We now have a female Vice President in the United States. A woman of color – a Black and Indian woman – holds the second highest office in the land. (We also have a new president, and he’s pretty cool too).

Wednesday was such a powerful and momentous day, and I felt like I was walking on clouds the entire time. While we clearly have much work to do, Wednesday was a day to really sit in the goodness of our newly elected Madam Vice President. Congratulations, Kamala Harris, I am so proud to say you are our Vice President.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. Since the kiddo is homeschooled this year thanks to COVID, he and I actually got to watch the Inauguration together. For a kid who only recently learned that men could hold public office, having a woman sworn in as Vice President may not have felt as exciting to him, but it was to me. It is my hope though, that by the time he is an adult, we will have had more women in office and even a woman president isn’t an impossible thing.

Homeschooling and working from home is hard (even though I have help and I don’t work full time), but it sure felt special to get to spend Wednesday learning about the process and watching history in action.

2. My mother and grandmother usually spend part of their Wednesdays with the kiddo, but they were able to get appointments to get their first COVID vaccine (along with my father), so they spent part of Inauguration Day lined up in their car and got their first vaccine doses. We are far down the line in our household, but I am SO grateful that they have the first shot behind them.

The timing of their shot also meant that I had the kiddo with me for the full day, which meant we got to watch live Inauguration coverage much of the day, so it really felt like a day of celebration all around.

3. Not frugal, but I picked up a relatively expensive bottle of French rose champagne from the local wine shop to celebrate with on Wednesday night. We paired it with homemade “fancy ramen” with greens from the garden though, so the whole meal was still pretty inexpensive.

We’ve cut back our drinking since mid-October to only days of celebration, so getting to pop the bubbly to celebrate the Inauguration made it even better. It was also the first champagne my husband has actually liked, which made the splurge feel even more worth it.

4. PS – in case you missed it – Regina and I launched WomensPersonalFinance.org on Monday! We are currently in the “coming soon” phase of the site, but we do have an email sign up list available if you want to be first to know when we launch the full site.

It will have paid tiers of website (unlike the Facebook group that will always be 100% free), and we will have special founding member swag when we do open that up. I hope you’ll join us – I am so dang excited to see this project into fruition.

5. Did I say that we now have A WOMAN VICE PRESIDENT in the United States. We may be far, far behind so many other countries, but it’s finally happened. From a little nine year old girl who wanted to be a senator when she grew up, my heart is so dang happy to see this day, and I am so excited to see what is to come.

What is that? Hope? I feel it.

Exercise Update

Saturday I got to meet Ali and Alison, the lovely ladies behind All Options Considered, for the very first time! We went for a walk in Seattle from Gasworks Park to the Freemont Troll by request of the kiddo, and it was so good to finally meet them in person. Weird, COVID in person time, but face to face nonetheless.

Sunday we went for a hike at Lord Hill Park in Snohomish. I’d been there twice before, but both for short trips, so it felt almost like a new place because we went for a three hour hike this time. Wednesday was a 5k run around the neighborhood – this time in 34 minutes. Not fast, but since dealing with plantar fasciitis, it was faster, and it felt easier. Slowly but surely, I’m getting back into the swing of things with running.

Thursday was more stair walking like I did the week before, plus a long walk through the park nearby. My legs weren’t sore at all from the run the day before, which felt like a big achievement. Maybe I’m still riding the high of Wednesday.

How are you feeling this week? Have you taken a deep breath? I know I have.