Blustery and Cold.

We've woken up to a strong wind storm happening outside the cottage. The gusts are hitting our home with force and then die down for a bit. Dh said he spotted snowflakes at one point. It is supposed to rain, which would be lovely as everything is so brown right now. Buds are appearing on trees and we can see some green starting to pop up from the Earth. But rain would really help to get it all growing again. Today will be a Hygge kind of day ~ a hot shower, cozy threads on my body, a warm cup of tea and a sweet spot to make a nest on the couch where I'll observe life from my perch while writing case notes and answering emails. After 6 meetings in a row yesterday with no break in between (and most were on Zoom), I'm feeling lucky today to have just 3 phone calls (2 short, 1 for an hour) and the rest of my day can be catching up while keeping warm in front of the fireplace. No sun in sight for a few days so Hygge it is!

Loving the addition of the pink tulips to my flower jar. The whites are almost done but the pinks are just starting out. May keep this rotation of new and old going. I love Spring flowers and though it's dark outside, these are keeping my spirit light. This morning I watched a video on creating seed tapes and I think it's something we'll try this year for the veggie patch. Super easy and would make the spacing easier, especially for our carrots. My Solo cups arrived the other day ~ I had to order them because in the stores here, you can only get red ones and if you've read my blog for awhile, you know the color red will never be something you'll see in my house. Even our fire extinguisher is white! So my Solo cups are purple. The day after they arrived, a second package was delivered with the Grow Lights inside. So now we're set up to start our seeds inside. Once the nighttime temperatures are better, we can move the seed pots out to the greenhouse. We know it's warming up nicely in there as almost every day for the last few weeks, the upper window opens up for the afternoon and then closes later in the day. A great sign for our little greenhouse. Looking forward to seeing how well we can get our garden going this year. High hopes as last year wasn't the best but we've done lots of research over the Winter, so feel better going in to the season for this year. No other plans today other than a short board meeting tonight on Zoom. Trying to take it as easy as I can today while still ensuring my work is done. Tomorrow is a day off so getting everything done today will help me relax. 

We're back in lockdown again so going in to hospice 1 or 2 days a week is off the table for now. Hopefully by Summer we can be back in place again. I'm so thankful we can work at home and our income has not been affected. It's crazy right now how much money we're saving ~ rarely have we had to buy gas, no eating out, no treats, no quick trips to pick something up. Just the basics. I just did a quick check in our bank account and there's been no transactions since Monday when we paid a bill. Interesting! Perhaps we'll continue this trend once the Pandemic is over. We've always been careful and we're incredibly good at saving money. But this has been awesome to have it come in and just the basics go out. I like this trend! Our saving is always planned out ~ right now, we're working on saving for a new vehicle for me in the next 2 to 3 years. Bought my 2012 in 2011 new so it will be 10 years old in the Fall. I plan to keep it until at least year 12 if not longer. Other than a scratch on the drivers' side (someone keyed me at Costco once), it's running just as well as the 1st year and still looks great. Our other savings account is for travel but it's pretty idle right now. I left what we had already put in before the Spring of 2020 for now. Once things are "normal" again, we'll take a trip out to our little island. I've moved what we would normally save in there to another account we have for landscaping, which more will be done again this Summer. Our final savings account is for our retirement, and outside of our RRSP's (Registered Retirement Savings Plans if you don't live in Canada and are wondering what this is) and our home, we both won't have company pensions as we've never worked for organizations that have this in place. So we've had to build our own retirement plans from scratch. We'll sell the home once we're older and those funds will carry us through, along with our savings, our RRSP's and the gov't funds of CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and OAS (Old Age Security). These last 2 items are provided to all Canadians who have contributed to them during their work like. You can apply as early as 60 or keep working and take the funds later in life. We don't have set times yet for how long we'll work. I was home for over 20 years with my kids so not in a big hurry now that I'm in my dream job. I could see dh retiring earlier and working on his projects. One day we'll figure it out!

I'm off to have my hot shower and get the day moving. Once my work is done, I hope to work on the project I've started from the art classes I took this week. Will post once I have those done.  I have lots of blogs to read today too. Hope your day goes well and you have sun  in your area. Namaste. 

~ Chy