A Lot Going On While We Stay Home

My apricot roses

Well, it’s been quite a week! Considering we don’t do very much away from the home, the week has had plenty of surprises and drama.

Dear Daughter (DD) started us off with a headache/cough/congestion complaint. Off for COVID testing! We are fortunate to have National Guard testing in our state, but the day we went they must have had an issue because they opened 1.5 hours late and the line was so long we gave up.

Later that afternoon, we heard through the “local mom rumor mill” that another testing site had a short wait, so off we went! Just 24 hours later we were relieve she was negative. She has been tested twice in July and the kid is becoming an expert.

This week I also tried to give blood through the Red Cross… they are offering COVID antibody testing along with your blood donation. I was pretty eager to see if I had antibodies because right before school let out one of our library student helpers had a family member bring COVID back from NYC. He seemed to get a number of our student helpers pretty sick.

I had never donated blood before, and I think I got the “new guy” because everyone seemed concerned about how he was doing 😬. They had to move the needle a few times and I didn’t end up filling the bag. No donation and no antibody test, just a bruise as a memento. Sigh. If you are interested in antibody testing check the Red Cross site for local blood drives.

In happier news….

Cooking– my zucchini is ready and I made a loaf of zucchini bread which is a welcome seasonal treat.

Entertainment – DD and I are watching the new Babysitters Club series on Netflix. It’s fantastic and a nice way to spend some time together.

Buying – one of our more expensive weeks since COVID. We bought a desk and chair for DD as her school will be virtual with more use of synchronous video than last year. I’m grateful our school district made a decision early.

Reading – Two middle-grade books this week. “Wink” by Rob Harrell has risen to one of my top recommendations this year. Best for grades 5 and up. Now I’m reading “American as Paneer Pie” and am enjoying learning about Indian culture through the eyes of a young person.

Flylady – we were in the living room and front entrance zones this week. Admittedly I didn’t do much other than basic maintenance. I did undertake a kitchen pantry clean out as a result of a syrup bottle that was dripping! Good opportunity to tidy up. Next week is Zone 2, the kitchen.

Hope your week was a little smoother than mine. I’m taking a deep breath heading into the coming week as I wait for the school district where I work to make a decision about fall.

Surfing the Grocery Shortages

Cans, a victim of 2020

I’m off in the summer, but this year amidst Coronavirus restrictions I feel as busy as ever. One thing that I need to keep on top of is the flow of groceries with all three of us eating at home every day.

In the times before (as my daughter calls pre-COVID life), if you needed something it never crossed your mind that the store would be out of it! Now the oddest things are out of stock.

Paper towels – every time I order them I get a surprise substitution. My last curbside pickup substituted paper towels made from bamboo! I don’t mind these “green” substitutions because they charge me for the cheaper brand I requested.

Canned goods – Did you know there is a shortage of aluminum cans? This article’s headline just sums up 2020, “Oh Great, Now There’s an Aluminum Can Shortage, Too.” If you prefer your beer or soda in a can, you’ll want to get on this. Apparently the issue is the volume of drinks being purchased for the home instead of being served in bars and restaurants. I’m a little nervous for my evening seltzer water habit, and I am picking up extra when they are available.

I try to grab a canned fruit and soup or two each time I have a grocery order; these also can be in short supply.

Pizza – many areas have frozen pizza shortages. I know I have tried to get some Jacks’ Naturally Rising Pizzas since March to no avail. We do have a crust manufacturer in our area and they had some issues with virus spreading in their factory. I imagine having people at home means more demand for pizza. I pick them up when there is a good price.

My husband usually handles our Amazon subscribe and save order, so I have been very good about telling him when I am opening a product from our pantry so he can adjust our order as needed. COVID is fairly high in my state, and I’m not likely to go in person to the store. Since March, I went to Trader Joe’s once, otherwise I do curbside or delivery.

Personally, I try not to let news of shortages send me off buying things we aren’t going to use. There has been a shortage of dried beans, but I rarely use them. Same with yeast… it doesn’t last long, and no sense buying it now when I haven’t made bread in a few years. It’s not a good deal to stock up if you aren’t going to make use of the item in the near future.

What kind of shortages have you experienced where you are? For the longest time we could not find nacho cheese sauce. Then my daughter found a Tik Tok of a family covering their whole dining room table in tortilla chips and making the entire thing nachos. So that’s where all the sauce went!!! See the nacho table for yourself!

Coming Out of Hiding?

Something pretty seen on a walk

I’m in a state with a very low number of cases of Coronavirus (at the moment, anyway). We are beginning to venture out in baby steps while the numbers seem to be in our favor. I’m even contemplating a trip to Trader Joe’s. I haven’t been in a grocery store since before March 13th!

Hair cuts – I have cut my husband’s hair twice and DD’s long hair once. This is a new endeavor for me, and thanks to YouTube, I think I’m pretty good at it! I had a professional haircut from an acquaintance who works alone with a lot of safety precautions because her daughter has special needs.

Medical – I was able to have my annual asthma checkup via FaceTime. DD and I are scheduled for dental cleanings this week. It’s a little bit nerve wracking, but at the same time, it seems unwise to wait until fall when our numbers could be higher.

Groceries- I have been ordering online through Kroger for pick up or through Amazon Fresh. It’s been so convenient for everyone in the family to add things as they think of them. I’m grateful that at the moment it is easy to get delivery spots.

Summer Fun – This is an area we haven’t mastered yet. My daughter and I are both off for the summer, but all of the usual summer pastimes are off limits. It is hard to know where to draw the line with seeing friends, but we are looking for ways for her to get together with her besties and be reasonably safe.

We will have a new adventure tomorrow visiting an Amish bakery in a town about 20 minutes away. That’s the whole plan….then come home. Again, baby steps.

Fathers Day – do you have any plans for Father’s Day this weekend? I plan to make DH some Toll House cookie bar, and we will probably get some curbside pickup from a place of his choosing. We would like to take him to a huge outdoor nursery that is about 45 min away, if we can figure out a way to have access to a bathroom along the way. Not all of our restaurants are open… even places like McDonalds do not have their dining room open yet though they are permitted to.

Homemaking – I’ve been getting back on the Flylady/Diane in Denmark method of keeping up with the house. This seems like the ideal time to restart some good habits since I am at home. Last week we were in Zone 2 (Kitchen) so I took care of cleaning the dishwasher filter, cleaning out under the kitchen sink, and wiping down the fridge. I added any kitchen supplies to my grocery list and was thrilled to see Windex is available again. I have no idea why people were buying up Windex during Coronavirus stockpiling. Maybe it’s a My Big Fat Greek Wedding thing??

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Welcome back Windex!

Adapting to Change

Signs of Spring in the Garden

How is everyone doing?  I’m finding it difficult to focus a blog post on any one subject, so I’ll give you a bit of an update on how we are adapting and any tips we have worked out for dealing with Stay at Home orders.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Let’s talk TP.  We have been committed to ordering our groceries online, but our main store, owned by Kroger, won’t let us add toilet paper into a pick-up order.  I found that Kroger does SHIP many items in the mail.  We were able to have TP shipped for 4.95 shipping fee, or free shipping if you spend over a certain amount.  If your grocery is owned by a larger corporation, you might check this out.

What comes next?  I’ve been seeing a trend in my midwestern state that manufacturing anything is really difficult with Coronavirus lurking.  I asked my daughter to think about what clothes she might need for the summer and we ordered them right away.  I wonder if clothing manufacturers are going to have a hard time keeping their merchandise in stock with international factories closing, opening, and potentially closing again.  As for me, I just need to make sure I can still fit in the clothes I already have!

Speaking of supply issues . . . Apple seems to be having exactly the issues I described above.  I have been contemplating an Apple Watch for the last few months, and it’s about a 5 week wait to get one shipped.  DH found Best Buy had certain colors on sale for 100.00 off so guess who is wearing their Mother’s Day present already!  My Dad was always shopping for a new watch when I was a kid, so I feel this purchased is “Dad approved.”

Simple Things – We are enjoying our days together with work and school from home peppered with plenty of walks, planting cold-hearty seeds like kale, watching Project Runway and Top Chef All Stars, and occasionally getting meals delivered.  Restaurants we never even bothered with in our spoiled pre-Coronavirus past, like Jimmy Johns (sandwich place), now are bordering on magical when we get them delivered.

What simple things have you discovered? Any tips for procuring short-supply items?

 

How Teacher Training Prepared me for Coronavirus

The past 8 weeks have altered many of our routines around our home and finances.  I don’t have a crystal ball, but I want to share how training at the school I work at prepared me for the Coronavirus crisis.

Every school in the US has some sort of training for active shooter incidents.  After many years of these training classes I have learned that the normalcy bias can be the difference between surviving a crisis and not making it.  The normalcy bias is the brain’s tendency to want to normalize events that might point a problem.  We don’t want to seem foolish by over-reacting, so we do nothing and assume things are OK until somebody else tells us there is a problem.  If school employees hear altercations, popping noises, or screaming, we are trained to begin taking action.

I used this training to ease our household into preparing for the spread of Coronavirus.

• At the end of January I asked my husband if we should make a reservation for a regional vacation instead of flying somewhere.  I asked around to friends to see if they had any recommendations (now even this seems unlikely).  We opted to stop talking about international vacations for this year.
• As the virus spread to Italy, I began thinking of our food and household needs.  We have a small home and don’t typically stockpile much of anything.  I try to be dairy free so I sourced some shelf-stable soy milk and made sure we were ahead of the curve with toilet paper.  I bought a little extra each week at the grocery store.
• When the virus hit Kirkland, Washington, I was in full-on prep mode.  We celebrated my daughter’s birthday with her friend at Shake Shack, thinking it might be our last opportunity to dine out (correct on that one).  We bought flour, sugar, toilet paper, electrolyte drinks, fever reducer, and confirmed that the thermometer still worked. Should have bought some yeast!  I bought disinfecting wipes and latex gloves and wondered if I had gone too far.
• When the virus began to show up in New York and on cruise ships, we started to reduce our outings outside of school and work.  Sniff Sniff, that included Starbucks. We got haircuts and a brow wax and I squeezed in a cavity filling at the dentist.  By that point I was a little creeped out being at the dentist.  We also stopped selling Girl Scout cookies at booths even though our council still allowed it, and I am glad we did.

I definitely encountered other people’s normalcy bias as the virus unfolded across the country.  Our school was planning an all school event that involved playing games.  I inquired as to whether that would be safe having everyone touch the same objects for the games.  The response was, “The health department hasn’t advised us not to.” Normalcy bias.  (By the time the event would have happened we were closed, I rest my case.) My extended family also implied I was excessively concerned about these problems occurring elsewhere.

There’s definitely a delicate balance between over-prepared and under-prepared.  My husband and I seem to be on the same wavelength and we have appreciated the preparations we have each contributed (I ordered a hair clippers early on, he has made sure we have hand soap and vitamins).  I continue to think about how Coronavirus might affect us moving forward, especially as to how it might affect my job in the school setting come fall.

How have you adapted to the pandemic?  Are you an early preparer, or did the closures take you by surprise?

 

 

 

 

 

Rolling into February and Saving

The days are ever so slightly lighter in the evening and my friend’s chickens have picked up their egg production — I’m feeling optimistic for spring even if it might be a bit premature!

Saving

• DH and I just made it under the data limit for our phones last week!  That’s $ 20.00 easy money.  I think I had been off wifi at home for a little while and that does not mix well with Instagram!
• The last two times I have bought grass fed ground beef on sale at a particular market they have not rung it up at the sale price.  I’m on to them!  I check the price per pound as soon as they pass me the package across the meat counter.
• I’m taking advantage of the sales on “party foods” for the Super Bowl and cherry-picking some of the loss leaders at local stores.  Frozen pizza isn’t something we eat often, but at 1.99, I’ll take one and be grateful we have it if there is a snow storm or a late meeting at work.
• My little joy for the week was getting a bar of Dr. Bronner’s Rose soap for $2.90.  I love having a good bar of soap for my bathtub, and it smells so pretty!

Earning

I sold a Keurig machine that we were no longer using on a local mom resale group.  $20.00.  We have gone back to old fashioned Mr. Coffee type of coffee machine.  I am happy to reclaim the counter space.

Investing

When we rolled my Roth IRA over to Vanguard from Ameritrade, DH was careful to maintain our asset allocation so that we wouldn’t fall too heavy into stocks (we already have plenty of stock exposure).  With the Coronavirus affecting China so heavily, this seems like a good move for the short term any way.

Maintaining

In the “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” department…..

Got the car in for an oil change/tire rotation.

Cleaned the washing machine with a cleaning tablet.

Budgeting

DH and I will usually go over out budget every Saturday night and see where we ended up for the past week and allocate any unspent money to savings, home repair or vacation.  Those are our budget categories which are always hungry for MORE!

Hope your week was good!

 

 

 

Saving and Homemaking 4/21

We had a very relaxed Easter with a walk to church (good exercise plus it avoids the jam packed parking lot!), simple meals, and plenty of time outside raking leaves and debris out of the garden.

Saving

The Easter Bunny had some unexpected success at CVS this week. I bought some nice items for my daughter’s baskets with a 32% off coupon, a 40% off L’Oréal Cosmetics, and a $3.00 off 10.00 on Cosmetics. I haven’t paid much attention to CVS but when I know I will buy a number of things I go check out the CVS digital coupons.

I tried to watch the impulse purchases this week because my last check was only 40.00 from not working over spring break!

Planning

We started costing out a trip to Toronto this summer and weighing costs for driving vs. flying. We try to always stay with the same hotel company when we travel to get rewards points, which we have managed to accrue and redeem. IHG has been good for us.

Reading

This week I really enjoyed reading this memoir from Elizabeth of the frugalwoods blog. It’s not really a step by step instruction book, more a glimpse of the decisions one couple made to realize their dream of living in rural Vermont. I could relate to the intensity they brought to the financial planning process. If you have visited their blog, you may also enjoy this book. Check it out from the library!

Earning

This week I earned 40.00 through my health insurance company for participation in their online coaching for asthma. I checked in every few days and logged information about exercise, diet, and medication compliance. I also got a pneumonia shot through the program. Many health insurance companies have online programs for wellness, weight loss, smoking cessation, diabetes management etc. These funds can be used towards medical copays and other medical expenses. Every year I maximize whatever they offer me. The only one I haven’t completed is stress reduction !!!

How was your week?

Prisoner of Clutter?

Toys? Root of Modern Clutter?

In the past few days the article “Today’s families are prisoners of clutter” from the Boston Globe has been trending all over my Facebook feed.  I’m not sure why this article got kicked back to life, since it is almost 5 years old, but it interested me nonetheless.

I was intrigued by the portrayal of 21st century kids as over-saturated with toys.  Growing up, one of my sets of Grandparents rarely gave Christmas or birthday gifts.  It was more of a special event when they did.  They raised 6 kids, who had kids, and there were just too many Grandchildren to undertake gifts for every event.  In contrast, my mom only has one Grandchild.  My daughter also receives gifts from aunts and uncles.

That can make for a lot of toys.

I can imagine this situation reaches a crisis if you have a few kids, and the stream of toys keeps coming throughout the year.

The article states that one problem with the avalanche of toys is adults’ unwillingness to part with the toys and their desire to save the toys for future grandchildren.  A result is Rubbermaid tubs in the garage and nowhere for cars.

What is the toy situation at your house?

I have been lucky to have other relatives in the family to hand things down to.  One child gets all of my daughter’s clothes, and the choicest toys and books.  I don’t want to overwhelm them with toys either!  Other items I sold at rummages (like the Melissa and Doug mentioned in the article) or gave to Goodwill.  Items we still have include Legos, dollhouse, Calico Critters, American Girl dolls, Barbies, dinosaurs, and wooden blocks.  Those items put together are probably more toys than I had in my whole childhood, and that doesn’t even account for the items we don’t have anymore.

It’s hard for me to refute the assertion in the article that today’s kids have too many toys.

Playing the Scenario Out

Will today’s children become parents with tubs and tubs of toys to hand down, passing along the clutter crisis?  I have found that every few years there are a lot of toys we can pass along in one way or another.  Kids make great leaps in terms of interests and maturity and suddenly you both know that an item has served its purpose.  The problem comes in when we — the parents — don’t want to let the toys go.  It’s not Great Depression mentality.  Maybe it’s closer to a wish to have another crack at reliving the joy of childhood.  Certainly some items are “keepers” but saving enormous amounts of toys for hypothetical kids to come decades away means the toys aren’t able to give someone else joy.  Saving things also make a lot of assumptions about what a future child would be interested in — My Little Pony?  Beanie Boos? Anna and Elsa?

I can’t say this article doesn’t hit a nerve.  Though we have come to the very end of the toy buying years, the article will stay with me as we go through bins of toys.  Today we have some Dora Legos, Princess items, games, and craft kits headed for new homes.  It’s a start.

What are your thoughts on the article?  I’m interested in the opinions of those with and without kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saving and Homemaking 6/18

Take care of your garden Leprechaun

It’s Sunday evening where I am.  We have the windows wide open to catch the cool breeze and I am getting the great scent of mock orange blossoms which I picked from the neighbor’s shrub.  I’ll try to get a picture of them for you for my next post.  It has the most blissful scent that just makes me glad to be alive.  The neighborhood kids are outside and I am grateful my daughter is old enough that I don’t have to worry about what shenanigans are going on out there.

Last week I wrapped up my last day of work so now I can get down to the business of being an at-home mom for a few months.

Cooking

You know what I made this week?

Frosting.  Epic quantities.  DD took a cake decorating class and we went through 2 cans of Crisco and 4 lbs of powdered sugar.  When we weren’t making frosting, we were washing frosting out of clothes, decorating tips, you name it.  You should see the shine in my mixing bowl!

DD took over a night of cooking this week and made egg salad.  She has that meal down pat.  I asked her this summer to make (with any help she needs) and plan a meal every week when she doesn’t have camp.

Saving

Our biggest savings this week came from Mr. Saver researching our cable TV situation and, unable to negotiate a lower price with U-verse, we switched to SlingTV/Hulu at a reduction of about $ 45.00/month.  We are pleased with the channels available to us given the savings.  I appreciate the time he put in on this.  That’s some real money.

Cleaning

Lots of activity in this department.  I tackled a few problem areas, such as the area around our printer, which accumulates paper, school work and catalogs.  I parted with some school art work from years ago and found other gems worth keeping in a more permanent set-up.

This week I want to address some problems such as lack of space for seasonal items like blankets and duvets.  When you live in a vintage house, there is no walk-in anything.  To do this, I am going to need to get into closets and get some items headed to Goodwill.  I am thankful for the time in summer to do this.

Reading

You know I always have a few books in play.  This week I am finishing Kate Singh’s book on homemaking, and am also reading the 1943 Newbery-award winning book “Adam of the Road” set in 13th C England.  I’m highlighting all over the pages because the writing is so beautiful, especially to a lover of England.

The rafters and the walls were dark with smoke, but otherwise everything was neat and clean.  Dame Malkin’s bed in the corner was spread with a blue coverlet, her table was scrubbed white, and her oak cupboard against the wall had been rubbed with beeswax till it gleamed.

If you love England, this is a must read book about the life of a minstrel and his son roaming the English Countryside.

Thinking

On my mind these days are thoughts about the Sabbath, and lack of rest in modern life.  Also thinking about clutter and how it can keep us apart from God.  More on these topics to come.

I hope your Father’s Day was lovely!  Talk to you again soon.

1895 architecture that caught my eye.

More Homemaking and Saving 6/10

Patio Flowers – So Pretty!

I’m enjoying a spot of quiet this afternoon with a cool breeze coming in the window, iced coffee at hand, and a view of the neighborhood boys trying out the Slip and Slide despite the 65 degree temperatures.  It’s time for a big exhale as DD’s school year is finished and I have just one more day of work on Monday.

Saving

Not a lot of shopping this week, so the primary way we saved was staying home.  One major expense was a speedy purchase of a swimsuit for my daughter.  This weekend will be in the 80s-90s and the village pool is open.  She wanted something specific (swim shorts), and it had to be functional for a church youth retreat at Lake Superior this summer.  We went straight to Athleta, which I knew would not be cheap.  Prior to going I jumped on their website and got a 20% off coupon by signing up for emails.  I used money from her clothing budget to pay for it.

Mr. Saver knew we could eventually need a new wireless router and he had one  waiting in his Amazon wishlist.  He checks his list every day for price drops, and usually catches a good price that way.  The router was a deal of the day and he nabbed it.

Cooking

Our village has an open house this weekend — the pool is free, the village construction crews bring out the big tractors and diggers for kids to check out, and there are various sports team mascots to meet and greet.  I made several dishes for the weekend so we would have meals to enjoy all weekend — tuna salad, chili, rhubarb crisp, sliced berries.  Usually when I am working I don’t have the stamina to do this on a Friday, but I am glad I did so I can enjoy the weekend fun too.

My friend’s peonies and a lone rose from ballet recital.

Homemaking

We are busy getting our home into summer vacation mode!  Had DD unpack her backpack and go through all of her school folders.  It’s lovely to not have a backpack, folders, and clarinet sitting next to my front door!

I took some time to wash all of the ballet leos and tights and boxed them up until September.  It is so helpful to have them all corralled into one place.

I took our back door “water hog” mat outside to spray it off from winter salt and mud.  Washed the floor under it.  I did the same at the front door.

I picked flowers at my friend’s home where I am house sitting (it’s OK with her!)

Reading

I am enjoying the e-book  The Homemade Housewife by fellow blogger Kate Singh .  I particularly like the way she relates her personal journey of living well on a single income.  Check out her blog and see if her writing resonates with you, too.

Family Fun

At the Community Open House DD got to climb a real tree with the help of professional arborists and their various pulleys and ropes.  The arborist standing way up in the tree said “welcome to my office!”

I’ve been on many a walk with DH and bike ride with DD this week.

How was your week?