Works for Me Wednesday- Mom I'm Bored

Well for this special edition of Works for Me Wednesday, it's about handling that oh so famous question, "Mom I am bored! What can I do?" Now my daughter is constantly saying that to me and I can not figure out why she could possibly be bored. I go through the list every time of what she can do with the various toys she has, books she can read, coloring books to color, games to play and so forth. She usually ends up making some fort thing with pillows, bringing out stuffed animals to travel in it, or playing with a ball or a box. So really why do I get toys????

So of the things we do to fill out the time during the summer months are to totally take advantage of the free days everywhere. Most museums and zoos post them on their website. We actually have a free day on a Wednesday to the museum in a week or two. Saturdays are free days at the art museum and the first Monday of the month is free day at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I have also done searches that pull up all sorts of summer festivals and events all over Colorado during the summer months to take the kids to. This makes up the "field trip" part.

Now for when we are at home and not going anywhere, out come all the crafts. I like to stock up on things from Hobby Lobby, Michael's or Jo Ann's and save for a "I'm Bored" day. They have lots of wood pieces to paint, those plastic cups to decorate, stickers, scrap booking pages, and so forth. We have gotten window art, magnets, ornaments and things like that, as well as t-shirts to dye, put paint on or draw on with markets. Now if you are not into the crafts, you can always grab journals for the kids to write in and draw in, when you go for walks, or if they go outside to record all the things they see.

Taking household items and having the kids race to see what they can make out of them is also a fun game. Stacking up the Tupperware to see who makes the tallest tower, or who can make something usable out of paper plates, cups, spoons, and straws.

Building forts and clubhouses out of boxes is great too. Kids love to decorate them and bring their stuff inside and play in those things for hours!

So what do you do when your kids tell you they are bored? Do you have any special tricks to entertain them? Let me know! I am always looking for new ideas!

Oh and don't forget to head over to Rocks in My Dryer and see all the other wonderful Works for Me Wednesday posts!

~Dawn

Works For Me Wednesday- Customer Service

This past week I was thinking about the things that work for me that I think would be worthy of sharing... and I was just at a loss until.. I had a horrible experience with customer service and an online advertising company. What this taught me is what works for me- which is excellent customer service. Now this company promised to advertise my business website at the top of the search pages on Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, and more for any 10 keywords I selected. I would receive a 30 day trial and after that start paying a monthly fee unless I of course cancelled. Sounds good right? WRONG. I didn't realize til after that the keywords would be followed with in Denver, CO. So unless someone in my state is specifically looking for these keywords what the heck was the point. I was told I would get a follow up email with all the details that went on with the recording and so forth. So to make a long story short, I didn't get the email, I tried to cancel but called the wrong number, I got charged, disputed the $258 charge and repeatedly called with no return phone call. Now after getting charged again, I finally found the website, emailed and called and finally got an email back saying "too bad, too sad, you were told the number in the recording, you agreed, you didn't call the number, deal with it." So what I found was that customer service has gone to the toilets. No longer do you hear " what can I do to help you?" " Let me see if I can fix this for you" "Oh I am sorry it looks like we had a misunderstanding (obviously its my fault they just don't say it)".

Reminds me of why I do business with FedEx. Every time I go in with my packages to mail for my business, I am greeted my name, asked how business is going, how the kids are doing, anything new and exciting to share. I find that I am in a great mood when I leave there, regardless of how long it takes to get all my boxes rang up, how long the line is, or anything else. Just being friendly, offering things above and beyond, bring back repeat customers. I had a great experience like this with a Jamba Juice, near my old work. They always remembered my order! I loved it!

So even though this post doesn't give you a new product to try, a site to visit, or something exceptional to make your day easier, it's a just a thought on the long lost cause of customer service. Maybe you have a story on this to share, or thankful you never experience it, or maybe it reminds you why you make sure to have awesome customer service in your own business. Whatever the case, feel free to share your comments and then head over to read the other Works for Me Wednesday posts!

Have a great week!

~Dawn

What Doesn't Work for Me Wednesday

Well today is the first time I have participated in Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer. Today is also a themed WFMW and it is what doesn't work for me. Well let's see I think I have a few....

Driving: With gas prices as high as they are, driving doesn't work for me. Paying over a $100 in gas a week is killing my budget. So right now I have to start thinking of other ways to get places, or how to run all my errands at once in order so that I minimize my driving as much as possible. Soon I am never going to leave the house since gas prices will be through the roof.

Shopping while Hungry: I don't know why I can't get this one down and know it doesn't work for me. Every time I shop hungry I come home with nothing but snacks and munchies and things that will never equal a great dinner or lunch and missing the important things I went there to begin with. I need to eat a light snack before shopping. And I need to not take the kids. Carrying a 1 year old who wants in and out of the cart and wants to walk around the store and wants to throw a fit DOES NOT WORK FOR ME. As well as a 7 year old asking for something different on every row as well as letting me know that she doesn't want the things I am putting in the cart. Nope I think kids shopping with me doesn not work at all.

Sorting laundry: Sorting all the laundry into piles of whites, jeans, colors, darks, towels, bedding, delicates, and whatever else you can think of does not work for me. That is so time consuming and takes over the whole house. I just throw it all together. Although to be honest I think a few piles do get made of jeans and of delicates but the rest all goes in together. With lots of dirty clothes and children making messes with theirs, I just have to get as much of it done as possible. So I wash it all on cold, dry on low and don't use beach. They come out clean and fresh every time.

Well this was fun... hopefully I got the theme down this week and can add something useful next week when its just works for me wednesday. I have to start thinking of what actually works for me that is worth sharing. More themes are coming up: June 4 -- The Mom-I'm-Bored edition, July 2 -- The Five-Ingredients-Or-Less edition. So head over to Rocks in My Dryer and read the other fun WFMW posts. Make sure to leave a comment if you stop by so I can come visit you and say hello!

Have a wonderful day!

~Dawn