Things That Make Me Say YEAH: My Personal Life Hacks

I get a number of questions or suggestions about how to make life with Clayton easier.  Sometimes I get really good ideas and other times I get well-meaning people who don't quite understand life with Clayton.  But I've got a few tricks of my own up my sleeve.  So if you are a special needs mom, or know a special needs mom, or are a working mom, or if someone calls you mom, here are some things I have found that make my life SO much easier. I mean So. Much. Easier.

Boxed
Oh, how I love them.  Warehouse shopping, no membership fees, free two-day delivery...all from the comfort of your home.  All you do is download the Boxed app on your device of choice and start shopping.  You can shop with or without the FREE membership.  They sell everything from diapers to ketchup and are very good about organic offerings.  Same things you would likely find at Sam's club minus the perishables.  They also frequently offer $5 off coupons and more.  I've been using them for about a year and have no complaints.

Amazon Prime
Another one I love.  I can't get enough of the two-day delivery thing.  Bring. it. on.  We traded our Netflix streaming plan which costs us roughly $120 a year for our $99 a year Amazon Prime membership which provides us with unlimited free two-day shipping as well as streaming of Amazon Prime Instant Video which includes equally as many offerings as Netflix.  I think (they don't necessarily offer the same things though).  Regardless, it provides Clayton with plenty of titles to peruse when he has internet and I have unlimited free two-day shipping.  Win, win.  And I use the heck out of the two-day shipping.  I more than get my money's worth.  I've ordered everything from Clayton's cereal, to Christmas gifts to a raincoat for George from Amazon.  Not having to leave the house for one thing here and one thing there is so much easier with Clayton and it saves me gas.  Why should I use my gas when the UPS, USPS or Fedex is coming right down my road anyway?  Plus during flu season and the like, it keeps us away from the germs.  Again, a win.

ThredUp
This one is newer to me than the others, but I have enjoyed it so far.  You request a clean out bag from them, they send it to you free of charge, you fill it with your old (in good condition) women's and children's clothes and they sell them for you.  Anything they value under $60 they pay you for upfront and anything over $60 is sold on consignment.  Now of course they have strict standards about what they sell, but you can see all of that on their website.  I like it because living on one income with Clayton's medical expenses, I have to be careful about spending and this allows me to sell my old clothes and have money for my evolving wardrobe.  Again, I love this because I get to clean out and get paid for it without ever leaving my house!  No tagging or hangers; just fold the clean clothes and put them in the polka-dot bag with the prepaid shipping label.  Easy-peasy.

Caroline's Carts
Now this one isn't for everyone, but if you are a special needs mom, this is a God send.  I was ecstatic the first time I saw these.  Now we have one at our local Publix, Walmart and Target.  Use to, I'd have to get a buggy, go in the store find some kind of cushion for Clayton and then do my shopping with my large 7 year old in the basket.  Less than ideal.  Not kidding about the cushion part.  Clayton would cruise through the stores on top of pillows, dog beds, rugs, whatever I could find first to cushion his sweet back.  And then at they end, I'd have to give the whole,"We aren't buying this it was just for cushion spill." Cue odd looks.  So if your a special needs mom, look for these carts in your local stores.  I know Alabama participates, I don't know how wide the program spreads.

ScannerPro

This one I use least often, but it is one of the biggest conveniences.  Clayton's life requires a lot of paperwork.  Then add me and George.  Then factor in this electronic age we live in.  This is the easiest thing ever for providing paperwork to the right folks.  All you do is download the app which is less than $10 and then no matter where you are you can use your phone to "scan" your picture/document into a pdf that you can save, email, etc.  I've used it to return signed documents, provide photo ID, all kinds of things.  So even though I don't use it all the time it is super handy when I do need it.  Yes, much handier than scanning it into your computer and such.  

Walmart.com

I have placed a few orders online through Walmart for food items and even paper products, cleaning supplies, etc.  As long as you spend $50 you get free shipping.  I wasn't as impressed with them though as I was with the others mentioned above.  They provide free shipping once you meet the threshold, but it isn't two-day delivery and the way they ship, items placed in the same order can come at all different times in all different boxes.  Which to me negates the idea of being eco-friendly in addition to the convenience factor.  But if your like me and you get a few things from Walmart and a few things from Publix, etc., then this is a way to reduce your stops or grocery trips, by just having Walmart delivery what you need.

Of course now, Walmart has their new pickup service.  I have not used this yet.  I started to once, but they did not have all of the items I buy in the store available through the shopping options.  Once they do, I'll give it a try.

If anybody has any other good tips, please let me know...I'm all ears!

Something Old, Something New

In the midst of my feeling like crap the last month, I got an awesome gift.  It was meant to be a Christmas gift from my mother, but the lady working on it had some personal circumstances come up so we waited patiently for her to finish as she could.  And of course it came when I felt too cruddy to share.  So now I'm going to share...

Sorry the pictures aren't the best.  I was trying to snap them one handed with Clayton reaching for my phone.  Obviously, it's a quilt!  But not just any quilt.  It's made from Clayton's clothes!  I have known for a long time I wanted to do something like this, so I saved my favorite clothes of his (or the ones that hold the most memories).  The quilt has clothes from the first five years of his life.  I found a lady on etsy and gathered and mailed her the clothes and told her what pattern I liked.  She took it from there.

Quilts tell stories.  Quilting is an art form and one that is not as popular as it once was.  Since Clayton got cancer, I have become a huge fan of quilts.  We have kid sized quilts from quilt guilds across the country from all our hospital stays.  That has been such an awesome token of love that we have been given by a few friends, but mostly from strangers.  

So anyhow, now we have this amazing quilt that tells Clayton's story.  Nearly every picture on this blog is represented through the fabric on this quilt.  There is clothing given to Clayton from our parents and grandparents and a couple hand-me-downs from my sister's kids.  I am just in love with this.  It is Clayton's story with lives of our family, every home we've shared together, every hospital stay, every plane ride or road trip, every traumatic event, every happy place...seriously, it is all represented here and it is the coolest thing I own.  If there is a fire, this is what I'd grab.  

The one thing everyone might recognize are all his button up shirts from his halo traction.  All five or six are in here.  I could go on and on, but I'll stop myself.  It is awesome and something if folks get the chance to do is worth looking into.  I'll post a link later if anyone is interested, but it's from a lady on Etsy.  I believe her store is called QuiltsByVanessa.  She is out of Crawfordville, FL.

This quilt has definitely been my highlight lately.  I'll post an update on Clayton in the next few days :)