Make My Life Easier Thursday: Return Address Stamp
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From the time I graduated college to the time my husband and I bought our current place, I moved eight times, no exaggeration. I don’t think I spent more than two years in one location, no matter how much I loved the apartment. After we bought our place, one of the first things I did was order a return address stamp. It may sound silly, but to me it was such a “grown-up” thing to own — a sign that I had put down roots somewhere. Every time I use it, I feel like such an adult. Since having a child, I am sending out a lot more snail mail — thank you cards, birthday cards, invitations, etc. — and yes, it’s an extra step to break out the stamp and ink pad, but it adds extra polish to the envelope. Hi, I’m April, I send snail mail, own an address stamp, and care about how the outside of my envelopes look to the recipients. College me wouldn’t recognize adult me. (Probably a good thing.) The stamp is $27–$33 at Etsy. Return Address Stamp
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Sales of note for 1/16:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- AllSaints – now up to 60% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- DeMellier – Sale now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
- Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off — reader favorites include their scoop tee, Dream Pant, ReNew Transit backpack, silk blouses and oversized blazers! New markdowns just added
- Hannah Andersson – Up to 30% off all pajamas;
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
- L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
Nickname auto-fill – oh good, it’s not just me. I switched browsers in an attempt to help my elderly laptop run faster and it didn’t work, but I thought that’s what was causing my screenname not to auto-fill today!
For LittleBigLaw re. family mascot: This will totally out me IRL (good thing my nickname is not automatically populating for some reason!), but we are known to family and friends as “the three bears.” It comes from an encounter we had with a family of bears when our daughter was little. People give us all sorts of bear gifts—Christmas ornaments, coordinating PJs, etc. We even have a license plate. Some of our siblings already had similar family themes/nicknames/mascots, so we just ran with the bear idea.
Not sure how helpful this will be as I’m not yet on the other side of mat leave + 2 kids as my second is due in October, but ours will be 2.5 years apart (3 grade years apart with birthday cutoffs). I definitely was NOT ready for another one when my first was under one but felt more ready earlier this year so we went for it. I think some of the advantages of having kids close together would be that you can do similar activities with both and they can more or less entertain each other, which you wouldn’t get if the age difference was larger. Also, if you’re already in the thick of sleep training, diapers and tantrums, etc., might as well keep going with that and hopefully get that over with within a shorter timeframe. Disadvantages of course are that you have to take care of two little ones at the same time and the older one might not be as much of a helper as they still need a lot of hands-on care.
As for work, most people at my office have had kids within 2-3 years of each other, so I’d say that’s pretty common and you have nothing to feel embarrassed about. Most people assume that when you’re in the baby phase, you’ll be there for a bit within a short timeframe.
Totally a personal decision, but if you both feel ready, I say go for it!
I’m sure this has been discussed many times before, and I promise I’ll read the archives, but I wanted some fresh opinions too.
How close is too close to have kids? My first is coming up on a year and I surprisingly really want another already! If I didn’t work I think we would definitely try this fall. However, it feels like I *just* got back from maternity leave. Granted, once you’re pregnant you still have 9 months of work left, but I would feel… embarrassed? To announce another pregnancy this year or even early next year.
Not sure what I’m looking for, maybe stories of kids spaced <3 years and your career didn't end?
Can I just take a moment to whine about May/June and the end of year schedule? There are SO MANY stepping up ceremonies/teacher recognition weeks/end of year gifts/sports banquets/class parties/etc. etc. etc. I feel like every single day has a different activity/outfit/gift/whatever associated with it and I am about to lose my mind. We’re about to go away for memorial day which will be an awesome trip…but getting us packed up to go is also causing my anxiety to spike and I’ve definitely been crabby/exhausted. I cannot.wait for summer camp to kick in!
Important PSA – the post office is going to issue scratch and sniff popsicle stamps in June. You can preorder now on their website. (Actually this is one of my time-saving tips – I like having interesting commemorative stamps and my local post-office is a nightmare, so I always buy stamps from the USPS online. $1 shipping but so much easier).
i have a niece who is almost 7 but, according to her therapist, is about 2.5 emotionally. still has tantrums every day, still does mostly parallel play, finds disney movies like frozen too scary to watch etc.
but she can read at about a third-grade level. any suggestions for chapter books? apparently most books for her “age” are too scary for her — too much conflict, people/animals getting hurt, etc. she’s home for the summer (refuses to go to summer camp) and she needs a big library to keep her busy.
Very helpful suggestions CPA Lady, thank you.
We’ve had a nanny for our 2 year and 3 year old for about the last 8 months. This summer, we’d like to send our son to a summer camp from 9 until 12. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk from our house, and so we’d want her to drop him and also pick him up. (she doesn’t drive.) Should we pay more for adding on this duty? It does seem like a pain, especially since she’d have to walk with our 2year old as well. On the other hand, for a chunk of the day, daily, she’ll only be watching one child. I feel bad nickel and diming, because she is awesome, and I know the best thing is to just pay extra. But – like most everyone with kids in childcare – money’s tight, so I just want to see what is reasonable.
I have a blocked duct for the first time in two years of nursing (two babies, one year each). I’m just weaning the second baby right now, and was down to nursing only morning and night. Should I take Sudafed or something to help, or do I need to wait for the blocked duct to clear?
Advice please! My husband and I have 2 small kids (25 months and 5 months). DH new job is turning out to be a real bear. He leaves for work around 6:30am and gets home around 10pm right now. This wasn’t quite what we were expecting but it’s been this way since our 2nd was born. I do drop off and pickup at daycare and everything else. I am kind of losing it. This morning when I was getting lunches and bottles together for school I realized I can’t keep this up. I am not a super organized person and maybe that is the answer. I should have prepped all that stuff the night before but I was So. Tired. I feel bad bc I sent DH a text that said “This is not working. I need help.” I feel bad because it’s not like he has free time or is out galavanting — he’s working and super stressed. I’m working and super stressed. We both make about the same amt of money so it’s not like one is the breadwinner. Am I unreasonable for asking for more help? My job is very flexible that’s why I take on the household duties but I don’t want to do 100% of them, I’m not a SAHM!
Today’s the last day of school. To celebrate, I invited all the school-age kids on our street over to have popsicles in the backyard tonight. (Did the same thing last year, and it was awesome. Everyone ended up hanging out for several hours.) This year? Literally two families have RSVP’ed yes. One said maybe. The rest haven’t responded at all. This isn’t the first time recently where this has happened, and I’m having a hard time not feeling a little hurt and disappointed. I don’t know if it’s a personal thing, or if everyone is just really busy, but I am not feeling the love in our neighborhood anymore. At least the people who are coming are the people whose company I enjoy most, but it’s hard not to wonder if we’re being shunned or whether something else is going on. I’ll admit that this kicks off all sorts of latent anxiety I have about social rejection and whatnot. Feels so dumb to be in my late ’30s and still dealing with this stuff.
I love the idea of these as a housewarming present but most of my friends kept their birth names and I’m not sure how they’d want the name portion of the stamps to read- “the Smith-Jones family,” “Jane Smith and Dave Jones,” “Jane and Dave” etc.
Need some help naming our daughter so taking a poll: how would you pronounce the name Maia:
(a) My-uh
(b) Me-uh
(c) some other way
I’ve given a stamp like this as a housewarming present before and it was a big hit. But I still use the free kitten and puppy address labels that come with my ASPCA donation myself.
Unrelated question: can someone explain to me the reason why you’re not supposed to mix breast milk of different temperatures? I just read it for the first time and trying to figure out if it’s a real rule to follow. I often just a wee bit extra at work and it’s annoying to have to wait for it to chill to mix with other bags.