For the first time in ages, the kiddo was sick this past week. What started as a sinus drip turned into a cough, and though we’ve been pretty reasonably careful, we decided to give him a Covid test just in case.

Waiting for the result was more agonizing than I expected. He wasn’t that sick by any means, but we don’t know the long term health effects. That and we are now literally just weeks away from a vaccine approval for his age group (5-11 years old). Because of that proximity, avoiding his catching Covid feels like even higher stakes.

His test was negative.

It seems entirely possible he might be fully vaccinated by my birthday (December 13th). That would certainly be the best present ever.

Friday’s Frugal Five

1. I had my friend Jillian Johnsrud on for a Facebook Live in the Women’s Personal Finance Facebook group to celebrate the launch of her new book, Fire The Haters: Finding Courage to Create Online in a Critical World.

While this book is in theory written for content creators, we talked a lot about what it means to simply be active in online spaces, even if you aren’t creating for any specific brand. We also discussed how this book would be perfect for small businesses that perhaps haven’t started with an online presence yet because of what the online world often looks like.

If that’s you, or someone you love, I would highly recommend this book. (Christmas present, perhaps?)

Because I love her book and her advice so much, I decided to give away five copies of her book in the Facebook group after the Live. I love supporting women creators, friends or no, and this book absolutely deserves to be shared.

2. Our neighbor’s car window has been stuck for a bit, and they haven’t been able to take it in to be fixed (finances and time not permitting). With the weather forecast expecting a very wet weekend – the term “bomb cyclone” being used – getting that window fully closed became more urgent.

The husband stayed home sick most of this week after the kiddo passed along his cold, but with the impending rain, he hauled himself down the street and helped get their window up and closed before the car got fully soaked on the inside.

He may grouch about it sometimes, but he very clearly loves living in the kind of friendly, supportive neighborhood we’re in as much as I do.

3. A friend stopped by to pick up some of the last of this year’s garlic seed crop to plant in her own garden. I was able to also send her with a tiny delicata squash and some seeds, and a couple of eggs from our own hens. She goes fishing often, and has told us she’ll bring us some salmon this winter in trade.

While I love gifting out of our garden in general with no expectation of a needed reciprocation, the local trading bit I love quite a bit. How different would our world look if this was more typical? Not just for local food miles, but for community connections as well.

4. Jessica (The Fioneers) had sent me a package of winter socks a couple years ago, and more recently I was talking about how much I loved that gift considering my ongoing clothes buying ban.

This week, another box arrived from her! Since she left her day job to work for herself, she doesn’t need a lot of the clothes she wore to work, and that included socks. Perhaps that doesn’t sound exciting to most, but to me, a box full of new to me socks can make my week.

5. An online friend had a new baby this month, and as I typically do when a new baby arrives, I offered to send them a meal. When someone is local, I’ll make and bring over a meal, like I did with my neighbor a little while back, but out of ayate means ordering a meal to be delivered.

We’d agreed on a meal and a time, and I put a reminder for myself in my phone. Later that evening, she reached out and asked if there was anything else she’d needed to do (sleep deprived and all). Nope – I had set the reminder for the wrong day and had completely spaced and dropped the ball. I’m now simply sending money via Venmo, but dang if I felt bad for screwing it up.

I wanted to share that here to be sure that what I do share isn’t always the highlight reel. I absolutely screw up and drop the ball, and with this one, the thought isn’t exactly what counts, because I needed to get this family a meal. And I will… just not on the day expected.

Exercise Update

Saturday and Monday I went for half hour runs. Again, a walk/run, so it took me the better part of an hour to complete, but my ankle kept up to the task.

Otherwise, I had three days in a row with 15,000 – 20,000 steps. I maybe overdid it a tiny bit, but my ankle is mostly keeping up.

How’s your week going? Any positives to share?