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Week of Money: Where Little Bun starts to read & finishes his own chapter books

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up tired – I am definitely sleep deprived and now my ears feel blocked, but I am seeing a specialist in June for my ear, nose and throat.

6:30 a.m. — We play quietly in the living room.

7:59 a.m. — I do my bit of yoga, and then we head into the bedroom to play Uno, upcycle and watch videos while my partner cooks.

8:50 a.m. — BIG cooking day today, but Little Bun is entertained in the meantime. He’s making “Little Bun Creations” on my phone. Here is an example of his creation, he asked me what the hottest continent was, and then said “Africa? Okay”.. and wrote (pant pant) to symbolize someone sweating / panting on a hot continent.

11:30 a.m. — I buy two boxes of stuffed cookies to send to my family. As they’re socially distancing, they cannot get one box together to share. $109.88

They look like this – this one is my favourite – the Skor – and it is all melted caramel and delicious inside.

11:54 a.m. — Time for lunch. Little Bun was dramatically groaning in the bedroom of hunger: WHEN IS DADDY GOING TO BE DONNNNNE? … and I distracted him with some Uno.

12:02 p.m. — Finally, lunch. Little Bun abandons the game so fast it made me head spin, and I tease him: “MOMMY WON THE GAME THEN!“… and he runs back to refute me and says: “No! We BOTH won!“. I smile and agree that we tied.

12:28 p.m. — After lunch, three hands of Uno with Daddy, and we each win a hand, which Little Bun is very excited about because everyone got to win at least once. He told me if he lost all the time it wouldn’t be fun, and I told him if he lost all the time, he would have to learn how to play the game properly with strategies I am teaching him, rather than thinking he shouldn’t play the game at all. He chews on that.

2:00 p.m. — I chat with my friend while Little Bun “Naps” and then after his nap, he comes into the bedroom where I am talking and crawls all over everything, distracting me. His father finally comes in and asks him to come do an activity, and he runs out happily while I finish my call.

4:20 p.m. — He tells me: DO NOT LOOK AT THE SURPRISE I AM MAKING FOR YOU!… There are two parts. DO NOT LOOK. And he periodically comes into the bedroom to inform me of the progress of said surprise: “Mommy I did the first part.” “Mommy, the second part is done now.” “Mommy do not look, I am almost finished

4:50 p.m. — He finally comes in and says: “Guess what? It’s time for us to go on the balcony now, I am done my surprise.” I query if the surprise is on the balcony and he tells me no, it was time to go play on the balcony and draw something and play “I Spy”. I ask him who “We” means in this case, and he says: YOU AND ME OF COURSE! … I guess my call is over. I hang up and say good bye, and we head out onto the balcony.

5:38 p.m. — We play I Spy, sit there and observe the outside, and snuggle. We do a huge chalk painting, and then we head back inside when it is time for dinner.

6:50 p.m. — After dinner, I do laundry, dishes.. and realize I am out of clean kitchen towels, so I do them and try to dry dishes by laying them on the counter. When it’s a big cooking day, we need three counters it seems, there just isn’t enough space to dry everything, even stacking things on top of each other.

8:30 p.m. — More Uno with his father while I read in bed, then time for bed. I am really tired. I hope he sleeps in tomorrow.

Spent: $109.88

DAY TWO

??:?? — No such luck. He wakes up and crawls on me whispering: MOMMY I woke up early, but that’s okay, it’s too early to be up because it is 5 a.m. so I will try and go back to sleep, I just wanted to hug you and tell you.… It’s super cute of course, but it breaks my sleep and I mumble in the affirmative and try to sleep again.

6:10 a.m. — I beg for 10 more minutes. He lays there patiently as I try to snatch more sleep.

6:20 a.m. — I am up. He has milk, I have my tea, he plays his game where he manages a restaurant (it is Animal Restaurant in Snapchat). He loves serving them and organizing his place.

7:00 a.m. — I log in to work, and book off time for my medical appointment this week (it’s a call).

7:45 p.m. — I feel so dizzy. I think the weather and lack of sleep is not helping and it sucks that today is a truly FULLY BOOKED day of meetings from 9 until 16:00.

8:05 a.m. — I pop a Tylenol and power through my meetings.

10:15 a.m. — I log in and buy a second pair of my all-time favourite basic flat shoes. People wear sneakers, I can’t unless it’s for a “look” and I am over ballet flats now, and more into these more comfortable, cushioned shoes that look super stylish and are very comfy. $35.94

11:22 a.m. — Little Bun breaks for pizza, and I have some too.

11:50 a.m. — Oh thank goodness for cancelled meetings.

1:00 p.m. — Little Bun down for his “nap”, and I have a tea.

3:04 p.m. — Up from his nap, he wants to play Uno with all of us. My partner is furiously scrubbing a burned pot because he knows I won’t be able to (lack of strength…)…

3:05 p.m. — I am still working so I tell him I can’t play Uno until later. He waits patiently, playing with his father while I finish up.

4:25 p.m. — I log off, and we play an “Uno championship”, where Little Bun and I win (my partner hates cards but loves spending time with him), and then we have dinner. The Stuffies get in on the game. Losers get the Stuffies, winners get this paper heart he created.

7:08 p.m. — After dinner, he’s in school with Daddy, but he has fidgety bum syndrome, like ALL LITTLE KIDS and he is watching but not really paying attention to the schooling happening which makes his father angry, and it turns into a THING, which makes him burst into tears and it ends school and any hope of another Uno championship round. I take him into the bedroom and ask him why he just didn’t listen and pay attention (it’s 20 minutes at best)… and he has no answer.

8:20 p.m. — We do laundry, my headache comes back (I think this one is related to sleep deprivation), and then I lie down and play Uno until it is time for bed. An early bed time because I feel very tired and it is not helping my headaches.

Spent: $35.94

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up from him squealing. I flip a blanket onto him.

??:?? — I wake up finally, feeling a bit sleep deprived but not as bad as yesterday. I hope my migraines don’t come back.

6:20 a.m. — I get his milk, make a tea.

7:01 a.m. — Log in to work.

8:22 a.m. — First call of the day.

9:31 a.m. — Little Bun works on his workbook, we are running out of pages in this book, am still waiting for my Grade 2 books for him. Little Bun is now talking about food masterpieces, about cakes shaped like Stuffies and cakes that look like a farm.

11:22 a.m. — Lunch. My brain is shot.

1:56 p.m. — Little Bun squeals: YAYYYYY!!!!! …. then his father goes and tells him: But baby, it’s only 14:00. He says: Oh. … and goes back for another hour of quiet time.

2:01 p.m. — I start my meeting. I hate these working meetings where you meet online… to talk and watch each other type things into a document and work. Can we not do this on our own time and discuss/review things when it’s ready?

3:02 p.m. — Little Bun is up, and I am still working. Then I log off. He gives me a surprise:

3:15 p.m. — We upcycle until it is time for dinner.

5:46 p.m. — We then have dinner.

6:17 p.m. — Laundry time, then I take a shower. I am using a body butter bar now to replace my lotion and so on because I want to cut down on my plastic.

8:47 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I wake up tired even though I slept well. I am sleep-deprived and it is hard to get that sleep back if it is lost.

7:30 a.m. — I make my tea, and log in to work.

8:25 a.m. — Time for my first meeting.

9:35 a.m. — Little Bun is working on his book but not really finishing it. We are waiting for his books… they should be in next week.

1:01 p.m. — He goes down for his nap. Time flies by because I am working on something pretty hard.

3:05 p.m. — Up from his nap he wants to play but I am finishing a document and concentrating.

3:25 a.m. — He works on a Venn diagram out of the blue, polling us on our favourite numbers, but we can see he didn’t join the two circles at the bottom together. No matter, he’s trying.

4:11 p.m. — I log off for the day.

4:13 p.m. — UPCYCLING TIME!!!!

5:45 p.m. — We have dinner.

8:22 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? —  I wake up and…. it seems eerily quiet. I open the fridge and realize the electricity is out.

6:00 a.m. — I get a call and inform the electrical company the light is out (did you not read the message), and he tells me it’ll be fixed soon.

7:03 a.m. — Lights back on, I make a cup of tea and start going through what I have to get done today, mainly TAXES. My partner leaves it to the last minute and it drives me insane. We bicker the whole morning because I hate leaving it to the end when we don’t have to (April 1st, is the earliest we can start anyway), and I lose my temper on him because this is the kind of thing I hate to do last minute.

7:31 a.m. — Little Bun does some math for fun and I think he’s not biologically my child if he enjoys doing this…. (just kidding):

8:11 p.m. — Is it possible this chair is following me? HAHA! I saw it a few times and now I love the look of it, but after seeing someone sitting in this $3000+ chair, I am not sold (and very relieved) as it looks like the back isn’t high enough to sit comfortably to read. See how she’s leaning on it? If she sat up straight, she wouldn’t be comfortable.

11:45 a.m. — Taxes done, I silently sob as I transfer money to pay it immediately online (Errggg….) and I make something to eat because I am too hungry.

12:55 p.m. — Little Bun plays Uno with me and then time for his nap while I take a break and drink a cup of tea.

2:16 p.m. — I decide that we will do Herbs this year. We don’t get much direct sunlight so I also need to buy a lamp for inside so I find this LED light one. I will be turning the second bedroom into a little plant nursery as it’s the best spot (out of the way) and we don’t have to constantly move the plants or the lights on the kitchen counters to cook. I also pick up heirloom herb seeds – basil, rosemary, chives and sage (all 4 I will gladly eat), and my partner makes a note to pick up the old pots from the storage room. $56.77

2:35 p.m. — Little Bun is crying in the bedroom. He was actually napping but his bladder woke him up and he’s very ornery right now. This is why I always tell him to not drink water before sleeping but I guess he didn’t expect to nod off.

3:00 p.m. — He’s up and somewhat rested from his interrupted nap.

3:30 p.m. — We play Uno, hang out in the bedroom, and start our Space Adventure. He made up this game where we go under a blanket and we pretend we are going to visit different planets. He asks me what we need and I tell him we should make a Space Checklist, so he does, adding Goggles, Space Suit, Clipboard and Pen (to make observations), etc. It’s quite cute.

4:18 p.m. — Each planet we visit, has Observations written about it (on my Phone in an app called Zen Brush), and he grabs his (many) space books to help feed me info about each planet, like: “Mars is red! Dusty. Hot.” … and so on.

4:30 p.m. — We visit everything including the Sun and Moon, AND ALL THE DWARF PLANETS (he knows and loves them all) and he insists on various planets if they’re very hot (Venus) or cold (Neptune), he makes us “wear” make-believe cold and hot suits to help us withstand the heat on these planets. The Sun posed a problem but we resolved it with flying air Sun boots that helped us walk there.

6:02 p.m. — Dinner time. Daddy is barbecuing and we dive right in.

6:55 p.m. — I do all the dishes and then I go retreat into the bedroom for some relaxing time.

7:50 p.m. — I hear shrieks in the living room – they’re playing Uno and my partner is teasing Little Bun by making him pick up 2 cards, etc. He is way more animated playing Uno with him than I am. I am reading my book in peace.

8:50 p.m. — Just before bedtime, he begs me for some Hide and Seek. We agree, and he finds me easily hiding in the bathroom, and I find HIM easily hiding in the second bedroom (I heard him open the door and clink his way in).

9:12 p.m. — We read a few pages of our Usborne 100 Things to know about Scientists book my friend sent him (she loves him so much), and it sparks a discussion under the covers about dinosaurs, meteorites, and how else meteorites would have killed the dinosaurs (fire, hitting them, flooding oceans..)

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up tired. I feel like even though we sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time, I need an extra hour, personally, but Little Bun does not…

6:04 a.m. — I log in and start catching up on blog stuff and emails. I have so much I have to reply to.

6:50 a.m. — I make a cup of tea after I am done blog maintenance – comments, spam, updating this post for Week of Money, replying to quick emails….

8:08 a.m. — In the bedroom, we read together (he reads and I do stuff), and I realize I didn’t get all the stones from an order, so I contact the seller and they happily refund me.

12:08 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:16 p.m. — Should have skipped the tea this afternoon. Headache coming on – caffeine doesn’t help but I really wanted a hot tea… darn it.

2:15 p.m. — I have my cool new striped pants (very comfortable), but the colour is cream (not ivory like I thought), and it looks a little too casual and lounge-y for me to feel comfortable wearing them as outside pants, so I decide to make them indoor lounge pants instead.

4:05 p.m. — I log off for the day and have a bowl of yoghurt. I am trying to substitute in healthier sweet treats to wean myself off the sugar train I have been on.

4:15 p.m. — Little Bun and I play Uno.

5:33 p.m. — In the closet, he comes up with ideas for me with buttons.

Here is an idea for the button hanging off the bottom:

And another with a fabric button on the back to make it “pretty and comfortable to wear” on your neck:

7:45 p.m. — After dinner, we play Multiplication Wars, and the winner gets to wear this pretty ice ring (so he says.. he made up the rule). And since he won, he proudly wears it:

8:13 p.m. — I am still peckish, I eat some mashed potatoes with cheese and pepper while Little Bun does school with Daddy.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

6:00 a.m. — The power is out. We sit quietly in the living room.  Little Bun has started on chapter books, so I buy myself a new e-reader and plan on giving him my old one.

6:23 a.m. — I go online and within about 15 minutes, I see the new Kobo Forma and decide on it for 4 reasons:

  1. Physical buttons to be able to turn pages – I know I can swipe but I prefer buttons.
  2. 8” screen – lots of reading space!! I can even do PDFs easily unlike on my Aura.
  3. Super light at 197g.
  4. Can read in landscape style.

These are big improvements over the Aura one that you see in the photo, and if I can read PDFs easily with this, all the better. $344.91

7:12 a.m. — Little Bun decides (for fun) to do this Number Factory page in his workbook because he loves math puzzles and factories:

I remember teaching him fractions last year, and I am glad to see it retained in his head, the numerator, denominator, and that you only change the top numerator. I have to start giving him more of these kinds of questions.

He finds this one rather easy, so after we solidify his multiplication tables, we will do fractions conversion.

10:25 a.m. — He easily goes through 3 pages for Grade 4 or Grade 5 math (logic, reasoning), and I think of making him do 4 pages now instead of just 3.

11:04 a.m. — He finishes everything but I have calls. I hand him the iPad to play but he comes back after half an hour bored. He wants to play the NASA game. I shush him because I am on a call.

12:00 p.m. — Lunch, then he pesters me AGAIN to set up the mouse on the Windows PC (my work computer) to play NASA’s new game called NEMO Net that lets adults and children help NASA by identifying all the coral in certain parts of the world. He is such a geek, he wants to do it:

1:28 p.m. — My friend sent me some snail mucus and I am going to chalk this up to quarantine that I am spreading this on my face with abandon.

2:56 p.m. — Little Bun is up.

3:28 p.m. — Last meeting of the day.

4:02 p.m. — I have new stones to work with, and Little Bun wants to eagerly start on new projects but I want him to think about each piece, slow down and not go so fast.

5:04 p.m. — Little Bun has dinner, then plays a multiplication game on the iPad and I sit there and just think. It’s nice to have quiet moments.

6:15 p.m. — Laundry put away, dishes done, we settle down.

7:00 p.m. — He runs off to do schooling with Daddy and I keep reading my book.

7:50 p.m. — He comes back and snags my e-reader to finish his chapter book and I do something else on my phone.

8:30 p.m. — He does nighttime routine with Daddy then comes back to finish his story.

9:12 p.m. — Time for bed.

Spent: $344.91

———-

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

7 Comments

  • Tara

    Yes, I love them! I bought mine new (they gave healthcare workers 50% off one pair last year) and was surprised at how comfortable they are. I have really wide feet so I went with the loafer style and I feel like they almost conform to my foot? I know two other ladies who are also on their feet a lot and love them. For the loafer I sized up to 9.5 (I’m usually between a 9-9.5), but have heard that with the pointed style, you may need to size up more, as Jen noted above.

    You can usually find a $20 off code for your first pair too.

  • Jen

    Sorry, I meant to reply to Tara’s Rothys comment 🙂

  • Jen

    I have three pairs in the point style! I bought my first pair new and the other two second hand. I love them. Being able to wash my shoes is EVERYTHING. In the point I had to size up 1.5.

  • Tara

    Speaking of flats, have you tried Rothy’s? I tried them and they’re actually super comfy, and made of all recycled materials such as water bottles and marine plastic!

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