October 4, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. Our neighbors were in a horrific car accident last week, we’re so grateful that they’re all ok. I’ve known so many people who got into terrible wrecks, and we’ve buried a few of them, that it gives me a touch of anxiety every time JB and PiC go off together.
2. My eye exam put me out of commission all day. The doctor warned me that it was possible I’d lose 4 hours after the dilation but I didn’t think it’d be quite as bad as it was. Normally I really can’t afford that kind of time off with my workload, the past 14 months have been awful, but I caught a small break this week in that my urgent stuff was done before that appointment. Small favors.
3. We had a fabulous, though short, visit with a dear friend who happily embarked on culinary adventures with me. I’m so proud of myself for working on seasoning this dish well enough that the flavors were complex and not the one note that only salt, pepper, and chicken broth were initially bringing to the table. The adults approved and JB came back for seconds, then thirds after dessert. The biggest compliment!
4. I finally found time to read a novel from a fellow blogger: Family Trust by Kathy Wang. I’m still marinating thoughts because there was so much there.
5. Who’s got two thumbs and is super jazzed that Target’s Market Pantry brand green beans are regularly 55 cents a can, beating Costco’s 61 cents a can? THIS LADY. Seamus has been giving me the business for not having his expected veggies in his dinner. Costco, our main supplier, has been out for ages! I made do with extra carrots and sweet potatoes but the green beans are the cheapest and lowest cal supplement (34 cals per cup, vs 62 cals for carrots and 180 cals for sweet potatoes). We need low cal and filling to keep this old guy lean, it’s easier on his arthritis.
Bonus, I can pay for it with gift cards so those Bing rewards are feeling extra special. WOO. Now I need a sale of some sort to apply to their already cheap regular price. You’d think it was ridiculous to be thinking about saving 6 cents a can, and yes that’s just $21.60 a year, BUT with a recurring quarterly bill of $400-450 for just two of his FIVE DAILY medications, I have to look for every penny of savings that I can find.
6. If JB wants a Halloween costume, that has to be settled NOW. Ze finally picked a costume and while we couldn’t get it as a hand me down from anyone, Target had the costumes. The popular color was selling for $35 and a less canon color for $20. Since I’m not about to pay $35 for a single use item, and the cheaper one was one of zir top favorite colors anyway, that’s the one we were getting. But I made myself wait. There’s a fine balance between getting everything done early and not paying full price for non essentials and that’s the only highwire act you’ll see me engage in! Two days later, voila! 30% off Halloween costumes! Brought that sucker down to $14 with free delivery when combined with the canned green beans goldstrike. Now ze needs to love the costume and wear it at least twice.
7. Every year, my birthday present to myself is giving the library a check to buy a diverse list of authors I want to read, in e-books. This means I get to enjoy them and other people can too. I sneak back to check back on the status of those books and am elated when I find they’re waitlisted. That means people are reading them! And I hope enjoying them. I’m starting my wish list for next year now: Rena Barron’s Kingdom of Souls trilogy.
8. Earnings from MyPoints have been incredibly slow in the past two years so I’m happy to finally have enough points to redeem for a $10 Amazon gift card.
:: You know the hard thing about emotions and chronic pain? As much as I can look back and say I had lots of little bright spots in this week, it was still really hard to feel happy because every single day has included hours of flare-up pain. How was your week?
September 27, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. I was bitten by the organizational bug this morning and I tackled two areas: the gifts box (which was overflowing into the next box over and unseemly) and one of the storage boxes that I’ve been whittling down. I asked PiC to take charge of selling the never used Crumpler bag that is amazing but is twice the width of my body so I’ll never use it, and I tucked three nicer leather handbags into two dust bags. They’re so nice and I’m not ready to decide to release them. At least not as donation items.
I offered some discounts on my old listed items on Poshmark in hopes of moving them and am about ready to relegate some of those older items to the Donation bin. I have many pain and fatigue regrets but mentally feel so much better.
Did you declutter anything this week?
2. My birthday weekend averaged out to ok: one day was absolutely terrible and the other day was quite good. Conclusion: shooting for a good whole weekend was aiming too high.
The good part: we had a lovely lunch with a long time friend. It was great weather, amazing food, great company, and then we found free kids’ activities after a nice micro dessert and enjoyed crafting for a bit. We tipped the nice facepainting lady $2 for a little bit of facepainting design.
Then we relaxed at home with a Studio Ghibli DVD from the library to rest up before a delicious homemade dinner because of course, I’d overdone it and my body was done. PiC was kind enough to run to the store to grab a few necessary ingredients to make dinner happen and dealt with washing and drying the car seat from an earlier failed cupcake retrieval incident so we could rest.
3. You know what would be nice? The ability to tell when my tank is running on empty that’s more than “I just don’t feel so good.” I had a scare one day when I just didn’t feel well, probably needed food, but pushed through anyway and ended up feeling even sicker and weaker than before. This scares me because I can’t be sure if these days are the first of many bad days, and we can’t afford for me to be out of work for a prolonged period.
That isn’t the good thing. The good thing is each time that feeling passes, and I can have another not terrible period, and I’m not out of the game yet. The other good thing is being able to talk about it openly and freely here. It’s scary when you don’t know when your health is going to give out but knowing that it absolutely will, it’s just a matter of time. For a long time, I held that fear close to my heart and didn’t have anyone to talk to about it.
:: How was your week?
September 20, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. We met up with some out of state friends we haven’t seen in a long time, and won’t be able to visit again for a long while, and it was a whole lot of fun. We did way too much in a short period of time, though, so of course I paid a very real physical price after. Still worth it. We also put the remaining $150 travel credit on our Chase Sapphire Reserve card to good use.
2. JB had an amazing swim lesson – full on enthusiasm and joy and suddenly willing to try things ze has been afraid of for months. I can’t be sure of what helped zir turn the corner on them but it was such a delight to watch.
3. We watched Ponyo for the first time, a cousin recommended it as gentle enough for a sub-five-year-old, and it was cute. JB was still scared of bits of it but we got through it and ze wanted “another episode” after. Win! I’ve been wanting to share more than just the standard American tv/movie fare.
4. We visited a branch of my family that is kind and caring. It was a lot of talking and thinking and catching up, but I wasn’t totally drained afterward like I usually am from socializing. I did need a few days to myself afterward though, which, thankfully is the definition of my work for the most part.
5. My highly productive Saturday made me feel good emotionally though less good physically: cleaned the kitchen counters and had JB help clear the dining table, grocery shopped, picked books and movies from the library, and worked on some book designs.
6. I spent a lot of time following up with our CPA over an item she missed in our 2017 tax return. It took months but the check finally came in! Woot! That money goes right into the account for our property tax bill coming up.
:: How was your week?
September 13, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. I’ve been experimenting with dropping my prescription meds one at a time. Though the “detox” (used lightly because I don’t think of those meds as toxic) has been weird, it seems to be good for me. ?!
I have no strong theories as to why but it may be that piling so many medications that were only partly effective had more side effects than benefits but we’ll see. At the very least, I had more non-depression days than depression days this past week, even with a crushing workload.
2. My crushing workload means there was no time for any new creative work this week which is a little disappointing, but I’ve had time to review the stuff I’ve made so far and I’m feeling good about them as beginner’s work. Also very proud: one of the books that I designed sold! I hope the buyer truly loves it.
3. We spent quality time with local friends, it’s taken several attempts to schedule but they were the first friends I’ve made in the area. PiC makes friends easily but I don’t and making the effort to socialize is a whole lot of work. It was a lot of fun with the adults and the kids. The kids were small cackling whirlwinds for a while, we enjoyed lunch together, then they got some tv / petting dogs time, while we adults caught up. We also did jigsaw puzzles.
4. We had a nice deep cleaning afternoon: JB helped change sheets and put pillows in pillowcases, PiC vacuumed, scrubbed the sink, did laundry I’d normally do during the week, and cooked dinner. I had a nice liedown.
:: How was your week?
September 6, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. Seamus went back to the vet for a recheck and eye tests – one eye is now doing well after a month of medication and the other is exactly the same. Yay! and sigh in the same breath. It was the cheapest appointment this year though, under $100 for once, so yay for that.
2. Sera and I went for a solo walk afterward Seamus was too tired from his adventures and had already had the essentials (toileting, said hi to two dogs, walked a bit). We got ambitious and went for a fast trot on a long route we normally couldn’t with Seamus.
3/4 of the way back, I hit the wall 😅 So I definitely overdid it BUT was not in intense pain after! Oops.
3. We set out on a 2 night adventure to visit family down South. It’s a long enough drive for my body to tense up in anticipation of pain and discomfort but short enough that flying would make no sense. We booked our stay at a dog-friendly hotel using Chase Ultimate Rewards points (finally! I haven’t been able to book anything using points this entire time!) and loaded the family up in the car.
JB had The Best Time. There was a hotel (ze adores hotels), a box of bargain bin books, a horde of rambunctious cousins, a sprinkler on a super hot day, a trampoline for exuberant bounding, and perhaps most importantly, there was cake. (I did not partake in the gluteny, chocolatey, carby, sugary cake but boy howdy do my taste buds wish that I did!)
Seamus and Sera were floppy from the heat so we gave them tons of water and towel baths but they also loved it. There was so much soaking up of heat that we don’t get at home.
PiC and I enjoyed a couple of family dinners at new to us restaurants that were absolutely delicious. Mid-range price, so they were not cheap, but they were absolutely memorable meals for the food alone. I may never taste sweet potato fries or ice cream that good again! I hope I do but wowsa it was amazing. We ate free breakfasts at the hotel so we spent $100 on food, $80 on gas, and points on the hotel. That was a good balance.
We don’t usually do holiday weekend travel, and we were exhausted the day after, but I appreciated the connection to loved ones.
4. We figured out the reason for JB’s eye pain. The good news is that it’s not a disease. The bad news is we can’t do anything to stop it from happening again.
Ze has eyelashes growing deep in the corner of zir eyes that are angled just right to be little tiny stabbers. Sigh. I’m glad of an answer that isn’t terrible but that’s also … Not awesome.
5. I have put two amazing from scratch dinners on the table this week. (The other two were boxed and frozen foods. Whatever, we ate.)
:: How was your week?
August 30, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please share your good things in the comments!
1. We had done a Save the Date with some friends this weekend and didn’t actually pick a thing to do until two days before. That’s very unusual for me BUT it worked out so well – we picked out a festival / carnival thing to attend. There was something for everyone there! We packed a ton of snacks and brought my refillable water bottle to avoid overspending at all the food trucks – I am a sucker for a food truck.
We consciously chose to spend $25 on rides and $4.50 on one treat for everyone to share (an overpriced delicious soft serve cone). JB has never been to a carnival before.
After 3 hours of walking around and running into local friends we didn’t know were going to be there which was extra fun, we sat and talked for an hour, catching up while JB colored. It was a perfect afternoon.
Bonus: I whipped up a perfectly balanced meal in ten minutes after we got home because we already had marinated meat in the fridge, I had some broccolini that requires very little prep, and rice didn’t take long to heat up. I need to make note of this and start to have prepped proteins on hand even if it’s not yet cooked.
2. I experimented with cooking a whole fish, mashing up some recipes, to duplicate an old family recipe and it worked!!! I am so proud of myself.
3. I took a nap and it was pretty amazing, minus that confusion on waking up when you don’t realize that you did fall asleep because you didn’t mean to. Oops? But … it was so refreshing. It’s such a cycle of life – you fight naps as a child, you crave them as an adult. How can we trade??
4. My zucchini lasagna that was lasagna soup: Oops. Is it because I should have salted the zucchini before grilling it? Should I have added eggs to the ricotta? And cheese as well? I definitely forgot a middle of the casserole cheese layer so that’s another fail. It was very edible but obviously still needs a lot of work! That’s ok, this is the kind of work I enjoy right now.
5. Monday Dread isn’t usually a thing I do but it was in full force this week. Might be I’m setting expectations for clearing all my work on a Monday too high? I’m working on tempering that and not by thinking that I should work on weekends specifically to ward off Monday discomfort. What do you dread about Mondays? What do you do to make them better?
6. Happily, I finally snagged a survey that paid $35 in Amazon money. It didn’t come in time to cover an order of sporting equipment that PiC needed but it’ll cover a part of the order we have for eye drops, dog treats for Sera’s training, pill pockets, flea treatment. That list just keeps getting longer
7. My Bing rewards points total after 101 days: 34,425! That’s the equivalent of $25. I like to celebrate the small wins same as the big ones. They take a lot less time 😉 I’m saving these up to cover our robot vacuum or to cover a few items of clothing at Target and thus freeing up cash for the vacuum. My hope is that holiday sales will bring that cost down enough to be not so outrageous.
8. As part of my budget review to trim costs, I have been weighing the cost of maintaining this blog while regular and necessary costs mount each week and I made a decision: I’m going to start offering readers a way to support the blog if they so desire. I’ve added a little widget at the top of the page and will add to that as I experiment with creating neat things!
:: How was your week? What are you looking forward to this weekend? Naps, anyone?
August 23, 2019
This is my weekly list of things that were good this week, even if they weren’t all unadulteratedly good things. Please do share your good things in the comments!
1. With all the new subscription services coming along, the convenience of streaming isn’t the bargain it used to be. We plan to lean much more heavily on the library for movies and shows rather than falling for the pricey new subscription services. We’ll still always be behind the times and we’ll have to plan head sometimes to borrow DVDs but we’re used to that. Three cheers for the library!
2. Maggie‘s helping me learn new skills! I’m grateful for good friends who teach and share me the gift of knowledge.
3. We hosted Uncle Professor this week briefly and everyone enjoyed his company as usual. The dogs and JB monopolized him, he’s a favorite. The visit was short, as is usual, and Seamus was in denial. He kept looking for Uncle for days after.
4. I’m grateful for fans that work wonderfully: the range hood, our bathroom fans, our little fans when the heat heats up.
5. Thank goodness for little manual coffee drip setups. When the fancy electronic appliance craps out, we don’t have to rush and buy a new one because we can still brew single servings manually.
6. My massage therapist is wonderful and worth double her weight in gold. I always feel better (albeit temporarily) after an appointment with her. I needed to change my appointment date and time this week and she was able to accommodate with a last minute opening. Whew. She helped with all my aches, pains, and weird feelings that keep me up at night.