Sunday Post with Berls | Week of July 17th 2022

Week of July 17th 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

I’m going to try doing a one sentence summary of each day moving forward… I realize some of you enjoy my lengthy posts but I imagine some of you would like to be able to just get a quick version. Initially I was going to put the quick version first but it feels like a spoiler for those that do want to read the whole thing LOL! So I’m moved it to the end of each day.

Sunday

Dante – THANK GOODNESS – slept until 9am today. You may not remember, but we got home around 1am and Dante went to sleep at midnight and I was super worried he would wake up at his normal 7:30/8:00 am. Between the nap he had on the way out to Campbell and waking up at 9am, he still managed 10 hours of sleep (just 1 hour less than normal). And I got a decent night’s sleep too 🙂

I spent the day getting ready for the week – groceries, meal prep, cleaning, blogging, laundry, etc. I posted this adorable video of Dante helping me with the laundry… he practically did it himself! So helpful! Kiko was gone most the day because he was with his brother who is having surgery on Thursday. It made getting everything done solo a little challenging and I barely got Dante to bed by 8:45 (usually 8:30) and didn’t get everything I needed to done until 10pm. Headed to bed 30 minutes after I like to be asleep :/

The quick version: Today was busy with getting ready for the week ahead!

Monday

I woke up at 5am (as usual) but instead of getting in a workout, I finished up my BUJO prep for the week because I ran out of time yesterday. I may start to plan on using Monday mornings that way to take one task off the weekend. We’ll see. It worked out well and then I got started on work by 6am. I had a list of 3 things that, as of Friday, I was struggling with and was thinking I would need to ask for help. Well by 7:45 I had solved 2 of the problems! Dante was still asleep at 8, so I hoped in the shower, started his breakfast and woke him up at 8:20. While he ate, I finished getting ready and packed up his lunch (prepped this weekend). He only drank his milk and ate his croissant… he didn’t touch his eggs. So I got him dressed and gave him a Kids RX bar to eat on the way to school – at least then he’d have some protein and healthy fat to go with that croissant. When we got to the Center he was so happy to see his therapist and tranistioned so easily.

Work continued to go pretty well today – I discovered a couple mistakes I had made last week, so I fixed them and then also solved the 3rd challenge I was having. I finished all that right before I had to go get Dante, so I picked him up and when we got home did a pull request for that task. I had a few corrections/edits come through on my pull request from last week, so I’ll need to take care of those first thing tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to do them before Dante wakes up, so I can have all my tasks fully complete prior to our 9am scrum tomorrow.

Dante ate most his lunch today! He didn’t eat the hard boiled egg, but he ate everything else. Score! We had a good afternoon of playing. We did dinner and watched some TV and I did a little blog visiting. Going to clean up in a bit, then get Dante to bed — followed closely by me! Need to get better sleep tonight.

The quick version: Dante had a good day at therapy and I made good progress at work – feeling pretty positive about work today. Hope that sticks tomorrow morning!

Tuesday – Wednesday

Tuesday went pretty well. I got in a workout and my miracle morning. I was able to get my sprint tasks complete early in the day and one of my coworkers told me that (1) they had – on hindsight – given me a lot of work for this sprint and (2) that it was a good thing I was picking things up quickly. Dante continues to do well at ABA and we had his SST after ABA today. She noticed how much he’s already improving – imitating animal sounds and clearly really proud of himself. He helped clean up really well and went to bed easily. I had to run out quick this evening to get our registration and while I was out I picked up dinner… it ended up being too heavy and I was really uncomfortable. Would have been better to just eat the meals I’d prepped :/

Wednesday Dante woke up really early — like 6:45. He laid in bed until about 7:30 and then was very fussy. This cut into my work time a bit, but thankfully I had finished up my sprint work yesterday and just had a couple Jira stories to write for the sprint planning at 9:30 this morning. I think Dante woke up early because his sound machine turned off… I have no idea why and really hope that doesn’t happen again. If it does, I maybe be ordering a replacement. He was hungry this morning and ate up really well — oatmeal and a protein bar. We’re struggling with lunches though… he eats all the carbs but is not interested in the protein items. I’ve tried so many things and I just don’t know what to do. We’re noticing a similar problem at home really.

This afternoon at pickup I found out that next Friday they have In Service in the morning, so I won’t be able to bring Dante until 12 noon. Ugh. That’s the Friday right before the end of our sprint too. I’m not sure if I’ll take the morning off or try to work with Dante here. Then I had to take Buffy to vet really quick for a vaccine — I don’t know how this one ended up off cycle from the others — that was at least super quick and easy. Though it would have been even easier without Dante in tow … as he thought the vet seemed like a great place to explore so I was trying to wrangle Buffy AND Dante. And then Dante was super fussy again this evening. I’m hoping he’s just tired because if he’s getting sick again (I was worried about his ear infection not being fully gone) I don’t know what I’ll do. I can’t handle having to keep him home and trying to keep up with work.

Planning on trying to get to bed early again tonight — the last few nights I haven’t managed to go to bed when Dante does and I’m feeling the tired.

Oooh almost forgot! I had an Autism parents/caregivers support group meeting today that was really great. And then I also had the meeting with the school district finally today to start getting Dante transitioned over from ECI (for up to 3 years old) to them (over 3 years). The meeting was fine, but it was over an hour long and I have all this paperwork they need me to send. So one more thing on my to do list…. it seems to be getting longer not shorter!

Oooh and another thing! Dante used the toilet today! We aren’t even trying to potty train but he took his shorts and diaper off and it looked like he was getting ready to pee so I rushed him to the toilet and he went! So I guess he’s ready whether I am or not! LOL! I went ahead and ordered a seat and will talk to ABA therapy about how to start working on that…

The quick version: Dante’s ABA is going well and we’re already seeing some progress. He was fussy Wednesday but I’m hoping it’s just tired not sick fussy. Work is also going well.

Thursday

Technically nothing went badly today. But I just feel off. I think I’m still just a bit overwhelmed by everything I have going on. Dante ate breakfast — eggs and croissant with milk — so that was a win. But at school he only ate his crackers and his RX Bar. Nothing else. Then he ate dinner at home. I don’t know if that’s him not feeling well, ABA demands starting to get to him, or just not liking the food I’m packing. I’m struggling and can’t help but worry about him. They said he seemed tired today but that he was still happy and playful; they didn’t demand as much of him since they could see he was tired. His speech therapist called and said he didn’t seem up to it and she didn’t want to push him either, so I ended up picking him up about 15 minutes early (only 30 minute session).

I had a couple of meetings at work today – one after I picked Dante up. They went well, but the one for the Front End Engineering team was definitely a bit overwhelming. Every time I feel like I’m figuring things out I realize there’s a lot more I don’t know. That said, I’m making great progress on my tasks for this sprint and I think I won’t be under much pressure this time. That said, I think I will take next Friday off. Last thing I need is added stress for my work day. Maybe I’ll even meet up with some friends after I drop him off for the afternoon session.

We had a nice evening and Dante was in a good mood. I upgraded his tablet – his was two years old and frequently VERY slow – and he seemed very happy with the upgrade. He helped clean up and went to be right on time. I’m on his heels 😉 The thing I’m not finding time for this week too well is blog visiting… sorry!

The quick version: Today went fairly well. I’m just feeling all the things going on as overwhelm I think.

Friday – Saturday

I’m gaining weight 🙁 Very frustrated about that and not feeling at all motivated to wake my ass up at 5am to workout. I did wake up early but didn’t work out… I forget what I did honestly. Budget maybe? Then I got to work — made some good progress with one of my tasks. One of my pull requests came back with some minor improvements to make; nothing I did wrong, just things I could do to improve the file. In fact, I’m cleaning up some of the code that I didn’t write as well. We also had an All Hands Meeting which was kind of neat. I also managed to get some dentist appointment scheduled on the new insurance for me and Dante — Dante with a dentist who is recommended for kids with Autism because he’s good with them AND is an Autism parent. Dante’s appointment isn’t until late August which is also good, so we can try to prepare him. Friday afternoon I had my first parent education meeting, which went really well. I see Dante making great progress already and his BCBA reported on even more progress, which is exciting. In fact, when I picked him up from speech he was ready to leave when I was talking to the therapist and he said, “Go” while pulling me! WOW! He came home and ate a bunch, also reassuring 🙂 We had a nice evening and he went to bed without much fuss.

Saturday Dante was up around 7:30 — which is fine, since it’s at least his normal time. He ate a good breakfast of oatmeal, plus an RX bar… followed by second breakfast of eggs and toast and turkey bacon with his dad. We played a bit this morning and I put in a grocery order for pickup this afternoon. Then Dante had some leftovers for a small lunch/heavy snack and we went to the park with the splash pad. We played there for about an hour and then he was hungry AGAIN so we grabbed some McDonald’s — he ate 5 chicken nuggets while I picked up the groceries. Both Walmart and Target didn’t have my eggs, so when we got home Kiko went out to a smaller grocery store and was thankfully able to buy some. Dante and Kiko played a bunch this evening — and Dante seems to be saying “bye”! Y’all I’m so hopeful that this is REAL progress and nervous that it will all disappear. But he’s just making more noise and wanting to interact more — it’s fantastic. I also played some Fall Guys with Phil and Zach tonight. We’re watching CocoMelon right now and singing/dancing until bedtime.

The quick version: Dante is making great progress and I’m super excited!

Blog News

Last week on Because Reading

• [26 Jul] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Movies or TV?
• [28 Jul] Secrets by Aleatha Romig ★★★★
• [28 Jul] Lies by Aleatha Romig ★★★★
• [28 Jul] Promises by Aleatha Romig ★★★★½
• [30 Jul] Rachel, Out of Office by Christina Hovland ★★★★
• [31 Jul] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of July 24th

Challenge update

This week I finished:

Nothing 🙁 But I’m making great progress on The It Girl by Ruth Ware. I’m also doing a Beta Read for a friend 🙂

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 – 22 books (final count for Winter)
   2. Spring -33 books (final count for Spring)
   3. Summer – 6 books (this is actually higher but I’m behind on marking books on Goodreads)
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. I’m working on writing posts tonight, so hopefully.
   2. Keep a blogging planner. Kinda… I’m not consistent right now.
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. I did do some visiting this week, though I’m struggling to find the right time.
   4. Reply to comments each week. Nope 🙁 But I do read them!
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day – I’m falling very behind actually. Just wrote some reviews today for books I finished end of June/beginning of July.
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge –  34/50 books
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge –  58/75 books
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge –  24/24 books (I MADE IT!!)
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – My goal is 5 series.
   • In Progress:
     1. Mine by Cynthia Eden- read book 4 & 5 this year, still need to read 6.
   • Completed:
     1. The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan – read books 2 and 3 this year, finishing the series.
     2. Amos Decker by David Bald Baldacci – read books 2-6 (#7 expected later this year)
     3. Witchless in Seattle by Dakota Cassidy – read books 8-13 this year
     4. Georgina Kincaid by Richelle Mead – read books 3-6 this year (thanks to Anne for realizing I could count this one!)

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 (or first) day of each month only (so I don’t get too attached to the scale).

As I mentioned above… I’m gaining weight. Honestly, I don’t feel like my eating and habits match the weight gain at all. I’m meal prepping and eating accordingly. I’m working out. And I’m very frustrated. My brother is on this medicine called Ozempic and is doing great losing weight. I’m seriously considering getting on it (if my insurance will cover it) because I can’t keep gaining.

Weight gain/loss for the year so far:

• +3.9 pounds Feb 1.
• -3.0 pounds March 1 (for the year, so total loss for Feb was 6.9 lbs!)
• -3.0  pounds April 1 (for the year, so no new loss in March, but no gain)
• -7.0 pounds April 30 (for the year, down 4 pounds in April)
• -3.4 pounds July 1 (for the year, up 3.6 pounds in June)

Added to My Shelf

I have books to report since Book Bonanza earlier this month but there saved on my desktop and I’m on my laptop… so I’ll try to report next week lol

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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