Friday, September 17, 2021

7QT: Mother's Ring, Soccer is King, Retirement Planning, and Multi Level Marketing

Happy Friday once again!  When will I ever find time to write more meaningful substance?  I don't know but for now, it's a look back at the week in Seven Quick Takes.

1)

For the longest time, I have wanted a Mother's Ring but also wanted to be sure that I wasn't going to buy one only to realize later that I needed to add a new stone. 

#thatfertilelife 

Side note: Did I ever tell you about the time I bought a cheap ring with the kids names on it when I was pregnant with Brendan?  We knew he was a boy and were planning on naming him Charlie so I have a ring with all of my kids' names on it but the last one is wrong.  I mean, the ring was only $40 but I totally jumped the gun on that one.  Sorry Brendan!  You don't even look like a Charlie!  

Anyway, now that I'm 42 and a half and couldn't wait any longer, I designed this ring online and I am so happy with it!  I originally had the ring with each of my kid's birthstones in it, but each of my kids has a different birthstone (seven kids born in seven different months) and it looked a bit too colorful and discombobulated for me.  Then I thought to myself "Self...what if you had blue sapphires for the boys and a pink sapphire for the girl and it would look all symmetrical and not so clownish?"  Voila!  The finished product:

2)

Soccer is well underway.  Five kids, five different teams (I should have had twins!) and they are all so adorable...well the big guys are handsome but you'll just have to trust me since they won't let me take their picture easily, I'll have to bring my big camera to their games to get some.

Declan is way too nice on the field - we are working on being more aggressive.

Maggie does not have any issues with being aggressive - the girl has grown up with 6 brothers.

Brendan scored four goals but clarified that it's only practice for him, not real games.

3)

A work perk:


I get to order lunch from the public school's cafeteria and have it delivered by courier to my desk!  The salads are so big and delicious!

4)

Phil and I try to make it a point to take each kid out on a date when possible...and the pandemic certainly slowed that down for us, but we are getting back to it!  Xander really wanted to go to a restaurant and eat chicken wings on the bone, so we took him out for lunch last Sunday.  The boy ate ten wings because he's 10 :)


5)

Let's talk numbers, shall we?


Since leaving my last job meant the end to my 403b retirement plan, I have been researching investments to rollover the funds and projecting how much I'll need for retirement and creating budgets to make all of this happen.  I get a pension with my new job, which is one of the reasons I took it, and it's fun trying to figure out all of the monetary changes for this numbers geek.  Well, the mint app makes it fun even for non-number people.  I can open it up and see how much I have in my checking and saving accounts and how much I owe in my mortgage and how much my investments made or lost all in one place!  Highly recommend, and it's free!  And as I like to say "If it's free, it's for me!"

6)

Phil took the kids to get ice cream at a little farm we never knew existed, and wouldn't you know it, since then I have driven by it multiple times to watch my high school boys play soccer at a field they are using while their high school grass field is becoming a turf field.


7)

I watched a very good documentary called Lula Rich on Amazon Prime. It's about the rise and fall of LuLaRoe, the multi level marketing company that sells (sold?  are they still selling?) leggings and dresses and cardigans to mostly SAHMs.  I can't stand businesses like these, pyramid schemes that target moms mostly, who are trying to make money and end up getting sucked into debt.  The only ones who can actually make money are the ones who happen to get in at the beginning of a successful run.  By the time the average person learns about the company, the market is oversaturated with sellers and there's no money to be made.  It's so sad.  But it does make for a great documentary to binge!

I hope you all have a wonderful soccer watching, ring designing, money planning type of weekend!

16 comments:

  1. We have 5 on 5 soccer teams too. This weekend is the first weekend of games so it should be interesting!

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  2. I love your ring! So pretty! And I had Rebecca when I was 44 so............ :)

    I need to watch that documentary. I've been seeing a lot of things online about LuLaRoe and all the crazy things that went on. All I remember about it is how extremely ugly I thought all of the leggings were. And because I'm a crazy old lady and don't know the difference between the two and don't care, I combined LuLaRoe and Lululemon in my head and pronounced Lululemon "LuLAmon" one time and now my 17 year old daughter will not let me live it down. Oh well....

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    1. I get this two companies confused too!!! Ha!!! Teenagers are great for humility lessons 🤣

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  3. I love that ring! I'm 46 and still nervous to commit. :) I also fully agree on MLM's, I think they are just terribly predatory and misleading.

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    1. From the other comments, you should be nervous! I’m shaking!!

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  4. Love your ring, so creative! My mom has one of those and it has nine different stones- haha, definitely colorful! And for sure want to watch that documentary. Possibly unrelated but I go to thrift stores a lot and often come across a good amount of LuLaRoe dresses (one time there was a large stash all with tags still on!). Makes me curious if it's natural closet purging or if the novelty of quirky prints wore off!

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    1. In the documentary it tells that people are giving them away or selling them for a dollar at the end because the quality was so bad. Very sad!

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  5. I'm due with number ten and am about to turn 46....she's the fourth baby in my 40s so....maybe you can add a matching ring if necessary, lol.

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    1. Karyn - congrats!! My mom had two babies in her forties (one is me!) so I know I might be buying some matching earrings 🤣

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  6. It's a lovely ring. My mom had a ring with 10 stones - luckily 4 were September so they acted as the border and it wasn't too crazy. But be careful -I had 3 kids after 43 - so you might need another ring!
    (PS - Karyn - congratulations! I had 4 in my forties too! They are so fun.)

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    1. Wow!! Three after 43?! You’re a rockstar!

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  7. Your ring is lovely. A Mother's Ring is very important and so meaningful.

    I bought my Mom her Mother's ring for Christmas, right after I graduated high school. That was 1972, 7 children with a stone for each. I made payments to Zales for months and to me that $99.00 was a small fortune back than. But working all the extra hours was well worth the tears and smiles that Christmas morning. A memory I will never forget. Mom has been gone 31 years, and the ring now sits in my jewelry box. Every time I take the ring out and polish it, I remember that day and cannot wait to see her again one day.

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    1. That is thee sweetest story 😢 what a generous and thoughtful daughter you are!

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    2. That is thee sweetest story 😢 what a generous and thoughtful daughter you are!

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  8. I had never heard of a mother's ring. I love what you designed and laughed at the Charlie story. Totally nailed it with Brendan, maybe I'm partial because I have a Brendan Seamus.

    Never heard of that dress company and I love a good documentary.

    Very envious of your salad option at work. I haven't been able to figure out how to get the toddlers to make me a salad every day. I make three at once and enjoy the time saving benefits. When Coach knows I've had a bad day he runs home from work with my favorite chopped Portillos salad for me (I think Portillos is only in the Midwest - delish). This was a rough week and for that I was rewarded with a salad.

    We try to take each kid out 2 times a year and yes the pandemic messed with that. I always make boneless chicken and when Lad was little we ate at a friend's house who served fried chicken. Lad collected everyone's bones to take home. I think he wanted to bury them. Hello everyone, this is my quirky son. We don't get out much.

    That app sounds ultra stressful. I don't think I want to be able to look at what I have, because it will remind me of what is NOT in there and what I owe on my mortgage, etc. Ha.

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