Weekly Ramble 11/2/24

Hello, Hi, How are you?

Are you ready for the time change? Don’t forget to turn the clock back tonight when you go to sleep.

I didn’t get as many sunrises or as much light exposure as I would have liked this week. Here’s hoping the time change doesn’t kick my tail! Thankfully, the early part of the week is pretty chill. Other than church, I won’t have to leave the house until Thursday.

I love those kinda weeks.

FishChick16 and I have been walking between 7 and 8 every morning, but darn was it cold! I know this isn’t cold for where some of you live, but considering my BHRT is kicking in and I’m now feeling the chill, it’s a different experience than last winter when I wore shorts and flip-flops into December.

Oh, so interesting. And so cold!

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I started bioidentical hormone replacement therapy a few weeks ago: an estrogen cream I put on my legs and a progesterone pill I take, both at bedtime.

So far the only difference I notice is that I can feel the weather, something I haven’t felt for awhile.

Another interesting thing about the process is that I spoke with five different practitioners before starting this therapy:

• my GP (male)
• his Physician’s Assistant (female)
• my endocrinologist (male)
• my cardiologist (female)
• my midwife (female) – And yes, midwives do handle later age women’s health.

Anywho… five practitioners… divided in interesting ways. The men said don’t do it, one very emphatically so. The women all recommended it.

Granted, it’s a small sample size, but still.

I have some research to do regarding costs. The pharmacy where my midwife referred me doesn’t bill insurance (I’ve heard most companies don’t pay anyway) and they ship it to my house, instead of making me drive to San Diego to pick it up.

I paid $69 for 2 months of cream and 1 month of pills, so I’m not really sure how that pencils out each month, but it looks like less than what I’m seeing online.

The world just keeps changing and there’s more and more adulting things to learn, aren’t there?

Speaking of adulting, this might be my last year of trick-or-treating. The girls still wanted to go, so I escorted a pirate and Hermione about the neighborhood.

Trick or treating seems to have changed. Here are some observations:

• Many neighbors sit in their driveways or garages to hand out candy. Since many of our neighbors are Marines, I assumed it was base culture. A Marine couple told us a few years ago that this was common practice on base.
• However, one mom this week told me that her littles don’t know how to go to the door since their formative trick-or-treating years were during Covid when many neighborhoods adapted this driveaway/garage practice.
• Another neighbor told me that kids don’t even know how to say “trick or treat.” She gave the girls extra candy because they did. lol
• Another thing I noticed was that having the porch light on wasn’t enough for some kids to come to the door. You have to have a ginormous Halloween display (like Christmas decor but creepy) in order for kids to come. While many houses ran out of candy, we didn’t. We don’t have decor.

And I won’t be getting decor. So, I’m not really sure what to say. It’s the end of an era?

I did a business training recently that had you crunch the numbers so that you knew exactly how much money you had to make. Well, I had a number in my head, the same number for several years, in fact, that I would have said, I won’t feel good if I make less than this.

Well, I went ahead and crunched the numbers and I was only $204 off!

So, I guess it’s good that I’m paying attention. Did I tell you that Good Cheap Eats got hit by another Google update? Yikes! Traffic is down another 30%, so that means my income is, too.

It’s frustrating to be sure, but I’m not despairing. Instead, I’ve been chatting with a friend about business strategy and slowly regaining my mojo.

I’m also packing a lot of lunches. 😜

No Restaurants November came just in time, didn’t it? I hope you’ll check out the tool kit and consider adding it to your arsenal of money-saving resources.

Alrighty then, that’s it for me this week. Here’s some good reads to check out. Let me know what resonates with you and please leave a comment. I love chatting with you!

Recommended Reading

♥️ The process we go through to prepare our homeschoolers for college. So far, two have graduated debt-free, three are on track to do the same, and we’ve got one left in the queue.

♥️ I taught elementary school for about 15 years — to my own kids. Here’s what curriculum we used.

♥️ Feel like you’re wasting your days? Create one of these and see if you don’t start using your time better.

♥️ It’s not too early to be planning your Christmas fun! Check out these 40+ things to do with the fam.

♥️ Let no one be bored at family get-togethers this season. This activity is perfect for your Thanksgiving get-togethers.

♥️ Are you hosting a holiday meal? Follow these tips for saving money on food.

♥️ If you’re scrambling every day to get stuff done, it may be time for some new strategies. Try these.

♥️ Emergency preparedness is a great thing to buy yourself some piece of mind. Here’s what you need to pack if you’ve got littles.

♥️ Wondering what supplies you need for homeschooling? Check out my list of must-haves.

♥️ These are super fun to make with the kids to use as toys or gift tags.