Sunday Post with Berls | Week of January 16th 2022

 Week of January 16th 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 a semi-lazy day. I’m realizing that getting my groceries delivered saved me A LOT of time. Like, it may be worth the added expense. I was super lazy this morning – made pancakes for breakfast and just chilled with Dante. Then I did laundry, took a shower, had COYER Readalong Chat, put Dante down for a nap, changed the grass for Buffy’s area, did meal prep for the week (roasted veggies and breakfast hash), finished laundry, cleaned bathrooms, dinner (Kiko made us salmon, I made us rice), put fresh sheets on the beds, picked up and vacuumed while Kiko gave Dante a bath, and then finished setting up my BUJO for the week and put Dante down for bed. I’m now enjoying a glass of wine with some Dots Pretzels (Stephanie got me hoooked!) and then will be off to bed. So like I said, semi-lazy day. Kiko is working tomorrow, but me and Dante are home so I needed to be prepared for the week. Here’s to a great week!

Monday

I had a really wonderful day today. I slept in a bit since I was off – Dante let me sleep until about 8 (so that’s 2 hours more than usual). Kiko worked today, though, so it was just me and Dante. I made him a pancake (left over batter from yesterday) and eggs for breakfast and then we got ready for the day. He tried to dress himself and got stuck in 1 pant leg LOL! It was adorable! But with some assistance he managed to put on his own diaper (it’s a 360, kind of like pullups), pants, socks, and boots. He tried to put his shirt on his legs, so not there with that yet. Buffy had a 10am groomer appointment – her first one in YEARS (like before Dante was born). I used to keep up with that pretty well on my own, but since Dante was born I’ve struggled and decided it was finally time to take her to a groomer. I planned poorly, though, scheduling for a day I would have Dante by myself. So when I got to the groomer, I had to pull out the stroller, but Dante in, put the rain cover over his stroller (works like a mask), then get Buffy, take her in, and then load him and the stroller back in the car.  A lot of work for what could be a 2 minute in and out. I see how parents get tempted to leave the kids in the car for just a couple minutes… but there’s ABSOLUTELY NO WAY I could take that risk with Dante.

Anyway, while Buffy was at the groomer – which is about 25 minutes away – instead of going home, we went to a really nice park right around the corner. It was EMPTY, yay! and Dante had a blast climbing up and going down the slides over and over. It’s also be a little path and when he got tired we walked a bit, until I got the text that Buffy was ready. They did a great job and her nails are the best they’ve ever been. So we’ll be doing this regularly moving forward.

Then this afternoon, Dante played by himself a bit while I did some school work. I tried to put him down for a nap, but he was not in the mood. Guess I didn’t tire him out enough at the playground lol! When I finished my school work for the day, I took Dante back outside and we did a quick walk before Kiko came home and we had dinner. Now just trying to get myself wrapped up and to bed before it gets too late – I have a busy week ahead!

Tuesday – Wednesday

Work was busy these past couple days! In follow up from our survey last month, we have a couple DOZEN meetings and I had to get them all scheduled. Many of these meetings involve getting the schedules of 2-4 very busy Directors and AVPs available at the same time, which is no small feat. I spent hours juggling schedules, since all these meetings also needed to happen before the end of the month. The only good things are (1) I don’t actually have to attend any of these meetings and (2) I’m done scheduling.

On top of that, I just had a lot going on outside of work too. Tuesday morning Dante had his speech therapy – she didn’t cancel and it was productive, yay! Fingers crossed that continues – and then Tuesday afternoon I had my bi-weekly therapy session. I talked about roaches lol. I know, what a way to use your therapy time, but this is giving me extreme anxiety. I’ve managed to get us back down to only a couple a day, but just THINKING about them makes my skin crawl. I have a bunch of stuff I ordered from Amazon that should be here by Friday and I’ll be launching a full on assault. Because Tuesday was so busy, I was up pretty late doing my bootcamp course work.

Wednesday was busy, but not as crazy as Tuesday. I finished scheduling all the meeting around 11 am and then I had a virtual baby shower to begin planning – one of our team members is having Twins, due in March, but we’re expecting a February delivery (as with most multiple births). I had wanted to go to the gym at 12 but didn’t make it, plus that would have been cutting it close for a 1pm meeting. Then I got my coding almost completely done – I had to run out the door around 3 for a doctor’s appointment (annual well-woman). Then at 4;30 I met up with a friend I haven’t seen since 2019. She’s a teacher friend that texted me out of the blue this weekend and wanted to get together. She’s considering leaving teaching and wanted to pick my brain. And we also just caught up. It was so good to see her! Then it was pick Dante up from daycare, dinner, play, clean up, finish coding homework while Kiko did bath time, and bed time. I’m trying to wrap up a few things and get to bed a little earlier tonight. Hoping tomorrow will be less hectic and I can finally make it to the gym this week!

Thursday

Today felt productive. I was semi busy at work – we had an interview to fill our hospital coordinator position and I have to say I was relieved when we didn’t think he was the best fit because I want my recommendation to get the position, but I also want her to get it because she’s the best fit, not because I like her… if that makes sense. So the fact that she is the best so far makes me happy 🙂 I also had the dentist today and that went really well. I tend to have gum problems, but they are looking much better. Yay! After the Dentist I came home, finished up my bootcamp work for today and made it to the gym. I took a yoga class that really stretches the muscles and joints by holding poses for a long time. It is tough but feels amazing at the same time. And I’m just glad I finally made it to the gym! After the gym I rushed home and took a shower, hopped on to my 6pm nutrition group call, while heading out to pick up Dante from daycare. He was all ready and all smiles when I picked him up. Oh, cutest thing this morning! When I dropped him off all the kids waved and said “Hi Dante” over and over again. It was adorable. It also made me a little sad, because he just stood there smiling, unable to answer them back. On the plus, he’s happy and he was smiling at them in response. I just wish he were talking at his age group’s level. Anyway… after daycare pickup and my call (which finished on the drive home) we had dinner (I had it in the crockpot) and relaxed for the evening. I’m hoping to work a half day tomorrow… I think all my roach elimination/prevention materials will have arrived and I can go from what I’ve been doing (cleaning hard core every night, roach traps, freaking out…) to a full-on assault. Fingers crossed tomorrow works out as planned!

Friday

Today was good, but not as planned. I planned on getting off work at 11:30 – I didn’t finish until almost 12. Then my bootcamp work took longer than planned – not bad, really good actually, just I hadn’t anticipated it taking as long. And my roach killing supplies haven’t arrived yet, so no roach assault yet. Maybe Monday… (I can’t hope to do it this weekend between bootcamp and Dante).

As a nice treat Brandee was in town again and I got to meet up with her for a very late lunch / early dinner. We had a couple drinks too and ended up chatting for 3 hours! It was nice to see her again and she’s probably coming into town again next month. I’m loving getting to see her more often. Then I picked up dinner for Kiko and Dante – they had fried chicken per Kiko’s request – picked up Dante and came home for a nice evening of dinner, playtime, and clean up before bedtime. Dante is down for bed and I’m headed to bed myself so that I can get a good night’s sleep before class tomorrow morning.

Saturday

Dante woke up at 5:30 this morning! I don’t know why, but thankfully I only knew that because I’m incredibly attuned to him. He wasn’t crying or anything, he just got up and started playing in his room. I lay there watching him on the cam (while Kiko blissfully slept on) wondering if I was going to have to get up and by 6am he had gotten back in his bed and gone to sleep. And I went right back to sleep (I’d been nodding the whole time anyway). I slept until 8:45 when I got up to get ready for my bootcamp at 9. I made some tea and a bowl of cottage cheese with applesauce and Kiko came out to lay on the couch until Dante woke up. He apparently woke around 9:30, but I was deep into my bootcamp by then.

Bootcamp went great. I’m actually getting super excited because we were randomly put into groups today and my group just happened to be the strongest 4 students (me included). We all felt exactly the same way and we had an incredibly productive morning working on our assignment and debugging each other’s code. We finished 30 minutes early and started talking about our portfolio projects… long story short we’ve decided to work as a team (optional, but highly recommended) and while we will focus on 1 project (a Hogwarts themed restaurant restaurant website) we’re going to also work on the other 3 projects (mine is for COYER, a book quote app, and a Mass Effect Fan Site) on the side to help us all develop stronger portfolios. I think we are the 4 oldest students in the class and we’re probably the one’s most motivated to not just do well in the bootcamp but to really come out strong for the job market at the end.

Anyway after a very productive bootcamp I came out to say good morning (well afternoon – it was 1pm) to Dante. He was thrilled to see me and we played and giggled 🙂 After I had some lunch – they had already had breakfast and lunch – we went to the park and played for a bit. After the park we stopped at the store and Kiko picked up some fajita meat to grill for dinner. Franky came over to grill with Kiko and play with Dante – we had a nice family dinner and sort of watched Encanto finally. I say sort of because we were cooking and playing and cooking and talking while watching it. I can tell it’s a good movie and I probably saw 50% of it… maybe 1 more time watching it and I’ll get to the full 100%.

A great Saturday! I just finished ordering groceries for delivery tomorrow morning, putting away Dante’s laundry and mine is in the wash. So just a few chores for tomorrow and maybe a little time to relax!

Blog News

Last week on Because Reading

• [17 Jan] Hot Stuff by Max Monroe ★★★★½
• [18 Jan] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Best Blogging & Author Interactions
• [19 Jan] Charming Billionaire: The Thatcher Kelly Collection by Max Monroe ★★★★
• [19 Jan] Banking the Billionaire by Max Monroe ★★★★
• [19 Jan] Banking Her by Max Monroe ★★★½
• [19 Jan] Crazy Fluffing Love by Max Monroe ★★★½
• [23 Jan] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of January 16th 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. Coyer Winter – 8 books
2. Bookish Resolutions – Here are my goals:
   1. Blog ahead at least 1 week. I plan to do my blog posts for this week today, so I should continue to be on track with this.
   2. Keep a blogging planner. I kind of faltered with this a bit this week. Maybe 2 nights I did it…
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. I made it to several posts this week, not as many as I would like but more than 7!
   4. Reply to comments each week. I’m happy to report I’ve answered every comment this year so far 🙂
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day -On track with this goal!
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge – 1/50
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge – 8/75
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge – 1/24
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – I am currently reading a book from a series I really wanted to finish, so yay!

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).

This week’s goals:

1. Miracle Morning Daily ✓
2. Drink 150 oz Daily (Water, not wine lol) – I got in at least 54 oz daily but not my goal
3. Daily reflection at night before bed
   1. Monday ✓
   2. Tuesday ✓
   3. Wednesday X
   4. Thursday ✓
   5. Friday X
   6. Saturday ✓
4. 1 veggie per meal, plus 1 veggie pack daily –
   1. Monday ✓
   2. Tuesday ✓
   3. Wednesday – Dinner only
   4. Thursday – Lunch, Dinner, and Snack
   5. Friday – Lunch, Dinner, and Snack
   6. Saturday – Lunch, Dinner
5. 4 workouts (1 strength, 2 cardio, 1 flexibility)
   1. 2 cardio, 1 flexibility, no strength

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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