1. Weird creeping virus of doom and little sleep: Minnie coughed herself awake in the middle of the night a couple of days before Christmas, and I really wanted to bring her to the pediatrician when the office opened … only it didn’t open because of bad weather. She came in bed with me at 4am because I was freaked out listening to her cough on the monitor and we slept ok. She was fine the next day— runny nose, low grade fever, but the barking nature of her cough went away and she just sounded kind of congested. I got sick Christmas evening and felt yucky all day on the 26th— low grade fever, body aches, etc. Coop kind of felt bad on the 27th— no fever, but a headache which is his first symptom all the time. SO ANYWAY. I thought it was the same crud and had moved through us (Harry felt like I felt on the 20-21 and stayed home from school, then Minnie on the 23rd, then me, then Coop) but then Minnie got sick again the other day. She was better all day yesterday (no fever, nose dried up considerably), but then at 5 am, she coughed and coughed and coughed- so much that I got nervous listening to her on the monitor and brought her to bed. She yelled at me that it was WAKED UP TIME and she was ALL WAKED UP and her TUMMY IS ALL FULL OF SLEEP and IT NOT BE FAIR for almost 40 minutes, but then she passed out for an hour THANK GOODNESS. Here she is now, and I am calling the pediatrician’s office as soon as it opens:
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| The Encanto house travels where she travels. |
2. So much unspent FSA money that I must spend ASAP. In 2021, we didn’t take out enough FSA money, because Harry had a pericardial effusion and needed eleventy billion echocardiograms, and he had braces, and Dorothy got braces, etc etc etc. So for 2022, we both maxed out our deductions and we didn’t use them. I mean thankfully, right? (Although Harry did have a pericarditis flare, but it happened on the weekend, so he went to the ER, and we only had to pay our normal ER copay instead of co-insurance on the echo and the doc visit plus money toward our max out of pocket deduction which is how it’s billed when we go to the cardiologist— HOW EFFED UP IS THAT?? And we have really excellent insurance. But still! It, like, rewards us for seeking primary care in the ER— WHAT THE HECK?) Which brings us to me yesterday, buying $500 worth of fancy tooth brushes and bleaching gels at the dentist. And to Ben today taking Cooper to the ortho for his braces (even though really he needs to have his teeth cleaned first because they are really stained (from what I don’t know- tooth brushing ennui?)). In retrospect, I could have been billing Minnie’s diaper subscription to that account and buying my awesome thickening shampoos and retinol, plus the billion N95s we used to make the kids wear every single place they went but don’t anymore (see item 1). I also could probably use some prescription sunglasses and several more pairs of readers to lose, but I didn’t realize how much money was sitting there until a couple months ago. Oops. Also, we scaled back our deductions for next year, which feels like asking for medical bad luck, but this was feels way too wasteful.
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| It’s Bluetooth enabled so it can offer me toothbrushing advice which seems unnecessarily invasive. |
3.
Dorothy got bangs. She brought in a Taylor Swift pic for inspiration, and her stylist nailed it
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| She is clearly feeling it. |
4.
Jack and I kicked Christmas to the curb. He helped me rip the outdoor lights out of the front yard tree with a cherry picker, and then we wrestled the lights off the indoor tree and threw it outside. We packed away all the breakables, and there are no knick-knacks anywhere and I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
5.
We turned the dining room table. The whole room feels bigger. WHY HAVE WE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE?? We also left the couch and table and bench where we put them to accommodate the tree, and the whole space works better. ELEVEN YEARS and we never considered this arrangement? What.
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| Don’t be distracted my my walking get up (IT WAS COLD); just look at the table |
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| Now it’s vertical and there’s so much more room everywhere |
I love those small changes that make a huge difference! Like we used to have a container full of spatulas and big spoons and the like, and it was always so full, and something would fall out every time you breathed in its general direction... and then my mom visited and put the potato masher and steak tenderizer that we use maybe once a year each in a drawer and it was SO MUCH better! I never considered doing that! It is very easy to blow my mind!
ReplyDeleteDorothy looks fabulous! Very grown up and very Taylor Swiftlike.
I really hope that Minnie's doctor helps her feel better and that you all get more sleep. Her tummy is all full of sleep omg that is so precious! (But not in the moment, of course.)
Yes— those tiny fixes that seem totally obvious to someone else— love it! Minnie’s doc said she’s fine, which made ME feel better, so definitely a win
DeleteOMG - you can see your grass!! I am so jealous! We have so dang much snow here. It's been warm here but several 30+ degree days were not enough to melt it. I bet we have 8" of snow on the ground. And we got a little more last night and more might come this week. But I'm fine w/ the snow as long as it's not ridiculously cold. I'm just shocked over how much snow we have already had - I think 30"+!!
ReplyDeleteUgh, I hope you figure out what is going on with Minnie. I imagine they'll do a respiratory swab which tests for a bajillion things. Hopefully it's not RSV because that one is nasty and really lingers. Will had it in Oct and then I presume I got it. He wasn't dangerously ill but it really wiped him out.
The FSA thing is so tricky, especially since I have an HSA so I can only use the FSA for dental and eyes. So I usually max out my FSA with my contact purchases. We have great insurance, too, but it's depressing that we have hit our out of pocket max the last 5 years! Maybe this is the year we just meet our deductible? Fingers crossed. We meet our deductible in January, though, due to my stupid expensive RA meds.
Our back yard is super shady and will have snow until May, but I sort of hate the brown slush. Cross your fingers for more snow soon (for us— sounds like you have plenty LOL)
DeleteThe FSA thing. Argh. We just always order a million contacts at the end of the year and call it good. But we're on a high-deductible plan, so we never have money in our FSA because as soon as money goes in there, there's some doctor bill that arrives. It's the way of the world, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI lost my glasses at dinner last night and am ordering a pair as we speak LOL
DeleteOh no! I hope everyone is feeling better soon. Love the Encanto house and that Minnie takes it everywhere.
ReplyDeleteAlso: you telling us what Minnie says over the monitor is one of my favourite things to read. I mean can it get cuter than: MY TUMMY IS ALL FULL OF SLEEP??? Still laughing over that one.
Wishing you good health and speedy recoveries <3
The Encanto house is pretty heavy— someone needs to tell Minnie that it is not a potable toy LOL
DeletePORTable, although, I mean, it isn’t potable either
DeleteIt's so hard to predict if an FSA is worth it from year to year.... and unless you have huge expenses, it's almost not worth it (I calculated that i might have saved $50 last year, if that).
ReplyDelete