3 years later - April 3rd was our moving day!

Three years ago we (including a then 1 year old pup) drove up to our current home in a U-Haul and our old car. We felt excited, exhausted and a bit disoriented. I had only seen the house in a FaceTime walk through so there was anticipation too. We were greeted by our son, DIL and grandgirls who brought dinner, hugs and big smiles which was lovely. Now we have been living here for 3 years.

So how has making this house and area our home worked out?

Family - All good news on this front and this is why we moved. We really felt being a regular part of our young granddaughters' lives was important for us and hopefully for them. The time with them and big smiles and hugs when we see them is worth it all. The time and fun with our son and DIL is also a wonderful outcome as is getting to know our DIL's family better.

In addition we have happily been able to provide support to our son and DIL because we do remember the challenges of having young children, a house, and demanding careers. They have also readily helped us many times. Thankfully our older son and DIL are willing to come visit us all and encouraged the move. 

Bonus: The dog is thrilled to be in a mixed age neighborhood with lots of happy people encounters and to have visits from family or time at their home.

Friends and Activities - We both feel a deficit in these areas. I have one friend with whom I've done a few things, but no regular activities other than weekly Pilates private session. Hubby now has a regular weekly session with 2 other musicians that he enjoys, but nothing else either. A work in progress.

Neighborhood, City & Services Available - We got the type of walkable and quiet area we wanted. Our neighbors are friendly and kind but not intrusive. Our son's home is literally a 10 minutes drive away. If we stay fairly local, the traffic is easy to navigate. 

The small city we live in seems to be well run and the employees we have encountered are very nice. We can easily walk to city hall with questions lol. The county library system works for me. The local staff is kind and friendly, but the local library is small & old with no place to hang out and few adult activities due to lack of space. I miss my previous libraries that had lots of interesting programming.

House - Sigh. We have settled in and this house layout and size mostly works for us. Moving a lot has made us used to adapting our home to us and us to it. This is our 5th older house and it has required more work than any of the others. Still, we do like the house.

I am thankful we have been able to afford all of the repairs & improvements that we have had done. We were careful to not max out our home purchase price because we knew there would be other costs. When I list what we have done and think about all the surprises cleaning up the yard mess, it is no wonder we were stressed. We still have some lower priority things to address but are no longer feeling stressed by it.

Would we do it again? Despite the upheaval and loss of nearby close friends and enjoyable activities the move caused, we have both said we would do it again. The grandparenting and family time has been worth it.

Five Things Friday #13 - Oops, Thursday but oh well

I am not sticking my head in the sand and am keeping up with national and world events - I just don't talk about it on this blog. It is so terrible and unnecessary and horribly sad for all the people affected and the environment. 

1. Woo-hoo! I won a $20 Amazon gift certificate from the county transit authority for participating in their Winter Walk Challenge. Each week you had to submit a photo on a specific topic while being outdoors. It was fun as it got me looking at different things while I walked the dog.

2. Well that explains why the dog was staring around the back corner of the house Sunday morning! There was a dead rat that actually looked healthy laying on the ground. After Hubby put it in a bag and into the trash, we hypothesized that someone must have rat poison out. Glad the pup just looked at it and didn't pick it up and chew on it!

3. We are being very careful how much we drive while gas prices soar so the expensive new car is sitting in front of our house a lot. I still want to take a day trip to the John Muir house and a few other outings during Spring. However, I don't need to run to CVS by myself as it is next to Trader Joe's where Hubby shops once a week. I went with him today and used a coupon and my replace/replenish list and saved $12.91 on things we need.

4. Gas where we usually stop on Wednesday morning - $5.89/gal. Another station near us was $5.49 so we filled up but that was less than 3 gallons.

5. Feeling very thankful in general but wishing house and yard work would get done without me doing it! I'm at the beginning of deep cleaning the house - mopping floors and cleaning appliances right now.

Rebounder as exercise - Anyone use one?

I have become curious as to whether or not I should get a rebounder to use for indoor exercise.

Any experience with one?

Five Things Friday #12 - Heat Wave Edition

1. I am delighted that when asked what she wanted to do for the vacant week in her summer schedule our 9 year old granddaughter yelled "Nana & Papa Camp". This is why we moved despite the struggle of moving and making friends once again. We seem to be doing something right that she wants to spend 5 days at our house with us. Now to make some plans that balance fun/exploring with just hanging out.

2. Starting Monday temperatures in our area became about 20 degrees warmer than usual for highs/"feels like" temps in the mid 80s for 5 days due to a heat dome sitting over the area for a week. That usually happens for a couple of weeks in August/September. We had the air conditioner running upstairs and a fan blowing strategically at the dog's favorite spot on the downstairs couch. Opened windows at night to reduce the indoor temp before it rose high again. Reminds me of growing up in Illinois without air conditioning!

3. Happily accepted a gift of half a loaf of Irish soda bread from a friend. I had thought of trying to make it for St. Patrick's Day, but  quickly gave up that idea. I did spend the day remembering lovingly my grandfather who's birthday was St. Pat's day. He was the best grandpa for me.

4. Walked to the library mid-morning Tuesday before it got too hot so I could get some outdoor exercise while returning and picking up books.

5. Completed and mailed the DMV application for refund for the prepaid registration for the old car. Hopefully we will see a refund eventually.

 

Five things Friday #11

1. I love tulips. Seeing these "in the wild" on a walk was lovely. The walks this week were also full of birds chirping. Spring is here.

2. The 3 "girls" were at the other Grandma's so our son suggested going out for a beer. He also helped us set up the "Find My" app so we could track each other. Given Hubby's fall and struggle to walk home, he suggested doing this so we can find the other person's location if they don't make it home.

3. Just doing day to day stuff. Pruning & fertilizing plants, lots of laundry, driving the new car for errands and parking practice, doing our taxes, running self-clean on the oven, reading, sleeping late, and so on.

4. The gas/electric company says we used a lot less gas in January than similar home but a bit more than the most efficient ones. Given how cold & windy it was, I'd say that was a big payoff for our house sealing & insulation project of last year. 

5. Shopped at CVS and ACE for just what needed replenishing. Sales and coupon saved 25%.

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What we ate for dinner including our efforts to have more meatless/low meat meals as we used to.

    Friday - Low meat: black bean tostados with small amount of leftover chicken

    Saturday - Salmon, carrots, peas

    Sunday - Turkey burgers on buns, leftover veggies (black beans, carrots, peas, asparagus)

    Monday - Meatless: baked potatoes topped with shredded cheese, steamed broccoli 

    Tuesday - Leftover turkey burgers on buns, zuchinni & tomato bake

    Wednesday - Meatless: Huevos rancheros, cooked spinach

    Thursday - BBQ chicken, steamed broccoli, boiled potatoes

What I'm reading Wednesday #7 - One really good one; two duds

3 books - 1 I really enjoyed and 2 duds.

This is the most recently published one in the series although the next is scheduled to come out April 14th. If I haven't read all 20 in the series I've come close. I saw a suggestion that the book to fill the prompt could be set in the 1800s not authored then and that "saved" me from a boring book. 

 4.5 stars. Prompt: Written in the 1800s

I was very disappointed in this book as I have enjoyed several others by this author. Perhaps the life story of Hedy Lamar just wasn't that great for a fictional biography. It did save me from books that appealed even less as she was the star of the top grossing movie the year I was born; Samson & Delilah. 

I was generous and gave it 2 stars. Prompt: Inspired by the top-grossing movie the year you were born (1949)

I would describe this book best by saying it seemed like a fever dream of for those intimately familiar with Oxford colleges. I really didn't like the writing style and how it was pitched to those who knew and cared about the Oxford staffing and buildings. I only kept reading because it was so bad but by a good author so I thought it might redeem itself. Also it fit prompts in 2 different challenges. 

A generous 1 star. Prompt: Includes a Red Herring & Mystery Genre challenge Prompt: A classic mystery

My Spring Vision Board

SPRING 2026

A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

JOYFUL DAILY LIVING

MAKING THINGS, LEARNING, EXPERIENCING 

Pretty simple this time!