Yard

      17 Comments on Yard
collage of photos from my yard, including daffodils, tulips, dusty miller, and perennial foliage

I am lucky to live in a home situated on a sizable yard. It’s a pain in the rear-end to have to tend to alone – which I had to do for the first half of last summer when my husband was recovering from his kidney transplant surgery – but now that we are back to two of us taking care of it (i.e., he does most of the un-fun work while I play in the dirt), it’s much more manageable. And with things being so weird right now, generally speaking, doing the yard work (which is typically something I groan about but am always pleased with once it’s completed) has become one of my only forms of accessible exercise.

Pictured above are some of the fruits* of our labors.

*not technically ‘fruits’, obviously — the things pictured are non-edibles

So for this post…

I did the exercise. (And don’t ever let anyone tell you yard work isn’t exercise!)

You get the (visual) benefits.

🙂

Continue reading →

xkcd

      6 Comments on xkcd

I dunno if I just have a weird sense of humor or what (the answer is probably “or what“), but I saw this comic and literally LOL’ed.

comic strip about gut health by xkcd.com
via xkcd — creative commons 2.5
Continue reading →

Under-Value{d} Wisdom: THRIFT

      10 Comments on Under-Value{d} Wisdom: THRIFT
ceramic piggy bank on table surrounded by coins, viaDiane Helentjaris at Unsplash
header photo via Unsplash

Money…

It’s a touchy subject for many of us, even during the best of times. And right now, being that many people are out of work due to the current state of shut-down worldwide, it’s even more of a potential landmine.

But financial health is a thing, right?

And how well we are set up to handle the current economic stresses is telling.

When I set out to write under the general umbrella of Health/y/ness for this year’s A-to-Z Blogging Challenge, I originally thought I’d be writing a different kind of post. (‘I’ is for Investing? ‘M’ is for ‘Mad Money’? I dunno… Something.) But since the global situation is what it is, I thought maybe it would be a better idea to share a few practical (and easily practice-able!) money-saving tips that have helped me over the years and invite you to do the same. Perhaps what you read here will be things you already do; maybe the ideas will be new. Either way, thriftyness is never amiss!

♦

CONTENT NOTE: This post is about money and the management/spending thereof. It touches on childhood financial education, troubled family dynamics, and poverty before discussing lessons learned. The tips shared in this post are NOT ADVICE. It is not my desire to be prescriptive; my intent is simply to share my own experiences. Given the current economic distresses and monetary anxieties people are likely feeling as a result, it is totally understandable if you’d prefer to give this one a miss. And if you’d prefer to just skip to the Thrifty Tips, scroll down to the section titled thus.

Continue reading →

PAUSE :: Questions ~ Reflection ~ Sharing

      15 Comments on PAUSE :: Questions ~ Reflection ~ Sharing

April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge Bonus Post: Letters PQRS

Bonus post? you are wondering. Why do we need a bonus post, Feve?

Well, you don’t *need* one, really.

But I ended up combining letters a little differently than originally planned once I got to the middle of the alphabet, which means that according to my pre-determined A-to-Z posting schedule, I’m a little ahead of myself.

So I thought i’d take a time-out and just, y’know… Talk to you for a minute.

How are you doing?

Me… My life really hasn’t experienced the same kind{s} of upheaval others’ has during this time. I am still going to work – though I’m working only one contract outside of my house right now and that one doesn’t pay great – which means I still have an income; it’s just reduced. My husband and I are healthy. Aside from ‘going out’ (for dinner or shopping or other errand-running) having become ‘staying in’, life is pretty much proceeding as normal.

I’m an introvert and a homebody, so I don’t feel any kind of social deprivation as a result of the stay-home orders. Hubs… It’s a little tougher on him in that way, I think; he’s a much more social creature than I am. Zoom is a thing though. And we’re learning how to use it. Me, for work (though it’s not terribly conducive to What I Do For A Living). Him, for play.

I think a lot of people are doing more reading than usual. I always read a lot, and my to-be-read pile is in the hundreds, so the biggest difference to my Reading Life is that I’m not visiting any book stores and therefore am not adding to the to-be-read pile at a faster rate than I’m finishing the ones already there.

*smile*

Blogging…

Continue reading →