Five Things Friday #39 - Money stuff, family sleepover, Blogger challenges

Our landscaping is starting to fill in and provide some visual interest.

1. I finally gave up on hoping Blogger would fix the updating of my list of blogs I follow. I bookmarked them all separately and deleted that gadget. Now I've reinstalled it and removed some gadgets I was not using. That seems to have worked.

2. Are you stocking up more than usual with all the tariff and oil price craziness? I'm not sure what may be in short supply or increase greatly in price. I do think that anything that has shipping costs will increase in price a lot and the projections look like fresh produce has increased quite a bit along with some protein sources.

The Bay Area Seasonal Produce List says October is good for items that we like to eat: Apples, grapefruit, pears, arugula, avocados, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, tomatoes and winter squash. So shopping locally looks like a good idea. I went to the Farmer's Market on Sunday and got 5 small red potatoes, 2 new harvest Gala apples, 2 pears & a small bunch of red grapes for $8. I splurged on a chocolate chunk scone for $5 and it was a delicious treat.

3. We got our annual property tax bill and it went up $213.52 which is bit less than the increases the past two years. I'm waiting to see the car insurance 6 month bill because I was told the penalty for my accident should decrease every 6 months for the 3 years it is in effect. However, even before the accident there was an increase every 6 months and that was for the old car with no collision coverage. We'll see what the bottom line is soon. 

4. I sat on some potential purchases for a while and ended up ordering the plastic pulls missing from 3 of our cellular shades as that will help keep them in good shape, but did not buy additional discontinued pattern salad bowls from eBay. We found a replacement plant for the front yard and bought the 5 gal size at almost 1/3 of the price of the 10 gal. It is quite small, but if it is happy where we put it, it will grow!

Instead of buying more salad bowls I made an equivalent donation to our local public media station. while they had a matching donation offer. 

5. Our local son & family stayed at our house Wednesday - Friday nights as their floor replacement on the main floor and refinishing on the 2nd floor project took a bit longer than planned and they couldn't extend their Air B&B until they could move back in on Saturday. Going from 2 to 6 people in the house is a big difference but with 2 air beds we made it work. 

We had all agreed that they would be more comfortable at an Air B&B for the original 15 days rather than in our house since they work from home too, but 3 school days at our place is fun and the grandgirls have slept over before so nothing new for them. I've been calling it a long pajama party!

We provided dinner of a chicken, broccoli & noodle stir fry plus cut up fruit the first night. We delicious taco salad bowls for the second night and our son and DIL were in charge of that. Tonight will be bucatini & meatballs again courtesy of son's cooking. I'll add some raw veggies. It is nice to not have to come up with dinner for 2 for a couple of nights.

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Continuing with doing hard things and not procrastinating on the boring stuff!

In a flurry of housecleaning effort I cleaned the outside of the gas stove that came with the house. I found out 3 1/2 years that the shiny enamel surface under each burner had not been worn off but had years of heat set grease that made the finish dull. After trying a variety of things, Bar Keepers Friend and persistent scrubbing will took it off!

The little plastic cellular blind pulls arrived and were installed on the 3 that were missing them. A tiny home project done. Another tiny project was resetting a nail protruding from the siding. I had to laugh when Hubby picked up a small rock and pushed it in!

I managed to walk 4 miles outside on Monday and 2.7 on Thursday plus doing house & yard work which was great. My goal for walking outside in October is to increase my daily average to 2+ miles.

Goodby September - What will October bring?

 

The month kicked off with my birthday including a visit from older son & DIL, all family fun dinner, a visit to SF MOMO and more. There was lots of dog and additional family time, lovely walks outdoors, better persistence with exercising and getting household chores and small projects done. Lots of books read too of course.

I enjoyed the month and feel more settled with the house and yard than I have since we moved here 3 1/2 years ago. 

Now onward to October starting with our son, DIL & 2 grandgirls staying with us for 3 days while work on their house is finished. Going for 2 to 6 people in the house is going to be both fun and exhausting! I'm glad we can do it.

October has a couple of art related outings on the calendar plus a couple of family things so far. Lots of self care/health stuff plus a good sized list of house, yard, tech, life admin and long distance family/future family activities as goals. I am pondering if I should take clean the car inside of the list and hire the 2 neighbor boys who charge $40 but do a very thorough job of it! I suspect I will. 

What are your plans for October?

Five Things Friday #38 - There's a new pup in town, curbside giving & family stuff

1. As you can see, our dog (with the spots) had a "Doodle" party on our front walk Saturday morning. A neighbor brought her new 5 mo old puppy over to meet our pooch and the little guy in the booties was walking by and joined in. They were all so good and greeted each other well.

2. I put the high chair we were given through Buy Nothing plus a bunch of smaller stuff that we no longer needed on the curb with a "free" sign. In a week it was all gone and I met a neighbor from down the street who was taking the high chair to have at the grandparent's house. Perfect.

Speaking of free things, my neighbor put out a bunch of dog clothes and other stuff. I picked up a fleece dog coat that I think I can alter to fit our pooch well. There are a few not rainy winter days when he has been quite cold on his walks.

3. We babysat the older grandgirl Friday night and unfortunately as the evening went on she became ill. She said most of her classmates have been sick so I guess it was her turn. Poor girl was doing much better by Sunday evening. I didn't catch it from her and now have my flu shot done.

4. I checked out a library Kindle book that I hope will update  and enhance my knowledge of how best to interact with and support the almost preteen grandgirl. There is so much more for young people to deal with now than even when my sons were that age plus I haven't raised a daughter. 

10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People : A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation-and Making your Own Life Easier by Yeager, David S

5. I was curious how our grocery spending (for food, toiletries & household products) was comparing to last year given inflation. We are spending an average of $100 more a month for 2 people and occasional guests. The cheapest regular gas here is $6.29 right now but we don't drive much. We can manage it but I know many are struggling with those and other increases.

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I'm back to being determined to "do hard things" and get little things done sooner. This week I 

- Cleaned the mini blind over the kitchen sink which involved climbing on the kitchen counter. Also washed the inside of the window and, since it is so hard to reach that we don't open it, Hubby removed the screen and we will wash the outside. I stored the screen in the garage. If I was replacing windows I would get a crank open one with a mini blind between the panes.

- Hubby taught me how to change the furnace filter. It is harder than it should be and I'm not sure I could do it but next year I will try. I would probably have to hire someone if it was my chore.

- Cooked ahead a bit. Two dozen pumpkin walnut muffins and a big pot of chili. 

- Mopped the front porch & Hubby repainted the wooden threshold and touched up the porch paint.

It's officially Fall and projected to be 85 here in a week!

I know I've talked a lot about the weather since we moved to East Bay but here we go again!

Late September and early October seem to have quite a few hot days here mixed in with those chilly, put on the heat ones. On the very plus side, the skies tend to clear up and the views can be magnificent and the rains haven't arrived yet although they will later in Fall. 

So lots of opportunities for taking long walks or getting those little home maintenance or improvement outside jobs done. Paint touch ups, patio cleaning, furnace and mini-split filters changed or cleaned, windows washed, cobwebs cleared, plants pruned or replaced. Home ownership at its chore best.

I'm learning to appreciate the weather variability despite my ingrained from childhood in Illinois mindset that now is time to pull out sweaters for daily use! Here it is occasional use for the time being while still keeping hot weather clothes at hand.

Still, pumpkin anything (Trader Joe's pumpkin waffles, homemade pumpkin walnut muffins) and leaves turning colors on the trees not native to here are real plusses. On cooler days I'm cooking pots of chili, pasta or soup to build up easy options in our small frig freezer. 

There are 3 immediate family birthdays and one anniversary plu 5 extended family birthdays during Fall. One is the older grandgirl turning 10 and there will be a family birthday dinner and present opening. She now chooses friend sleepover parties instead of afternoon ones so gets two celebrations as she should. There is also a swim meet of hers on Halloween weekend and of course family Thanksgiving. 

We are short on plans for adventures/exploring/days out for ourselves so I need to think on that. I'm hoping we can work out a plan for taking the grandgirls to the local live theater to see "A Year with Fog and Toad". Some gift shopping for birthdays and Christmas too. I'd like to see some Christmas lights and decorations this year - possibly in San Francisco. 

There is an amateur art show at the rec center later this month and we enjoy that plus we are now members of the SF MOMA so can take another trip there later in the Fall. October brings the citywide yard sale and voting of course but we simply putting our ballots in the dropbox a short walk away. In November Hubby is a chaperone for a 4th grade trip to see a Cal Berkeley women's basketball game but I'm opting out on that one! We need some more plans especially for after the next few weeks!

I've made appointments to flu and COVID booster vaccines, planning how to alter the pup's free fleece coat to fit his shape better, made a list of a few clothing items to look for and those to possibly donate. Time to schedule our RMDs too and one last round of this year's estimated tax payments plus earthquake and car insurance due. I'm sure there are more things on the Fall adulting list.

I'm curious what adventures/exploring/days out you enjoy most in the fall as well as the at home fall treats you look forward to!

Five Things Friday #37 - It's the little things!

 

Such a sweet book. If you love dogs and want to smile, get it from the library.

1. I requested the book above from our library after reading about it somewhere. I was especially interested in how she drew the dogs, but it is also such a sweet book and a reissue of an old one. Makes me smile and go pet my dog. 

I have so many cute pictures of our dog and it is easy to edit them to black and white to help with my drawing. We'll see!

2. Our son and his family are having the floors in the 100+ year old house replaced (first floor) and refinished (2nd floor). They essentially had to move everything out including themselves and it will take 2 1/2 weeks before they can come back. We went over on Saturday and while Hubby helped dismantle furniture I was the lucky companion to the 3 1/2 year old. 

We did a puzzle of dinosaurs, read a couple of books and then played a silly game of pretending to have our fingers stuck together and the other one had to help get them apart. 

I'd forgotten how kids that age are so willing to go along with silly things that they know in fact are silly but still find entertaining. I rarely have time alone with her so it was a treat.

3. Despite my strong dislike for clothes shopping, I've decide not to keep anything that doesn't fit well or I don't like to wear for whatever reason. If I ever lose the 10 pounds I put on the first year after we moved here I'll just have to shop anyway.

4. Doing short bursts of put off cleaning and other life admin tasks and took a few things off the list. A couple of financial and tech things done, the patio and outdoor furniture cleaned, a couple of windows washed outside. I've also identified several things to buy to replace broken/worn out/missing items (cellular shade pulls, cereal bowls, sleep socks) and am going to make that happen. Small steps forward.

5. Sat outside on the patio for the first time this year and enjoyed a glass of wine and read while the dog laid on the rug and chewed on his bone. It was a lovely day instead of being too foggy, too cold or hot, too windy or too something. Very nice.

Five Things Friday #36 - 9/11 memorial, heatwave, eucalyptus grove removal, freezer use it up, slow holiday weekend

As the nation remembers the casualties and horror of 9/11 today let us hope it translates into the right kind of election day results and we stop governmental actions turning countries against ours.

However, we are babysitting the grandgirls this evening so making positive memories for the day too.

1. In an effort to reduce the high wildfire risk of current trees, our city got a grant to remove a very large grove of eucalyptus and other trees at an old quarry near our house - 190 trees total. Then they will mitigate the impact in a environmentally enhancing, fire mitigation, habitat creation way. 

Hubby has been walking to where he can see the trees come down and says it is a very coordinated methodical process and the trees are huge. I was curious when eucalyptus were brought to this area and it was in the late 1800s through early 1900s. They do have a lovely scent when the weather is warm and would help mitigate landslides/erosion but are highly flammable.

2. We have just had a 4 day "summer" so I have gotten a few more uses out of my summer clothes and decided to keep all but 3 of them despite them no longer being favorites. Who knows - we might go someplace with a hotter summer on vacation one of these years. The few have been weeded out really don't fit well anymore. I also finally let go of some necklaces as well that were heavy or not my style.

3. I have a goal of trying some new recipes for dinner main dishes. This week's was Mexican chicken and bean soup. Hubby liked, it but it was not a new favorite for me. Moving on.

4. The Frugal Girl is doing a freezer use it up challenge. We have a tiny freezer on top of our not big enough frig that came with the house. I took a look though and found we have an excess of pork chops and one piece of salmon. We will make a pork stir fry with rice and a lemon garlic salmon pasta dish as dinners. 

5. I skipped my Pilates session as I wasn't feeling well. The slant board I ordered arrived though so I am doing the prescribed exercises to stretch my calves and ankles. Fun - not.

Five Things Friday #35 - Just photos

Birthday bouquet - I got chocolate too just as I wanted

PHOTOS FROM THIS WEEK'S WALKS