Week of Money: Where I recover from eye surgery and have a ‘vacation’

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up and have to remember NOT to work. I continue with my Lasik drops every morning, 4 times a day. I am planning the week out, and I have an appointment today, so that takes the morning. Then we will do mini-golf, and I want to go thrifting one of these mornings so I do not rush and get stressed. I am trying to enjoy my vacation but also take it easy.

7:46 a.m. — Little Bun is playing beside me, and after my low-key yoga workout on a chair (it is meant for desk dwellers), I make a cup of tea. I am so happy I discovered Greenhouse Oat Milk in my local grocery store, as it is oat milk packaged in glass, and it is PERFECT for my matcha lattes in the morning.

Ingredients:

Organic Oat Base (Filtered Water, Organic Gluten Free Oats 10%), Organic Pea Protein, Organic Sunflower Oil, Baking Soda (Natural Acidity Regulator)

It has no added sugar, stabilizers, preservatives.. it’s perfect. It is exactly what I wanted in an oat milk, as the other ones were all in cartons (plastic-lined), and full of stuff I did not want to drink.

Beats Starbucks any day. The only Starbucks drink I like now, is the corn syrup-laden chai latte which I give myself as a treat once in a while. I am still trying to take it easy on the eyes by not working on the screen as much, and to just close them and listen.

9:00 a.m. — I prep to head out. I like to go out early, and not stress about finding a parking spot. My appointment is at 11 a.m., but I give myself 1 hour of buffer to drive, and another hour to find and get settled into a parking spot. PLUS, I like to walk around and just be outside, enjoying life. I had planned to go by a store around the corner, then take out some lunch after the appointment. My whole day is planned!

1:22 p.m. — At home, I finally get to take a shower after 3 days of only wiping my face with micellar water and a wipe, and I feel so much cleaner.

1:07 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap,  I am going through my emails. I have to remember to pay the tax bill for the condo. I was thinking of how lucky we were to have purchased at the BOTTOM of the market, because this is kind of crazy how expensive these places are now.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and asks me what we can do. I do not know, I still feel a bit fatigued from the heat but also from recovering, and I try to think of low-key things. I suggest checkers, and we play a few games. Then we also start watching the detective series – Mr. Monk. He doesn’t quite get it all, being only 8, but it is a good show and wholesome enough for him to watch without being too gory or mentally disturbing like my other ones. He likes figuring out puzzles and mysteries.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery. I am still not hungry, and maybe it is my body telling me to scale back the food so I also start losing some of these pandemic pounds I put on.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. We did not think to try our second favourite word – MONEY – and it ends up being THE WORD!!!!!! ARRRRGH!!!! LOL…

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up for no reason again – too hot? Uncomfortable? Stressed about accidentally rubbing on sleeping on my eyeballs? This is most likely the reason my subconscious keeps me awake. I put in some eyedrops before I roll over and go back to sleep (I keep the bottle beside me in bed, just to make sure my eyes stay SUPER lubricated to heal, just in case). I also bought extra bottles to carry with me, and so I do not run out.

9:08 a.m. — I get ready to head out. I am running errands – need to drop by the bank, then donate items sitting in the car, and look for things on my list.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. I am back empty-handed. Couldn’t find what I wanted.

1:00 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

1:22 p.m. — I purchase something that MAY be a gimmick but who knows if it will work or not. Here is some context first: I do not have thinning or balding issues, but I do feel like my hair is too thin and I would like MORE/thicker hair if possible. So I am trying to find things that would supplement and help. I had purchased Vegamour (yes, based off Instagram ads), to the tune of around $118 USD, because it was not working for my scalp to get more hair to grow. I am also skeptical of it being that great, so I returned it and they are giving me a full refund.

I instead, bought a hair scalp massager to help massage my hair in the shower (I got this Briogeo one), and I shampoo my hair, and then use the scalp massager 10 seconds in each spot, lifting and moving from scalp spot to scalp spot. Whatever it is, it seems to help clean my hair better, so there’s that. I also read that scalp health is the key to good hair health, so there’s that as well.

Anyway, to SUPPLEMENT that, I also bit the bullet and bought a LED mask for the hair called the HAIRMAX Hairband 82. I hope to get it next week and see how it goes. It looks promising. $945.07

Speaking of LED masks….

I will note that I have not done a review yet of the Dennis Gross LED mask, but when I talked to my dermatologist and he did the Visia skin analysis, he told me I was at 99% for lack of bacteria on my skin, which is the highest score you can get (zero bacteria found that creates acne), and he was surprised. He told me that no one gets this kind of score without using something, as EVERYONE has a bit of acne-causing bacteria.

I know it is definitely because of the LED mask, that really does kill all acne bacteria on your skin. Unfortunately, my acne is not caused by bacteria, it is actually caused by hormones and skin inflammation, but the lack of bacteria definitely helps. To battle hormones and skin inflammation, I have given up dairy as much as possible, and this is why I am drinking oat milk now.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and asks me what we can do. “I do not know”, I tell him. It is so much pressure on a parent to keep trying to entertain a child. He decides to learn how to code in Scratch, and I give him the book a friend bought for us – Coding in Scratch – that is super visual. He spends the next few hours, following and learning.

6:25 p.m. — Dinner time – I just eat some leftover food and spread almond butter on some old pita wraps. My appetite is WAY down. Little Bun is just solving Rubik’s cubes every half hour. He makes us mix it up and the spends time solving it within 3 minutes or so. He is getting very good.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $945.07

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up and still can’t get over that everything is sharp. I am still waking up oddly in the middle of the night, and I put in eye drops as they feel a bit dry.

??:?? — Little Bun wakes me up at our usual 6 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. time. Today I want to take him out on a nature walk.

7:30 a.m. — I announce to Little Bun that this morning, we are going out for a Little Bun nature walk, and we are going to spend the day playing in the sand at the park with his excavator and toys.

8:08 a.m. — We are getting dressed, I am remembering his backpack with his spare change of clothes and everything (sometimes it gets really muddy at the sandpit), and we head out the door.

8:30 a.m. — On the trails, we wander through very leafy, beautiful trails. We stop and examine flowers, mushrooms, bugs, interesting tree logs, and then watch the wildlife – turtles sunning on a log, herons in the distance, birds of all kinds. We even see a black loon but I don’t get the chance to take a picture of it (SHOOT!)….

11:25 a.m. — We finally finish our trail walk (we walked quite a few kilometers), he chugs down some water in the car, and we head off to the park to play in the sandpit. There is a whole daycare there, and one little toddler comes up and just smiles at Little Bun and I. Little Bun immediately offers up his toys to him to play, and I encourage him to go ahead and play.

Suddenly, the whole daycare is surrounding Little Bun. I panic a little, knowing that even though we are outside, you can still catch things from these germ factories (all little kids in daycare are germ factories), and I quickly grab masks from the car for him and I to wear while we play with them.

Little Bun spends the morning offering up ALL OF HIS TOYS to ALL the little babies, and I tell him he can go off and play. He refuses and wants to stay and watch them enjoy themselves, or observe what games they make up. He is truly sweet.

12:15 p.m. — Finally, they have to leave for lunch (the discarded tupperware box by the way, with a little shovel, was the greatest hit amongst the toddler set), and Little Bun takes off his mask alongside me, and gets to work “excavating”. He finds minerals in the sand, and makes me take photos of all of them so that he can discard them but keeps the memory. We find one that looks like an abalone shell, very shiny and pearlescent.

1:00 p.m. — I sound the warning to leave (I usually give him 15, 10 and 5 minute reminders before we actually go), and he packs everything up, swings a little and tells me it was the BEST WALK and the BEST MORNING EVER. I think we have to do this more often, I had a lot of fun with him. Perhaps I will take mornings off once a week and do a nature walk with him, to give him some quality “Mommy Time”.

My partner dislikes parks and children’s games, or activities…. in general. So he is always keen to leave after 30 minutes or so, which isn’t enough time to really play and enjoy yourself. It’s better if we go alone, because I am less bored. Maybe this is a father thing, because it is the same refrain across my friends as well. Or maybe mothers just think – it is more for THEM, not for ME, if it were for ME, I’d be at a spa having sushi fed to me while gossiping with my best friends… and with that in mind, we enjoy watching our children enjoy themselves so thoroughly.

1:30 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap. We got back in time but then he dilly-dallied with the eating part.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and is totally calm and happier. I know it has been hard on him on the weekends, doing what Mommy and Daddy want to do, rather than just having free play time. I have to change this. My partner will take him out once a week to play soccer, and I will do nature walks with him once a week as well. Then on the weekends, we will do our adult things with him, and also try to squeeze in a bike ride (we bought him a bike!)

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery.

6:25 p.m. — He snuggles with me in bed, and wants to read books together, so we do.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine of teeth, hair brushing, Wordle with Daddy and Mommy, and then we go to bed after a few more books.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I keep waking up in the middle of the night. I put in eye drops again then go to the washroom and fall back asleep.

??:?? — I wake up to Little Bun snuggling me. It’s early.

6:00 a.m. — I do my yoga routine and then make myself tea with oat milk.

6:43 a.m. — I go through my list of things to do, and start stamping out things to recycle rather than shred them with this identity theft stamper:

8:08 a.m. — I make plans for the week to see a friend, have a breakfast together, then go thrifting, then have a lunch together before dropping her home. I am trying to cautiously see people but wearing a mask, and distancing by eating in the car with the air on and windows down. I cannot help but be nervous as I DO NOT want to catch Covid, and knowing that people are not staying away from crowds as much as I am, it can be nerve-wracking to wonder if they have it but are just on Day One of having caught it, etc.

12:22 p.m. — We head out to play a round of mini golf at the new one that was built last year. Little Bun has never been, I have gone once, and I think it would be a nice, fun family activity that would be good to go on as everyone is back at work. Wednesdays are very quiet for these things, but once Thursday comes around, these places fill up with folks. $65

2:15 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap after lunch, and a good day of mini golfing!

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and I tell him he has an event online. He is very excited.

3:40 p.m. — He is logged in and watching his event, typing in the chat to other kids. Later, he tells me that he thinks he isn’t a real Gen Z kid because he doesn’t type very fast. I tell him typing is a skill and Mommy didn’t learn until Grade 8, really… you have to practice with essays and so on, and you will get quicker at it the more you do it. He nods, happily.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery. I am trying out brussel sprouts again, after having had a bad allergic reaction (just itchy hives all over my body) to the last batch. I eat this new bath cautiously. No allergies. I think I was allergic to whatever they washed or cleaned the brussel sprouts in, but not the actual sprouts themselves.

Interestingly enough, someone once told me she isn’t actually allergic to wool, it is what people use in the chemicals to clean feces and dirt off wool, that is what makes her allergic. She has to find raw wool washed naturally, and she can wear THAT, but not if it comes from a commercial plant because of the chemicals.

I also find it odd that the chemicals on the sprouts made me allergic, but no one else was affected.. and I AM NEVER allergic to ANYTHING. Ever.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $65

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I wake up AGAIN. And put in eyedrops. This is becoming an annoying routine.

??:?? — Little Bun wakes me.

6:30 a.m. — I do my yoga routine, wash my face, then make oat milk matcha lattes.

8:08 a.m. — A friendly reminder to be ind to bees. And plant bee friendly plants.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes are beautiful with the deep magenta of the red cabbage colour reacting to the soap and turning purple. You can find colour inspiration and beauty in the everyday.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

??:?? — Same tired nonsense. I put in drops. Then back to sleep.

??:?? — Little Bun wakes me.

5:48 a.m. — I am blogging to catch up on work, I have been avoiding screens most of the week and resting. I don’t want to strain my eyes.

6:22 p.m. — Oh this is funny. I snorted when I read the orange post-it.

7:50 a.m. — We spend the morning deep cleaning the bathroom. We use these very versatile Swedish dishcloths. I like them better the sponges for some jobs because you can really get your fingers around the cloth and get into tighter areas to clean, or use it to wipe down larger areas and so on.

Pink is for the general wiping of counters, Grey for floors, and Green for toilets specifically.

 

He uses a dental mirror to check behind the faucet (HIS IDEA!) to see if there is grime and dirt, or if he got it all off:

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

12:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom and asks his father what is cooking. We are having burritos!!!

5:12 p.m. — The weekend feast begins! Hummus, pickled red cabbage, pickled shallots, lettuce, brussel sprouts (I do not recommend this in a burrito), guacamole, and avocado chunks

I use up the last of the yoghurt on top of the falafels inside the burrito.

7:25 p.m. — LOTS of dishes. Little Bun is chattering like a chipmunk, asking me questions, and riddles, while I do dishes and try to turn my brain off to relax by watching videos across the room.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — Still waking up early.

5:48 a.m. — Little Bun snuggles me. I am back to work next week but at least I have the weekend off again. I feel like I needed this break from work. It is actually nice to not work at all, and after this contract ends, I think I may stop permanently unless something comes up that sounds interesting and low key. This project took a lot out of me, and is still taking a lot. It’s very stressful but I cannot just quit in the middle of it, because I would leave so many of my colleagues in the lurch and I cannot do that. I always see every project to its eventual conclusion or demise. LOL

8:08 a.m. — I order 3 sets of Fly by Jing sauces. I plan on gifting them to my family and my bestie.THIS is why I need to keep working LOL. $200 in 9 jars of sauces. Insane. But apparently they do not use palm oil, and it is the best ingredients for the yumminess. We shall see. $191.92

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. We are eating the leftovers.

Little Bun makes his own style of taco:

1:05 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom.

3:40 p.m. — I call my mother and talk for a while. She doesn’t call me often and I do not call her often either, but when we catch up it is nice. She likes living her own life, but also, she thinks I have to pay for every minute I talk, so she is panicking that it it costing me $0.30 a minute!! I relieve her fears and tell her it is fine, it is not costing me anything I have an unlimited plan with a fixed rate.

She tells me that my father will not pick up the phone, just check the caller ID, and then find a free phone to use somewhere because each minute costs him $0.30 as he is on a pay-as-you-go plan. I inwardly roll my eyes. He is the reason why I found it hard to pay for many things because of his cheapness, but then my mother balanced it out by being extremely spendy, so I waffled between both for many years trying to find a happy balance.

I still struggle a bit sometimes, but I am definitely more a saver than a spender, as per my Money Type Quiz HAHA!

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery.

6:25 p.m. — It is the flower moon tonight! Little Bun spotted it first:

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed.

Spent: $191.92

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Want more? Read all of my previous Week of Money Diaries.