Find sparkle

 

I’ve spent the last week being sick and trying to recuperate. I haven’t taken more than a half a sick day in awhile let alone two in a row. This thing was rough. 

If you actually know me you know I’m a little insecure about body image. I’m modest anyways but several years ago after a few years of daily prednisone for 6 months at a time, I gained 35+ pounds and shut down my adrenal gland. I was on them for breathing issues. Long story short I went off to regain control and it took until now to lose 25 lbs of the weight. Covid helped me and the doctors and my bosses realize that something in the building was causing a lot of them. Likely just exacerbating my existing terrible allergies. I have season, indoor and chemical allergies but when I can’t get a break during the cooler months because the irritants are indoors I can’t get over it and I had resorted to daily albuterol and getting sicker. I was getting better because I was able to remote work after we all realized what was happening.  My new job is in a different location and is fine.  I didn’t expect another building to have the same problems obviously.  Then came this cold and I was put back on higher doses of steroids.   I’m not yet where I want to be yet but getting closer, but have already gained a few extra pounds from the meds.

I finally could get, comfortably, back into my comfy old sweater dress that I’ve had for close to 10 years. (Excuse my worn look this was after work, dinner and dishes.) I went to the break room to warm my lunch and a couple of slightly older women were talking. I wasn’t listening and with my ears still clogged couldn’t have heard anyways, but when I turned to walk out they told me how they were saying they wished they had a figure like mine. I so needed to hear that today. This is what I to needed to hear to keep trying to get back to where I want to be and just to feel good about myself in general.  

Thank you for the compliments ladies and this old outfit is staying in the rotation.  This now makes me feel good and saves money!

 #complimenther #makeherfeelgood #maketheirday #recycleoutfits #bringbacktheold

Happy New Year, start fresh

 

Had a quiet, but great Christmas. Very happy kids in our house and great time seeing family. 

Starting off the New Year right. Are you??

Happy New Year’s Eve!!

Walk into next year right, starting tomorrow. What better day to make a change in your financial habits, health habits than now?!  

Get organized. Keep a target date on your phone calendar to check if your car needs an oil change or tire rotation. Make sure your tires don’t wear prematurely or your car doesn’t die because you decided not to care about these small maintenance things.  The same goes for your body. Make that well visit appointment. Most are free!  Make sure there’s not something you can deal with easier now rather than cost you more financially or your life in months or years.  

And your finances!!  Go through them for the new year.  If you haven’t already done it, set up a separate savings for your car insurance, Christmas, annual taxes, life insurance premiums…anything that doesn’t get paid monthly so you always have it to pay with!  

I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years and have taught my kids the same.  It assures you you will have that money when it’s needed which makes Christmas and New Year a lot more enjoyable when you don’t have a pile of credit card debt like everyone else and no money to pay all of these things.  

I’ve done this through thick and thin.   Through is having to deal with health crisis and therefore not having regular income, new additions to our family, you name it. I say I still don’t know how we got through some of these times but this was a lot of the reason.  

Quickly add up all of those things that come due every so often. Divide the total for the year by 12 and that’s how much you need to have your bank automatically transfer to your “special” savings account every single month.  It’s that easy. Then if you happen to get one of those bills and it increases, down the road divide that increase by 12 and have that much more added to your transfer.  If you can’t afford this monthly then look at what you have that maybe needs sold.  You’re paying yourself first this way. Yes you can pay your car or home insurance monthly but it increases your premium to do so. This pays you for it monthly so you can pay the insurance company every 6 months or annually. Whichever costs you less!

Sit down. Make a concerted effort to rewrite your financial picture.  Stay on top of it. This is a resolution that will literally pay off!

#budgetnow #domorewithyourmoney #stretchyourmoney #moneysavingtips

Merry Christmas to all

 

We did our Christmas lights night. This time we decided to be a little interactive and yes we wanted an actual pic with the big Elf on a Shelf at a home and tree lights at a local business.  Brian threatened to leave us because we were taking too long and people saw us. lol. Then we watched our annual review of Elf so we could laugh at the same parts we do every year. 

Have a great holiday with loved ones. 

None for Santa

 

Santa doesn’t really need these so we made plenty. Chelsi made puppy chow and then we made sugar cookies for everyone to help decorate. That got old in a hurry. While they did that I made KitKats.  Then while still finishing up the sugar cookies we mixed up the monster cookies. If you’ve made them then you know how large ONE batch is. I think I baked just those for over 4 hours. The started around 830 am and finished just after 6 pm. Such a long day but we gifted some to neighbors and have gift bags made up for coworkers too. Plenty more treats for Christmas. Monster cookies were the best by the way and we will not do sugar cookies again. 

Time for transition

 

Getting warmer.  Literally the afternoons in my office finally warm me up daily. I spend the morning with a lap blanket because it’s a chilly 71°. 

But I’m also warming up to the change. I’m settling in a little more everyday. Most of the time if you’re relatively doing the same type of job and just switching organizations it may not quite feel like the adjustment I’ve been feeling. Mostly I think I’ve realized that I was used to very strict rules, lack of trust unless you were in certain circles, and not feeling like you’re adding value to anything real. Meaning your job doesn’t necessarily equate to seeing positive change to people the organization is serving. And don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t because of my direct supervisor. I’d felt and experienced this throughout my 21 years there and he protected me from it to the best of his ability but it was embedded deep in the politics of the organization. Now I’m realizing I didn’t know any different and just accepted it. 

While I’ve had fleeting second thoughts over the past several weeks and days of doubting myself, I’m learning to spread myself out and trust myself more.  I’m learning that my job does add value as I’m seeing programs change as my team members develop data charts to show progress of programs that I consulted with them on. I’m learning to treat my staff the way I always wanted to be treated by my managers over the years. I’m learning I can be treated like an adult and my team and I can be valued for what we do, not who we are; and not be overlooked. 

I hope to keep learning all of these new programs and be a good manager to my staff to develop them and their talents. I want to finally have a positive impact and make a difference. Something I’ve always wanted. 

So tomorrow I keep pushing and reading and getting up to speed as quickly as possible. 

Hit me with your best shot

 

This is totally on the joking side.  I know they’re not trying to hurt me. It’s just a thought that passed through my mind as I was trying so hard not to cry or scream when he popped my joint making it hurt worse and stuck the needle in and proceeded to move it around within the joint to get all of the affected area. He’s the 2nd ortho I’ve been to in the two years since the scooter accident that caused the arthritis. I only switched because he has a better procedure with less recovery time in mind for when I want to fix it. I will say though, the last ortho who gave me the shot the last time left me with pain for two full days and horrible bruising.  This time the pain was more minimal. I lost function of my hand for a couple of hours and it hurt here and there but nothing like the past several times.  Now hoping for several months of minimal pain and maybe not wincing every time someone attempts to touch my hand/thumb.   

It was a week of shots. I started off Tuesday getting some spots on my shoulder biopsied for skin cancer because they were way to close to a previous cancer spot for me to wait for an appointment. When I called I found out my NP had left the practice and didn’t tell her patience. Bad practice!  They offered up an other doctor and because I was so anxious about the situation I took it. He turned out to be fantastic and I plan to stay. He was great at listening and quickly shaved the spots for biopsy. Including me in every decision instead of just doing what he wanted. By Friday I was getting an injection in my hand and now that I know my skin spots are not cancer this time (thank God) I can focus on getting the spots to heal nicely and be pain free in my hand for a bit. 

#arthritissucks #cortisoneinjection #medicalintervention 

Are you that person?

Are you the person who preaches and tells everyone they can retire early because you did or say things like “take the trip while you’re young and able with your kids” and constantly posting on social media that giving your kids experiences is so important but the only experiences you share are trips to Disney, Hawaii or other big experiences?  Or are you the parent sitting on the other side of that post reading and feeling like a failure because you can’t?

Life sometimes really is luck of the draw. Sometimes it’s hard work and sometimes it’s a combination. But one person can work hard and everything can work out beautifully while another person can work just as hard and nothing ever seems to go or come their way.  And I’ve heard, over my many years on the internet, things like well you could if you would cut out the lattes or getting your nails done.  And that’s true. If you do those things. But guess what preachy people. Not everyone does those kinds of luxury treatments.  Some people are already barebones and still just can’t afford the trip even to Six Flags for their kids let alone flying and staying in hotels somewhere really cool like Disney or Hawaii etc.  

Truly if you can do those things with your kids share away. Post the fun pics of your kids and your family. It’s a great memory for you and your family and you’re a very blessed person. But remember not everyone got your hand dealt. 

If you’re the mom that can’t afford to have the “cool” experiences with your kids and you’ve cut out the extras already and there’s no room to budge, you’re not alone.  Get creative. There are fun things you can do with your kids and they will remember it because you were there having fun with them. Have a carpet picnic with a Redbox movie or streaming movie. Go find a walking trail with them and make little stops along the way for photo ops. Let them play in the leaves or in the snow with their you.  Get sidewalk chalk and draw giant murals or watercolors and paint the sidewalk with them. It doesn’t matter as long as you’re there. Don’t let anyone else tell you that you’re not enough. You are!