Good Things Friday (108) and Link Love
March 12, 2021
1. I miss Comic Con deeply but I’m relieved they proactively cancelled this year’s event and rolled over our badges to next year. Even with vaccines rolling out, July is just too soon to be doing anything like our usual hundred thousand person gathering.
2. I started doing daily planks with JB because my floppy core is likely contributing to back pain. I shared this on Twitter and @RooibosandRose was interested in joining me so #PFPlank was born! We start wherever we are and tweet our daily planks (or whatever our exercise for the day was) to each other. That’s been a nice reminder and motivation to keep it up as much as we can. Join us if you like!
3. I loved Dar’s Anti-Planner notion of listing things that she HAD done. I just popped open a small notebook that had been tucked away for several months to the next blank page and started listing things as they were completed. I use a different color for each day and it’s as fun as checking things off my usual To Do list, but more freeing because adding things to my To Do list (while useful) builds up anxiety while adding stuff to this DONE IT list is happy-making!
I still need a To Do list, though. There’s something I was meaning to do and I can’t … remember … what it is …
4. I FINALLY managed to let PiC sleep in for once because Smol Acrobat decided we were getting up at 5, and by the time they went back down for a nap at 6:30, I couldn’t sleep again anyway. This is a win in my book, I simply cannot ever plan to get up earlier than PiC does and make it happen normally. On the same day, I also took Sera for her last walk of the night spontaneously, which he normally does while I settle in for the Long Night with Baby, and it was perfect because by the time he went to walk her, it was pouring buckets. But I’d already walked her! Go me!
5. Saturday night, I was wrapping up for the night and took the last walk with Sera again just because. That worked out perfectly because he was so tired from his run earlier in the day, and also living this parenting-pandemic life!, that he passed out on the couch after dinner. It was nice to be able to just fetch him into bed and not have things left to do.
6. Sometimes, when post dinner TV time is over, PiC is passed out. JB just turns off the TV and comes to bed. This is a thing we should appreciate more – they don’t sneak more TV, they don’t stay up much later, they just do what they should do.
7. PiC was in charge of picking another baby monitor but we haven’t had time so while he was doing other household chores, he set up one of our Arlo cameras to watch over the bassinet during nap times. I can just stream it to my desktop using the picture in picture function! This is fine for when I’m stuck at my desk but I need another solution for moving about the house if I want to avoid the expense of a baby monitor altogether.
Challenges this week: Pain spikes have been unusually high this week. Mostly this means the few hours I get to sleep a night are squandered because my bones are on fire and it’s hard to fall asleep with that sensation.
I burned my hand while cooking and THAT REALLY HURT.
I made the fatal mistake of saying to PiC: “it doesn’t feel so terrible anymore.” SO naturally we plunged headfirst into a sleep regression that had me nearly in tears by the fourth time I had to get up.
The Wound of Multilingualism: On Surrendering the Languages of Home
My experience with multilingualism is the opposite. I find it soothing to have the same word in five different ways: English, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese. I loved absorbing language, even to the point of instinctively grasping meaning in Korean which I didn’t speak at all, simply correctly inferring the topic from context and inflection. Which isn’t to say it was easy learning languages in teen and adulthood, it wasn’t. But it was meaningful and important to me. I hoped to share my love of language with JB and while I haven’t yet managed to, we still have a little time.
Look at this octopus!
‘This Is Unprecedented’: Why America’s Housing Market Has Never Been Weirder: I will say it again, I’m SO GLAD that we sold the rental property last year. Even with the tax hit, which was not small, I’m still really glad. Can you imagine the stress of trying to find a good tenant during the pandemic and dropping rents?
Coffee can investing: I thought this was called buy and hold. That’s all I do and why I don’t find stock investing stressful. I do my research at the front end and usually never look at it again after I buy, unless it’s to buy some more.
Why would anyone want an “Open-Concept Bathroom“?
It’s good to read Tanja’s writing again over at Our Next Life.
If you can stream to desktop, what about your phone?
I wasn’t sure if my phone could handle another app but I think that might work(!?)
Thanks for the link!
PS I sent you an email 🙂
Dar recently posted…My Anti-Planner
You’re welcome! And thanks for letting me know, it was accidentally sent to spam!
Loved the link from Dar, and just read it. I will definitely try to incorporate some of that into my planning system. Sending you good thoughts that you have a peaceful night of rest, and are feeling better.
I’m glad you enjoyed that too 🙂
Thank you for the good thoughts, may Smol Acrobat hear and cooperate.
Another article about octopuses including video footage
https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2021/03/01/octopuses-punching-fish/
Thanks, Jen!
Another article about octopuses
https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2021/03/01/octopuses-punching-fish/
Ohhhh I had a brief good run with daily planks! Need to get back on the bandwagon!
I sometimes have to bribe Spud with a vitamin to get him off the TV, lol.
NZ Muse recently posted…Money & marriage: Navigating the awkward conversations and more
Feel free to join us online if you want! #PFPlank has turned into a selfcare hashtag. We focus on our cores or focus on taking some time for ourselves, whatever is most needed.
Hah I like that the bribe is a vitamin.