NOTE: The TBT project pilot survey sign-up is now closed. We had an oversubscription to what the pilot version of this can handle – wow! I’m sending emails around; I can move everyone past the first 50 to the spring “real” version of the survey. Thank you, thank you everyone. I’m thrilled to see there is so much excitement for this project.
Mornings are starting to feel long around here again. Long-time readers may recall that kid #4 would wake up shockingly early. He eventually grew out of it, mostly, just in time for kid #5 to take the baton.
In any case, one annoyance with this is that my coffee keeps getting cold. Fortunately, this is a problem easily solved. I’ve started putting my coffee in travel mugs, even though I’m not going anywhere. Now my coffee stays hot!
I’ve started drinking my coffee black. I’ve been having issues lately with my throat and nose feeling gunky (not Covid!) I thought maybe dialing down dairy would help. I’m not sure it has but now that I’m used to black coffee I see no real reason to add the cream back. Google recommends salt water gargling.
We have slowly been making up all the doctor and dentist appointments that didn’t happen last spring. I need to make two more next week. One of my kids is invited to a birthday party involving driving through a car wash, and I am quite excited about this — another thing crossed off the to-do list!
We’ve got a number of Halloween-related socially distanced events this weekend, including a Boo at the Zoo and a “ghost gathering” in a botanical garden. Two kids started rock climbing classes this week, and one more will this weekend. Another child expressed interest in archery or knife-throwing classes after reading The Hunger Games. I am not sure I will be able to pull that off…
I’m reading Little House in the Big Woods to the 9-year-old and 5-year-old. I admitted to the 9-year-old that I skipped a few parts that seemed scary. She was mildly indignant. The 5-year-old is really figuring out reading — this is such a cool stage to watch. More and more words make sense and he is so excited about it. A new world is opening up to him!
Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in the Tranquility by Tuesday project pilot phase yesterday! NOTE: Sign-up is now closed. I’ve emailed the link to people who commented or who emailed me. [Sign-up link removed]. The project will involve answering some questions about time use, and then reading an email each week for nine weeks about nine of my favorite time management strategies. Each week, people will answer two short surveys (clocking about 3 minutes apiece) about implementing these strategies. After the second survey each week, people can choose a non-profit to receive a $3 donation. The pilot run of this survey will help me refine it before I roll it out to a much larger group in the spring. Because the pilot survey starts in mid-November, this means that the emails will keep coming over the holidays. Nothing needs to be filled out the second it arrives, but I just want people to be aware of that. Thank you very much for considering it! (I’ll likely cap sign-ups to the pilot phase by early next week).
Knife throwing, ha ha! There is an axe throwing place near us (I know, I’d never heard of it either until I saw their signs); their motto is “nothing relaxes like throwing some axes.”
I love that motto! Haha
We discovered the Little House picture books. They are a story pulled from the chapter books- either a condensed version or 1-2 chapters. My 5 and 3 year old love them (especially my 5 year old son). Great library find in the last year!
I love the hotplate coffee warmers, as I genuinely prefer the taste from an actual coffee cup. I have one warmer and am ordering a second for the other level of my house.
(This reminds me of your story of buying two toilet plungers. For a few bucks, life is exponentially improved!)
The botanical garden and zoo have been two local gems that we never really considered until the pandemic. It has been a blessing in disguise – I had no idea we had such a lovely botanic garden in driving distance! They aren’t doing any christmas light displays this year, but the zoo is, so I bought my tickets yesterday. Another blessing has been capped attendance at events like these. I tend to feel stressed in crowds, but that problem is solved thanks to limits on attendance. I am actually looking forward to attending, knowing that parking won’t be an issue!
Will you be using people’s names if they participate in the pilot?
@Jess – not without permission! We’re trying to figure out how to link everyone’s set of surveys – the easiest way is by name or email so because of that it’s probably not going to be anonymous to me, but I would not use anything individually identifiable without the person telling me that was OK.
My kids and I are trying to picture what a birthday party that involves a car wash looks like.
@Vicky – I assume it’s like the drive-by birthday parades people were doing this spring…only it’s at a car wash so you get your car washed…? I will report back next week.
I want to know as well! They might be on to something.
I’m game to sign up for the pilot!
Hi Laura, I signed up for the pilot! Looking forward to it. I just wanted to let you know though that I think your mailing address appears at the end of the sign up process. Not sure if that was intentional?
@AP – it should be my business address, not my personal one 🙂 When you use a bulk email program (like mail chimp) you’re required by law to put a physical address on it. Theoretically a way to reduce spam!