NO MORE BOXES!
With both of us feeling better, we seized the last remaining kid-free moments and finally got rid of the last lingering round of boxes in our house! We moved in April, so this isn’t too terrible but the final round was more . . . things that didn’t have any logical place rather than things we had just been too lazy to unpack. But we made it work, and I told Josh it felt like my spirit had been unblocked or something.
Seriously I’m so happy without boxes in our home.
COVID report
I’m feeling so much better, almost normal just with a cough (mainly at night) and some lingering congestion. Sadly I’m still testing instantly positive. I found out that our policy is that you need a negative test to appear at work in the 5-7 day window, and after that you can go back (N95 masked) regardless, so I will likely be telehealth tomorrow but back in person Tuesday (both are pt care days).
I feel ready to run again (gently) so hopefully that will go well.
I am going to mask around the kids and eat separately until I’m negative. I really really don’t want them (or our nanny) to get this from me, because the childcare debacle would be epic and I don’t have PL days to spare at this point.
Experiences or Things?
I listened to this Marriage Kids & Money episode while cleaning up yesterday: Experiences vs Things. The female half of the couple was in the “things” camp (esp things for home, but also she mentioned a ~$2K designer bag) and the male half was pro-experience.
Josh and I discussed and were relieved that we both fell pretty squarely into ‘experience’ so this has never been a point of contention. There is also a moment where the hosts wish for a way to have separate spending money without separating finances generally – there is! We have monthly ‘personal allowances’ in YNAB that each can do whatever we want with and I highly recommend this strategy. It allows for Josh to buy beer brewing equipment and guitars while I can order shoes and makeup and planners from Japan without any conflict or debate whatsoever (okay maybe the TINIEST bit of debate over where his bulkier purchases must live, but that’s it). I may have to contact the hosts and recommend our strategy . . .
A&C (&G) COME HOME!
It is very bittersweet that I will be masking and generally avoiding close physical contact with the kids when I want to hug them most but . . . it is what it is. Hopefully my body continues to clear this #(*$& so that by end of next week I can be confident I am not contagious. And very hopefully no one else gets it.
A has requested sushi rice bowls so I will make that and Josh is picking up crab for C who requested . . . crab. They will enjoy lots of down time the next couple weeks (and also do their back-to-school-assigned work which neither had touched prior to leaving for camp). I cannot believe our summer really only has 3 weeks left . . .
8 Comments
We do the same with personal allowence, but we each have a seperate bank account/credit card. Our paychecks automatically split the agreed upon amount between personal and joint accounts so it never hits our joint budget. It solves so many arguments when we say that latest package from wherever is personal money.
The cord boxes, the worst. I debated the cord box getting lost in the move…we have the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off on the week T starts school and have plans for some long bike rides and some organising projects.
Ohhh, lost in the move! I should have thought of that in our last move. My partner has cords for computers he has not owned since the late 1990’s, but insists on keeping “just in case.”
My husband and I are both experience people, too. And we are both frugal but my husband is more frugal than me. I am glad we don’t have conflict around money. That would be hard. We don’t have any budgets established or anything like that. We will talk about bigger purchases but more as an FYI.
Enjoy being reunited with the kids! I hope they can avoid Covid! Seems like you guys are likely not contagious at this point so hopefully they are in the clear!
My understanding is my super positive rapid antigen test (today) means I’m probably still contagious! So I will mask. But I think Josh in the clear!!
My husband and I started each having a monthly allowance after I read you refer to yours on this blog a while ago, and it’s genius. So nice to have some money to spend each month on fun things, that is budgeted for and knowing there will be no spouse conflict.
we don’t have personal allowances but we both value experiences over things. I’d purchase things that are considered necessities and husband Never questions. he has his own money from side business so I don’t judge either. I think every family needs to find the way that works for them, respect individuality, and compromise with solution to avoid constant arguments.
glad to hear you are feeling much better.
We found out the hard way that no one follows CDC guidelines for when you can start doing things again after testing positive (they have been heavily scrutinized). Which means that pretty much everywhere has their own policy. My son was out of school for 2 weeks because he kept testing positive and we had to cancel tons of appointments, though he only had a fever for 2 days and zero respiratory symptoms. It does make me wonder about other diseases that we don’t have tests readily available for. I even had to miss a doctor’s appointment while I was testing negative because my doctor didn’t want me to come in, but I know they get patients with Covid so that didn’t especially make sense to me.