Week of Money: Where Little Bun has his presentation and turns in his project

DAY ONE

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:07 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. — Little Bun works on flags of the world and then recreates them as Rubiks cube faces. It’s super cute, he has gotten very good at solving it now, under 3 minutes.

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

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working.

8:08 a.m. — We are curious to the origins of the word “cop” to mean “police”, and when I question my partner if he knows, he looks at me and says – well, I don’t know the etymology of such words… to which I reply to Little Bun: You know your father has degrees when he uses words like “etymology”! .. lol.. I am just teasing him. Turns out it comes from the root caper in Latin, meaning to steal or nab, and was meant to be derogatory in the past but now is accepted usage as being not so.

2:51 p.m. — I just learned that in Canada we do not grossly underpay our servers at $2/hour or anything like that.

We pay minimum wage, but even that, I think is not a living wage. But it is also unfair that in grocery or retail jobs, people don’t get tips on top of this minimum wage.

I wish the tipping system would disappear. I wish wages would go up, meal prices would go up and we no longer have to tip. It’s just frustrating to see a price, think of TAXES on top of that, and a tip. Everything should be included. End of discussion.

3:40 p.m. — More meetings.

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

6:25 p.m. — I am finally connected with someone! I need help. It took me so long to get an answer….

Turned out it was okay. It was not bad news with my laptop.

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

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working. I have meetings at 7:30 daily now.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time after back to back meetings. When will I get work done? NO ONE KNOWS.

1:01 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. — Little Bun presents his project to me. The one he was really upset over having to rush to finish the pages when I gave him ample time and free No Workbook days to work on it full-time for a week.

This is what it looks like as a cover:

These were the pages:

And the presentation was good, but he went off track a lot of times with other fun facts, and tangents. I told him he had to stay focused and think of his plan of what to present, but overall he did well. I will encourage him to try more.

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

6:25 p.m. — I hand over the next project to Little Bun, to research on any of the Periodic Elements, to choose one, or 3 or whatever. I am expecting: Cover Page, Introduction, 3 Content Pages, Ending.

I also tell him that is a presentation at the end, and he has to do this ON TOP of his Workpage pages every day. I gave him the entire month to work on it any time he wanted, to get the same sorts of pages done.

I told him that we would have Book Reports and math quizzes and things you have to do on top of school work, and this is me helping him see how he can plan and manage his time with schoolwork and projects.

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

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. I head out, and I end up using a service vehicle while mine is getting looked at. I am driving home in heavy rain, I turn on the windshield wipers, then turn left at the intersect, and suddenly I hear a sound that sounds like a cop siren “woop woop”, the kind where they turn on their lights to flash, and then they don’t put on the full siren, but just two short blasts or so of it, so that you notice them and stop.

I immediately freak (I am not a fan of trouble of any kind, hence why I avoid conflict), and I start to check my rearview mirror wondering where the cop is, and if it is for me (it sounded like they were behind me!), and I keep hearing it, panicking. My heart was in my throat because I CANNOT GET A TICKET, I am not mentally stable enough for another financial bill caused by stupidity right now, with money draining out.

I keep checking. No car. No cop. Then I hear the sound again “woop woop”…. and I realize it was the way the windshield wipers were wiping against the windshield, each time they went in that frequency of “woop woop” that sounded like a cop, it was the perfect pitch and sound to mimick them. I calm down and laugh about it.

1:00 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap, after I relay my silly story to my family. They both burst out laughing.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he bounces out of the bedroom, and starts on math problems. We have been doing 4-digit multiplication. I AM FAIRLY SURE that this was NOT done until Grade 8 at least here, but my partner is insistent (exaggerating?) that they did 4-digit multiplication in GRADE THREE in France. I am side-eying this claim. I call BS.

Can anyone from France confirm please… have you ever done 4-digit multiplication in GRADE 3 (age 9?)

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery, and I am doing all the pots. When he burns stuff, I curse him because of the scrubbing I have to do.

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

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

7:30 a.m. — I log in and start working. I actually get next Friday off so I am pleased. But the pressure is coming down strong on all of us right now and I am just trying to stay calm.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

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

2:51 p.m. — I take him out for a quick afternoon break. He has been having it rough lately, sleeping badly. And we have moved him back in between us, cuddling near me, from from the bathroom, and in between his two safest people in the world (his parents).

3:22 p.m. — He finds what he calls a “sand stone”, or compact sand that he smashes easily by squishing it.

We have also been SUPER pleased to be using this Brock Magiscope microscope. I bought it because it needed NO BATTERIES. That white clear tube you see? It is what grabs/reflects the light to not need batteries at all. So it will literally last forever.

There are also ways for you to fix the microscope on your own if it gets too loose, or if the acrylic tube after 12 years, comes out (use a little superglue). I am very pleased with the quality and care that went into designing this Magiscope. NOT A REFERRAL or an ad, I am simply marvelling at how wonderfully made it is.

We have been using it on dirt, insects, leaves.. and I am learning how to use the higher magnification 40X and 100X, to get these kinds of incredible shots off flowers. I think this is a very educational but fun tool even for adults. Well worth the money spent.

5:12 p.m. — I skip dinner because I am trying not to eat before sleeping, and I just eat a bigger lunch instead.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. He has been asking for philosophy questions, so we discuss both sides of “Is there a god”, even thought we are atheists.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

6:48 a.m. — I log in and just sit there, watching videos and blog. IT IS THE WEEKEND!!!!

8:08 a.m. — I take him out for another park adventure, and I get bitten like crazy. To make free shipping on natural bug spray, from Om Skincare, I spend $60 and buy TUBES of it. I’ll just spray myself constantly to keep the bugs off me. $60

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. We have fries, and since we finished Tournament of Champions, we are now watching Guy’s Grocery Games (he’s a pretty good host).

3:40 p.m. — I finish blogging, finally able to have quiet time to spend to work on catching up. Life passes you by so quickly!

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

6:25 p.m. — Little Bun tells me (after reading his books, he has started on Junie B), that if anyone bullied him, he’d tell them:

You’re common and I’m rare!! .. Apparently this is a Pokemon thing?

He also told me somewhat disturbingly, if anyone made fun of his hair, he said he would become a hairstylist, gift them a FREE “perfect” haircut, and then SHAVE THEIR HEADS. I am slightly alarmed, but also wondering how he learned such pettiness. LOL .. Maybe it runs in the family. I tell him I disagree and do not love this idea at all. If people bully him, he has to learn how to stand up for himself, and fight. We will certainly pay for kickboxing and mixed martial arts classes as he ages.

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

Spent: $60

DAY SEVEN

8:08 a.m. — The morning passes by with us just doing.. stuff. Laundry, reading books, cleaning up, thinking… I have been watching a bit of the show Hoarders and it makes me want to just.. CLEAN EVERYTHING. ALL THE THINGS. CLEAN IT ALL.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. We are drinking homemade lemonade, and he spills it all over the counter, and immediately bursts into angry tears, saying: OH NO!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!! I’m so angry at myself  (the lesson is, if he doesn’t hold his cup properly, and he spills it because it slips from his slippery or greasy fingered-grasp, that is his problem, and he does not get another cup).

I tell him it’s a second lesson to learn. And I tell him I am also disappointed we were one tortilla short (I broke one and it wouldn’t hold anything), which means for our picnic later today, I will not have a tortilla to eat (he and his father do savoury things, I like to spread mine in coconut spread and eat something lightly sweet).

He pauses in his red-faced upset-ness, and says thoughtfully: Let’s do something to make us feel better then.

3:40 p.m. — We head out for a light picnic. We do a walk, and then stop and eat our packed food, drink some water, and enjoy the afternoon together.

5:12 p.m. — At home, I eat some food for dinner – can’t help it. Didn’t get a full tortilla, but I wasn’t super hungry anyway. When I go out and exercise, I am never that hungry when I come back.

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

Spent: $0

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