Five plus on Friday - The good, amusing, encouraging, and distressing

Good - 

We started out with having dinner and the evening with the 8 year old last Friday as it was parent’s night out. We took her out for dinner which got us out too lol. Then to our house for pup play time and a movie. The 2 year old stayed at daycare for “kid’s night out” again. We get the older one today too as this week is her school Spring break.

I also went to swim lesson on Saturday. Had a nice visit with the family and the 8 year old swimmer asked if I was going to come every time because that would be nice.

Cleaned, decluttered and reorganized a few kitchen drawers & cupboards a day. Although I've rearranged them since we moved and wiped a few this is the first time in 2 years that I am doing it thoroughly. They aren't as grungy as I thought they would be but it is needed. We have 16 drawers (5 are quite deep) and 7 cupboards. I have done 8 drawers and 4 cupboards so far. Decluttered 7 things and reorganized a bit. Feels like good progress!

It took 3 tries but my new glasses are finally adjusted right and sit comfortably. I do like the frames a lot and the prescription is great.

Amusing  - 

I learned that there is a name in Britain for that old pile of paperwork & to dos I am slowly slogging through. Outstanding Annoying Tasks or OATS. Love it. There may be a folder with that name in my future. 

Encouraging - 

Wisconsin rejected Musk’s State Supreme Court candidate and the Congressional special elections in Florida had greatly reduced margins for Republicans although sadly they won. The 2026 elections seem a lifetime away though.

Distressing -

I really dislike going to the nearest Safeway, but there are a few things we have trouble finding elsewhere so I went. They now have all toiletries including soap locked up. I need to find an alternative location or store for my own mental health as every time I go in that particular Safeway I feel as though they treat every customer as a criminal including a gate to enter and guard where you exit. This is in an area with fairly low crime rates and the store itself is stocked in a pretty upscale manner.

Tariffs on the world whether inhabited or not. Oh, except for Russia, N. Korea and Belarus apparently. After proclaiming the US was in an economic emergency (not) so he could create one. 

Spring 2025 Intentions List

Let’s give this a try one more time shall we?  

Family & Pup

• Spend as much time with immediate family as I can. Includes dropping by swim lessons, family over or at their house, babysitting, etc. Also I need to make some phone calls or send notes to long distance family.
• We need “date” times by eating out or going on an outing
• Get pup used to teeth cleaning and tail grooming - I'm rubbing dog toothpaste on his teeth and gums as a first step.

Self Care - 

• Actually lose some of the 10 pounds I put on after our move by minimizing carbs and alcohol
• Up my exercise intensity and consistency by creating a plan and following it
• Buy some clothes I enjoy wearing for niece’s wedding

Home & Yard -

• Finish office and dining room deep cleans
• Clean and declutter kitchen cabinets
• Deal with flickering can light in kitchen
• Replace broken living room cellular blind and add one in upstairs bathroom
• Do touch up paint on outdoor benches 
• Dispose of old computer responsibly
• Prep garage for storing stuff for son’s family during their foundation replacement
• Finish last of old paperwork tasks (almost done!)

Fun & Friendship - 

• Go to library book club
• Attend one or more activities at rec center
• Go to lunch/coffee with at least one acquaintance 

First quarter 2025 recap

Wow, what a wild and scary ride since Trump became President in January and enough said about that. However, it has been a stressful first quarter due to that. 

Our personal first quarter though can be summarized as “it went well, we spent a lot of money deliberately, we are healthy, family time was great”.

The spending: All planned thank goodness

• New TV and stand 
• Hubby’s new laptop
• New glasses for both & new prescription lenses for my sunglasses
• Air sealing and insulation of house subfloor and attics
• Plane tickets for niece’s June 1 wedding plus shifting from paying for the hotel to staying with son & DIL in a home exchange 3 bedroom condo for 1/4 th the cost.

Healthy is good:

• Transition to Kaiser for care going well - so far so good
• Getting stronger as proven by increasingly challenging Pilates workouts

Family time was great!

• We are finding that going to swim lesson on Saturday is a good short family hang out time if we want it
• We babysat each Grandgirl separately a few times which was lovely one on one time
• Other family time was lovely too - Grandfriend’s Day at 2nd grader’s school, 2 year old birthday party, visiting Fairyland for Lunar New Year’s followed by lunch, older son and DIL visited, other short babysitting and visiting times

Five on Friday -

1. Walked to the recycling center on Monday to donate my oldest pair of glasses and dispose of some medication. The staff is so nice. I also found the cute book above for the toddler in the community sharing station there.

2. Put out for curb giveaway a large plastic bin, quite large flower pot and a 3 ring binder. They were all gone in the morning and our garage (aka laundry/storage room) has more floor space. Our son and DIL are replacing the foundation of their 1925 house in the near future so we will be storing everything they have in their quasi basement area while that is done so room is important.

3. I was able to give a neighbor a ride to the ER and glad to help her out. She is ok but with too much back pain to drive.

4. Tuesday was a very nice warm day and we had a last minute invitation to join our son's family for grilled hotdogs and zucchini plus salads. It was lovely to be outside for a while and the pup ran and ran in circles on the grass. He fell asleep immediately after getting home.

5. Saw an ophthalmologist at Kaiser and all is well! I had problems about 4 years ago and the treatment worked but am still monitoring it. 

March Reads: second half - Quirky time travel science fiction & more mysteries & WWII novels

I shouldn’t be surprised that I like to read quirky time travel science fiction with clever characters. After all there was the fun read of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy back in the day. So a very enjoyable one has been finished.

1) Prompt: Has a character who can fly - well they do take off and land in their time travel pod and someone has to set the coordinates and tell it to go! Saving Time by Jodi Taylor is the 2nd in a 4 part series. Don’t know why I jumped in on #2 but I’m going to keep going and not worry about reading the first one.

2) Prompt: Climate fiction. Well, this was certainly an epic tale and it up is not until near the end that you realize it is about the political, economic and societal situation we are living through now in the US. That makes sense when the author’s comments include that the idea came to him in 2016. Along the way though you get a small band of fem eco terrorists, King Arthur and his brother Sir Kay, Merlin, Lancelot and his sometimes lover Marlowe, dragons, floods, outsourced government and military, and on and on. I’m glad I stuck with it.

3) Prompt: Stream of Consciousness (multiple persons). I had a harder time sticking with this Irish writer’s award winning fiction. Too much family drama and angst. Well written though.

4) Prompt: Includes Latin American history. I say I don’t like romance novels but this one had strong and brave female characters. An interesting part was the participation of Latin American businesses in the Paris international exposition which is true.

5) Prompt: 300-400 pages long. These stories are staring to seem very similar but the twist here was focusing on Portugal’s position during WWII - both the good and evil. The US embassies role in preventing Jewish people from escaping the Nazi’s by delaying and denying exit Visas was also highlighted.  And then there was the undeniable extreme bravery of the French resistance and partisans. Well plotted and written.

Dinners and the week ahead

As I type this I am listening to Hubby on the drums plus a saxophone and bass playing smooth jazz! I saw a handwritten post on the bulletin board at the coffee shop saying an experienced sax player was looking for people to play with - any type of music. His wife plays the bass and they live very near so they are jamming today for the first time.

So this coming week is pretty much empty in terms of scheduled activities. Just an ophthalmologist appt on Thursday and babysit the 8 year old Friday evening for parents date night. The toddle stays at daycare for Kid's Night Out lol. We are going to have really warm Spring weather Monday and Tuesday so I hope to be out enjoying it. I decided not to try to garden this year and that limits my yard work so I can just enjoy.

I've almost caught up on my neglected no deadline pile of tasks which feels great. I read about the idea of having a "power hour" to just power through the tasks that need to be done and have adopted the mindset but not timing it. It really has helped!

What we ate for dinner last week

Chicken with leftover grain and coleslaw

Leftover turkey Mac & salad

Vegetable dumplins (frozen) & zucchini

Shrimp cocktails & salad

Chicken vegetable stir fry & brown rice

Take out pizza slices and Caesar salad

Salmon, carrots & peas

Five on Friday - Destination wedding & insulation project

1. As I’ve mentioned, we are happily going to our oldest niece’s formal wedding in Palm Springs at the end of May. It is a costly endeavor however due to airfare, accommodations, new clothes, etc. Our older son and DIL are also going and used home exchange points to get a place for all of us to stay for just the cleaning fee. Saves us about $825 on hotel costs even with us offering to pay the cleaning fee. We will also be able to cook breakfasts, etc. and have more space including a kitchen. And it leaves feeling comfortable renting a car although we haven’t checked prices yet. 

2. Our insulation & air sealing project is done except for the inspection. The only new discoveries of shoddy prior work were that the kitchen fan had a damper but whoever installed it put a screw right where it held it open all the time (hence the cold draft), there was a big hole around the vent pipe also leading from the attic to the kitchen (another cold draft), and the duct used to put a register upstairs is not to code and is a potential fire hazard. The latter was not fixed in this round but the first two were. We are getting permits for work but obviously not all work by the previous owners had permits, was done to code or even correctly. The story of our home ownership across 5 houses.

3. Hubby fixed a tiny problem with the shower doors (due to another poor quality installation prior to our owning the house) which made me very happy and saved money. 

4. I tried a new recipe which we won’t make again but we finished it.

5. I was sick all day Tuesday and am grateful that was the extent of it.