Tag Archives | shopping

Support Sears as They Continue Their Commitment to Our Military

By on November 4, 2011 in Resources
Sears Essentials logo

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Sharing an email I received reminding me about the serious and ongoing commitment Sears has made to our military.

This holiday season please remember to support Sears with your holiday shopping!

Email:

I know I needed this reminder, since Sears isn’t always my first choice. It’s amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and Sears hasn’t withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement & feedback it well deserves.

For more information regarding Sears commitment, read Sears Holdings Heroes at Home Program details.

*We verified on Snopes - http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp

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Surviving the Weekend Rush

By on December 5, 2010 in Deployment, Stress
Christmas ornament
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I really don’t want to get up and face the day. It is a terrible feeling to wake up knowing that no matter how hard I work I will not get enough done this weekend and I will go to bed once more exhausted and still having too much left undone. I feel so guilty that many days what I long for most is just for my husband to come home and do some of my tasks!

I do some more Christmas shopping online, picking away at that massive chore little by little. Then I spend most of Saturday doing the never ending errands.  I spent 30 minutes at the  post office (where the Saturday line is gargantuan,) and another couple of hours at Wal-Mart.  I hate Wal-Mart on a Saturday, especially a Saturday before Christmas, but I have to get it done. I stop at Sears on the way home to pick up Anthony’s ornament. Someday maybe they will run out of tools to make into little freakish Christmas ornaments, but unfortunately not this year. Eventually my tree will look like something out of a hardware commercial. I shudder at the thought. Maybe I will tell him they stopped making them and I can get him a nice attractive bulb or snowflake. No? Oh well. While I’m there I pick up a new shovel. We only have one good one and one half broken, cracked old one. If I want the kids to help, we need more shovels, and I definitely want them to help! I debate for a minute, confronted by all the choices. Anthony usually does this part. After a very brief internal discussion, I choose the ultra-heavy duty, super human strength, lifetime warranty option. It is way more than my husband would have spent, but if I’m going to shovel, by God, I will not be using some cheap *ss tools!

By the time I get home, I am already 2 ½ hours behind schedule and I just want to sit down and cry, but I don’t have time for that. I clean the house and head over to mom’s to put up her tree. I should be enjoying this time with her, but all I can think about is what else I need to do tonight before I can climb into bed.

Sunday is spent baking and doing more online shopping. There is little time for play or rest. Elijah is such a big help and shovels the drive way while I do the laundry. I used to love Christmas time, but right now it just feels like another chore to add to the list. Another exhausting weekend has passed and I am dreading tomorrow morning when I have to get up and do it all over again.

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Shopping Therapy

By on August 20, 2010 in Change, Deployment, Emotions, Stress

One of the nuggets of wisdom I discovered as I rounded 40 a few years ago is that when I am feeling overwhelmed, burned out and completely over my head, I need to stop and take some time for myself. This sounds totally counter-intuitive to conventional thinking. We are told that if we just get up earlier, work harder and be more efficient, then will can stay in control, but I have found the opposite to be true. The harder I work and the more sleep I lose, the less productive I become.

So with that in mind, when my daughter asked about going school shopping today I said sure why not! My initial answer was I have so much to do, maybe we can schedule something in for the next week or two. Then I thought, for crying out loud, what is wrong with this picture? When I am so overburdened that my daughter has to schedule an evening with me two weeks ahead then my priorities are upside down. So, we made a plan to take a few hours to get some work and chores done and then take off late afternoon, leave my son with his grandma and head out to the mall.

Shopping Therapy

We ate, we shopped, we spent part of the evening looking for the cell phone my daughter left in one of the stores….but in the end we accomplished our goals. I took a break away from work, home and my never-ending to-do list and ended up feeling great and still getting something done in the process. While Alex was looking for clothes; I wandered my favorite shops and purchased a few “luxuries” that make me feel pampered. My needs are simple; a book from Borders, loose tea from Teavana, Vera Bradley and aromatherapy items from Crabtree & Evelyn and a Starbucks coffee. I am fully restored…at least for today.

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