June 18, 2021
1. As a notebook hoarder, I’m pretty excited to discover that I’m within two pages of finishing up a notebook. I’ve been chronicling my day to day completed tasks and checklists since March in a single little book. It’s fun to cycle through my colorful pens and helpful to manage my expectations for work in writing. Now I have to decide which notebook to use next and do I keep the completed books? Probably for a little while, there are some reference bits in there that I may need to look back to.
2. Our insulation is helping! Our floors aren’t nearly so frigid and we don’t need to bundle up in three layers (or run the heat) to stay warm enough to function every day! It’ll be ages before we break even on the money front but I don’t care. We’re feeling the benefit every day and we’re not wasting heat when and if we do run the furnace.
Challenges this week: Our friend has passed and we’re all grieving deeply.
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June 11, 2021
I had a hard time coming up with anything for this list at first, but here goes!
1. I made a sale on Poshmark! Yay!
2. That little kitchen scale PiC pushed me to get has come in handy for clearing to-do items off my list. I needed to go to the post office for two packages that had been waiting for ages but I simply haven’t had any time or energy to fit that in. The scale took care of figuring out postage for two of the four things that didn’t merit going out flat rate.
Challenges this week: My back pain is back. I’ve not done my planks in months, and I’m not even getting out for a walk once a day, so of course it’s back. I should have remembered to start them again once sleep training started taking hold, I had stopped because of neck pain flaring up and just being too dang tired to exist. Back to planking.
I’m struggling with grieving our friend as they enter hospice and their final days of life. It’s setting off my defense mechanisms where I distance myself from people, tell myself that they don’t care about me anyway, and go into my antisocial-shell in a futile attempt to protect myself from further pain. It won’t protect me at all but I’m learning to recognize that’s what my instincts tell me to do.
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January 18, 2021
Just like that, 2021 is our fourth year of supporting Lakota families on the Okini! Can you believe that?
In 2018, a small group of us came together to give holiday gifts to Lakota families. It went so well that in 2019, I organized again, earlier in the year, and expanded to include holiday gifts and winter needs.
The goal for 2020 was to make this a year-round project. Despite the complications of COVID, my pregnancy, and the turmoil of a Presidential election year in the United States, we still helped a huge group of families. Together, we put $2153.05 to work responding to ten separate requests. One request was a repeat from a very large family (of 21 people!) that we had previously helped with diapers and sanitary health needs – this was when COVID hit and they needed materials to make masks for the family. We helped more than 54 people: elders, working adults, single parents, large sibling groups, expected bundles of joy.
I had added a rural libraries component last year but that may have to go on hold this year to ensure I can continue to serve the main project well while we have an infant at home and are still staying at home.
I’m kicking off 2021 with a boatload of goods to the Allen Youth Center (dedicated to helping Lakota youth). I’m loading up a cart of diapers, wipes, body soap, shampoo and conditioner. If we get a lot of early contributions, we can add the other requested items of laundry soap and lotion, and more diapers. (We can only send four cases of each size of diapers at a time, if and when they’re available to ship.)
In addition to helping the families on the Okini through the year, I’m also interested in finding out how the Sponsorships work. I don’t know if they will be a good fit but I’d like to find out. Let me know if you’re interested in knowing more about the sponsorships and I’ll report back when I have a chance.
I hope you can join me and/or share the project!
You can make contributions to ….
1. My Ko-Fi page (note: Ko-Fi flows through Paypal so they do take fees out)
2. You can send as a gift (otherwise PayPal will take fees out) to admin [at] agaishanlife.com. If you’re sending via PayPal on mobile, make sure to click on the arrow next to “paying for goods and services” to select “send as a gift” because that’s tripped up more than one person!
3. If you’d like to donate monthly (Paypal charges fees for this), you can use this donate link.
:: Contributors get first updates by email, and I include some details in my monthly money reports afterwards.
January 8, 2021
1. I had splurged on some warm clothes for myself and they finally arrived! Pile lined sweatpants and fuzzy lined sweatshirts, where have you been all my life? This is the first time I’ve been able to walk around the house in a normal number of layers of clothing and not be cold! I’m calling it my bear suit. One might argue comfort and being warm isn’t a splurge, a dear friend made that exact point, but my brain would be confused by that.
2. On a whim, I picked up long beans and garlic black bean sauce at the local grocery store. Together, they made a delicious veggie dish! We finally have a veggie I won’t get sick of after two servings (I hope).
3. At least one of my healthcare professional relatives has been offered and given the vaccine.
Challenges this week: Mild grumble – why is my ortho office constantly marketing to me? I committed to treatment, you don’t need to keep sending me marketing emails! So weird.
I feel like a zombie. Sleep deprivation, OMG.
Moderate grumble: Comcast has been a RIGHT PAIN. I’ve been working “with” them (just holding onto my patience for dear life as I try to get them to help) to get our internet back up and running since before Christmas. They have definitely NOT fixed the problem. One technician did come out and replaced all the bad cabling but there’s still a problem with their network that they have identified but it’s like pulling teeth to get them to get a second tech out for this known problem.
Severe: I continue to work my way through the ups and downs of depression. The weight varies day by day.
The coup attempt at the Capitol Building, aided by the Capitol police WHO LET THEM IN, was another … I don’t even know what to call it. The fact that 45 is still trying to fraudulently negate the election results here in 2021 is infuriating.
:: How was your week?
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January 1, 2021
HAPPY NEW YEAR! May 2021 be vastly kinder to all of us.
1. Two of my three refunds were processed without follow-up from me. Yay! I just need that last one …
2. After months of being exasperated that our only tongs and spatula were in use in some other cookery, I bought two more tongs and a second spatula. Sometimes it makes sense to spend some money to solve an annoyance!
Challenges this week: I plunged into deep depression mid-week. True to form, I was still physically functional, just mentally/emotionally thrashed.
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December 25, 2020
If you celebrate, Merry Christmas!
1. We will only be doing quiet presents at home this year with JB instead of flitting hither and yon. While I miss my people, I won’t pretend I’m not appreciating the lack of travel and schedule-juggling stress.
2. Refund central: I found a minute to process a bunch of returns. I was a week late on one of them and had to ask for an exception to the closed return window. Thankfully, I was able to get an exception for that item which was worth over $100 and get all three packages in order.
3. We renewed our Cal Academy membership this year to continue supporting the museum. Our compromise was to renew at a lower Family tier since we won’t actually be going there any time soon. This is more of a tax deductible donation this year. We’d splurged on the Family Plus level last year with the expectation that we’d be bringing guests with us through 2020. Clearly, that was a bust. We don’t mind supporting the Academy but we do want to allocate some of that elsewhere to other needs.
4. Our Saturday was full of unexpected treats. We started out on a bad note – I had severe muscle aches and chills which were very likely just due to my fibro and sleep deprivation but we also had a precautionary COVID test scheduled so I figured it was just as well that we’d be tested and I could be sure it’s just my usual “body is broken” random grab bag of symptoms. We decided to take a walk on a nearby trail just to get some fresh air since I hadn’t left the house all week. Turns out that the dog park was overrun with dogs and an absolutely adorable pitbull puppy kept following us around. It eventually left with its family but JB got to say hi. Then we discovered a nearly empty playground and PiC took pity on JB who desperately wanted to play for a bit. In the interest of supporting local / small business, I gave PiC the nod when the ice cream truck came around – JB got an overpriced popsicle which never happens. And then, our friends showed up at the park because they had plans to meet up with other friends. So we got to say hi at a safe outdoors site and that was lovely. But I was absolutely bushed after and needed a long rest.
Challenges this week: Our friend fighting cancer isn’t doing well. I’m worried for them. Our time left with Seamus is growing short, going by his increasing shakiness.
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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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