Make My Life Easier Thursday: Smartsleep Sleep and Wake-Up Light
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I have a super old version of this alarm clock and I’m not sure I’d make my morning workouts without it.
Instead of a jarring alarm, this clock simulates a sunrise (as well as sunset for winding down) with sounds of your choice (for example, I use chirping birds) to help you wake up more naturally. It also has a host of other practical features like an FM radio, charging dock, power backup, and 25 personalized brightness settings.
Instead of feeling simultaneously groggy and startled, I feel ready (usually) to start my day.
Philips Smartsleep Sleep and Wake-Up Light is $179.95 at Walmart and also available at Amazon.
Sales of note for 6/30/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – 2,700+ new markdowns for women — and the Anniversary Sale preview has started!
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your purchase, including new arrivals + summer steals $39+
- Banana Republic Factory – July Fourth Event, 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – $19+ select styles + extra 50% off all sale
- J.Crew – End of season sale, extra 60% off sale styles + up to 40% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – All-Star Sale, 40-70% off entire site and storewide and extra 60% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Sitewide Sale, save 25% with code — 48 hours only! Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Spanx – Free shipping on everything
- Talbots – 40% off entire purchase, includes all markdowns (ends 7/3)
Anyone found a vaccine for an under 3 kiddo yet? If so, where/when? Our health department is saying only for uninsured or CHIP/Medicaid, Walgreens is only over 3, and our doc says they can’t get it because “its in the governments hands”. I think our doc is being lazy. I’m in Kansas.
How do you help someone from afar? I’ve been struggling with a lot of feelings about a family situation. My sibling and their spouse, and nine month old twins, are not only divorcing but moving across the country for the in-law spouse to be closer to their family. The sibling has rejected any legal intervention and settled on drawing up their own agreement before moving states. It misses a lot of items and we have tried so many times to tell him this could backfire down the road. But it’s done and the move is happening, with the sibling getting a place and job in the area to ensure they are present for their children . Due to a lot of factors, I won’t be able to see them for another three months – which breaks my heart entirely that I’ll miss the rest of their baby stage. I’m left feeling sad and just helpless. What could I do?
for those of you who work in jobs with super intense periods – like litigation and you’re in trial, or working on a deal, etc. or your spouse does – are you just MIA for the entire time? what do you do (if anything) to support your solo parenting partner? obviously i realize there are people who are single parents or military spouses (you are all truly amazing), but DH has been traveling/working on a deal for the past 3 weeks and i’m just so exhausted. we have a nanny, but the reason i’m exhausted is more like due to current sleep issues with our kids and i’ve been handling all of them. the only way i am surviving is bc i’m currently WFH and I am able to go back to sleep for an hour once our nanny arrives, but soon that won’t be an option. tips? ideas?
Need some attorney career input. I’m at a mid-sized family friendly firm (making fine but not great $) with 2 kids (4 and 2). While the flexibility has been great, I’m treated like a junior (but have 10+ years experience). Moving up here would take forever (although that might not be the worst thing as I do get a lot of time with my kids and we are fine on my salary). Just finding it stifling.
Thought about making the move in-house but I have no public company experience so really limited to commercial contracts roles. Has anyone taken a role like that? Would it be worth it to explore going to another firm (big or mid) to learn public company work?
Do I coast or try to move? If I wait, would I be so senior no one would want me? :( We are thinking of TTC#3 so feels like it’s time to make a decision.
We’re in the process of buying and selling homes. A house came up in our beloved neighborhood that had nearly everything we want in a long-term home in our city. We had our offer accepted at the end of May (bidding war) and will close end of July. We needed to do a few projects and clean up in our current home before listing it, so it went on the market early this week. And I’m on the ledge that it is too late and it’ll sit on the market forever and/or we won’t sell it for nearly as much as expected. I just need new people to be anxious about it to. So that’s all.
I’m looking for perspective on what is standard operation, life with young kids/getting older with respect to memory and what is…more serious decline in cognitive function? Lately I feel like I have some many days where I try to work and it feels like I’m moving through molasses. I feel this with work where I’m just moving so slowly. I feel this when I catch up with friends and I think, I can’t keep track of anything that they’ve told me is going on in their lives (I can barely keep track of mine!). I find typos in work emails and texts to friends, making grammatical errors I know I know better than to do or just typing the wrong word completely. Mondays especially, I feel like I’m burnt out from a busy weekend with the kids, I have trouble jumping into work mode (I think working from home makes this worse).
I had a day off to myself with the kids in daycare this week. I enjoyed the day, but I’m feeling a little demoralized that I don’t feel any more restored after that.
DH is great at handling nearly every diaper change whenever he’s home. He frequently asks, “Daddy do a diaper?”
Except about 3 am, daddy didn’t do a diaper. He took the old one off and forgot to put the new one on…
Definitely thought this was some sort of brea$t pump when I opened this page. And I haven’t pumped in a year!
Something about the hole in this, the color, and the shininess reminds me of an ear… not in a good way (if there is any good way to resemble an ear)
What photo book services have held up well? We have used Shutterfly a few times but binding fell apart and pages got loose fairly quickly.
Has anyone used Artkive or another service to turn kid art into a book? Wondering if it’s that much better than photos I could take at home.