I feel like I haven’t posted much this year. Since school started, it’s been hit the ground running. Now that I have three kids in school, my evenings are filled with homework, preschool collage projects, keeping track of events and dress up days. I had a hard time keeping up with everything, and frequently forgetting things, the house getting messy to the point it took a full weekend to clean it back up. So in mid September, I decided to drop hours at work down to 36/week. I now have every Wednesday off which has been a really nice reprieve. I am home until 3pm with Javier so we can tackle to-do lists together. I also have a day set aside for doctor appointments, dentist visits, haircuts, and anything else that needs to get done, and I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll have the day off or be able to find someone to cover it for me. Most importantly, I get to spend more time with my family. I have been wanting to do this for years and I was too scared of the financial implications, but seeing it now from this side, I wish I had done it sooner.

We have also been struggling with sickness this school year. I am sure it is because last year, we were hardly sick at all and we are now playing catch-up in the colds department. We have been sick nonstop since the start of school between the three kids bringing home different bugs from different school buildings. We have had Rhinovirus FIVE times! October/November were the worst though. We had Rhinovirus, RSV, Croup (parainfluenza 4), the stomach flu (norovirus) and Rhinovirus again all back to back to back. We are all still coughing because our throats are so sore from all of this sickness. Luckily, no covid, but our community has had a HUGE influx since Thanksgiving because people weren’t taking precautions and still getting together even though they were ill. This last week we have also had several cases of Influenza A, which is worrisome right before Christmas. Crossing our fingers that we don’t get it. I’m hoping that with the kids being out for Holiday break soon, we can get back on track and get rid of some of these illnesses in our community.

It has been so hard on us in particular because my dad, who had a lung transplant 9 years ago, cannot see our kids when we have even just a cold. And he watches the girls for us two days a week. We have been having to figure out alternate childcare for the last couple months due to us being sick for days on end. My dad did catch croup from us before we knew we had it, and ended up in the hospital for a long weekend due to pneumonia.

My nephew, Audie, was born a month early last week, which was exciting and scary at the same time. All is well and he got to come home after four days. They had to do an emergency C-section. My SIL had been sick with the stomach flu all night and around 3am, she started having contractions due to throwing up so much. Baby was showing signs of distress, so they were rushed to get him out quickly.

I think I have all of our Christmas shopping done, it is just a matter of if everything arrives on time. I have had the worst luck with FEDEX since forever but they have misdelivered two important packages in the span of two weeks. Amazon gave me the wrong item, and then refunded me without notice due to a package being damaged in shipping. Walmart also misdelivered and refunded without notice. I also have an amazon package that says it was supposed to come this past Monday and it didn’t. Now it is Friday and the tracking only says “package is moving through the postal system and is on track for delivery.” This was the worst possible timing for the postmaster to decide to slow the postal system.

Also, can we talk about scalpers for a sec? They are human garbage. I hate that it is legal to just buy all the inventory a store has, just to turn around and flip it on Ebay for three times what it is worth. And they leave people with no choice but to buy it or go without because it is always in-demand, hot commodity items that they do this with, and it is almost always toys and electronics. Walmart and amazon are not innocent either. In September, we looked at nintendo switch lite systems for the boys. They cost $199 back then. Of course now they are nearly $300. I hate capitalism.

Sorry for my mini rant there. I didn’t realize just how much I have had to write about these last few months. I hope that this holiday season finds you all well, and thank you for reading and taking an interest in my boring little life – ha!