Conveniences

I will be the first one to admit, I haven't been as much of a help around the vineyard as I was say, 2 years ago.  Although pregnant with my first at the time, I was at least able to spend my free time after work and on the weekends pruning vines, de-suckering, mowing, gardening.

Key words:  free time.

I don't need to go into the whole "kids change your life" speech, because whether you are a parent or not...you should know they just take up a lot of time.  For instance, I used to be able to go to Target and get exactly what I needed and do it all on my own time.  Trips to Target of late have looked like this...

I shared this picture on Facebook a few months ago, but think this helps to illustrate where I am going with this post.

Now, if we were the type of family who could on a Saturday morning, say, "C'mon everybody, hop in the car and let's make a family trip to the store," getting errands done might be a little easier.  Or, if say, I had a husband who hung around the house watching football on Sundays where I could say, "Hey honey, you watch the kid(s) while I go grocery shopping and get a pedicure," running errands would be a lot easier.  And my feet would be happier.

But we aren't...and I don't.

I have a husband who spends the majority of his weekends working on things like...

Which is not a place I want to leave my toddler for a few hours with Dad while I run out.  Confession:  I think I took this picture a year or two ago.  I don't even know what this is! I haven't gotten any pictures of the latest "project".  But, does it matter?  For all I know, this could be part of the grape press he is building for this fall's harvest...

Or, he's figuring out where to put and what to do with all of this new wine equipment...

Or, doing something like this...

And if he's not doing any of the above, he's out in the vineyard stringing wire or spraying the vines, or pruning...

Don't get me wrong...I love the man to pieces and he is a wonderful father.  Given the full plate we have around here, we just have to do things a little differently, which means that about 90% of the shopping for our daily living essentials is left to me.

So I took some recommendations from a few friends and have been turned on to the life of online delivery.

For pretty much everything.

I'm addicted.

Do you know how nice it was to come home to ALL my groceries sitting by my front door?  Instead of trying to fill my grocery cart with an antsy toddler standing in the cart pulling things off the shelves and babbling at the top of his lungs, I filled my cart from my laptop...while sitting in bed at 9pm one night.

Pretty nice.  Thank you Coborns Delivers!  For those of you not in Minnesota, Coborns is the local grocery delivery service.

And they even sell Minnesota wine at Coborns!  Right now, it looks like Alexis Bailly is the only Minnesota wine available.  It's a start, but I think they'll have to expand their selection!!

And what about our 2 Great Dane mixes who go through food like there's no tomorrow?  We usually buy multiple bags of the largest size bags available.  A pregnant woman lifting multiple 40 lb bags of dog food into a shopping cart does not fare well.

Solution?  I hopped on walmart.com and had three 40 lb. bags of food delivered to my front door with FREE Home Shipping!! Seriously. Why didn't I know about this years ago?  I think they might change that free shipping policy after a few orders from the Schram residence, but I am going to take advantage of it as long as I can!

And don't get me started on all the other online shopping I've done.  Aaron asked me to buy him some socks the other day, so I sent him the zappos.com link.  Need new make-up, shampoo, or laundry detergent?  Soap.com.  Diapers?  Diapers.com.  It's endless really.

Of course, I know I can't stay away from my beloved Target for too long.  It is just a half mile down the road, afterall.  But, I've been enjoying these conveniences thoroughly.

So what am I doing with this extra time I am not spending trying to run errands with a toddler in tow?  Last Sunday, when Axel went down for his afternoon nap, I hooked the monitor to my hip and went out to mow the lawn.  And when I finished, I  still had time to throw in some laundry and start dinner before he woke up.

I think I was much more productive than Aaron was the last time he tried to mow...

But, it felt to good to get outside and help Aaron out a little bit.