Week of Money: Where I think I need to order more stuffed cookies

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up way before Little Bun and I just lie there.

??:?? — He’s awake, I kiss his sweet baby cheeks and then he kisses me. I get his milk.

6:19 a.m. — Quite early. I knew it, felt it….

6:36 a.m. — I try to get blog stuff done ASAP, replying to comments, adding to the week, and checking messages on social media. I make my mug of tea as well.

6:52 a.m. — I am emailing to get a refund on something – they send the wrong item and then expect me to want to keep it for a 35% discount? No. Take it back.

7:00 a.m. — Logged in and working.

8:23 a.m. — I rather like this idea of adding panels in another fabric for my too-small tops, to upcycle them to make them larger as I still love the print but it shrunk in the wash or I’m bigger:

11:46 a.m. — I take a break and have lunch.

12:14 p.m. — I also spend the time Upcycling in the closet with Little Bun before his nap because how can you say no to such a cute note? “DO YOU WANT TO UPCYCLE?”

He’s very conscious about the environment these days (my influence, thankyouverymuch), and he has been telling me: Mommy let’s not waste paper. Let’s use the iPad instead for notes and save a tree.

1:07 p.m. — I have a stuffed cookie break. These cookies are VERY SWEET and VERY rich/thick (a real sugar rush) but a treat I am loving. I microwave them for 30 seconds to get a warm melty center, and eat with happiness. This one is Cookies & Cream.

3:15 p.m. — I log off for the day.

3:19 p.m. — Little Bun shows me the note he took before his nap, it says:  Upcycle 15:00 with two boxes at the end with the Box #1 checked and the Box #2 blank.

It’s his reminder to remind ME that I promised him we’d upcycle after his nap, and the little boxes at the bottom were that the (1) First Part was done earlier this morning, and the (2) Second Part is UNCHECKED and ready to start!

3:30 p.m. — We upcycle in the closet. I am redoing what I want to do with some stones, and I fixed a few others. It bothers me when it isn’t done well. I break off the clay to reform a new shape, and Little Bun uses it to play and “upcycle” his own pieces:

6:30 p.m. — We’re finally out, he’s having dinner and he watches Dinosaur Train (teaches a lot about dinosaurs).

7:22 p.m. — I make dinner, eat my yoghurt and then I try to work out something. I have my blood pressure popping on the audacity of this company to say I didn’t respond when they’re the ones who took 45 days to reply to me, which caused my quote to expire!!! Now they want to charge me fees on top of that!?

8:04 p.m. — Little Bun schooling. He finds it hard to pay attention but frankly, my partner should be the one watching and interacting with him to engage him with the content. Just making him watch it doesn’t do any for him.

8:45 p.m. — We start to get ready for bed after his schooling. While he is schooling, I am browsing Pinterest for general fun/ideas and love these two looks:

9:19 p.m. — Bedtime

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up so tired. He didn’t sleep well last night.

7:10 a.m. — I make some tea and then log in.

9:11 a.m. — Little Bun needles me and needles me (it’s been a whole week of this, in small doses) until I snap at him to LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME DO WHAT I NEED TO DO BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT ON MY MIND RIGHT NOW.

(I had a bit of an issue with a company (that quote from earlier), was about to call a lawyer ..that is how angry I got. But then it got resolved and now I had to try and figure out what to do ASAP.)

He looks at me, and then bursts into tears on the bed (real ones, not the fake ones, I can tell the difference), and I immediately run over and scoop him up to hug him. I apologize for losing my temper but I told him when he sees Mommy trying to do things, he has to give me space and time to do them because I want to be 100% focused on him and playing, not half on the phone, half playing. I hold him tight, kiss him and I apologize again.

Whenever this happens, I know it’s normal but damn I feel horrible.

9:30 a.m. — In the closet, we are playing as a break.

9:50 a.m. — Back to work.

12:11 p.m. — Break for lunch.

12:20 p.m. — Back to work, I want to log off early today.

1:15 p.m. — Down for his nap.

3:02 p.m. — I log off. My manager is already gone after lunch because she works far more hours than she should. Little Bun is up from his nap.

3:28 p.m. — We go into the bedroom to play.

4:28 p.m. — Little Bun creates the word XMAS (can you see it)?

4:36 p.m. — He tells me: By the way, Stuffies in Stuffie Town are VERY eco-friendly and conscious. They don’t use any electricity when they don’t have to, and they use natural light when they can, hang their things to dry and conserve energy <3

5:17 p.m. — I foist him off on his father to play while I take a break. Oddly enough, making fun infographics for my Instagram is quite relaxing because I get to use colour, composition and design the post. This is the one I created for this post.

5:49 p.m. —Dinnertime and he’s watching Dinosaur Train.

6:30 p.m. — I do all the dishes.

7:14 p.m. — He comes up with a pattern with the blocks, naming it the Four Seasons and then we go naming what we see in Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…

The first row is Spring (red and green for the flowers), the second is Summer (blue sky and yellow beaches), and then the third row is Autumn with orange and yellow leaves. The last row is Winter. All cold and icy.

8:12 p.m. — FINALLY. My issue gets resolved with the company. I breathe, and then he goes to schooling with Daddy and then we play in the bedroom in the closet, then do some Brain Quest.

Apparently Little Bun caught on that he could learn the questions & answers ahead of time, so when he answers correctly that the Supreme Court of the United States was the highest body, I get VERY SUSPICIOUS because we obviously don’t study American geography or government here.

Me: Did you read the Brain Quest answers ahead of time!?!?

Little Bun: *giggling* What would you do if I did?

Me: I’d kiss your sneaky little face all over and snuggle you

Little Bun: I DID!!!!

Me: *kiss bombs and snuggles him*

Little Bun: *squeals with laughter*

8:56 p.m. — OK, bedtime now. Little Bun tucks me in like I’m a baby (I like being in bed while the lights are turned off, which is my only reason for acting like a ‘baby’ and he enjoys doing it, so win-win)….

9:20 p.m. — Oops. Forgot to eat my dessert which I laid out, I quickly get up and put it back in the fridge before it goes bad.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — Little Bun screaming. I reach over and rub his back, pat his back, kiss him. He settles back to sleep but now I’m awake.

6:20 a.m. — He woke up early. Night terrors never let him sleep too long, and I am pretty tired.

7:49 a.m. — I log in, order music books for my mother (she’s learning piano at her age!), and go through my banking, transfer another $5000 into investing (I just got paid, and I parcelled out money for taxes which I pre-pay quarterly as a freelancer, and bills).

8:08 a.m. — I make a tea and drink it happily. I also ogle this cute arched window as a kitchen feature:

8:17 a.m. — I have to go into the bank to iron out an issue – I have no idea why my partner’s name is on my business bank account but apparently the woman who did my papers screwed it up assuming he should be on all the accounts at this address – we bank at the same bank, with 100% separate accounts. They found the issue and asked me to clarify, to which I almost lost it (not that I care about him poaching money), but the fact that their one employee is continually the worst one I have ever dealt with.

Everything she touches (this is not the first time for either of us), she makes major errors/mistakes which make us have to come back to redo papers, etc. I vow to specifically request someone, anyone, another than her for any future banking. I mean these are LEGAL PAPERS, and had they not caught it, it would have gone on for how long? Now I have to go in, make an appointment and re-sign new papers.

8:20 a.m. — I spend the morning organizing my Camera Roll. Over 1000 pictures, it’s getting out of hand as I use it to post on Instagram, but also to take pictures, keep inspirational ideas, and notes.

8:23 a.m. — Little Bun spends his morning creating pretty words, in his own creative style and insisted he had to write in the words so that we would know what they stood for. I store it under “Little Bun Creations” on my phone. He likes to use my phone to take photos of things he wants to keep and remember, and to mark them up like below, but he wants to find them too, so I finally created a separate folder for him:

10:50 a.m. — Mission accomplished!

12:10 p.m. — Lunch! It’s fries. We couldn’t get eggs this week, apparently depending on what day my partner goes, the stock is low/not. So he has to go back to heading out at the end of the week not in the middle.

1:01 p.m. — Down for his nap, I get a break.

3:09 p.m. — I work on my budget roundup posts.

4:43 p.m. — I do dishes, then laundry.

6:56 p.m. — He spends the night creating a symmetrical cake for Biggest Stuffie (I don’t know why he’s into symmetry now all of a sudden, it might be the influence of Daniel Tiger ..), and then makes a ‘knife’ to cut it down the middle.

So it started with this garden that the Stuffies planted, and grew successfully – see the harvest? It’s all beets, spinach, raspberries and delicious healthy foods:

 

To thank Biggest Stuffie for working so hard and harvesting and growing everything for them to eat, he made a symmetrical cake for him:

 

And this knife to cut it:

 

Since Stuffies are babies, he helped them cut it:

 

YAY!

 

Time to eat… *makes om nom nom sounds*

8:28 p.m. — We do some Brain Quest (we need to redo his learning on analog clocks)

9:17 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — Little Bun wakes up and of course, ruins my sleep so I am tired again.

6:00 a.m. — I make a cup of tea. But I don’t enjoy it. We are running out of milk, he goes in 5 days, and I have to make it last 5 more days, so I am trying to conserve it by drinking less milk and to make it last. It isn’t working, I miss my matcha.

6:30 a.m. — I log in and work.

7:28 a.m. — Little Bun annoys me all morning with his whining about doing his Grade One book. My partner and I agree to confiscate his iPad for the day because he isn’t taking his schooling seriously. He bursts into tears. Commence 15 minutes of cuddling and telling him: You brought this on yourself. You aren’t taking it seriously, you’re asking for answers, you aren’t learning what you are supposed to be learning. I shouldn’t have to feed you answers.

8:20 a.m. — He works on his pages after a little down time.

9:12 a.m. — I head out to the bank to re-sign some papers to fix a mistake from 4 years ago. FOUR YEARS AGO. *furious*

9:47 a.m. — Home and working.

10:08 a.m. — I love these messages!

12:08 p.m. — I take a lunch break.

12:28 p.m. — Back to work. I check his pages, and they’re great.

1:22 p.m. — Little Bun takes two bathroom breaks while “napping”, when in fact, he’s just reading quietly in the bedroom. Which is FINE BY ME. I’d rather he just be quiet, have quiet time, read books and give everyone a break.

3:10 p.m. — We upcycle in the closet and he uses my phone to take photos of his creations and to name them:

 

He used Markup in the iPhone to colour the moon for this creation:

And this stone below, is a snowflake obsidian (I got it for free in a package), which he has named “Mousie” because it looks like a mouse to him. Mousie squeaks in the closet, has adventures with clay, beads, my bags (one of my bags turned into a Dragon Bag because of the long zipper looking like a tail, and he’s REALLY into dragons / upcycling with dragon chains now).

Mousie below, is carrying clay for me to work on my pieces because he’s very helpful. Mousie also only speaks Mousie, which is a bunch of squeaking only Little Bun can interpret for me into English.

4:28 p.m. — Time for laundry.

4:49 p.m. — In the meantime, Little Bun eats dinner and watches Dinosaur Train (he is learning SO MUCH about dinosaurs)..

6:30 p.m. — Laundry done, Little Bun folds it, and then we start on dishes. I decide to leave the cutlery to tomorrow because I start to get sick. Again.

8:12 p.m. — I start getting ready for bed along with him.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I am tired. I am so warm and snuggly and I want to keep sleeping but I cannot.

6:30 a.m. — I make some tea. The milk is starting to sour (just on the edge), and I drink it anyway because I cannot do without tea this week. I need it. It won’t kill me either.

6:44 a.m. — I log in and start working. Lots of meetings today.

7:59 a.m. — Apparently, the story today is why Stuffies don’t like Halloween very much. It’s because they don’t like going to other people’s houses, and instead, they have a party where they hand out vegetable candy (?) to everyone. They think it’s healthy because it’s vegetables, until the realized that it’s CANDY and it’s not that healthy, and it’s only a treat. Stuffies only like fresh vegetables and fruit as most of their diet, and they eat it because they may not love vegetables but they know it’s good for them and their body.

Obviously, someone has been paying a lot of attention to our adult conversation over the past few days as we were discussing this book: The Way We Eat Now which is an EXCELLENT book about food. Very aspirational class of me to have read it and nodded along:

Also, he eats a big bowl of vegetable stew every single night (no exceptions), and he has now willingly asked for it each time because he says he doesn’t love vegetables (I mean in comparison to French Fries or cake obviously), but he knows it’s good for him and his body.

8:24 a.m. — A meeting to start at 9. I am quite annoyed because my machine is working SO SLOWLY. Virtual machines are the pits.

10:11 a.m. — I take a break before my next meeting. I still have to call my accountant.

12:23 p.m. — Time for lunch. I quickly eat and go back to work.

2:38 p.m. — A cookie break. This one is Coconut Kit Kat. It’s my last one. SO GOOD. My favourite so far.

3:02 a.m. — After his nap, Little Bun says: “Mommy, do you feel 100% today? Do you feel better?“… I tell him I feel less dizzy, and I am not 100% but I feel much better. He looks at me worriedly. “Can we keep you close to 95%?“, he asks. I tell him we will try and a hug helps. He grins, and runs towards me, hugging me hard. And adds 3 kisses for good measure.

I love how caring and thoughtful he is. I am encouraging his empathy and his attitude in asking if I am okay because I want him to recognize and remember when people don’t feel good, or are sick, and to CARE.

4:00 p.m. — I log off for the day and I go and play with Little Bun. It’s LITTLE BUN TIME!

6:32 p.m. — After dinner, I do dishes again, and cutlery.

6:40 p.m. — I decide to eat yoghurt on top of my squash + brown rice. Am feeling extra hungry tonight.

7:12 p.m. — Little Bun wants to upcycle more but we have done so many pieces I want to slow down and take it easy because doing so many pieces is less fun than spreading it out.

8:35 p.m. — I get ready for bed, Little Bun does schooling, and we snuggle together after he is done his night time routine.

9:11 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up tired again. I can’t go back to sleep. My anxiety (?) or whatever this is, woke me up and I fell down a rabbit hole of Covid depression and anxiety, thoughts, stress….

??:?? — Little Bun screams like his arms are being ripped off as his father helps him fix his blanket (he got tangled up and twisted so he’s helping him). His scream is BLOOD CURDLING.

??:?? — “Mommy, what time is it?“… “I don’t know, I can’t see the clock. Go back to sleep.”

5:15 a.m. — “Mommy, it’s 5:15 a.m.“… “OK this is too early, go back to sleep. QUIETLY. NO wonder I am tired, I will get up at 5:30 with you not now…”

*shuffling, moving, jumping noises, wiggling*

6:00 a.m. — “Mommy I waited long enough.” Dragging myself out of bed, I groan.

6:12 a.m. — I get his milk, log in, make a tea.

7:01 a.m. — I log in to work after my brain starts up.

8:59 a.m. — I finally get some work done.

9:15 a.m. — I take a break with Little Bun in the closet.

Here’s what happened:

“Mommy what’s the name of this? A beet?”.. No it’s a radish.

I did not call this candy cane frog but he decided it was a candy cane not a lily pad!

Then he just took over my closet:

The Stuffies are helping invade:

We play with his ‘treasures”:

Rubber band made into an infinity sign (he loves the number 8 sideways), a little cardboard “smile” (it is not garbage!!!), and a bead:

He decides to make art out of it for the Stuffies:

Et voilà…

Now we play with the rubberband

And the Stuffies hold on to it together and then make it like an octopus arm swing, and he “jet skis” all over the closet:

They ride in their little boats

More “treasures”… a grey treasure box (he loves the bow on it), three jewellery boxes, and a blue stone object:

They “fight” with the sponge sticks that were inside the boxes:

And then set up an obstacle course:

YAY!

Babiest Stuffie won.

A little well deserved rest:

9:47 a.m. —  Back to work.

11:58 a.m. — I have lunch then back to work again.

1:06 p.m. — Little Bun goes down for his nap as I waste this time having to be in a meeting. Grr.

4:16 p.m. — Meetings finally end. I log off.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner. I try to add a little vinegar to my pasta but in the end I don’t love it.

7:03 p.m. — I do laundry, then dishes.

9:13 p.m. — Time for bed. I ask him to do the Christmas story (which he does!) and it’s adorable, but short. He likes it when I do them.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — Little Bun is up. I am ignoring him, hoping desperately he isn’t awake.

??:?? — No he’s awake. He’s grumpy: “Mommy I HUGGED YOU. It means I am awake!!!” To be fair, what he gave me was not a hug more than it was an arm slung across my stomach.

6:20 a.m. — I log in to work. Might as well. Now I can log off early.

7:13 a.m. — I make my last cup of tea – we are now out of milk and I cannot have my afternoon tea!

9:25 a.m. — Call number 1 of 4.

12:08 p.m. — I break for lunch.

1:04 p.m. — Little Bun goes down for his ‘nap’, but he’s really reading his History Book until he feels sleepy. I just enjoy QUIET TIME for all of us.

2:09 p.m. — I finish my meetings for the day, but I have some work to do, so I prep for next week.

2:50 p.m. — I log off for the day.

3:29 p.m. — Little Bun tells me: “I am going to cutie-fy and snuggle you!“.. and he goes onto the floor, curls up into a fetal position on his back like a bug (?) and rocks back and forth until I go and hug him, the kiss his cheeks to un-cutie-fy him.

4:33 p.m. — We finish Brain Quest and he tells me: I AM SO EXCITED RIGHT NOW FOR GRADE THREE BRAIN QUEST AND WORKBOOKS (which I will buy I tell him, AFTER you finish your workbooks).

5:11 p.m. — I kiss him and we lie down in bed. I get slammed with a massive aura migraine, and I tell him I have to rest – I end up sleeping on and off as he watches Dinosaur Train.

7:23 p.m. — I wake up and I feel so weak and sick. I just go and lie down in bed again after turning off my computer. I pop a sinus cold pill for nighttime to help me sleep and to help this headache (?) or whatever this dizziness is. I find they work really well.

8:47 p.m. —In bed, he asks me if I want to hear Part 7 of the Adventurous Sock story (we have moved on from Christmas Stories), and now I made up a new story of how this Adventurous Sock goes on adventures because I see that every morning, he seems to lose at least one sock during the night, and I made up a whole story about how that sock runs away to visit Santa, then the pyramids, then goes to outer space… and he tells me his story which I listen and mumble answers/responses/questions to.

He has started getting more creative in story telling and I encourage him even though his stories have no start, plot, climax and end. I suppose that will come later, the point is to help him express himself and encourage him to be imaginative and creative.

He “tells” 3 stories before I tell him how creative he is. He asks me: Are you feeling better? Did the stories help?… I tell him it is good because I didn’t have to use my brain which is all dizzy but now I need rest. He feels very unhappy (I can feel him restless), and I drop off to sleep.

Spent: $0

———-

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

Last but not least – introducing….

FREE FILING ONLINE in CANADA (Not available in Québec this year though)

They let you also file (simple T4) taxes online via their service (it’s really cool you can even scan/upload your slips with your phone), and they only offer the pro service if you want someone to do all the filing for you with the slips (AND YOU DO NOTHING). For $30 is a freakin’ steal. I may do this instead of struggling through my taxes this year (I usually pay for a software).

(it’s a $30 service regardless of if you use my link or not).

Thanks!