Tag: Work

Celebrating Tonight, Sharing Thred Up, and an Upcoming Trip

On By BackporchwriterIn Uncategorized7 Comments
Photo by Stephan Seeber on Pexels.com

I have reason to celebrate tonight. Quarter end is over for me. “I fought the fight – but I didn’t keep the faith, lol”. I totally did not think I could do it. But I slayed it and finished it a day early. And guess what? Now it’s month end again, lol. But….that doesn’t take me long to do the month end returns and I have until the 15th of May.

Another reason to celebrate is that we will be on a little road trip soon. We will be headed to Knoxville to see my SIL and BIL (Susan and Kevin) and take them out to dinner to celebrate Kevin’s birthday which was in January. We ran out of time in January! Everyone did, and they moved and got set up in their condo there in Knoxville and have been fixing it up like they wanted. We are going to spend the night with them and catch up. I’m so excited. We have hardly even texted in all these busy months but each of us knows we are never far in thought. And so we will catch up and laugh and have a good time this weekend and my heart can be free and far from the work zone.

Thred Up

One of my blog readers wanted to know about Thred Up and how it worked. I love it. It has its ups and downs – well Covid got them really behind, then they ran out of bags, and now the bags are back and you can order them. So I’m excited to share with you that you can use Thred Up in various ways – it can be a donation or consignment situation and you can choose whether to get your stuff back or not and to even lower the price and there is a lot more than I even know. I’m just sharing my experience with them and what I’ve noticed.

First of all I downloaded the app. Then I signed up (free) and then I ordered a clean out kit. When the bag came, I tried to follow their rules for what to put inside. It’s mostly women’s and children’s clothes from what I have noticed. And accessories – shoes, bags, scarves, etc. I just did a search for jewelry and didn’t see that though. Below is a snap from their website and you can see how to order your clean out kit.

So you can keep the bag until you fill it up. Make sure you send nice stuff though. It should not show a lot of signs of wear. And the big perk! The shipping is free! Yes! It ends up being a heavy bag too. But it’s free! The bag has a shipping label on it and you just take it to the post office. Yeah, it’s too big to fit in the post office box so you usually have to go when they are open though, lol.

The next big perk is they get your bag and alert you through the app that they have received it. The wait times for processing can be long though, but if you are patient, can forget it about it for —yikes —maybe even 4 to 6 months –it’s getting better but Covid put them very behind. I had to wait a few months just recently. I was notified that my bag had been processed finally and before long my items were UP FOR SALE. I get notified when an item sells and it goes in my little piggy bank on their site. Right now I have $ TWENTY SOMETHING DOLLARS to spend. So I will go in an order a top or two. I already have them saved in my Favorites on their site and if my favorite picks have not sold I’ll pick from that.

The pay outs are not huge but they are way better than yard sale prices, or just giving them to Good Will. At least I get “something” out of it. If things don’t sell you can reduce the price (reduce your payout) and they will ask you if you want your stuff back or if you want to donate what doesn’t sell. I DO NOT WANT THE STUFF BACK!

So this weekend while we are on the road and George is driving I will order my Thred Up, check my personal email (I’m behind and hopefully nothing was urgent), work with my Focus settings on the iPhone (new iPhone updates made changes on that – much needed and I’ll do a blog entry later) and yes I will be working personally for myself all the way to Knoxville because I’m behind on all things “Sonya”! I have to go look at myself in the mirror these days just to make sure I still exist. lol lol lol

Mom…

She had us several days in the last two weeks – maybe 4 of the 5 days last week? Dog to vet, dog to spa day, eye doc, church, lunch, store and all that. So I had told her I needed this week for quarter end and then we go to Knoxville and then perhaps mid week we can go tend to her grocery needs and get her out of the house. Although I’ve not looked at the schedule to see if there are any doc appts so those RULE when those come about. My calendar is filled with both hers and mine. Last year I ignored a lot of mine and I have to remember self-care so I booked every one of them – well the GYN I probably need to do – as it’s been a while. How often do ya’ll do the GYN? Anyway, we’ll tend to Mom after Knoxville but will need a night or two to do laundry and weekend reboot stuff we didn’t get to do. George has work shirts he has to have and his undie stash is not as large as mine – lol lol lol. I have travel extras, but he doesn’t. Anyway we also will need a grocery reboot for the work week and restocking meds and vitamins. Then we can jump back and get out again.

Mom told me that Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken have a dog on reserve! They are getting a new puppy – just born. And will get it in eight weeks or so. If you remember they lost their sweet doggie while here on vacay and we buried her in the back yard. I am so jealous of their new purchase, lol! Why don’t they just buy two? Aww come on? Early Christmas gift? ha! Yeah I heard it was a pricy purchase and I know she reads the blog so I’m teasing her. A “big birdy” told us! Guess who?

Finished a Book

This was a sweet story of how they got started. I know it came out several years ago but I just now read it. I hope some day to get down to Waco and visit all things Chip and Jo Jo. But we can visit their store on line too at Magnolia.com.

I really enjoyed it the last few nights. I needed a wind down from the heavy work load this week. A chapter here and there helped.

I’ll be starting another soon.

Downton Abbey

We finally decided to watch it. Season 1. We have just started.

Oh bad thing about blogging in the evenings. Instead of having to go to work, it’s time to eat dinner.

Gotta go. Back maybe on the weekend. Not sure.

What you doing this weekend?

Breakdown, the Big Tow, and the Impossible Work Time Crunch

On By BackporchwriterIn Life, Uncategorized, Work8 Comments

Quick pop-in here. After my dentist cleaning, I was turning left into Chic Fil A at the main intersection when my car started bucking a bit, and then stalled out. I was able to start it and get out of the intersection and it stopped again on the mall road, started again, stopped again at Chic Fil A, and finally started again to pull into a spot and out of the way. I mean, if you are going to break down, do it in front of Chic Fil A.

I went in and ordered and made the table my temporary “office of crisis” while calling George, the auto repair company, the tow truck. While talking with the tow truck driver as to how and where to settle up, he asked where I heading and said he could drop me off at my house after we dropped off the car. That was nice. I gave him a $20 for the ride home. It was more than an Uber would have been for that short of a distance, but kindness needed to be rewarded for this kind person who probably was not supposed to do that and also had a line up of people afterwards.

When I got home I took the old RAV4. Close to 300,000 miles on it so I DO NOT want to drive far in it, but it started so I took the chance to driving it to work. Mom messaged me at work after seeing my stories on Facebook about it and told me to come get her car after work. So I did that.

My chevy equinox that was towed, has about 102,000 on it already. But she can go a long while yet, maybe. It’s supposedly only $670 to fix which includes oil change, fuel cleaning, and having to relearn the computer – retrain it. I didn’t know a car had to learn how to drive all over again, but it does now with the computer. So they have to drive it some and re-teach the computer. Weird. It was a timing solenoid – I do not know if I’m spelling it right.

Photo by Yahya Hasan on Pexels.com

So I popped in here real quick but I cannot stay. I was given the information to do unemployment reports finally with about a week to do them all in and already that is not enough time. However, even if I had been given them early with this month’s interruptions and extra work and not getting to stay over as much due to life responsibilities, I’ve just not had much of a chance. So it’s likely I will not finish on time. So I’m going in early today too but I get off early half day (hours already worked as I go in early every Tuesday to cover it). It’s Mom’s eye injection today that she gets monthly. Next week it takes about 3 to 4 days to do the payroll job and then on Thurs and Friday I usually have some payroll responsibilities but in the afternoons is when I get returns done. So that means I’ll have some time next Thurs and Friday but I have upwards to about 50+returns to do and that is not enough time. I normally get unemployment returns to do the 3rd week of the month and transport the last week but getting it all at the same time. I left home early Wednesday as I’d done all I could do while waiting on the info.

I won’t be able to work this weekend. We will be taking care of some of Mom’s things/needs, taking care of the car situation, packing for next weekend’s trip so I need to get laundry done. We have some appointments that we need to for personal care and dog grooming that I made for the weekends so it wouldn’t impact work, and we want to go to church. So there is no time to work this weekend and of course we are gone to Knoxville next weekend. So I can’t work the weekend due to these other responsibilities I’ve committed to – which are family and I’m not changing them as they have all been scheduled in advance for my off time. I’m struggling with this “too much” work to do at the last minute but I am getting too old to worry about such nonsense any more – especially when it’s not set up for success. I’m going to do my best, and yes- I’ll throw extra hours at it, and I will do what I can, but I tell you right now, it won’t be finished in time. Unless there is a miracle. It just will be what it will be. We are down to the wire and there is only so many hours and only so much of me to spread around to all the duties and all the things and all the people and payroll and returns. It takes more time to do it than I have been given. And that is that.

Enjoy your weekend. I have started the next video. It’s late fall and I filmed us making beef bourguignon! Take care. Maybe a post sometime this weekend. I will pop in as I can this next week. This is just nuts.

Clean Underwear Brings Joy, A Payroll Mistake, and Do Not Disturb Brings Focus on iPhone

On By BackporchwriterIn Home, Life, Productivity, Psyche, Self-Help, Work6 Comments
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

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

Photo by ud83dudc34chuanyu2015 on Pexels.com

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:

  1. Weather
  2. Texts
  3. Word Press Comments
  4. Facebook Comments
  5. Instagram
  6. 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.