May 12, 2023
1. I was happy to find out that Staples takes tech recycling, not just the ink cartridges, and they’re giving $10 in rewards for one recycling item per month until mid-June. I have a couple things we hadn’t gotten around to recycling so we dropped off one of those things this weekend and I’ll take an old phone next month. Declutter and a bit of spending money, woo!
2. We FINALLY saw our friends with a new baby, 8 months after the baby was born. We meant to see them the first month after but that coincided with the last several months of being sick all the damn time. Every time I thought we could set something up, BAM, sick again. I worried about jinxing ourselves but decided to ask them for three possible times they’d be free that we could pick from and hope for the best. We made it happen! So much fun was had. So much fun I was wrecked, but fun!
JB adored having a new infant to cuddle. Smol Acrobat was less enthused and more jealous that their big sibling had so enthusiastically ditched them for this new baby. They were fine with the baby if JB wasn’t snuggling them, though!
3. We baked Monday cupcakes! YUM.
Helping Folks!
I’ve been tied up working on setting up a sponsorship for a Lakota family but Bethh asked me to share this. It sounds like these folks could really use a helping hand:
“I visited this school in Kenya – it’s the only school in the region, it’s community-supported and run, and it was just attacked by armed men who looted and burned this sanctuary. They’re going to rebuild but it won’t be easy.” Here’s the Facebook post with the link to help.
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May 5, 2023
1. I’m finally allowed to eat broccoli again! Pregnancy took my favorite vegetable from me for three years.
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April 28, 2023
1. Being sick for the first 2+ months of the year really trashed my plans to get a lot of medical stuff out of the way early. I’ve been slowly inching my way back to the first quarter goals: Dental cleaning, check! Annual physical and other testing on the calendar, check!
2. I did one guided meditation and one attempt at a self-guided one in the dentist’s chair this week. The latter didn’t actually take but those little 3 minute snippets are helpful in getting
3. Picked up a few adorable papercrafts to support a friend’s crafting venture.
Challenges this week: Facing the reality of our monthly spending being a whole lot more fixed expenses thanks to daycare and having to dramatically reduce our normal spending.
Helping folks: the We Need Diverse Books spring fundraiser didn’t come close to their goal, maybe we can help them out some more?
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April 21, 2023
1. I boiled half a dozen eggs on Saturday, my bones and muscles felt an empathetic affinity to the eggs, and hoped for the best. It didn’t happen, I didn’t feel better on Sunday but I found a way to make deviled eggs anyway. Treat!
2. We managed haircuts for BOTH kids this weekend!
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April 14, 2023
1. ACTIVISM: I’ve long asked friends in Florida what we can do to support their fight against fascism.
Today, Equality Florida took the extraordinary step of issuing a travel advisory, warning of the risks posed to the health, safety, and freedom of those considering short or long term travel, or relocation to the state. The move comes in response to a wave of safety inquiries Equality Florida has received following the passage of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community, restrict access to reproductive health care, repeal gun safety laws, foment racial prejudice, and attack public education by banning books and censoring curriculum.
@michelleerin said about companies in Florida:
Tell them you won’t be back again until there is change and that you’d appreciate them advocating/lobbying against this agenda. The big corporations could be stopping this.
And they don’t care about me but they care about you. They need the out of state tourists.
So I’m going to start looking up companies in Florida that we would hypothetically visit if we were to travel there and put pressure on them to lobby against the current wave of terrible laws.
2. We shipped what’s become a quarterly allotment of treats for Penny’s students and my heart is warmed. As always I can’t do this alone and I super appreciate friends in the community pitching in to make it happen.
JB is full of ideas for the next allotment already.
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April 7, 2023
1. It’s a good thing I always project our expenses several months out. Daycare has been terrible at officially notifying us of expected increases resulting from schedule changes and I would have been pretty upset to be caught unawares if I just relied on them. Yay for money spreadsheets!
(The irony of my discovery two days after writing this that I forgot to include a huge recurring monthly expense. Oops! No wonder our cash flow looked unexpectedly robust. Artificially is more accurate. Also disappointing because I’d planned to send out a lot more direct aid before the expenses tipped the scale in the wrong direction so strongly.)
Helping folks: Times are rough for a lot of people right now. If you are fortunate and able, we’ve donated to these folks, they could use a helping hand from the community.
@popelizbet is good people and does good work helping survivors of domestic violence. She’s been laid off (no fault to the org) and needs some help to bridge the gap to her next job.
Tami Mitchell (@disabledgirlfi) is in a tight spot. Her senior dog Imri was injured and needs a ramp.
I have a friend juggling school, chronic illness, and a dangerous stalker ex-spouse problem. I’ve been helping her out but due to massive health issues and a few turns of bad luck, she’s unable to make rent this next month and facing homelessness. I’m working out a way to get her some funds.
If you can pitch in, please send it Ruth’s way with the note: for safety/revanche.
Venmo: @RK-Tillman
PayPal: ruthtillman [at sign] gmail.com
Cashapp: $ruthkt
Activism: In a truly open display of racism, “Tennessee Republicans just expelled Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the state legislature after their powerful advocacy for gun safety legislation.” If you hate it as much as the rest of us do, and can, please help support them.
It’s been a turn upside and shake hard! sort of week.
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March 31, 2023
1. It’s been a hard week on most counts but I am managing to keep my blood pressure steady and the internal conflicts to a minimum. More on this next week.
Challenges this week: painsomnia sucks. Insomnia sucks. If it’s not one making me lose sleep, it’s the other.
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