuff, so it's really cool. I love it.
Check it out. Oliver's Labels for all of your labeling needs. And, oh, oh, sorry,
one more thing I want to show you. This is so cute for, like, when your kids get
older these shoe labels, I bought these for Logan, these little dragons, oh my god!
So, look, they have half of the dragon goes in the left side of the shoe and
half the dragon goes in the right. - Oh, genius!
So that your kid can start to recognize which
shoe is their right and their left because they can match the parts of the dragon up.
- That's awesome. - Isn't that so cute?
My child literally puts his shoes on the wrong feet,
I think, 90% of the time. - Yeah, so I just started using these dragons.
- Like I think it's intentional at this point. - So you need to get these, then!
- I know, I do! - And they come in all different characters.
Like, Dahlia has owls. He picked out these dragons.
He now knows, because he matches the
dragon up and he knows which shoe goes on which foot. It's awesome.
All right, so, the next thing that I'm going to talk about is this super cute
North Face Youth Sprout backpack. - That's really cute.
It's like teeny, tiny person sized. It's adorable. So, the thing that I love about these...
Now our daycare, we go to Primrose, and they give us a backpack that they want us to use.
But I know a lot of people for daycare have to bring their own backpacks.
So, we actually got this, his Grandpa got this for him and it has been
super awesome to use. This is actually specially formulated for kids aged 2 to 4.
So, if you have a toddler that's going to preschool you don't have to buy them
that like crazy big, you know, school-aged backpack that
they can't even wear. - That's bigger than them.
- Yeah, that's bigger than them, right! So, this is specially
formulated for them and it's got one main compartment and then there's like a
little mesh compartment in the back. So, you can stick in, if they're going to daycare,
daycare always wants you to bring
extra changes of clothes. So, you can put those in there and then if your kid goes
to sleep with a special blanket or lovie or something you can put that in there
too, so it's, like, just the right size for the amount of stuff you need to take
with them to daycare. And then there's a little outer backpack if you want to
shove in like a stuffed animal or a toy, like, Logan a lot of times we'll take his
cars in the car and want to put them in his backpack. So, you can put that in that
little pocket and then there's two side pockets where you can put juice boxes or
you can put a water bottle and so this is really great if you're like going to
the park for the weekend, too. Or you're going on a trip. I took this when we went home,
we flew home for Christmas, like he packed his own little backpack - Oh, mine like to do that.
for the plane and it was so cute and I let him put whatever he
wanted in it. So, he took his stuffed animals and everything. But it's made for kids,
it's got a soft back and it's got straps and a harness that are specially made
for their size. So, that works really well. It comes in lots of different colors
and you can get it on Amazon we've linked it up and there's all sorts of
different colors it's anywhere from like $32 to $40 depending on the color you
pick because someone have like really elaborate patterns that are more expensive.
But this is what I love if you need to take a little toddler backpack
and then you can get one of the little mini bag tags from Oliver's Labels to
put it right on there and then it's labeled and you're good to go.
So, those are my recommendations. Those are my must-haves for daycare, because
you don't need a lot when your kids go to daycare. Daycare provides most of the stuff,
but you have to label everything and sometimes you have to bring a backpack.
So, those are my two recommendations. What do you have, Erika, for school-aged kids?
So, all of mine are in elementary school this year. So, one of the fun things about going to
elementary school is packing a lunch. So, I discovered that my kids want like 55
things in lunch and I don't really do a good job of buying plastic bags at the stores.
- They're snackers, like, they just want a little bit of a lot of things. - Yeah, a little bit.
Yeah, so we looked and looked and tried to find a bento box but didn't really want
to spend $1,000 on the really fancy ones, cause I have four children and I have to buy four of them.
So, instead, we found these that are on Amazon and
they're by Easy Lunch Boxes and they are plastic and they have a little lid,
they're all different colors and they have three containers on the inside, so, typically
this one's great for a sandwich or, like, they like turkey roll-ups or whatever and
then we'll put some cut-up fruit in here and then this one can be like veggies or
a cookie if they're lucky and then when you put the lid on and let's don't put
liquid, like no soup, that's never going to end well, but when you put the
lid on and snap it in, nothing mixes. Because my children don't like when
their food touches either. So, nothing mixes and it's all separate and then it has this
cute little tab right here, so when they get to school, they're in the lunchroom,
they just open it up and they don't have to raise their hand for their cheese and
their whatever, all their different baggies and containers that they have.
So, these are on Amazon and they come in a package of four.
And each one of them has a different color lid. So, if you're like me, you have
four kids, each kid is assigned a color. - Oh, that's a really good idea.
- So each one has their own lunchbox color. - So they know which one is theirs and they can grab it.
- And then you know, oh, you didn't eat your fruit today at lunch because you're the red container.
- Yes, that's really smart. - So, no dessert for you.
So, these are on Amazon and they are, let me see...
they're only $13.95 for a package of four. - Oh, that's pretty cheap.
Cause, like the other bento boxes, some of them are $30 to $40, depending on if they're the tins
that are insulated. - Yes. And these don't necessarily keep it cold, I just throw an
ice pack in there with their lunch box. And these are, like, BPA-free, I mean all the
plastic is safe. All those fancy words that I can't pronounce, all of that...
- You don't want any that! - They're safe plastic containers from Amazon, $13 bucks, golden.
- Awesome. Oh, Melanie is saying that she,
her daughter's going to preschool for the first time and she's looking at sending
her with a lunchbox. - I used these in preschool too. Especially because that's when they were
really having a hard time with even, like, cheese sticks are great, but I I can
open the cheese stick and stick it in there and then when they're there it stays fresh
and they don't have to, like, do the peeling and all that mess.
- That's really nice. - It's perfect. Okay, so, my least favorite part about school, which is also
a little bit why I'm not looking forward to going back...
is HOMEWORK!
- And since I have four in elementary school this year... - Do they have a lot? A lot of homework?
- Like how long do they spend? - They don't have a lot, but it's an acquired skill.
- Right. - So, when they're in kindergarten and I have two kindergarteners,
it is a chore. So, even if it's not hard. - Right, cause you gotta get them to sit down and focus.
- They've had a long day at school, they're spent and now they have to do some more work.
So, I try to make it a little bit fun and exciting because they don't really like it.
(Laughs)
- Who likes homework?
- So, I have a little homework station that I make at home where
they can sit and the things in the homework station they can only
use during homework time. They cannot touch them otherwise, so it makes it
a little bit special for them when they're doing
something that they don't like. So, I have this cute little office-supply
organizer, if you will, that you can buy. - Oh, I love that.
- Now, clearly, there are a thousand of these in a thousand stores. You can buy
whatever one you would like. I like this one because it has this little drawer
and I keep crayons in there, so, like, if one kid is needing crayons for their
homework, I can just hand them the drawer and I don't have to, like, move it around the table.
- You don't have to go digging around in here and trying to find the crayons, yeah, that's nice.
- And then I have special pencils over here, like, you know how you go to birthday parties...
- Yes. - And they get these cool pencils or, like, get it from the treasure box.
So, the special pencils go in here, so when they do homework they can use their special
fancy pencil. And then I just keep, like, in kindergarten they cut things,
they have scissors in there. We have some highlighters. My oldest child is getting
into the age where that is needed and some sticky notes too for him. And then I just keep
like erasers, colored pencils, some pens, so basically when they're doing homework it's
not like 15 minutes of going through the house trying to find all the things they need.
It's just right here. - So, you can just pull this out, put this on the kitchen table.
- Yep, I keep it right behind my kitchen table and then when they have homework I just
stick it in the middle, they can all use it at the same time doing homework.
So, this one is from Amazon and this particular one comes, like, in black and purple and pink
and this aqua color, which everything in my house is aqua, so I clearly use that one.
And this particular one is only $12.99 on Amazon. You can also find this type of thing at
Walmart, Target, Staples, Michaels, everywhere. So, anyway it's just your
preference what look you like, what kinds of things you need for your children
to have at homework time. - But this is nice and compact, because I've seen a lot
that have, like, multiple drawers and stuff and just kind of get out of control. - Yeah, and then you lose things.
So, this is their special fancy homework supply station. - Very cool.
- So, the other thing that I keep after homework station is a timer. So, I don't know if any of you
have Alexa, but my kids use Alexa all the time for a timer, which is great
because they can walk up to Alexa and say, "Set the timer for whatever time."
Here's the downfall, they don't want to be doing, usually, whatever this task is
whether it's practicing violin or reading or, you know, whatever it is, so
they spend half of their time going to the timer and saying, "Alexa how much time is left?"
"Alexa, how much time is left?" And I'm, like, could you just sit down
and do your thing and then it will tell you when your time is up.
This has not worked. So, instead we have this cute little tiny timer and
it's called the Time Timer. I don't know why that is the name, but that's what it is.
So, the great thing about it is, to set the timer you just pull this little dot at
the top and when you pull it, this nice red section comes out. - Oh, that's cool!
So, when they're doing their
homework or their practice they can see visually about how much time they have left.
And they don't have to ask and they don't have to spend their time
asking, they can actually do their task. - Actually, we have, we just bought a
timer because, not for homework, but because my son takes like an hour to eat his dinner.
- Yes, you can use this for anything. - I am not sure why it takes an hour for a toddler to eat a dinner. But it does.
And I'm just getting fed up, so we bought a timer and
they have, the Time Timer company, they have a couple of them.
Because we bought a bigger one that's blue. But it's the same thing, you turn it and the blue part,
so he can see how much blue is left and he can know, because that's the thing
with, like, I used to set them on my cell phone, but there's no visual and so
they have no idea how much time is left and they can't read numbers yet and they
can't read time yet. - But they can watch this tiny thing go around.
- They can watch the red or the blue go around. Yeah, that's awesome.
- And this one, I like too, because you can turn the sound on or off on the back.
- Yeah, oh and Taniel is saying shower time. - Oh, yes!
- That is a really good one! - People that take their time in the shower. This is good. I like this.
- And this one beeps, right, when it's over? - Yeah, it can, or you can turn it off.
- Yep - And this has, like, a little flippy stand
since they can have it right in front of them, so they do, it does come, like if
this was too small, they sell an 8-inch one and a 12-inch one and, you know,
all different colors. - Because ours, the blue one is bigger, it's a lot bigger and it's got
a handle at the top so you can, like, you can carry it around from room to room
easily, so we can set it for, like, this is how much time you have
for bath, this is how much time you have for brushing teeth. Yeah, keeps toddlers on task.
- It's great. The littlest one is obviously the cheapest, it's like,
depending on the day, if you checked it yesterday it was $15.99. Today, it was $18.90 so
I don't know, but each size obviously gets a little bit more expensive.
And actually this one you can get at Walmart too. So, if that's your preference.
But this goes in the homework station with their fancy supply organizer. - Awesome.
So, the next thing, this is near the homework station but not in the homework
station and this actually helps me maintain my sanity a little bit.
Because with four of them and... - Yeah, I don't know how you do it. I have two...
- Homework and assignments, it's a little crazy. - FOUR?!!
And they bring home a lot of papers from school and there have been a few times where I might have forgotten
a few important things, but I'm at school, because I didn't read the paper or threw it away or whatever.
So, I have this lovely hanging organizer that Vivian's gonna hold for me.
- I'm gonna be Vanna. - Yes, very nice. So, this actually has hooks
that I hang on the door near where they do their homework,
where their backpacks are. - There's two little holes up here to hang the hooks.
- They're just metal, over-the-door hooks that it comes with. And so this, I have one for each kid. if you don't have four kids, you
could use two for yourself with mail or, I don't know, whatever you need. - Work papers.
- Yeah, anything. So, the great thing about this is like if they bring home a
field trip form and, you know, you have to, like, sign the bottom and then send it
back but you still have this information, like, wear this special t-shirt and pack
a brown bag lunch and all this information.
You don't know where to put that paper and by the time the field trip comes around, you forget.
And you send your kid to school without their field trip shirt on,
and they're the only ones not wearing aqua and that's slightly traumatic for them.
This may or may not have happened this year. So, this is great
because you can take that little piece of paper and you can stick it in that
kid's pocket. So, when field trip time comes around you can pull it out and
remember, okay, tomorrow they need this and this for their field trip, whatever.
- That is super, super smart. - Yes, it's very helpful. Also, like, things that I don't
want to lose that I just want to reference, like, my daughter has a contact
list of all the parents in her class and their kids. I can keep that in there.
I had their supply lists in this, this summer, because they give them to you,
like, in May and I have to keep this till August,
like, fat chance! So, they go in here and then you can actually find them when
it's time for school supply shopping. And then on the front of them I have just,
like, a little binder clip for each one. - Oh, this is amazing! - So, if they need to bring in money for something,
or there's some, like, form I have to fill out and send back,
I can clip it on here, and this is actually on the door out to the car,
so, when I'm walking out to the car, I'm like, oh, that's right, you're supposed
to bring this to school tomorrow. And I can grab it, stick it in their
backpack and then nothing flies under the radar. - That is super smart.
I love this binder clip idea. That is amazing, because even in daycare
we have to bring, you know, they make us sign papers and if the kids have a field trip,
or if there's, like, I just had to buy uniforms for my son because he's
going up into the Pre-K. So, this would be really awesome to like
organize all that information. - Yes, it's great. I love it.
- So where do you buy this from? - There's a lot of these out there. I like this one because this
part right here is actually like a hard cardboard, so it's not going to, like, flop
and flip open and the side of it isn't very wide, like, there are some that if you
fill them too much, stuff's just kind of falls out. So, I like this one because it's pretty sturdy.
I like that it has four pockets, cause I need that many.
But, and, I like that it has over-the-door hooks.
So, this one I got from Amazon and this one comes, like, in green and orange,
I think, also, but I mean, there are all kinds of places, any office supply store
you can find one. If you have, if you need less pockets, if you need more pockets.
Bless you, cause you have more children than I do! But you can find anything
like this in any office supply store and I really liked the over-the-door just
because I can move it if I ever need to and it's not, like, stuck on the wall forever.
- Well, like you said, having it right as you go out the door, like, to the garage is really smart,
because then you're definitely not forgetting anything. - Yes, it's right in your face.
Katie, I just used paint pen to write their name on it.
You could probably use permanent marker, too. - You could probably use Sharpie.
But I really like my paint pens, so I used those. - Cool. Awesome.
All right, and then, my last thing that also helps me maintain my sanity is my planner, which the last
time I used a planner was in high school and I spent most of my time
drawing pictures in it and not really planning with it, but now that I'm a mom
of children I actually need to organize myself. And, like, I have a
calendar on my phone like everyone does. I have a calendar on my wall, but I don't like
when my calendar looks super cluttered. So, like, I'm not going to write on my
calendar, like, what I'm making for dinner or what my workout schedule is or things
like this week you need to take care of this or call this doctor. I don't like
to put that on there and again I might forget, if I don't write it down.
So, I bought myself a little planner and this one is the Day Designer. Sorry, it's really
shiny and I got one from Target. You can also get this on Amazon, of course,
because everything is on Amazon, but this one is from Target this was the
smaller version they have, like, an 8.5 x 11 one also but I like this
because it has your month, which you still definitely need to see like an
overall view of what's going on. But then, when you don't want to put those little
things in your month. Let me find this month, sorry.
So, then I have my weekly one. So, like, on this side I've got, like, what my workout
is for the day, I have what I'm making for dinner, stuff like I need to take
care of. This week I need to drop off someone at lessons. And then at the top it has
a spot for things to take care of this week and I actually think this is for
goal-setting, but let's be honest I'm not really goal-setting at this point of my life, so instead...
- Our goal is to make it through the day. - That's right.
- To make it through the day, make it through the month. Get to the next month. - Just SURVIVE!
This is where I put, like, the things like this week I need to make an appointment for this kid at the doctor.
This week I need to make sure I submit my blog post on time.
So, this is kind of where I write like at some point this week you need to take care of
these things, so that whenever I have that free moment and I'm thinking,
"What was that thing I was supposed to do?" - Yeah, it's like your to-do list.
- I have it up here, right? Ready for me. And then, if you look, like, it's hard to see but on
one half of the day, it just has, like, you know, things that are happening,
you could write in your schedule, but on the other half, it's your to-do list.
So, if you wanted to make a to-do list for the day, you can do that, as well as any
appointments or things that you have. So, this one, the smaller one, I did get at Target.
I think they had the larger one too. And this one was...sorry I should know this better.
This one was $16. You can get it on Amazon, you can get it at Target.
And the bigger one, I think, is like $20 or $21. And, I mean, people have
like, those fancy ones, like the Erin Condren's. Again, I just don't want to spend
that much money on a planner. - Yeah, that's a lot of money to spend on a planner.
- So I use the Target version. - That's gonna get thrown out at the end of the year.
So, if you, so let me tell you about this. Because you might like this too.
So, if you're more of a digital person... - Depending, maybe. - I have another app for you that is
basically the digital version of a planner. And it's called called Cozi. C-O-Z-I.
And what it is, is it gives you a monthly...let's see if you can see it...
maybe it might be too bright. There we go. A monthly calendar and so this has
helped because what I struggled with when I first started having kids was
I would make a doctor's appointment for Logan, but my husband wouldn't know about it.
Or I would make a playdate for Logan, but, you know, forget to tell him. So...it happens. - Whoopsie!
- So, what Cozi does is it's a family, basically, a family scheduler. And so everybody
has a color in the app and so you can, when you're putting an
appointment in, like, here I have Dahlia's doctor appointment next Wednesday and
then you can see, hopefully you can see at the top, so see how there are like
little dot colored dots so those are the people that are going. So, Steve and
Dahlia are on that appointment so I know that he's taking her to that appointment
or if it's the whole family you could put ALL. Or if it's just you,
like, if I make an appointment for you know a massage or something and I
know that I'm going to be gone and I need him to watch the kids, like, I'll put
that appointment in there. So, we're constantly just telling each other, like,
put it in the app, put it in the app. Like, he'll say, like, "Oh, I made a
dentist appointment for Logan." and I'll go put in the app. Because now we know
each other's schedule and the kid's schedules and
I'll put my, because when I start teaching, like, every semester my class
schedule is different. So, like, I'll put my hours, like, when I'm teaching and I
put that in the app, so he knows, like, not to schedule anything during that time.
- That's good. Yeah, cause I can't put all that in my phone calendar. It's too much information.
- We don't use this but it also has a to-do list function for, you can kind of see,
for groceries or it says "wholesale." So, I guess if you go to BJ's or Sam's Club
and you want to get something there instead. And "other" so you can actually make
a to-do list on here too and it will be shared with your spouse as well and
anybody else in the family, so when the kids get older and they get cell phones,
you can add them to the Cozi app. - NEVER!
- And then they can add their own, you know, appointments.
Or they can look and see when you made appointments for them and
they can add to the to-do list. There's also a recipe section of the app so if
you're like, "I don't know what to make for dinner tonight," it has recipes that you
can pull up and I see Kaye saying that this is a lifesaver. It like literally
there were so many communication issues, I think, before my husband and I started
using this app because it was like who's doing what when and he's like, "Oh, I was
gonna go work out," and I'm like, "Well, I didn't know that," and "We have this thing
planned," and so it makes it really easy to do that and you can add in
people's birthdays so that you don't forget, like, you know, family birthdays.
You can add contacts in here. There's even like a photo journal option so
if you want to, like, take a picture of your kids and say like, "Oh, on this day
Dahlia got her first tooth.," or whatever you can add that in as well.
So, that's if you want more of a digital kind of scheduler/planner
then I would recommend Cozi. The basic version is free. If you go up,
which I think is just like $2.99, that's the one that lets you sync with
other family members. So, I highly, highly recommend it. It's been a real
livesaver for us too. - You haven't left any kids behind yet? - I haven't left any kids behind.
We haven't missed any doctors appointments. I'm able to go and do my
stuff when I need to and he knows that he's gotta watch the kids and vice versa
so it's been really great. - That's great. - So, I think that's it, right?
We've covered all of our favorite products. So, just a couple of things that we want
to tell you that are coming up for Sarasota Moms Blog. Just this morning we
published our guide to the month of August because summer's not quite over yet.
So there's still a couple weeks. - 10 days!
- Or 10 days that you have to do fun stuff with your kids.
So one of our contributors Allie put this amazing
guide together of, like, all of the final, like, must-do events of
the summer so check that out. This is the big one!
Saturday, September 23rd from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
It's our, it's the Sarasota Moms Blog one year anniversary. - Woo Hoo!
- Can't believe we've been
writing the blog... - I know, for a year! - It's our one-year anniversary and we are
blowing it out majorly we are having a Gorgeous Gatsby Mom Prom.
I'm super excited for this event. We all get to dress up 1920's style.
Get our hair and makeup and nails and stuff done all fun and get out of the house.
It's a Mom's Night Out event. So, it's going to be held at... - Yes, please don't bring your kids.
- Yeah, don't.
No kids. No kids allowed. It's gonna be at Pineapple Yoga Studio. It's going to be a time for us to
just like eat and drink and dance and celebrate our one-year anniversary and
have a good time. There are 50 tickets available, so it is
a limited engagement. But you can go online this Friday, August 4th at 10:00 a.m.
to our website and that's when tickets are going to be on sale.
I recommend getting them early because this event is going to sell out.
In fact, all of our events have sold out. I don't think we've had an event yet that hasn't
sold out so please make sure you go online, get your tickets for the Gatsby
Mom Prom. I'm going to be there. Are you going to be there?
No, I'm going to the beach with my college roommates.
- OHHHHHHHH!!!! - I KNOW, I'M SORRY!!! - MAN!
All right, well I'll be there. So, if you want to hang out with me
and some of the other cool people (not her, cause she sucks, she's going on vacation). - SORRY!
- No, I'm just kidding. We're all a lot of fun so, make sure you go online and get your tickets.
As always, please make sure that you've liked Sarasota Moms Blog,
visit our website to read all of our awesome blogs and subscribe to our newsletter
and join a Mom Tribe. This is something that, you know, has just
happened in the past couple months, we started these Mom Tribes for the
different areas of Sarasota. So we've got, like, a Lakewood Ranch Mom's Tribe and
we've got a South Sarasota and a North Sarasota and moms are really connecting
and they're starting playdates and they're asking questions, like, "Hey I just
moved here I need a pediatrician. Who would you guys like?" And it's been really
helpful I think for the moms that are in those groups. So, please make sure you go on
and you join a Mom Tribe. All of our contributors are in the Mom Tribes too,
so we all talk and communicate about what's going on and what's coming up and
all the big events. So, hopefully you guys can join us there. We hope that this has been helpful.
We hope this will save your sanity a little bit during back to school.
If you guys have any other questions please make sure to
comment and Erika and I will go back and we'll look at all the comments and we'll
answer any of the questions that you guys have. So, if there are things that we
didn't talk about that you want to know about, please comment and let us know.
And we'll see you next time for the next Must Have Monday! Bye guys. - Happy summer!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét