December 18, 2020
1. We were introduced to birria de res tacos. Absolutely decadent and delicious and wowwww so good!
2. I updated our Life-Death Summary records that contains (almost) any and all information needed when one of us passes on. I haven’t done a full update in over a year so it was well overdue. Also there were incomplete sections, so I’ve added an insurance section with the link to submit a claim for my life insurance. Still are – I will need to add our disability and his life insurance information too. This gives me peace of mind.
3. We are getting a small year-end bonus this year. That’s not a given in any year, so getting one this year is especially nice so we can continue to help others. While I’m working so hard at building our financial foundation, I also need to keep exercising our giving muscles.
4. I renewed this domain again with a 20% off coupon code. Why not?
5. I finally sat down and organized the last box to ship to our tenth and final Lakota family. This one had some baby clothes, hygiene kit, blankets and things for mom’s recovery after the baby arrives. I wanted to put a few more things in but I was really pushing the limit on our ability to tape that flat rate box shut!
Challenges this week: Seamus is really looking old and tottery this week. I’m not sure he’s got much time left.
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December 11, 2020
1. We went to pick up some treats as a thank you for a loved one who has supported us tremendously pretty much always. This little trip included a short stop to lunch at a local beach that was pretty empty. The people who were there were masked and kept their distance so we felt a lot better for the fresh air and lack of crowding.
2. We also made it to an open park which was almost the same as the beach: lots and lots of distance from other people and almost everyone was masked. PiC and JB ran across the open field a few times playing tag and hide and seek and searching for ducks. Physically I felt like garbage but emotionally it was refreshing.
3. My healthcare providers have been very proactive about checking on me and my looming depression issues. That has helped stave off a massive setback so far, along with being open about the fact that it is trying to eat my brains and trying to do positive things to buffer the huge waves of negativity.
4. Apparently Good Eggs really dropped the ball on Thanksgiving dinner deliveries this year. We lucked out and only had one disappointment for which we were refunded, but they are also giving everyone the option of extra Good Eggs credit, a free meal, or a donation to a charity to apologize as well. We picked the free meal and got to select from a “basket that MIGHT contain this variety of stuff” for delivery next week. A holiday surprise, I suppose!
Challenges this week: I found out that an old friend and mentor died suddenly. I worked with him closely in my rough college years at two of my jobs, and he was a solid supporter when it was time for me to move on. I still don’t know any details at this time but I’m ever so sad.
Our neighbors are being utter knobs about our replacing shared fencing at no cost to them that was falling down. They are offended we didn’t discuss it with them. But we DID attempt to discuss it with them and the spouse blew us off! Ugh. I hate people.
Grumble: I can’t remember if I mentioned this before but the IRS found a legitimate mistake I made in last year’s filing and gave me 30 days to deal with it. I handled it that week and sent everything off. Then I waited…and waited… and waited… Months later they contacted me and gave themselves six months to evaluate my response. I get one month and you get six? Rude.
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December 4, 2020
1. After many days of being cooped up (I was too tired and in pain to do much), we made our way to a local trail for a slow trudge (me) and a bike ride and run (them). It was really good to breathe outside air and see nature again.
2. We’ve had three sunny days in a row and that’s just awesome.
3. I’m not watching it day to day because I simply don’t have the attention to spare for it but PiC has been documenting and overseeing the yardwork and there is progress! I can’t see the vision yet, it’s still too early, but I see enough to have hopes it’ll be good. Sort of. Working on that optimism.
4. I appreciated the highlight of our work for the Lakota Families. I’m working on one last family’s needs as we speak!
5. Target has two offers right now that may come in handy: 10% off a single purchase through December 12 and 10% off gift cards this weekend December 5 and 6.
Challenges this week: My hands are still swollen and it’s unclear why. I’m experimenting again to see if it’s dietary or other reasons. But I should probably just let it go and work with what I can do, practice that not dwelling on the negatives thing.
Grumbles: We had a referral from a friend and ordered our meal from Good Eggs this year. While most of our selections were good, the brussels sprouts dish was pretty bad. I think they forgot to actually season ours…
I absolutely didn’t skip Black Friday and Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday on purpose. The only thing I remembered to do was order some things for our final Lakota family of the year (yay). I had zero time or energy to see if there was anything we could save on for the rest of us (boo). I had every intention of picking up some book gifts through bookshop.org because they had free shipping and simply … could not. But we did buy books from our local shop directly for holiday gifts a few weeks ago so I’m going to let myself off the hook on this score. I knew I’d be exhausted going into this holiday season and that’s why I made such a point of completing gifts early.
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November 27, 2020
1. Actual cold has set in. We always have cool temps around the 60s but it’s now down to the 40s-50s range which is Cold for me. And I am ever so grateful that the money we’re paying for running the furnace isn’t just thrown away because we actually get warm air all through the house now! Yes this isn’t new anymore but I still appreciate it every day we run it.
2. All holiday gifts have been purchased, and almost all of them have been wrapped and delivered. I WIN!
3. We found a local Japanese curry place and a) they are taking lots of precautions (take out and delivery only, phone and online orders only, masks required, no indoor dining) which makes me so happy to support them and b) their food is delicious and makes me doubly happy to support them and my belly’s needs at the same time. Absolutely delightful!
Challenges this week: Brain fog. So much tired and brain fog.
4. I FINALLY got our mortgage loan number and our online account set up so I could pay the next bill. It only took 6 weeks, 19 emails, and 3 phone calls. Why did they have to make it so hard for us to pay?? The refinancing bank immediately sold our loan, that’s why.
But YIPPEE for getting that set up and paid, finally! I was getting extremely squirrely.
5. I decided to add the Target RedCard to our wallets. We previously mostly shopped them with gift cards but lately we’ve had to use them more for staples that we can’t get elsewhere. It made sense to use their credit card for that 5% discount and the better return window.
It also helps stretch our donation dollars further when we buy for other people like our Lakota Families.
6. We braved Costco the Sunday before Thanksgiving to stock up on a couple weeks’ worth of essentials and we made it out intact! You should have seen it there. You’d be proud too.
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November 20, 2020
1. I have been so busy that somehow I’ve missed the fact that our local bookshop did actually update their blog with information on how they’re handling COVID. In some fit of pessimism, when the shop owner didn’t say much in the early weeks, I assumed he wasn’t going to adapt and the shop would shut down. I’m so glad I thought to check back on him. It turns out the community actually has been supportive enough for him to stay in business, thank goodness not everyone was as dense as I was. 🤦🏻♀️
I’ve been supporting other independent bookstores because it was easy to quickly shop online with them and they had low or free shipping but I wanted our local shop to survive too!
Anyway, I put in an order for books for our local friends for pickup.
2. I set a very ambitious date by which to wrap up (hah pun not intended) my truncated list of holiday gifts for this year. The thought of being totally done mid-November made me feel much better. It was faking a bit of control in this world that hasn’t been kind to us planners and control freaks. Having that goal to work towards was nice, even if a touch stressful as I got closer to the Nov 15 deadline and several gifts were still pending. This was important to no one but me. I don’t mind.
3. I set up a better (I think) billing system with JB’s tutor so I have less work and use up less memory. I hope their tutor finds it helpful too.
4. JB is reading like a FIEND. I have to actually restrict permission to access my comics now, not because they will fail to treat them properly, but because they can actually read words now and that means there are a lot of not age appropriate themes they’re trying to dive into.
Challenges this week: All the uncertainty everywhere. The spread of COVID that looks like our nation is absolutely on fire. Also there is simply not nearly enough warm and comfortable maternity clothing that doesn’t irritate sensitive skin and has pockets. POCKETS. MY QUEENDOM FOR POCKETS. Remote schooling is fine in principal but I hate JB’s kindergarten teacher who won’t stop lamenting about how hard things are and hyping up some unknown return to the classroom, I hate Seesaw, and I hate Chromebooks.
Also most counties in CA have been put back into the purple tier, the most restrictive one, this week and while it doesn’t materially affect our daily habits since we haven’t taken up gambling, indoor dining or mall shopping, it’s because case loads are rising very fast and that’s not good at all.
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November 13, 2020
1. I insisted on making this keto lemon cheesecake on Sunday. I had juuuuust enough energy to make it happen, though I couldn’t walk for a while after, and it was bliss in a pie pan. I doubled the zest in everything, and used the juice of a full lemon, not just a single tablespoon, because I wanted full on lemon flavor. PiC was happy with the lemon level but I was tempted to make it with more lemon next time. I’ll leave well enough alone though. I can’t eat a whole pie alone if I make it too lemony.
2. PiC mounted a wall clock that’s been waiting for attention for six months, and a new coat rack. Whoo!
3. He’s also going to mount old wall hooks that we’ve had for years for my use. Triple whoo!
Challenges this week: I periodically get this feeling that I have to get everything done NOW NOW NOW because of the pregnancy and that does nothing good for my stress and anxiety levels. I am pacing myself as best I can. But whew. That’s the brain problem. Physically, my hands have been swollen every night for weeks and that’s been rough. They normally get better by mid-morning but lately even that hasn’t been the case.
4. Super kind blog-Twitter friends sent us practical baby-related gifts and their thoughtfulness was so very much appreciated.
5. We are sticking to the hand me downs only rule for clothes and toys/books/no more plushies are allowed, and we’re conserving cash to buy the necessities. I figure we’re going to need a fair bit of formula since I really struggled to produce enough milk last time.
6. November brought a handful of donations for our Lakota families and I’m enthused about being able to help out one more family, though it probably isn’t good that I keep adding one more thing to my plate. I should really stop doing that. I will. I swear.
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November 6, 2020
1. I decided to do a trial of the twice a week schedule and a combo Good things and Link Love post (voila!) just to see if I like it and if it’s also a good compromise.
2. JB was surprised with a fun Halloween end of their tutoring lesson and they were so happy!
3. It’s startling to realize that sometimes we can afford to choose time over money within a reasonable limit. I used to sacrifice all kinds of time for pennies because I needed every penny and because it helped counter my anxiety that I’d end up broke if I didn’t. Now I can choose to just buy the thing when it’s 10¢ or $1 more at the store we’re already buying from rather than making a whole other trip to another store to save a total of $2.35.
4. Once in a while, I’m bitten by a much more expensive bug. There was a sale this weekend at Elhoffer Design and I absolutely love the maxi wrap dress I splurged on for myself last Christmas. It’s been so handy for the pregnancy too. Now it’s the summery maxi dresses I’m ogling because I like maxi dresses for summer but I hate that my two don’t have pockets. After JB came along, I didn’t buy new clothes for three years waiting for my weight to stabilize. I normally wouldn’t buy anything intended for months away anyway, especially with this pregnancy, but the material is very stretchy and should accommodate whatever weird size I am in the coming months easily. I have bought a few things for the maternity and nursing period as I’ve outgrown all my clothes but mostly the clothing spending has stayed low as normal. We can afford a small outlay now and again.
Challenges this week: Everyone is on tenterhooks this week as November 4th draws nearer. This week has been nothing but tumultuous between the Election and the rushed through SCOTUS confirmation that I think was absolutely despicable. Such hypocrites. If this confirmation is valid, than the blocking of Merrick Garland was not and the seating of that piece of work, Kavanaugh, should not have happened. I’m sick of McConnell and I’m sick of him making up rules to suit himself. I’m so sick of this administration.
5. I picked up a really cute teeny tiny sparkly Christmas tree for our mantel. I’ve been wanting one and it was the smallest one I’ve seen that was the right price point ($3). We also picked up several kid gifts for upcoming birthdays and before you know it, the Target Dollar Spot suckered us for almost $40. But they are fun little gifts and covers 7 kids.
6. I had been fretting about holiday gifts for local friends. Happily Penzey’s had a sale on their gift cards which was perfect because one local friend is an amazing cook and was interested in checking out their stock. One more check box marked off the list!
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