Week of Money: Where we start growing a crystal

DAY ONE

??:?? — I wake up and can’t go back to sleep. Little Bun squealed in the corner (likely, he kicked off his blankets in a fit of being too warm and my partner goes to tuck him back in). I try to go back to sleep but I cannot.

5:48 a.m. — I log in and just sit there, watching videos and blog.

6:29 a.m. — I start sorting out the beads I have mixed, to reset the tray to start again.

7:26 a.m. — I log off the blog work and start working. A lot of work this week as everyone is back from vacation. I groan when I look at my calendar. My entire day is literally meetings until three.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. It was a treat today with pasta, cheese and mushrooms. YUM.

1:57 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. — My meetings finally end. A SOLID DAY OF BLOODY MEETINGS.

5:38 p.m. — I log off for the day. We start growing a crystal from a kit we were given:

It looks like red water after it is all mixed:

6:00 p.m. — Little Bun: “MOMMY! I already brushed my teeth for tonight!“… I look at him, and smile. I remind him that he hasn’t even had dinner yet, so he brushed a little early, but it is okay because extra brushing never hurt anyone. He looks sheepish: “Oh, right”…. he tells me.

6:25 p.m. —  Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery.

7:12 p.m. — I clean up my area. It is getting very tiny handling Little Bun’s things, my things for work and for personal… I need three desks at this point!

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

6:25 p.m. — I ask Little Bun if he wants to chat. He tells me he has nothing, and it is just that he is very happy we had a yummy pasta + mushroom + cheese lunch today.

Spent: $0

DAY TWO

??:?? — I wake up before everyone and come out to start my day. I cannot oversleep.

??:?? — Everyone wakes up a few minutes after me and I run to Little Bun and snuggle hug him in the hallway, showering him with kisses.

7:33 a.m. — I log in to start working. No blog time today, we slept in.

8:08 a.m. — I start answering emails while in meetings. If I don’t do this, I will never make it.

8:47 a.m. — I am reminiscing back to when I was a kid and I got glasses for the first time after not being able to see for the better part of the year.

My father did not want to spend the money (he had it, but he was more focused on gambling it rather than buying things for the family) and thought I was able to “work through” the eye muscles to cure my sight naturally (look, if he and my mother were not able to “cure” their own eyesight by not wearing glasses, what makes you think a child can, but I digress), and I went for most of the school year without them.

The day I finally got glasses, I wanted to cry. Everything was so sharp. I could read signs, everything wasn’t a big blur and it was CLEAR.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:57 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. — Time for a short break. I make a tea with extra milk today.

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

5:33 p.m. — Day two of crystal growing, it grew a tiny bit!

6:25 p.m. — I try my best to clean up my area I am working in, but I really just.. need more space. Or Little Bun needs his own area. All these cords are also driving me mad as they do not charge wirelessly!!! I am definitely coming up with a cable organization hidden solution thing in the new home, where the power bar and the cables come out from a hidden place and are labeled, do not tangle and don’t frustrate the heck out of me.

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

8:54 p.m. — Little Bun suggests we stretch a little first. So we do some yoga with the Stuffies. He leads the ‘class’ saying: “Stretch high up into the sky! STRETCH! Grow!!!” … He’s mimicking what I say when I lead the yoga sessions, and it’s kind of cute.

Spent: $0

DAY THREE

??:?? — I wake up the minute I hear Little Bun stir in bed and say: “Baby?”.. He comes over and snuggles me.

??:?? — I get up and log in. No milk today, they did not do any deliveries from the farm we use (they do reusable glass bottles, with organic milk), so I don’t have my beloved matcha green tea. I talked about this with Little Bun last night and he told me – Yeah I miss my milk – and I tell him it is only temporary, not forever. I do feel guilt over drinking cow’s milk (and him goat’s milk), but I feel like it could be semi-compensated by the fact that we don’t eat much meat and are mostly vegetarian, so while we are not 100% perfect, we are imperfectly perfectly trying.

7:22 a.m. — I log in and start working on the blog. Lots of questions today from people buying my Wealth Building Tool from Etsy, so I log in and send screenshots, detailed answers, etc.

7:50 a.m. — I log off and start working at my job. Last night my VPN wasn’t working so I just gave up and logged off. I log back in and tons of messages are waiting for me. And emails. I work through them.

8:15 a.m. — Solid calls until 10 today.

10:12 a.m. — I finally get a break. I am dragging when there is no tea inside of me, I miss that milky goodness and it is only one cup a day that I drink.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time. I have soup and cheesy pasta, at least there’s that much!

1:57 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap. I raid my stash of coconut hard candy with sea salt and limit myself to 3.

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

3:40 p.m. — I snuggle him and have to continue working so he sits beside me and watches kid detective videos.

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

6:25 p.m. — WHO IN THE WORLD would buy this? IT IS STOLEN. AND LIKELY CURSED. Neither of which, are properties I want in the jewellery I am wearing, as stolen items are never fashionable.

I mean, considering that we are talking about colonialism, looting, stolen antiquities, and addressing the issue of giving back items that are rightfully part of a country’s property, this is really unbelievable as a jewellery concept.

Not only that, we are so focused on things like giving back all the rightful property, lost art and treasures stolen during the Holocaust, but all the things taken from various European countries from African, Asian and South American countries, is not considered equally as important to restore?

I recently watched Chimamanda speak on this during the Humboldt Forum in such a beautifully succinct and eloquent way – I do hope you will all take the time to watch it as well. You can simply listen to her speak, you do not need the visual, she did not present anything on a screen.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. In bed, he chats to me about things, and says eagerly: MOMMY! Can we make up weird cookie combinations again?

Me: Okay. Banana, Tomato…

Little Bun: UMM.. Mommy, I think tomato counts as both fruit and vegetable..

Me: Okay you are right. Banana, CELERY, and Yoghurt.

Little Bun: EWWWWW!!!

..and he comes up with his own combinations, back and forth as we discuss why the combinations don’t work “Banana would go good with Yoghurt, but NOT CELERY“, and we gross ourselves out before bed.

Spent: $

DAY FOUR

??:?? — I wake up and head out to work before Little Bun wakes.

6:22 a.m. — I log in and just sit there, watching videos and blog.

7:50 a.m. — I log off and start working at my day job.

8:15 a.m. — Meetings.

9:47 a.m. — I get messages like this all the time. She later clarified that while she thought this, she was also working towards having wealth at the same time. A conundrum indeed.

I also would like to remind everyone of this:

12:51 p.m. — Lunch time. I finally get a break to eat, and I take the full hour for myself to eat and relax with some random videos. This is why I like working at home because it is nice for me to be able to take a break to do these things.

1:57 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he grabs me, and we check on the crystal. It has to sit in a warm spot and not move. It grew a bit bigger, and in a few more days, we can drain the water, rinse it gently and have a crystal!

4:48 p.m. — We eat dinner early.

5:12 p.m. — Dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery.

6:25 p.m. — There is a local sauce made by a vegan company here that I have been obsessed with for a long time, called the Dragon Sauce. Here is the recipe from Simple Bites – it goes wonderfully on anything. I used to eat it on top of vegan quinoa-not-rice sushi stuffed with vegetables. IT IS VERY VERy GOOD. It is both savoury and a little sweet at the same time, and is also a great salad dressing, or dip!

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

Spent: $0

DAY FIVE

??:?? — I wake up startled, Little Bun has flung himself on top of me, and I thought it was my partner was trying to hog the futon, so I pushed Little Bun off until I heard him say: MOMMY!…. haha Then I woke up from my deep sleep and snuggled him.

5:12 a.m. — I log in and blog. I am also replying to lots of my IG messages and love getting these:

7:50 a.m. — I log off and start working. Lots of emails to answer, meetings all morning. I am swamped.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time and my meetings are over. Thank goodness. It’s pizza today! He goes and harvests basil for the meal from our plants. I tell my partner I REALLY NEEDED THE PIZZA TODAY. I slather it in siracha hot sauce.

1:55 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he runs out of the bedroom. My partner has a galette des rois, a French tradition of an almond paste cake that we eat annually, as a surprise!

5:47 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery. He likes to get work done before he eats treats or does anything else.

6:12 p.m. — We eat that happily after dinner- the crust is nice and flaky and perfectly fried crisp by butter, just as it should be, the almond paste is not overly sweet or made with any almond extract, and it is the perfect pie.

6:25 p.m. — He helps me move the basil plants out of the second bedroom where we don’t spend much time and is not as warm, and we shift them into the living room to be close to us. Every morning he checks on them to see how they’re doing and says “Hello”.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. We are reading from this book – 100 Things to Know about Oceans – and the fact that there is more plastic in the ocean than stars in the sky, made Little Bun quite upset. I made him put the book away, and we talk it out in bed about why it is happening and what WE can control as individuals as choices. We can only control our actions, thoughts and purchases, and not give up. I tell him about people who are filtering sand to remove plastic particles, using a big drum that they turn by hand, to clean the beaches. I tell him about people creating devices to scoop microplastics out of oceans. There are good things happening, we just need it on a larger scale.

Spent: $0

DAY SIX

??:?? — I wake up to Little Bun making baby hippo noises, snorting and snuffling, and then I go and cuddle him on his side of the bed.

6:48 a.m. — I log in to blog, and try to finish off what I can before my work day starts.

7:08 a.m. — I spend time replying to an email from a reader whom I now consider a friend even though we have never met. Maybe in the future! She always asks after Little Bun and reads these WOM instalments, so HELLO G! 🙂 I send her a new photo of him.

7:15 a.m. — I log off and start working, I have early calls today. Back from vacation, it is like everyone is pouring work on us.

8:08 a.m. — Little Bun is playing “babies” with his Stuffies, by lining them up on his bed, and then having them go on adventures. He wrote a cute story about them the other day, about how they were fighting over cookies, they broke in half, and then another friend came along to tell them they could SHARE it instead, and they all lived happily ever after. I encourage him to make more stories about them, as this is how writing, creativity and other wonderful skills are built.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:57 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 saw this, and have had the prices more or less confirmed. Provincially, they might differ (Ontario may not be the same as elsewhere), or have different rules, but these are all the prices BEFORE universal and work insurance kicks in to pay for them. People end up paying much less here in Canada, out of pocket once work covers them. What this actually shows is the crazy different pricing even before insurance of any kind kicks in.

Also, no, your prescriptions in your country are not “free”. Nothing is free in life. These are similar (maybe?) to the prices of what your country pays to get these medications, BEFORE your universal insurance kicks in to cover most if not all of the cost in many cases. I suspect other countries have prices like Canada, but this is more to show the stark contrast between Canada + USA, and how different it is for exactly the same medication.

The cost of healthcare in Québec:

• Drug fund: $0 – $710 a year
• Health fund: 1% of income up to a max of $1000 a year

So if you make a lot of money, then it is $1710 a year or $142.50/month maximum, for healthcare here. NOT FREE.

5:12 p.m. — Dinner, dishes and laundry. Little Bun is wiping down cutlery as usual. He does a pretty good job now and we do not have any whining.

6:25 p.m. — He puts away the laundry, folds all the kitchen towels.

8:54 p.m. — Bedtime routine, and then we go to bed. This time, we are talking about this game he is playing – ReVamp – where he has to figure out who the vampire is, and who the renovator (?) is. I don’t really get the game but I got the gist of it, and listen to him recount all of his games, in his sweet little boy voice. As I drift off to sleep, he pipes up with another story. I listen, then half-beg him to go to sleep and not to talk any more, he is waking me up from my almost-slumber. He says “Oh.” Then we both go to sleep. OF COURSE, he just goes to sleep immediately (I hear him snoring within minutes), and I am left to try and get back to where I was (just before sleep) before he started talking to me again.

Spent: $0

DAY SEVEN

??:?? — I wake up to Little Bun snuggling on top of me. He lifts up my blankets and curls into my Mommy Nook and cuddles me.

6:32 a.m. — I log in and start blogging.

7:50 a.m. — I log off from that, and start working, answering emails and messages.

8:16 a.m. — I make a cup of tea to enjoy, sitting at the counter away from the work computer. I really hate drinking tea while working because I only get one major cup of tea a day, and I need to enjoy and savour it. I can’t with work in front of me.

8:31 a.m. — Back to meetings. Breaks are important! It’s my new thing to remind myself to do this for 2022.

12:22 p.m. — Lunch time.

1:51 p.m. — Down for his Quiet Time / Nap.

2:51 p.m. — Up from his nap, he is very excited, we got milk yesterday that finally came back in stock, so he is savouring his milk, as I am I when I have my morning matcha lattes. Everyone always asks me what matcha tea I use, and it is this one – Organic ceremonial matcha by Jade Leaf.

5:00 p.m. — I log off for the day.

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

5:40 p.m. — We have a snack of slice of cake after dinner.

6:25 p.m. — We read through our 100 Things to Know About Oceans book. It’s kind of depressing learning about fishing nets, chemical sludge, and so on. It really makes me quite sad. Some of it is cool and interesting, like learning about different sea creatures, but the rest is all due to humans. Pure human evil.

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.