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
This was previously on my Giving page but I’m making it a post and updating that page for ongoing efforts. The updates from the start to the end of this fall’s project are below in chronological order.
We will continue to help the Lakota people even after the conclusion of this big fundraiser. We send gently used and new things as they become available or are requested year round. You are always welcome to contribute.
This post is to say a very big thank you to everyone who helped and contributed.
This all hits close to home for me. My mom grew up in poverty and I remember her stories of fishing for protein for their meals. Of making porridge that was more water than rice to stretch their single monthly 50-lb bag of rice per month to feed six, then seven, then eight children. Of earning money and making her own clothes at ten years of age. That wasn’t the life she wanted for me and I was lucky enough to make my way out of poverty because she came to America. In her memory, I feel a deep responsibility to pay forward the help needed for people to survive and thrive, and in particular to the Indigenous people who were here first.
The high in Allen, SD this week (last week of October) is 34 degrees, and the low is 3 degrees, and it’s only fall! Folks of all ages and sizes need warm clothes, socks, gloves, hats, coats, blankets. Food is a big need too, but I’ve got to grab hold somewhere to start helping, and keeping people warm is a good place to start with the sales that are on now.
With a South Dakota winter coming, all of these become much more urgent. One Spirit is a great organization that supports the Oglala Lakota but they have limited resource, they need us to help fill the gaps.
Our community has come together the past five years to assist families with urgent needs on the Okini and this fall I expanded our efforts to provide direct aid in bulk: hunt down the best deals and send great big loads to share with our neighbors in South Dakota. I’d love to supply the whole reservation this way but we’ll start with one area first and work our way out.
On October 26, 2022, we launched a fundraiser for a big Native Heritage Month + Thanksgiving giving drive. With your help, we’re sending much needed supplies to roughly 100 families, or 600+ people, on the Pine Ridge reservation in the Allen area. Mutual aid FTW! I’ve shared updates on the blog here and here, and on Twitter. I’m also documenting our work here for transparency and posterity.
How you can help
Every penny matters: $15 buys a pair of gloves or a pack of socks, $37 buys a case of diapers.
Fourteen days into the public fundraising! Added to the earlier private donations in the first part of October, we’ve raised enough to send the following goods on sale:
Health
COVID is a big problem on the reservation, and it’s a terrible cold/flu/RSV season to boot.
For kids
15 black Targus backpacks
10 girls size 7 snow boots
16 packs of Girls Underwear, Assorted 20 Packs in sizes (4 each) 6, 8, 10, and 14
6 packs of Boys’ Boxer Briefs, Assorted 5 Pack, Size XL
5 Kids’ 2-pack Blanket Sleeper, Dark Pink, 12 months
5 Kids’ 2-pack Blanket Sleeper, Pink, 2T
5 Kids’ 2-pack Blanket Sleeper, Blue, 3T
5 Kids’ 2-pack Blanket Sleeper, Blue, 2T
20 total: Eddie Bauer Kids’ 3-in-1 Jacket, Blue or Red, 5 in each size: XS, S, M, L
For adults
4 Fleece Crew Sweatshirt, 2XL, Blue
4 Fleece Pullover Hoodie Sweatshirt, 2XL, Black
4 Fleece Pullover Hoodie Sweatshirt, XL, Grey Heather
4 Fleece Elastic Bottom Sweatpants, 2XL, Black Heather
4 Fleece Elastic Bottom Sweatpants, XL, Black
5 32 Degrees Ladies’ Power Tech Jacket, Blue, Medium
5 32 Degrees Ladies’ Power Tech Jacket, Copper, Medium
Household
28 Bath Towels
November 9, 2022
Kids
10 toddler coats: 2T, 4T, 5
November 12, 2022
$460 of cash and gift card contributions came in this week! YAY! Some thoughtful folks confirm which stores made the most sense and sent over gift cards for the efforts and this is so appreciated. I hope we’ll have enough time to gather enough funds to hit the intense holiday sales hard, but the Twitter sharing is getting more difficult.
I asked our coordinator what their top priorities from the list below are and she said: There is a volunteer cook who comes in 6 days a week to “create “ a meal with ingredients that they have on hand so they’re always in need of food and snacks for kids. They also need diapers and baby (gently used is great) clothes.
I ship them all the gently used hand me downs we get from our community and have a plan to ship more when I gather all the giveaway clothes from the lost and found at the end of the school year. I’m kicking myself for not trusting we’d raise enough funds to afford buying the diapers while they were on sale in October but I think they’ll be on sale again in December/January. Should I wait and buy then? Or should I send what we can afford now? DEBATING.
Today, I’m pivoting to buying a load of food and snacks. I will keep hunting for deals on diapers and baby clothes in hopes that our dollars will go further on those items in a week or so.
Update 2! This was a cart split between healthy ingredients and reasonably healthy snacks for kids, as requested, coming in just shy of $400. Tomorrow, per a friend’s recommendation, I’ll get diapers from Target.
For $146.75, I’ve shipped three boxes of clothes, toys, treats, art supplies, $100 worth of kids’ masks, $900 worth of COVID tests.
November 20, 2022
We had a few more contributions come in this week, this might be the last we can expect what with Twitter going down and all.
Tami and I are working on a series of diaper orders, one has shipped and two more are being placed soon.We’re budgeting about $300 for diapers now, we’ll get more later if funding comes in. This week I fielded specific requests from the coordinator and director of One Spirit (they run the Okini list). I ordered adult sized coats (they asked me to focus on L, XL, and XXL sizes) for the older kids and adults near Allen. The sales finally dropped prices enough so that I could buy 18 adult sized coats for $473.21.
The Youth Center also has a big group of kids with very little seating, just one used sofa, so they asked for bean bag chairs for the kids. I found one very large one on sale, and am now on the lookout for more individual sized bags.
First of three diaper orders to maximize discounts:
Fragrance Free Baby Wipes Unscented 216ct – up & up™
(1) Diapers Giant Pack Size 2 – 184ct – up & up
(2) Diapers Economy Plus Pack – Size 3 – 228ct – up & up
(5) Unisex Big Hooded Zip Jacket, 2XL, Color: Camel
(2) Men’s Dockers® Arctic Cloth Heavyweight Performance Hooded Parka, XL, Green
(1) Men’s Dockers® Arctic Cloth Heavyweight Performance Hooded Parka, XL, Grey
(2) Men’s Dockers® Arctic Cloth Heavyweight Performance Hooded Parka, L, Grey
(2) Women’s ZeroXposur Brooke Packable Puffer Jacket, Infinity Blue, L
(2) Women’s ZeroXposur Brooke Packable Puffer Jacket, Rose Clay, L
(1) Juniors’ Plus Size SO® Sherpa Full Zip Jacket, 1X, Blue Cream Dye
(2) Juniors’ Plus Size SO® Sherpa Full Zip Jacket, 2X, Larue Lavender
(1) Juniors’ Plus Size SO® Sherpa Full Zip Jacket, 2X, Maroon Black Buffalo
November 26, 2022
We’ve sent the second and third of three diaper orders:
(2) Diapers Economy Plus Pack – Size 4 – 204ct – up & up
(1) Diapers Giant Pack Size 2 – 184ct – up & up
(1) Fragrance Free Baby Wipes Unscented 216ct – up & up
(2) Diapers Economy Plus Pack – Size 5 – 186ct – up & up
I’ve also ordered individual sized bean bag chairs, women’s gloves, blankets and comforter sets, kids/men’s/women’s beanies, kid and adult socks, and adult underwear packs.
(2) Big Joe Classic Beanbag Chair, Sapphire
(2) Big Joe Milano Kid’s Beanbag Chair Pink Passion Smartmax
(5) Women’s Ultra Lightweight EZ Touch Screen Quilted Gloves – MEDIUM
(5) Women’s Ultra Lightweight EZ Touch Screen Quilted Gloves – LARGE
(4) Classic Velvety Plush Full/Queen Blanket, Hippie Tie Dye Wizard (pinks)
(6) Eddie Bauer Mountain Village Ultra Soft Plush Fleece Reversible Full/Queen Blanket, Chambray Blue
(2) Sunham Holiday Gingham 3-Pc Comforter Sets
(3) Kids’ Colorblock Beanie – Cat & Jack™ Pink
(3) Kids’ Solid Cuffed Beanie – Cat & Jack™ Gray
(8) Men’s Circular Knit Beanie – Goodfellow & Co™ Indigo
(4) Women’s Knit Beanie – Universal Thread™ Dark Gray
(4) Women’s Knit Beanie – Universal Thread™ Red
(3) Kids’ Solid Cuffed Beanie – Cat & Jack™ Yellow
(4) Men’s Circular Knit Beanie – Goodfellow & Co™ Cream
(4) Baby Boys’ 6pk Crew Socks – Cat & Jack™ 12-24M
(4) Toddler 10pk Solid Low-Cut Socks – Cat & Jack™ White 2T-3T
(4) Toddler 10pk Solid Low-Cut Socks – Cat & Jack™ White 4T-5T
(2) Hanes Boys’ 12pk Cushioned Ankle Athletic Socks – White L
(4) Hanes Girls’ 20pk Super No Show Athletic Socks – M and L
(5) PUMA Men’s No Show Sock, 10-pair, size 10-13
(5) PUMA Men’s No Show Sock, 10-pair, size
(5) PUMA Ladies’ No Show Sock, 10-pair, Black
(4) PUMA Ladies’ No Show Sock, 10-pair, White
(1) Plus Size Jockey® Elance 3-pk. Briefs Panty Set, Size 8, Blue
(1) Plus Size Jockey® Elance 3-pk. Briefs Panty Set, Size 8, Black
(1) Plus Size Jockey® Elance 3-pk. Briefs Panty Set, Size 10, Black
(1) Plus Size Jockey® Elance 3-pk. Briefs Panty Set, Size 10, Pink
(2) Men’s Hanes Ultimate® 5-pack Exposed Waistband Boxer Brief, XL, Blue/Orange
(1) Men’s Hanes Ultimate® 5-pack Exposed Waistband Boxer Brief, XXL, Blue/Orange
(1) Men’s Hanes Ultimate® 6-pack ComfortSoft Tees, XL, Black/Grey
(1) Men’s Hanes Ultimate® 6-pack ComfortSoft Tees, XXL, Black/Grey
November 30, 2022
I’m watching and waiting as the orders start to ship and updating the coordinators. I’ll update the numbers here as soon as I can get some time! The Holiday Okini is out but I’ve got to take a break.
December 9, 2022
There are still things on the wish list that I didn’t get to or can use more of: diapers, men’s gloves, blankets, snow boots (for all sizes and ages), tampons, pads, shampoo, conditioner, soap.
But since we’ve used all our funds pre-Thanksgiving, and everything has FINALLY shipped, it was time to pull this update together.
Final summary
Together we raised $4396! Y’all are AMAZING! Thanks to Music for encouraging this wacky idea to hatch, Ruth for signing up to assist with the money, Maggie, Tami, Kristen, ZJ and Penny for helping and advising me behind the scenes.
Thanks to Shep and Chris and also you Chris, Hiro, Plutus folks, J Money, Steph, Anne, Sarah, Janna, Jaydot, Jim, Quiara, Jelena, and so many more for signal boosting so we could get one more coat, one more case of diapers, one more blanket, one more package of socks.
BIG thanks to everyone single one of you who helped in every way. This quite literally could not have happened without you.
My heart is full this season with your caring for people who have a need that we can help with, and I hope yours is as well.
Year 3, Day 260: Smol’s third round of fever started last night, coinciding perfectly with my fatigue deepening to the point I didn’t even hear them wake and cry at 4 am. PiC took care of them, but I usually hear and respond to all middle of the night wakings. Getting up felt like a forced swim up through multiple levels of sediment. Heavy and yucky and my ears kept popping.
Working felt the same way today, too. Just a lot of yuck and struggle to get the basics squared away. Pre-holiday hangover?
My arm is still sore from my flu shot which reminds me that yay I finally got my flu shot! It’s been hard to muster any energy or time. No new symptoms from the shot, I just continue to be generally headachy, muscle achy, fatigued and have an on again off again sore throat. Maybe, maybe if I can pull off another night of sleep or ten, I’ll feel better? It doesn’t help that I’m also anticipating with great stress and no joy the upcoming time with family that involves a lot of logistics and problem solving and no help whatsoever.
Year 3, Day 261: Ah yes one of the few days I have meetings scheduled would be following a horrible up constantly with a very sad Smol Acrobat night. It’s not clear what was wrong. They were sad and couldn’t get comfortable, but I didn’t know why. Their fever was down and I had administered Tylenol just for their general discomfort but they just couldn’t deal. They napped at daycare, thankfully, twice even, but were terribly sad at lunch and refused to eat. This was a puzzle and teachers tried to feed them to no avail. According to the doctor, though, this is actually their third virus in the past 2.5 weeks, so we have to take them for another round of COVID and flu tests. Also, it turns out there’s a chance they were exposed to hand foot mouth disease last week, we’re just finding out now. Mega sigh.
For my part, I was 90% zombie today. I’m just so tired. And maybe this contributed to my feeling slightly inadequate. One of my dear friends (#1) was a key player in planning a major inauguration and gala, and she did a magnificent job. I simply cannot imagine wrapping my head around doing anything that immense or that highly visible. Our mutual dear friend (#2, much older than both of us) selected #1 over me to be the executor of her will in this year’s rewrite and #1 is also the designated party planner. #2 doesn’t want a funeral, she wants a big party. Don’t get me wrong, I am not gunning for more jobs, but I admit to a small pang of “well gosh, what am I good for then?” As you know, if I don’t have a use, a job to do, then I don’t know what the point of me is in a friendship.
It’s possible I’ll write the obituary, I wrote her late spouse’s, but that feels like small potatoes. Then again, I’m not sure how I’ll even do that, my heart is in my throat whenever I think about writing it. And yet I feel like I need to prepare raw material now before it’s too late. In any case, I agree with #2s choice of #1 for an executor. It’s practical, her kids are quite a bit older than ours and she’s more intimately familiar with #1’s tastes and preferences because she’s very particular about tastes herself. I’m not that person. I’m a nuts and bolts, behind the scenes person. Pure functionality over form, entirely about getting a job done with zero thought for performance and flair. I’m no good at the latter, I’m uncomfortable with fanfare. I 0% wanted to be the center of attention at my own wedding and only got through that by ignoring people if I wasn’t face to face with them. The choice truly does make sense to me. I just want to be more of service in the event of #2’s passing. If nothing else, to numb the grief, I suppose.
Year 3, Day 262: I really don’t know what’s what with COVID anymore. PiC’s employer has noted higher community transmission rates and moved their company guidance accordingly. But it’s only “masks recommended and limited in person meetings”. Meanwhile everywhere I look, hardly anyone is masked. Half the people at the orthodontist were unmasked, and they actually require masking. One lady had the nerve to tell her kid to REMOVE their mask when they stepped inside. I guess that’s “require” since they didn’t enforce it or chastise it unmasked people.
Smol’s still sick and in a lot of pain. They couldn’t eat all day and PiC and I were racking our brains on how to help them. I’m exhausted from the past two nights of all nighters with them. I had to set aside time to just lay down and rest during the day because it doesn’t look like this will resolve quickly, it’s very probably hand foot mouth disease. They were exposed last week and we only got the notification yesterday about the exposure. Not that we could have done anything about it last week, either.
After I had the brilliant notion of picking up Jamba Juice for them, and it worked! They slurped down a huge amount and were smiling for the first time at a meal in days! They opened their mouth wide saying ah! ah! ah! They suddenly felt good enough to let me take a good look inside and sure enough: herpangina. Sigh. They’re miserable and it’s so sad.
Year 3, Day 263: Not for the first time since I started using them, I’m grateful someone mentioned setting phone alarms for things like appointments. It’s been a huge help for picking up JB from school. I get very deep into my focused work day to day and really need that sharp jerk to pull my brain out of the depths on time.
Especially on days like today, my third day after a sleepless night, and my brain is barely just creaking along, at least I don’t have to also worry that I’ll forget someone somewhere. That’s happened a couple of times, before the alarms, and I know they’re fine but I would just as soon skip that guilt (strongly linked to how I felt when I was constantly left at school), thank you very much.
I thought about cooking with that chicken I defrosted on Monday and haven’t touched. Since I started work at 530, I had some time by the afternoon. But the two and a half brain cells I had left piped up and said maybe don’t wipe yourself out the rest of the way cooking when there are still classes to drive to? Good job, tiny voice.
Year 3, Day 264: Mulling over how, since starting daycare, I’ve gotten a few days a week with chunks of uninterrupted time to work which is REALLY good. But the tradeoff is germs germs germs omg germs. Thankfully so far not COVID, but every other kind of viral fever-inducing thing out there has come home with them. They’re on Virus number 6 in 3 months and this one is absolutely brutal. I thought patting them down 3-5 times a night was bad (and it was). This go-round, they’re absolutely hysterical with discomfort throughout the night, night after night.
Today is an at-home day for Smol, who is still sad and sick, which reminds me just how physically exhausting it is to be ON constantly with an active toddler when I’m super tired, plus have work to do (which I of course cannot even think about while I’m on Smol minding duty). Feels like all the options are bad right now.
Big sighs.
*****
I noticed that my lifelong friend had big smile wrinkles that weren’t there before this year, in pictures she texted me. Then I noticed that I have them. We’re prematurely aging! The long running joke is that this sort of thing doesn’t usually show up on our (Asian) faces for a few more years, and then generally it happens all at once. I guess the pandemic kick-started it.
*****
We donated again to the Child and Family Relief Round 2: Our goal is to provide 500 food packages to families in need in different provinces of Afghanistan. Aseel’s Emergency food Package Emergency Food Package 1 (92 USD per package) feeds a family of 6-8 members for five weeks.
1. $76 saved! I trimmed JB’s hair, cut Smol Acrobat’s hair, and cleaned up PiC’s self haircut and saved us the cost of two cuts and a trim.
2. My last purchase at CVS before cancelling Carepass: three toothbrushes ($16.77) – $3 off $10 Colgate purchase – $10 off max single item (no idea why they applied the full $10 to three items but I am not objecting) + tax = $4.66 with free shipping. Pretty good considering how pricy the extra soft toothbrushes are!
3. One of the TMobile Tuesday rewards came in handy: the BOGO on Jamba Juice. The kids love it, and we adults appreciate it too, but it’s too rich for our blood to have on the treat rotation. BOGO works, though!
Challenges this week: Smol’s on their third virus in a row in less than three weeks. I am very tired.
Finding ibuprofen and acetaminophen (I usually buy generic) took over an hour to find a store that had both in stock at a close enough location that would be feasible for pick up. Nearly everything was unavailable for shipping from Target, CVS, and Walgreens. Considering how many times Smol has caught something, we’re going to need this.
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 $916.56 in dividends from the stocks portfolio. There are two times in the year that the dividends are this big, and this is one of them. Gives a real false sense of income security coming into the holidays!
Year 3, Day 253: *creak* go my bones and *creak* goes my brain. Having gotten up with Smol several times overnight, I’d logged maybe three hours of sleep by the time it was time to get up for the day. This mystery illness is the pits.
After seeing everyone off, I made the call that laying down first, rather than last after I’d done the majority of my work and felt like a herd of elephants had trampled me, was the wiser choice. It was but I didn’t feel refreshed after a 45 minute liedown during which my back started complaining. What’s with our bodies getting hurt from laying down?? Honestly.
Work itself was happily uneventful. I ironed out more details for holiday stuff and when my brain stalled out, hopped over to organizing the administrative details of the Lakota orders. Several are pending or starting to ship.
I have several orders of my own pending. Some things are for packing, some things are for wrapping. All the things I bought already have a place to go: closet, or wrapped gift pile, but the combination of several boxes of hand me downs and shipped goodies overwhelmed my brain.
One last package arriving tonight hit my limit of patience with the amount of STUFF in the office which triggered a cleaning cascade. I can’t work surrounded by mess. An hour of sorting and cleaning mostly returned us to pre holiday equilibrium mess. That’s not good. I need to do a bit more decluttering or I’m going to be a real mental mess going into the end of the year. (more…)
1. Saddle Up and Read is a 501(c)(3) non-profit literacy program that encourages children to read using equine related activities run by Gooch, @theblackcowgirl. Gooch is opening a free bookstore for kids on the farm and their fundraising goal is $8,000 to pay off the renovations. If you can support this awesome initiative: https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/3706821.
3. We sneak-shopped for Penny’s students. So many of them are hungry and it’s not right. Our last shipment of snacks was really brightening the days of a lot of students so with the holidays coming up, I thought maybe they’d need something to take home or even just a big last day snack binge. I took up a lightning quick collection among friends and I sent the order off.
Challenges this week: Smol is still sick, JB has come down with a Thing, and I have too. Booo.
PiC had an 8 am meeting so morning runs were on me again. After a thankfully slightly less rough night with Smol Acrobat’s and their friend, THE FEVER, we were off to the races. We had to drop off JB, drop off Smol Acrobat in their new classroom, drop off thank you cakes to their own classroom, drop off a return at the UPS store, run to the butcher for our Thanksgiving main entree, and run to Trader Joe’s for other groceries. We made it back before lunch but only just.
Cousin saved my bacon doing the last grocery run that I didn’t have the time or energy for. She’s saved my bacon for the past few days, doing the menu planning, cooking and helping with the kids. This tells me that our lives would be MARKEDLY better if we had a full adult available to cover the cooking and all related to cooking activities. Even with that, we still feel stretched to our limits with all the other things we’re managing.
I think our original ratio of 2-4 adults to one kid remains ideal. I don’t know what we’d do if it was flipped the other way and I don’t want to find out.
Incoming money! Kohl’s Cash! I’ll need to use this within a specific timeframe, starting on Saturday. I can do that.
This takes a little pressure off. I’ve been feeling the need to make the most of our last few hundred in the “right” way. The most perfect last orders, as if there is such a thing. The knowledge that I’m not going to be able to keep fundraising like we did on Twitter weighs so heavily on me right now. It’s possible that by this time next year we’ll have something new and effective in place, but we might not. Maybe I’ll have to do less, which would be sad. We don’t know what a year from now will look like.
So this moment from Leverage:Redemption really spoke to my soul in this moment in time.
Year 3, Day 249: I suspect “what a day” is going to be the theme going forward until January. I wish it weren’t highly likely.
I FINALLY cracked down (and found the time thanks to Cousin’s help) to place two orders for things we need, and returned two of the three things that I have to return. The last one is getting packaged today but I am loathe to attempt going back to the UPS store which was chaotic the last time I was there. I also started a new card for elder friend who I haven’t written to in a few weeks.
Smol is getting more symptomatic, runny nose and coughing, and I’m starting to really fade from lack of sleep. They woke up 4 times last night whimpering and crying.
I have to recuse myself from the Holiday Okini this year for the sake of sanity but if anyone is interested in buying gifts for kids who won’t otherwise get any, they’re adding families to the list now.
Year 3, Day 250: One more day til Thanksgiving! I was hoping to get loads of work done before today and make it a light one but my shoulders are up by my ears with how much I didn’t make it to my self declared finish line.
This was, in part, because we had a dear friend over for lunch and we all enjoyed her company for many hours. It was worth it, we don’t see her often, and we treasure the time we have with her.
I’m reconciling orders and shipments and tracking numbers and reimbursements as orders ship and arrive at their destination. It’s not, by itself, a lot of work but it is a ton of details to stay on top of and it’s in addition to everything else. I expect tomorrow and Friday to be my big shopping days, depending on how cooking goes.
Year 3, Day 251: We had a plan. Things did not go accordingly. We wanted a 3 pm sit-down and started cooking an hour earlier than initially plotted, but the numerous derailings by two children (one of whom is still a bit sick and therefore quite cranky) and two dogs, of all sorts, was too much. They were cute but so chaotic.
We managed to get everything on the table by 530 but I mismanaged the side dishes and they were served cold. That was disappointing given we’d cooked, baked, and roasted all day but it was all tasty and cooked well. Oh but my turkey was uncharacteristically a bit too salty. Not at all dry and excellent with cranberry sauce but still. Imperfect. I was overzealous when brining. I heavily salted it on Tuesday, when I normally brine just one day in advance, and so didn’t account for the effect of the extra time. Next time, less salt or less time.
We usually spend part of dinner talking about the real history of the holiday and the mistreatment of indigenous people but we’ve talked about that all month. I let JB help me pick out blankets to buy for our Lakota families instead. Knowing the truth is good but doing something to help is more good.
Yay more money came in! Just in time for me to do some budget allocations and increase my order of women’s gloves. JB and I discussed our next order, and they suggested that we now focus on bedding. I agreed so we started shopping and talking through how to balance price and quality. We don’t want to pay very little for poor quality. We can’t pay a lot for luxury quality. We need to pay a moderate amount for good to excellent quality that will last. It’s not kind to send people junk.
Year 3, Day 252: A much needed day off. We tended to the kids, had a couple more cooking projects, and thanks to Smol Acrobat napping very heavily, I had my first afternoon liedown in two weeks.
Sadly, they woke up with a new fever. Big sigh. I don’t know what they’ve got. They’ve all had their flu vaccines, but this has got staying power. I’m doing my best to rest between night wakings so I don’t fall victim to this thing too.
PiC took advantage of the quiet to run several errands that’ll help us this coming week and we’re slowly starting to mentally regroup in the aftermath of the holiday. This is a very brief respite. It starts again on Monday in earnest, with appointments for COVID testing, dentist appointments and my massage appointment and planning office events (remote only!). We only have two more weeks before we have to be completely ready for the end of the year which is going to feel, in some ways, like a tsunami.
Year 3 of COVID in the Bay Area.
