Nix9to5

Today’s Groupon: Five Zumba (or Pilates) Classes for $15

// July 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Miscellaneous

Today’s Groupon looks like a lot of fun!  You get five Zumba or Pilates classes at OKC Zumba for only $15.  If you have never tried either of these types of exercise, you’re missing out.  Especially with Zumba.  Even for the klutzy and uncoordinated (moi, for example), Zumba is a good time and almost unlike exercising.  Here’s what Groupon has to say about the deal:

Before Zumba or Pilates, those looking to tighten their core were forced to exercise at six times normal gravity inside high-speed centrifuges, hoping the excessive speed would simply fling the fat off. Strengthen your body in elegant, non-centripetal fashion with today’s Groupon: for $15, you get a punch card for five Pilates or Zumba classes (a $30 value) plus a Zumba bracelet ($2 value) from OKC Zumba at To The Pointe… Dance Academy. You must be at least 13 years of age to participate. Classes take place Mondays and Wednesdays. OKC Zumba recommends that you arrive five to ten minutes early to ensure your spot.

OKC Zumba’s registered dietitian and certified hardbody Kerri Whitley has firmed and shaped corpuses through gleeful fitness sessions for 18 years. In her Zumba classes, she employs a fun fusion of Latin rhythms, easy-to-follow dance-aerobics moves, and spellbinding salsa to hypnotize bodies into a trance state of startling vigor and fortitude. The alternating high- and low-intensity movements render it a delightful workout for both beginner and advanced exercisers as it moves from warm-ups to routines like merengue, mambo, reggaeton, and cha-cha over the course of a 50-minute class that stretches endurance, keeps the heart pumping, and woos passing pan flute-playing satyrs. To commemorate your dance-a-thon, you’ll get to gird your revered wrist in a fancy Zumba bracelet.

You can also put your punch card toward Kerri’s 30-minute courses in Pilates, the now-classic contortionism discipline that uses controlled movements, breathing, and mat exercises to forge fitness of the whole body and mind. After your Groupon’s quintet of classes, you’ll leave with improved posture, a stronger core, tighter muscle tone, reduced joint pain, and a head fit for professional rubbernecking.

To sign up for this deal or to check out Groupon in your area, click here.

SOLD – OKC Area: 5 Piece Bedroom Set for Sale

// July 27th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Life in General, Money Matters

Sorry.  It’s gone!

If you live in the OKC area and are looking for a bedroom set, have I got a deal for you!  I’m selling a 5-piece bedroom set that I kept thinking that we’d fix up, but since we haven’t by now, we aren’t ever going to.  It has been in our garage, and we have to get it out of there so we can put in a storm shelter and actually be able to get into it.

Here’s the set:  headboard (queen or full), 5-drawer dresser, two 2-drawer night stands, double dresser with lingerie drawers.  The set is a nice set–solid wood–but it does have some damage just because it has lived a long life (hey, it’s vintage!).  Here is the damage, which I show in the pictures below:

• Headboard:  holes stripped if using as Queen (we just propped it behind the bed, and it worked fine); one panel needs to be re-nailed
• Nightstands:  finish is messed up
• Dresser:  one mirror is missing one of the brackets; the door over the lingerie drawers is broken and the repair was “temporary” (meaning it can be easily fixed correctly, but we just never did it)

All of the damage can be fixed pretty easily, I think, except refinishing, which I think is a chore.  Still, if that’s the kind of thing you like to do, then you won’t have any problems.  Even if  you don’t have any repair or refinishing skills, the set will work if you are needing something and don’t have a lot to spend.

We’re selling all 5 pieces for $75 or best offer.  If you are interested, leave a comment, contact me here, or post a comment on the Nix9to5 Facebook page.

Here are the pics:

5-drawer dresser

Queen/Full headboard

Nightstands

Double Dresser

Damaged finish

Broken door

"Repair" job on broken door

Missing bracket on mirror

More on Time Management

// July 27th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Balance, Organization, Time Management, Work at Home

When my All You magazine came this month, I was pleased to see that, in addition to a bunch of coupons, it had reader tips called “Organize Your Life for Free (or Close to It!).”  Here are some of the tips that I liked:

• Maintain a family schedule online: “We use cozi.com, a free site, to keep our schedule in order.  It also has a shopping list tool, which is great because I can jot down products as I think of them.  It links directly to my husband’s work calendar, so we can be sure our appointments don’t conflict.” — Kristin Strobe, 35, Avon Lake, OH (I haven’t checked out this site yet, but since I spend so much time on the computer, it seems like it might be a good way to keep up.) Continue Reading

WAHM Tip #3, continued: Organization

// July 26th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Balance, Life in General, Organization, Time Management, Work at Home

About a month ago, I asked for your suggestions on getting organized and effectively managing time–things that I have definitely been struggling with as I make the transition from working mom to work at home mom.  I got two responses, which lets me know that one of the following is true:

1. You are struggling just as much as I am.
2. You know enough about time management to list “Don’t Waste Time Commenting on Blogs and Piddling around on the Internet” as one of your top time management strategies. (Note to self:  Stop piddling around on the internet.)

I’m just going to hope it is #1 so that I don’t feel so lonely as I fumble along trying to make this work (plus, if you aren’t wasting time on the internet, then you aren’t reading Nix9to5).  Since I’m working on the assumption that balancing it all is hard for you, too, I’m going to give you the two bits of advice that came from Nix9to5 readers.  Tomorrow, I’ll follow it up with some tips from the August issue of All You magazine.  (If you don’t subscribe to All You magazine already, consider it.  It has great ideas for saving money and time and comes loaded with coupons.) Continue Reading

Big Boy Bed

// July 25th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Children and Babies, Life in General

The Bear has been getting closer and closer to climbing out of his crib, and he finally did it.  Repeatedly.  Last night, bed time was awful, with Bear attempting to climb out every time Mommy or Daddy left the room.  Finally, Daddy just sat in the room with him, saying, “No.  Time for night-night,” every time the Bear tried to get up.

This morning, we took the side off the crib, and it was pretty funny.  Bear was SO excited.He would grin and climb in and out of bed, and he was just having so much fun with his big boy bed.

Now it is time for the first nap in the big boy bed (well, an hour past time, actually), and the fun is OVER.  Bear didn’t want me to rock him to sleep for his nap, because he wanted to “Go night-night new bed.”  I thought, “My goodness!  This will be easier than I thought!”

An hour later, I give up, and Daddy is in there.  Bear is crying and hollering, and I’m sure Daddy is repeating his “No.  Time for night-night” refrain . . . over and over and over.

Thank goodness for Daddy taking over.  My nerves are shot, and I really needed to get some work done during the Bear’s nap, which apparently isn’t going to happen.

Please, please, tell me we’ll be over this soon and Bear will be napping and sleeping in his big boy bed like a champ.

Today’s Groupon: 50% off at Deep Fork Wood Grill

// July 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Couponing, Money Matters

Here’s another yummy Groupon deal for my OKC readers.  You can get a four-course tasting menu meal from Deep Fork Wood Grill and Seafood for only $25.  It’s a $50 value, so you save 50%.  If you haven’t been to Deep Fork, it is really good.  Hot Husband took me for my birthday one year, and it was a very nice, romantic atmosphere and the food was delicious.  Here’s what Groupon has to say about the deal: Continue Reading

Shame on me!

// July 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Balance, Life in General, Time Management, Work at Home

I was mildly chastised today for my failure to keep this site updated.  Those of you following me on Facebook know that I recently got a new project from one of my clients, and while I thought I was almost actually ahead on work, that one project has now put me thoroughly behind.  Never fear, though.  I got a lot done tonight and I’m planning on hitting it furiously over the weekend.  With any luck, I’ll be back on track with Nix9to5 by Monday.

Oh, and Mom?  I got some new pictures up  on the Totsite, too.

Amen.

// July 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Balance, Children and Babies, Life in General, Time Management, Work at Home

I borrowed this from the Facebook page of a Nix9to5 reader:

Today’s Groupon: 65% off at Paint Your Own Pottery

// July 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Couponing, Family, Money Matters

Looking for something to do with the kids as summer winds down and the boredom escalates?  With today’s Groupon, you can get up to $16 worth of Paint Your Own Pottery for only $8.  Your Groupon also waives the studio fee of $5-7, making your total value $23.  You can buy up to 5, but they must be used in one visit.  If you have a passel of kids to entertain, this is a pretty good deal.  Here’s what Groupon has to say about the deal: Continue Reading

Another Long-Lost, Insanely Talented WAHM Friend

// July 16th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Life in General, Work at Home

On a recent Nix9to5 blog post I told you about a childhood friend I rediscovered recently.  Kelly and her husband run the Sowell Honey Farm in Texas, where they produce raw, organic Texas honey and make amazing beeswax lotion bars, lip balms, and soaps.  I might be a little bit in awe.

Well, a loyal Nix9to5 reader alerted me to another long-lost Texas friend who is also accomplishing great things as a work at home mom.  Melanie, like Kelly, is someone I thought was my cousin growing up.  As I got older, I realized that Kelly and Melanie are cousins of my cousins, and of each other, but they are not my cousins.  Which is good, because I maybe had a little crush on Melanie’s brother when I was in elementary school.

Melanie is a textile designer, seamstress, quiltmaker, jewelry maker, and who knows what else.  She’s truly an artist–the photography on her blog is vibrant and eyecatching.  Check out her blog, Texas Freckles, to see her beautiful quilts and, if you are a seamstress yourself, view her patterns and tutorials. 

I’m overwhelmed at the number of talented women I’m privileged to know, and I’m proud that so many of them are Nix9to5 readers!  You’re amazing ladies!

(To my three male readers, you’re amazing, too.  Two of you can build stuff and do complex math, and the other one is a musician.  If there are more men out there following this little journey, give me a shout!  I’ll say nice things about you, too.  Working at home isn’t just for moms.  I know one of my three male readers is an accomplished work at home dad!)