Yearly Archives: 2020

The Christmas season has begun!

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 Its a beautiful Saturday morning here. We had a few days of temperatures in the high 30’s (C) during the week so its nice to back in the mid 20’s for the weekend. We had our Christmas party yesterday at work. Our local team joined with the state wide team via zoom. It was fun with lots of staff making funny videos about 2020. Later today we have a Christmas luncheon for DH’s work. It will be nice to eat out again and to just enjoy lunch outside in the good weather.

I finished my crotchet rug this morning.  Our cat loves to sit in amongst the crotchet and chase the balls of wool. I’m keeping this one for myself as I love the bright colours and its just the right size for keeping warm when I’m sitting on the lounge or if I have a quick nap. 

I have spent a bit more money than I planned in the last few weeks.  We have a LOT of big bills every November but I really needed to buy some summer dresses and some new shoes after several years of no clothes buying. All were bought on sale which is usual for me, but I need to plan better for the end of the year expenses next year. 

My plans for the weekend are to go to the Christmas lunch today and tomorrow do some housework and set up the Christmas decorations. I am enjoying seeing all the different Christmas posts and even snow for some bloggers. Time to enjoy the Christmas season!

November progress report

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 Time for another monthly update.

Mortgage

  • current balance: $66,976
  • down from: $68,752
  • total reduction: $1,776
November is a huge month of bills for us so we paid less off the mortgage than usual.

Savings

  • total: $551,030
  • up from: $522,775
  • total increase:$28,255
Great to see our savings going up again! 
Work
I’ve been learning a new stats program that we start using in 2021 which will save us a lot of time. There could be an option for me to work at a higher grade job next year so I’ve been talking with my manager about that. This could also open up an opportunity for me to go part time in 12+ months which might be a very nice step towards retirement. Unfortunately I can’t just be appointed internally, it has to go to open application so I’ve dusted off my very old resume for an update over the Christmas break. 

Home

I made some progress in the sewing room and laundry with the decluttering. Not much else got done this month.

Health

Unfortunately my walking attempts seem to aggravating my arthritis so its very slow and steady. I’m aiming to walk every third day and halve the distance to see if that makes a difference. 
I’m looking forward to planning 2021 and setting my goals. Only eight days to work and then holidays!

Sharing the Dignity – Its in the Bag!

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 For the last few years I’ve made up bags for the It’s in the Bag collection each November for Share the Dignity, a charity that supplies feminine hygiene products to women domestic violence and homelessness charities. Each bag has basic hygiene products, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, deodorant, pads, tampons and optional gifts as well.  There are teen bags and mother& baby bags also.  Its a great charity and I had thought I might volunteer for it when I retired.

Well this year I thought why wait till I retire? Stop putting everything off till later and start doing some of those things right now. So I signed up to help collect the bags, check them and deliver them to the charities.

I’m so glad that I did! 

Its been a wonderful week seeing the generosity of women helping women. The care and attention that has gone into these bags, the beautiful notes written, the hard work of the volunteers – faith in humanity restored!  

Right now I have my bags all sorted and ready to go to my charity, possibly later this week. Its been a busy, but very enjoyable week and I’m looking forward to the next event in April.

I made up three teen bags and one womens bag this year. I’ve decided next year I’m going to focus on mother & baby & teen bags as there is a real need for those. Heres my teen bags before packing getting some love from the cat.


DD and I both celebrated our birthdays this last week. We both had the day off work and went out for lunch. Its the first time since March that we have been anywhere other than work of grocery shopping and it felt wonderfully normal to be out having a meal!   The cafes & restaurants are still limited in how many people they can have inside so it was about half the usual number of seats but they have been allowed to put some tables outside so its good to see local businesses back in action.

Time for me to go to work, only two weeks left until holidays!