tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Jan 2, 2021 22:24:37 GMT -5
Most of the Christmas stuff put away. We still need to put away the tree (everything is off it and put away, but DH didn’t want to put the tree away for whatever reason - it should get done tomorrow), and we leave the Christmas cards we received up until the end of January or so to enjoy them longer. They are displayed on our kitchen cabinets, and I enjoy seeing them, so up they stay.
I also cleaned out the kitchen cabinet that has kids cups/snack containers/etc and purged some stuff from there.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Jan 2, 2021 10:17:23 GMT -5
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Post by tcu2003 on Jan 2, 2021 0:40:17 GMT -5
Yay, carrot!!
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Post by tcu2003 on Jan 1, 2021 23:48:14 GMT -5
Peter Wash isn’t doing his 31 day decluttered challenge to start the New Year this year. 😕 He’s too busy filming his tv show, so I am on the hunt for something new. Right now I think I’ll try 2 different ones. The first is a 15 day challenge (but for 30 minutes per day) - it’s called Declutter Like a Mother. The first day was a bathroom, so I worked on side of our master bath. I definitely threw out a ton of stuff, so I can see progress. I also found a 31 day challenge here: www.frugalcouponliving.com/declutter-your-home-checklist/Day 1 is Holiday Decorations and Cards. That’s on our to-do list for tomorrow, so I’ll report back. We got maybe 4-5 inches of snow today, so we spent some time outside decluttering snow from the driveway, lol. Which was a double win - time spent outside and somewhat of a workout. |
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Jan 1, 2021 15:41:12 GMT -5
I love it, oped!!
And agreed, 1000 hours is a ton. We don’t camp so it’ll mostly be done playing outside, sports stuff, bike rides and walks. I think 500 is a stretch for us, but I’m all about trying to get a benchmark.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 31, 2020 23:52:23 GMT -5
Has anyone heard about the 1000 Hours Outside challenge? I heard about it in a FB group yesterday and am intrigued. I think I’m going to set a goal around this for 2021, but probably more like 500 hours. That said, not sure if I can actually keep up with tracking it, but maybe. I was really intentional with getting the kids outside everyday this spring/summer when we were home, and it was good for all of us. 1000hoursoutside.com. www.facebook.com/groups/2188417641476492/?ref=share |
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 31, 2020 23:02:48 GMT -5
I ended 2020 with getting in a walk with the family outside on this chilly day, so I'm counting that as a win to close out 2020! Now on to 2021!
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 31, 2020 22:58:54 GMT -5
oped, I read The Vanishing Half in November and really enjoyed it!
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 31, 2020 22:57:24 GMT -5
I'm in! Last year my goal was to read 36 books - and thanks to Covid, I read 48! I read a mix of fiction (with specific intent to try to read at least a few books by POC), non-fiction (biographies/autobiographies are my favorite), occasionally a parenting or marriage book, and professional development/leadership type books.
If anyone is interested in connecting on GoodReads, send me a message and I'll send you a link to my user profile there. I track all of my books there for my own sanity, LOL.
ETA:
I should add goals for this year! I am going to stick with 36 books again. I'm hoping my increased reading time sticks around, but I'm also trying to add in goals around spending more time outside and being active more, so we'll see how it all shakes out. I'm also ending 202/starting 2021 reading Obama's A Promised Land, which is a beast of a book in length, so I won't be plowing through any books in January at this rate.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 31, 2020 22:23:13 GMT -5
December Update:
Checking/Savings: $161k
House: $428k
Retirement: $1.604M
Brokerage: $4.9k
529s: $55.8k
Total NW: $2,254,715
We're up about 3.4% since last month, and nearly 21% for the year!
As usual, the list above excludes our cars, which are worth around $30k combined, but I leave them out because we're unlikely to sell, and need them to get to/from work, kids schools, etc. in the land of suburbia.
PLEASE DON'T QUOTE THIS PART:
Poof.
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 30, 2020 23:37:57 GMT -5
Okay, let's see what did/did not happen from 2020 goals. [Reminder to self that the first set is the goals we came up with as a family (with mostly input from my 7yo DS).] FAMILY GOALS: *Read 100 books - more than done *Visit all parks in our city - did not happen; parks were closed for half the summer, and then I didn't feel comfortable taking them to parks until fall; but they spent a lot of time on their outdoor playset in our yard  *Take kids to a state they haven't been to before - check, we did a weekend trip to Arkansas in February pre-pandemic, which was a new state for both kids *Take kids to a country they haven't been to before - fail, thanks Covid *Complete 50 puzzles - I didn't count, but based on the puzzles we did during stay-at-home this spring, plus all the kids puzzles, this happened *Try 24 new recipes - ha ha ha ha, I totally forgot about this; pretty sure I did a handful of new recipes, but nowhere near 24 *Plant a vegetable garden - sort of! we did plant tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in a raised bed and just holes in the ground, but I'm counting it! *Donate/get rid of at least 500 items - not sure if we hit this or not as I stopped counting, but I think we did - passed clothes DS outgrew to a friend, sold a ton of baby stuff, and donated other stuff *Do 50 random acts of kindness - didn't track this, so no idea, but I hope we did PERSONAL GOALS: (FINANCIAL) *Fully fund 401k and Roth IRA accounts for DH and me - DONE! *Fund kids' 520 accounts at least as much as we did in 2019 - DONE! And then some - we ended up funding the max for each kid we get a state tax break on *Invest at least 25% of cash that is over and above our e-fund - didn't happen; I got promoted and now will be a shareholder, so I need a chunk of that for my down payment in early 2021, so not doing this worked out *Set up wills and trusts - FAIL! this will be on my 2021 goals (again) (HOME) *Replace our love seat and couch - DONE! we actually did this in early January, so we got to enjoy it all year *Select and purchase an area rug for our living room - FAIL; we did get rid of the old rug, so just have the hardwoods there, and it's actually been okay *Replace the rug under our dining room table - NOPE; kids are still messy eaters, but I hate the old rug enough, I may just replace it anyway *Set up DD's bedroom (it has leftover stuff in it - mostly DH's - but just random stuff, so we need to fully convert it to *her* room) - DONE! *Hang family pictures - DONE! and this one probably only happened due to COVID as I was home long enough to want to get it done, LOL (WELLNESS) *4000 sit ups - ha ha ha ha; major fail and I didn't even track after maybe 2 weeks *4000 push ups - ha ha ha ha; major fail and I didn't even track after maybe 2 weeks *52 class-type workouts - also a fail, though I did start off the year okay attending classes at my work office gym *Read at least 36 books (for me - fiction, nonfiction, leadership, parenting, whatever strikes my fancy) - YES!!! I actually read 48 books, which makes me happy because I love reading and I had more time to do it this past year. |
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 30, 2020 10:03:08 GMT -5
Why would HR offer him another position if he wasn't doing his current job? Seems like passing along a headache. We did this last year. We had an employee that just could not keep up with the demands of his position, not that he did not try - he just could not do it no matter how hard he tried. He always showed up to work, had a good attitude, and did his best. At the time, production was hurting for workers. That is a pretty monotonous job, and we felt he could be a better fit there. It was actually HR who suggested it - we are in an area with an extremely low unemployment rate, and finding good workers, or any workers really, is VERY difficult. All of his performance write ups went with him, and it was made clear to him that the next issue would see him out the door. It has been 4 months now, and he seems to be doing well. It sounds like your employee was trying, though, which doesn’t appear to be the case for chloe’s employee. Where someone is trying but the job isn’t a great fit, I total agree with letting them try a different role/different group. Where they’re not trying at all, and actively avoiding doing part of the work, I would rather just get rid of them than pass the headache on to someone else. |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 29, 2020 23:39:52 GMT -5
Oh, that’s rough. Ditto Tennessee - please give the new manager a head’s up. My team got a team transfer in 2019 and we got no heads up that the guy would have been let go from the team he was on if he’d been there much longer (we had a ton of new work come in and put out a request if anyone was over staffed for this engineering discipline, we could use him/her). Anyway, we ended up letting him go maybe 6 months later but it was a mess and a heads up would have been nice.
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 28, 2020 15:02:47 GMT -5
We had our last Christmas celebration yesterday. DH is one of 3 brothers, and oldest brother was quarantining due to exposure at work, and his kids were quarantining due to exposure from their stepdad, so they weren’t there. FIL also wasn’t there (though he tends to skip a fair amount of get together in normal circumstances, so not supervising). It was MIL, BIL/SIL and their high school aged twins, oldest niece and her 2 daughters, and us. We went for about an hour - skipped the meal and wore masks. MIL and oldest niece are not social distancing, and BIL/SIL and their family are hit or miss. I would feel terrible if we somehow unknowingly gave it to someone, and as I remind C, my goal is to keep him in school and basketball, and his sister in daycare, so we do what we can. It was so weird, though.
Anyway, presents - M (4) is very into art. She loves to take paper and cut it and glue it (or tape) and make all sorts of creations - hats, tails, skirts, and aprons are a few of her masterpieces. So I told several family members she loves art and would like more art stuff - she now has enough colored paper (construction type and computer paper type) to open a small art store, LOL. Plus pipe cleaners, Pom poms, Googly eyes, colored pencils, stickers, new scissors and more. Throw in that she got some new kinetic sand (she only had one set that came with beach sand color sand in it, so we got her a bag each of yellow, purple and blue sand and my sister got her a different set), some Paw Patrol toys, more MagnaTiles (which are seriously the best toy ever - both kids love them) and new books, and girl has been happily entertained the last few days.
C (8) had a Lego Christmas - new Harry Potter and Jurassic World Legos - he’s been happily building and playing with the sets. He also got new books, a Harry Potter fuse bead kit, a Nerf gun with target so he has also playing the last few days.
Each kid also received a marble run-type toy yesterday from the IL family Christmas. I’ve thought about getting them one before, but wasn’t sure we had the space and we have so many toys, so I never did. It’s been fun watching them play with them today and show off their creations. No idea how long their interest will last, but I’ll take it while it does.
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 28, 2020 10:25:30 GMT -5
Intermittent fasting was a big help for me with weight loss. I know a few local to me people that had huge success with this. |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 25, 2020 23:33:47 GMT -5
Merry Christmas to everyone observing the Christmas holiday! I hope you had a wonderful day.
Happy holidays and happy late December to everyone else!
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 25, 2020 22:08:27 GMT -5
Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating today! 🎄
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 20, 2020 20:28:51 GMT -5
Hi Kids! I just wanted you to know that the Rachel Jones (Nourishing Minimalism) chart for 2021 just magically appeared in my emails, and I printed it off, and am looking forward to more decluttering in the New Year. Right now, I am seriously distracted, between Christmas prep, and the fact that our house "down South" WAS supposed to close this week, but due to more delays, it looks like we won't be able to complete the closing until next week. I just want to have that house sold.  Ha! I haven’t even thought that far ahead, but yes, I’m game for posting it! I need some motivation to start the year off well in the decluttering/organization space, and that usually does the trick. |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 20, 2020 16:01:23 GMT -5
Sam, drama, Andi, and anyone else between Kc and Omaha/Council Bluffs, if you’re looking for a fun day trip in the next few weeks, I highly recommend Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge - it’s about 30 minutes north of St Joe, MO a few miles off of I-29. The birds are in full force right now - DH and the kids and I went today, and saw a ton of eagles, snow geese, cranes and more. It’s set up as a 10-mile loop around the refuge (one way) with places to get out and walk, and you can pretty much pull over wherever you want to get out and look and taken pictures. Both of my kids loved it - we saw eagles in trees right off the road. From my house in central-western JoCo it was about 90 minutes (including a gas station stop to fill up the car).  |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 13, 2020 17:09:57 GMT -5
We stocked up on $2 bills when C’s friends started losing teeth so we’d be prepared. And then it took the kid like 6 more months to lose his first two teeth (he lost them within a week of each other). And then another year after that to lose teeth 3 and 4 - so we had to figure out where we’d stashed the tooth fairy money. 🤦♀️😂🤣
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 10, 2020 21:15:43 GMT -5
We’ve definitely purchased more for the kids this year. I’m pretty convinced one or both kids will be home again at some point for at least a couple of weeks (DD already spent a week and a half at home due to the assistant director at daycare getting COVID and causing too many staff to quarantine for them to have enough staff to open). DS has managed to stay in person since late September when they switched from hybrid to in person, but I’m still assuming he’ll end up at home at some point. So most of their gifts are things that will help keep them occupied if they are home and DH and I are trying to WFH.
DS(8) - Jurassic World Lego set, several Harry Potter Lego sets, Catan game, new books, art supplies, big insulated water bottle he wants for sports practices/games
DD(4) - MagnaTiles, Paw Patrol characters/vehicles, kinetic sand, books, remote control car, National Geographic dinosaur eggs (her friend has these and has shared and she loves them - a dinosaur is buried inside what is basically a big chalk egg that the kiddo gets to excavate the Dino from), art supplies
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 10, 2020 20:49:24 GMT -5
Is everyone doing that? Seems my neighborhood is... neighbors that have never put up lights before have this year, decorations were up earlier, and gifts are being sold out at rapid speed. My wife overheard one of our neighbors saying to another neighbor that this year with Covid she feels extra pressure to make Christmas nice and magical for her 2 boys. I actually had to tell my wife to slow down because I feel we have been overspending on keeping my daughter busy for the past 8-9 months. My daughter birthday in January put it in that weird spot that we try not to overdo it for Christmas and balance it with her birthday. I think we spent about ~$500-750 on both events and my wife just sent me the list on what is for her birthday and what is for Christmas. That does not include she will get from family members and cannot control that. Christmas : - bike - magna tiles - book - puzzle - lego set - beauty and the beast - towels (special request from her, she does not want to use baby towels anymore) Birthday - magna tiles - two paw patrols lego - rapunzel lego - books She is 3 turning 4 soon and really into the magna tiles and lego’s. I think we have spent between us, aunts and grandparents at least $500 on magna tiles alone so far and the 2 we ordered for Christmas and birthday were $130 each... maybe I should buy stocks in magna tiles. The bike was the most expensive at $270 followed by the magna tiles at $130 each... the legos were between $50-80. We figure it will be balanced out with next year being the first year we will not have a birthday party for her so just cake for us in the house. How is your spending for Christmas? Spending extra to make it special? I haven’t read the rest of this thread yet, but every dollar I’ve spent on MagnaTiles has been a dollar well spent. C and M are 8 and 4 and both still play with them often. M is getting another big set for Christmas to go with the 250+ pieces we already have. My kiddos love building and I’m happy to encourage it. |
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tcu2003
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 10, 2020 1:18:16 GMT -5
How do I keep it alive? I need instructions. tcu2003I never worried about trying to get mine to bloom the pretty colors again - that looked like a lot of work and required putting the plants in total darkness for 12 hours per day, which I knew wasn’t going to happen for me. So instead, I embraced and enjoyed plain green leaves once the red faded away. I just watered mine a few times a week when the soil was dry. They don’t like to sit in a pot/saucer of water because that can cause the roots to rot. A few times I thought I might have killed it due to overwatering, but it would perk back up. They also like indirect light. Good luck! |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 9, 2020 9:45:40 GMT -5
My poinsettia and Christmas flowers were delivered today. They are beautiful and the flowers will be gone when they die. I'm hoping to keep the poinsettia alive for a bit. You can do it! I got a couple of poinsettias when my dad died (he died 8 years ago this week), and I managed to keep one alive for about 4 years and the other alive for 6.5 years. |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 9, 2020 9:23:07 GMT -5
Congrats, swamp!!! That’s awesome!!
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 7, 2020 8:25:41 GMT -5
Has anyone tried Kiwico Gift boxes for their kids? It's a subscription service and they deliver a crate every month. If anyone has heard or tried them, can they recommend it ? I wanted to gift my great niece something and felt it may be better if I get a 3 months subscription so she will get something once a month for at least 3 months - winter is going to be long. We haven’t done it, but I have heard good things about it! |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 3, 2020 18:05:17 GMT -5
CKTC - congratulations on your new job. Ava - I really wish that you could see yourself as I do. What I see is a woman who is dependable and dedicated, one who is an excellent employee and real professional. You have discipline and grit that are exhibited by the way you went back to school. You refused to allow any obstacle to to stop you from gaining your degree and then your CPA. You also care about others and want the best for them. I have three suggestions for you. First if all, find a good therapist and explore what's locked inside your head. We all are damaged in life and the best gift you can give yourself is to working on healing yourself. The second thing is to find a good career consultant. I think you could really benefit from working on your resume and interviewing skills with a quality professional. Finally, you need to network. Here, I'm talking about making real connections with other professionals, not just a business card exchange. All of this will take time and may cost a bit of money but you are worth it. One other thought - have you considered the possibility that your boss is black balling you in some way? I have seen people do that in order not to loose a good employee. Yes! You said this much more eloquently than I did. |
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 3, 2020 18:01:57 GMT -5
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 3, 2020 9:16:24 GMT -5
OMG, I’m getting old and gimpy. Somehow both kids ended up in our bed in the middle of the night. I quickly tired of making sure M didn’t get kicked by her brother or fall off the bed, and having myself pushed to the edge of the bed, so I took her back to her (full size) bed and laid down with her for the rest of the night (from maybe 330-630). When I got up, I almost fell over. I was sleeping on my right side, and my right arm/neck/back shoulder area are killing me. Like I could barely get undressed for my shower, can’t really bend over at all, etc. This sucks. I had DH plug the heating pad in by my desk, which helps a little. Argh. I hope this goes away soon. I’m not 40 until 2021, dang it - I don’t need the aches and pains yet.
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Post by tcu2003 on Dec 3, 2020 9:12:15 GMT -5
Ava, I’m trying to figure out a way to say this as gently as possible, but tone is going to be completely lost in the internet, so please take this as well-meaning and because I care - because that’s the place I’m coming from. I have no doubt you’re good at your job - your boss trusts you, has no issue with you taking extended vacations to visit your home country, etc. But whenever you’re looking for a job elsewhere (whether that is internal or external), your posts come across as self-deprecating, you’re probably not good enough, etc. If I can sense all of that through words on a screen, I imagine that’s screaming loudly in a phone or video interview. Somehow you need a way to feel self-confident and that you are more than worthy and qualified and that it’s their loss, not yours, if you’re not hired. Remember- you have a job! So while you may want a new one, you’re not desperate for one. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend reading Amy Cuddy’s book Presence. www.goodreads.com/book/show/25066556If you’re not a reader, she also has a TED talk you could watch (or do both). We all want you to be happy and see you succeed in your career goals. You CAN do this!! |
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