I haven’t done one of these in a long time! Feeling it today, though. 🙂
1- It is fall.
Being the fall loving person that I am, I know it’s odd I haven’t addressed this fact yet on the blog. We are actually having a snap of cooler (but in a lovely, beautiful way, not cool/windy/rainy) weather right now. The leaves have just started to change color. I’m seeing lots of golden “yellow” right now. I’m thinking this weekend I will try to do some preliminary fall decorating (fall wreath, put out my scarecrow guys, hay bales, etc.). I usually wait on actual Halloween stuff until October 1st, but I’m seeing tons of Halloween decorations around the neighborhood already! So I don’t know. Maybe I’ll bump my date up too!
I also just picked up this book from the library hold shelf. I was introduced to Louise Penny and her mysteries by Kelsey from Rising Shining last fall. She had mentioned they were good for a “cozy/ fall mystery”, taking place in Three Pines (a fictional small town in Quebec). I think this one (#2 in the series) actually takes place in the winter instead of fall, but oh well. I don’t read many mysteries, but fall/ Halloween time seems like a great time to do so! Maybe next fall I’ll read #3. I think there are at least 16 in the series, so this could go on a while! lol!
Of course I will use my fall bookmark:
2- Asher had another cross country meet last night. He is just loving cross country!! He told me too that just the “experience” of being on the school team is really fun, besides the actual running part. I agree. I loved playing the game of volleyball in high school, but the best memories are of us all singing along to Strawberry Wine (loudly, and badly- sorry, bus driver) on the bus home after the games, or sitting in the bleachers having snacks between tournament games with teammates.
3- Zucchini. Last night Ivan had drinks with a co-worker after work and wasn’t home, so I used up a bunch of random ingredients in the fridge. I had some leftover ground beef, so I made a ground beef/ onion/ jalapeno mix which is really delicious served in a tortilla with refried beans. I also chopped some zucchini that looked like it may want to start to go bad relatively soon if I didn’t eat it! Added onion, more jalapeno, tomatoes, and a handful of frozen veggies (I wanted the corn, but didn’t have just corn). Also a sprinkle of cheese.
4- Work from home article. I read an article yesterday from the Wall Street Journal (can’t find it now to link!) about the “return to office vs. work from home” debate. I read some comments, which were mixed. Many people said they don’t want to go back to the office, others had concerns about full time work from home and others said they actually prefer the office.
One commenter said she was “tired of only interacting with other people via a SCREEN”.
This made me think, because I do know what she means. My job is normally low on meetings, but we’ve had a TON lately due to some changes in the department. Plus I’m training a new employee, remotely. We’ve had many team meetings lately working to essentially revamp our entire workflow- i.e. big changes, and pretty important stuff!
Conversations have gotten almost heated, intense sometimes…and many of us don’t even have video on our (older) computers! So all of this is happening basically via a big group phone call. A lot of talking over people happens, because you can’t read social cues to know when someone else is about to speak.
Overall it’s been fine, and I do NOT want to go to the office. WFH works great for me, in normal not-so-many meeting times. But I can see some downsides. My new manager, who started last winter, is leaving already due to some personal circumstance changes (her last day is today). It dawned on me this morning: I have never even met her in person! 100% of our interactions have been over the phone. I don’t even think she would recognize me if I walked up to her on the street. Kinda weird!
5- Workouts:
I finished MBF recently (Muscle Burns Fat) and have decided to move on to MBFA (Muscle Burns Fat- Advanced). Each program is just 3 weeks long. Still trying to get back to the gym, but the timing hasn’t felt quite right yet. I am hoping once the new employee is more independent, I can get back into shifting my work hours to fit the gym in.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for a no school day for the boys today! I’m all about them being back in school, but they’ve been working hard and a lazy day sounds nice. (for them. I still have to work.)
GRATEFUL KAE 
Conference calls w/out video are SO hard. I am glad that zoom has become so accepted because I much prefer a zoom call w/ a client v an audio-only call. Having the facial expressions and knowing who is starting to talk helps so much! I will be hybrid starting in January so 2-3 days in the office and the remainder at home. I really like working from home but hopefully I’ll enjoy being in the office a few days/week? Time will tell. Ideally I’d like to just be there for 2 days but we’ll see how acceptable that is. Supposedly there is supposed to be a lot of flexibility!
So with the Louise Penny series, I read the first several pretty slowly w/ gaps in between. But then I got to a certain part of the series, probably around book 7 or 8, where I had to know what happened next. I’m glad you are reading them in order because there is so much background info that grows over time. But they get better and better and better!
Strawberry wine! That brings back memories!! I was very unathletic so I did stats for girls and boys basketball and for football. I loved being ‘part’ of the team without having to sit on the bench due to my lack of athleticism. 😉 I road the bus so still felt part of the group. It wasn’t the same as being the person on the court, but I loved my role!
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great that Asher is loving the cross training, I think the major motivation for kids is running with their friends, the same with Sofia.
I was a strong advocate to return to office because I know that objectively people work more when in office because there’s less space to not work, it also makes colleague interactions more spontaneous, builds relationships, and have better sense of team work. BUT, since I’ve been working from home for a month (since covid) in Sofia’s bedroom which is quiet, has a bed, I do love working from home because it’s really more relaxing and gives me flexibility to work when I’m at my best and relax when I’m not. So I’d say WFH is good for the workers, not so much for the companies because more people get lazy when not monitored, that’s a reality. So even our organization is considering a hybrid, 3 days of mandatory office work and 2 day WFH which I think it’s a pretty good compromise.
Fall!!!! I miss that, haven’t had one for 4 years. let’s see if I land to a cold place next, tropical weather is finally getting me.
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