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.

Deer - 5 vs Us - 4 but at least there are flowers

 

Apparently just ready to open Agapanthus flowers are a deer munchie! Last year we only had one flower sprout so this is still a win.

The ongoing “joys” of home ownership

As I spend my day - and will again tomorrow - hanging out at home most of the time (with breaks traded with Hubby) so our attics can be better insulated, I am thinking again about the challenges and reward of home ownership.

Right now the challenge is listening to the old insulation being sucked out of the attic lol. The things we are learning about how poorly some work was done not long before selling the house (a large open hole in the floor of the attic where the kitchen fan vent pipe goes through!) explains a lot about why the kitchen is so cold for example.

Our bank account will be smaller at the end of the week but our home more comfortable. That means we have finished almost all the work identified in the home inspection before we bought the house 2 years ago plus landscaped the yard.

Still on list for the are replacing the cheap carpeting upstairs, putting in a new stair handrail to code, and replacing the aging water heater and perhaps the stove and dryer. 

Camellias in bloom

The camellias we planted are blooming gorgeously. The one in the front has small dainty blossoms while the one in the backyard is the more common larger blooms. They both seem very happy where they are and have a lot of height left to gain. 

I’m really enjoy seeing them and am glad we picked a variety of flowering shrubs to plant as well as different foliage ones. The landscaping has turned out to be kind of a Bay Area cottage garden feel with minimal plants due to the water and climate situations.

It is nice to see the plants settling in and starting to grow to fill their allotted spaces.

Thank you YouTube - Thriving week 30

This house has 20 windows of various kinds (13 downstairs/7 upstairs), 14 window screens, 2 mini blinds (the rest are cellular shades or vertical blinds or nothing ) and 3 doors with glass. 

Most of the windows are dual pane vinyl ones and either single hung, fixed or sliders. We don’t know when they were installed and the company is no longer in the window business. We haven’t cleaned the outsides or screens since we bought the house in March 2023.

YouTube has been our school for learning how to care for them.

• How do you open a tilt in single hung window? 
• How do you get one back in place if it is off the track? 
• Is it ok for there to be some standing water in a weep hole? 
• The best way to wash the outside? 
• The best tool for doing that? 
• How do you get the screens out? 

YouTube has supplied all the answers except for how to improve sticky window tracks and we learned that at my former women’s club having the same problem.

I can now clean the single hung windows pretty well by getting the screens out, using a pole washer/squeegee tool and slightly soapy water to clean the outside of the windows, wash the screens, lubricate sticky window tracks with silicone spray applied with a rag after cleaning them well with soapy water, and operate the tilt open mechanism to clean the window edges. Then I can put it back together lol.

• DONE: 6 windows, 3 screens,  0 mini blinds & 2 doors
• REMAINING: 14 windows, 11 screens, 2 mini blinds & 1 door

Slow but steady progress.

Hopefully the full window cleaning process is not an annual task!!!

Cobweb brushes are real!

I too had never heard of such a thing until moving to the East Bay Area of California. These cobwebs are outside on the house, trash cans, fence, etc. or in the rafters of the garage. The best explanation I can find is that they are the remnants of spiderwebs that get covered with dust due to the humidity and wind of living near the San Francisco Bay. 

I tried a variety of other brushes we own because who really wants to buy a cobweb brush! It truly does work well and has a very long telescoping handle. It cracks me up that there is a professional version!In retirement I guess one of my jobs is professional cobweb remover.

Truly though it is nice to have an easier way to get them of the house and the sticky dirt that remains on the brush tells the story of why they need to be gone.

Berkeley Rose Garden, bahn mi & more - Thriving week 29

Last Thursday was certainly varied!

First a dermatologist annual visit with a few spots being frozen off. Then I stopped at ACE Hardware and bought a cobweb brush. I have tried to avoid getting one but house maintenance is harder without it. I’m all about simplifying and making house and yard work easier this year.

We had wanted to check out the  Berkeley Rose Garden and although it is late in the blooming season it was very pretty and with a nice rose scent as you walked through. Pretty views across the bay too. My photo doesn’t do it justice.

The garden was built by hundreds of WPA workers over 4 years.You can’t tell from my photo but it was carved into a steep rock hillside and the rock used to make stairs and amphitheater levels.

On the way home we got bahn mi sandwiches to eat at home. They were bbq chicken with grated carrots, etc. and a definite Asian flavor but included both jalapeños and cilantro. The combo led to us researching the origins of both. Jalapeños definitely originated in Mexico but cilantro was variously attributed to the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt, India or China. I think we forget that there has always been both migration and traveling that included transporting foods to new locations. People definitely like to create new food combos for variations of traditional dishes.

I’ve written about needing to make friends and I’m glad that I had a deep conversation with a woman I met right after we moved here and really like. I hope to put myself put there more each week.

However, I’m feeling rather like a “stick in the mud” as my parents used to say. My sons and their families are respectively off to Michigan for a wedding and in Hawaii. 3 different neighbors just got back from Japan, one is on an Alaskan cruise and goes to Guatemala later in the summer, and one leaves for Spain soon returning for a one day turnaround before their whole family goes to Slovakia and Croatia. Better up our game at being a tourist in our own area!

Before our son and family left for Hawaii he brought over their ripe garden bounty. I don’t like the texture of raw plums but have found a recipe for sautéed plums to try as a topping for yogurt, cereal, etc. or as a meat side dish depending on seasonings used.

I finished cleaning the garage by cleaning the water heater closet, organized the stuff stored in the office closet so I  can now step in to reach thing which involved moving some stuff to the new garage shelves, and decluttered a few clothes that have not fit for over a year. 

3am phone call & Goodbye trees - Thriving week 26

Update: He was sent home with pain and anti nausea meds and instructions as to what to watch for. He is feeling better and relieved. I got the girls all ready with the older one being a terrific help and took them to daycare and camp.

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I was awakened at 3am this morning by a phone call from my DIL saying that after talking to the doctor phone help line, she needed to take our son to the ER. Could I come quickly to stay with the grandgirls and get them to daycare and camp? 

They were in the car and ready to go to ER when I arrived. So far he has had quick care including tests and meds to make him more comfortable but no diagnosis yet. Probably something treatable by meds or he needs his appendix out per Dr. Google. I’m waiting for the girls to wake up and mainlining coffee while watching the San Francisco skyline emerge as the sun rises.  Glad we are really close by and that I am an early riser!

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I’m also really glad the neighbor’s trees came down on Monday which means no annual pruning and associated cost for fire insurance renewal! Also no messy flower and leaf drop to clean up. 

Before

After

The view from our balcony looking across San Francisco Bay is expansive now!

On a clear day you can see the Bay bridge and much of the city skyline.—————————————————————————————————

We have decided to put up a balcony privacy screen in the corner where they were so we don’t look in neighbor’s back yards when we are seated but we will still have a view through the railing on the rest of the balcony. It will also help with the wind. We will leave the rest of the balcony railing open and have a much wider view now which is great. 

Here’s the rest of the befores and afters.

I can do it!

I am trying to tackle things that are a physical stretch for me and/or new because Hubby has always done them or they weren’t needed in prior houses. 

First is the garage cleaning and rearranging project. The part of the garage in the photo is now clean and looking pretty good.

I managed out to use a combo of a telescoping handled brush covered with a rag and the vacuum to somewhat clean the exposed garage ceiling in that area. Decades of dust not all of which is gone but it is better. 

I also bought a 36” plastic garage shelf unit on sale to increase our vertical storage and mostly assembled it. There is still some room on a shelf but I have stopped for the day as I’m not sure what I want to put there.

Celebrating Father’s Day, tree removal & a Hawk Moth - Thriving week 25

My DIL thought the moth that was in my front yard is a Hawk Moth. It is a White-lined Sphinx (or Hawk) moth. That is a new one for me but it was amazing looking and well camouflaged where it is resting.

Father’s Day lunch at our house with a simple menu: homemade chicken salad on croissants, veggie plate and dessert of chocolate Depression cake and ice cream. No need to stress or work too hard before a fun family gathering!

We met with an arborist and our neighbor and agreed to remove the line of trees along the property line that touch our house all the time. When it is windy they really hit the house. That is deemed a fire hazard by our home insurance company so we would have to keep them trimmed back. 

They are old, narrow and over 2 1/2 stories tall when they should be less than one story given their placement. Probably planted as a hedge decades ago. A few different types of trees and shrubs mixed in will remain and be pruned appropriately. A one time expense for us to eliminate annual cutting back not to mention the mess they make with dropping tiny flowers and leaves.

No plan yet for a different neighbors oak tree growing rapidly over our fence and encroaching into both our and a third neighbors yards. None of us have met the current owners of the oak tree but we learned some prior owner topped it creating a very difficult to maintain tree rapidly growing tree with many sucker trunks. Oh the joy of home ownership.

I’m starting some rearranging of storage which is a going to be a sequence of shifting things as space is made. So far I have removed all bedding storage from my closet so I can put sweaters on the shelf. Now I have to figure out where the out of season blanket and comforter will go. I think once I clean and declutter the garage again, I can move things from the office closet onto a yet to be purchased shelf or cabinet. Then the bedding can go in the office closet. There was originally a linen closet in this house but it was removed along with the entry coat closet at some point leaving not much storage space inside.

Slight progress on items on the to do list that have been avoided! Saw the retina specialist and now know how to tell if I need to return. Also was told what to look for in an optometrist. Called the credit union and fixed a log in problem.

 Did a thorough cleaning of the downstairs except for mopping the floor and washing the windows. Light cleaning upstairs.cleaned the front porch ceiling to floor and started on window washing. I am slowly increasing the amount of exercise I get each week. A long way to go on that but at least I have set goals for the summer with my Pilates trainer.

Hanging out with family - Thriving week 22

Oops, I posted on Tuesday instead of Thursday 🤭 Oh well.

We spent a goodly amount of time with family this past weekend. Got a FaceTime call from my DIL and the girls asking if we wanted to hang out with them and go out to dinner. Then the older girl got on and very excitedly asked if we wanted to meet them for frozen yogurt first. Yes please. 

Then Monday while DIL worked and the older girl went with her for a bring your child to work day, we spent part of the afternoon with our son and the 15 mo old little one. She had her first merry go round ride at a big county park in the hills here. She wasn’t sure about all the noise, lights, and motion but she held it together. Then we went to see animals at the “Little Farm” in the same park. When she saw the cows she said “moo”. ❤️ Back to their house for play in the backyard for a while. Fun for all.

Getting things done - 

• I have all my preventative care appointments scheduled except for a routine eye exam. After I see the ophthalmologist I’ll schedule that if needed as I do feel like my year old prescription is working still.
• Scrubbed the patio and topped up the bark mulch until I used up one bag.

Pup is on a diet & down a research rabbit hole - Thriving week 21

About that rabbit hole! I just read and really liked this book and wanted to see how true to life it was for the historical part. Well, it is very realistic but just touches on a small part of the work that was done by American women near the front line in N France during and after WWI. The legacy of that work is amazing too. Check out these videos for the bigger picture but read the book too. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcADwVNYtJk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLRaop8LtBU

It was a slow week for me as I had barometric headaches and joint aches for days and then symptoms of a virus. I did very little those days. One very good thing about retirement for me is that when I feel yuck I can do very little.

Friday we had a surprise visit from the older granddaughter and our son as there was no school. She got a big kick out of having him stay out of sight and peering in our front window until I noticed her and was suitably surprised which delighted her. Oh to be 7 again. They brought donuts and she made a fancy sign for my free pile for Saturday.

Then she went home and made fancier signs for the lemonade and muffin stand she and 2 friends ran at a park on Sunday. They decided it was to raise money for their schools and Fairyland (an Oakland well loved vintage children’s amusement park). They raised $154 plus all supplies were donated. Happy 7 year olds.

Pup had his annual well dog visit plus one booster shot. The vet says he has “dog fluff” and needs to lose some weight. We will give it a try but he has always had a layer of fat under his skin and only eats when hungry…not sure about the body composition of Cavalier Spaniels (mother) but I do know poodles (father) are lean. His build is more like his Mom’s except he has long legs and back hips like a poodle.

We continue checking off fixing smaller things, decluttering unnecessary items, doing some deep cleaning, and trying to find ways to make maintaining this property and our stuff easier.

• This week Hubby added caulk around the shower frame where there wasn’t any or it had gaps. I had noticed water coming under part of the frame so now that is fixed.
• My free pile on Saturday wasn’t as large as I had thought it would be as we are keeping the outdoor rug and umbrella for now while the toddler granddaughter is small. However, I put out 14 items and 11 left for new homes. The rest will be heading to Goodwill soon. I added a couple more items and tossed a few more.

Thriving Thursday Week 14 - Store visits for school assignment

Starting our second year near grandchildren with much family time the last few days ❤️ 

We joined our DILs family for Easter complete with a plastic egg hunt for the kids. The baby was happy with just one but she got the hang of it and picked up all laying on the grass for her. We had a lovely meal and the pup was well behaved. I felt like I had some good conversations with extended family and know them better now.

This whole week I am picking up the 7 year old at 4:00 when her “ aqua camp” for Spring break ends. She has a school project to visit various types of shops and take notes on things about them. Then the class will write opinion pieces using their research. Pretty great project for first grade. When there was time after each days shop visit she came over to our house and colored, played hubby’s drum set while dancing, ran around and jumped on beds with the pup, and otherwise had a fun if brief visit.

It was fun for me to see what she noticed, help her with sounding out spelling for her notes and how seriously she took her “research”. I took her to Pet Food Express, a local donut shop, Joanne Fabrics, and Trader Joe’s so far. She wants to finish up the week with Petco and the Korean Suprette.

She asked me to buy our pup a fresh baked dog cookie shaped like an ice cream cone with purple ice cream at the first stop. The pup was quite pleased lol. Of course we had to sample a donut which served as that day’s after camp snack and she got a toy at Joann’s after making a difficult choice between two items and a discussion bout relative short term and lasting play value.

Monday we had dinner at our son’s house and Tuesday we all went out to a Mexican restaurant we hadn’t tried yet. By Wednesday we were happy to have a quiet dinner at home ☺️

I’m also trying to knock things off my to do list in short bursts of work. Still working on backing up critical documents for disaster recovery. The goal is to have each listed on a summary sheet that tells how to get a new copy plus scanned and/or in the fire safe. I’m only scanning to first page of long documents like insurance policies including title insurance. We are also going to keep our passport and copies of medical insurance and driver’s licenses in our Go Bags.

So much paperwork some of which I haven’t looked at in decades like my first marriage license and divorce decree. I did find that in 43 years we never obtained a certified copy of our marriage license so I have to order one of those in case the survivor needs it. I was also surprised that the deed for the current house is an electronic copy whereas past ones have been very official looking documents with the county seal imprint.

Thriving Thursday Week 13 - Little things edition

Have you heard about the National Association of Realtors settlement agreement related to home sellers having to pay the buyer’s agents commission? I had briefly thought darn that we had sold our house before the settlement but then happened to read an article about it being retroactive to 2020 or earlier depending on where you live as long as your home had a MLS listing! I’m going to file a claim form and see what happens.

• We decidedly to go out at least once a week so we went to lunch at a Berkeley brewing company and had a great vegetarian Detroit style pizza. 
• Grandparented this week by going to watch swim class Saturday and on Sunday to a violin recital with family dinner afterwards.
• My little bits of yard work whenever the weather allows is keeping the weeds under control and me enjoying the landscaping. 2 plants have insect or disease problems so we are going to try spraying them regularly for a while. We may end up replacing them but everything else is growing well!
• We were able to let the pup hang out in the backyard several times and he also got to go play in another dog’s backyard. He came home from his play date needing to be rinsed off but quite happy.
• Completed an annual health questionnaire and used the $50 payment from our secondary health insurance towards an expensive prescription.
• Set up an account to pay state estimated taxes online and avoid potential mail delays or theft (which did happen here about a month ago but not to us).

Last week’s weather reminded me of a saying I heard as a child - March comes in like lion and out like a lamb! - except it all happened in one week and was all mixed up. Still Spring is clearly moving forward with lots of new growth, butterflies and birds darting around.

Thriving Thursday Week 12 - Spring is here and so are bugs

Welcome to Spring! 

It was a nice sunny and warm week so we took a scenic drive exploring parts of Berkeley near the campus and the hills behind it. The pup loves going for rides and sat quietly on the back looking at everything with interest.

I’m seeing butterflies around as so much is blooming. It is a pretty time to take long walks or sit outside. The pup is extra eager to be outside so we have been taking him out in the yard some which he enjoys.

The little GD had to stay home from school again due to a low fever but is feeling fine. We were able to step in and provide babysitting at her house.

I made a list of all the foods we have on hand and decided to try to get creative with finding some new inexpensive dinner recipes and healthier lunches and breakfasts for me. So far I’m interested in trying a one skillet vegetarian Mexican rice casserole.

This week I discovered the hard way that in one area of the yard we have wasps or bees. One got me on the back of my neck. It hurt but fortunately no serious reaction. I was in early grade school last time I was stung when I stepped on a 🐝 barefoot which I recall being much worse.

Thriving Thursday Week 11

Happiness, Comfort & Health

• Woohoo! I walked over 10,000 steps outdoors one day (4.1 miles for this short person) for the first time since foot surgery. I was quite pleased with myself ☺️
• Pilates trainer is great and it is helping me feel pain free.
• Saturday we watched our granddaughter’s swim class while visiting with the rest of the family. She came over after and we colored, chatted, ate snacks, walked the dog, and helped her find our houses on a paper map and follow the route we drive between them. Then we and the pup had dinner at their house. The baby has learned to say “hi” so we enjoyed listening to her say “hi,hi,hi!” a lot! This is the kind of time together I was hoping for by moving.

Minding our Money (and the Environment)

• Taxes e-filed and amount owed paid! It makes me so happy to have our e-filing problems over with and no more mailing of returns.
• We bought an indoor tv antenna and cut cable TV. Once Sonic goes live in our neighborhood in July we will switch internet to them. We took the easy but more expensive route a year ago when moving as the house was set up for cable already.

Making Home Upkeep Easier (and keeping things repaired) 

• Weeding one day a week during this rainy season seems to be working. The landscaping redo definitely helped.
• We learned to bring the balcony chairs in when it is very windy. They were blown over and scraped the house. Hubby used paint left in the garage to fix it.

Emergency Prep Project

• Added to the car emergency supplies: paper maps free from AAA and 2 reflective vests. Returned the Fix-a-Flat can. It says it has to be kept outside the passenger compartment and we have a hatchback so that won’t work.

Thriving Thursday Week 10

Happiness, Comfort & Health

Homemade Pumpkin pecan muffins made with yogurt instead of oil made us both happy and provided a stash for the freezer. Each fall I buy 10 to 12 cans of Trader Joe’s pumpkin while it is in stock as they have a great price. Do love pumpkin muffins!

The pup got his every 2 months bath and haircut. He is so excited to be at the groomer’s that he brought smiles to all the bystanders’ faces as we struggled to get him into their leash and out of his harness while he just wanted to give the groomer kisses. 

And some good news about the flu. Apparently the pandemic made one B flu strain disappear for the past 4 years so it will be dropped from next year’s vaccine which means more doses can be produced as the formula is simpler. That means more doses worldwide. Flu vaccine

Minding our Money (and the Environment)

Balanced the books for February and am quite happy I moved a lot of our savings into CDs while the rates are up.

Entered the data for our taxes using TurboTax. I still need to double check everything and finish. It took me quite a while because selling a house added complexity and required searching for old paperwork. We owe quite a bit as it was Hubby’s first full year receiving Social Security in addition to his pension and I forgot to increase our estimated tax payments. 

Making Home Upkeep Easier (and keeping things in good repair)

Hubby did use Superglue borrowed from our son to fix some cabinet veneer that had come loose in the rarely used 2nd bathroom. Not the best cabinet but it serves its purpose.

Emergency Prep Project

We finally checked emergency supplies we had in our car against a list we made for car breakdowns. A gallon of water plus a few additional things are back in our car and we ordered a small first aid kit, fix a flat canister, & 2 reflective vests. I will type up a list of what is kept in the car and put on the calendar to check batteries and expiration dates as appropriate.

Next step is to plan several evacuation routes. The city has one I need to print out and I ordered local, area, and state paper maps from AAA in case phones aren’t working. 

Then we need to put together Go Bags for each of us and for the dog for if we have a to evacuate quickly for wildfires. After that is adding to our earthquake/power outage/shelter in place supplies especially more water, coverings for broken windows and lighting.

Thriving Thursday week 9 - Leap day, Baby rave, & procrastination

How are you spending your extra “leap day” today? We don’t have anything special planned.

Spring has definitely arrived her! The trees are flowering, daffodils are up and the birds are staking out territories. Another colder spell on the way but it is temporary.

Happiness & Health - because these make our lives brighter

The biggest happiness came from having my older son and DIL come to stay for grandbaby’s birthday party weekend. The baby’s parents and big sister had a blast setting up a “baby rave” birthday theme party in their dining room with colored lights synched to the playlist, a big balloon chandelier, lots of light up balls and wands, and good food. The birthday girls had lots of fun with the light up toys and loved her cake. The look on her face as we sang Happy Birthday to her was priceless. 

The road to the party was a bit rocky despite all of us pitching in. The day before as cooking was about to begin a pipe broke under the sink causing a several hour delay. The morning of the party big sister had to be picked up at 5am as she was sick so she spent the party in her bed or the bathroom poor little girl. Then almost all of the baby guests plus some family and friends had to cancel at the last minute due to illness! The party still was a success and fun.

Minding our Money (and the Environment) - saving on or skipping things that don’t matter to us so we can afford the things that do

We pruned the neighbors trees on our side of the fence so there won’t be a problem with homeowners insurance this year. He really needs to take them down or tun them into a hedge but I don’t see him doing that.

Otherwise the same old stuff here along with spending on family visiting for the baby’s birthday and helping with the party expenses as part of our gift. We got here a pile of pajamas in the next size as she needed them.

Making Home Upkeep Easier - so we can spend time on what matters to us

I am trying out focusing on deep cleaning one room or space at a time. This month’s was the kitchen which will also get part or all of March due to all the appliances and cupboards. The dining room though will be quick so it may also get done in March.

Making sure I spend an hour or so each week keeping up with the weeding and any pruning is working well. My hope is that the amount of weeds will decrease each year as the seeds in the soil are used up. The weed barrier is helping a lot. This week the pup got to come out in the backyard with his chew bone for over an hour while I weeded as it was dry enough for him. He was so happy.

Emergency Prep Project - we want to survive and thrive at the worst of times

This was the procrastination area.  I did get hubby signed up for the emergency notification system and updated the dog finder info for his license and microchip.

Thriving Thursday Week 8

 

A bit of excitement 2 houses up the street as the wind took down a large tree. I was on the other side walking the pup when it made a loud crash. It pulled up the sidewalk but that was all that was hurt thankfully. The family that lives there is out of town.

Another morning I was walking the dog early and for a brief moment there was a full rainbow visible. That did make me smile. 

I had a good amount of time visiting with and helping my son with the baby while DIL and grandgirl went to a friend’s to play in the snow and have other adventures.

My older son and DIL arrive tomorrow to be here for the grandbaby’s first birthday party on Sunday. Always great to have them with us.

My local AAUW chapter meeting had two mystery writers as panelists and since I really love reading mysteries I enjoyed this program a lot.

We received a $2,371 property tax refund based on the assessment reduction for our previous home’s basis. Not sure if it includes the bill I just paid but either way I am happy. Our future property taxes will also be reduced accordingly. This is available to seniors who sell and buy in state. Filing all the paperwork pays off. 

Thriving Thursday Week 7

Happiness, Comfort & Health

We hosted family dinner night on Thursday. The 7 year old had fun with the quiz I created for the pup’s 2nd birthday which included photos of him with her. The almost 1 year old was back to feeling well and happily joined us in the high chair and crawling around. The pup calmed down after greeting them and did well with the baby. He likes to lick her fingers and she likes it too but we don’t let it go on too long. She points at the dog and says “duhhh”. A good try lol.

Good weather for a few days in a row so I got out and took a long walk without the dog plus my usual 2 dog walks. I didn’t get to 10,000 steps but 7,741 plus however many steps indoors including stairs was pretty good for me. One ankle was tender the next day which is information for further exercise.

Minding our Money and the Environment 

Our combined gas & electric bill that arrived this week is over $320. Guess it is time to move on scheduling that energy efficiency audit.

Purchased and downloaded TurboTax. Now to slog though it.

I looked to see if I could repurpose one of our Christmas bins as an emergency supplies tote (yes!) and found I had packed Christmas wrapping supplies, cards and napkins in one of the bins. Since I didn’t decorate this past Christmas I had forgotten about them and bought things. They are now where I will find them next holiday season.

Making Home Upkeep Easier

I finally got a plant care document put together so hopefully we can keep all our lovely yard plantings thriving by doing what they need when they need it.