Our FI Nest

ETA: I've published and then pulled this one from the blog a few times, sometimes it feels something I want to share and feel others might benefit, sometimes it feels too private. As I try to write a bit more, just to have a personal record, I think I'll add it again.  Life update since written nearly a year ago: Still worried about the pandemic, still frustrated with our government's handling, still hoping against hope that our kids will stay safe, back to enjoying my job and I've moved into a permanent position, but still debating what the future holds.  Now back to the post from January 2021.  I turned 40 a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it was this life event or the additional pandemic stress, or hitting a nice financial milestone I didn't think possible after the market dropped in March 2020, but I'm feeling like I'm ready to start early retirement. I want the flexibility to decide what to do with my time. I have less patience for the stuff I don...

I recently turned down a job for personal reasons. The job was amazing, but the mounting stress of the pandemic, family life balance just made it the wrong time for such a change. A good friend of mine ended up being the successful candidate. As I congratulated him he let it slip what pay grade they offered him. Level 2. LEVEL 2?!?! I was shocked. See I was offered Level 1. How was this possible? I have 10 more years experience than he has. I'm not disparaging him in any way. He is great at his job, but why had I been offered less despite having more experience? The position asked for 4 years of progressively more responsibilities within a certain department. I had that exactly, in addition to leading a project directly related to the role and 10 other years within the field, but they weren't counting those previous ten years within my offer because it wasn't in that specific department. My friend however, has 3 years in the specific department, and 2 years mirroring my 10....

Dear MLA, Minister LeGrange and Premier Kenney, I, like many Albertans, am absolutely flabbergasted at the proposed curriculum. When I started looking at the content my grade 1 student will be expected to learn next year (if implemented) I was astounded. This is simply a list of facts that will bear no meaning whosoever on her life. Minister LeGrange and Permier Kenney keep mentioning declining educational performance but I only find the opposite.  In 2018 CBC reported that  " Results of a global education survey that found Alberta students rank among the best in the world in reading, math and science, show that education funding pays off, according to the president of the Alberta Teachers' Association. Students in the province rank third globally at reading and science, and eighth in math, according to the ATA's summary of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment, which was released Tuesday." So it seems really surprising that we would want...

 Dear Mr. MLA, You were elected to represent the people of my area, even those that didn't vote for you. That is how our government works. So I want to add my voice of issues that are important to me and ask: Are you listening? And how are you representing me? I want my parks and mountain tops protected. I do not want these sold off for coal development, destroying the water for all those downstream. That is not worth 400 insecure jobs over 20-30 years. We all know the mining will be halted as prices decrease and those workers laid off.  I want safe schools for our kids. I want contact tracing to work. Contact tracing failed before Christmas break and is still showing 50% or more of unknown origin. My children were determined to be a close contact and we never heard from AHS. What are you doing to make sure all close contacts are notified by AHS? What are you doing to ensure it is safe in the schools? What are you doing to address ventilation given the fact that Covid 19 for a...

 Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a massive Jalie fan. A year or two ago they did a series on Jalie basics and how their patterns are the building blocks of a wardrobe. I was thinking of this as I sewed up my 15th (? not sure of the actual count, but it's been many) pair of sweat pants from Jalie 3355 . It got me thinking about the best value patterns and this one is definitely up there, especially if you have kids. I thought it would be fun (well, rewarding for me to see all my projects in one post) to showcase all I've done with this pattern. And I haven't actually started to modify it or colour block it as I've seen others do. Once I start that, the possibilities will be endless.  5/6 of the versions I sewed for back to school This pattern has been a staple of my oldest's back to school wardrobe since he started school. I've tended to make him about 3-4 pairs a year. I don't actually have photos of all of the versions and some he has since outgrown or b...

My 3 year old in a fit of rage last night claimed Christmas has covid! Christmas is cancelled!  Even he gets it. The UCP have let this virus get out of control and continue to blame it on personal responsibility. I’ve stayed home, I’ve cancelled get togethers for months, I wear a mask every where I go. There is not more I can do than keep my kids home from school, but they need school.  What have you done to protect your constituents? What are you doing to prevent the spread of covid in our businesses and schools? What are you doing to protect our hospital capacity?  I’m honestly curious. People are sick and dying so one would guess you’d be very busy taking care to represent all your constituents. Please let me know how you are ensuring my town is safe, because it’s very hard to tell from here.