Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Counting down the days until we get this company sold, at work.
Did their last payroll last night, which is the biggest time suck and always ends up being an after hours thing as to timing. I mean, I hope the sale goes through and I am done with that part. That will be the most immediate and obvious improvement on the work front.
It will most definitely get worse before it gets better. But it will be so worth it.
One thing I didn't mention is that on top of the rest of the work chaos right now, we are also moving offices. Seriously. It's the busiest work week of the year (for me) but I made time yesterday to select my new office. There's a funky office (the biggest in the suite) that has some sort of truss blocking a chunk of the window. My employer was pressuring me heavily to take this office. It's the biggest one, and would definitely have more of a living room feel. It needs some bookshelves and a couch. I thought I might watch some TV to get some design ideas (big offices seem to feature prominently in TV shows). But going in person, the trusses blocking the window, would drive me crazy. & I'd prefer smaller and more cozier, anyway. Anyway, it might sound nice to be offered the biggest office. But I can see the truth was I had next to last priority. With how other people had to sit here or there for other reasons. There is a tree right outside the window so maybe I can bird watch as much as I did before. & if I got the weird office, I'd survive. I just have nowhere to go but down. My employer has been incredibly picky because of the beautiful grounds we have now and the empty lot sitting next to our windows that give us unobstructed views of nature and the sky. He told me at some point most views were just of other walls (like it was at my last company).
While I will miss the grounds, this should overall be a good change.
Going back to this company we are selling. I have some stories to share about that! But waiting for everything to be finalized.
On the home front... We did the chair shopping. I made the time some how. Tried to hit the sales. My $500 chair purchase turned into $1,900. 😁 Not sure how I feel about it. We had very mixed feelings going into it. For the most part we have never bought furniture, or just went cheap when we did. We were both very much, "Let's by a step higher" as to quality. But... On the flip side of the coin this is just a temp solution and the bar is very low. So we weren't too commited either way.
I should back up. The 'nicer' living room furniture we bought in 2012 really turned out to be crap. The chair has springs sticking out all over the place. I am tired of my family acting like this is totally normal and fine. Even before the cash gift, I told MH I am replacing that stupid chair with my bonus. It's been on my radar for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. The other chair isn't necessary. We saved it from the dumpster when my sister was going to toss it 25+ years ago. (I'd consider it a very nice chair, at that time.) I mostly hate that chair at this point but my mom likes it. We mostly kept it for my mom. Who hasn't been to our house in 5+ years. It's time to move on.
So we went shopping with one or two chairs in mind. Why 2 chairs? Because the couch is mostly useless crap. But it's currently DL(20)'s bed. That's a whole thing, that should be temporary at this point.
We ended up at La-Z-Boy and I misread a number on a chair. Thought it was $900. Sat down and said, "I'll take it!" (as I sank into chair heaven). Didn't realize it was $1,910. So I quickly backtracked. The whole thing ended up feeling like buying a car. They take their chairs very seriously. (The paperwork took forever). Did we succeed in elevating our furniture quality? I think yes. We ended up spotting a chair 60% off, on clearance. It was a floor model. We took it. & the $500 chairs (more what I had envisioned buying) were such a huge step up, we bought one too. So that in the here and now we can both have some nice and comfy chairs. I don't even think we will fight over the premium chair too much (given that MH and I seem to veg out on our own time). But it's nice to have 2 comfortable chairs if we want to watch TV together in the main living area of our house. The chair I got, also had to be a 'take what we got' situation in order to get free delivery (which we haggled). They one they had in stock just happened to be the one I liked and saw in person (the fabric). There's just no matching or thought to color. I suppose both of the chairs are grey-ish.
I like to think that the flip side of the coin of saving a bajillion dollars on furniture over the years (the house is mostly filled with hand-me-downs). The flip side is that it might be fun to do some furniture shopping with more thought to colors and schemes and what we would actually like long term. When we buy our next home. If our net worth is $2 Mil+, I can just see buying what we like. & searching out more quality. Admittedly, there's some element of not really having use for anything 'nice' during the last 20+ kid and pet years.
Our new chairs arrive next week.
Edited to add: Oh yeah. After stopping at one store, it was obvious we'd buy 2 chairs. I forgot that MH and I have polar opposite furniture tastes. He liked everything I hated, and vice versa. So I went into that second store expecting we'd just buy two chairs. I'd say we both agreed on the $1,400 chair (which is electric and customizable). & I'd say he hates the $500 chair I bought and thinks it's a waste of money. I figure, worst case, the kids can have a nice La-Z-Boy in a few years. Or it might be nice in a spare/guest bedroom, to rock a future grandchild in. Who knows... All I know is I liked it and it was 10 times better than what we have right now.
Would have probably just bought the $500 chair, with my bonus (and probably could have customized the fabric. Free delivery was the limitation on that part of the purchase.) But the second chair was definitely 'gift money' spending. Would not have bought, without a chunk of tax-free money falling from the sky.
December 31st, 2025 at 05:07 am 1767157627
December 31st, 2025 at 06:02 am 1767160941
January 1st, 2026 at 01:46 am 1767231972