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?