Come Stitch With Me

Today, I had a 5th grade student throw bookmarks, the bookmark basket and just about everything on the circulation desk at me today. Thankfully, his teacher got the scissors out of his hand in time.

Why? Because he couldn’t check out the new Diary of Wimpy Kid book. He had to go on the wait list.

I’ve had students throw things in my two decades of library work, but never directly at me.

I am so done. 😤

May can’t get here fast enough.

Between Trader Joe’s and Publix, I spent almost $300 on groceries this week! That’s the average of what I spent for the two of us per month before inflation hit. Yikes!

Once the shock wore off, I looked at my receipts:

1) 25% was spent stocking up on meat that was on sale.
2) 25% was spent on a special dinner for some close friends.
3) The remainder was spent on regular groceries.

Mind you, I do a big shop once a month and fill in with perishables (milk, eggs, bread, fruit, veg) as we need them. We do eat out 2x per week (Friday date night and Sunday afternoon lunch). We typically eat the rest of our meals at home or brownbag lunch/snacks with us to work and our Saturday events. Our average monthly spend now on groceries is between $400-$425.

Why is this important? Now that we’re a little over six months away from leaving full-time employment, I wanted to (1) make sure my earlier budgeted monthly cash needs were on track and (2) see if we need to reduce retirement contributions in order to accumulate extra cash with the remaining paychecks. Looks like the grocery budget is good and I’ll reduce my 403(b) contributions since there is no employer match.

Being able to step away from full-time employment earlier than planned is possible because we worked our asses off over the past 30 years, lived below our means and saved/invested like crazy. The health insurance piece is now covered and we’re reworking everything else to meet the goal of living well without having to tap the nest egg for a certain period of time. It did mean foregoing the RV purchase (sorry, not sorry) and delaying the purchase of some high ticket toys (like a new sewing machine for me), but we both think it’s well worth the freedom gained by not having to work full-time. Living my best life means spending time with hubby/family/friends, playing with Sadie, volunteering, travel, quilting, sewing biz, hiking, biking, etc. – not spending my days as an information waitress.

The Atlanta Braves won the World Series Championship! Quite fitting after MLB pulled the All Star Game earlier this year. My school district gave us the day off on Friday so we can attend the big parade that’s happening in our own backyard. Thousands of free tickets were given out…but you now see them for sale on Ebay for $400-$500. Not me! I’m not going anywhere near the parade route tomorrow.

I thought about attending the final day of the state educational technology conference, but after reviewing the session offerings, I think I’ll just stay home and sew instead. I love my techy gizmos, but I’m no longer in charge of technology at school. My role is more focused on the instructional/library side of things. Personally, I’d rather spend time at the annual spring children’s literature conference.

I feel a sense of hope after watching the election returns this week. We the people in the middle are finally starting to wake-up and push back against the decidedly progressive agenda on steroids being forced down our throats. Locally, winners from both parties were centrist/moderate rather than from the far left/far right extremes.

Has DEI in the K-2 elementary social studies curriculum gone too far? I’m pretty open minded and will discuss hard topics with my kids, but some of the content recently added to Pebble Go Social Studies and Brain Pop Jr belongs with grades 5-8, not K-4. I’ve had to find other resources for students to use. This is a shame because 1/3 of my library budget is taken to pay for PG and BPJr.

Are there any quilt retreats with openings still available for the second half of 2022? Most of the ones advertised are already filled. It’s crazy. Guess I’ll be attending regional quilt shows and taking classes there. Or taking/teaching more classes locally. Or renting a small cottage near the beach making it a DIY quilt retreat with a spa day thrown in.