To Buy or to Rent?

When I was a student at Clemson University (GO TIGERS!), i always tried to pinch pennies in terms of my textbooks. I recall buying used books for a few days until my order from Amazon or eBay or another seller arrived since it saved me a few dollars. Since I graduated, which was only five years ago, you can now RENT textbooks - fab idea!

One company, Campus Book Rentals, asked me to look through their service and site and give my opinion. All you do is is their search box to find your textbook. You can choose to keep the book for a semester, a quarter, or a summer session and the price is different based on the length of time. And for those students who attend a few classes and decide to drop the class after getting the book -- you can return them without charge within 30 days and take advantage of their FREE shipping!

I was the student who wrote in the margins and highlighted the heck out of my books. But when its a rental, I thought that would be a problem for others like me, but you can highlight in books from Capus Book Rentals. Pretty neat, although it means you will receive books already marked up too (help you get through the reading faster?? :) ).

This is an actual book I remember purchasing and although it is a less expensive buy, the rental is nearly half the price. Saving about $15 is alot and that is on the low end of savings (typical range is 40-90% savings)! As a side, note, the author of that book, Brian Solis, is a big social media guru now and I have seen him speak at a conference and have read other books he has authored.

To make you feel better about your purchase, feel good knowing that they donate to Operation Smile with every rented book. Some of you may be familiar with that philanthropy via Panhellenic/Greek Life or the PSA ads.

So for you college students, and siblings and parents of college students, forward this post and a link to Campus Book Rentals to save "your" students money. Hey, it will give them more money to spend on gas to drive home and visit YOU!

Time Off and Time with my Family

Life moves fast. I started to feel like I was missing things: moments with my son, moments with my husband and moments alone(!). For that reason, I have taken a step back from blogging. It makes me a little sad because I have all these recipes saved with coordinating photos I took to share and I will, just not so frequently.

But, when my son sees the laptop and comes running over to my lap, I know HE is most important. I am using my "spare time" if you can even call it that, to grow my successful business and for that I am grateful. Grateful for my creativity and the support of family, friends and strangers who keep me busy ordering my products!

I'm trying to step back from Facebook too, reminding myself that if anything "important" happens in the lives of those I am close with, they will call or text or even e-mail me to keep me in the loop. So, there you have it folks…I am on a little family hiatus.


I do have a post coming up soon that will be of interest to college students and their parents!

Sweet Balsamic Pork Loin {recipe}

Life is busy! So, I took advantage of a summertime recipe in the crockpot a few days ago and it was wonderful. Pork loins were buy one get one free at Harris Teeter so I picked up two and used one for this recipe. Everything else we had at home already.

I found the recipe on Mel's Kitchen blog, but as her post says, it isn't her original recipe. It's a keeper!

Feeling Grateful

I was talking to the mom of this cutie yesterday (as I do most days of the week)

 and she commented on how different they look from last July…when we first met.

And it got me thinking…was I really not friends with any of my local "mom friends" just one year ago?

I used to work full-time in DC and spent the rest of my time at home "in the country" as some say and my husband and I had friends with kids, but it just happened they were in our age range. What I mean is, we didn't purposefully seek out families with children. But I do now! Last fall I was part of our town's first MOMS Club and hold an Executive Board position which is alot of fun. I have met many more moms in town which is wonderful for those days when you go to a park and just shoot out an email to see if others want to join. Only a five minute drive for anyone in town, well except Jake and his mom ;)

But, the first friends I made as a new mom were some of these ladies:

This is what William looked like the day he met future friends Louisa, Samantha, Mason and Zoe:

These are some of the adventures they have had since then (plus another new friend or two):

    

I am so happy to have these friends (and their babies) in my life!

Happy Birthday to my Husband

Today, this little boy (now man) is celebrating a birthday. We are having a seafood-something dinner since he ordered chicken parmesan on Sunday while out to eat and that was my original dinner of choice, and a cake with our family.

It will be the second birthday that our son will be celebrating with his Daddy. This is still one of my favorite photos of them.

This was Brad's birthday last year. William slept through half of dinner and woke up for cake and gifts…typical!

Happy birthday Brad -- we love you!

Our day(s) at the Beach

In case you haven't heard, our town got hammered by a "derecho" on Friday night and it knocked out our power at home for 48 hours...some are still without as the temperature soars above 100 degrees. Fortunately, we had already left home to head to the Eastern Shore with my in-laws for a mini vacation so we didn't have to deal with the heat and no water at home (we have a private well so no electricity means no well pump). So, this is what we have been doing while I haven't been blogging:

Swimming in the pool and the beach

Taking long morning bike rides and at least one of us falls alseep

Hanging out on the boat and also sleeping

The good news of course is that William IS sleeping which is a relief since the three of us share a room while at the shore. He is a restless sleeper, or it seems that way in the PackNPlay which means I need to drink (more) wine to actually get a good night's rest. Oh well, tough :)

We will be here for a few more days and then go hom so I can get my Lasik procedure done on Thursday! Be back next week since my little brother is in town and I have several large Memorable Designs projects to complete!

Blueberry Jam!

Let me first say that if I could do this during naptime, you could too. I did have help, so a friend helps speed along the process, especially a friend who has made jam before. We used the blueberries we picked that morning and found a simple recipe in my classic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for Blueberry-Orange Jam.

Before you start, I will tell you that this uses a few pots and pans at once. We had a pot going to sterilize the jars. We had a pot to actually make the jam. Erin was manning the stove, keeping water boiling, etc while I was doing the fun part of crushing berries and mixing it together.

Recipe:
3 pints blueberries, stems removed (1 pint = 2 cups)
1T orange zest
1/4c orange juice
1 package powdered fruit pectin (typically 1.75oz)
1/2t butter or margarine
4c sugar (I didn't have enough when we started and had to run to CVS in the middle of cooking. that's where you go when your town doesn't have a grocery store…)


1. Place 1c berries in an 8qt pot. Use a masher to crush berries. (I did all of my berry crushing in an aluminum pan because my stove and best pots were in use!) Add berries until you have 4c crushed. Stir in orange zest, orange juice, pectin and margarine.

2. Heat on high, stirring constantly until you have a full rolling boil. Add sugar all at once. Return to boiling; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and quickly skim off foam (I didn't have foam).

3. Immediately ladle into hot sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims and adjust lids. Process in boiling water canner for 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool until set. Makes 6 half pints.