Same old, same old

These last few weeks have flown by in a blur. Every day is pretty much the same. Get up, work out, go to work #1, come home, go to work #2, go to bed. Rinse, repeat.

Last week there was a power outage which delayed going to work #1 but I can live with that. Other than that life has been fairly mundane.

Work #2 has a lot more quiet times which allows me to get some reading done. Most of what I have read has been alright. The one book that stands out is “A Woman is No Man” by Etaf Rum. Great book, I quite enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

Our libraries are now open for curbside pickup by appointment only so my holds tend to pile up and then I have 10+ movies to watch in 6 days 🤔 Most have been blockbusters that were meh. But I did watch “The Grizzlies” and it got me all in my feelings.

This movie made me laugh and cry. Based on a true story that really opened my eyes to the plight of my neighbours way up North.

It has been announced that as of August 1st we go back to full pay. YIPPEE!! Since I have a second job, I am not eligible for workshare, a government top up for a little over half of the missing 25%. I have decided to continue to work my current shifts for both jobs. 5 days at the full time and 6 days at the part time for August and September. Towards the end of September I will reassess as I don’t have anything else going on and figure I should make money while I can.

Recently a one-bedroom plus den went on the market for a ridiculous sum and it got me thinking that I might want to move. While I don’t know that I want the responsibility of snow removal and lawn care, I feel like the building I am in is due for some major repairs. And those expenses I would like to avoid. Also it is very frustrating to not be able to do what you would like as the latest property management company is treating us like a big business instead of a small building. Everything seems to need approval and a form to be filled out.

I am weighing my options as I would like to not have to work until my death in order to pay for my lifestyle. The thing is with working from home I have forced my kids to spend time in their rooms. I do not think this is great for them. So having more space would be ideal. Especially since my kids don’t seem to be moving out any time soon.

I also have an elderly aunt who currently lives alone in a seniors building. Her memory is not the best and if the time should come that she needs care, she would live with me and I don’t have space for her in this apartment.

I have looked at the real estate sites and the prices are extreme. Even with a huge profit on my current place, I still will need a sizable mortgage to be able to buy another property. This has put a big pause in my thought process. I don’t want to have a mortgage for another 25 years. I think if I had a better paying job, a partner or one of my kids chipping in then I would be out house shopping but to do it on my own … seems a bit daunting right now. My mother has reminded me that my old room is still available. LOL

I am going to let it marinate and run the numbers some more. There is a part of me that thinks wait until the new year as the folks who deferred their mortgages might be looking to unload their homes. There is another part of me that thinks I should stay where I am as it is very affordable and allows me to travel and eat out which bring me joy. Oh first world problems … how I love having them. 🙂

 

“Vacation” is over

Tomorrow I go back to the day job. I am on reduced pay (75%) but the expectation is 100% time… Since I was never at 100% time when I was at 100% pay, we’ll see how this goes.

I was called back in to work. And by called in I mean, mandated to go into the office 3 days a week. This irks me even though I prefer to work at work. I hate that I am not given a choice. Especially since I can do my job from home. Even more so as my mayor is still asking all who can stay home and work to continue to do so. Even more so as I know there are those in my company who don’t think it’s safe and still have to show up. But this is not my hill to die on right now as I have financial goals to meet and this is the means to an end.

I am actively job searching. Seems like a herculean task but I am up for it.

I shot myself in the foot by changing my availability at the night job and my manager signed me up for all the shifts. So not only do I have to go to my day job but I will be working my night job EVERY night until 11 pm. Pray for me. It is going to be a long and caffeinated week. As long as I go to bed before midnight I should be able to make it work.

The exercising is still going well. My plan is to continue the 6 days a week and work out before starting my day. I have set multiple alarms and asked a couple of friends to call me at 7 am. Hopefully I am able to keep this up.

I read a book in 2 days. I am as surprised as you are. “The Perfect Wife” was an interesting read. I stayed up way too late last night devouring it, finishing it off this morning. I am 3 books behind to meet my yearly goal according to Goodreads. I need to find more books like this that capture my attention.

Alright, time for bed.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

 

 

Feeling blessed

I really thought I would have posted more by now. Especially since I have more free time than usual as my day job laid me off 2 weeks ago. However in that time I opened up my schedule to the night job and they took full advantage. I have worked the past 29 days straight at one or both of my jobs. The last 2 weeks schedule at the night job had me on for 50 hours each week. Ordinarily I would complain but since it is my only source of income I am going to just smile and say thanks.

I have applied for unemployment benefits just in case these long hours do not continue. I have a bit of a break this week and am only working 33 hours and I have Friday AND Saturday off. Too bad I have no where to go. If I was a more productive person I would used those days to knock some chores off my list. We shall see.

I am still checking my day job emails daily to handle any easy fires. I am not obligated to but I am nosy and still a team player. Hurts to know that there are 3 people working reduced hours to try to accomplish what 9 people did full time. I will help out where I can.

In addition to this, I have tweaked my resume and have been applying to jobs. I have been feeling for a long while that it is time to start a new adventure but got complacent. Ideal this is probably not the best time but I have the time so I should make use of it.

With all my spare time, I have started exercising again. Leslie Sansone for the win!! I am hot, sweaty mess at the end of my 20 minute sessions and am starting to feel like I am getting back in shape.

Easter brought the end of Lent, so meat is back on my plate. It hasn’t happened yet as I think my body works better without meat. I am going to slowly introduce meat back into my diet and see what happens. Or maybe just eat meat twice a week as my new lifestyle choice.

Last week we needed groceries and braved the lineup at Costco. It took 30 minutes to get into the store and I stocked up on everything as the thought of lining up again just was not appealing. I am still out of some items I usually buy at a regular grocery store and will learn to get by without them for a bit longer. We have lots of meat, rice, bread and frozen veggies so we should be good for a few weeks.

The only thing that has suffered in this time is my reading. So this week, I am going to try to get up earlier and use that time to read. I am 4 books behind on my Goodreads yearly challenge.

I am trying to get current with my emails. I am a little embarrassed to say there are over 10,000 unread emails in my inboxes. 🙄 I am slowly catching up. There may or may not be emails from 2018 that I am still working on. So if I am commenting on old posts of yours please don’t judge me. LOL

Other than that, life is pretty relaxed over here. I’m avoiding the news a little as it is wearing on me. It is heartbreaking to hear all the tragedy. These are unprecedented times and it sucks feeling helpless. Despite all of this I still feel blessed. I have income in a time of such uncertainty. I have savings. My family is all safe and accounted for. We are all healthy for now. I really can’t ask for anything else.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

No Spend is Over

Last week was a success. I got up Monday through Thursday mornings and did a workout. I am feeling good. Sundays are becoming harder to get a workout in but I am going to file it under the importance of rest days. 😉

The no spend challenge was a success. I only ate out twice last month. Once when I went ice fishing and the other was treating Diva because she had a bad week. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Cooking on Sundays definitely made the difference. It seems like my no spending rubbed off and some of my coworkers started bringing their lunches as well.

Wednesday is the start of my “no meat” challenge. I will continue to eat seafood but will try to eat a more plant based diet. I will be looking into sources of protein that aren’t legumes and cheese. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

At the end of the month, I am going to replace the battery in my scale and see if my lifestyle changes are making a difference in my weight. Then I am going to try my hardest not to let the number affect me mentally. I am seeing muscles starting to make their appearance and that is motivating me to continue. Taking jeans straight out of the dryer and putting them on with ease is also helping. I have a set of jeans a size down that I grew out of and never got rid of. These are my next goal. Once they are easy to put on out of the dryer I think I will have to figure out what to do with myself next.

Sadly not much else is going on. My life right now is just wash, rinse, repeat. Outside of the books I read not much seems to change. I am telling myself that this is just a season and this work, work, work, work only schedule is not going to be my life forever. It’s a hard sell some days, but I realize that sacrifices must be made.

Speaking of books, I am currently reading “Becoming” by Michelle Obama and I highly recommend it.

Alright, that’s all I got for now.

I want the hour back

I am not ready for it to be 7pm already. Even though it is still bright outside and I will appreciate it tomorrow when I am coming home from work.

Today was a productive day. It’s amazing how much you can get done when you don’t turn on the TV.

I went to Costco, Walmart and the grocery store after dropping one of my kids off to work this morning. Since I am not eating meat, I am also not cooking much. And since I have been buying lunch, I have not really done a proper grocery shop. So I stocked up on veggies and bought a Costco size piece of salmon.

I roasted carrots, broccoli and made sweet potato toast and baked the salmon. I am ready for the week. Although salmon does not last long in this house, so I might have to cook again.

Before I go to bed, I will make some chia pudding to have for breakfast.

My goal this week is to go back to not buying lunch. Even though it is only $7 and the portions are generous, it does add up rather quickly.

The part time job is not keeping me as busy as I would like it. Last week, I only had 2 shifts, Friday and Saturday evening. The schedule is the same again this week. I am lightly looking for another job, both full time and part time. Gotta keep my options open.

Last week at the full time job was trying. The sales rep I work with is very panicky and scattered and it increases greatly when there is lots going on. I spent the whole week willing it to end. Not the way I want to live my life at all.

This week should calm down a bit so I should also be able to return to the gym with more consistency. Last week, I went twice. Which considering I only went to the PT job on Friday makes me a little disappointed. This week I am aiming to get at least 3 workouts in, preferably 4.

Life is still pretty quiet. I keep toying with learning to use my DSLR properly, but have not picked it up to do anything with it. 😦 I been reading a bit. Currently tackling “The Woman in the Window“. It reminds me a lot of “The Girl on the Train” and I did not enjoy that book much. But I will struggle through it as I want to see how it ends.

You have been neglected

There I said it.

I am really starting to debate what to do with this space. I feel like I’ve been writing too many been a bad blogger posts.

Week before last was a particularly trying one at work with way too much overtime.

This week was much better, work wise but I fell off the exercise wagon. 😦 I was doing so well for so long.  Oh well no use dwelling on the past. I will just jump back on today.

I have managed to read a few books.

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I enjoyed every one and highly recommend them.

There was also numerous movies … now you’re beginning to understand why I have not found myself in this space.

Add in a new TV schedule and there are just not enough hours in the day.

Yeah …

That’s my story. 😉

 

Fortunate

It’s been a weekend I will never forget. Grab a coffee and a snack it’s going to be a lengthy one.

Let’s go back to yesterday. I slept in and woke up to no one up. 🙂 So I made myself a cup of coffee and curled up with “The Book Thief”. It’s been on my list for a long time and has made it home a couple of times. I’ve had it for way too long right now and it is due in 10 days and I would really like to finish it. Although I do have a few other books that are due sooner that I will not be able to renew that I would also like to finish. First world problems are real!!

Anyhoo back to Saturday morning. After a little while Princess got out of bed and went to do laundry. She then went to perch on the toilet with a gadget. Diva was lounging in bed. After some time (a lot), Princess left to bathroom to step into a puddle of water…

My washing machine was overflowing. The water had come out of the laundry room, down the hall and around the corner to the bathroom. It was a mini lake in my place. It was all hands on deck as we threw every available towel at the floor, after turning off the washer, of course.

It took close to 2 hours to get all the water off the floor. You really don’t realize how many things are on the floor until something like this happens. Long story short, I was left with a bathtub full of wet towels among other things and a clean laundry room. 🙂

I am feeling incredibly fortunate for a number of reasons.

1. We have been know to turn on the washing machine and go out. I feel lucky that this was not the case yesterday.
2. I live in a building that also has a laundry room. I can’t imagine having to load up the car with all those wet items and cart them down the street.
3. The public laundry room is available to residents but no one uses as we all have in house machines. So I was able to use all the working machines without pressure or timing issues.
4. The washing machine and dryer only costs $1 per load. A much nicer price than the $2.25 my BFF pays in her building.
5. I wasn’t home alone. We were able to get this mess under control quickly because we were all working together.
6. This mini disaster made me address some of the clutter that was piling up in my laundry room. Amazing how easy it is to get rid of things when they are wet and gross.

In addition, to all that mopping and wringing out of water, Diva and I were able to take a walk to the library. So I got my workout in yesterday!! 🙂

Afterwards I took her at work and dropped off some items for charity. By the time I got home it was after 6. I was able to re-purpose a pork roast made earlier in the week into stir fry with rice. Yeah for no food waste.

By this time I was beat and I had promised my BFF we’d go out. As much as I was not feeling like going out, I knew if I didn’t she’s just be home on the couch and she actually seemed really gung ho to go out.

We went to a meet up group function but unfortunately we were way too late so we just hung out at the pub listening to music and occasionally dancing. By 1 am her feet were hurting so we left. Another friend told me about an after hours party and I was very surprised that my BFF was up for it. She’s usually in bed by 9 and when we go out ready to go home around 11.

So we waited around downtown for 2 am when this party would start. It was an interesting affair as the crowd was much more mature. Granted they did seem like a bunch of happy drunks. There was one fella in there who decided he wanted to “be with me” and repeatedly told me so for the entire 2+ hours he was there. He seemed genuinely surprised that I did not want to go home with him to cuddle. WTF!?!

Other than that it was a good night. BFF met a guy that she thought was interesting so she abandoned me to talk to him. Leaving me available to converse with my stalker. Lucky me! It took a long while before he finally got the hint that I was not interested. Lucky for me the dude that my BFF was talking to was leaving “early” or else we would have been there until closing at 6 am.

By the time we left and made our way home it was 6 o’clock in the morning. Goodness I haven’t been out that late in years.

This morning I got up and googled the life out of washing machine overflowing and figured out my issue. Was thinking I should pull the part out so that when I went to the hardware store I could ensure I bought the right piece. I watched many youtube videos on what the cause could be and then I opened up my washing machine and saw that the tube that is supposed to be connected to the water level switch had fallen out. Put the tube back in, put the machine to fill on the smallest size load and badda bing badda boom, it stopped filling up on its own. 🙂

Oh happy day!! Now I would be remiss if I didn’t mention I was already starting to plan how I was going to redecorate my laundry room with stackable machines. Thankfully I can put that fantasy on hold and keep the cash in my pocket for other things.

Right now I am starting to feel tired, so I am going to take it easy and then early to bed tonight.

Brain dump

I have so many things in my head to write about and now that I am sitting in front of my computer, my mind has gone blank.

Say what!?!

So here are the bits and pieces that I can remember.

For 2015 I challenged myself to read 20 books and I did it!! YEAH me!! 🙂 I didn’t count any cookbooks I went through but I did count 1 children’s book and 2 essentially picture books (the Humans of New York books). This year I increased the number to 25. Given that I sort of started a book club I expect that I will be able to fulfill this task.

On the topic of the book club, I started “The Girl on The Train” mid-November. I am struggling with it. I read 2 other books since November … I have 13 days to finish it. Time to put my nose in a book.

I also started “The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up“.

I love the concepts of this book and will try to implement them as soon as I am finish reading. I see a tidied house in my future. 😀

For Christmas I received a small purse similar to this one, a few colouring books and some pencil crayons. I forgot how much I love to colour. Princess had her eye on my colouring books so I got her one of her own. Now she’s a happy girl.

I have exercised every day since December 1. Last Friday I stepped on the scale and was not happy. How do I weigh more than usual? Not impressed at all. Then I told myself the old muscle weighs more than fat line. I also took my measurements and even though I feel thinner, I’m about the same size I was in 2012 when I started taking my measurements. 😦 Somebody’s got a lot of work to do.

I tallied up my 2015 budget and it was not pretty. My food spending was out of control. I really need to keep a closer eye on this. Reducing my trips to Costco should help. I am also going to try carrying over any excess or deficiencies month to month and see how that works out. I’m all stocked up with meat so there should be some carry over this month.

I was thinking about doing a no spend challenge for the month but I think I would rather dedicate my energies to tidying and colouring. 🙂 If I am home decluttering and colouring I can’t be spending money right? 😉

Almost 12 weeks

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That’s how long it took me to read this book.

It was very hard to get into for me.  Simply because the names and Nazi officer titles took me a while to get a grip on.

Then I only read this book at work. And between my co-workers interesting conversations, the TV in the lunchroom and my desire not to tear up at work, it took some work.

But I was determined to finish it. Now I can watch the movie. 🙂

I thought I was the only one who hadn’t seen it, but 117 people have it on hold.  I didn’t think that this movie from 2004 would have such a long waiting list.

Now I need to find a “light” book to read. Any suggestions?

A brief update

Oh where and what have I been up to?  How I wish I had something exciting to tell you.

I’m still working out daily.  On the days when I don’t feel like working out, I walk a mile or 2 … usually a mile and call it a happy day.

I wish some of my efforts were visible on the scale.  I’m trying very hard to not to let it get me down.  My only saving grace is putting on pants that were previously a struggle are now a little easier to get into.

Today is the first day in 2 weeks that my shoulder seems to really feel like I’m on the mend.  Not sure what it is taking so long to get back to normal or why I didn’t do the sensible thing and book a massage.

I started and finished a book!!  The Book of Negroes has been on my list for a long time.  Now that there’s a mini series, I was “motivated” to read it.  I have 3 episodes to watch as I refused to look at it until I finished the book.

This book made me realize how much I love reading and need to figure out how to make it a priority.  All of this seems to suggest that I REALLY need to put my work outs in the morning so my evenings are free for other things.

On the work front, my days are a little boring as it is very slow.  So there is not a lot to train me on. It makes for a long day.

Next month I am ordering my furniture.  The delay is due to my super being on vacation and his replacement is hard for me to track down.

I must confess I am now looking at my dining room … it’s going to look shabby when the new couches get here … This is how I hear it starts.  Hopefully I can find something affordable when the time comes.  But given that it’s taken me 7+ years to get a sofa I’m not all that concerned.

I think that’s about it.  See not much happening over here.