June 23, 2023
1. I was in (self inflicted) PAIN on Saturday from a long day. We’d taken the kids to a family friendly event early, and ended up staying until the end because Smol Acrobat napped hard part way through. My feet were screaming, my leg muscles were on the verge of giving up. I popped a handful of OTC pain meds, hydrated as much as I could and passed out by 9 pm. The thing I didn’t do, which I used to do every single flare-up, was torment myself over the choice to have fun. I’d usually notice the pain and start mentally punishing myself for being weak, for making a stupid decision, for making the mistake of leaving the house.
2. Humoring Smol Acrobat by letting them take a spin around Target will net me a $5 gift card. We spotted this sign for $15 back if you spend $50 on Pampers, and I came home to look it up. I found the rebate site and it’s good for PG products in two forms: $5 back when you spend $20 and $15 back when you spend $50. Good for purchases between April 2, 2023 through June 30, 2023 so check your receipts!
It’ll take 6-8 weeks to get the prepaid $5 Visa. I also learned that I don’t want the Target brand 3 ring binders for my projects so that was helpful too!
Helping folks:
Can we help this good boy?
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June 16, 2023
1. Smol Acrobat was exposed to a child with COVID last week and we’ve been testing and watching them for any signs of symptoms or infection. Still 🤞🤞
2. We made it. This has been a Very Full Week.
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June 9, 2023
1. My money and professional mentor is now on YouTube!! It’s wonderful to see and hear her talking about money again.
2. We survived. Tough week.
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June 2, 2023
1. Week one of camp for JB: so far so good! This is a new one for all of us so we (JB and I, separately) were slightly apprehensive. Them: what if no one likes me?
Me: what if it’s run by untrustworthy bastards?
They found two familiar faces and two more kids from their school, so that was their concern allayed. I spent the whole first day camped out in the waiting area to keep an eye on things. My butt wasn’t pleased by the hours on a hard chair but my worrywart soul was appeased.
2. WE MADE IT TO FRIDAY. OMG.
I feel like the Frugalwoods must have been following the wrong people before dreaming of growing all their food. I started following one farmer friend years ago (Neolithic Sheep) and learned immediately that, physical limitations aside, I didn’t ever want to HAVE to grow all my own food. It’s an unfathomable amount of work. The chores never stop, the harvest comes when the harvest comes, and you’re never guaranteed a harvest which is especially stark if you’re depending on it. I like the idea of growing some of my own food on a very small scale, like we do with the potatoes. A few harvests are a treat, and fun, with long periods of growth in between.
I know about the looming crisis with the debt ceiling fight though I can’t wrap my head around the details at the moment. What I do find easy to understand is that a default would hurt a hell of a lot of real people, none of whom the politicians care about: Financial Concerns – How a U.S. government debt default would affect my military family
Jane Fonda Shades Redford, Disses Godard, Dishes On Hepburn In No-Holds-Barred Appearance In Cannes: “We would shoot sometimes 14 hours a day,” she noted. “And Lee Marvin took me aside and he said, ‘Fonda, we’re the stars of this movie. If we allow them to work us so many hours, we’re not the ones that get hurt. It’s the crew. We have to stand up for the workers, for the crew, and we have to refuse to work these long hours. We have to stand up for the crew.’ And that had never occurred to me. That was a huge lesson from Lee Marvin….
…
on the issue of climate change:
“We still have reason to be hopeful if we do everything right. But I’m saying this is serious. We’ve got about seven, eight years to cut ourselves in half of what we use of fossil fuels,” she said. “And unfortunately, the people that have the least responsibility for it are hit the hardest — Global South, people on islands, poor people of color. It is a tragedy that we have to absolutely stop. We have to arrest and jail those men — they’re all men – [responsible for the crisis].”
May 26, 2023
1. I had my weekly therapy session, PiC had his weekly (when he can, this depends on friends showing up) sportsy outing. These are both good for our health.
2. We walked the whole family to the local park on Sunday for outdoor time. That was good for everyone though I crashed hard a couple hours after we got back. Impromptu nap!
Helping folks:
From a dear friend… My friend’s partner needs a new car or repairs because rural Minnesota. They teach ASL and drive folks just a little older than them all over. (They’ve been stuck at this funded level of $1000 for 2 months, can we help them out?)
These poor dogs got QUILLED. Can we help their family with the vet bill?
I follow @tinytempest on Twitter and she’s fundraising for family in a tough spot. Emergency Help for the Byrd – Bradford Family.
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May 19, 2023
1. Do you, too, love otters? The Monterey Bay otter live cam is a really soothing way to start or end your day. So are the moon jelly and jelly cams.
2. I love the feel of freshly vacuumed floors underfoot. Eternal thanks to robot vacuum for making that happen with little effort from me.
3. Our local taqueria has pozole, how did I never notice before now?! It’s delicious. It was worth deviating from my currently normal order of taco salad.
Helping folks:
This powwow is at the end of the month and the organizer will have to bear the costs personally if funds aren’t raised in time: Help fund the 3rd Annual Odenong Powwow. More info on it from @NDNSilver
An activism: @mbrockenbrough tweeted: “For fun, I filed a complaint against the fascist book banning organization Moms for Liberty with the IRS. The form is here, if you’d like to join me: https://irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f13909.pdf
This should not be a tax-exempt organization promoting social welfare. Hate is not social welfare. Teachers promote social welfare. They pay taxes. Librarians, too. They pay taxes. Children’s authors pay taxes. Defamatory wannabe fascists shouldn’t get a free ride.”
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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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