I fixed some things! (and other miscellany)
I had a day off yesterday soooo, I tweaked a few things. I think you should be able to see the "previous post" and "next post" navigation links at the bottom of each post now.
Also, I added an archives drop-down menu in the middle of the homepage and one in the footer at the very bottom of every page.
I'm still working on other stuff (like getting that "free grilling recipes" placeholder out. heh.). Slowly but surely, we will get there. 😉
I took my Christmas tree down
I was late getting it up this year, and also late getting it down. Whoops!
Please notice that I never even took the price tag off of the tree:
Next year, I want to make a point of getting the tree up sooner so we can enjoy the cozy lights longer. I was sad to take it down, especially because I worked so many days around Christmas and thus was not home to enjoy the coziness.
It's weird wearing scrubs so much
My friend and co-worker Brittany and I were talking about how little we wear our regular clothes now that we're out of school; we're either wearing scrubs at work or comfy clothes at home, which means our medium-nice clothes barely see the light of day!
872,000
That's how many people have seen my little Instagram post about my car. GEEZ. This post just keeps going and going.
And still, people are being generally nice about my little dream car. 🙂 There's just the occasional, "That's an ugly car!" comment; almost everyone else is cheering me on.
About my grocery budget...
Someone recently asked how I spend this much on groceries since my menu posts seem to show me eating so little.
But, my grocery budget includes things like toilet paper and dishwasher soap.
Also, I am obviously eating more than just my dinner meals show! Almost all 21 of my meals each week come from home, and so do my snacks and my coffee.
For instance, on the last work day, I ate:
- egg bites, whole grain toast, an apple, and coffee for breakfast
- an Aldi brand Rx bar for a snack
- a lunch of chipotle chicken green salad with an avocado, plus grapes, some cheddar popcorn, and a piece of chocolate
And then I had dinner when I got home.
Also, although she is not here for every meal, I'm feeding my 19-year-old daughter as well.
The other thing is that at this point in my life, I am definitely not maximizing my grocery savings like I used to. The time/money balance changes with different life stages, you know? And right now, it's leaning a bit to me having more money and less time to devote to grocery bill slashing.
I do the basics, like eating at home, and mostly cooking from scratch (ish!). I shop at Aldi, I work on avoiding food waste, and I still make homemade yogurt, granola, and chicken broth.
But, I cheerfully buy some things I didn't before, like rotisserie chickens, various cheeses, berries, and so on. I prioritize protein more than I used to as well (trying to resist middle-aged muscle loss!)
Basically, if an item fits my nutritional goals and time constraints and is reasonably affordable, I buy it without thinking too hard.
I know this is a luxury, and I appreciate it because I did not always have this wiggle room. So, I don't take it for granted; I'm just pointing it out to explain why my grocery spending is not especially low.
If my time/money balance changes, I will of course adjust my grocery habits accordingly.
Speaking of time...
My plan for the next year
For the past six months, I have been managing full-time nursing work, online BSN classes, plus my usual blog/Patreon stuff.
I'm not sure I'd want to sustain this level of effort forever, and the good news is that I don't have to.
After my first year of nursing is up, I am allowed to go down to two shifts a week instead of three. I'll still will qualify for health insurance, but two shifts are way more manageable than three. And I will be fine financially because I still have my blog income.
Also, I should be done with my BSN program by next December, and that will take a big load off of my plate.
So, I am hopeful that a year from now, my life will feel a little bit less chaotic! I just have to hang in there for the next 12 months. 🙂
Alrighty; that's enough miscellany for now!
Oh I am so happy to hear about the work flexibility you have to transition to 2 shifts a week in the future. How amazing and helpful for your life!
I certainly is lovely to have that certain point in the future to look forward to! It's makes it almost into a game.
*It. While some might think me lovely occasionally, that was not the point of my comment. This does not bode well for the rest of the week. I might have to cancel spelling in our homeschool for the week. Or maybe I just need to stop typing and make the coffee.
You are lovely, Jody. I didn't even notice the typo until you pointed it out which is why I am a terrible proofreader.
I have a similar approach to grocery shopping and eating. I want to eat high quality food at a reasonable price.
Something I do now with a little more wiggle room in the food budget is by a drink or snack at the concession stand at my sons basketball game. I used to do that rarely, esp as my other kids were usually with me. Now I can do it guilt free and feel good that I'm supporting the sports programs of the schools we visit. ( Popcorn usually was cheap, so I'd get that for my kids to share, but I'd usually gave water bottles and granola bars from hone.)
I absolutely LOVE wearing scrubs. It makes getting dressed easy, laundry is easy (wash and dry, no need to baby them)...honestly, the best. Over the summer I was in a setting where it would have been very odd to wear scrubs and I had to get dressed in actual clothes every day and I was like, "Oh, this is fun!" ...for ONE day. By day two, the feeling was more, "Argh, I have to do this EVERY DAY?!"
Also with you on getting through the next year. I have 11.5 months left in my residency and once it's done I'm going to work less (and be able to make more.) Can't. Wait.
Hang in there! You got this.
If it makes you feel any better, the feast for Jesus' Baptism on January 12 is the official end of the Christmas season in the Catholic church, and that's when the church decorations get taken down. So you were liturgically correct for me, anyway. 🙂 I take mine down after Epiphany, though, on December 7. I don't put them up until mid-December either, so we really only have our Christmas decorations up for a few weeks. Our living room is not very big, and it feels kind of cluttered with the tree in it.
I really had to clean out the ash in our woodstove this morning, a task I had been putting off because my husband enclosed the pasture right behind our house to put the sheep in there to eat weeds and that is where my ash barrel is. So my choices were to take the over-full tray of ashes--which inevitably spills at some point--down the carpeted hall to the back door to go down the now-ice-covered back steps, through the back gate, and around the corner to the barrel; or go out the front door and the long way around to the same back gate, etc.; or go out the front door and dump the ashes near the driveway. I don't like to dump them by the driveway, but my laziness won. And then when I got outside, flashlight in my mouth because it was still dark and carefully balancing the pan of ashes, I found there was enough of a breeze to blow the ashes into my face. Yuck. It's done, though! The sheep should be out of that pasture this week, so I won't have to do this again.
My husband brought one of the old trucks to a mechanic to get the manifold(?) fixed. Getting vehicles to a mechanic is a serious endeavor here. He took it to the closest mechanic, but that's still 60 miles away. But now we have another licensed driver in the house! My eldest son followed his dad and I didn't have to go anywhere. Yay.
Our new school is done, yay! The older students spent the week before Christmas break helping to move everything to the new building and the teachers spent much of their breaks setting up their new classrooms. Only to be told that there were some issues--kitchen and bathroom things, mostly--that were not up to code yet and students couldn't be in there. The old building is already being demolished for the next phase of construction, so there's nowhere to go. Our administration was extremely unhappy about this, as were the rest of us. The first week of school back was canceled last week--and I'm guessing will have to be added on to the end of the school year, boo--and this week we're doing virtual schooling. I really really really hope we can get back to school in person next week.
Thanks for working on the new blog design, I appreciate it! I'm glad you get a slight reduction in workload next year.
I did a lot of planning for Florence this weekend and borrowed some guidebooks from the library. I don't know why I'm so much better at planning trips than other areas of my life - maybe because trips are fun!
I'm trying to motivate myself to go to the gym later. It's so cold here. Staving off muscle loss is a good reminder!
Forgot to say - I don't have a tree because I go to my parents' place for Christmas but I finally got around to putting away my kitty advent calendar yesterday. I kept up the fairylights though because they add such lovely colour to the room, especially during this dark time of year!
Have you ever done a "grocery haul" post sharing what you buy and how you plan to use it? I always find those interesting and it might help illustrate what you shared today about other meals, household needs, etc.