About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
Read More
October 20, 2023
1. No idea if I’m doing this right but I twisted off the sprouts from the sweet potato and put them in water to root them. The potato goes back into the plastic bag to encourage it to grow more sprouts. If these sprout roots, the kids and I will plant them on a weekend. Update: they are sprouting rootlets! This is exciting!
2. I had no idea that growing something that’s essentially a weed requires this much reading and maintenance. I may have chosen poorly, as a low effort preference gardener. We’ll see.
Challenges this week: The days, they were so very long.
(more…)
October 17, 2023
Life with JB
One of the school pickup grandmas was telling me that their grandkid, who has activities scheduled every afternoon and sometimes two, can be found crying over their homework some nights, probably from exhaustion. Usually this kid joshes JB about their incredibly light schedule, telling JB they need to go to more activities. Obviously our circumstances are very different. Their family has four adults, two who do work and two who don’t, in their lives to ferry them to activities. JB has me during the week. I prefer not to have PiC trying to chauffeur when he already has to handle daycare dropoff and pickup. And I work! Sometimes I feel a little twinge that I can’t be in two places at once.
Hearing that recounting made me feel a little better. Not that I’m glad he has those nights! But I feel a tiny bit better about our setting hard limits on JB’s activities. I never want to be committing my elementary school kid to that much. It’s too much. Not to mention the financial cost of private swim, tutoring, martial arts multiple times a week. I don’t want to imagine the time and money that would take.
Life with Smol Acrobat
Smol’s words are still coming in fast and thick. They’ve been struggling with pronouns. One morning they burst on the scene with “I want to hug you, Mommy!”
!!
Their mood swings are also something else right now.
We’ve had days where we couldn’t breathe without setting off a tantrum. It’s exhausting. And then after hours of this, they’re suddenly sunny and mischievous and chuckling. The joke’s on us.
Pupdate
Sera š¶ was off her feed about two weeks this month. She’s normally a hearty efficient eater, clearing out the bowl in two minutes or less. Out of the blue she started leaving parts of her meal in the bowl. She’d eventually come back for the rest but I’ve been very concerned about whether something is actually wrong with her. I’ve been monitoring her closely, nothing else seems to be the matter except a general sluggishness on and off, but may schedule her for another physical and bloodwork. We just did that in January, but this is weird. It feels like old age set in overnight.
She had impromptu playdates with two puppies on separate occasions this month. One of them she already knew from a very young age but we hadn’t seen her for months, I wasn’t sure Sera š¶ remembered her. The other one was a new friend that she was figuring out. They both went fairly well considering her prior history with unknown dogs. Her time with the dogsitter and pack of dogs, lots of training with us everyday, and time have all mellowed her out a lot. Age has a lot to do with it too. She’s senior enough now that the young pups are more deferential once she scolds them.
Precious Moments
After I’d made breakfast
Thank you, Mommy! And bacon! I wike bacon again. (Yesterday they did not like bacon, before they even tried any. But then they tried some and liked half of it.) Mommy, you’re yeeving soon? Going to school?
I do not think that phrase means what you think it means
Absolutely no one:
Smol Acrobat: ohhhhh DAS why
Teaching everyone to be accurate with their asks
JB: Can I have kitty?
Smol Acrobat: No.
JB: Can I BORROW kitty?
Smol Acrobat: Yes.
Smol Acrobat monologuing
Mommy daddy get timeout wif Miss Swamp! (Why? we ask) You say no! Wook at dat ting! Dat BEEEEEG ting fwying. (bug flying) Ooh, spiderweb! I scared of spiderweb. Good job, spider.
Running out of ice cream is a very emotional experience.
Smol Acrobat got a firm lesson in table manners and manners in general tonight. They looked at me after polishing off their scoop and asked, politely, can I share your ice cream? I smiled back and said, “oh that was a very good ask, but no. You still have some in your bowl.” Before I could say anything else, they FLIPPED into a full fury screech. Up to 2 months ago, before they could talk clearly, I’ve responded mildly to this reaction but they’ve been verbally communicating with much better clarity lately, so it felt like the time was right. “Oh, well, now the answer has to be no because you’re pitching a tantrum. That’s not ok. This is my ice cream and I’m not ready to share yet. If JB asks me, and I say no, what do you think they say?”
JB played along, “mommy, can I have some of your ice cream?”
Me: “No, sorry, I’m not ready to share.”
JB: “Ok! I’ll just clean my bowl some more!” *goes back to scraping every last molecule of ice cream out of the bowl*
Me: “Now, that was very polite and now I feel like sharing. So JB can have a bite of my ice cream. What if you asked me again and I still said no, should you scream and stomp?”
Smol: “No.”
Me: “Let’s try it.”
Smol: “Mommy, can I share some of your ice cream peeess?”
Me: “No, I’m not ready to share yet. Do you stomp and scream now?”
Smol: “No.”
Me: “What do you say?”
Smol: Say “ok”?
Me: “That’s right! Smol, do you want me to help you scrape your bowl to get all your ice cream out like JB is doing?”
Smol: “Ys. Peess.” (please)
Me: “Good job practicing better manners! Now I feel like sharing, you may have a bite.”
Smol: *Chomp* “Thank you. Daddy! I shared ice cream wif mommy!”
Size matters
Me: Can you get your soap?
Smol: No, I can’t reach it up dere. I have to do DIS. *reaches* I’m too small. Can you get it for me?
October 16, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 199: A brief vaccine timeline starting Friday night.
* BOOSTED! Tiny poke, felt like nothing.
* 4 hours post-vax. Arm very mildly sore. Top half of body feeling mildly seedy but well within my normal range of “feelin’ terrible on a Friday night”.
* 15 hours post-vax. The bones in my entire right arm were pretty sore, my right hand hurt the worst. Tylenol helped ease most of that aching but I definitely felt like Kipo with her giant arm.
* 18 hours post-vax. Oh no I feel terrible. Generically terrible. Achy, tired, maybe nausea but can’t tell for sure, no longer happy to be upright, put myself back to bed for a bit.
* 24 hours post-vax. It’s distinctly weird to feel so sick but knowing you’re not sick. JB and Smol Acrobat have been told that we’re basically sick so y’all need to listen and help out. Smol is, of course, no help at all. JB is insisting on minding Smol so we can rest (with one ear listening).
* 32-38 hours post-vax. I woke up every hour drenched in sweat and then shivering minutes after removing blankets. Body couldn’t decide between hot and cold. Gross and annoying.
* More than 48 hours after the latest COVID vax and we’re pretty much good now. I think all the stuff going on today (aches etc) are entirely down to my usual health nonsense. It sucked but being out of sorts for about two days is so much better than coming down w/actual COVID for days and weeks.
A lot less of this arm thing going on today, for which I’m very grateful:
In exciting news, our blackberry bush arrived today! We freed it from the box, JB welcomed it with a watering, and I’ve been reminded that our normal weather is wind, wind, and more wind. I’d better get to repotting these two babies sooner than later, the blueberries have been knocked over three times already and the wind only just came back yesterday.
Year 4, Day 200: What a hard day. Work is inundated right now and I’m scrambling to cover as many bases as we can with what resources are available but they’re all stretched thin.
I’m stretched too thin at home, too. School dropoff, school pickup, and after school class are all routine and squash my day. I was already tired. Then we had to swing by the ortho visit and get JB’s thing installed so that put us further behind. Their discomfort and distress was manageable until we got home when they were especially clingy and needy. That would have been fine but Smol Acrobat decided to see that as a competition/ challenge and started demanding separate and equal attention. The kid who demanded group hugs this morning was offended by the ask to share my hugs this evening. Of course. Their bickering continued through dinner. Brushing teeth turned into a half hour ordeal as I had to help pick out all the food stuck in the appliance. I can handle all manner of ear gunk and dog yuck but this grossed me out. I’ll have to tighten the appliance nightly for two weeks as well. It’s part of our parent deal. I handle dental care because PiC can’t handle it and he handles all vomit and swim stuff.
Both kids are sniffly, sneezing, a cough here and there. I’m eyeing my antivirals thinking, do I take them now? Am I feeling sick or am I just extra fatigued?
*****
The tragic killings in Gaza and Israel are horrific. Anything I would say is deeply inadequate, my heart simply hurts for the families caught in this terrible conflict.
Year 4, Day 201: It’s time to start reading up on Open Enrollment again. I have a couple weeks to make some decisions. We’ll keep our HMO plan, no cost changes this year, and max out the FSA / Dependent Daycare allocations as usual. I have to decide when we need to change our vision and dental plans. We missed the window for orthodontic coverage for JB this year. We’re expecting a second treatment all the adult teeth are in so we’ll have to be alert to when that rolls around and upgrade to the premium plan ahead of time.
*****
So much household stuff today in addition to the usual school drop-off and pickup. Laundry, cleaning up, loading the dishwasher, swapping out gross old pillows that can’t be revived anymore with the new ones I got on sale. It feels like a bad week to be doing ANYTHING extra because I already overloaded the week with two big items: JB’s ortho care and their eye appointment. I’m tapped out already and we still have days to go.
Year 4, Day 202: Smol’s fever hit in the middle of the night. PiC fielded the first two rounds, a wake up and a night terror two hours later. The second night terror hit at 430 and I took that one, sending him off to bed. I remember JB having nightmares and being sick but they were more rocklike. They’d need me to hold them until they fell asleep, then I was usually free. Smol Acrobat requires a whole lot more getting up in the middle of the night. Multiple times. I felt that telltale tickle in my throat by morning as well, and started my antivirals in hopes of holding it off.
Just like with money, margin makes all the difference in time and health. Having more margin means being able to handle one more thing in the mental load, or stretch to one more sleepless night. This week has zero margin. Last week, I worked on improving my sunscreen habit, putting it on sunscreen every time I go out, to keep my rosacea in check. This week, that mental load shifted to JB’s dental care – I haven’t remembered to sunscreen all week. This week I can’t work late to catch up because Smol will need me at some point. I can’t afford to work late AND get up too early and depress my system enough that I get sick. It’s simply not in the budget.
Year 4, Day 203: Friday food review! Chicken fajita night: I only like chicken fajitas if someone else made them. Salmon: I’ve been baking salmon wrapped in foil about once a week lately, I think it’s becoming a regular item. Smol usually eats it like gangbusters (don’t jinx myself don’t jinx myself). I started pondering switching to parchment paper, but I set tortillas on fire in the toaster oven so I was done for the night. On Thursday I diced chicken into the tiniest of pieces to make chicken porridge for JB. PiC also brought them home a large pot of chicken noodle from Costco. We are awash in soft foods.
Water bottle goodwill: I got to repay the universe’s random assistance fund. PiC has unknowingly lost Smol Acrobat’s water bottle on their bike commute and had kind strangers notice, rescue it and flag them down. Today I saw a little kid’s water bottle fall out and roll into the street, right as I was saying goodbye to JB. The kid knew not to run into the street, they were yelling to their grandma that their water bottle was rolling down the street, and I was able to hop out, grab it before it’d gone a full car length and give it back.
Three weeks ago, genius that I am, decided that 4 pm Friday was a grand time to have JB’s eyes checked. Three weeks ago Me was cruel and/or foolish. We were there for two hours all told after a long day, at the end of a very long week. It is as if the Hope-Crushing Horde stampeded my SOUL.
October 13, 2023
1. I am cultivating patience by cultivating my garden. The berries will take months to grow to the point of fruiting. The potatoes will do what potatoes do until they’re ready. The onions are (I think) growing day by day under the soil. There’s absolutely nothing I could do to rush anything and it’s forcing me to take more deep breaths.
2. I’m also having to be patient with my attempts to make friends with the blackbirds. The crow army doesn’t visit daily like they used to and the pairs are far more wary of people than the army is so I have to bide my time. It means I catch bits that I might miss in my rushing about, like watching a neighborhood raven run while I plotted ways to leave a treat for it that it would notice. A raven’s run is delightful.
3. The Hermits Union is still racking up the miles for charity. Just a couple days left to get that match. If you’d like to contribute to our team’s efforts with cash, we still have another $4500 available match dollars.
Challenges this week: All of them. The world. Work. Home. Everything is feeling extra hard.
(more…)
October 9, 2023
Year 4 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 4, Day 192: It’s early release all week long. My already short interruption-free parts of the days are now even shorter. But in a stroke of luck, I found a cursive book on sale a few weeks ago and had tucked it away, it’s perfect for this week. JB was thrilled to get it. That’s got to be good for about three days of preoccupation, at a guess. Possibly four.
Year 4, Day 193: Smol woke up at 1 am crying for a hug and asking to go to the big bed. I hugged them until they were willing to lay back down in their own bed. Then I went back to bed where I was completely unable to go back to sleep because my bones flared up something fierce. Painsomnia, everyone’s best friend!
The silver lining to the brain fog was when I caught my brain trying to float away on a cloud of fatigue, instead of being mean to myself and scrunching my shoulders to my ears, I let it float until I could corral it gently back to task. I still got all the things done. Even if it wasn’t at the pace I’d normally set, it was without making the pain and fatigue worse by adding extra stress. I’m learning!
Well, mostly not. It’s so like my body to withhold honest feedback until evening and then run me over with the semitruck of pain and fatigue as soon as I put dinner on the table. I almost crashed but bucked myself up with the thought of cake for dessert. Naturally that’s when Smol Acrobat decided to revert to their “I can’t possibly transport a spoon from the bowl to my mouth, that’s an absurd expectation” mode and refused to eat with their own limbs. I dislike this mode.
They did not get cake.
Year 4, Day 194: The jokes were all on me today. I decided it was going to be a cozy sweats and stay at home (working, of course but no activities) day. Then I walked out and it was pushing 80 degrees. Oh. Right. Heat wave today. And then I saw the calendar and remembered that I have an in person meeting AND an appointment to take JB to the ortho this afternoon. Triple fail. š
Bonus fail: the ortho scheduler / office manager was incompetent and only scheduled one of the two appointments we needed for this stage of treatment so I was very unthrilled to add a second appointment to my week next week. I would have scheduled next week differently had I known. She and I are not friends. At our last appointment, she overcharged for our treatment plan claiming that she agreed to honor the quote but not the discounts in the quote. That is PART OF THE QUOTE. Ahem. I don’t appreciate dishonesty and I don’t appreciate overpaying.
But my blueberry bush arrived early! That was very exciting. JB helped me unpack and it’s very pretty. It’s compact, expected to top out at 1-2 feet tall and wide which is just the right size for our yard.
Also, I scored a really big win for myself and some of my team this week and I’d been puffed up with the joy of sharing their good news all day. It wasn’t until evening that I realized I’d forgotten to be happy about my part! Good job, me.
Year 4, Day 195: Heat wave cons: so hot, oh so hot. Sunburns. Sunblock runs into eyes when you sweat it off. The pavement gets too hot for Sera’s š¶ feet so we have to be quick about walks. Emergency chocolate in my bag melts into a squishy lump. Legs stick to leather car seats. Dizziness strikes hard, at random. Half this household does NOT handle heat well.
Heat wave pros: dishes dry really fast. We can line dry clothes (usually it’s too damp so they mold. yuck.) At night, the sky is beautifully clear and the stars are visible. The morning chill is pleasantly crisp, sitting on the skin, not biting bone deep.
Year 4, Day 196: Friday food review! I made quick panko chicken on the fly one night, served with rice and creamed spinach from the freezer. Then I made a chicken, tofu, and broccoli stir fry kind of thing using up the leftover packets of Korean BBQ style marinade from the Kevin’s meal kits. That was so big we had leftovers for a second dinner and small lunch. The hottest day this week was designated “have someone else cook today”: chicken and waffles takeout! Supporting a small local business and delicious food = happy.
Our local Kaiser finally got their COVID vaccine supply in today so we tried our luck and now both adults are vaccinated! We have to set appointments for the kids to have theirs administered by the pediatrician, so now I have to stalk those appointments. Will report back on how we feel post-vax, the initial jab was pleasantly “small needle” feeling like our flu vaccines were, and no immediate effects were felt.
October 6, 2023
1. I spotted our crow gang hanging about and offered them a few bits of Sera’s š¶ treats. They snatched them right up as soon as I turned to walk away! Making new animal friends makes me so happy.
I’m not generally a bird person but I love corvids. Maybe because they’re so interesting and I’ll never try to make one a house pet.
2. We’re all vaccinated against the flu! One down, one booster to go. Smol Acrobat recovered fairly quickly but the achey twinges were very upsetting for them a few hours later.
3. I started Saturday with a 14 item checklist of things to do, and closed out the day with just 5 things left! Not bad. I did, of course, do all the easy things first, so the last few are likely to be more time consuming than the first 9 things.
(more…)
October 3, 2023
On Money
Income
Our primary income comes from our full time jobs. We have minimal income from investing in index funds and dividend stocks (all reinvested). We earn money on the side to supplement our main incomes. We get a bit of income from Swagbucks, cash back sites (Rakuten, Mr.Rebates) and affiliate links to Bookshop and Amazon sometimes pay a micro-commission to keep the blog running. The sidebar has ways to support the blog and our charitable giving.
Our long term goal is to replace our day job income with passive income before my health prevents me from working. I know from my Mom’s experience that qualifying for or relying on disability is incredibly tough or near impossible here in CA. Aside from that, I aim to do my best to make the most of what we can do while we can.
***
Dividend income. We received $415 in dividends from the stocks portfolio.
PiC also unexpectedly received an out of cycle cost of living adjustment. We’re more than happy to have the few extra dollars. Bills keep rising like yeast. It does make us wonder when and how his salary falls behind enough that his company notices and adjusts. The cynical part of me assumes he’s been underpaid for longer than we’d like but I have to ignore that voice because he doesn’t have much recourse. We’ll just focus on stretching our dollars.
(more…)
