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
1. Friday: It bode ill that JB was waking up at random hours of the night BUT instead everyone got up unusually early around 6 and got out the door by 7:11. It was like a Friday morning gift!
2. Saturday: We watched Marie Kondo, though PiC was initially skeptical. He KonMaried our freezer later. 😂
3. Sunday: We sent PiC out to the gym while we made pancakes and then weeded until I couldn’t move anymore. Then I got a nap. We both got what we needed!
4. Monday: AND the nap gave me the brainstorm I needed for a work problem.
5. Monday: The sky was a gorgeous clear blue for the first time in weeks.
6. Tuesday: Ah ha, TMobile Tuesdays promotions are usually useless for me with their focus on entertainment discounts but this week we snagged a $10 promotion for Rover for each of us. $20 off a future booking! This is one area that’s really tough for us to save money – the quality of care for our kid and dogs is not up for compromise and that costs $$$$ since we don’t have enough friends in the area to trade services with.
7. Wednesday: I purchased a second set of Pyrex from Target at full price to fill out a $35 minimum order for free shipping and I’d had my eye on it for some time. It chafed to pay full price but I’d done research into local outlets and it would be a 90 mile round trip to get 50-70% off a $15 set before tax. That math doesn’t work out. Our local Goodwill is pretty slim pickings so it’d take a great deal of precious time and energy to find a full set with lids. The same day that the set arrived, there was a 10% discount on the set so I happily hit them up for a price match refund on chat help and ta da! Set minus 10%.
8. Thursday: D’oh! I had all the checks covered in our checking account, but then our twice-monthly transfers to savings cut in two days early and emptied our account just in time for the check to be returned for NSF. OOPS. I hopped onto customer service chat and pled my case, and they immediately refunded the $29. For my part, I immediately transferred some cash into our buffer savings account which I had unwisely let drain down to below the amount of the check, and sent the check again. Kind of an important one, it’s my life insurance premium.
9. Thursday: The time change plus a new whealth challenge meant this week was utter misery. I was barely functional by the late afternoon. PiC and JB to the rescue with some takeout!
The homeless situation in Los Angeles is getting worse and this part of it makes me extra peeved – who can keep up with that??: “From 2010 to 2018, median rental prices for a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles increased 84 percent, while median wages during the same period only rose 11 percent.”
Not so strangers: I have never considered that I’d be someone’s not so stranger, but mine are mostly dogs. I have a hard time recognizing humans if I don’t have an actual relationship with them.
I remember when @operaqueenie launched @Tinselwear, I thought it was very cool but I definitely wasn’t the market for it.
We didn’t have a special name for it but we grew up with the kunik. I wonder if this Inuit parenting style works as well in isolation rather than in a community.
The last two weeks leading up to this month I was teaching JB “3 and 11/12s” because someday we’re going to need to know fractions and this is an entertaining way to start.
Travel sized
I can’t believe it took me this long to realize it, perhaps because I make JB try things the hard way rather than making it easier for zir, but our travel shampoo and conditioner bottles are the perfect size for small hands learning to wash their own hair! Ze has been learning how to do this for months but this is the first time that ze has consistently been wanting to do this particular task all by zirself, from start to finish. No matter how badly it’s done or how long it takes, I’m forcing myself to be patient and offer only verbal guidance because ze really should want to do this and the only way to learn to do something better is to actually do it. (more…)
Reading Work Optional brought me back down to earth a bit. I should be grateful for being where we are today, after so many years of work and saving and fighting.
Truly, I am! I’m ever so grateful for the opportunities we’ve had, for the fruit our hard work has borne, for our little family, for our wide network of loved ones. For the useful things we have, like running water and plumbing, for a sound roof over our head, for a furnace. For the pain relief that my diet has brought me so that I can actually move day in and day out without more than a trace of a limp or a cacophony of crackling when I actually bend my joints. We even tackled the garden as a family over the weekend and may I say, we ripped out an impressive amount of weeds and weed roots. There’s enough blessing and joy to fill a week of gratitude journals. So … whence the crabapple attitude?
It finally struck me on a drive home. It’s the number. The number that’s lingered in the back of my psyche for these past several years like a whisper you can’t quite hear. (I didn’t try to hear it, naturally, I’m really good at blocking out subtle noises to concentrate.)
Mom got sick when she was in her 40s. She had several chronic problems, including dementia which is incredibly hard to handle on every level. We struggled to get diagnoses and/or treatment but nothing was terminal. (Feels familiar.) Then at 55, she died of sudden cardiac arrest.
1. Friday: Costco figured out that they stiffed us $70 in our tire rebate so they gave us a refund on our credit card instead. I’d rather have the cash rebate but this is fine too thank you.
2. Friday: I’d gotten too little sleep last night and fully expected today to be incredibly tough, which it was, but I also unexpectedly cleared one of my four to do lists for work. Yay!
3. Saturday: Frozen pizza and nuggets for dinner, woot!
4. Saturday: We went into the city for the 100,000 tulips in Union Square thing. We got there not long after it opened and it was already too late for us, so we looked at it from afar instead and enjoyed some play time at the mall nearby. Even if we didn’t come away with beautiful blooms, we got out of the house to do a thing and that’s cool.
5. Sunday: We went across the bridge to visit a friend with their new baby, JB and I on our first “long distance” venture without PiC and I’ve got to say it felt like I was making a big mistake when we hit the freeway because my fatigue walloped me a good one. I sincerely worried about having the energy for a visit and the return drive. It was touch and go but we made it there and back safely and we had a fun visit to boot! I’m so glad we made it. JB loved kissing on the baby and we were able to give PiC morning off to get a good long cardio session in. He used to, and still does, take JB out on Dad-kiddo adventures so I could rest, I was pleased to return the favor.
6. Sunday: I did all the laundry, PiC did the grocery shopping, everyone was decently fed, and we did some fun things. Feels like a huge win for the weekend. (more…)
Some truths about being a digital nomad. I would have thought these were all common sense about working from the road! This might be because I’ve been in the position to do that for years and it’s still work. Not only that, it’s work in addition to all the logistics of travel even before the added complication of a family and kids and dogs. Nowadays the best possible option in my opinion is a safe home base that I love and am comfortable in and no central office that I have to report to.
Dividend income. We received $504.44 in dividends this month – an unusually high month. Our year to date net dividends are $661.44. I reinvest all our dividends.
Book sales. I’m usually on the wrong end of that phrase! But I was thrilled to get the biggest quote I’ve ever gotten on an old textbook I’d used several years ago from topdollar4books. After giving myself my first ever blister erasing my notes (thankfully in pencil!) and sending it off firmly wrapped, this netted $45. They paid immediately (Paypal) upon receiving the book which was shockingly fast.
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