5 Share-Worthy APPs

Technology is advancing faster than I can grasp it!  There are so many ways that technology has made life a little easier!  I can snap a picture of a check and deposit it into my bank account without ever leaving my house.  I haven't cracked a cookbook in months, because I have any recipe I want on the web.  If I don't feel like cooking, and I decide to order out, I don't even have to pick up the phone!  I can order most take out online!  Technology has grown so much even over the last year.  That led me to thinking... how does this smartphone that I love so dearly, help my life?!?!  I have joked that I could run the world from my smart phone!  The only thing I can't do, is look at a website that uses Flash (COME ON APPLE... MAKE A DEAL WITH JAVA!!!).
I have an iPhone 5, and it is of course, loaded with tons of apps.  Apps that let me do just about anything I want!  This post is not about how amazing the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine, or Pinterest apps are... although they are great!  This post is about apps that actually assist me in feeling productive each day!  I thought I would share my 5 favorite apps with you!

1.  SimplyUs  - This app is absolutely awesome!  It connects a calendar between you and your partner.
 You can share any events immediately that you want the other to know about.  So arguing about not knowing that your wife had a girls night out planned this weekend, is no longer an issue!  My favorite feature of this app, however, is NOT the calendar!  I LOVE the calendar, but I LOOOOOOVE... the Lists!  If I run to the grocery store and my husband decides that he wants beer, he can open the app... type in whatever he wants in the grocery list, and it appears on my phone!  No more phone calls that go a little like this.. "WHAT, I cant hear you.  I have no signal in here... did you say you want me to get beer, or you are changing your career?!?!?!"

2.  HomeBudget with Sync - This app is another amazing app for families to share information.  No more wondering if the power bill has been paid, or if you still have money in your grocery budget!  This app has a feature that allows you to setup a group connection and once each iOS device is linked to the group... all of the information is shared!  My favorite feature about this app is the many many ways it graphs and charts your budget for you.  You can see how much you spend and where you are spending it.  We chose to pay for the full version.  There is a LITE version which is free, but it only allows you to put in so many bills per month!  I believe the full version is $4.99, and it was def worth it!

3.  My Fitness Pal - This app is actually very new to me, but I really like it.  It gives me the ability to
actually see what I am eating everyday!  You can't hide from the numbers right there on the phone!  You put in your goal weight, current weight, and input your daily food and exercise!  The app does all of the work for you!  My FAVORITE part about this app, is it gives me the ability to SCAN a food I am eating!  So, when I eat a cup of yogurt, I can scan the carton, and it pulls all of the nutritional information up for me!  The app posts your daily input onto your profile feed, and your friends actually become your accountability partners!  It is much easier to stay true to your plan, when you have friends who are doing the same thing!!!

4.  KeyRing  - This was actually one of the first apps I ever downloaded on my phone!  It is fantastic.  It gives you the ability to scan each one of your "frequent shopper cards" into your phone.  So, I no longer have all of those cards hanging on my keys!  Not only does it free up some space on your key ring, but it also shows you the sales, and coupons for the stores you have cards saved for!  Clicking on my Kroger Card, opens up a few options.  My card can be scanned by a cashier, I can view digital coupons for the store, special offers that the store is running, and the weekly sales ad!  This app is fabulous, and it is FREE!!


5.  Ink - This app has saved me a few times!!  I have a REALLY difficult time remembering birthdays, anniversaries, and any other important dates that are not for my immediate family members!  Even for those people I remember the dates for, I am terrible about not making it to the store before it will be to late to mail out a card!  This app eliminates that worry!  It is connected to my facebook, and notifies me when someone I am close to will be celebrating an event!  I can open the app, select a picture of my kids, add text saying Happy Birthday from your favorite people, enter their address... and a birthday card is on the way to their front door.  It's so awesome!  The app is FREE, but you do have to pay for the cards.  I think when you first download it, you are given 2 cards for free.  After that, you can purchase credit packs, or pay for each card individually.  They are $1.99 each for most of the cards, which is actually cheaper than me going and purchasing a card and mailing it!  Plus this is personal and custom!  LOVE IT

So... those are my top 5 apps that I love and use often!  Do you have any apps that you think are worthy of sharing???  I am NOT a fan of SnapChat, so you don't need to share that one ;).  Feel free to comment below with an app you couldn't live without!  I would love to know about them!

Thankful For a Thankless Job

From early on, we are asked what we want to be when we grow up.  Doctor, dancer, painter, photographer, are just a few of the careers that kids dream of having.  I have never asked that question to a child and heard the response "a stay at home mom".  We are taught to shoot for the stars, because you can be anything you dream of being.  Succeed in school, so you can go to a good college, so you can get a job in the career of your choice.  Many women have NO desire to stay at home!  They enjoy their careers, and kids will not change that.  And, I would like to say, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that mentality.  It just wasn't what I wanted for my life.

If you had asked me in elementary school what I wanted to be, I would have told you an Olympic figure skater or a gymnast!  I only went ice skating a hand full of times, and my parents couldn't afford gymnastics classes... so I obviously wasn't given the training that this dream would require!  In middle school, my dreams shifted.  I wanted to be a doctor, and the first female president!  I had plans of going to Duke University, and was going to be the best in my field... I just wasn't sure what that would be!  Then I would go on to be the first female president!  By high school, I had decided that I wanted to be a singer.  Professional, of course, like Britney Spears!!  If I wasn't successful, I would fall back on acting!  Being an actress couldn't be too tough (in Greensboro, NC!!!!) right??  After I graduated, I started college, but it wasn't much later that I realized college was NOT for me.  I didn't know what I wanted to do, but spending another 4 years in school was not something I wanted to sign up for!  After years of waiting tables for quick cash, I decided that I wanted to work with kids.  I started working at a daycare center, and spent several years working as a teacher and a nanny to a few families.

I got married at 22, and found myself working as a nanny for an amazing family.  I loved their kids to pieces,

and I knew that I wanted to have some of my own.  I NEVER planned to stay home!  I wanted to have the baby and promptly return to the job I adored.  When I was 5 months pregnant, I was laid off.  The family hit some tough financial times, and I was let go.  I was so sad to leave them, but I found myself in an odd position!  HOME.  I had no job, and was unable to get one, as no one has any desires to hire a pregnant woman.

In February of 2010, we met our daughter.  After a difficult pregnancy that put me on a month of bed rest, I was thankful that I had been given the chance to stay home.  However, it wasn't until my first meet and greet with that little girl, that I decided being home was where I wanted to be.  In order for us to survive on one income, we had to make some sacrifices.  One of those included a relocation for a promotion to another state.  A month after our move... pregnant again.  Another baby meant more expenses, which meant more sacrifices.  You decide quickly what you need versus what you want.

I wanted to stay at home and watch my kids grow up.  I cook, I clean, I do loads and loads of laundry.  I make beds, I tidy rooms, I wash sink full after sink full of dishes!  I make lunches and dinners, I play puzzles, and build forts.  I take trips to the museums and libraries, and sing lots of silly songs.  I run a successful Etsy shop from my home, in which I sell many fun and unique crafts and keepsakes.  I do therapies with my son, and take my daughter to and from preschool 3 days a week.  My husband's long work days and odd hours means I am doing most of the daily grind alone.  I do not have a boss who tells me I am doing a great job.  I am not rewarded for a successful month with a bonus.  I do not accrue vacation time, and there are no medical benefits.  If I want a 401K... I will have to do that myself.  There are many days where I feel unappreciated, and taken for granted.... but I wouldn't trade it for a career that I dreamed of so long ago.  I have days that feel lonely, and days that feel like they will never end... but I am thankful for them.

I CHOSE to stay at home!  I prefer to call myself a CAREER MOM!  I think it comes with a lot less presumptions about what I do in a day!  For a long time, people would ask me what I did for a living, and I would respond...

I'm a Creative Specialist for Domestic Development.

Sounds important, doesn't it!  Well, what I do is important, and I am thankful that I am able to do it.  Each day with my kids is special.  Even if the oldest is coloring on my walls with a permanent marker (it has happened more than once) and the youngest has a diaper issue in which poop ends up all over my floors (again... more than once)... I am still thankful for my job!  Being a mom is work.  You are constantly sacrificing for yourself for the benefiting of your family.  Being a mom who stays at home, is an entirely different type of challenge!  You do NOT get a break!  There are no weekends... you are always in your office!  

BUT... I am thankful... especially for my thankless job!

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down..."

Nehemiah 6:3