Category: Food

What it’s Like to Order Hello Fresh Meals | Jif Peanut Butter Recall | Weekly Update

On By BackporchwriterIn Food, Lifestyle9 Comments

Ok, so the Hello Fresh came in! I know some of you were interested in what this was like. We ordered three meals a week for 2 people. I think it’s reasonably priced. I loved it! So George could have used some seconds and we could up the meal number if we wanted but I think we’ll just add a side and it will hopefully it will be enough for him. He said he would try to get by though.

It was wrapped well and with two large ice packs that we can use again and again.

The recipe cards are so easy and they are huge. You can save them and make the meal again on your own if you wish. Our first meal was a chili pork cabbage dish. It was a sweet and sour kind of dish and was atop rice. It was very good. I think I’ll be learning how to cook better with this.

The best part was that all your ingredients, just what you need, was right there. There are some items though that you need to have on hand and when you go in to your app or on-line account, you can see what items you need to have. Usually it’s things you would already have like sugar or vegetable oil, salt, pepper, etc. We really enjoyed our meal. And most meals are 30 to 45 min. It was a quick “come together” and it was fun!

The meat was packed right next to the ice packs and the ingredients for each meal were packed in a brown bag and labeled, so you don’t have to separate or figure out what goes with what meal.

I snapped a pic as I emptied out our meal for the evening.

Some Things to Remember About Hello Fresh

  • If you know someone with it, ask them for a code to get a discount on your first box.
  • Even after you start, you get rewards down the line here and there.
  • You can increase your meals if you want seconds or are having company
  • If you are busy or gone you can halt your meal a week or two – up to several weeks at a time if needed. (We stopped ours for next week as we have company coming to town. If they don’t come we’ll just eat out of the freezer.)
  • You can add on to your meals – like salad or deserts
  • You can change the style of eating if you want a lower fat version, vegetarian version or pescatarian version. I believe you can change it for each order.
  • Why waste food by buying a whole thing of cabbage or a whole thing of scallions if you only use a portion for one meal. Less waste and it’s all gathered together and ready to go.
  • A great option for busy people (or lazy or let’s say otherwise focused folks, lol, who don’t want to have to worry what to throw together for dinner)
  • There are other products you can add in like oatmeal cups, granola bars, chocolate, and a few breakfast and lunch options. I threw in some things on the next order (week after our company comes – if they do) just to keep from having to go to the store.
  • Your length of time in a grocery store will diminish. You’ll still have to go to the store periodically (or order it delivered) but probably pop in for your fresh produce – apples and berries and such for other meals, but your recipe search and ingredients list will diminish along with the boring repeats you end up cooking every week. (I take Mom grocery shopping and so I often don’t have time anymore to study and think and search for my own items and study labels and take my time, so this is going to help us.)
  • The more meals you choose for each week, the lower price per meal is. We opted for three as it seemed a better price and give us almost half of our meals for the week. The other half of the week we’ll still get to be normal cooks being creative and eating from our freezer.
  • Keep in mind what you normally spend at the grocery for your meals and you will see the price is fairly reasonable in comparison.
  • I use Target and Amazon for offsetting the household items and eliminating those from the grocery list. Keeping my store runs even quicker.
  • Get ready to enjoy cooking. 😉
  • You can download their app!
  • You can go in and modify and change, or suspend your order for the upcoming weeks
  • You can cancel at any time.

That is all I can think of for now. I’m just thrilled over it honestly. And the menus change each week. And you can peek weeks ahead and modify several weeks at once. I love it! This is NOT a paid advertisement. It’s just me sharing and enjoying it.

Peanut Butter Recall

Well darn it, after talking about not having to go to the store again….there’s a peanut butter recall. I had just bought mine and eaten a 1/4 of it. The product code is on the back where the date is. Go to the JIF site. I’ve attached it here —> JIF RECALL INFO. If you need to get a coupon for another, they will send you a free one. You can file your “quick” claim here, but you have to provide the product code to prove along with your name and address. Both Mom and I had bad ones.

JIF CLAIM FORM. <——Here’s the online claim form. It is truly a quick process. I didn’t get sick or anything with mine. I started not to throw it away but I went ahead just in case salmonella appeared at the bottom, lol.

Updates

So Monday was Mom’s eye injection appointment, the one I go in early for on Tuesday’s every week to make the time up so I don’t have to use PTO time. That seems to work out well. I got to work and had to rush to get everything done because I had been off on Thursday and Friday for my colonoscopy. So it took a while to get it all under control and everything ready for Tuesday. I was prepared to work a bit over until about 6 p.m because I was really behind in non-payroll related duties but George called and said that he could not start his car. So at some point in the 4 p.m. hour I had to leave and go to Gordonsville, TN and get him. My journey on this day was this:

From Mount Juliet to Lebanon to get Mom, to Hendersonville for eye appt, to Lebanon to drop Mom back off, to Antioch to work, to Gordonsville to get George, to Mount Juliet to open the Hello Fresh Box and cook dinner while George went to buy a car battery.

Search for a Fur Baby

I was notified that Monkey was still available and they checked our references on Monday and I’ve not heard anything yesterday. ::sigh:: I emailed and thanked them for checking our references and considering us for Monkey and asked what the timeline might be for our meeting her. Maybe I’ll get a response today. It was late in the day when I sent the email. Monkey had several applicants. I’ve prayed for her. This way of trying to get a fur baby is breaking my heart each time. I want to do the right thing to adopt one from these shelters, but it is so hard to get through the system. I feel like an applicant looking for a job, or trying to adopt a child. I know it’s an important system but I feel like a number and it’s impersonal and there is not much control and we are at their mercy with not much choice. So I don’t know. I’m starting to question the routes we are taking to try and find our forever pet. I have a family member that circumvented all this –but paid a large sum– for a puppy. I never dreamed it would be this difficult or that my heart would break over and over. I’ve been told no because we work, no because we don’t have a fence. Everyone is shocked at our experience with this so far. I just thought if you wanted a dog you went and got one. I have asked God numerous times. I know He is in control but of all the things I get sentimental about – my fur babies are up there on the charts. I miss ours. We’ve always had one for the last 20 years or so and I miss having them. Who knows why God says no or allows our hearts to break over and over. I’m sure He has a reason.

So last I came back from Antioch to home in Mount Juliet and George wanted to go get his car so we headed out to Gordonsville. Then we ate Greek out at a new place in town. It was wonderful and also they “deliver”! It was really good. Sometime we are going to order the meal for 4 and eat for 2 to 3 days, lol.

Also here is an iPhone wallpaper if you want to save it for your own. I made it for a “pool background” for my iPhone backdrop. Also you can’t really notice the “seams” when it’s underneath all your apps. Just thought it would be fun for summer. I make these on Canva.

Puzzle. Did I show my puzzle the other day? If I did sorry. Here it is again. I made a lot of progress while taking it easy with the Colonoscopy prep and recovery. This is the Christmas puzzle I wanted to work at the end of the year last year. Yes, my whole life is behind it seems. But this has been fun and when it’s over I will set out another to work.

Exercise program.

Got up and did a 13 minute program of lite cardio this morning. Yay! So I’m working into it. And I still had time to do this blog! Woooooo Hooooo!

I’ll be back on Friday with updates. I’ll share the YouTube lady I’m using for free exercising and also will tell you some Alexa tricks I set up this week that are amusing. I have these written on an index card so I won’t forget. I’m out of time and need to head to work. A lot of extra things to do this week to make up for last week and also it’s “month end” which means I pay all the states that we pay payroll withholding taxes for monthly.

I am curious if you have ever tried Hello Fresh or any other meal prep delivery service? Do you think you would like something like this? Anyway, I’m over and out. Ya’ll have a good rest of the week. We are sliding into the weekend from here. And guess what! We don’t have any plans and want to keep it that way. It’s been many weekends ago since we have not had plans. So shhhhh don’t tell anyone!

Hermitage Natchez Hills Wines | Yard Sale Finds | Weekly Update | Contentment

On By BackporchwriterIn Dogs, Family, Food, Happiness, Life, Nashville, Psyche, Self-Help, Uncategorized6 Comments

As mentioned in a previous entry, we did the wine tasting at the Hermitage and really enjoyed it. I liked the wine very much. And was shocked to learn they had an “iced tea wine”. George had his favorites and I had mine and so we bought enough to get “their deal”. You buy so many you get 15% off. So we treated ourselves.

We also went to a few yard sales last Saturday. There were not many with it being Mother’s Day Weekend. But there were a few. I have become to love adding flowers to a room for decor. I needed a couple of big vases that would hide the bottom of stems (most of mine are see through). I bought these with the idea of spray painting them. (Like I have time for any more creative projects). Currently they are in the basement “waiting their turn”. If I can get them to a neutral color, I can use them in various places in the house. And I can sign up for Hobby Lobby emails again and be able to find out when their flowers are 50% off.

A friend (Lisa J) from work brought cookies and left them on my desk. A little Momma’s day treat. So sweet. I shared with my next door office neighbor, Deb.

My Mother’s Day card came in Monday. It was worth the wait. It was a special constructed Momma’s day card.

The gift itself came yesterday. A pic of Little Roo.

I love this photo but everyone is going to tease him one day for being just like Cody and George. They love to sneak something into the photo without being totally obvious – a subtle little birdie or in George’s case sometimes a purposeful glimpse of his belly button. lol. If you see it in the pic let me know. Yes they will tease him about it one day. That makes the pic even more perfect. lol lol But I love that pic of him by the planter. I love him in his little khakis and plaid shirt and bare feet!

A “Peace Offering” Cookie.

There’s a “Mexican” bakery close to work. I’ll go there someday. I saw where it was while driving around in the area. But someone brought me one this week. But this week another department had some “issues” that caused payroll to be half day behind as I was told not to close payroll yet til they were ironed out. I stayed over a bit and then had to focus to rush through Wed and Thurs to catch up. I didn’t get many of my extra projects worked on this week because it took away some of my week. To make matters worse, no one told me when the “issues” were fixed so I waited three extra hours to start payroll. I could have gone after about 2 hours of waiting if I had known. And when I checked three times I was told it was not finished. (Yes, It was confusing and miscommunication as life often is. You know when several are involved.) Anyway the department felt bad and brought peace offering cookies, which was so nice of them to do. I was so impressed. Often in this day and time no one cares when someone makes you work harder and longer because of an issue. So it was nice to see that there are people that care or recognize it when they make your life more difficult and didn’t mean to. So Thank You Lord for that. There is a bite missing. I took a bite before taking the picture. No harm. No foul. At least we made the upload/deadline for the deposit.

Night Out with Mom

One night I took Mom out to Cracker Barrel. I don’t think she felt too good. She seemed a bit agitated and unhappy. They set us at a 2- seater table and she brought it up 4 times before our order that she was not happy sitting there. I get it. I prefer a 4 seater also so you have more elbow room. Neither of us is a small person, lol. I asked the waitress to move us but Mom refused. Thankfully she didn’t go on about it after that. I think I would have moved and ate by myself if she had, lol. I either wanted us to move or get over it. And she fussed about the purse she has and how small it was. She can’t ever find anything in her purse and when something comes out it won’t go back in and that was making her mad. She cursed loudly at it. I felt sad for her that she was having such an unhappy day. I often have those days when I don’t feel good or upset about something else and I’m just impatient with the world. Patience has never been her strong suit. So if you wonder where I get THAT. There ya go! It’s not been mine! So let’s talk about that!

Patience, Emotions, Guilt, Manipulation, Contentment – We are all a work in progress.

I’ve had to work really hard on this thorn in my side of not being patient. I can’t say that I’ve mastered patience, but I can say that I am better at it and that I am learning to “self parent” myself (lol, don’t you love that psychological term?) when something doesn’t go my way or suit me. I’ve had to learn how to better handle my emotions in my adult life. In the early days (20’s and 30’s and even 40’s), I just said “it’s me – it’s who I am – I want what I want and when I want it – I’m just driven – so get over it”. But that attitude is just kinda selfish, childish, and not very loving or considerate of others. So I’ve tried so hard to be better at reacting. I’m not perfect but I’m better. And I no longer desire to lay claim proudly with that type of reaction or behavior. I admit to not having patience at times but I’m no longer proud of it or claim it as a character trait that others must live with. I’ve learned to “self soothe” as the psychologists/psychiatrist calls it. And that has been a big learning curve to try and find contentment within yourself and soothe your own spirit. A lot goes into it. It’s a lot of work to try not to be narcissistic when your pattern is cut out for you to be. :-O I have decided that recognizing those patterns within yourself is over half of the problem. Because only then can you begin to be honest with yourself and be humble and ashamed of that kind of behavior and let go of the ego and start again to trying to be a better person. Believe me, Iiiiiiiiiii know.

OOOOPS! Anyway, I got off subject, lol. I offered to take Mom to a store nearby to find a purse but she said she would go on line or get Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken to take her when they got up here. She had not asked me to take her to Belk so I will not be made to feel guilty over that – that is another thing I’m learning is not to be made to feel guilty for things that are out of my control. While this manipulation tactic has worked on me before I’m learning to let go of that as I am learning how to be aware of various people’s manipulation tactics – intended or not. Sometimes I think people are so engrained at manipulating others they don’t even know they are doing it. I’m sure I do it myself. We probably all do to a degree at whatever has worked in the past. I expect for others to let me know if they need something from me as it’s not my job to determine what others are wanting or thinking. Mom may not have been manipulating me in this way – only she can answer that, but whether or not she was- I am the one that has allowed myself to feel guilty in the past as if I had done something wrong. Even then, you see – I immediately offered to take her to get a purse. I’ve been trained in that way to respond to negative behavior – after I saw her curse at the purse. I wanted her world to be right. Even though we all know the purse is one thing. And tomorrow it’ll be another item. I’ve been the same way. So I’m still in a work in progress too. lol. I almost think Mom is happier when George is with us. He must lift her mood. With me she seems more agitated. Or perhaps she is more comfortable and lets her guard down and allows herself to me more agitated with me. Sometimes I feel like I’m just the no count daughter that can’t do anything to please, other than provide gossip worthy adventures, so… Who knows. At least I’m the daughter still around. The other one said she couldn’t handle it and took off. lol

I hate she didn’t seem to have a good time although she thanked me and said she did. And I appreciated that. I tried to make her happy by getting her out of the house. I can’t make people be content though. And I can’t be held responsible for anyone else’s happiness. As I know toooooo well, contentment has to come from within. Other people can’t fix everything for you. There is nothing anyone else can do. An individual just has to learn to find their own contentment with their circumstances. I have had to do this for a while for things that turned out a lot different than I had expected or wanted. Often my own desires and plans in life have been squashed. I can accept it and go on. Or I can wallow in misery. Or I can decide to change the situation. It’s my choice. And I’ve made my decisions. Subject to change again if I decide. But on the way back from Mom’s God gave me the most awesome sunset to watch as I drove home. It’s as if He was consoling me from the work week and life’s snotty little trials. Or was it me just settling in with my own contentment at going home, finding silence and peace, and going to bed?

George stayed home this night to work on a few projects music wise. He is doing some recording with the device/equipment I got him for Christmas finally. And it’s yard work season so that takes up some time on other nights. Mom takes up some time during the week and on weekends some. And he cooks which he loves to do. But…..I’m also trying to give him a break too by doing some cooking here and there. I just don’t have time either, lol. My problem is that I get in the store and don’t have recipes with me, don’t want to take time to find them in the store, and have tried to get organized with this for some time and it just gets pushed to the bottom of the list. So….a friend at work gave me a “free box” invite from HELLO FRESH. So…..

Hello Fresh

So George and I got on last night and I ordered the 3 meal plan with Hello Fresh. We got a “free box” and it will come every week all with fresh ingredients. You can skip weeks if you need to. But often I don’t get to the store but every two weeks and we take Mom and it’s hard to get my own groceries bought. But this will help. I’m excited. I don’t have to pick a recipe other than getting on line each week and making a choice. I set up the app on my phone and have the alerts come when it’s time to pick the next week. You can add on breakfast and lunch items too. Even like granola bars, oatmeal. And the price is about what I’d spend at the store. So it’ll come in and I’ll be able to fix these quickly with the ingredients and recipes already gathered.

I am excited to try it. My friend says it’s worked well for them. They spend less because instead of having to buy a whole thing of bread for example or buns – you pay for just the ingredients you need and a whole bag of buns or the cost of it doesn’t go to waste if you don’t have time to eat them. That makes sense. I will let you know how it goes.

We also began looking at pet finding apps and websites. I’m not sure we will qualify as some of them are very self righteous as George calls it about their pets. Did we forget a year to do the rabies shot? Do we have a fenced in yard? Did we faithfully do heart worm meds? Do we work and out of the home a lot? George said not to get my hopes up. I already wasn’t. I know God will allow us to have the dogs(s) – yes two of them – when the time is right and the dogs are right. He does that and I’m praying every day so I will not fret over it. I’ll patiently wait. But it was this dog that got me started. When I started. Then George got started. He’s inquired about a set of dogs that are bonded. But this one is the one that got me started as I inquired about her. But I’ve yet to go in and finish the sign up as it required an application before they will talk to you. I needed to get references. So I’ve got permission from non-relatives mainly friends and neighbors (required not to be a relative) to give their address and phone so we can try to get a dog. I was not going to blindly do that w/o their permission. It seemed wrong. So I’ve not finished signing up on line (no time). But the reference information has been obtained at least through some phone work. Monkey gets extremely car sick but I’ve inquired. No response. Other than an email to do the next step by completing an application. (Insert eye roll here). So we will “play their game” for a while and try to find dogs their way, if not we will try something else – visit shelters and find a more personable way of doing business that works for us. But hey – at least we are getting started! George said he could go a while without a dog but when he retires he’ll want one. But he is also good with getting one now. I’m ready now. But letting God decide. If not us, I hope Monkey finds a perfect home for her. And I appreciate her getting us started so she deserves special mention. That sweet face. I want a dog with a sweet face. I love you Monkey. For getting us going. ;-). I wish you could be mine.

I’m sorry my blog is all over the place. My head is all over the place as usual. I have more to say but I’ll wait til tomorrow I suppose. Tomorrow I’ll say what all the week next week will bring.

Today we are going on an excursion and seeing friends and eating out and doing a bit of shopping in between, and another wine tasting. I’m not getting many groceries due to the Hello Fresh. But we do need a few things. I like to see what Whole Foods has. But we need some condiments and basic things – like coffee, peanut butter, snack items, and such.

Ahhhhhh. I have so many things I want to do this weekend but we are gone today and half of tomorrow. It’s ok. We are having to force ourselves out and have fun. Although we may discuss maybe doing it once a month instead of three. lol. I can’t keep up with ourselves. LOL LOL. My blog can’t keep up with our adventures either now. LOL LOL So…More tomorrow.

Plantain Sandwich, Finger Puppets of My Life, and Figuring Out my Schedule

On By BackporchwriterIn Food, Life, Productivity, Work11 Comments
Plantain Sandwich, Jose’s Sandwich & Grill

George and I had an excursion on Saturday – one in which time has not allowed me to share yet. It appears that not one, but all of my hobbies are being taking away – eaten away – one by one but at least this day was replaced by some fun. I’m forcing this entry in today to discuss at least an hour of my Saturday, although really I’m robbing time from my video editing this morning. The rest of our excursion (The Hermitage) will have to come for another day.

We began our excursion day out Saturday by eating at Jose’s Sandwich Shop in Hermitage, TN.

It’s way more than your average sandwich shop – it’s Venezuelan sandwiches. I want to go back again and get the “bowl” – pictured in the window above.

George’s Pepita Sandwich, Jose’s Sandwich & Grill
Peeking into the Inside of a Plantain sandwich

I did not eat all of the plantain. But I love plantain. The entire thing was so good. The beef, the sauce inside, and the ingredients were fresh with the lettuce and cheese. I don’t think people realize what a gold mine this is. It was so good. And the lady that was running it was so kind.

Oh look, the “bowl” is on the card here. That is what I want next time. Also I the same strip mall there is a hot chicken place, and Italian place and a Mexican place – none of which we have been to. So our summer bucket list (when I get time to work on it) will include these restaurants we’ve not been to.

Our day out was fun and hopefully on the weekend I will get some time to do my Hermitage entry – The Hermitage – Home of Andrew Jackson as opposed to the town of Hermitage which is in between Mount Juliet and also Nashville. It’s really only about 10 min away (the town) and The Hermitage is about 15-18 min away, closer to Donelson side which is on the very far out East side of Nashville area.

Thank You

Thank you everyone that left comments for Cody and Katy on the loss of their doggie, Findlay. She reads the blog and my heart has just been so heavy with this. I know how they feel but they had expected to have this dog until she was old -at least, so it has been a shock to lose a very important part of their family. You were kind to leave them a message (previous entry) and I appreciate you all for doing that.

Puppet Lives

Finger Puppets at The Hermitage gift shop

Looking at this photo made me laugh this morning. I was thinking that these puppets are the stage of my life. Which finger puppet is Sonya wearing at this moment? Let’s name all the puppets! The Work Puppet? The Homemaker Puppet? The Care-Giver Puppet? The Family Member Puppet? The Blogger/Writer Puppet? The VLOG-er and/or Video Creator Puppet? The Traveler/Excursion Puppet? The Project Puppet? The photographer/videographer “wannabe” puppet?

What you say? There’s only five puppets there and several are missing and not enough to go around? Yes! My thoughts exactly! That is why it’s my life, lol. At least we can find humor in the situation.

Can someone say “Bless Your Heart!” lol I need a heart blessing! I like the brown one on the end. It looks most like a dog. The black and white one could be Maisy and the black one “Little Bit”.

Here’s What’s Going On In My Head, My Heart, and Life

  • We are planning another Excursion for Saturday – mainly because we have a couple of gift cards to a particular restaurant so we are headed out to go to some areas we like nearby that area. We’ll start the day at lunch somewhere and then shop and explore our way until dinner. We have contacted our friends and plan to join up with them at some point.
  • My arm is better but….. I’ve decided it is hampered by lifting heavy things, doing a lot of data entry, and or blogging and writing. I do think I hit my elbow hard enough a few weeks back to have a hairline fracture as that still kinda hurts but it’s healing. I will mention this to the doc in July that I’ve had trouble with my arm. It feels better after a rest and the elbow only hurts if I lean on it like elbows on the table. So I just don’t lean on it. Icy Hot works wonders for when the muscles hurt. I do think I have a cyst developed on my right wrist just from years of working that muscle from typing. The knot on my lower arm I have determined that is where my arm rests against the table or desk and creating a dent in my arm making a knot of sorts form next to it. It’s almost like a callous inside my arm, lol. Hard to explain but basically a dent in my muscle making the sides against the dent bulge out. Am I making sense? Again, I’ll show the doc all the knot spots. I don’t want surgery and I don’t want pain meds and honestly really don’t want anything. I just really need rest more than anything.
  • I’m trying to work on a couple of projects but time not giving me any of itself to work with. Everything I do is stolen time away from something else. For example work yesterday was a 10.5 hour day with 45 min commutes on each end. I left in the 6 pm hour and got home in the 6 p.m. hour. So my personal time was gone. I ended up doing my video editing because it was nagging at me in my head to do it last night while George cooked, and I really needed to be working on other things. Dinner was ready before I got through working on the video edits.
  • I am wanting to convert cable but with me it’s a whole research thing b/c I want it to be right. And I have not had time to even *think* about it. I’ve at least made a list of what all I need to do: get a current cable bill, talk to Comcast, see how much various streaming live TV services are, check out the Hulu box and Live TV and check out YouTubeTV, etc. I’m just so confused.
  • I am going to get my REAL ID also and get that out of the way. I don’t want to wait until winter or 2023 close to the deadline or it’ll be packed or snowed out or whatever. I have to call and get that set.
  • I have to call and set a GYN appt. I’ve not been in several years and I think it’s worth a check out.
  • I want to do the Summer Bucket List.
  • I’d really like to do a few things on my Winter into Spring Bucket List to be able to check them off. If I could find about 3 hours of time.
  • I need to get a car wash with mud all over my white car, lol. After work I’m too tired to stop or have other things that need doing worse.
  • We began looking for doggies yesterday on a PetFinder website. I’ve downloaded three apps for it and mostly they pull in the same dogs. There is one I can’t get out of my mind but she gets carsick -extremely car sick, it said. I don’t think that will work but —her face. Oh she is so cute. Anyway that is a start.
  • My desk is snowed under with ideas, projects and to do’s.
  • I was able to get a refund processed for our recent tow when my car broke down. Yay – progress at SOMETHING
  • I’m taking Mom to Cracker Barrel tonight. George is going to stay home and work on his music project. He too, has been fussing over no time to do things. He’s been wanting to work on his winemaking also but that has been put aside for quite some time. I mean, we basically have given Mom all of our free time last year and a chunk this year. So our interests are few and far between when we get to spend time with them.

I’m trying not to be overwhelmed by the things I am not “getting to” and by not getting any days off or at home for like – a month. So I’m claiming Memorial Day as a stay home day with NO plans. I think company will be in town but we will have to plan time on other evenings. Memorial Day. It’s mine! For Sanity’s Sake! I have all of the PTO’s spoken for. A lot of it comes toward the end of year – at Thanksgiving, Christmas prep and shopping – when I really really really will need it and then rolling over some into ’23 so I have some at the beg of the year to use for that first quarter before I’ve accrued any yet.

The Time Thing….I Think I Have Figured it Out

Sorry to fuss about time so much but I’ve determined that until our schedule gets ironed out enough to be able to cover all the things I need and want – I will continue to vent about it. It’s a continual struggle that doesn’t go away until I get time for what I need to be a complete person and human being. It’s always something I’ve vented about when I feel life strangling me.

I’m just not willing to give anything in my life up. So each part of my life will continue to screw up the next part. I can’t give up work (yet), can’t give up caregiving, and refuse to give up things I like and want to do as that is a part of who I am as an individual. I refuse to give up going to church as I do think it’s important as we have started back.

One thing I can do is track my hours at work and cut back to 40 instead of working upwards to 50 (or more some QE weeks). I mean with expenses going up and me having a time problem and my income probably not going up I can cut back on my hours to at least give me some time back and it’ll just have to be what it will be. That will make my value go up per hour – even though I’m salaried. I doubt I will go by that during a quarter end month. Hmmm..if you work a snot load of extra hours over 40 during QE one could actually do less than 40 during the other times – not that I will do THAT but that is what would be fair. But I at least should cut back to 40 then.

I leave sometimes early for doc appts but I’ve been waaaayyyyyy far over compensating for those times by coming in early, staying late, forgoing lunches, and working extra during quarter end months —- and I need to manage my work time more to have more of a life balance. That is really the only place I can steal time from right now and it’s not really stealing – it’s taking what is rightfully mine back! :-O So that is the only logical answer I can come to. It’s the place that is sucking most of my day. So there ya go. Tracking starts today. :-). I’m so glad we had this talk! lol. I love coming up with solutions.

THE TRIBE HAS SPOKEN