In the world of Save. Spend. Splurge.: Women aren’t nags, we’re just sick of this sh$#*!

1. Sickened

Hear hear: Stop calling women nags, they’re just sick of all of this. Why is it so hard for men to understand that emotional labour is labour? It starts out perfectly: “All I wanted for Mother’s Day was a house cleaning service.…” … and the first three paragraphs made my head hurt, my jaw drop open in disbelief and shake my head from the frustrating, WTF-ness of it all.

“The gendered assumption is that ‘men are the problem solvers because women are too emotional,’” she explains. “But who is really solving the bulk of the world’s problems at home and in the office?”

I have always said that gifting someone something you can buy, is not really a gift as much as it is thinking about them and what they need – time to do their own things, squirrelling away the children for peace during tax time (and expecting the same treatment when I do my taxes), or just… SEEING that we are at our breaking point and you need to STEP UP. This is pretty much it, in a nutshell for me:

“All you have to do is ask me to put it back,” he said, watching me struggle.

It was obvious that the box was in the way, that it needed to be put back. It would have been easy for him to just reach up and put it away, but instead he had stepped around it, willfully ignoring it for two days. It was up to me to tell him that he should put away something he got out in the first place.

“That’s the point,” I said, now in tears, “I don’t want to have to ask.”

Just go read the whole article, then let me know your thoughts. I am taking deep breaths right now. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH PEOPLE THAT THEY CANNOT ADULT. This is why I am teaching Little Bun to NOT be this person. He will be a GROWN adult when the time comes, who has been raised properly to see that things are out of place (let’s put it back), something is broken (let’s mend it ourselves), and to NOTICE these things.

2. Blushing

If only I actually saw myself going to the office more often – I’d consider buying this Paisie draped dress in Blush. It’s just BEAUTIFUL. I guess I will just have to settle for maybe their blush balloon sleeve sweater instead. I am still thinking about it, which is why I think it might be a purchase I will make soon-ish. I love their clothing, it’s so work appropriate yet comfortable. They even do free shipping and returns.

3. Enslaved

Canadian grocery stores selling tomato products using slave labour from China, is appalling and definitely a sign of our times. I am equal parts frustrated and resigned. How can you even tell these days what is safe to buy or not? What is ethical or not? Seems like the only thing is to make it all yourself but many families do not have the time for this; to take fresh tomatoes grown here, and make them into a paste or sauce.

Furthermore, it brings up the whole question of – WHY!?!? – We GROW tomatoes here in Canada. Why are we buying slave tomatoes from Xinjiang China to export to make into products? The origin of these tomatoes is not even listed on the product itself, just where it is made, but with no idea of the actual source.

How can it possibly be cheaper to SHIP fresh tomatoes over here than it is to buy fresh ones? The answer has to be slave labour, and/or terrible working conditions … and quite frankly, that companies say: Oh wow $0.12 for a Chinese tomato versus $1.00 for a Canadian one, it’s a no-brainer. Let’s not consider how they got them so cheap. Are the tomatoes trafficked? What are the working conditions?

It’s all the bottom line, looking at profits rather than thinking: Let’s not be obscene with our profits, let’s make a good quality, ethical product we are proud of, and make LESS money if we can churn out something great.

I am taking another deep breath now. Lots of them today.

4. Vinted

I bought this vintage Monopoly Bookshelf version of the game and it is perfect. It won’t take up a large amount of room like normal Monopoly, it looks cute on the bookshelf, it is two-players (Little Bun + Mommy), and it has wooden houses and metal players, just like the original. I think it’s a great gift if you were looking for something elegant.

5. Scared

I am SCARED for people working in any kind of customer service capacity these days. This unruly passenger punched an attendant in the face. At the very least they deserve a major fine, jail time, and they should be banned from all airlines, not just the one where they punched an attendant. SERIOUSLY.

Are people going insane? Is it the pandemic causing the ugliest of our human natures to come out? I am quite disgusted. Flight attendants aren’t the only ones feeling the brunt – our long suffering healthcare workers, retail attendants, servers…. all of this just makes me want to tip more, be even nicer to the ones I do meet, to make up for all of this cruel insanity.

6. Earringed

These invisible converters for non-pierced ears (clip-ons) are GAME CHANGERS. I have been wearing (or trying to wear) clip-on earrings my whole life. They hurt. You put them on, you clip the metal and after even10 minutes you can feel your earlobe throbbing. Within 2 hours, the pain is twinging and you remove them, only to feel the blood rush back into the lobe in a painful tingle.

Sound familiar? Well with these? ZERO pain. I don’t even feel them on my ears (you slide the earlobe into the U-shaped part), and the clear flexible bit sort of fades away. It has the look of a pierced ear (see the little metal bit), but it feels nothing like old, metal, painful, pinch-y clip-ons of ye olde past. I am in the midst of creating and buying earrings to convert now. A whole world has opened up for me. You just can’t hold very heavy earrings so think feathers, and light clay pieces (I am currently testing out their max weight).

7. $22M

That’s the price of this ‘cottage’ in Victoria. If this is a cottage, I am a unicorn. Seriously. THIS IS A COTTAGE? I have no words. I also do not love very large homes because they feel so empty and impersonal. I like a just-large-enough home. Not these McMansion things.

8. Coconutted

Toasted. Coconut. Toffee. with Sea Salt. Run, don’t walk to buy these. They are so incredibly good. The toasted coconut is great, but then the sea salt hitting in at the end? I am buying a bag for everyone this holiday (I like to send out a care package during the Christmas time only and with things I KNOW they want/wanted or will actually like and use).