Fall Catchup

 I realize I have been away for the better part of six months. There was nothing cataclysmic keeping me away....just life being busy and no brain energy left to give much else but work and exisisting.

We started the fall here back in person at school. All masks, all the time. 

I have to say that the kids I have this year did really well with this adaptation. There was no pushback. With the group I had last year, it would have been a much different, far more stressful story.

The biggest challenges were that pretty much everything we used to do, was no longer allowed with covid. Working in groups. Challenge stations. Pass and share etc. We are also not a 1 to 1 school for devices so that required some creativity as well.

It took the better part of September to start to feel comfortable in the new routines. Thankfully it was glorious weather so we did a lot of work outside and took a lot of walks on the campus, which could be mask free provided there was distancing. That great weather lasted until Remembrance Day weekend.

It was a blessing.

Remembrance Day weekend brought a snow dump unlike anything we have seen in a long time. We actually had a snow day, which never happens here. In reality, the snowday was more of a 'we don't have enough staff who can make it into work, and we can't combine classes' thing. But it was glorious and a little gleeful.

Towards the end of November we hit Level 3 with Covid protocols. This meant that we had to split the kids. Half one day, half at home. and then switch. The good news is I wasn't required to teach the  in class and at home at the same time. So for their in class day we did a lot of front loading and practice, and then for their at home they worked on deeper level work on the same topics.

The tough part comes with keeping the two groups balanced in terms of work load, finding time to get caught up on the online marking, and planning when to load each assignment online. It generally is taking two hours a day outside of school time to stay on top of all of this.

Really hoping the after effects of Christmas do not change us to purely online. That is even harder to do and with the disastrous decision making by the provincial govt in spring about online being optional then, some bad habits have been set.

I guess we shall see what the new year brings for school.

A quiet Christmas

 

It's our second Christmas in our new (mom and dad's old house). 

The tree it tilting because I snapped this just after I pulled the orange cat out of it :-). It's their second Christmas with us and their first with a real tree.

It definitely was a quiet Christmas.  With Sask COVID rules only those living in the house could be at the house for Christmas. Technically until January 15th or whenever the rules change again.

DS2 and his gf stayed at their place a couple hours north of here. DS1 and his gf did their own at our old house.

I can remember this house being absolutely jammed with people for Christmas celebrations. Those memories were a gentle haunting here on Christmas Day. 

We will save our big turkey meal for when we can join together in the house. 

The day was spent in front of the fire, watching movies and doing a new jigsaw puzzle, along with a few virtual visits.

That being said, I cannot complain. We have a comfortable home, food to eat and most of us are in decent health. That is more than so many more folk I know.

I hope however you celebrated the day found ways of making you smile.

RRSP update

This quarter's statement showed a drop of 2.16%. Despite that my balance is $19 197, which is up from the March statement. Down still a bit from December of 2019.

I definitely need to check that March statement to see if I was reading it correctly. The math doesn't make sense.

What does make sense is the drop,  unpleasant as it is. Watching the US market drop this morning, whose ripple effect will undoubtedly continue here in Canada.

Of course I like the income tax benefits I get from even my small RRSP contribution.

I wonder, however, if it is not better long term served to put whatever dibbles I have in TFSA.

Ahhh how I wish all those numbers were bigger.

Changing my money jar amount

Since the start of this journey, I used the money jar (Gail Vaz Oxlade) ,method to help me stay in control of how much I was spending on variable expenses.

At the start I had actual jars with the categories

• groceries (and household)
• gas
• spending money
• entertainment

I went to the bank and took out a week's worth (or two, depending on how often I wanted to go to the brick and mortar), came home and filled up my neatly labelled jars.

Once the money was gone, the spending for that category was gone. 

Some people use a spreadsheet. Some use envelopes. This worked for me. So well!

I went to the brick and mortar because my ATM only gave out $20s and I needed other denominations for the budgeted amount.

After awhile and a budget tweak, I would go weekly to the ATM to get my $, and come home to divide.

At the time I only got paid once a month, so I balanced the calendar to create 3 fake paydays to go along with my real one. I found that dividing my variable spending into four weeks allowed me to be much more successful than one large amount for the month. Hey whatever it takes to make it work.

I don't use the physical jars anymore for these categories.

The last time I see I did a $ amount was here in 2015.

Before that, it was here in 2014

I believe I have been using $280 a week since the 2015 date.

$180 groceries

$20 spending

$20 entertainment

$60 gas.

Some weeks I was hyper vigilant and keep 100% faithful to the amount.

Some weeks I was less so.

But I have kept to my weekly withdrawls for 'jar money'  for over a decade now. It has been one of  the critical pieces to whatever successes I have had.

It is time for a bit of a tweak.

Even though gas prices have gone up ( and down and up and down and up), I am not driving nearly as much. No kids to run around. Significantly less driving since Covid. That will change in the fall. I hope.

As for entertainment...we really don't do a whole lot. The past two years I did almost nothing, taking care of my parents. That amount usually just got funneled into groceries.

Groceries - well I am doing a lot more bulk shopping than I used to. Which really should be the way it is done anyways. Once  a month when I am in the city for my infusion, I hit Costso.  I had never really budgeted for that so it always threw things off and I was scrambling to cover.

So I have taken out the $20 each for spending and entertainment.

I have lowered my gas $ for each week

I have juggled things to make a Costco line that will balance out what I buy there in bulk with what I buy elsewhere.

I guess we shall see if it works.

What I am reading

I finished The Queen's Secret late last week. It was ok. Definitely not as good as her other books.

I also finished Who is the Dalai Lama and Who is George Lucas, both from the Who is /where is series.

Today I just started The Engineer's Wife, by Tracey Enerson Wood. It's based on a true story of the wife of the Engineer who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. I am hoping it's good.

I am also starting two more from the Who is Where is Series. This week..... Malala and Area 51.