In an effort to determine what I will be blogging about this morning, now that I am given the opportunity, I have determined that the main event, other than back to work, is laundry. I don’t know how we accumulated so much extra. I was only a couple of days behind schedule but seemed to have twice the loads. So the first part of this week was doing laundry so we had clothes to wear. And I had to do it quickly. We were running out of undies! lol
No these are not mine! It’s the Pexel app’s photo but I thought it would make you laugh. Here’s my half of the laundry. The whites are currently in the load now. I have to take those out this morning and then wash a sweater on gentle.
We are mostly unpacked, except for a few sacks of kitchen items but need to send our suitcases to the basement.
Last night I cooked spaghetti after getting my pants ironed for the week. I was down to having to wear jeans but now they are washed – but our company prefers that we wear jeans only on Friday – not that everyone does, but I got a couple of pair of dress pants ironed. (I wash and hang most of my clothes as they last longer that way. But it does mean pressing them at times. Mostly my pants and any cotton blends that might have gotten wrinkled while sitting in a “to be folded stack”. I’m not here long enough nor awake long enough to finish a cycle through completely unless it is Saturday or Sunday.)
George caught up the finances a bit. I cleaned the kitchen also before cooking spaghetti. It was a mess and I cannot cook with a mess to begin with.
So coming back from a trip – there is a lot to do as you miss a weekend but still have those things that need doing to get back to normal. There are few hours to do it in when you are leaving the house in the 6 o’clock hour and don’t get back until almost the 6 o’clock hour again. So we’ve done well with the – what – four hours – that we’ve had to do laundry and finances and another quick stop at the store for whatever Sunday’s late day trip we didn’t get.
The floors need vacuuming terribly but I”ll try to get to that tonight. I also need to do an Amazon order.
I turned in my PTO request for my colonoscopy date and also for Thanksgiving week in which we plan to go to Texas. I know my employer doesn’t want to have to do payroll but I deserve to get a full week off and at least I’ve picked one where there are two HOL dates. I have not taken off that week in what two years now so that others could, so I’m requesting that week off. In my job there IS NOT ANY good time to take off for a trip to TX. TX is hot during the summer and the months I want to go when Katy is off, are always quarter end. I think they will have an extra room for us by then. As the remodel is almost finished.
Speaking of quarter end, it is month end and quarter end again, so I have many many many more boxes to check off of across the next month and will be working eagerly to get all that done.
It seems like the virus thing is no longer a part of our world around here. Although in China and other parts of the world there is a union of the two latest versions – which I think they called them DeltaCron or something like that. I don’t know much about it but just when things seem quiet, another round comes, but at least people are getting tired of talking about it and hearing about it so maybe it will just be dreaded flu and go away. I am still doing temperature checks, but I swear I see no other person’s doing it, lol. Most enter the side of the building and there’s no thermometer there. But I still do it. It’s always 95. If I had a real fever it would still show normal. Cracks me up.
Tonight maybe I can get the kitchen floor done. George wants me to give him a hair cut. Maybe I can get my Amazon orders done.
Mom’s doc appointment is Friday and is earlier in the day so I’ve stayed some extra and gone in early to make up for it, plus we have quarter end now so I’ll be having to work extra anyway. Then Saturday is Fancy’s trim, furniture shopping, AT&T store, bank, and grocery or whatever else Mom needs. Maybe unpacking a box or two and taking her out to eat, so anything we do this weekend will have to be done on Sunday. I would suggest taking her to church but we have to have a day to get our things done. So it’ll have to be a quick devo Sunday.
I made a mistake on payroll last week. There is a screen you enter through and then press save and it creates any auto pay for the week. It’s where HOLIDAY pay is created. So on a normal week I just enter enter enter enter like four times – just enter through the screen. And it is a necessary step. Someone had been in my office talking to me and when they left I entered the screen again because I didn’t think I had done it yet. Well I was trying to figure out where I left off. It’s such a quick screen and you don’t really think about it. Well apparently I had already done it. I have since learned that this same screen not only sets up HOL pay (which I didn’t enter as it wasn’t a HOL week) but it sets up SALARIED pay each week when you tab through it. So guess what? For this particular state’s payroll, the salaried people got paid twice. Live and learn. Sometimes we don’t know the purpose of things but are just taught to do them. Anyway, we know now. And that made me set up an array of rules.
One of the things I’ve learned in my management career is that when something goes wrong, you fix it but not only that, you keep it from happening again. This is such a simple step – it’s easy to overlook it and easy to do twice. So I made up a new rule.
When I do payroll I’m shutting my door and also putting on Do Not Disturb on my phone. I was worried about serious calls not being able to go through but if something serious is happening they’d be calling 911 anyway for immediate help. All other calls can wait til payroll. I was also soothed to know that if it’s a real emergency someone only need to to call twice. I think favorites might be allowed through but not sure. I just know that I don’t want any more conversation during payroll closing. Because at 59 it’s already hard enough to concentrate and remember where you are, lol!!!!!
I also decided to block two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon to give me some focus time so that none of my apps come through with notifications in those hours. I mean it adds up. I have allowed these items on my alerts so that I will know I have comments/alerts:
- Weather
- Texts
- Word Press Comments
- Facebook Comments
- News – both a national and local
And while I don’t look at my phone every time an alert goes off, I realize that it is becoming increasingly distracting. I didn’t used to get the news but with so much going on with the Russia thing I started to keep up with a few things. So it’s easy to look at your phone and get sucked in to what is happening in the moment. I thought it best to just give me two hours of uninterrupted time.
Why did I choose those hours? I figure it’s best not to go “missing” until the 9 a.m. hour in case any family is having emergencies getting to work or getting up for the day. My lunch is usually falling somewhere in b/w 11 and 1 so I just left that open. And then after 3 the day is winding down and that leaves room for last minute emergencies and such. People at work can get me on my office phone or call me twice during those focus hours.
How did I do this? Go to your settings on an iPhone and then find your Focus setting and go from there to turn on Do Not Disturb. When it’s on it will show a moon on your Home Screen.
I also decided to try CALM again as long as I don’t have to pay but so far it’s annoying because everything you try to do requires premium. You have to search for the free stuff and I’m not paying for this app. There’s too much else I can do to find “joy” and “peace” for free. But I did like this saying below. It’s just a reminder that YOU are YOUR OWN being and despite how others try to control every darn little thing you do, they just really don’t get to. At least the mood check in is free. Yes another alert. I allowed this one to alert me for a mood check in two or three times a day. I am interested to see how it turns out.
George has really been pressing me lately saying I let others control my mood. He is right to some extent. It’s more my personality to worry that I’m not doing something right or not meeting some responsibility or worry that I’m missing something, and wanting to please people that are NEVER going to be pleased. And I’m conditioned in some areas to respond in certain ways or to certain demands. So I’m working on that. I don’t want anyone to try and take advantage of my feelings or make me feel guilty, or manipulate me in any way, or play games with me – so I’m trying to learn and understand my personality and how to take control of certain things. And to find my joy again. It’s been a struggle with near depression lately. I’m finally digging myself out. This trip helped a lot and getting some sunshine and getting away from everything.
But I’m ready to get quarter end done, ready to work on some of my lists, and goals, and even ready to help Mom with her goals. As George reminded me, her needs are met we just need to work on the things she wants at this point – aside from the weekly medical needs and groceries and such which we are doing.
And that is about all I have for today. Just a mid week update. The week is going by fast. Our spring time is filling up on the calendar too – lots of fun and events coming – and some of my own doc appts as well. I also have one more appt to set but I’ll wait til April to set it so I can spread them out across the year.
Have to have some dental work done too. Anyway, enough smack talk for today, lol! I guess in summary you can say we are just barely keeping our heads above water here in this thing we called life. I mean at this point, you can say that having clean underwear at least brings some joy! Yeah we are down to that.
It makes my day when I hear from you…