Happy Prime Day, friend!

Now before I get into my recommended Prime Day Shopping list, I want to share my 3 Rules for Shopping during Prime Day, Black Friday, or any mega sale day:

1. Don’t randomly surf Amazon to see what deals are out there. You WILL end up spending more than you want to spend!

2. Make a list ahead of time! I’m spending today (the day before Prime Day) writing out my own Christmas list, and the list of names that I will most certainly be purchasing Christmas and Birthday presents for in the coming days.

3. Add to that list ONLY if it fits your budget and if the items you are adding come from a trusted recommendation!

I’m breaking it down into 4 Categories, I’m not going to put any fancy photos with this bc I aint got time for that.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

WHAT I ALREADY OWN AND LOVE AND RECOMMEND

• Deebot - Our robot vaccuum and my best friend.

• Vitamix - A mega blender we have owned for 12 years and use weekly.

• Diono Carseats - Saved us THOUSANDS of dollars! We fit 3 of these in the back seat of our highlander instead of upgrading to a minivan. Boom. (They ain’t cheap but they are cheaper than another car!)

• These Joggers - BLESS THE LORD O MY SOUL I LOVE THESE THINGS. I wear medium. If nothing else, buy yourself these or slap them on your Christmas list quick.

• Blackout Curtains - We have these in the girls room and our guest room. I plan to buy them for the boy’s room this Prime Day! (I like the 96” length)

• Amazon Echo & Echo Dots

THINGS I WANT

• Gel Nail Polish and UV Light - Tried this at my sister’s house last week and I’m in love!

• Hatch - Sunrise Alarm Clock

• New Morning Mercies - Daily Devotional

• These Running Shoes

• These Knock Off Airpods (I have some great bluetooth workout headphones, but they don’t have a mic. I want some with a mic attached so I can talk on the phone!)

FOR THE HUBS

• Bugasalt - A gun that shoots table salt and you kill bugs with it. My husbands favorite thing ever.

• This Pocket Knife

• Mechanix Gloves

• Adidas Slides

• Hiking Backpack to carry kids in

(He loves and recommends all of these!)

FOR THE KIDS

• Melting Snowman / Unicorn / Shark - the Snowman is the fav in our home!

• Magnatiles - We keep adding these to our list! We want to collect a ton

• The Original Airfort

• Natives

• Leak Free Water Bottles - Age 3+ is my recommendation

And as always, if you want to check out my Corner Store ( just a catchy name I made up for my Amazon store), you can always head to nancyray.com/cornerstore!

Affiliate Links are used in this post

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about being reactive v. being proactive. I’m always the one to say “Happen to your day! Don’t let your day happen to you!” or “Set goals for the life you want or you won’t ever get it!” or “Tell every dollar where to go or they will run off and you’ll never know where they went!”

And yet, recently, I’ve learned that reacting is actually a healthy part of being a human.

When anything new happens, any change or shift in season, or even a big, unexpected event (ahem 2020 ahem), there is a natural period of reaction. We react to our circumstances, and that’s well and good.

But if we live in that reaction for too long, that’s when it becomes unhealthy. That’s when we can get stuck in victim thinking, and we really are no good to anyone - especially those we love most.

The reactive stage should be first filled with whatever emotions come, and you should feel free to let your emotions out. Then - there’s the gathering of information. “Why did this happen? What is not working? What could work better?” As you gather information your move into the problem solving stage… and then you can get a new game plan and be PROACTIVE. And proactive is where I like to live. It’s the healthy side of you that has agency and freedom and authority, to make a plan and veer from that plan as you so choose.

I am reminding myself daily: it’s okay to have a period of reaction until I can truly be proactive and know what works.

React.
Gather information.
Problem solve.
Be proactive.

In some ways, September is going to be a lot of reaction - Adjusting to being a home that has a new Kindergartener and 2 new preschoolers and a part time homeschooling mama 😅. Our covid / summer schedules are gone and now there’s more structure and time restraints and riding in the car (gasp!). It’s an adjustment for allll of us, and a good one, but still - it’s new.

So. I’m going to allow myself to react a little. Be frustrated on the homeschool days if I need to be (like I was today). Cry my eyes out if I need to next week when I drop the 2 littles off at preschool (like I did last week for Milly). Feel the things as I do the things. Feel the tension points and problem solve - over time. And then I’ll move into being proactive when it’s time.

PS These shoes are my new FAVORITES and they are still at Target!

As I type this, I’ve had a crazy long day. It was a homeschool day, and I’m feeling tired. There was a lot of push back on doing ANYTHING and we are all learning what it looks like to actually get work done! And the even greater challenge : learning how to do the work in a certain amount of time. Milly is the pokiest human being on the planet so I’m figuring out how to encourage her and push her to do things faster, which is usually the one thing that triggers a full on melt down for her. Also, I’m taking a major risk by letting Lyndon not take a nap today, and instead have the girls play together (and it’s currently working!!) but I’m hoping it’ll pay off for an easy early bedtime. (And praying it doesn’t end in some major 3 year old meltdowns too!)

Today, writing goals feels a little foolish. There is so much that needs my attention every single day. I look at this list of goals and chuckle thinking “HOW THE HECK am I going to do even one of these things?” - especially on days like today.

But I also look at them and believe they are worthwhile, so I’ll keep writing them, even if I do only cross one off the list. And I’m counting down the days until my mama comes to stay with us this Saturday (first time since Covid!!!) and I’m pretty much banking on doing most of these when she’s here! Ha!!

September Goals

Acclimate and adjust to alllll the new school rhythms
Finish reading Digital Minimalism
Finish reading Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Record 4 Podcast Episodes
Finish 2019 Family Yearbook
Photo Shoot: New headshots and some podcast fun!
Finish 30 day workout challenge (more on that below!)
Go camping
Take a week off social media

How are you feeling about goals in this weirdo year that we’ve had? Still writing them? Given up? I’d love to hear in the comments!