I'm in one of my busiest times of the year at work (our performance review time) & this year I somehow have 2x the amount of people up for promotion. Promotion adds significant effort to the process (for me), so I'm deep into work & deadlines right now.
In positive news, if I push hard this week, I hope to be through the worst of it by Friday. I've been working so long each day that I close my laptop with a tension headache. It's been awhile since I've had that, and I'm not enjoying it. I am still working out each day, and taking a few minutes to walk around in the sunshine.
Looking on the bright side, if I were putting in these hours at the office, I'd definitely be keeping myself "energized" with junk food. Our team tends to bring in catered meals, extra snacks, etc during these times. And, I likely would bail on workouts in favor of...more work. So, this time of year is healthier than a typical time when not working from home.
Other good things happening, during this time of business:
- M authorized the first of the large mortgage payments, now that we have online access to our new mortgage. Progress!
- Nick's soccer team is playing full contact again, and able to have scrimmages. For the first time in a year. He's over the moon.
- Sam is doing school soccer tryouts at the high school. I haven't seen Sam this happy since COVID started. He's animated, happy, meeting people he's on all day zoom calls with, and spending time (the only time ever) at his high school. Fingers crossed he makes the team. His school has 2,500 kids, so making the JV team as a freshman is still an accomplishment.
- The weather has been lovely, facilitating my walking during work breaks
- My parents get their second COVID shot on Friday
- My nephews have returned to school! (First time in a year)
- I made a delicious dinner last night, and enjoyed the break from work. It was a Hello Fresh pulled chicken sandwich with roasted potatoes, coleslaw & a quick pickled jalapeno. Delicious. I added roasted carrots, which were wonderful. We bought a big bag of carrots at Costco last week, so we can make roasted carrots a regular thing. We all love them.
- I need an additional piece of hardware on my laptop (security login) to access corporate tools. I dropped my laptop a couple of weeks ago, and the hardware bent. In normal times, this a) wouldn't be a big deal and b) I'd walk over to the tech area & get a new one. However, this is perf time & I don't have any spares at home. And awesome tech was able to hook me up with temporary access, & I received my new hardware (plus a spare) yesterday, just in time as the temporary access expired. I could not afford to be slowed down & miss a day right now, so this worked out well.
Sounds like all good things happening in your life right now. That is great!
ReplyDeleteI paid off one of my credit cards yesterday and am thrilled to the moon and back. They were the one who wouldn't let me skip a payment right after quarantine started and I wasn't working, so I am done with them and thrilled about it.
That's terrible that they didn't work with you during COVID. I'm so happy for you that it's paid off!
DeleteThe positives are always there if we look for them. I love how you considered not working in the office to not be seduced by junk food a positive!
ReplyDeleteMy weight change during COVID indicates that work (international travel, work food, etc) makes a huge difference!
DeleteExcellent news on the retirement plan contribution, plus reducing taxable income is always a big giant win!
ReplyDeleteOn the roasted carrots, I use olive oil, salt, pepper & then additional garlic salt.
I loved reading this! Even through your very busy time of year and with Covid still hanging over us you sound very positive and shared so much great news! I'm so happy and excited for your kids. I can't even imagine going through all of this when my children were still in high school. That has to be one of the very worst age groups to have to deal with all the isolation. So glad to hear your parents are getting their second vaccine this week too! Keep up your positive attitude :)
ReplyDeleteIt's been a bit of a work in progress at times, but I do feel like we're turning a corner, so it's making me hopeful that we can have some slow returns to normal!
DeleteJust got back from Schmills birthday party and he was so excited and the kids had so much fun. I can't beleive he is 5. Such a big boy. Hoping the son makes the team!
ReplyDeleteWe had a day that felt reasonably manageable today, enough so that I wrote it up for next week's blog post!
ReplyDeleteI took early retirement 6 months before COVID hit. On one hand, I don't miss the junk food that people brought in to share. (Even though I'm usually a healthy eater, the fact that the food was free caused me to eat things I normally wouldn't.) On the other hand, I do miss the really great leftovers from celebrations that no one but me wanted to eat or take home afterward. I even kept a stash of food storage containers in my office for that purpose!
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