After the age that was the month of March, life slowly picked up after April and May, and June has somehow sped by. Though, in the words of Scary Mommy, this new pandemic phase is more stressful than lockdown in many ways. It’s finally summer, and the weather is beginning to look like it as well. With that, comes wants of travel, barbecues, and time with friends and family.

Unfortunately, with COVID-19 still in full force in the United States (Wednesday was another new daily case record), the quarantine/isolation fatigue is real, but that doesn’t mean the pandemic has gone away. So, in some ways, life is speeding by, but it’s still far, far from normal. And far from less stressful. No matter what though, time does seem to be speeding by, and it’s already almost July. Hard to believe we’ve been at this for four full months already.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. My neighbor has started on a modified juice fast for five days, so I’ve jumped on board with her by doing my own version of that challenge. Starting Wednesday, I’m eating vegan and grain free through the weekend (along with no alcohol). Thanks to the garden, I’m eating out of the garden for the most part.

Even just a couple days in, I’m considering pushing it past the five days (just with more things like rice and rice noodles included). With a household that eats a lot of meat, I don’t expect to ever go fully vegan or vegetarian, but this feels like a good challenge right now that will also be very good for my health.

2. We’ve had an old stove in the garage for entirely too long (see: years), and my husband had plans to one day fix the starting problem it had to replace the one we have in our house. We finally agreed that wasn’t going to happen, so he took it to the transfer station this past weekend.

Thanks to their appliance recycling program, there was no cost to drop it off, and it felt good knowing that it wouldn’t end up in the landfill. Definitely an ecofrugal win, and now we have quite a bit more space in our one stall garage. Thanks, husband. I appreciate that sort of stuff you take care of for us.

3. Our roommate is still out of work (a machinist who worked for a subcontractor in large part to Boeing), and it may be a while since his occupation is struggling both through COVID and long term problems that Boeing has had over the last few years.

On the upside, he’s been able to take on full time kid duties a couple days a week, allowing me to get a lot more focused work done. The kiddo absolutely adores him and they have a great time together, and our roommate has been working on his preschool writing workbooks as well as taking him for hikes through the woods. We’ll be discounting his rent / paying for his childcare work, as well as buying a lot of food and meals for him as well. He is so appreciated, and I want to make sure he continues to feel valued.

4. I pulled out some “new” summer clothes out of the tote that lives in my closet. Part of continuing a clothes buying ban for more than three years now has been packing up seasonal clothes and putting them for months at a time.

That way, when I bring them back out, they feel new and exciting, even though they aren’t new at all, or even new to me. With the weather finally warming up, my summer dresses have been getting a lot of love this past week.

5. I had a work day go particularly long on a day when my mom was taking care of the kiddo, and one where I actually had an in person (outside, socially distanced) meeting. She ended up making him an early dinner for him there because he wanted to stay, so the husband and I went to pick him up together after work.

Before that though, we stopped on the way to get an actual sit down dinner from a restaurant out on their patio. We were the only ones on that side of the patio, it was a lovely day, and the food was great.

Really though, it was simply great to sit outside and dine at an actual restaurant. We aren’t ready to go inside to eat, but sitting alone outside felt good and more “normal.” And, of course, we tipped our server well, as that is the least we can do.

Exercise Update

We went for a long hike on Saturday and I ended up with almost 25,000 steps that day. I also took a couple longer walks during work meetings via Zoom or other online conferencing. I can’t always do that because I often have to look at plans or other things on the screen, but when I can, I sure do love walking and talking instead of sitting at my computer for hours.

The kiddo and I also went for two short (ten minute long) runs together on Tuesday and Wednesday. He’s saying he’s wanting to do more of that with me now, so I’m hoping we can get a regular routine going.

Unfortunately, speaking of routines, my daily yoga has fallen to the side in the past week or so. I’m still doing some yoga each day, but it’s more five minutes at a time and no focused time. Work has been bonkers, but I’m hoping I can get it under control soon and get back to the much needed self care time that yoga brings.

How are you feeling about June? How does it feel different from March through May?