DIY 365 - Day 3

Sadly nothing exciting and new to report.  Just more paper pushing, a whole lot of paper shredding (honestly, we could insulate the whole house with the amount of paper we've shredded in the last two days!!!) and another hour logged in the office.

Hoping the weather clears up enough for some yard work today.

No pics from yesterday because it's just more (or only a little bit less) of the same.  Bet you were hoping for pics of me with a sledgehammer and some busted down walls or something right?  Yeah not so much.  I told you prep work was the boring and tedious part.  Oh well... maybe something more impressive tomorrow.

DIY365 - Day 2

Today's DIY was more of a CIY (clean-it-yourself) because we all know that what REALLY sucks in home improvement is the clean up. 

We have bought a new computer monitor -- hence my return to being able to post and share photographs properly-- which we would like to move into our home office.  While our original plan was to put an hour of landscaping work into the front yard, the rain put a kibbosh on that so we opted instead to start cleaning the office which became a dumping ground for well... everything after the computers gave up the ghost.

Since we have to move those big modular desks to get access to the ports G needs to hook up the new computer to the internet and since this would also allow me to finally slap a coat of paint on that room, getting things tidy seemed like a good way to spend an hour.

We didn't get terribly far.

I managed to get my desk area clean and file a substantial pile of papers.

G and Chloe managed to shred about 4 bags of old documents -- yeah guess we don't need all those income tax files from the 90s.. gah!  and well that was my 1 hour and and about 2.5 for G. 

Paperwork... it'll kill you.

Since the weather looks to be rather wet again today I'm thinking we might try to tackle another hour's worth of tidying tonight.  We were already snipping at each other a bit yesterday (why doesn't he just toss everything??? do we really need to keep a huge pile of paper that's still "good on one side" for the kids to colour on?  Do I want them leaving said paper all over the house?  NO.  no I don't... but I digress...) so this should prove to be fun.

Anyhow, our rather lackluster results are as follows (focus on the corner with the pretty boxes):

DIY 365 -- Day 1

So G and I have gotten a little lazy (how many months since your last blog post Julie???) o.k. a LOT lazy and a lot of things have gone by the wayside lately.

Thus we decided that at least 1 hour per day would be set aside for home improvement.  It didn't need to be perfect, it didn't need to get finished all at once, but one hour from each day would go to improving our house in some way.

Day 1
Because the builder didn't install the marble correctly on our ensuite shower it leaks.  This has been the case from day one and about 6-7 years ago we just stopped using it.  However, since now the tub in the ensuite also leaks and cannot be repaired without tearing out the tub, G rigged together a curtain system composed of a towel bar that go knocked off of the wall also way back when we first moved in (yes Kendra I'm talking to you!), some suction cup hooks, an old shower curtain we were keeping to use as a painting drop cloth and some zip ties (noteworthy is that everything was closed for a Canadian holiday yesterday.)

Add to this that he changed the shower head for me and there we have our 1 hour of DIY for Day 1. There are future plans to gut the whole bathroom including the ugly green tiles.. but that is for another day...

Results:

The ABCs of Saving Money

I got a call last night from a very upbeat and positive man from the bank who'd like us to come in discuss RRSPs with him.  So today G and I will go in and adjust our investment portfolio.  We'll discuss RRSPs, and GICs, TFSAs and HISA (high interest savings accounts) and the whole time I will give him the knowledgeable smile and self-assured looks that let him know that I am down with the lingo and know just what I want to do.  And panic.

Because the fact is I'm not a risk taker.

I'd be perfectly happy to just take our money, put in under the mattress and keep it safe there.  Only I'd then worry about a break in.  Or a fire.  Or a natural disaster of some sort. 

And then I'd read about how just storing your money under your mattress is tantamount to throwing it away because with inflation, the bills you sock away in your boxspring won't be worth what they are now when you retire so the only real way to protect your interests is to get interest through investments.  Preferably the compounded kind.

So I go to the bank and they throw around percentages and risk levels and assure me that if I'm moderately cautious and think long term gains rather than short term losses that I will do fine. And I smile and nod and try not to remember the time I burst into tears in the investment woman's office because were down by $200.00 (my sisters took great glee in calling me a baby and telling me how much they'd lost when the economy tanked and boy oh boy didn't THAT just make me want to get banking even more.)

Because I confess, investing kind of boggles me. And I'm pretty sure I've already made some pretty big missteps along the way.

Sometimes, being a grownup sucks.

P.S. I realize this is all very cry me a river because I'm fortunate enough to have money to invest so I apologize to those who are fighting tooth and nail to scrape by.  We've been there too.  I hope you have to face this same dilemma too someday.  Hang in there. xxoo

Lessons From a Snow Day

When I was a child, in the long ago-before time, Sundays were a day of rest.  Stores weren't open on Sundays and those of us who didn't go to church would spend the day at home or visiting friends and relatives or taking that most mystical of adventures -- the Sunday Drive.

If we did stay home we read or played board games, we talked or puttered around the house gardenning or cleaning or doing whatever it was that needed doing to get ready for the week ahead.  There's a reason Sunday dinner used to be a big deal -- it took time to make it and often it was the focus of the whole day.

And then things changed.  Stores starting opening on Sundays -- at first just 12 til 5 and then for longer.  Movie channels popped up and video recorders.  No longer were we limited to what was actually ON the 12 channels we had.. we could watch anything, anytime.

And then things changed some more.  Internet, cell phones, texting, chat rooms, facebook.. before you knew it, Sundays were no different than Saturdays with their busy-ness and urgency to get things done.

But you know there was a time, and I hate to tell you but I'm not that old and it was SO very long ago, when that's not how we lived.  When everything wasn't accessible all the time.  Before 24 hour Wal-Marts and online shopping.  A time when there was a day to just BE.

And on this unexpected snow day, a day when I should be at work and the kids should be at school and instead they are playing in the snow (and glory be that my 12 year old daughter still wants to play outside in the snow) and I am planning a day of puttering, and reading, and making a big beef stew for dinner... because right now there is nowhere to go and no reason to leave.  And for the next few hours, until the snow clears anyhow, I can drink coffee and relax and remember when life was different.

10 Ways.. Him and Me

Regardless of any of the the other crap that happened in 2012 my marriage is healthy and strong.  I love my husband and I know he loves me.  I often tell him that out of billions of people on this planet he is my favourite.  I'm grateful that we have the relationship we do.

People say a good marriage is a lot of work and yes, it is.  Here are ten ways we both work to keep each other happy.

HIM:

1. He scratches my back.  Literally.  I love my back scratched more than anything else and he scratches my back every day often more than once.  He's fastidious so getting my skin under his nails icks him out but he does it.  And I adore him for it.
2. He rubs my feet when I ask until his thumbs get sore.  Because he's awesome.
3. He says thank you.  Thanks for making dinner, thanks for making my lunch, thanks for tidying up the house.  He appreciates and notices what I do.
4. He doesn't try to make my choices for me.  Whether it's whether to get a better job, which job I should take, what I should wear, how much money I should spend -- he leaves those decisions ultimately up to me.  Yes we discuss them and he offers his opinion, but ultimately he trusts me to make the decisions that will work best for our family.
5. He shows that he thinks of me in little ways.  Whether it's picking up a movie he thinks I might like from the library or taking my car to get gassed up for me, he does little things that he knows mean a lot to me.
6. He has never, in the many years we've been together, made me feel ugly or undesirable.  Even when I look like roadkill.
7. He picks my zits.  Yeah it's gross but I can't reach the ones on my back or my butt and he picks them for me even when I scream and twitch and generally act like a huge baby because I've left them for so long that they're infected from being scratched so often.  And I love him for it.
8. He goes shopping with me.  Everything from groceries to shoes.  Because he likes spending time with me, he knows I hate to drive and he doesn't want me to have to carry everything in by myself.
9. He holds my hand in public and slows down his walking to walk with me.
10. He tells me he loves me.  At least once a day.

ME:

1. I make his lunch for him.  Almost every day.
2. I don't bitch when he forgets to take out the garbage.  This is something I've had to work on.
3. I tell him how attractive he is often.
4. I organize the mundane details of our lives - everything from chores to groceries to banking to babysitting - so that he can concentrate on work and his hobbies when he's not working.
5. I step up when things get bad without complaining or blaming.  I accept that as a small business family we will have good years and we will have bad years and I never accuse him or not working hard enough or making enough money to support us.
6. I fold his socks in half.  I'm a sock baller, have been all my life.  I ball my socks, I ball the kids' socks but he finds that it stretches his socks which he doesn't like so his I fold in half.  Because  that's how he likes it.
7. I ask about his day and actually listen when he tells me.  Even if it's boring and I don't understand half the technical jargon.  I listen and offer support when he's had a bad day and congratulations when he's had a good one.
8. I let him sleep in as late as he likes on the weekend. 
9. I watch movies with him every night.  He likes to watch movies with me, it's our time and I treat it with the value it deserves.
10. I tell him I love him.  At least once a day.

Resolution #2

So first off I need to refocus on resolution #1 because it's not going so well over the weekend.  I'm not bingeing to the extent that I was before but I have been having two things to eat instead of the just one I'm supposed to so back to focusing on what needs to be done for that one.

The new resolution is try not to go bed with a dirty kitchen.  This will make my life easier in so many ways.