Happy Monday evening! Yes, it’s an evening edition of this week’s post. Today is It’s a Girl Day, the day we celebrate each year discovering via ultrasound that God was giving us the desire of our hearts – a daughter – after many years of asking. Caroline gets to choose a small gift and a special take-out lunch on her day. We’re so very thankful for her and the gift she is.
I’ve been doing some pantry building the past few weeks. There were a few things I couldn’t find locally so I decided to try ordering online from Walmart. Oh my. I cannot begin to describe what a truly horrible experience we’ve had with this. Contrast it with Amazon which is nearly always perfect and it’s hard to fathom a company like Walmart being so bad at something so important. I also ordered a few things from Target and that went well.
But more than anything I have been busy working on this site for the past week like a crazy lady. LOL! I’ve always been honest about the behind-the-scenes aspect of this site that is part of my business so part of my motivation is the desire to move to a better ad network that pays much much better. Ads, in part, make it possible for me to do this site. I would like to spend a LOT more time writing quality content. Increasing my ad revenue will allow me to do that. So I need to greatly increase my monthly page views in order to make that goal. I’ve actually set myself a ridiculously ambitious goal, but we’ll see if I can do it.
How ridiculously ambitious? I actually seriously contemplated going back on Facebook after two years in order to drive traffic to my site. Fortunately a group of blogger friends did a mini-intervention and reminded me that God can provide in ways that don’t require me to compromise in areas in which I have strong convictions. (I may or may not have used the term “prostituting myself” when discussing returning to Facebook. Ahem.) So I didn’t go back on Facebook. Crisis averted.
So here’s a bit of what I’ve done in the past week if you want to take a peek.
- Completely cleaned out and reorganized My Shop. It seriously looks gorgeous now. I reorganized it in anticipation of the updated and new products coming in the next few months. We are either deleting or updating every product in there. I’m hoping to have this project done in another six weeks or so (depending on David’s availability).
- Updated the free 290+ Stocking Stuffers Ideas printable and the Stocking Stuffers post that goes with it.
- Updated lots of post images such as my Back to School Prep Series (in my tiny Practical Tips From My Teaching Career) which is still really popular seven years after I wrote it.
- Continued the massive work of organizing all my post tags and categories. This included deleting posts that didn’t fit any longer.
- Added the A Cozy Christmas Planner in the shop. If you purchased it last year, you can download the new version in your account.
- Continuing to add all of the new clip art and digital papers I’ve created to My Shop, including moveable clip art for digital products. I’m almost caught up. I have about 14 more to go.
I think I’m forgetting things, but that’s what comes to mind.
So my homemaking goals this week?
Goal 1 – Continue to expand my pantry.
Goal 2 – Finish cleaning out the master closet and switching out the seasonal clothes.
That will be enough for me this week. What do you have planned? It can be big or small. I hope you’ll share in the comments. I always enjoy hearing what other women are working on in their homes!
Artwork: “Washing Line” by Helen Allingham
290+ Stocking Stuffer Ideas for All Ages | Free Printable Shopping Lists
I didn’t realize that my simply coming to the blog could impact your ad revenue, I will make an effort to visit more often.
While I am well past childbearing myself, I have a daughter and grandson and will be using your tips to talk with them about other things than just day to day concerns.
Hi Judi,
Yes, every visit and every page view matters.
How old is your grandson?
Sallie
Kyele is 11 and 1/2 (gotta love that insistence on the 1/2!)
They live about 7 hours away and circumstances haven’t been conducive to visiting. My health doesn’t allow me to drive and her work and now covid 19 means I haven’t gotten to spend much time with them. I miss them.
Sorry you had a bad experience with Walmart. I order from there many times and have no trouble. Some of the things are out of stock,but that is the same problem with some of the other places I try to place orders. How nice that you celebrate Girl Day with Caroline. I hope to change the seasonal clothes this week. I also want to throw out some more things in the cellar.
Marilyn
Hi Marilyn,
The situation with WalMart has been just crazy. Things damaged to the point of spilling contents when they arrive due to poor packing, a large package damaged in transit with FedEx so it was sent back and the order cancelled, a box that fell apart on our front porch when David picked it up (because it was way overpacked and undertaped), a package that was delivered that we never received, etc. I never even contemplated we would have this kind of trouble when ordering from them. I’m glad to hear it isn’t the norm.
Have fun with your projects this week. Good to hear from you!
Sallie
I wonder if even the businesses that have done deliveries for years are having to hire new workers without the benefit of much training. They certainly cannot keep up with the recent demand with just the workers they had. We’ve noticed it’s hit or miss with our orders from Meijer. Some do an excellent job, some it would seem have never shopped before in their lives.
My husband worked for a year at Fed-Ex, a few months were as a loader. The higher the volume, the less care taken in loading the trucks.
Just something to think about. In everything, “your results my vary”.
What’s interesting to me is how widely different people’s experiences are with ordering online with Walmart. I have a friend who swears by it, and that’s how she primarily gets her groceries. Order online, and then pick up in store. It’s great with a car full of preschoolers.
Then there are stories like yours where it doesn’t go well.
I’m trying to list out three things I want to do each day, and get them done. Sometimes it’s working well, other times I rewrite the same three things days in a row.
I finished reworking my library and am in the process of reworking the school/sewing room. It’s hampered by the creative 13 year old who is crafting up a storm/making a giant mess that undoes all my cleaning. I might have to give in and lock the door before I’m finished cleaning because otherwise she undoes what I’m doing.
So, for what I want to do for homemaking is get the floor cleaned in the schoolroom. That’s it.
Oh, and while I did this major cleaning of my pantry a month or so ago, stocking up and kids unloading groceries has created a giant mess again.
This week I am trying to get some of those annoying little maintenance jobs done. Last night I cleaned out the drain filter for the washer.
I’m also going to try to convert an indoor table to an outdoor table for our deck, so we can more easily eat out there when the weather warms back up.
I vacuumed the refrigerator coils, washed most of the larger cushion covers, persuaded the fireplace damper to stay closed, and got a few things done in the yard.