Sam Squared

      This past week was the mid point of meteorological summer. I could handle many more days and nights of the weather of late. The highs just touching 80, but without humidity, and evenings that in the shade, a light sweatshirt feels like a hug. I guess I had an up and down weekend. I got both front and back lawns mowed. I use lawn lightly for the backyard, just weedy grassy patches in some parts and near jungle near the side trees. It took longer because of how thick in places as between helping at church and rain, I pushed mowing to 10 days from my last. The first batteries didn't quite make it, but happy that the spare were ready so I could finish.       I started down a tangent about my yard that I opted to cut and save for a post of it's own and hope to get my camera out, one of my July goals. Yesterday though I decided to take pup to the lake for a few hours. I had a time limit as I committed to feeding my sister's cats and of course, Little M...

                                 I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, July 11th to Thursday, July 17. These start getting long, so feedback if you think less is more. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs I included twinkle lights, purchased and tucked away from Christmas clearance, with my great nieces graduation card and money. I've been doing this for college dorm bound girls. I'm told it's always a hit by the moms or the girls themselves.  The raspberries just kept coming and not only more than enough for jam, I been giving them away to keep produce sharing karma going. Brought my daughter an extra set of double size sheets I already had for her new bed. She's goin...

         I realized I might be leveraging my credit cards wrong if I want to use to reduce travel costs. I have used my Delta AmEx card for travel but have still been using the Unlimited Cash Rewards Visa  for other day to day expenses and scheduled payments with no fee. I figured the cash back was nice as it could be used for anything which still is true. However, I get a straight 5 miles for every dollar with the AmEx, any purchases, calculated out that comes to an average of 4.5% reward per dollar for future flights. I figured this out by looking a variety of flights using pay by cash or pay by mileage. Sometimes the return in points came to nearly 7%, but was also as low as 2%. It's complicated that certain flights can be purchased with fewer miles proportionate to $$ value. For example I looked at a flight that was $299 or 40,600 miles, but another that was $387, was 41,500, and yet another was $229, but could be bought with a mere 16,500 miles.  ...

        Its Wednesday so time to check in. I'm going to use midweek again to check in and keep the same goals as I've had previously.  Lose five pounds.  To be clear, this is 5 pounds for the month, not the week.  Weight since July 1, down 1.6 pounds total. Not a great week of weight loss but something.  Walk 10 miles per week. Barely   on target. I made a mistake of taking a walk Sunday too late as in my head, it was cooler still, but at the 1.5 mark, I was sweating and feared I'd struggle making it home if I didn't start back. I took a second walk later, after 8:00, after berry picking. I guess my motivation to manage the Athens topography and hills over motivated me.  Strength and weight resistance exercise two hours per week.  This has been closer to 1 hour, 2 /10 minutes session 3 days a week.  Ensure I have at least six fruit and veg servings per day with at least three being vegetables. Other than grad party, I ate ...

          Picture just for cuteness.       I had a nice weekend, just a little bit of a few things. My niece held a terrific party for her daughters graduation. Nice food and drink, good company, and even with the haze due to Canadian fires, perfect weather. I was a bit lazy housework wise on Saturday so  today tried to get things done (Sunday.) I'm still trying to get to the raspberries, but even 9:30 a.m. is too late as the buzzing is annoying, so I will go back to after 8:00 p.m. even though I picked nearly four cups this morning, the sun and warmth ripened more during the day. There's still more and more to ripen! I thought I was getting a walk in before it got hot, but the last mile I was dripping. I avoided getting the men's Wimbledon final as I wanted to watch the  free replay on ABC later as I don't get ESPN+ to watch live, but lost track of time and missed a good match. I followed the women's a bit by phone on Saturday, but...

         Last year at some point I decided I really needed wanted  to have at least one get away a quarter. To say need is a bit entitled, but the want is strong. Quarterly seemed like a pretty minimal wish. I'm finding it more challenging than I'd have hoped. I'm stretching to count some things as travel. He's how 2025 has or will shape up.  Quarter 1 January-March: Mini road trip and overnight to Southern Minnesota for a few local wine bars and breweries. That was it, planned after I had a lot of FOMO, Fear of Missing Out,  as I was transport for others to and from the airport.  Quarter 2   April-June: Five day trip to Memphis which came about as a companion for my sister (with another sister) as she works "fly in fly out" (another new term I learned) for her job in early June. I had points from previously booking my November ticket so air cost $11 and subbing  two and 1/2 days provided the spending money. Quarter 3 July -Sept...

                               I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, July 4th to Thursday, July 10. These start getting long, so feedback if you think less is more. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs Ate all leftovers from various celebrations from weekend.  Stretched groceries out to yesterday though my plan to shop on route back changed and I still went to Sam's Club and Aldi for major stocking up. I avoided Trader Joe's temptations.  Did not use the car Saturday to Thursday this week. Walked to local store  to use the post office box. Chose not to go pick more strawberries. I've enough for both a batch of jam and two strawberry rhubarb pies or a large crisp, ...

      An extra post from my health goals update that I posted this morning. It did help to unload yesterday. For those that read, commented, or just scrolled by but came back again, thank you. Words matter and when trapped in head space, they can churn into messages and commentary that is at best unproductive and at worst, debilitating. It's two people really that are difficult to be near when cornered, plus the continuation of decades of "dings" from MIL. Honestly, I doubt she'd think they're dings, just her trying to be helpful and I'm just the difficult one.  There are people in my husband's family that are absolutely lovely so an added level that would make walking away sad. There's also some shared property in my kids names and responsibility there. All the words of wisdom are being taken to heart though so I appreciate you.  Blogging is like opening an escape hatch to let my feelings out before imploding.       I opted to get a few basi...

       It's a new month of Wednesdays; though I did not post last week, I started tracking. I'm going to use midweek again to check in and keep the same goals as I've had previously.  Lose five pounds. To be clear, this is 5 pounds for the month, not the week. If I could stretch to 6.5, getting that extra 8 ounces off, I'd be ecstatic. I weighed myself on July 1 but didn't get today-was down 1 pound since losing the post vacation weight gain. Better than gaining.   Walk 10 miles per week. Definitely on target .  Strength and weight resistance exercise two hours per week. This has been closer to 1 hour, 2 /10 minutes session 3 days a week.  Ensure I have at least six fruit and veg servings per day with at least three being vegetables. I had a carb heavy weekend but improved by Sunday.  Resume 16-8 intermittent fasting , meals/ snacks only between 12-8, but aiming for nothing past 7:00. The 8:00 gives me flexibility for nights like trivi...

         I'm getting these off my mind and onto the blog. July seems to be a cyclical downturn for my mental health. Maybe not bottling things up will help. Maybe it's because the last two July's have been challenging months. First, 2023 marked the 6 month of losing my husband. Literally everyone but me and my kids had moved on as if he was just a momentary blip in their lives. I was still in paperwork and other admin hell and so incredibly sad, lonely, and felt entirely overwhelmed. Dealing with getting the Equinox title transferred so I could buy the license tabs, which expired June 30, required escalation of having a letter sent from an attorneys office and wasn't resolved until September.      Last July a drunken relative ruined July 4th by letting loose every thought and opinion he had about how me and my kids either stupidly had handled things or what, if we had any common sense and would just move on, we should be doing by now, and said ver...

      The weather played games, or couldn't decide what to tell the meteorologists. We all ended up closer to home yesterday due to reports of thunderstorms throughout the day. We had a few bouts of downpours and MIL said they only had some rain and seemed annoyed no one came up. After the horrible 4th of July last year when the washed out day led to too many people inside all day, some of who drank way too much and said way too much ( truly awful- so far out of line to me and my kids) none of us wanted to chance it. I think that was about the time when I had to take a major pause on blogging. It was bad and we  all keep said relative at more than an arms length since.       I know my husband's family thinks we're both weird and ungrateful for not wanting to spend every spare summer moment at the lake. I don't care. My nephew had three people with him, the brother in law's kids each brought a friend, a family friend couple and my sister-in-law's n...

                             I copy the previous week, delete the old and updated as I go along the week as a way even when busy and not in a blogging mindset I'm accountable to myself.  Here's my recap of Friday, June 27 to Thursday, July 3. I'm going to admit that I  was a walking oxymoron of a frugal person. I'll stretch a bag of $1.25 navy beans into a huge vat of soup but spend $3.50 a pound for pick your own strawberries when Aldi is carrying them for $1.79 a pound. (There was no comparison to the quality of the fresh picked berries and if I'm going to go to work of making jam and pie, I want great produce.) Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs After Friday's anniversary dinner out, no other eating out or take out. July has to be different than June on that line. I have a coffee meeting and lunch with an old friend next Thursday but that must be it for the rest of July. Started July spending on...

      Welcome July photo from Pexel.com free photos      2025 is half over. Why do the months and apparently the years go so fast as we reach a certain age? June was a mixed bag of success towards goals, but no one but myself is counting on me to achieve them, so no harm no foul. Still, it seems at least thinking about what I'd like to get accomplished is a good thing. My list is sort of suggested guideline, not a mandate. Some of these are repeats from June, and some were June fails, but I'd like to keep them on a regular basis. A "C" next to a goal is a continuation as in it was not completed in previous months but still needs to be and has an end point. A "R" means it's a repeated goal.  Financial : Shave $75 off budget grocery/ HH target of $575. I say target not budget because I feel like I have less control on costs, but control on what I buy. Since last month was going well until the final stretch, this seems entirely doable. R I plan to combi...

        Goodbye June! 😭       I've set goals for the month and now it's time to be honest with myself.  Financial : Shave $75 off budget grocery/ HH target of $575. I say target not budget because I feel like I have less control on costs, but control on what I buy. Nope. I was doing well, then last week hit and I needed specific cleaning supplies. Then I decided to both berry pick and go to the farmers market and really splurged. ( I regret nothing). We ran out of Cat litter when I thought there was a full one in the garage...it was empty.  Reduce gas to not more than two fill ups. More walking, more consolidation of trips . This was good, but I was gone a week and had filled up on May 30 so that tank stretched well into June. I'll keep this goal going forward. Sell boat. Bittersweet victory. I got a bit less than hoping for, but without any drama or pain, which made it acceptable.  Family : Do one fun activity with each or kids co...