Saturday, September 20, 2008

Necessities vs. Bonuses Part II

Thanks for commenting on my last post. It was great to hear about some of the things that have gone from your daily "needs" list to "just bonuses" as your seasons of life change also. OK, here's another for you to think about. What things in your everyday life did you once consider "just a bonus" that now in your current season you cannot live without?

Here are a few examples of my once "bonuses" turned "necessities":


Answering machines/voicemail. Anyone who has ever tried to call me, know how much I rely on these. AND just to warn you, if I ever call you and get your voicemail, I can promise you that no matter how long your message recording is set for--I will talk until the time is up. Every. Single. Time. Some of my best conversations are with my friend's voicemail.

Online shopping. Being new to South Florida and a bit directionally challenged and having to tow 3 kids under 4 with me most of the time when I need to shop, all I can say is AMEN for online shopping!

Tide-to-go pens. Love them. Perfect for my left shoulder, which almost always is marked by Annie's spit-up. Just don't confuse them with the Clorox bleach pens--you will only make that mistake once--especially if you made the mistake on the left shoulder of your first non-maternity you were so excited about wearing but now is sitting in the goodwill bag shirt.

Clorox bleach wipes and tile floors. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about having tile floors in my entire house when we first moved down here, but can I just say that God knows what we need before we even ask!! If you have ever potty-trained a little boy, I am sure you can relate to this and you understand why tile floors and bleach wipes are a necessity.

Preschool. It's true. If you have multiple preschoolers who are in preschool, you know you secretly look forward to those mornings that allow you a little more downtime.

House cleaner. At this point, Chris and I would seriously rather not eat, and splurge on this—
I'm not kidding. We actually skip dinner on Tuesday and Thursday nights to recoup this cost in our budget. --OK, now I’m kidding :)

Restaurants with play places. I know, I know, I would have sworn to you a year ago that I would never, ever in a million years eat at a Burger King, but I do now because they have the best play place in town (Mom and Mel, you can stop gasping—you gotta do what you gotta do :).

Here are Chris' contributions to what he used to think a bonus that he now thinks he can't live without:

Text Messaging. Chris lives and breathes by texting, along with everyone else on the church staff. I am going to post a story about this soon.

Leather seats in the car. Actually, I am pretty sure ours are vinyl. Regardless, they wipe clean with baby wipes and that is what he believes is a must.-- By the way, if our master bathroom is our living room, then our car is our breakfast nook!!

Let me here some of your examples!!

9 comments:

Melanie said...

A girdle...

Anonymous said...

Sorry Holly...but I have to agree with Chris... For me it's texting :) A year ago, I didn't even know how to text; my kids had to show me how :) But now, I don't know how I ever survived without it!

Oh, and I'm with you on the tide pen...I keep one in my purse at all times :)

Anonymous said...

cortadito's every day!!!!

Mc Donald's ice cream every day!!

Heather Palacios said...

TEXTING is the only way! The Cuban has had to change my text msg.'ing plan 3x in the last yr be/c I keep going over the limit. I think he up'ed it to like 1 million texts per month ;)

Faith said...

I have to agree with Chris on both things...the texting and the leather seats...those are both "musts" for me!

Anonymous said...

Oh, you are ready my mail. I only have one and my life is exactly like this. You had me laughing out loud. We are not to the play places at Burger King, but definitely using the master bathroom for a lounge area, pool, all that good stuff. Wouldn't change it for the world, well not today anyway.

Have a great day!!

Holly Mendenhall & Legend

{darlene} said...

hahaha. love all of these! great comments, too.

Ok, here goes:
1. Spanx
2. undereye concealer
3. email (long phone calls are a luxury)
4. blogging (my social?? life, some days)
5. babywipes in all areas
6. locking the bathroom door whenever I can!

hehe,
Darlene

Anonymous said...

Ok, I must agree with Darlene, Locking the bathroom door! Then I agree with Chris I'm not a voice mail person so Texting is great I get answers quickly this wy. I even upgraded to a diff. Phone so that I can text easier. Internet! Email is now very big in my life! We can communicate so much better, with our busy lives this way!

Anonymous said...

Tweezers . . .