Mazes and Modern Development

Modern Development- Did you ever notice that if you live in a wealthy community, everything around you is more expensive, whereas if you live in a lower-level of income area, there are bargains to be had? Obvious but pretty prevalent when you start looking around.

A few things came to my attention lately:
-A new development near us in a very expensive neighborhood contains a Lifetime Fitness and lots of high-end shopping. Including a Kohler Spa. I was over there for a kids' bday party and was shocked at how many high-end things were there amidst the high-end houses, high-end streetlights, and high-end public landscaping.

-Driving along Harlem Avenue (Route 45), a major north-south arterial, you can tell what community you are in by what stores are on Harlem. I was a bit jealous of some of the lower-income areas that had cheaper grocery stores, Family Dollar Stores, Cardinal Fitness (cheaper workout facilities), etc etc. Not so jealous of the junky gas stations, roads that need repair, or falling apart buildings, but still, being closer to cheap shopping for essentials would be nice to lower that monthly shopping bill! We aren't even really close to a SuperWalmart or Meijer or anything, and we're not a "high end community."

-One of the major local grocery chains is lowering their prices. I was all excited and read the comments in the tribune online. So many people said the store is a rip-off and suggested alternate stores for groceries, none of which is within 25 minutes of here. Go figure! Anyway, they were also saying that the pricing seemed to differ tremendously from store to store depending on their location. I have shopped in Indiana and let me tell you, we're getting ripped off on everything here in Chicagoland!!!!

Mazes
I bought a friend a birthday present of a book of mazes by Kumon and couldn't resist getting one for my kids as well. We have a few workbooks of different brands from last summer that are almost gone. My favorite brand is "Big Skills, Little Hands." Logan's teacher suggested keeping up with cutting and tracing skills last summer, so we got these books and both kids love them. They were from Cotsco or Sam's club. So my assessment of the Kumon books is to get them cheap. I saw them at a bookstore for $14 or so. I got them at Target for $6.95. Huge difference! I also like the way the "Big Skills" books have tear-out pages and Kumon's didn't tear well.

But....the mazes are way too cool! How does one get a job doing this?