daily mishaps – Page 6 – Schpilkes The Blog

Small Changes, Big Impact – My January Resolutions.

As January 1st approaches, so do the typical New Year’s resolutions. Gyms become packed with people hoping to exercise more and lose weight, and exercise machines and gym clothes are on sale everywhere. However, not every resolution has to be a huge, overwhelming goal that is unlikely to be followed through. Instead, choose a couple of realistic ones—and maybe one big, ambitious goal for fun.

Personally, I avoid setting wild resolutions because my life is already hectic enough. But here are some simple, achievable resolutions I’m committing to for the new year ahead, focusing on my well-being and peace of mind:

Toss out old makeup and check expiration dates.
Beauty products can expire and become ineffective or even harmful. It’s time for a refresh!
Replace those worn-out toilet cleaning brushes.
We all know how grimy these can get. A new brush will keep things fresh!
Go through your home library and donate a few books.
Clear out books you no longer need, and pass them on to a local charity or library to give them new life.
Tackle one junk drawer.
Pick a drawer in your home, clean it out, and organize it. Small decluttering efforts make a big difference.
Commit to one day a month without social media.
Giving yourself a break from screens can improve mental health and foster more meaningful connections.
Reach out to a friend you haven’t heard from in a while.
Life can get busy, but reconnecting with old friends can be refreshing and rewarding.
Meet a friend for a walk or a hike.
Physical activity paired with quality time is a great way to bond while staying active.
Update all your security settings.
Make sure all your accounts have strong passwords, two-step authentication, and up-to-date security settings.
Remember that there is life beyond work.
Balance is key to avoiding burnout, so take time for yourself outside of your professional commitments.
“Buy Flowers for Yourself Once a Week”

Flowers have a way of brightening up any space and boosting your mood. Make it a weekly habit to treat yourself to a fresh bouquet. It’s a simple, inexpensive way to bring beauty and joy into your life—plus, it’s a reminder to take care of yourself!

These resolutions are manageable and focused on improving my everyday life. Feel free to use my goals as a base and adapt to your life and I hope you’ll consider setting your own personal, achievable goals this year!

Apparently, I have a gazillion lipsticks and o don’t even use any of these colors!

An Old Dog, A New Couch, and Social Media: Learning New Tricks

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I challenge that saying.
Our dogs were always allowed on the couches—until this past week. After 23 years, we finally bought a new one. We sure needed it. The old one was ratty, my Sagey girl had dug holes in it, and my other half used duct tape to try and fix those holes.

For the past couple of years, my better half kept saying, “Once the dog dies, we’ll get a new sofa.” Well, sadly, my Sagey girl passed away very unexpectedly, and yes, I’m still crying. Yes, she was just a dog, but my heart is still filled with grief daily.

With Sage gone and the sofa looking worse for wear, it was truly time to get a new one. My very choosy partner went to his favorite store’s website and found a sofa he liked—an L-shaped, leather, greenish-blue one.

Sage is gone, but my two grand-dogs are very much alive, very lively, and they love to jump on sofas. So the question became: How do we make sure they don’t climb on the new one? Apparently, you can teach an old dog new tricks, because after a few days, Benjito the schnauzer and Cedar the Australian Shepherd got the message (mostly).

I’m not a huge fan of social media. Sure, I can spend time scrolling through reels and other people’s posts, but I’ve never been particularly invested in it. That is, until my kids challenged me to try it. I opened a TikTok account for Sagey, and to my surprise, it took off—well, not wildly, but good for a mid-century modern-aged woman.

The past year has been a bit difficult. My country is at war, my husband was laid off, and my dog died. It really sounds like a country song, doesn’t it? My brain pretty much shut down. But over the last couple of months, my mind has started to function again. Creativity is flowing, and I decided to dive into learning about social media. I’m learning a lot—watching tutorials, signing up for every class I can find on the subject, and, of course, posting. Not everything I post is great, but I’m learning and improving with every post.

Will I quit my full-time job? No. Am I making money from anything I post? Not yet, but maybe one day. Is it nice to see the “insights” area under my posts say “earned,” even if the number is zero? Absolutely. So, this old dog is learning new tricks, too.

More Than a Birthday: The Power of Friendship and Support

I had a great day yesterday, as my group of friends celebrated a major milestone: one of our own turned sixty! Instead of going out for drinks or dinner—which would have been the easy route—we opted for a day trip. The birthday girl chose the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens for our special day together.

The Huntington Library had been on my to-do list for years. I’ve lived in the area for the last 30 years and had never made the time to visit. The place is simply beautiful, and on a typical Southern California December day, it was hot—77 degrees in December! We had a lovely time, enjoying a private tour, a delicious lunch, and some good coffee.

But what really made the day special wasn’t just the fact that we were celebrating a birthday—it was the fact that we were together as a group. We’ve been friends for more than fifteen years, and we come from very diverse backgrounds, with different political views, life stages, and experiences. Despite our differences, we manage to celebrate each other and be there for one another.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we became each other’s “bubble group,” offering support through both happy and difficult times. Luckily, our husbands get along too, which makes everything even more enjoyable!

We make sure to carve out time for each other in our busy lives. We try to check in weekly, and we’ve established our own “headquarters” at a local coffee shop. What makes our friendship work is that, despite our differences, we respect each other’s viewpoints and cherish each other in every other way.

They say that having strong friendships and a solid support system is one of the most important factors for happiness in life, and I truly believe that. Surround yourself with good friends—friends who will be there not only for the good and easy days but especially for the bad ones, and for every milestone you experience along the way.

Laughing at Parenthood: Dreams, Gas Tanks, and Growing Up

I got an angry phone call from my daughter today. Not that this is unusual, but this time it was funny. Apparently, she dreamt that I took her car without telling her, changed all of her settings, and then left it in the middle of the street. I asked her if I also left her gas tank empty, and she said, “No.”

During my kids’ teenage years, when we had only two cars, my car would frequently be returned to me with all the settings messed up and with an empty gas tank. So, hearing her complain about this in a dream felt like semi payback, even if it was just in her subconscious.

I’m thinking of giving her suggestions for future dreams—like leaving the kitchen clean and coming back to find the sink full, or folding and ironing laundry, only to discover it smooshed because someone sat on it. I could also suggest dreaming of empty containers in the refrigerator and pantry, so when she thinks there’s still milk or butter, all she finds is an empty container and is left with black coffee instead.

Social media is full of funny stories and skits about parents getting payback for their kids’ shenanigans once they become adults and parents themselves. And truthfully, it is funny. But watching our kids become adults is a whole different experience.

One of my gym friends showed me pictures of her new grandbaby and mentioned how enlightening it is to see our kids as parents. She said she never knew how her son would be as a dad, and it was awe-inspiring to witness the transition into full adulthood.

I haven’t experienced that yet, but I’m looking forward to it. My middle child is getting married in six months, and I can’t wait to see her as a wife and, eventually, a mother. Oh, and I really can’t wait to hear her complain about the food missing from the fridge and the empty gas tank in her car.

Nothing makes sense

What happens when you lose your hearing? Do you suddenly get a superpower ? A brand new sense or an enhanced one. They say that when you lose a sense, another sense gets stronger to compensate. When I lost my hearing there were no sudden bells, whistles or trumpets announcing my new strengthened alternate sense. Most likely because I could not hear them. Nothing exciting happened, I did not become spiderman and the only superpower I got was the on and off button on my hearing aids. Hence my lovely pair of hearing aids, nice expensive silver colored. Not even a fun blue color to match my eyes.

My sense of smell did increase slightly but I am not sure that this is a good thing considering I have a dog and a grand dog. While I did loose a major sense I did gain observation, not by choice but by necessity. Since I can’t always follow a conversation I started to pay more attention to facial expressions and body language. You learn a lot from watching people and standing on the sidelines. In big crowds and noisy places it is very hard for me to hear, so standing on the sidelines was out of practicality. You see if someone is uncomfortable, happy, deceptive and you start getting a sense of what they actually think and feel from their body language. For me it is still a work in progress to understand everything I see but this is a welcome challenge and a it is little entertaining.

You also learn a lot from looking at people’s faces when they speak to you, surprisingly many are not comfortable with people looking at them directly. Might be that eye contact with humans was lost during the pandemic zoom era. But as a hearing impaired person it is a valuable tool as I am learning to read lips.

My husband would say that despite my new observation skills I still do not pay attention to what he says, but in all fairness I didn’t pay attention before I lost my hearing so technically it’s a habit and not a choice and maybe a tiny superpower. I took me 35 years together to perfect this skill.

Benchmarks or how I became a prune.

A year and a half ago I broke my foot, it was completely my fault as instead of looking where I was going, my eyes were glued to my cell phone and I stepped down a step straight onto my dog’s 3 pronged nylabone and lost my balance. Completely avoidable!

Showering was not fun with a broken foot as I needed to sit in a chair in the shower and where the chair could be positioned meant I could not reach the on/off valve. I am after all what some people call “fun size” or vertically challenged. That meant that my husband had to be around and turn the water off for me. And here lies the problem, he forgot me. He sometimes had to answer work calls or someone pinged him on teams and he just forgot me. He claims he really did not forget, he was just getting around to it, really. While I was sitting in the shower with the water all over me I considered adding a middle name , Prune. You would think that sitting in the warm water is nice, it is, to a point. I managed, god knows how, to get up on one functioning leg, turn off the faucet and get out of the shower while maneuvering the chair to do this. Surprisingly I did not break any other bones in my body or the shower glass door on my way out. There is something to be said about being short in a tall world, I learned tricks and ways to reach.

We are finally remodeling our shower, a shower that is just slightly younger than me but in many ways is stronger than me. After we agreed to compromise and my husband compromised in letting me choose whatever weird tile I wanted, the topic of adding a bench or shelf came up. My husband suggested a bench so the next time I break my foot we will not need to use a chair. My response was, thank you for the vote of confidence but why would you think I am planning on breaking my foot or anything else again? Quiet.

After a while he expanded that we might need to add some support fixtures in the future so a bench is a good idea. Now, it is a good idea as I will be able to put the shampoos and shower stuff nicely on this bench, not exactly what he meant. He suggested we put the bench on one side of the shower and could not understand what my issue was. I explained again that I am short with a very small wing span and will not be able to reach the valve from the bench. Apparently after being together 35 years he never noticed that I am a head and a half shorter than him.

We are currently at a stand still about this great bench, it will be another bench mark in our ongoing relationship.

Made my 1st online sale

I made my first sale on poshmark yesterday and I was very excited, no I am not endorsing poshmark and I will not be retiring any time soon. The reason I am excited is that I’m finally moving extra clothes I do not need or have ever used out of my house, decluttering and making a couple of bucks in the process.

Cleaning your closet is an emotional process, at least for me. It is the process of learning to let go and actually letting go. I have clothes in sizes that will not fit me again any time soon. I kept telling myself that I will use them in the future once I lose some weight , but in reality I was afraid to admit that my body has changed and that is ok.And in reality when and if I will need smaller size clothes I can always buy more.

The other items I am letting go off are all the great deals I got during the pandemic and boy there were really good deals, such good deals that they were never worn and still have tags on them. Shopping online was very dangerous back then, we got constant deals and free stuff. The

the only problem with all the good deals was that I did not need them. Like many of us I worked remote and meetings were on zoom and there was no real need for dresses, dress pants or blouses. But like other people I justified it with “ I will use it when we get back to the office” , I was over optimistic. I have yet to use 80% of the items I bought and now I am sending them on a journey to a better home and in the process making enough money for a sushi dinner.

When you had enough

I quit my previous job after almost five years many years ago. I quit without notice and I did not even give my employer at the time the courtesy of two week’s notice. I was burned out, working in a toxic workplace that had me having PTSD every text message I received from the owner. I saw the owner and his wife several weeks after I quit and had such a big panic attack and that just proved to me how terrible this workplace was.I liked my work, it was fun and challenging. I didn’t like the owner, his ethics and his work practices and definitely did not like the fact that his personal life with ex wife and second wife kept spilling to the workplace and got me stuck in between quite frequently. But as I returned to the workforce after many years as a stay at home mom, my choices were limited and I needed work experience on my resume. Employers looked at my volunteer experience and said great and ignored it.Me quitting without notice was way before the great resignation of the last two years, some employers and workplaces were toxic even before. There have been many articles lately about how you need to quit “nicely”, give your employer transition time and maybe get a good reference from them as well. But reality for some of us might be different. Some workplaces are so hard to endure that the daily panic attacks and the anxiety are not worth it. And at the end of the day we all need to do what we need to do to survive and keep our sanity. I do not regret quitting, I did leave everything for my employer organized and made sure that they will be able to continue functioning, not because he was worth it but because my internal justice mechanism would not let me do it otherwise. So recommendations are great on how to leave a workplace but there are so many reasons why we leave, and in some instances we have to put ourselves first.

My Facebook was hacked this week

My Facebook was hacked this week, there is nothing special about it. I hardly use my Facebook and I very rarely post on it, if anything I only post stuff that is related to my blog. I lost control over my account for several hours, mostly because I don’t go on my Facebook often and because the email I used for the account was my trash email that I rarely check. I would I would have seen the notification that my email and contact information was changed. Definitely an oversight on my side and will not happen again. I spent several late night hours recovering my account successfully and then changing all passwords on all my other accounts and adding as many layers of security that are available now.

I was done with all this at 1am and then took several hours to calm down and decompress as I was extremely angry and that created even more anger and aggravation in me. This anger woke up my internal Liam Neeson as in the Taken movie series, and I am filled with fury and obsession. Or as my husband says there is nothing more worrisome than me with a vendetta.

Despite being a middle aged woman with liberal arts degrees I figured out how to get my account back, find the hackers email (which I assume to be their junk email), track their IP address and block their devices. I have not decided on what to do with this information yet. But I have become a little neurotic, I check everything many times a week and too many during the day now,

Add the extra security to all your accounts, create your recovery codes, make sure your email that is connected to the account is updated and stay vigilante.

My not so green thumb

I love to grow plants, plants do not always love me growing them. In my youth I was very good at growing succulents, primarily because it was hard to kill them. Some of them are miraculously still alive 30 years later but that could be attributed to the fact that when I left my home country my mom took custody of my plants. I was always envious of those who had plants that lasted and decided that at some point in my life I will make it. So I started growing hardy, hard to kill plants with some limited success.

As my motto is to never give up, last year I bought 2 raised beds from Costco. I started with seeds and that had very limited success. I didn’t manage to grow anything beyond a beginner plant. It was nice to see something sprout but it was very disappointing. So I switched strategy and moved to buying starter plants. My focus was on tomatoes, peppers and basic herbs.

The tomatoes grew and so did the peppers, and even more the interest of my neighborly racoon. I managed to eat a couple of tomatoes and maybe a pepper or two before my raccoon co partner took a bite and we were all happy.

This year, I added eggplant with success, parsley, basil and some jalapenos. And I enjoy going out to my patio and using my homegrown herbs and veggies. My Airdale loves my new hobby as well. On Fridays she gets to join me in the car and at the Lowe’s garden center as we look for interesting plants to add to my planters.

Some of us were not born with a green thumb, I am one of these people and every day when I go outside to my patio to survey my plants I am astonished and amazed that they are still alive. My persistence is apparently bigger than my not so green thumb and that makes my happy, so the lesson is not to give up even on the little things.