May has been speeding by. March felt like it was at least three years long, and April was only a bit faster. It must be that we’ve been in this weird stasis for long enough now, but the days seem to be going by in hyper speed now.
Memorial Day weekend completely caught me off guard. Someone mentioned earlier in the week about having a meeting after then, and I was surprised they wanted to have it so far out. Until I realized it wasn’t far out at all.
I also finally cancelled our plane tickets to what should have been Bethany‘s wedding in Kauai in a couple weeks. It sure would be nice if life was normal though and we were planning on heading there next month. All this cancelled travel has made me glad we’d spent as much as we had over the last couple years to explore new and old favorite places.
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Friday’s Frugal Five
1. The husband has continued d working on replacing our back fence. The upside of living along the park means that we have no backyard neighbors; the downside is there is no one to share the cost and labor to replace the fence when the time comes.
The tools he’s accumulated over the years take up quite a bit of space in the garage (and cost more than a few dollars), but it means that he’s able to do pretty much whatever is needed around the house and yard. The fence replacement materials aren’t cheap, but they are a heck of a lot cheaper than paying someone to build it as well.
2. I checked out an audiobook through the library for the very first time. I also restarted Audible and have two free audiobook downloads as the first month trial (apparently it had been long enough that they offered a free trial again).
I was shocked when I looked up the cost of the audiobook and saw it was listed for $35.99. I will definitely be checking more out through the library in the future because I could spend a lot on audiobooks otherwise. I may not be reading books very quickly lately, but I’m rediscovering a love of listening to them.
3. We’ve been working with the kiddo on his reading and writing lately in preparation of kindergarten this fall (whether he will actually go to class at the school is anyone’s guess right now).
We have to plenty of scratch paper, so much of his practicing is done on that. Once he’s done with the page, it goes in the recycling like it would have in the first place, but with one extra use before it gets there.
4. Our quarterly Rakuten check came in the mail, this time for $21.99. While it’s not a huge number, I always appreciate “found money,” which then goes straight into savings. We don’t do a ton of online shopping, but if you do, the cashback is even greater.
If you haven’t signed up for Rakuten (Ebates) yet, here is $10 to get started. As always, know yourself, and sign up for this kind of program if you will be disciplined to use it only when you are making a purchase anyway – not because of the online shopping coupons that encourage you to spend more.
5. I wrote a new post for Ecofrugals this week! Kristine has been doing an awesome job with the site and doing the lion’s share of the work these days, but I’m hoping to write there more frequently in the coming months.
If there’s something you’d be interested in me writing over there, please let me know! We are also accepting guest posts – you don’t need to be a blogger to write one.
Exercise Update
Saturday I went down to the past to complete a HIIT running workout, followed up with some body weight exercises and then yoga. Every day included a walk, usually through the woods.
Sunday also marked thirty consecutive days of yoga. It feels awesome, and I have no plans for breaking my streak. If I’m not feeling up for much, I pick an easier slow stretching routine, but I finish it nonetheless.
Do you feel like the days are starting to pick up speed, or are you still in the slow slog of forever-March?
we have a crappy old chain link fence in our back yard. every now and again the neighbor asks us if she can put up a stockade fence and the answer is always the same: go ahead as long as we don’t have to pay anything. the old chain link doesn’t bother me.
We considered chain link in the back, but it would make our backyard visible from the trails, and we prefer the privacy 🙂
oh, we would love the privacy but the chain link came with the house and i’m too cheap and lazy to replace it.
That’s a lot of work with the fence. At our old house, I dug 2 post holes for our small balcony and almost had a heart attack.
At current home, we have one crappy chain link fence in one section of the backyard. My wife wants to replace it, but I don’t. Vehicles (Uhaul and trucks) from the apartment next door keep banging into that fence. Why put something expensive up if it’ll just get beat up.
Yeah, he does a lot of manual work for his job so he’s ready to do the stuff at home 😉
Ooh, good point about the audiobooks! I haven’t tried those yet, but that might be a good alternative, since I’m always trying to find something to listen to while showering, getting ready for work, making dinner, or washing dishes.
Sorry about canceling the trip for the wedding! I feel your pain. I was so looking forward to my trip this week, but it’s been surprisingly nice staying home again. Glad you’re all still safe!
For whatever reason I’ve taken a break on podcasts for the most part. I think low key audiobooks are just easier right now.
Yep, I’m definitely feeling a slump. The early novelty of stay-at-home has worn off and the kids are done with school. It’s starting to sink in that we may not be able to see our families in person this summer at all (even though restrictions have been largely lifted, we are not comfortable with the idea of long visits). That’s really disheartening as we had my parents’ 50th anniversary to celebrate in June, among other things.
Agreed, the passage of time is super weird right now. We have a few self-imposed triggers to remind us of the day of the week (online church on Sunday, video games for the kids on Mondays and Fridays), but that’s about it. We’re constantly saying to each other that we can’t believe another week (or month) has gone by already.
Sorry about your canceled travel plans (and for Bethany and her wedding). We weren’t planning any major trips, but were hoping to at least get back out hiking as trails open up…then my husband twisted his knee and reactivated an old injury. He’s been on crutches for 10 days and we’re just hoping it’s a minor enough issue that rest and time will eventually heal it. Now he really feels quarantined as he can’t get out to work in the yard the way he had been.
Happy holiday weekend to you!
Yeah, the novelty of staying home is wayyyy past. And the realization that we have a long way to go before normal exists again.
It FEELS slow because each day is tough but here we are nearly at the end of May so I really don’t know.
In some ways I feel like I’m starting to bounce back just a little bit mentally overall (though last week was the hardest in a lot of ways), and in others, still stagnant. I suspect it’s because all our cancellations have been assumed through the fall and then it’s just a giant question mark.
If the arrangements our local school makes for kinder isn’t good enough for us to feel comfortable, are we still obligated to send them? Are you even thinking that far out to what kind of set up you’d be comfortable with? I feel like I should but I am working with so little useful information and only a few spare brain cells it feels like 😒
I’m super grateful for every bit of sun we get though.
It’s kinda like having a baby – the days are long but the months are short? Or something. And I suppose you could always go to homeschooling….