You’ll be hearing a lot more from me since I’ll be working from home through 2021. We’ve figured out what the little one wants Santa to bring her. I’ve gone to the doctor and got a lot of other errands run this week.

We’ve received a nice memo from our leaders and learned that we will continue to be working from home until March of 2021 at my company. I am all sorts of happy about this. I get to work from home! There are some people who actually go into the office for a couple of days a week, if they want. I’ll pass! However, I get to see my little one more often. Be safe by being away from people. Enjoy my two step commute. And I get to continue to work in my pjs. Kidding! I do get dressed for work. It may be jeans and a comfy tee, but I always do end up getting out of my pjs and dressed for work. I do this because you never know if I will need to be in a live meeting. I like to always be ready.

On Saturday I get to be at home and do a self care day. Recently I just love being at home. This weekend, I’ve decided that it would be a good day to take care of my skin and my hair. I am still going to donate my hair to Wigs for Kids. However, I will continue to let it grow during covid season. I am not willing to go to the hair salon at this time due to covid. So I will continue to let it grow until I am able to get to the salon and cut it all off. I am thinking of cutting it very short, even shaving the sides and a little longer at the top. We will see what my hairdresser can do. I’ve been looking through pinterest and I’ve found a cut that I like. Hopefully it will work the way I see it online.

On Sunday we play PokémonGo from home. It is community day for one of the characters and we are all caching them. In the afternoon, my little one wants to write a letter to Santa. We sit down and write a list of what the she wants under the tree for Christmas. It’s filled with Pokémon wants and Na! Na! Na! Surprise toys. I wish she would of wanted world peace lol. Guess she is too little for that. I remember my mom always wanting the same thing for Christmas every year. “Eu quero Paz e Sossego” she would say. Loosely translates to I want “peace and quiet.” She still asks for that, poor thing has never had peace and quiet. Well, maybe some quiet time within the last few years but no peace. Living with my father is no easy feat.
Later in the day, the family goes out to the store to do the grocery shopping. I stay behind and am taking care of the bills. I’m paying the mortgage, the lighting and water, the hardware stores, cable and much more. At the end of my payments I call my discover people and increase my credit line. I need some more on this card as they offer a lot of perks. The money back system that they have is very nice and I usually use to make purchases on Amazon. It’s a vicious cycle. But hey, every little bit helps.
So the stores are emptying out and my husband needs to go out to multiple locations to get what we need. Everyone is on covid alert as it is getting worst out there and everyone is getting scared again. He brings home the groceries and cleans everything with bleach wipes. I then put everything away in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. He then goes out again as I am continuing to put everything away. I’ve cleaned out the fridge in order to be able to add more items in there like milks and vegetables. It’s getting crazy out there.
In the evening we had a hurricane warning for my town in Long Island. We were all praying that the large trees in our yard don’t fall apart. We are always afraid the darn trees may fall on the house. We need to take these down, but this will cost us a ton of money. We will need a nice loan in order to get out all of the trees that are close to the house. The warning was only for an hour or so and luckily, nothing terrible happened in the yard. Only a ton of leaves that now need to be removed. Thank goodness all turned out well!!

It’s Monday and I wake up at three in the morning. I have the day off today, so I turn around and I force myself to go back to sleep. I must have really needed it because I then wake up at ten in the morning. My little one already had her first meeting of the day and I am still in bed. Bad mommy! Grandma is the one that gets her online and ensures she is on time for all of her meetings and classes. I eventually get up and have my breakfast. The greater part of the morning, I am working on the insurance information for my mother in law to ensure everything is up date and where it is supposed to be. She has received a bunch of mail and I have separated all of it and added them to folders. They are nice and organized now. I get on the phone with the insurance company and I am to be on hold for the next fifteen minutes. I will call them back later in the day so I will be able to actually talk to someone. All the while, all looks good insurance wise.
In the afternoon I am working on my classes for Business Analyst in Udemy. The courses are ok. I wouldn’t really recommend them. Maybe to anyone that does not know anything at all, they may be helpful. I’ve already gone on youtube and listened to a bunch of the courses available and the ones in Udemy basically go over the same thing. This is not really what I want to be doing on my day off, but when else can I do this?

It’s Tuesday and I wake up at three in the morning again. I figured I’d lay in bed until six or seven and then get up and go for a walk. Turns out, I fell asleep and got up at nine instead. I get up and have breakfast. I have off again today and am planning on taking my courses on Udemy. Instead, I am around the printer as it is not printing. The Wi-Fi is not working with the laptops. I eventually hardwire the printer to my laptop. After two hours of being around that darn machine did it finally start to work. I am now mentally drained and am not in the mood to do the course. I am instead simply listening to Lewis Howes How The LAW OF ATTRACTION Really Works. I’ve learned that “whatever you speak it expands.” And “don’t speak negatively, always look to the positive. Do little things every day in a great way!” I’m inspired, but not to do my course. Just inspired in life.
My little one wants a Baby Alive doll and we’ve placed an order through Amazon. They are all on back order and the seller has mentioned to me via email that they will not have the doll any time soon and to go ahead and request a refund. How nice of them, right. I’ve looked at other sellers on Amazon for the doll and they have it. The problem is the price has been upped to double the price. What a rip off. So I’ve gone to Target and they have the doll there for the right amount. And they will ship it to the house. I’ve realized that have to do my Christmas shopping now for my little one before everything is sold out or the prices are all jacked up. So crazy!
Meanwhile, I am looking for a new printer. Since the one that we have is no longer doing what it’s supposed to do, we have decided to go with a megatank type of printer. We may go with Canon since I can get a discount on the products. Or maybe we’ll go with a different brand. Not sure, we’ll have to do some research and see what is best for our family.
Well, my concentration today is the size of a gnat. Working on that darn printer took all of the wind out of my sails. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve already taken a couple of chapters of my course, but it’s getting close to four in the afternoon and I am ready to throw in the towel. Which, of course I won’t. I will get back onto the course and listen to a couple more chapters. I just wish that everything would stay in the brain. There is so much to learn and memorize that it’s difficult to get it all in the memory bank.
As I am working on my studies, the doorbell rings. It’s someone with an Amazon package. Don’t know why, but the man wants to hand me the package. Dear sir, leave the package right on the porch…thanks! So odd! It wasn’t anything special. We ordered two sets of headphones and they were special delivered. I noticed this delivery person was driving a sedan, not a delivery truck.
So, going to the door has made taken my mind out of learning. Instead I am working getting distracted via youtube. But it’s a good thing! I’m listening to How to Learn Better via Tedx talks. Hazel Wagner tells me that simply taking notes is just transcribing and not thinking about what you’re hearing or reading. She says “your brain is not organizing the information as it’s supposed to.” An interesting talk. I highly recommend it.

It’s Wednesday and I slept until about noon. Another day off and it looks like I really needed the rest. However, when I got up, I felt like I got hit by a truck. All of my muscles are hurting. I needed to walk around a little bit before everything warms up. I then have brunch while my little one is getting her math lesson by grandma. Thank goodness for grandma, she takes care of the little ones studies while I am being lazy and sleeping and taking some time off from working for the man. In the afternoon the little one takes a break from her studies and wants to play basketball. We get our warm clothes on and get outside to play ball. I teach her how to dribble and to steal the ball from me. She’s getting better and better at playing. At one point she is shooting three pointers and doing very well. We need to work on her dribbling, and then we’re in business. Shortly after, she is done with playing basketball and she wants to play soccer. We go inside, have a drink of water and swap balls. This time we go to the front yard and kick the ball back and forth. We then are running around kicking and playing. We both get tired and take a break on the front stoop. My little one gets a wave of energy and wants to run around again. She is dribbling the ball all over the front yard and I am yelling to ensure she does not get close to the street. Unfortunately, my road has been getting very busy in the last few years and we have a lot of cars which drive very fast on my road. The neighborhood has tried to get a stop sign or street light on my road since a lot of people drive way too fast on it. Unfortunately, the town decided it would be a better idea if they would place a speed counter instead. That’s too bad really. This street needs for everyone to slow down. There are a lot of kids and wild life that live around here and we all need to work together for everyone to live harmoniously.
After soccer, we get back inside and get to the basement and play with her toys for a little while. I try to teach her about social studies and the sciences and notice that I need to brush up on my social studies and sciences. I’ve been so into my work that I have forgotten about everything that I’ve learned in elementary school. Are there any good youtube channels for parents to help their kids with school?
In the evening I go to the doctor for a physical. I gave them so much blood my hand became numb. Plus, I got the flu shot. My left arm has gotten a beating tonight. With all of this blood taken out, we will find out if I am anemic and see how my cholesterol levels are also see if I have a thyroid issue. Also, I’m sure they will tell me to check my rheumatoid doctor as I always get a positive for lupus. I’m getting older and we need to check everything out. I truly hope all is ok and I won’t need to take any more medication. I already take enough for the brain. I don’t want to take more for the body. I’ve mentioned to the Dr. that my hair keeps breaking and falling and he mentioned it may be lack of vitamin B12 or anemia. We will see when the results come in.

It’s Thursday and I wake up at four in the morning as per usual. My husband also wanted to get up at four so I tried to wake him up. He answered me, but stayed right where he was. Laying on his back and snoring away lol. I shook him awake again and eventually he does awake. He then heads off to the bathroom and I decide that it’s a good day to get up early and get my studies on early in the morning. We have breakfast together and then, we hear little pitter patter. The little one woke up and came on over to the kitchen. She is sleepy and very upset that we did not wake her to be with us in the morning. My mother in law is up too and it’s a party at five in the morning at the Dias household. We turn on the tv so the little one can watch her cartoons and we get my husband ready for work. He goes outside to turn on his truck and we feel the cold air coming into the kitchen. The cold air makes our feet all sorts of cold too. It’s really feeling like winter is coming. He comes back in and gets all of his equipment to get out to work and we say goodbye by way of a hug sandwich. The little one is in the middle and we all hug each other. It’s cute! The little one thought up the word “hug sandwich.” She is very creative like that.
Once he leaves for work we all go our separate ways. The little one and grandma go to bed and I get on the laptop and am looking forward to taking my course on Business Analyst. But first, I listen to a Ted Talk. I’m obsessed with these. This one is really relaxing and it’s called Happiness is all on your mind. It’s a talk by a monk and I am learning about happiness and how meditation can help. In three minutes I am completely relaxed and not fidgety. There is an inner peace that I feel all over. Another talk that I really like, and that I’ve seen before is How to stop screwing yourself over by Mel Robbins. She talks about her five second rule. Count 5,4,3,2,1…now go do it.
A couple of TED talks later, I’m still not finished with my course. I’m having a lot of trouble concentrating today. Instead, I take a break and I get to the kitchen and get started on taking off the skin from one of the butter nut squashes. My mother in law is going to making soup tonight out of the quash. She uses the entire squash, adds carrots, sweet potatoes and all that grandma magic to make a delicious soup. After my kitchen break I go back to my studying. And here comes the procrastination again. It’s not difficult work at all. It is however, a lot of terminology to memorize. I’ve been typing it out, but holy moly this is a course that I would rather be in a classroom. Also, I’m not concentrating. Thinking about the mail that needs to be sorted. The holiday season that is approaching. Covid! The results from the doctor. The fact that I have another doctors appointment coming and how careful I’ll need to be because of covid. I’m also thinking about a return that I have to make to Walmart. I bought a pair of pants for my husband that were to be for work. They are supposed to be stretchy and light and large enough to fit him. Well, they fit me and I am five foot tall. He is six foot four and a big guy. These pants do not fit one of his legs, they are so small and tight. They were not made for big and tall. It’s more like tall and skinny. Now, don’t get me wrong, they made it easy to return. Simply print out the return slip and drop it off at your nearest fedex location. But now I’m going to have to remember to bring the package, bring gloves, bring sanitizer and whatever else I’m forgetting. Just to return something. So tired of this covid business. For Christmas I’d like for this whole thing to be a bad dream and be back to normal. Except for the working from home bit. That part I’m enjoying.
The other thing I’m thinking about is my yard. We have many trees with many leaves. All of those leaves are on the grass. Someone has to clean it up. That someone is most likely going to be me and my husband. It’s been cold and rainy and the leaves are all wet, not ideal for raking or using the leaf blower. I’d also like to read a book. I haven’t read one in a long time. The last one I read was a book by Marie Forleo called Everything is figureoutable. I have Jay Shetty on deck, he is the monk who turned into a motivational speaker. I’ve listened to his first chapter and have taken lots of notes.
All of this thinking and none of the actual work gets done LOL. Oh well, maybe tomorrow.

It’s Friday and I’ve decided, it’s the day to clean out my car. It’s been sitting in the driveway without being driven for months. It is lonely and dirty. Even the seats are getting a bit moldy. I get out a cloth and a bucket with water and soap and get to work. I clean up the dashboard, the seats and then I get out the vacuum. I haven’t vacuumed this car in so long, it has so much dirt that it takes me a long time to get it all cleaned up. After I vacuum, it is ready for an exterior cleaning. It’s chilly out so I decide it is best to go to the car wash to get the outside cleaned. I go to a drive through and it is safe from covid. I swipe the credit card on the machine and then I wait. No need to talk to anyone or be around others. There is however, a line at the car wash and I have to wait for a little while before it can get washed. I saw some people spay their tires before going in to get their car washed, and I thought, what a great idea. I will do that for my next wash. After waiting for what felt like an hour, I finally get the car into the garage to get it cleaned. Inside the garage, I start to feel a little claustrophobic. It is a bit dark and its gloomy in there while the brushes are doing their job. It’s when the soap hits the windshield that I really feel the enclosement. Ahhhh, get me out of here, I think to myself. Shortly after, the windows were cleaned and I could see out of them and I my heart stopped beating so darn fast. I’ve gone to this car wash before and it’s always the same deal. Every time that reddish, pinkish soap is added to the mix my heart starts to pound faster and faster and I am all sorts of discombobulated. I have to calm myself down in order to be able to continue with my day.

After the car wash, I drive out to my local church and drop off a few bags of clothing to their charity, St. Vincent de Paul. I’m sure this donation will go to good use. From my understanding, the charity has a thrift store where people can make purchases and the money made from there goes right to the needy. It is a good feeling when I can contribute something to society.
I run some more errands and eventually get back home. My little one was finished with school and she is ready to go outside and play. So I change my clothes and put on a warm sweat shirt and jacket and am ready to play with her. We get on swings for a little while and she wanted to talk about Pokémon. How much she loves them and how much she’d like a Charizard Pokémon plush or Christmas. Hint, hint mommy! There are a bunch of other Pokémon toys that she would like and I place them on my memory bank. I have to talk it over with grandma. Want to make sure grandma hasn’t already bought everything for her. After our talk we get to play the Pokémon game that she makes up where we both pick a Pokémon and then run around chasing each other. All she really wants to do is run and that’s ok. I get to get my exercise on for the day. I haven’t been to the treadmill in a while so this will take it’s place for now. She gets tired and we sit on the front porch for a little bit and she tells me other things she’d like for Santa to bring her. She likes the Na! Na! Na! Surprise dolls, who comes up with these names? And some more Pokémon items. My goodness she’s obsessed with these characters. And I am getting really tired of hearing about it, I just don’t tell her this. I don’t want to make her feel like her likes are not wanted. I then try to change the subject and ask her what she wants to do when she grows up. I’m tired of hearing about Pokémon and need for her to rest for a little while and keep her talking. So she responds with a little of a tude and tells me, mommy I’ve already told you, I want to be a doctor and an artist. What kind of doctor, I ask her. She says I want to work in pediatrics. And, I want to be an artist just like daddy. OK then, she’s got it all figured out LOL. I’m glad she’s got a path that she wants to take. As a kid I did not know what I wanted to do. I’m glad she has a goal in mind. After our talk it’s time to go and shoot some hoops. She is getting better at dribbling the ball. Today we work on passing the ball. Every time I throw the ball at her she closes her eyes and covers her face. Holly hell, this was me when I was little. So scared of the darn ball. By the end of our day she was starting to open up her eyes a little bit. I was passing the ball to the floor and she was more comfortable with that. When it was her turn to pass the ball she would wind up and throw it right at my face. It took a little while to get her to pass the ball the right way. But she got it. She started getting tired and at one point could no longer toss the ball into the hoop. She started getting angry at herself because of this and I announced it was time to give it a break and head inside. She wanted no part of that and wanted to get the ball in the hoop. I convinced her to take a break and get some water, sit down for a few and relax. After a little while she got back to dribbling and was able to get the ball into the hoop again. This was a teachable moment. You see baby girl, I tell her, when you are tired, you must take a break otherwise you will burn out and not do so great. We took a break, had some water and took a seat. And now you are doing much better. Now it is time to call it a day and head inside because it is getting colder and dark. She wanted no part of going back inside but eventually she complies and we head on in. I knew she was really tired when inside, she just sat on the couch nice and quiet watching some random cartoon daddy found on netflix. Can’t remember the name of the cartoon but it was loosely based on Dr. Seuss’s book Green Eggs and Ham. I watched it with her for a little bit and it was cute. Sam-I-am and Guy going on their adventure together. And there was the type of rhyming in the story like the books, very cute! We then had dinner and she at her entire plate of pasta and fish sticks. She has a huge appetite this evening. This is a good thing and a bad thing. She is going to be cranky in a little while because she is exhausted from the day and from playing. Low and behold, she did become cranky. We went out and played PokémonGo as a family in the evening and she was very sassy with all of us. We could sense she was ready for a nap. So, nicely enough, she fell asleep in the car as we went ahead and caught us some Pokémon. Yes, we are the Pokémon family. We play together and stay together. It is something to do while this covid thing is around us. Since we cannot get out of the house to go do anything fun, we instead hunt for Pokémon. It’s not ideal, but hey, it’s something to do and to get our minds out of bad things. Plus, we get to get out of the house for a few hours and drive around for a little bit.
As we drive around the neighborhood, we notice that a lot of people already have their Christmas decorations out. Everyone must be so anxious to get out of 2020 and head on to 2021. I feel the same way. Ready for the new year and for this pandemic to head its way out already.
It was a nice and relatively relaxing week off. I’ve done some cheating and looked at my work email and notice a lot of work waiting for me to do when I get back. We have Monday and Tuesday of next week at work and then Wednesday through Friday the office is closed for the Thanksgiving break. Can’t wait to have some family time.

Until next time.
Best,
-Isabel

The struggle was real this weekend. I had a mental breakdown over the weekend, then all of a sudden the reset of the week got better. What a rollercoaster, I don’t know how my brain handles all of this craziness.

Over the weekend I had a mental breakdown. I’ve written a blog about it, but am not too anxious to share it, but it’s posted anyway. It it my confession of the deficiencies of my brain lol. I laugh otherwise I’d be crying about it. I’ve done enough of that over the weekend. Why? No idea! My brain sucks.

It’s Monday, and today I woke up with a little bit more energy than I have had all of last week or even weeks. I’ve been down and have been having a hard time getting my spirits back up. But today, I am feeling better than last week and get out of bed earlier than my usual time. I make my breakfast. Then clean up the kitchen including washing, drying and putting the morning dishes away. I then get dressed and take all of my medicines for the morning hours. I also make the bed and clean up the bedroom/office. I’ve had a bunch of paperwork that I need to send in to work and it is all over the place. I have scanned everything, sent it in to my HR representative and then placed them all away. After that, I get to my work email and I have plenty of emails to look through. As for my personal emails, I have enough to keep me busy for a couple of days. I have a couple of email addresses and each has it’s own purpose. The one that has my daughter’s school and medical emails, that is all up to date and tidy. The other ones, not so much. As for the one that I get all of my advertisements, such as sales and other random emails, that one is full. I’ll get to it eventually as I mainly delete everything. I don’t have time to shop right now, plus we are trying to save for a few projects on the house. So no buying of anything.
During the day it’s all work and no play. Lots to do. Skipped lunch again today as there is a lot on my plate while working for the man. In the evening we do more and more homework with the little one. It just doesn’t end with the school work.

It’s Tuesday and I feel refreshed. I’ve been feeling a down, but this morning I am focused. I take a nice shower in the morning and get properly dressed for work. Work dress pants and all. Maybe getting nicely dressed for work will take me out of my funk.
After a few hours at work and so far so good, I’m still focused. I’ve had meetings on top of meetings, all of the meetings are over the phone, none are on video. But, getting “dressed” for work has made me a little more confident today. Seems like my funk is going away. Yay!

It’s Wednesday and there are meetings after meetings today. No time for anything else but meetings. There were meetings in the morning hours. Skipped lunch as there was a meeting at noon until three thirty then another one overlapping that started at three. Then another one at three thirty to four. And finally the famous four to five meeting. Hate those, but they are necessary. I finally get some work done between the hours of five and seven.
After this tremendous fun day it gets better. We noticed the pipes in house may be clogged. My husband went to the basement to try and fix it, to no avail. We were there for hours working on this fix. The water spewed out and the entire section of the basement floor got wet. We put a towel on the floor but, it didn’t really pick up anything as it was soaked. We also placed a nice and big bucket underneath the pipes to fill in with the gushing water. That water was all dirty and it stunk. Oh the joys of being a homeowner.
We then tried to put the water hose down the pipe to see it if would clean it out and of course, it didn’t do a darn thing. By eleven, my husband gave up and said he would need to go to home depot in order to get a rent a machine to clean out the pipes.
We placed the lid of the pipe back on and I became the cleanup crew. I took all of the water that collected and took it up the stairs and dumped it out the door. I must have gone up and down the stairs a dozen times in order to get all of the water out of that big bucket. Next I cleaned the water up with a shopvac. Thank goodness we have one of these. This thing cleans up really well. Then I dumped all of the water that was in the vacuum and noticed that it was filled with dirt and dust as well. My dumb ass forgot to see if it had anything in it before starting to vacuum up the water. Now I have more cleaning to do. When everything was all done, I took a baby wipe bath as I was all sweaty from the cleanup work. Can’t wait until I’m able to take a nice shower. By midnight or so I was all done and to bed I went.

It’s Thursday and we still can’t use the facilities nor use any of the faucets. So, it’s like were camping. We gotta go do our business outside. I got myself a bucket and did my business outside and then cleaned it up of course. We also have a bucket in the sink for hand and dish washing. After breakfast, I washed all of the dishes that were in the bucket and put them all away, then threw the water outside. It felt like I was in the mid 1900 without indoor plumbing. I laughed when I had to do this as I remembered my early childhood. When my family and I were living in Portugal in my mother’s parents old house, we too did not have indoor plumbing for a while. We would have to do the same thing. Except we would need to get the water from an outside source. To be honest, I don’t remember where the water came from. I just remember that I had to do my business in a small bucket also known as a peecan or a my mother called it a “peniquo.” Of course I was a small child and did not go outside like the adults. At one point, I remember having a toilet installed in the house as well as running water. Good old times. Not for my mother as I’m sure that was a lot of work with three children in tow. But we did what we had to do those days.
As for the plumbing in our house, we decided to get someone to come on over as opposed to going to the hardware store. We probably would have spent the same amount of money or even more because we’re not plumbers. So, I called a plumber right in the morning and he ensured me that he would come to the house in the evening. He wound up coming to the house by two in the afternoon. He did the inspection in the basement and then got his tools. I then had a meeting for work. Surprise, surprise, right?! Another meeting. I was heading the meeting so I had to be there. Anyway, I got into my meeting and the plumber got to his work. The plumber was finished with his work before I was finished with my meeting. Fantastic!! I was so happy and impressed. Now, we can use the facilities inside the house instead of using our outdoor outhouse. And, best of all, take a shower.
In the evening, I pay bills and getting back to work. Since I had a bunch of meetings today and was not able to get all of my work done. So here I am. Taking a break and doing my blog and then back to the grind of doing my work for the man.
I continued to work and work until I couldn’t do it anymore, until about nine. And then, I did a bad thing. I watched the Presidential debate. What I liked it was that the mediator was able to keep up with the candidates. As a former broadcaster wanna be, I think Kristen Welker did a great job keeping up with the both of them. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy task.

It’s Friday and I am having a hard time getting started. I’ve woken up a few minutes later than I wanted. I had breakfast, buttered bagel and a cup of coffee, but I’m still struggling. Usually after breakfast, I have a kickstart and all gets better as my issue tends to be hunger. However, I’ve eaten and taken all of my medicine and I continue to be down and out. During my morning meeting, I had my headphones on and my eyes closed. Oh brother this can’t be good. I was listening but not necessarily paying attention. That’s ok, at least for this meeting. We always have an email with the meeting minutes prepared afterwards. If I missed anything, I have the email to refer back to. To get out of my slowness, I’ve tried listening to some happy music but that didn’t work. Then I was listening to a podcast and that was turned off right away as I was not in the mood to listen to anyone talk. I then played the Elvis Duran morning show and let that play in the background as I worked. I’m used to their voices and theirs didn’t bother me that much, so I left the on.
It’s the afternoon and I continue to not have any energy. I’ve taken my daily vitamin and still nothing. It’s also a gloomy day outside and maybe that is why I’m on the non energy train. I truly hope that my funk isn’t coming back. I’ve been having rough weeks and don’t need another one.

Over the weekend I am on a mission to clean up the bedroom. It hasn’t been deep dusted in a while and it needs it. My husband keeps on sneezing and he thinks it’s the dust. I’m thinking it’s seasonal allergies, but I do the work anyway. I get out all of the supplies and put my back into it. I dust and dust. I clean around the windows, then clean underneath the furniture and the bed. He is absolutely correct, there is a lot of dust underneath there. I found a whole lotta dust bunnies lol. Then I take out the vacuum and clean it all up. I wonder how the house gets so dusty.
After that, it was time for some closet cleaning, I’ve had a pair of shoes that I’ve been wearing around the house. They are a pair of summer boat shoes that are a little too big for me, so they have been my “house” shoes for a while. I’m not a big fan of slippers as they can get too hot on my feet and those shoes were just right, warmth wise. These were the shoes that I would wear when I was “at work.” As soon as the work day was over, I’d take them off and go about my business. But they started giving me blisters. At one point I had a pimple on my toe. Who gets pimples on their toes? It was itchy as all get out. So these need to go. Bye shoes it’s been fun working from home with you, but you gotta go.
I then opened up my wardrobe where I have my pjs stored. I have a couple of pairs of shots from when I played soccer. It’s been a few years since my soccer days. Like 10 or so, maybe 15. I used to use them when I was working in the yard as they are comfortable and they dry quickly. But, the elastic has gone and I still have them stored away. Why? So I get the five pair of these shorts and put out too. I can’t even donate them, they are so un-useable at this point.

In the afternoon, I went back to the eye doctor with the family. They had my glasses and contacts ready for me to pick up. I was in the office for a good half hour. They couldn’t find the contacts boxes. The ladies who work there looked and looked and they couldn’t find anything. Meanwhile, there was a man who was fixing my frames so they would fit my face properly. The glasses had to be adjusted a few times before they fit right. In the end the ladies at the office told me they’d have to mail me the contacts as they truly could not find them in the office. I was willing to go back to pick them up, but they were nice enough to say they’d mail them over. Even better, I won’t need to get out of the house. Staying nice and put.
After, I was trying to take a picture of myself with my new glasses to show you all but my little one kept on photobombing me lol. She wants to show off her pokemon toys that she loves so much. My new glasses are now a black frame as opposed to my usual brown colors. Figured, I’d change it up a bit. Plus, I liked this style better than the alternative.
I eventually was able to take a photo without the little one photobombing, but this was while she was being entertained by daddy. Daddy decided that it would be a good idea to watch a spooky movie tonight in celebration of the spooky season. He decided to put on The Poltergeist. I turned to him and said NO, she’s going to have nightmares with this movie. The little girl being taken by the ghosts. It’s going to scare the pants off of her. But he kept it on and she was a good sport. We kept on telling her it is just a movie and nothing is real. The ghosts are all tricks of the movie people. Everything is done on computers and nothing is real. Everything is like the Halloween animatronics that she loves so much. After The Poltergeist, we turned on a funny Halloween movie and that fixed our brains from scary to silly. It was a HappyMadisson movie with Adam Sandler so it was really silly. That is when I was able to get away for a little bit and take a picture to show you all my new glasses without being photobombed.

Until next time.
Stay safe.
Best,
-Isabel

Last week was a very busy week. It was my little ones first week of school and had a lot of products launching. Busy, Busy! Working from home does have its perks. I get to see my little one all day long.

This past weekend was filled with crap. Literally!
Our cesspools malfunctioned and we had to take care of the three pools that we have. My husband had to rent out a compressor and dredge the pools. It smelled so bad that we felt sick a bunch of times. After a while, we both got used to it and we both were working on taking care of busiess. My husband had a large pipe and was dredging away and I was holding the compressor hose so it wouldn’t push him inside the pool. The pipe and hose got so hot at one point that we had to pause ad let everything cool down. At one point, my little one decided it was a good idea to join us. She has on her little rain boots and a mask. “Daddy, it smells!” she says. Too cute.
Once we took care of dredging, we went to Home Depot and got a liquid to place inside the cesspools so it would eat the bad bacteria away. It also took out the awful smell. After that we all showered and then went to play pokemonGo. We found out there is a pokemon gym near our house, so now we can do raids right on our couch.
On Sunday we took care of the BBQ. My husband replaced some of the parts and I helped him clean it out. My hands were filled with black grease, but it now looks all clean and ready for hamburgers. We’re a good team.
After all that cleaning I was inspired to clean up the small bushes that are in the backyard. There are a bunch of little trees and bushes growing in the backyard that need to be replaced by grass so my little one can run around in. I got out the shovel and got to work. It took a few hours to do half of the yard. I didn’t finish everything I wanted to, but I will get to it next weekend. Luckily, I did not find any critters in the yard. My mother-in-law has found snakes and little field mice in the garden. I did however, find a lot of wholes from the little critters. We have field mice or voles and garden snakes in the back thank goodness I didn’t see any.
Once done for the day, I got to do some self care. I put on a clay clarifying face mask and a coconut oil hair treatment with tea tree oil. I was tempted to also take a salts bath, but then remembered, the cesspool. We can’t use too much water this week due to all of the treatments. So a quick shower it is.

It’s Monday morning and I can’t sleep for the life of me. I wake up at 3 in the morning thinking about work and what I need to get done. First, I have to create a microsite then, I have to launch products after that, I have a project that is taking way much longer than I anticipated. This project is to add functionality to one of my websites and it is taking way too long to get the paperwork going. Lots and lots to do. Also, I want to finish listening to the book Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo. So I get up at 4AM and join the family as we are all hanging out with my husband before he leaves for work. We all have some fresh home made bread and coffee. The little one is up too and she is looking at her pokemon book. She loves this book. It is a type of dictionary with all of the pokemon out there. Today she is a little under the weather and doesn’t drink her milk. However, she does steal a slice of my buttered bread. As I am helping my husband with his boots, she takes my slice of bread from the counter and eats it all up lol. My hungry little love.
I then cut myself another slice and she wants it too. All of us tell her that one slice is enough as she is going back to bed and we don’t want her to feel sick in bed. My husband leaves for work, grandma and the little one get back to bed and I get to work. I start off my listening to my book and going through my morning routine…making the bed, getting dressed and looking through emails. And then I get to work. I work, work and work all day until about 8 in the evening and that is when I hit a wall. I started to get cold and needed a jacked. Oh no, that is when I called it a day. There is no way I am getting sick because of working so darn much. I got on my pjs and got myself underneath the covers and fell asleep. I didn’t even say goodnight to my family. I just dozed off. I usually have to be in bed and look through my phone for a while before I am able to fall asleep. But not tonight. I need a day off! But who has time for that? I was talking to a dear friend of mine and she has also been working a lot of extra hours. We both agreed that we are making less than minimum wage at this point in time. Do we need new jobs or it is because of covid that we are working extra hard?

It’s Tuesday and I woke up ready for work. Worked from 7AM until about 6:30PM. I’m tired. Overworked and underpaid!

It’s Wednesday and it took all my might to get out of bed and shower. I have had so much work that I’m all sorts of tired. Burning from both ends, if you will. This morning we launched a new Printer/Camera product. It is the IVY CLIQ 2 and IVY CLIQ PLUS 2. I was working on the final touches this morning for the launch, such as updated price lists and logos that were provided last minute. I then had my morning conference calls. By mid morning my daughter and I had her school conference call. The teacher introduced herself by showing her picture of her family and other items that she likes. My little one showed her things that she likes too. Like her unicorn, her pokemon toy, squirtle, and paint brush. She then needed to be supervised for all of her school work. All of her work was under the “to do” tab online. But as of today it is no longer on that tab. The information is all over the place and she needs to be helped with this at all times #frustrating. Grandma is helping but we both need to be there to help the little one out as it is becoming very confusing. And then, one of the videos she was watching jumped from the teacher talking about number to some random youtube video. My little one called me over, I had to stop what I was doing for work, and we watched for the jumping of tracks in youtube. Of course, when I was there, we did not encounter any issues. But I had to watch the entire video on counting. All the while, all I am thinking is…I gotta get back to work. By the late afternoon we are both tired from trying to figure it all out. Hopefully the next few weeks will be better. Schooling from home is not as easy as we thought it was going to be.
As for work, my sites are down this afternoon. So I am working on other projects that I have. And, I have a lot of projects. One person wants to clear out automated emails. Another wants to add functionality to one of the sites. Others want to add microsites. Others want to launch new products. I am swamped. Some days I am just overwhelmed and in the verge of tears. But not today, no Sir! Today the sites are down and I get to get myself organized for everything else that I need to do.

It’s Thursday and I am again swamped with work. I have a product launching to morrow and lots to do. As for my little one, she had her conference call today with her teacher. I had a conference call at the same time and couldn’t be there to witness this call. From my understanding they introduced each other and sang the pledge of allegiance then talked about their day. Then my little one did her math and writing homework. Then watched some very long videos. This is our life now. Watching videos. Most videos are on youtube. So my little smarty pants starts looking for other videos to watch. Something more along her wheelhouse like, my little pony or something to do with the littlest pet shop. We have to keep an eye on her so she’ll do her school work and not go into what we call “bad youtube.” I feel for the kids that are learning from home. They have so many distractions. We’ve had to take all of the toys out of the room so she can concentrate on her school work. Home has become something else for my little one. It’s no longer a place to play and relax, but a place to work. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. It’s definitely different, that’s for sure.

It’s Friday and I have no motivation to get my work done. I get up and go through my morning routine. Breakfast, dressed, make the bed, moisturize. Then I am listening to Lisa Nichols 50 Rules for Success. This is giving me a little bit of energy to get going this morning.
As for work, I’ve launched a new accessory on the site. It is the Camera Backpack EDC-1. This, thankfully was an easy one for today. But I still had to do everything that I need for a product launch. I had to upload all of the content and get my developers to push the content live and send email blasts to the dealers to let them know they are able to purchase this product for their consumers. After that launch, early in the morning, I have more and more items to post. I have a ton of conference calls and I need to take my lunch at 3PM as I have to go to the blood work place. We found out that the majority of the blood work locations have closed. The ones that are open are by appointment only and the next available appointment is in mid October. What is happening? Does not one have to do bloodwork anymore? Anyway, the bloodwork appointment takes longer than expected, over an hour, and I have a meeting at 4! Yikes! I get home at 4:05 and the meeting hadn’t started yet as the boss requested for them to wait a little bit for her. Thank goodness! I did not miss a thing. The meeting was as boring as it could be. We were going over one of the websites that has to do with sales and bids. We need to know how it works and where the information comes from so if we need to troubleshoot, we know exactly who to contact and what to do. But man is the site dry.
After work we go pokemoning as a family. Today there aren’t many raids to play, so we go to the town nearby and stock up on pokeballs and berries. It’s not much, but we get to do this as a family during covid.

Until next week.
Stay Safe!
Best,

Isabel

Wow what a week. My little one starts school this week and we are all ready for the new school year. We’ve got all of our notebooks and other supplies and are looking forward to schooling from home. The school gave us the option of a hybrid school year or the option of staying home full time; remote schooling. We chose the option of remote schooling, for now. Covid doesn’t look like it is going anywhere and we are going the cautious route and everyone is staying home.

Tuesday is my little one’s first day and we are all dressed and ready for the first day. We’ve got our laptop out, our notebook and our pencil ready to go. My princess has her breakfast and logs into the classroom. There are other kids online ready to learn. Unfortunately, the teacher never got on. So the kids just talked to each other online for a little while and then we logged off. There was however, work to be done. Like watching a video about the first day of school and then the kids got to do a drawing about what they liked about the first day of school. My little one liked meeting all of the other students that were online. Another activity was to fill out a page with their name and all of their favorite things. Such as their favorite book, mine was “The Pigeon Has To Go To School.” It also asked what the kids want to do when they grown up. Mine wants to be a nurse. We jotted that down and then she changed her mind. She wants to be a doctor instead. I too wanted to be a doctor when I was her age. Then it all changed. I went into communication and now I am in IT. But that is a long story that you can read on this one Your Story is your Superpower.

As for work, I am swamped with posting items to the sites and doing product launches. If you’re interested this is what we launched: imageRUNNER ADVANCE DX C477iFZ and imageCLASS items. Of course the sites that I work on are behind user and password protection. So you’d need to be a partner of ours to see what I have been up to. But you get the gist. There is a lot of work to do. Next week we have some more items launching. I will share those when the time comes.
This year I will be a mentor to a student from Stony Brook University. I am very much looking forward to helping out this student. I understand this is a great program that my company does and I am very exited about this. I will talk more about this when the time comes.

Until then. Stay safe.
-Isabel