Sunday Post with Berls | Week of January 30th 2022

Week of January 30th 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 I was really pretty lazy, just nursing my back pain. Despite not falling asleep until almost midnight, Dante was up at 7:30 (we put him to bed at his normal bedtime, he just didn’t sleep)! I made breakfast and then tried to do some blog visiting while playing with Dante. I took Motrin every 4 hours all day. Thankfully I still have Instacart for free and had groceries delivered. It really does cost so much more this way – but between my back pain and the time it saves me right now with my bootcamp, I think it’s a decent trade. We took Dante for a walk in the afternoon and he started falling asleep in the stroller. We tried getting him out to run around a bit, but he just sat down and started crying in the middle of the path. LOL! So we took him home to take a nap — and he ended up in his room for 2 hours, not napping. *shrugs* I guess the mood had passed. While he was supposed to be napping I did my blogging for the week and also get my bujo setup for next month and next week. Kiko’s giving him a bath right now and then we’re hoping he’ll go to sleep a little early since he’s seriously behind on sleep this weekend. I need to put his laundry up, pick up the living room, vacuum, wipe down counters, sweep and that’s it. I did not do my laundry or clean bathrooms today because of my back. I do them every weekend, so they’re not bad, but I’ll have to get them cleaned through the week. And I’ll do laundry Tuesday — I’m working at the office tomorrow.

Monday – Tuesday

Monday my pain continued, and I started upping the pain meds. I also had a really productive therapy session, including her helping me find a doctor very close to me. I just need to get setup. I worked at my brother’s today and made a lot of progress on my coding. I’m still loving it! I also found out that my recommendation for the Hospital Coordinator position accepted the job. I think she’s going to be a great addition to the team, plus it’s so good for her to get out of education — PLUS someone else to do some of the work I’ve been carrying. Kiko gave me a massage with some muscle cream and I’m hoping it helps with the pain.

Tuesday, I woke up in less pain, but still considerable. So, after my miracle morning with some light stretches, I booked an appointment at the doctor for tomorrow afternoon (first available). Dante had his therapy this morning and it was productive; I’m hoping it continues to be good. I worked all day with my heating pad and heat really does help — but as soon as I’m off it, the pain returns. I got most my work done by 12/1 and spent the rest of the afternoon working on my coding – continuing to make great progress and to enjoy it. Then I met up with a friend of mine at Torchy’s along with our new Hospital Coordinator (that’s how I got her as a recommendation, through our mutual friend) and I can tell I really like her :)! My friend just got her second interview for a position I’m trying to help her get as well, so she can also get out of education. So now to help her strategize for her interview! Then it was time to get Dante, dinner, and just unwind for the night. Trying really hard this month to start getting in bed by 9:30.

Wednesday

Today my back felt better than it has since last week, but I realize that’s not saying much. Basically, I can walk without feeling like I need to double over in tears. I made it to the doctor today and she suspected it’s muscle strain but she had me do both an x-ray on back and hips and also a urine test to make sure it wasn’t kidney (since I had a kidney infection this summer). Results were back almost immediately and it’s neither of those. She prescribed me some stronger pain meds, along with a muscle relaxant for nighttime. And then she also is referring me to Physical Therapy. I can’t say I’m thrilled about PT because I’ve gone before after surgery and it’s painful work, BUT I’m willing to do it. She suspects that this injury is a buildup of all my activity… and I think she’s probably right.

My appointment was 1-3:30 (with labs and x-rays and everything). I worked until about 5:30 — some official work, some coding work (still loving it!). Then I went to get my prescription and pick up Dante. By then the freezing rain was just starting and I was thankful to make it home before it got really bad. I’m definitely having some anxiety about this weather – I’m not a fan normally, but with the power outages of last year I’m extra anxious. But I’m also extra prepared. We have a heated blanket that works off of a power bank (and we have 4 power banks, fully charged for phones, tablet, and blanket). We have battery powered lanterns, plus candles for light. We have bottled water (because we lost water last year too). I’m going to fill that bathtub tonight and we’re leaving the faucets dripping (which gives me major anxiety because that’s just going to attract the roaches, which are finally almost gone I think, but what can we do? GRRR). Andwe have a grill that we can use to cook food on the balcony now. Not to mention Dante is older, so he’ll eat more cold foods and he’ll get into bed with us for warmth – both things he wouldn’t do last year. So we’re ready and I’m praying we just keep power and water for the majority of the next couple days. Dante’s school is closed the rest of the week, so it’ll be me and him at home. Kiko and I both have to work, which means it’ll be just me and with my back I’m a little anxious about that too. Thankfully he doesn’t need much picking up these days unless we’re going outside, which we won’t be doing.

Thursday – Saturday

Well on the positive, our power never went out! Yay! But Dante was home with me while I worked and I’m wondering how in the hell I did that for over a year? He’s a wonderful baby (toddler) and really does play by himself great. But he needs attention. And he likes to climb so I was frequently running to grab him before he fell off of a table or the back of the couch, etc. And to make things all the more fun, we had a survey announced Thursday for next Thursday, which meant my normally not so busy days got extremley busy. I worked both days from 6:30a – 5:30p. If Dante had been at school, that probably would have just been an 8 hour day. He didn’t even nap — I’m starting to think he’s done with naps — so I didn’t get that time to work without interruption.

I did really enjoy spending the time with him, though. Lots of hugs, for one. But also, I took him outside for his first snow. He has boots and a winter coat, but that’s it. So I did double pants and thick socks on his hands for mittens. And out we went. I’d say he loved it, of course. I hate cold weather and snow (any cold wet thing — name that reference lol!) but I enjoyed him enjoying it. For some pics head over to Instagram 🙂

Another positive, the meds the doctor gave me for the back pain have been really working AND I think I’m also healing. Today (Saturday) I needed a pill in the morning but then I haven’t taken another one and my back is just now starting to hurt a bit (10pm). So definitely a huge improvement. I’m thinking I may not need to do PT after all!

Finally, Saturday was quite the day. Kiko is on call and at 2:30am he got a call because an apartment had caught fire. The fire department put the fire out and no one was hurt, thank goodness. But if you’ve ever seen a place after the fire department was there, well OMG. They destroyed significant portions of 3 apartments – the one next to and above the apartment with the fire. I don’t blame them in the slightest, the fire is the priority. But it meant Kiko was working from 2:30am – 6am moving residents out and patching up the one where it was just her floor. And then he was back at it around 9:30am – 10:30ish. Plus he got several other calls today. All while I had my live bootcamp class. Normally I lock myself in the bedroom and he watches Dante. But today I was watching Dante during class – he made several Zoom appearances lol. So it was like a repeat of Thursday and Friday! And this afternoon I was very mentally exhausted, so I didn’t accomplish much. I did a little bit more bootcamp work and well, that’s about it. We ordered in dinner and ended up watching The Blind Side. I enjoyed it, but it does mean I’m going to have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Definitely ordering in groceries with Instacart this week!

Last week on Because Reading

• [31 Jan] Reckless Times by Michelle Hercules ★★★½
• [1 Feb] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Black authors and Characters
• [3 Feb] Hexed Hiss-tory by Danielle Garrett ★★★★
• [3 Feb] Cursed Claws by Danielle Garrett ★★★★½
• [4 Feb] Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead ★★★½
• [6 Feb] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of January 30th 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 – 11 books
2. Bookish Resolutions – Here are my goals:
   1. Blog ahead at least 1 week. I’ve maintained 1 week so far and plan to write my posts for next week today.
   2. Keep a blogging planner. I kept up Monday – Thursday.
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. This week was bad for visiting 🙁 Sorry!
   4. Reply to comments each week. Also not a great week for replying to comments. I’ve managed to get to most of them I think and will try to catch up today.
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day – I haven’t written my review for High Jinx yet and already started another… but otherwise good.
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge – 2/50
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge – 11/75
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge – 1/24
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – actively working to catch up on 1 series right now – my goal is 4 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).

I ended January up 3.9 pounds 🙁 Grrr! Tring again this month

My goals for this week were:

1. Miracle Morning (gratitude at least) ✓
2. Yoga M-F: Got it in M-W
3. Vegetables at every meal, plus a veggie pack (M-F)  ✓
4. No eating after 9pm ✓
5. In bed by 9:30pm – NOPE

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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