What can I say? There are always things that need improvement and there are always improvements that need celebrating. These posts help me sort out the difference…
DEMERITS
- Vitamins. If you have whiplash from watching this vitamin-taking ping-pong back and forth between demerits and gold stars, you’re not alone. Realizing I had slipped in this habit was enough to get me back on the straight and narrow. Mostly, though, my very dry eyes in the morning reminded me that I was not taking Omega 3’s regularly, which I swear are the most effective way to combat my dry eyes post PRK surgery.
- PRK. Speaking of my eyes, there is still some bluriness a year later. It’s all manageable and I can see relatively clearly, but I almost always feel like there’s just a bit of cloudy water I need to shake out. Sigh. Stupid thin corneas. I really wish I could have had LASIK. Do I regret my decision? No. But it hasn’t been a seamless process.
- Mascara. Okay, I’m sensing a theme…but I promise this is the final demerit that will involve my eyes. Several times over the last few months I haven’t removed eye makeup at night. The horror! It looks and feels awful the next morning. As a compromise, I’ve just been wearing mascara less. Instead of 6 days a week, I’d say I’m wearing it 3-4. It makes me feel less grouchy about the time it takes to remove eye makeup. I am such a wuss when it comes to face washing and skincare in general. Also, since I am a one trick pony and literally use coconut oil for all my skincare needs, I have started putting coconut oil on my index fingers, pressing that down over my lashes and counting to 10. Yes, counting all the way to 10 is HARD for me. I am so impatient when it comes to these things. But, then I just use one of my reusable makeup remover cloths (with warm water) and the mascara comes off quickly and easily.
- Forgetting to use Anylist. When it comes to groceries, I tend to keep things on a short leash. I write items we need on the Boogie board or on my weekly (paper) grocery list. But more nebulous things that can be gotten at virtually any time from less-frequented stores slip my mind. It is so much easier if I just open Anylist and note said item and forget about it.
- Owing $1000 in back taxes. Argh. File this under a frustrating reality of being an adult. There was an error on my 2022 tax return. It was an understandable mistake made by my accountant and missed by me, but there was no way around the fact I now owed $1000 + interest. Sigh. It’s paid, and how fortunate that we can afford unexpected bills. But still. Not fun.
- Chipped nails. As much as I love painting my nails each week, I am NOT fastidious about nail care and over the last few months my nails have gotten thinner and more likely to peel/chip. I have ordered some supposed “miracle” polish remover and I need to get back to applying a base coat + moisturizing.
GOLD STARS
- Moving my yoga mat to the guest room. For a few months I was doing yoga in our basement family room, but the only space available was right by our son’s LEGO corner and that meant I was forever having to clear space or bang into a bookshelf or curse the LEGO piece stuck under my knee. In short – it was a nuisance. About a month ago, I decided to set up shop in our guest room. There’s enough floor space at the foot of the bed that I can leave my mat permanently set up. Also, this room has a door, so I can have complete quiet and privacy!
- Organizing our office. Our home office plays double duty – we have all our personal files (taxes, bills, office supplies), and also have all the corporate documents (taxes, bills, office supplies) for our business. I shredded thousands of documents and completely overhauled how and where things are stored. It took a lot of effort, but I am so, so happy with the result. My workflow is much more streamlined in terms of filing things properly, and I shredded all the business documents we no longer need. (We are required to keep everything for 6 years by the Canadian Revenue Agency. Out of an abundance of caution I kept 8 years worth of bills and receipts and shredded the rest.)
- A good attitude. A database I use at work was recently revamped. And…it was okay. Some things don’t line up the way they used to, some categorization has changed, but I went in with an open mind and think I’ve mostly sorted it out. I’m very proud of myself for not panicking when I saw the new interface.
- Daily walks in April! Gold stars to me! Gold stars to you!!!
- Found! L managed to lose TWO nice puffer coats at school (one was his sisters!). This shoulder season is hard. Jackets are needed in the morning, but by the afternoon it can be sweltering. He kept coming home each day empty-handed despite me asking him to check the Lost and Found. I sent an e-mail to A asking HER to look and that same day she came home with BOTH jackets. We’re still missing a really nice zip-up sweater and he lost his raincoat*, so it’s not a happy story across the board, but I’m very glad to have at least two items back!
*The raincoat has been found – sodden in a friend’s backyard – along with a pair of sunglasses I didn’t even know he had lost.
Any recent demerits or gold stars you’d like to share? If you have kids, do you find they frequently lose things – (clothes, water bottles, and fanny packs the three big ones in our house)? If you work out at home, what space do you use?
Jan Coates
I have a cornea condition called “Fuch’s Dystrophy,” for which I put Muro 128 ointment in both eyes nightly to combat the dryness that’s part of the syndrome. FD also makes my vision blurry by times, and I have to blink away the blurriness frequently. And I’ve taken a biotin/collagen supplement for years, which I think helps with breaking nails. Hope you’ll soon be out of jacket season in NS!
Elisabeth
It is 22 and sunny today – no jacket required!
Nicole MacPherson
I have a suggestion that will maybe help with the vitamins – tie it to a meal, and keep them where you keep things you need for that meal. Like, if you have oatmeal for breakfast, keep them next to the oatmeal bowls. That way it will just become habit, hopefully?
TAXES AHHHHH. I did not apply for the carbon tax rebate, because I did not qualify for it. However, the government decided I did qualify for it and automatically sent it to me direct deposit. Then, a couple of months ago, I got a bill from Revenue Canada saying that I did not qualify for the carbon tax rebate, and now I owed them. GET IT TOGETHER PEOPLE. So irritating. The worst is I couldn’t pay online, so I had to actually go to a Canada Post to do it because the line at the bank was insane and ahhhhh.
Yay for yoga and for finding lost jackets!!
Elisabeth
Having to go in to a location to physically pay a bill is like, the worst. Seriously – it feels like the end of the world for me. Not only did I have to go in and pay in person for my 2023 taxes, a few months later I had to go pay the 2022 tax. Argh.
Agreed – get it together CRA!!
Jenny
I’m laughing at the thought of you doing yoga right next to the Legos- those two things definitely do NOT go together! Glad you found a good solution to that.
I’m also laughing a little at L losing two jackets, a raincoat and a sweater. I seem to remember my son having some issues like that, but my daughter is pretty good about it- EXCEPT that she’ll “lose” articles of clothing that were never taken off outside the house, and then I’ll go through a pile of clothes on the floor of her room and find them (after a lot of accusations and recriminations, on her part.) SIGH.
Elisabeth
Having kids is a lark, eh. This morning we thought another sweater was lost and I may have thrown my hands up in despair…only to find it hanging up in the closet. A certain child was NOT impressed I had assumed they lost it. But, if the shoe generally fits…
Elinoora
Waterbottles. My oldest manages to kill reusable water bottles at the rate of at least 1 every six month, although lately it’s been closer to 3 months 🤷 but at least he now knows how to get to the nearest second hand shop by himself and buy a new one. I refuse to get him any more nice ones. I tried that route and it got me… Broken bottles?
Yay on the yoga! And the walks! And organising the office!
Elisabeth
Yes! We had a string of water bottle issues! Sadly, the nicest water bottle L has EVER had he lost in like a week. I still grieve that water bottle. We almost exclusively use second-hand water bottles for our son. Our daughter bought a Stanley and we gifted her another one and she is very careful and they always seem to return home. That said, I fully expect one to go missing eventually.
mbmom11
My one son would lose his lunchbox with alarming regularity. It took me longer than it should to just use brown bags for him.
@Jenny- that’s just like my college freshman daughter. Piles of clothes everywhere, so everything is lost. At college, she was pretty neat and organized- but home one day- the piles return! She us also the one I had to drop off her school computer frequently as she would forget it at home in high school. The last day if school in her senior year- yep , she forgot it again.
Demerits to me for not keeping up with walking once May hit. Gold star for me keeping one son on track so he passed all his classes.
Elisabeth
Brown bags sound like a great working solution!
Passing classes is huge, gold stars indeed!
NGS
Gold stars for me for taking my vitamins and medications every day AND making sure the dog and cat do, too. My husband is on his own. I didn’t even know that this was worthy of celebration, but I have a system and it works for me. I know you gave yourself a demerit for this, but maybe you should give yourself a gold star for showing ME that I have some gold star behavior in a month where I have not always exhibited gold star behavior.
I recently realized that what I hate about washing my face is that I hate it when my clothes get wet. So here’s my new solution. When I’m washing my face in the morning, I strip. LOL. I’m in the bathroom topless washing my face and then I put sunscreen on and I get sunscreen all the way down my chest and wait for a few minutes before getting dressed so the sunscreen doesn’t stain my clothes. Life hack. Take your clothes off. (Although I think your issues with face washing are different from mine, so maybe it doesn’t apply.)
I generally workout in our music/sewing room, but sometimes I workout in our office or in our living room. Just wherever I am least in the way of the others in the household. That’s right. I’ve done a workout in a different space if I’d have to make the dog or cat move. I’m a thoughtful human that way.
BIG DEMERIT for me today. It has been raining endlessly and there’s a road on our commute to school that frequently floods. I discussed not taking the road today because of this, but then I went into autopilot and drove on the road out of habit and it was FLOODED and I had to drive our poor car through the FLOOD because there was no way to turn around and it was scary and I was nervous I was going to be stranded on a flooded road. I made it through, but I cannot go on that road again. It was terrifying.
Elisabeth
Okay, my blood pressure started rising when I read about the flooded road. This is straight out of my worst-case nightmare. *Scream*
I am so glad you survived, and glad you will not be going that way again under current conditions. I don’t think this is a demerit though. Autopilot is just how we operate sometimes and it usually serves us well. This time…not so much.
Gold stars for your vitamins. Love the life hack, though I rarely wash my face in the morning because I hate the process so much I can only bare to think of doing it once a day.
I will take your gold star award since I have helped you identify a gold star. The gold is just FLYING off the shelves today 🙂
Gigi
My gold star is refraining from saying what I was really thinking during a ridiculous and total waste of time meeting today.
I guess I get a demerit for the same though because, according to a co-worker, my face did all the talking without saying a word.
Elisabeth
I laughed – sometimes it’s hard to keep our inner truth off our facial expressions. I’ll go ahead and assign a demerit to whoever arranged such a ridiculous meeting in the first place.
Maria
I had a very similar vitamin demerit. One is supposed to keep taking prenatal vitamins for as long as one is breastfeeding. One may have been terrible about taking them during pregnancy #3 and then taken them twice in the 4.5 months since giving birth. After developing persistent canker sores, one may have realized via Dr Google that that’s a sign of Zn and various B vitamin deficiencies and that those are common in breastfeeding women who don’t take vitamins. So big demerit to me on that front. May we both have a better vitamin taking June!
Sorry about the back taxes! What a bummer.
Elisabeth
Why is it so hard to take vitamins (or do anything that “shouldn’t” feel hard but is for some reason).
Well, we can’t be good at everything, so what matters is that you’re committing to taking them with more regularity now!
Shelly
Thankfully my kid seems to hang on to his hoodie. Although last year he did lose his winter boots. We get frigidly cold here and I have no idea how he lost those. He also lost his lunch kit for a few weeks with me asking where it was so many times. Until I happened to be at the school and saw it on the floor by the lost and found. Completely unique and visible.
We are also down reusable containers and regular spoons.
My daughter lost a fairly expensive sweater. But since then she has been better about keeping track.
It could be worse. When I see the mounds of things in our middle school lost and found.. it’s mind boggling.
Ugh taxes.
My gold star is managing to keep most of my sanity during a very challenging project at work.
Elisabeth
How does one lose winter boots in the middle of the Canadian winter? That said, I feel confident both my kids could pull this off.
The Lost and Found is amazing. This year, after a certain amount of time they let everyone go “shop” it for free which I thought was rather brilliant.
I’m glad you’re persevering despite a tough project. That sounds rough, though. Hope it’s in your rearview mirror soon.
Diane
When I’m not getting to my ten minutes of yoga, sometimes moving my yoga mat really helps. If I’m skipping yoga too many mornings in a row, it might mean my mornings have changed and I should tweak some thing. The yoga mat had been in the basement because I could sneak down uninterrupted by the kids while they ate breakfast, but I wasn’t getting down there to do yoga because the kids were eating breakfast later. So a couple weeks ago, I moved the yoga mat into the living room, next to the dining room table. It’s more chaotic to do my ten minutes of yoga while overseeing breakfast, but at least I’m doing something!
I love finding things that I’d despaired about being lost. It’s such a great feeling!
Elisabeth
You’re right – sometimes finding something lost is almost worth the hassle of losing it. I remember you found something – gloves, I think? – you thought was lost in the coat of a little-used coat. I mean…how wonderful is that!
J
You’ve mentioned the omega 3 as a solution to dry eyes before, and I went and bought some, but apparently that is not the same thing as actually taking them. Demerit to me, too.
I’m still doing yoga every day! 5 months and a few days now. Gold star for me.
I’ve been blowing off my weights more often. Demerit. But I did them today. Gold star.
I had delicious leftover salad cooked into an omelet for breakfast. Gold Star. I had popcorn and ice cream for lunch. Demerit.
Good job moving your yoga mat, having it somewhere reasonable makes a big difference. I don’t use a yoga mat, I just do my yoga on the living room rug. I’m in the 4th year of Adriene’s 30 day January series, and it’s 2019. For the first time, she is not at home, but in a room with a huge window looking out onto a lake. This is also the first year that Benji is there every day (at least so far, I’m only 5 days in), and he loves to look out the window. He’s definitely more active than in more recent years, and I don’t know if it’s because he’s younger, or if it’s because he’s not at home (I suspect the latter.) He made me laugh out loud the other day when he plopped himself right underneath her and in her way. I love how gently she just moves him when he does that.
Elisabeth
Hey, you took the first step toward better hydration for your eyes. Gold star for that. If only these things would “take” themselves. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one.
That is SO impressive that you’re still doing daily yoga. I’ve done 2.5 of her monthly challenges and then it just started to feel like too much. I’m currently down to doing yoga a few times a week and mostly the same short video. But, it’s better than nothing. I definitely found it more motivating when the new video was being released once a day. I didn’t want to get behind – and didn’t – and I know that people all over the world were joining me in doing that daily video.
Benji is the best. It really does complete the experience quite perfectly.
Melissa
My son lost heaps of things at school, once his whole back pack. One time we went to the secondhand uniform shop which also housed the lost property to look for his spray jacket. We didn’t find his jacket but his friends mum was manning the store that day and sent us home with an unnamed spray jacket in his size.
Elisabeth
This year they are doing something similar at my kid’s school – every once in a while the Lost and Found opens up for people to just take what they want (of the unclaimed items). I approve…even though some of my kids things are still missing, but maybe someone else is appreciating L’s lovely Puma zip-up?
Birchie
I never have to worry about forgetting to take my vitamins for too many days in a row…because if I do my eyes let me know that they want their Omega 3.
Two good things have happened for me on the dry eye front. I started using Xiidra, a prescription eye drop for dry eye. It makes such a difference at night! And also I finally got glasses. My vision is 25/20 in one eye and 35/20 in the other, so pretty good, but I’ve noticed an increase in blurriness and I suspected that I wasn’t going to pass the eye test when I renewed my driver’s license. Sure enough, I didn’t and I’m now required to wear glasses to drive…and OMG it makes so much difference with the dryness. I think that part of my dryness was due to having to stare to see things clearly.
Elisabeth
I am shocked by how much of a difference they make. I actually had an eye appointment yesterday and learned I could/should actually DOUBLE the amount of Omega3 I’m taking; I’m excited to see how that might impact my eyes as well.
I’m sorry you’re back to having glasses, but at least it’s only for driving and I’m so glad it’s helping with the dryness (along with those awesome drops).
Maria
Re finding something lost… my daughter literally just found a library book that’s been missing for A YEAR. Or rather she found a library book that we now own since I paid for it being lost months ago😂
Elisabeth
Oh dear. Well…I hope it was a book she really enjoyed in which case you now have it in you personal library 😉
Lisa's Yarns
Ugh. Kneeling on a LEGO piece is painful! We are constantly stepping on little figures or LEGO or what have you. It’s awful and painful! Good call to move your yoga mat to a better LEGO-free area!!
Paul seems to be prone to losing things but he comes by it naturally as I was the child misplacing things like mittens. So I can’t get too frustrated with him since he takes after me but it’s still frustrating, especially since school is kind of a black box for us meaning we don’t go into his room there – we pick up/drop off at the front of the school. He lost a winter coat this year which is mystifying. Where in the world is this coat? We checked the school and the bus and the lost and found – nothing. And it was such a nice winter coat that would have been handed down to Taco.
A recent demerit for me is taking this new NSAID for my RA. It needs to be taken after a meal and that is a new routine for me. I’m great at taking my other meds that are taking morning and night. But I can’t get into a rhythm routine w/ the other meds because the timing of my lunch and dinner can vary depending on what is going on so I can’t like set an alarm for them. And the meds are working anyways so I feel grumpy about trying to establish a new routine for a drug that isn’t helping (and yes, the somewhat irregular way I am taking them might be contributing but I’m probably taking them 80% of the time and it’s a 3 times/day dosage).
Elisabeth
I am so sorry the med issue is such a nuisance – and that it’s not helping. That just plain sucks. I really hope you get into a better rhythm AND that you and your doctor find some combination of things that makes gives you relief after such a long stretch of this flare impacting your life so much 🙁
Michelle G.
I haven’t been able to tolerate mascara for years – every brand makes my eyes burn! I haven’t heard your reasons for disliking washing your face – I’m curious to know!
Elisabeth
I think it’s partly that I’m lazy, but the biggest reason is that I really dislike the feeling of anything wet on my face (I’m fine with swimming but I could not tolerate sticking my face directly under the shower, for example).
San
Oh, the vitamins. Why is it that sometimes we are good about remembering to take them and then from one day to the next, we forget… and then skip for days? I don’t know, but I think Nicole’s suggestion is useful: put the vitamins somewhere where you do another routine thing (like brushing your teeth).
I hear you on the nail routine: I always want to be good about it and make it a weekly thing (and I think painting my nails weekly would help with that) but then I don’t. Sigh.
Kudos though for moving your yoga mat and organizing your office. So satisfying.
I just shared a little gold star in my most recent post. I fixed a broken zipper that I thought was beyond repair (even Mr. Google told me so, but Mr. Google was wrong LOL).
Elisabeth
Your broken zipper solution is a brilliant gold star!
Stephany
I feel you on struggling to take your vitamins. It’s well-documented on my blog how much I struggle with taking mine. I do everything people say to do: set alarms, put the bottles in a place you’ll notice them, take them a specific time every day, tie them with another activity… and still, I forget them at least a few times a week. Argh!
I really wish there was a place in my apartment where I could keep a yoga mat out at all times. I’d like to get into a routine of stretching every morning/evening, but having to pull out the yoga mat every time is a hurdle. I am really hoping to move to a two-bedroom apartment later this year and I think I’ll be able to make that happen then, which is really exciting!
Elisabeth
Yes! Moving my yoga mat around was a big nuisance…two bedrooms would be amazing.
Marcia (OrganisingQueen)
The only thing I’m good at taking is my prescription iron (because I feel woozy within an hour of getting up if I don’t). Then I do have a good “at office” habit -while I’m logging on, I get a huge glass of water (500ml) and pop my magnesium fizzy into that. That’s it – however, I decided that while I’m in perimenopause I need to not be crying as much as I currently am, so yesterday I bought 3 months’ worth of Evening Primrose Oil, and I’ve loaded up a pill box already for the week. Here’s hoping it works!
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Definitely gold star for cleaning out the office. I am always so hesitant to through out tax stuff and receipts and such but once its all filed… It would use up so much space.
Your new yoga spot sounds good. I can not do yoga when people are around…