1. Live performance: Something Rotten at the high school. This show was a delight, and both Dorothy and Minnie love dit. The orchestra was excellent! The choreography was great! The singing was terrific! Jack was the rail operator manning the curtain and anything else that needed to be moved with pulleys-- he was fabulous, too! (Only 1-4 more live performances to go!)
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| Ben's school advertised their drama camp in the program! |
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| It really stressed me out that we did not have seats on an aisle, but Minnie was hooked on the show! |
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| She left Jack a note on his poster, too |
3. Eating more veggies: it has been so fun to think of ways to ramp up my veggie consumption and to focus on an eating goal that's additive. I eat a green salad at lunch and dinner, and I have started adding veggies to my bagel and lox (sprouts, spinach, sliced tomato, cucumber)
4. Money: WE DID A BAD JOB. I have noticed that when we have extra expenses on the horizon (SPRING TUITION BILL, PERHAPS), we just spend like fools instead of, I don't know, being a little cheaper since there's money to be spent? WHY ARE WE THE WAY WE ARE? But, I had to buy 2 pairs of Nike Air Force shoes for Dorothy, plus about $100 of makeup and assorted other things plus Valentines for all, plus Coop got some Uggs. AP test fees were due as well as tuition at Eau Claire-- just lots of things that added up fast and made me feel like saving was a fool's errand, so I bought more stuff.
On the food waste front, we made some serious progress. It does not appear that we bought much less food, but, except for Vday week, we ate at home for just about every meal, and we demolished our fresh produce.
5. I forgot a day of Connections! I had a 47 day streak! Bah!
6. I BARELY WROTE in February like AT ALL. This is a huge happiness stumbling block. I had some major Work Stuff going on that took up basically all of my extra brain power. I did read Save the Cat Writes a Novel, a book that Nicole recommended, and it was fantastic. I took notes, even!
7. Albums: Alessia Cara Love and Hyperbole and The Lumineers Automatic. These were not great, but I did love the new Bonnie Prince Billy, Lily Hiatt, Kathryn Mohr, and Benjamin Booker albums from the very last days of last month.
8. Kindle: I swear to god, I will read the new Anne Tyler before Friday...
9. Cookies: How have I never made PB cup cookies before?!?!
10. Date: The closest we came to this was sushi on the couch for Vday... Harry is having chest pains (booooooooo) and is coming home to see his doc, so maybe we will also avail oursleves of his babysitting services (Jack is a BUSY GUY)...
11. Yoga: I hurt my shoulder doing Adriene unsupervised, but I cannot find a class that works for our unruly schedule, so I took a break. Also! I FELL off the bench in the laundry room that I was balancing on to reach some stainless steel polish in a basket on a high shelf, and I hurt both my ankle and my tailbone (which I briefly thought was broken). Also! My fall made a huge crash, and I was sprawled out on the laundry room rug on my stomach, and Annabel was the only member of the fam who came to investigate. Coop even waked right by the room and didn't even raise an eyebrow at his mom helpless on the floor. NEAT. So, I took an even longer break and then decided to just wait for NEW MONTH ENERGY.
12. Book: The Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall-- this was a fun one to figure out.
Oh, that's unnerving about Harry and chest pains! Sending good vibes that everything checks out okay!!
ReplyDeleteThanks-- he get recurrent pericardial effusions-- since he was 6!
DeleteWell, look at it this way- in the long run it's probably more important to eat more vegetables than to spend less money (?) Sorry about your fall in the laundry room- glad nothing was actually broken. I know that "I may have broken my tailbone" feeling. In my 20s I feel while I was rollerblading and couldn't sit down comfortably for a month.
ReplyDeleteFELL. I fell. Not feel.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear Harry has been having chest pains. I know that has been a long road for you. Sending hugs.
ReplyDeleteI am going to go off on a money tangent. Take from it what you will.
1) There are actual needs - tuition, food, electric bills.
2) There are wants - I assume things like Uggs, Valentine's gifts (my kids get nothing at Valentine's and survive; it's a great tradition for your family, but I would argue it is not a need!), and makeup fall into this category.
What's important to you? I sense it's being generous with your kids. If so, lean into that. Feeling guilty over spending money if your underlying driving force is love and gifting is one of the main ways you express that would mean you would always be going "against your grain". It's okay to follow the "wants" as long as it doesn't (net?) negatively impact your family.
I don't know how much excess spending bothers you, but I think it is helpful to realize there are needs/necessities and there are wants. It's fine to invest in wants, but it's a choice and I think embracing that choice would help you reframe your financial decisions? Every decision has consequences - saving now means not spending now and perhaps removing one of your primary love languages, upsetting your children, etc; spending now means less money for the future and, perhaps, a sense of guilt about consumption levels.
There is no right/wrong answer - both approaches are based on preference and personality and both approaches have immediate and future impacts. To me at least, at the end of the day, that's what it boils down to. I am currently in a spend mode. After years and years and years of trying to save every single penny, it has been revolutionary to buy some superfluous things (all relative; I spent $20 on a special polish top coat THAT WASN'T EVEN ON SALE - for me that's a big deal!). My own financial history has really coloured how I feel about money as an adult.
I've been trying to look at the root cause of some of my tendencies lately and lean into how I am *actually* wired.
Again - random thoughts that may or may not be helpful!
I agree with what Elisabeth has said about nature. I would say we are more like Elisabeth and John and are savers, not spenders. I am probably not a fun parent in the eyes of my kids because when they want something, we take a picture of it so they can add it to a birthday or Christmas wish list. And they didn't get anything for Valentine's Day - but I didn't from my parents when growing up either. But I was raised in a frugal family, as was my husband, so it's been ingrained in me to save rather than spend. I could stand to spend more freely but that is hard for me. So far Paul seems to have a frugal nature as he wants to save the money he receives from bdays/holidays rather than spend it. We'll see if that continues as he gets older.
ReplyDeleteSo overall, if your spending is within your means and doesn't inhibit your goals to pay for the kids college/save for retirement, etc, it might be better to accept that you are more of a spender than a saver?
I share Elisabeth and Lisa's perspective on spending, but don't think I could've articulated it so well. Both Coach and I are frugal, and we were both raised that way. We never got anything for Valentine's Day and neither have our kids. Last year, I inherited some money from my sweet Uncle, and I sort of notice that I'm a bit more relaxed about say, going out to dinner, or paying a babysitter to watch Rae and Kay. It's amazing to feel like I can breathe a bit and not stress so much about finances. But last month was costly, we paid for Lad's suit and shirts and ties to the tune of $$$. We bought flights to Italy. And we spent $1500 on a table for a fundraiser for the girls' school. Wouldn't change any of it, but dang it hurts when it all hits.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that Harry is having some health issues. That sounds stressful. Hope there's an easy solution.
If work ramps up, it only makes sense that your time to write is diminished. I hope next month offers more time for you to write.
Lad started puking yesterday. Coach and I drove to his house and dropped off a bag of Gatorade and liquid IV, and I think we're counting that as a date.