Sunday Post with Berls | Week of February 7th 2022

Week of February 7th 2022

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

Sunday

Today was mostly lazy, honestly. I’m just really worn out from Thursday – Saturday this week. Started the morning off with making breakfast – me and Dante had oatmeal with apples today. Then I did some bootcamp work and ordered groceries for Instacart delivery. When Kiko woke up it was about 11am and I made him breakfast with bacon and pancakes… which Dante also ate. He’s like a Hobbit eating 1st and 2nd breakfast on the weekends lol! Honestly this boy eats all day. After breakfast I started laundry, cleaned out the fridge – groceries arrived while I was doing that so I put them away. I had so spinach getting ready to go bad, so I blended it up with some coconut milk and put it in the ice tray to use for smoothies. Then I cleaned the balcony – with the cold weather and snow Buffy’s grass area got snowed over and she’s been pottying on the deck itself. Honestly, I can’t blame her and I’m just glad she still went outside. So I cleaned that up and vinegared the deck. Hopefully now that the snow has mostly melted she will get back to using her grass like normal. Then I just relaxed and played with Dante. Kiko had run to the store to get a few things and when he came back he had bought Dante a slide! So we had a great time watching him climb up and slide down over and over again. Then it was time to put away one load of laundry and dry the last load. And clean the bathrooms. After that I started work on my BUJO/schedule and goals for the week. We had dinner, put away last load of laundry, cleaned up, bath time, blogging for the week, and now I’m wrapping up and getting ready for bed. All-in-all a good day and even with a lot of relaxing, I’m feeling ready for the week.

Monday

Today was good – Dante didn’t want to wake up in the morning though. He literally groaned when I woke him at 8:30 to go to school. But once he got to school he was so happy. And so was I – I needed a day to focus on work without trying to care for him as well. Work was super busy but productive. We have a survey on Thursday – Friday so I’m getting ready for that. Lots of meetings, emails, etc. Then I spent some time on my bootcamp project as well as lectures for the week. Took Buffy for a walk – I’m not ready to go to the gym quite yet with my back, but I need to get more active than I’ve been. Had a nice evening with Dante, he’s still loving his slide. Hoping to get a good night’s sleep!

Tuesday

Today was stressful. I started work at 6:30 and had about 50 emails waiting for me. I got through the emails, which included a notification from our surveyor that they wanted to use Zoom as our survey platform instead of Teams. And I spent about an hour yesterday sending out those invites yesterday. Which would now have to be canceled – they can’t just be updated because the link is built into the invite and even if you delete it it’s still “there” in the background. Plus there’s communicating to everyone and making sure no one is well, an idiot and doesn’t update their calendar. SMH FML! I didn’t have time to mess with it this morning, as Dante had therapy at 8-9am. It went really well and I’m so glad I didn’t discontinue back when we were in the flux between therapists and then the new one had to cancel due to a death in the family for 2 weeks. He’s making progress and she has lots of great suggestions for me too. After therapy and daycare drop off I had to run in for some blood work that my doctor had ordered last week, but had to be done fasting. I got home around 10am… and had about another 50 emails. What a day… and not even noon yet. I had a couple meetings – both pertaining to the survey. Then I went through and edited the agenda, followed by updating (canceling and sending new appointments). At one point I had so many windows open I unplugged my monitor from my desktop and added it to my work computer so I could have more monitors and more screens visible at one time. Anway — finished that around 3:30, at which point I started document uploading for the survey (due at 5). I went through what the program we’re supporting had uploaded and even though we’re working from the SAME list they were missing half the documents. Cue me pulling my hair out. Then making several phone calls and emails and getting the documents uploaded by 4:55. Yeah. 5 minutes to spare. It should have taken me 15 minutes. I still need to contact catering to update orders for the revised schedule and get our IT setup, but that’s waiting for tomorrow. At 5 I clocked out and called a friend who has an interview tomorrow at UTSW and needed my help with prep. And I need to write her a recommendation letter, since I worked with the Doctor she’s interviewing with in my first position. After that it was time to pick up Dante and I had no time to work on my bootcamp. I’m currently deliberating if I will just go to bed and work on my bootcamp with free time tomorrow (I don’t have that much to do this week) or stay up and work on it (because tomorrow – Friday are sure to be busy days too). Just finished cleaning up while Kiko got Dante ready for bed, so I need to say goodnight and then IDK maybe I’ll work for a little bit. Oh and I totally stress ate today. I like carbs when I’m stressed – I ate a healthy breakfast, but then disintegrated into pretzels and coke for lunch (that was my whole lunch). Kiko made eggs and chorizo for dinner, so not bad. But now I’m having dark chocolate and wine…

Wednesday – Thursday

Wednesday was better as far as work. It was busy, but not so crazy or irritating. I had enough time to catch up and basically finish my bootcamp work. I was so tired by the end of the day that I was alseep after 5 pages though LOL! I honestly am having trouble really remember Wednesday because today (Thursday) was one hell of a day.

So adventures in Thursday… We have a survey today and tomorrow. So incredibly busy. I was out the door by 7:30, daycare drop off, and to work by 8am. Around 11am – been working non-stop – I stand up and get super dizzy and have to sit back down. I notice at that point I have a bad headache… Well I’m in a room of nurses and RTs… They of course are like you need to check your blood pressure. My boss was ready to make me go downstairs to the ED when I started feeling nauseated. I told her I was fine, just a lot of stress lately. She called someone to come take my blood pressure. I oscillated between mortified and also worried they were right (although I JUST was at the Dr last week and perfectly healthy). My blood pressure was perfect and so was my pulse, thank goodness. I think I was dehydrated because I started downing water and ended up feeling better.

Meanwhile, Dante has his valentines party tomorrow. The valentines I bought arrived yesterday – they have these little bubble wands… Well Kiko freaked out last night that the bubble wand was unsafe and the kids could choke on it. Let me tell you, I was like “fine you get something because I don’t have time!!” but you know he’s not going to (Because men?!) so I found some sticker ones for$ 2.50 at Target. So I raced to stop there on my way home to pick up Dante.

Then I get to daycare and they tell me Dante was fighting today! He dragged a kid across the playground. I alternate between shock, disappointment/worry, and laughing my ass off thinking about it. Like what the hell? Dante did what? The teachers didn’t tell me much. They speculated that he was frustrated with the other kid bugging him because he really doesn’t play with them a whole ton. But I think – having been a teacher – that they didn’t see it start and suddenly saw Dante dragging the kid . They had him do a 2-minute time out and were laughing about it, so I don’t think it’s serious but still OMG!

And then my brother is supposed to babysit tomorrow so we can have a date night and Kiko doesn’t get why I need a night off. He’s all “I’m happy home with Dante, you go out if it’s so bad.” The look I gave him when he said that must have spoken volumes because we are now planning to go to the mall, walk around, get dinner and just have a nice night. Now I’m going to call it an early night — when Dante goes to bed, I’m going to curl up with my book and hopefully finish the last 45 pages! 

Friday – Saturday

What a great end to the week y’all! So Friday I did have survey so I had to be to work by 7:30, but it was the smoothest survey we’ve ever had! We had 0 findings – ZERO! – that’s like unheard of. And HR, which are usually are most challenging and disastrous of every survey – although they had some behind the scenes bumps – actually did well. And I was out of there by 2pm! I went to my brother’s after the survey to spend some time, do some homework, etc. and then he came with me because he was watching Dante for me and Kiko to have date-night/Valentine’s. Kiko and I went to the mall and got on the wait list at PF Changs and then just walked around (with our masks). This mall has a lot of nice art, sculptures and fountains, not to mention stores that are just insanely expensive and just fun to look at (Tiffanys, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, you get the idea…). Our dinner was delicious (see Instagram Pictures) and Dante had a great time with his Uncle Phil. I even got to bed in time to get a full 8 hours sleep!

Then today Dante woke up just after 8am, which was perfect timing. I made his breakfast (Eggs, blueberries) and then Kiko’s breakfast (pancakes, bacon, coffee) and my smoothie (spinach, pineapple, strawberry, protein powder, and coconut milk) just in time to sit down for my Bootcamp class at 9am. And OMG y’all! This was our last class for this section (Bootstrap), and we had to present our portfolio projects. Then we split into groups to work on the workshop assignment with our groups. Our instructor, Kirsten, came to our group and said (my attempt to quote from memory): “I wanted to come talk to just the 4 of you, where no one else can hear. You 4 are the best students and group I have EVER had. I’ve been teaching code for about 20 years, and I don’t say that lightly. Really fantastic work.” We thanked her and Ashley (part of the team) jokingly asked if we could get job recommendations. Kirsten paused and said (again my attempt to quote) : “I don’t give recommendations generally for this course because of the limited time and exposure to students. That being said, for you four, I would absolutely make an exception. The way you have challenged yourselves way beyond the scope of the assignment, the way you are curious and don’t just give up when something doesn’t work but seek answers, the way you understand how to be part of a team – those are the qualities of a successful developer. It’s not about what you know as much as it is about attitude, curiosity and teamwork. I would hire any one of you and be fortunate to have you on my team. I would happily tell any prospective employer that. ” Y’all!! Talk about a confidence boost. And just like wow, you know the value of her recommendation?! Someone who’s been in the industry this long and the people she knows? She teaches on the side. She does this professionally for a day job. I’m glowing with gratitude. 

The rest of my Saturday was truthfully lazy. I just really am soaking in a lazy weekend. I did do meal planning and put in our grocery order for tomorrow (Instacart again) and I setup my bullet journal for next week. Besides that I sat down and watched the first TV on my own for me in weeks – I watched 2 or 3 episodes of Ordinary Joe; I am unfortunately caught up and there’s no certainty if we’ll get another season. Please go watch it so that it will get popular enough to give me another season! And then I watched 2 episodes of Married at First Sight while playing with Dante. It’s my mindless tv show and I just love it. And that’s my week! I do plan on being busy and productive tomorrow with meal prep, a COYER readalong chat, cleaning, laundry, etc, but today was so nice.

Blog News

Be sure to stop by and add your link for My TBR List if you participated last week! We had a little mixup and we didn’t get the post up last week but we’re back on schedule starting yesterday!

Last week on Because Reading

• [7 Feb] Mine to Crave by Cynthia Eden ★★★★★
• [8 Feb] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Chores
• [9 Feb] High Jinx by Kelley Armstrong ★★★★½
• [9 Feb] Goddess of Summer Love by Kelley Armstrong ★★★½
• [11 Feb] One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost ★★★★½
• [12 Feb] #MyTBRList Results and Linky: February 2022
• [13 Feb] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of February 7th 2022

Challenge update

This week I finished:

I’m participating in 7 Challenges, plus the Goodreads Challenge, this year. Here’s how I’m doing.

1. COYER Seasons & COYER Community 2022 –
   1. Winter – 13 books so far
2. Bookish Resolutions – This was a challenge that Michelle used to do without me and she took last year off. This year we’re bringing it back together. Details on post, but basically I’m setting 5 “bookish” goals for the year: Here are my goals:
   1. Blog ahead at least 1 week. So far so good! I will be getting my posts for next week scheduled today (Sunday)
   2. Keep a blogging planner. This is not going so well. I loved the idea, but with my BUJO I just don’t have the time for this too.
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. This week I only made it to like 3 or 4 posts. Not my best week. I will try again this week!
   4. Reply to comments each week. I’m probably at about 50% for this week. I’m trying y’all!
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day – This I’m on track with – every book I’ve finished I have reviewed thus far!
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge – 3/50
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge – 13/75
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge – 2/24
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – I’m working on the Mine series by Cynthia Eden first… 1 book down, 2 to go.

FitReaders (hosted by Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About & Felicia The Geeky Blogger)

My big goal for 2022 is to lose weight every month. I’m not setting a specific number goal; I just need to make sure I’m going the right direction (down) every month. I will weigh in on the last day of each month only (so I don’t get too attached to the scale).

How I’m getting there in this week:

1. Drink minimum 100oz of water daily – I did this Monday – Wednesday and fell short the rest of the week.
2. Vegetables with my breakfast, lunch, dinner daily + a veggie pack snack – If I ever needed confirmation that I’m a stress carb eater, this week did it. I did breakfast and dinner 3 days this week, 1 lunch and 1 snack. Not great.
3. My miracle morning routine (1 item minimum) every day – Did it.

Weight gain/loss for the year so far: +3.9 pounds Feb 1. I won’t weigh again until March 1.

Added to My Shelf

I’m trying to be more responsible about keeping track of the books I acquire, so I’m going to start sharing them again. If I share them here, surely I’ll remember to add them to Goodreads, right?

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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