Friday, January 17, 2020

TGIF

Happy Friday! It's an extra happy Friday because we have a long weekend ahead of us. Woo hoo! I'm looking forward to an extra day at home. I have a quick work trip to Chicago next week so it will be nice to have a quiet day at home on Monday as work travel really exhausts me!

The book I'm reading is The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. This is a debut novel that tackles the subject of faith. It's about 2 couples. The husbands are co-pastors at a church in Manhattan. I'm early in the book, but I am loving it already. There have been many beautiful passages that I've highlighted - like the one below.




The highs of my week were going for a solo walk/run on Sunday morning and getting together with my book club on Wednesday night. At our book club meeting, we voted on the books we will read in 2020. Each member suggests 3 books, gives an explanation of each, and then we vote (I prepare voting sheets ahead of time). We started doing this last year and it's been a great change for how we pick books as it helps that members have some input into what we read. We've got a great list of books for 2020!

The low of my week was getting sick again. This time it's a head cold. I'm so tired of one of us always being sick! Paul has been pretty healthy (knock on wood), aside from getting strep in December, but Phil and I always seem to trade having a cold of some sort.

Another low was finding out that my boss’s boss - the man that hired me 4.5 years ago - was let go due to a restructuring at my company. I did not see this coming and am sad as I really liked him. This is an example of why we are so conservative with our spending and so determined to be debt free. My industry is shrinking so I feel like there will be round after round of reorganizations and layoffs. So we feel we have to live our lives with the assumption that Phil or I could be next. 

A recipe I made was Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala with Cauliflower. This is another favorite recipe in our house. I need to double it next time.

The best money spent was on some books "Pookie" books that we'll give Paul. I got 1 for Valentine's Day and 2 for his birthday, one of which is birthday themed. He is obsessed with the Pookie books (by Sandra Boynton) which are about a little pig and his mama. He has parts of some of the books memorized, which is pretty cute! 

My plans this weekend include staying in tonight! We might get up to a foot of snow so it's time to hunker down! On Saturday night, another couple is coming over for cards and on Sunday morning we are hosting some of Phil's high school friends for brunch. We'll see if Mother Nature will allow us to keep these plans! We both have Monday off for MLK Day. Phil is getting my car serviced and then we are going to go out to lunch today (Paul will be in daycare). I'm also considering going to a matinee showing of "Just Mercy" - I loved the book so I think the movie will be great. And it seems like an appropriate activity to do on MLK Day as the book is about the inequality in our criminal justice system, especially in the south.

What was the high of your week? This this weekend a long weekend for you?

8 comments:

Stephany said...

No long weekend for me, but your post reminds me that my drive to work on Monday should be easy-peasy! Ha.

Your second low is a really big low! Oof. That is really hard and I'm sorry you're going through so much uncertainty now. Fingers crossed your job is safe!

Crazy that you're planning to hunker down due to snow... and I'm planning a pool day today. Ha!

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

Isla has a long weekend this weekend and next weekend. Her end of the semester is next week! We are also supposed to get a ton of snow so we have plans to set up a card table in the living room and start a 1000 piece puzzle Isla got for Christmas.

Marlys said...

Passing colds between each other is the pits! I had the start of one last week, but it faded in 3 days without many symptoms except a runny nose so I am so thankful for that! I rarely ever get a cold so that one surprised me as I hadn't been around anyone with a cold.
I have a highlight of the week which I can't share quite yet but it's a life changer for me!
I'm glad you have today off and plans sound great! We had so much blowing snow in Wyndmere that we have over 5 foot drifts by our apartment building that has to moved by a tractor & loader! The banks were as high as our garage doors, we were told by our employee who came in on Sunday to move snow for us. I'm sure glad we weren't here and didn't have near the blizzard they had back here!

Jeanie said...

I hope you're well by now. I've been off for a bit. that's scary about the guy who was let go. Fingers crossed for both of you.

Amber said...

I love the way your book club decides on books for the year! That is a great idea to do it that way. My in person book club still only consists of 3 people so we just take turns choosing, but I do like the idea of everyone having some input into which books are read each time so you'll have more investment in actually finishing that book.

Glad you got to see Just Mercy on Monday! I want to see it so bad.

San said...

So happy you got to get out for a run! I know these times are rare but I am glad you made it happen.

Sorry to hear about your boss being let go... especially if it was unexpected and it reminded you about how volatile your industry is. I understand that you wanted to pay off the mortgage ASAP.

katielookingforward said...

Ugh, not a fun thing about your boss. I'm glad you and Phil have set up your household to adjust if necessary. While many industries are shrinking there are still things that a computer just can't do. And I'm sure you'd be able to pivot into another role if necessary.

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Sorry to hear about your boss being let go. I would have a really hard time working in a volatile industry. My tolerance for risk is so low. That's really hard, and with everything that is going on with this darned virus, who knows what is going to happen. Scary times :-(