Week of January 23rd 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 extremely productive. Groceries were delivered by 8am, around the time Dante was waking up. I made breakfast, cleaned the fridge as I put away groceries, and then spent the morning playing with Dante. When Kiko got up, I started on my bootcamp work (planning for the week). Around 2, I put away laundry and then Dante and I got dressed and went for a walk to the park and played a bit. After the park I picked up a late lunch/early dinner — we’d snacked all morning so no lunch — and then tried to put Dante down for a nap. Operative word, tried. He wasn’t interested. So we played some more and I took care of some more work – cleaning bathrooms and dusting and blogging for the week, etc. Kiko did bath time while I finished cleaning up for the night and then it was bedtime. I just finished up the last of my prep for the week and I’m getting ready to head to bed. The only negative is I twinged my back a little…. hopefully a good night’s rest and some morning yoga will do the trick!
Monday
Today was mostly good. I didn’t sleep great because Kiko woke me up at that moment when you’re falling asleep – you know the one where you about to have blissful sleep, but if you are awoken, it’s all over? Yeah that moment. It was because he got an Explanation of Benefits from his dental work and he didn’t understand it and thought he was going to have to pay money and was pissed. I explained to him over and over that it’s not a bill and he just couldn’t understand. So first thing this morning – after my miracle morning (which was sluggish thanks to my fitful sleep) – I got to work on his EOB and as it turns out, I think the dentist owes him… a LOT of money. Over $1k. And turns out, they owe me a little too. So yay. I called them and they had me email my EOB. They may try to fancy talk it but I don’t see how. Fingers crossed.
Then I got down to roach warfare. That’s literally what I wrote in my BUJO for today’s goal – Roach Warfare. It took hours – I joined my nutritionist call and took a couple other calls while doing it – I emptied out the pantry, and anything ANYTHING that I felt could have been remotely penetrated by the roaches was in the trash. I wiped down every shelf and then powdered them with this stuff I researched called “Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade.” It is harmless to humans and pets – Yay! – but when roaches and other bugs like them (so ants, for example) walk through it, it starts to suck all the water out of them and they dry up and die. So I powdered every shelf with that. I pulled out the fridge, the washing machine, the stove and the dryer, cleaned behind them, powdered, and left traps. I cleaned under the sink and powdered and left traps. I emptied out every cupboard and powdered the corners. I pulled out my desk and powdered and left traps. I switched out Buffy’s food canister with a ceramic one that is made to keep bugs out (rather than the regular Tupperware one I had). I’m also putting it on a raised platform and removed her water fountain. I cleaned the sink drains with this special chemical and then put lavender sink sticks in (supposed to deter them). I powdered the base boards and crevices. And as a final touch I put in an Electronic Pest Repeller. The only supply that hadn’t arrived is the actual poison, which I planned to use sparingly anyway because I can’t have it in places Buffy or Dante can get to. Oh and I already had roach poison traps around, which stayed. I’m optimistic because (1) our numbers have already been declining and (2) I found very few live roaches today and several dead ones — a good sign that my poison traps were already doing their job to an extent. It’s the most disgusting day and I really enjoyed my shower. All because I have dirty neighbors!! If this doesn’t work, all I can think of is arsen.
I also got a lot of bootcamp work done today, not as much as I wanted because the roach warfare took so much time. But I’m making good pace on it and will dedicate a lot of time to it tomorrow. I had wanted to get to the gym but ran out of time. Tomorrow!
Tuesday
Today was busy! I worked from 6:30 – 8. Dante had therapy 8-9 (went well) and then Dentist at 10 (went well enough, though they said to switch to fluoride toothpaste and start flossing – not too sure about either…) and I dropped him off at daycare around 11. Then I ran to the car wash, grabbed a tea from Starbucks and went to the gym. I wanted to take an 11:45 Barre class, but it was cancelled. So, I ended up taking a pretty great 12pm spin class instead. Then it was home to shower and back to work. I had a little bit to do, but mostly I was working on bootcamp work until 6 when I went to get Dante from daycare.
One frustrating thing happened – Michelle had sent me a Christmas present and accidentally sent it to my old apartment. Kiko finally was able to get the box from them – they had opened it and while they gave me back the books, they stole the cup she had bought. Grrr. But I’m super excited to read the books (you’ll see them below). I finsihed up bootcamp work after dinner and am still a little behind where I wanted to be for the week, but doing well enough. I have to go into the office the next 3 days so I’m a little anxious about how much I’ll be able to get done.
Wednesday
Whew what a busy day! I did my morning routine really well and was out the door with Dante by 8:10, to work before 9 and the day just never stopped. We have a survey tomorrow, so I was busy setting up technology for that and confirming catering. Then I had a couple meetings. By 11 I was down in the Kitchen doing another trayline volunteer shift, as they are still super understaffed because of COVID. I was back in the office just before 3, and had 2 things to knock out and left around 3:30. I went to my brother’s – took a bath and decontaminated myself before going home to Dante – and also he helped me with learning some tricks in Figma that I need to use for Bootcamp this week. Picked Dante up about 6:15, did dinner, and then at 7:30 I had a call with my bootcamp project team – that ended around 8:15. Dante was in the bath at that point, so I started cleaning up. We’re about to put him to bed and then I’m going to try and get to bed at a reasonable time — didn’t get near as much done with bootcamp as I was hoping to today. We have survey tomorrow, but it doesn’t start until noon, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some work done in the morning on my bootcamp. I’m going to try and do a little bit more before bed tonight too.
Thursday
Today went better than I expected. I was the only one in the command center for the survey quite a bit of the day so I was able to work on my bootcamp and make a lot of progress. I’m done with everything I wanted to have done by this point in the week. The only real bad thing today is that my low back is killing me. So I’m going to have to take Tylenol PM tonight – I have to get to work early tomorrow so I need to get to bed well too.
Oh cute thing – Dante’s teacher told me that yesterday I decided to strip, throw away his diaper and put on a new one – all on his own. LOL! This boy! Now if only he would talk!!
Friday
My back really hurt badly today. I ended up taking Motrin this morning and then every four hours all day. We had a survey, so I was pretty busy until about 1:30 when everything wrapped up. And I went to my brothers, where I took Tylenol in addition to Motrin and sat with a heating pad while they helped me with some bootcamp work. The heating pad helped for sure. I’m just feeling super drained though and am headed to bed, since I have bootcamp tomorrow morning.
Saturday
My back pain really ruled the day today. I woke up in pain and it had traveled into my hips (particularly my left hip) as well. I can’t stand straight without pain; if I lean to the right it hurts less. Anyway – Dante was up around 8am. I got some motrin and then started on breakfast – I made eggs for Dante, along with some blueberries. While he was eating that I made Kiko pancakes and bacon and got that all ready so that when he got up at 8:50 he would have breakfast ready. Then I locked myself in the bedroom for bootcamp from 9 – 1 (and I had a heating pad on, which really helped I think). It went really well and I’m feeling really confident in my abilities. And I’m still loving it – I find myself wanting to work on our project every free moment I have. After bootcamp, Kiko had to go to the store, so we did lunch and I took Dante to the park. I probably should have tried to take it easy – but I just spent the entire morning locked away on a Saturday, so I was trying to makeup for that time. Well it backfired. He was apparently more tired than I had anticipated because he was extremely fussy at the end and I ended up having to pick him up and he was bucking around in my arms (even fought getting in his car seat, not something he has EVER done) — so you know, NOT great for my back. He did have a great time until he got tired though. And it was exhaustion because I loaded him into the car and by time we were home (7 minutes) he was fast asleep. I carried him upstairs and laid him down – he napped from about 3 – 5… tired baby!! I used that time to do some stretches (helped a little maybe) and do some more coding work.
After his nap we had dinner – I ordered in some Italian – and Franky stopped by for a bit. Always good to see him. I did some more coding work (I’m telling you, I’m addicted and excited to work on this project). Dante is now down for bed. I just took some Motrin and I’m about to add some Tylenol PM and go to bed. I’m hoping tomorrow is better – I have so much to do to get ready for the week.
Blog News
Last week on Because Reading
- [24 Jan] In Every Generation by Kendare Blake ★★★★
- [25 Jan] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Review Stress?
- [26 Jan] High Stakes by Hannah Jayne ★★★
- [26 Jan] Stake Out by Hannah Jayne ★★★
- [27 Jan] Swoony Billionaire: Kline Brooks Collection by Max Monroe ★★★★½
- [27 Jan] Tapping Her by Max Monroe ★★★★
- [27 Jan] Tapping the Billionaire by Max Monroe ★★★★½
- [27 Jan] Be My Billionaire Valentine by Max Monroe ★★½
- [28 Jan] Cursed Luck by Kelley Armstrong ★★★★
- [30 Jan] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of January 23rd 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.
- COYER Seasons & COYER Community 2022 –
- Winter – 10 books
- 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:
- Blog ahead at least 1 week. I plan to blog ahead for next week today. I’ve been staying 1 week ahead so far.
- Keep a blogging planner. I did not do great keeping up this week. I think I skipped Wednesday – Saturday… basically when I got super tired and back pain, etc.
- Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. I didn’t do great visiting at the end of the week… but early on I did make it to at least 7.
- Reply to comments each week. I’m a little behind – the last few nights have been a struggle with the back pain and that’s when I typically reply to comments. But I’ve read them all!
- Review books before starting a new book/on the same day – I have 1 review to write from a book I finished on Friday. Otherwise, doing well. Again, back pain is defeating me.
- The Backlist Reader Challenge – 2/50 books
- 2022 Audiobook Challenge – 10/75
- 2022 Library Love Challenge – 1/24
- 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – I’ve made progress on 1 series so far, but still have several books to read in that series.
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).
Well this week was not great. And I’m pretty sure I continued gaining weight this month 🙁 Probably has something to do with the backpain too actually.
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?
UGH. I hope you are feeling better this week. That’s so frustrating – take it easy (as you can!). I also hope the roaches are gone soon. And I’m so pissed on your behalf about the stolen mug. What jerks.
My week last week was busy. I went into my office on Tuesday, and it was nice to see actual people. We also had a huge blizzard on Saturday, so I did massive TV watching with my girl. My January overall didn’t go so great from a fitness stand point. I need to slow down and focus on one or two goals.
Thank you Jen – I’m off to the doctor tomorrow so fingers crossed! And the roaches are proving a formidable enemy, but I think I’m making headway. OMG so pissed about the mug! Who does that?!
Yay for tv watching with your girl – that sounds wonderful. I’m with you on needing to slow my roll with the goals – I’m trying to focus on fewer too. Here’s to a new month and a fresh slate!
I hope your back is feeling better— roaches suck . I hope you have turned the tide -Have a good week!
Thank you so much Victoria, I hope so too! I’m headed to the doctor tomorrow for my back #fingerscrossed!
I hope that gets rid of the roaches for you. I live in an apartment complex too and if one apartment gets them, all of them do and they are hard to get rid of.
Thank you, me too. I’m so tired of playing kill the roaches every morning when I come out. That’ s the time I see them most, like they come out of the woodworking while we’re sleeping – which also seriously creeps me out.
You always do so much. Well you know I had that horrid back/hip thing last year for months and I hope it’s not that. It started in my left hip and moved to the right where it has stayed. I still do my PT exercises twice daily. I hope you feel much better soon but don’t stop moving, just move gently. My mistake was to shut down completely.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I remember and really hope it doesn’t get that bad for me. Honestly, with Dante I don’t see how it would manage to stop moving – so there’s that at least. I am going to take a brief hiatus from the gym – but I’m planning to be really good about doing my yoga each morning with a focus on lower back and hip stretches. Hopefully that will help.
Gosh, I’m exhausted just reading all that.
I hope your back improves
Wishing you a great reading week
Thank you Shelleyrae! Fingers crossed this week is better for the back!! Have a great week 🙂
Wow! Sounds like a busy and productive week! Hope your back feels better soon. I know that back pain is no fun.
Nice new reads too! I looooved Jeaniene’s series! It’s one of my favorites and I am so excited for her release this year that is the first book from Bones’ point of view! I know it’s in e-serial form now, but I’ve never been good with serial novels. Hope you enjoy all the new reads!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
Jeaniene’s series is a reread for me, I’m joining in with Anne’s Readalong and was excited to reread it since it’s been so long since I read it last. Such a great series. I will wait until the book comes out because I also struggle with e-serials!
Thank you, I’m praying this week brings some recovery for my back. Have a great week!!