Mowing by Corbyn

This is 5 years ago. Corbyn was 8 and was already learning to mowing the yard. 

Only a couple years later he started mowing yards in the neighborhood to earn some extra money. 

One of his customers gave him this trimmer/edger and the mower you see on the right hand side on top of his weekly pay. 

He has now picked up customers in the next neighborhood over. 

While using the RYOBI battery operated mower that his customer gave him, he decided he preferred that over the gas mower. So we upgraded his battery mower to a RYOBI self propelled battery mower. 

Among other upgrades this year is the way he hauls his gear to each job. This has allowed him to mow lawns beyond just our street. 

We were at The Home Depot this week and they had a RYOBI special going on. They have a Battery, charger, and bag combo that you buy and get a free (select) RYOBI tool. He decided to do that and get the blower for free. He's been using my leaf blower that is awkward a too big. 

But that's not all.
The RYOBI representative that was at The Home Depot also gave him a free t-shirt. 

Not a paid product placement for RYOBI or Snapper. 

However, I'm sure Corbyn wouldn't be opposed to a RYOBI sponsorship. 

Want Cash for Your Used Textbooks?

What do you do with your college textbook after your class is over? Do you keep it around to reference back to? Or put it on the shelf to collect dust? Or maybe you do something creative with it. 

I just now sold mine quick and easy on BooksRun.com

 How quick and easy is it?

1. Go to BooksRun.com

2. Type in ISBN

3. Get offer in seconds

4. Accept offer and tell them where to send the money to

5. Ship the book to them on their dime with prepaid shipping label that you print at home. 

Even easier money, enter your used textbook's ISBN here.  

How Much Does DoorDash Pay?

So here is the story. I was looking for a part-time job to make a little extra money. The catch for me is that my full-time job doesn't have a consistent schedule that would allow me to give a different employer set times each day that I'd be available to work. In my search I came across Uber and DoorDash. Either of these allow you to work a very flexible schedule. I don't want people vomiting in my car, so I never really started Ubering. I did try a few Ubereats deliveries though. My experience is that they do not pay well. I don't recommend Ubereats for a part-time job. 

I signed up for DoorDash and have now completed over one hundred deliveries. 

There are a few things that I've learned along the way through my first 100 deliveries in my area. 

First, know that when your application is approved they will send you a package with a Red Card to pay for your orders at some restaurants, and a thermal bag to keep your orders warm. Always take these with you when you go Dashing. 

There are times when the Red Card doesn't work. Sometimes technology fails us. I learned that you have the option of paying with a different form of payment and then submit for a reimbursement. The reimbursement will be deposited with your regular direct deposit. 

When I first started I would drive around waiting for an order to popup. This of course is a waste of fuel. Now, after I make a delivery I drive towards downtown. Then if an order hasn't shown up, I just park and wait. This reduces how much the cost of fuel for me. 

Sometimes the customer will put requests in the delivery instructions. They might request chopsticks or extra dipping sauces. Normally these are items they could order from the online menu. As far as I know, the delivery instructions are not available until you have received the order from the resteraunt. It is important to check the delivery instructions before leaving the restaurant. 

At first it was very often I could login and start Dashing. As more people signed up and started Dashing it became more important to schedule the times that I'm available to Dash. It seems that the Dash Now option (the ability to just check in and start Dashing) becomes more limited as the market grows and the algorithm balances out. 

So how much does it pay. Their website says up to $19/hr. I love spreadsheets and tracking things. When I started Dashing I created a spreadsheet so that I could make sure this would be worth the time. As I tracked my trips my pay per hour for the first 32 trips fluctuated between $8 and $18 an hour, for an average of $14.31 an hour. My most recent 12 trips have fluctuated between $13 and $27 an hour for an average of $19.31 an hour. My average since starting is $15.22 an hour. In the beginning I didn't think it was going to be worth it. Now that I have been picking up more orders and the pay per hour has gone up, I think its a pretty good part-time job. 

If you are looking for a part-time job that offers very flexible hours, and pays well, I'd recommend checking if DoorDash is available in your area. Use my link to apply to become a DoorDash driver today! 

Apply here

Feel free to follow my DoorDash adventure on Instagram @thechadjacobsen_delivers

Priorities

My posts the last few years have been near nonexistent. There have been a lot of things that have contributied to this. Things that I have chosen or allowed to be the priority. The things in life that are chosen to be priority should lead you to the life you want. The things that are allowed to be priority should be reviewed to see if they are going to lead you to the life you want. If they aren't, then they need to no longer be allowed to be the priority.

My family recently moved 4 times in 19 months.
In the spring/summer of 2016 Anthony of the Flores Group called wanting to sell our house for us and help us find a house to move in to.


So we sold our 1150sqft home of 13 years,

and had CBH build us our new home.

The day after we closed on this home we got the call that I had been selected for the promotion that I had applied for in Utah. After living in the home for only a couple weeks we listed it and moved to Utah where we rented a house because we couldn't find anything comparable in the small community of Heber. 

After a trying year in Utah we moved back to Idaho to get our life back. We moved into an 1100sqft rental while CBH again built us a new home. 

In March of 2018 our new home was ready for us to move in. 

There was still a lot of work to be done to get it to be what we wanted it to be. So with our brand new home we started the finishing and remodel process. 

Blinds

3 Garage door openers

Sprinklers

Grass

Fences

Pull through gate

Concrete RV pad

Concrete sidewalk

Kitchen cabinets for built in fridge

Kitchen cabinets to extend the kitchen

Granite countertops

Kitchen faucet

2 dishwashers 

Tile backsplash

Closet shelving

Patio furniture

You can see all the fun @JacobsenPrescott

During the time of 5 homes, 4 moves, numerous projects, and lots of changes with home and work life I haven't done well at blogging. Even though I haven't made posting on here a priority, I have been sharing small snippets on Instagram @TheChadJacobsen. 

Will my blog posts be moved to the priority category?

A Great Busy Day

What a great, busy day. We closed on our house at Title One. Went to Home Depot, Burnt Lemon Grill, Walmart, and the park. Then we picked up our keys, went to the new house and unloaded the car. Multiple items that we purchased where broken, so back to Home Depot and Walmart. Picked up the kids and took them to the new house to have pizza for dinner. Then we installed all 15 sets of blinds. We are so excited to get moved in. 

A January Day in Caldwell

Today Carey and I went to Indian Creek Park and Whitenberger Park in Caldwell. I got to play with my drone and shoot some video and pictures. Check them out in my latest YouTube video.

YouTube.com/TheChadJacobsen

Do your kids get to see their pictures?

I usually don't care about checking the mail. However, I love when my new Chatbooks arrive! I love looking at the pictures. On top of that, my kids love looking at the pictures. They talk about the fun things that we've been doing as they turn the pages. Chatbooks gets the pictures off my phone and into the hands of my kids and all I have to do I take pictures and share them. The book prints and ships on it's own. 

Find out for yourself why I love them. Use my link and you'll get your first book free. I think you'll love them too. 

http://invite.chatbooks.com/chadjacobsen5kx

Perception is Not Reality

Far too often, perception is thought to be reality. Just as these tracks don't actually connect in the distance, a nice home and car doesn't always mean they someone is wealthy, well behaved kids in public doesn't necessarily mean a happy home life, lovey-dovey pictures on social media don't solidify a perfect marriage. Trying to compare your life to others in this way is looking on with skewed perception. Ask what God wants for you and base your reality on that.

Spring is Here

Spring is here and we are having the busiest spring we've every had. Carsyn is on the school tennis team, performing with the concert and jazz bands, taking piano lessons, is in the boy scouts working to get his Eagle rank, and working on 2 online classes on top of his school schedule. Corbyn is doing all of his schooling online at home, is in cub scouts, is taking piano lessons, and will soon be taking an archery class. Cole has his schooling at home, is in cub scouts, is taking piano lessons, is currently playing soccer with the local soccer club, and will soon be taking an archery class. Cooper has his schooling at home, is playing soccer with the local soccer club, and wants to go everywhere his brothers go. And Caybrie, well she is almost 18 months old. 

When my kids were younger, and I only had a couple to a few, I would here parents with older kids talk about how packed their schedule is with all the stuff their kids are doing. I thought to myself, "I'll let my kids each do a couple things and then our schedule won't be so crazy". When those couple of things all overlap in the spring it gets crazy. And I foresee many more years of craziness ahead as my kids get older. But I love watching my kids do things that they enjoy. I'm glad that I am able to allow my kids to participate in all these activities. And in a few weeks summer will be here and we will be looking for things to do to fill the time. 

I love my family. 

One Month of No Going Out To Eat

When you have 5 kids it isn't that hard to spend a small fortune on going out to eat. And if you don't track your spending you can easily let it get out of hand. When you spend $40 a meal at a fast food joint it doesn't seem so bad until you look at it being $200 for the month with only five family meals at a cheap restaurant. 

In the past our family has picked a random month to not go out to eat. You read that right. One entire month without eating at a restaurant or from a restaurant. This year we picked January. Here it is the 26th of January and we're staying on course to reach the goal. It helps that we have done this several times before. The first time we tried it was quite a struggle. 

Here are some tips if you'd like to do the same thing with your family. 

1. Plan this with your family. Get everyone involved, parents and children. In your plan get suggestions of what meals each person would like to have from home. It can be hard to meet the goal and eat at home everyday if the little ones are complaining about every meal. Or it can be hard for the parents if all you are eating are meals chosen by the kids. 
2. Make a menu for everyday of the month. Be sure to plan quick meals for stressful days. This will require that everyone in the family have all their scheduled activities on a shared calendar. You don't want to be working on your goal and then have a day that both parents are out of the home for the majority of the day and multiple kids have stuff going on after school. You finally get home and everyone is tired from day and nobody feels like cooking. Be sure to plan your menu around days like this. Slow cooker and freezer meals are great for those kinds of days. 
3. Go grocery shopping, with a list. You'll want to be sure that you have all the ingredients needed to make the meals on your menu. Be sure that you plan out the perishable items and buy those throughout the month. You'll want to minimize shopping trips so plan one big shopping trip to start the month where you purchase all the nonperishable items for the month and the nonperishable items for the first week (or two depending on shelf life). When you return to the store for your weekly shopping trip it is a quick trip to grab just the additional perishable items needed for the next week. 
4. If you really need to give in to a craving for something from your favorite restaurant try a quick google search for a copycat recipe. Check out our Crunch Wrap Supreme that we made at home. 

Just because you're eating at home doesn't mean that you can't enjoy some of the same things that you would normally get when eating out. 

If you haven't tried it, or it's been a while, go ahead and give it a try. Challenge your family to go an entire month with no going out to eat. If you do give it a try, comment below and let me know how it went. 

Also, if you have tips to share on eating in feel free to share them in the comments. 

Chatbooks

Between Instagram and Chatbooks I haven't been writing on my blog very much. I feel like the stuff that I would put on my blog is all the same stuff that I already shared on Instagram. And why post it all over again? I love that i can print my blog in a book and use it as another from of journalling. But then my sister-in-law introduced me to Chatbooks. With this app I automatically get a bound book mailed to me after every 60 posts on Instagram. It makes the printing part so simple. I love having the printed books to look over and to share with my kids. I'm not great at writing a journal and I love that these little Chatbooks provide a journal supplement for me. 

If you want to give Chatbooks a try you can use my code J6A7MWCZ when you subscribe and get your first book free.

Carey's Creations

      Years ago Carey wanted to by a vinyl cutter. I didn't know why she wanted to spend so much money on something to make vinyl decals when she could by the decals for a lot less money in comparison. She convinced me to buy it. And to this day I am so glad that she did. She has built up a work from home business with it, and I get to play with it too. 

This week we used it to cut templates so that I could personalize a couple VOSS water bottles. 

Check out her blog at CareysCreations.bogspot.com

What idea can we help you with?

iTie

Today I took time to re-tie a quilt with my wife, and she sneaked a picture. 

This quilt is 14 years old. It was made by a group of friends and relatives at Carey's  surprise bridal shower that my mom organized. Carey even picked out the fabric without knowing that it would become a quilt for her. 

The bottom was getting thin and the edges tattered. So we bought some fabric and yarn to repair it. We had a great time working on it today. 

What do you love so much that you repair it rather than replace it?

When you find Christmas wrapping paper leftover at work.....

When you work somewhere that likes to have decorations for everything, you sometimes end up with leftover stuff stashed in corners or closets from people who think we are really going to save it for a whole year to use the next time that holiday comes around. Well today while cleaning up a storage room I found some Christmas wrapping paper. I didn't want to just throw it away, that would be wasteful and the wrapping paper wouldn't get to fulfill its destiny. So I put it to good use. I even convinced someone else to sign a card to leave with the gifts. 

I'm sure the office associates will be so excited to see what they got for Christmas when they get to work in the morning. 

A new Christmas tradition that takes only 5 minutes!

While skimming through my Twitter feed I saw a tweet from Christy Wright about her favorite Christmas tradition that only takes 5 minutes. 

I won't lie, it was the "only 5 minutes" part that really sparked my interest in what her favorite Christmas tradition was. Here is the link to her blog post - http://christywright.com/2014/12/a-christmas-tradition/. She talks about each year when she packs up the Christmas ornaments she writes a letter to herself and talks about the past year and what she hopes for in the coming year. I thought this was a great idea not only for myself but to teach my kids more about journaling, being thankful, and setting goals. What a great way to look back to where you were a year ago and see how much God has blessed you in the past year. Also to see how you've grown and become stronger from the events of your life. 

I always wish that I was better at journaling. I write in my journal every so often throughout the year.   I also use my blog as a form of journaling. This tradition would provide me another moment to reflect and journal. 

Thanks for sharing Christy. 

Review: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home

Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home by Lynne Truss

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



If you want to learn how to use English manners in America, here is an introduction.



View all my reviews

Up-cycle a toddler bed - just in time for Christmas

My wife told me about this great idea of building a storage bench from a toddler bed headboard and footboard. We found a free toddler bed and then bought the supplies that I needed to get started. 

First was to cut the footboard in half and line it up with the headboard. 

Then I started building the bench seat/storage box. 

After putting the box on I framed out the seat. 

 With the seat and hinge on I was ready to stain and seal. 

 

I chose to use natural color stain and seal it with polyurethane.

 The boys seem to like it. I guess it won't be a surprise on Christmas morning. 

Now what should the kids keep in it?

Nursery Project

In the spring my wife and I found out that we were going to have a baby. Just for fun we didn't tell very many people until the baby was born. Because of that, until now I haven't been able to share the work we did to remodel one of our bedrooms into a beautiful nursery for our new baby girl.

Caybrie

- The Nursery Project -

Inspiration came from the "Pink and gray nursery" picture on SheKnows.com . 

The room started out with white trim and tan walls (with plenty of holes to patch).

Corbyn loves helping me build stuff so he was there helping most of the time. Here he decided to take a bacon break. 

You can see a lot of the holes that we had to patch.  Boys can be so rough on a bedroom. 

Painting the ceiling white. 

 We sprayed some texture to touchup the holes that we patched. 

We painted the bottom of the wall white and the top gray. 

With the paint finished we added some trim to separate the gray and white colors to give a clean finish. 

For an extra touch I measured and drew up an idea for these little frames. We had to go too two Home Depots to get enough sticks of trim to go around the whole room. After the boys and I got the pieces cut to size Carey painted them all with High Gloss White to match the rest of the trim and pop a little from the white on the wall. 

I love how they turned out. 

We found this rug at home depot. I think it really fits the room well. The colors go well with the walls and doesn't distract from the nursery decor that we planned. 

In the closet we added another shelf. We have done this in other rooms in our house and it helps a lot to give more space and keep the closets more organized. Plus with the baby being a girl I knew she'd need more room for all her clothes. 

Here is the beautiful crib that we got for her. We went with a soft pink for the crib set and other nursery accents. 

And all her brothers loved helping to build it. 

The changing table we got for a great deal online. While building it I discovered why. The drawer was about 1/4 inch to small for the rails to catch on the frame. So I got to use some creativity and parts from my shed to get the rails in to correct positions for the drawer to fit. To keep the nursery clean and organized we got these little gray, pink, and white baskets for the shelves. And we found a matching hamper to finish it off. 

The last furniture item we needed was a dresser. I wanted a nice wood dresser (so that the dresser drawers wouldn't have the same issues as the changing table drawer), but I didn't want to put out the extra money. After searching craigslist for weeks we found this cute little dresser. And it came with a matching nightstand!

We found a nice white lamp that came with a purple lampshade and bought it so that we could swap for our pink lamp shade. When we got home with the new lamp we discovered that the light socket was not the correct kind to be able to swap the lamp shades. Not a problem, I bought the correct light socket and swapped it on the lamp. 

Carey found this Scentsy warmer on eBay that matches the pink nursery nicely. And the "Newborn Nursery" Scentsy wax that smells like baby powder makes it the perfect addition to the nursery. 

We still have a little work to do. We need to add the curtains, some wall decor, and we are going to cut a vinyl tree to put on the wall behind the crib. 

Update 12/10/14 - Here is the vinyl tree that we put on the wall behind the crib. It is 3'x5'. We chose this design because it tied in with curves on the crib so well.