Soccer
Soccer
Sleep
Eat
Library!
Swim!
Sleep
Shop!
Marshmallows are not cat treats
Eat
Sleep
Turkey
Turkey
Turkey
Pie
Soccer
Soccer
Christmas Tree
Sleep
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Thanksgiving Break - The Long Version
Thanksgiving is over, and once again I feel like I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. The kids had the entire week off school, and while I'd love to say that we had a fabulous time together, in reality I was grumpy.
I got no writing done. I failed to get much of the housecleaning done that I wanted (there are still cardboard boxes in annoying parts of the house). I didn't get Charlotte's ripped school bag sewn back together. I felt like I yelled at the kids more than played with them (to be fair, they are loud loud loud and don't seem to follow directions. And they whine. A lot).
Mother of the year, I am not.
We did a few fun things. Last Monday we found our local library and signed up for cards (it's a different county than where we lived before). That branch is pretty big, and had several computers and a train table (as well as books), so the three of us spent a happy two hours relaxing and came home with a dozen books (and two movies). That afternoon, we had the local YMCA pool nearly to ourselves during open swim time. Most of the local schools were in session, and I suppose swimming isn't top of the Thanksgiving week activity list for most people.
Tuesday we mostly shopped for our Thanksgiving dinner. Unlike my friend Bethany, who made hers from locally-sourced and home-grown ingredients, ours was pretty commercial. We did buy a hormone-free, fresh turkey from a local small grocery store (the turkey itself was probably not local). The rest came from Target.
The kitchen in our new house has double ovens. I love having two full-sized ovens. Yes, I'm showing off, but I really love love having two full-sized ovens. My husband dressed the turkey and had it roasting at the same time the kids and I were making pies. After the pies were done, we made green bean and sweet potato casseroles. Most years I have to practically make a spreadsheet to schedule oven time to make sure everything gets done. This year, no problems.
We saw The Muppets this weekend. I think I was more excited about it than the kids were. Fabulous movie, btw, especially if you grew up on the Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhatten, etc.
Let's see, what else...Trystan had a soccer game on Black Friday. I did some after-Thanksgiving shopping, but mainly online (I do not care to fight a crowd or stay up late..there will be more deals coming..there always are).
We picked up more drapery rods and one of the sets hung. Slowly we are whittling down the list of naked windows in our house. I have bought very few actual drapes, just hardware. I had a rather substantial stash of non-neutral fabric panels from the old house that work rather well in the new one (though I might need to buy more sheers to finish out the last few windows--those were neutral enough to leave in the old place).
We started decorating for the holidays. I am disappointed to say that I couldn't find a 9-12 foot pre-lit tree that was sufficiently discounted (we have high ceilings in our living room, and I was hoping for something really tall). Regardless of height, the cats love the Christmas tree. It is 1) a tree to climb 2) covered in toys (all with tails), and 3) has a soft velvet tree skirt to nap on. As long as they don't 1) knock it over 2) chew through the lights or 3) break any irreplaceable ornaments, we will all have a happy holiday season.
I got no writing done. I failed to get much of the housecleaning done that I wanted (there are still cardboard boxes in annoying parts of the house). I didn't get Charlotte's ripped school bag sewn back together. I felt like I yelled at the kids more than played with them (to be fair, they are loud loud loud and don't seem to follow directions. And they whine. A lot).
Mother of the year, I am not.
We did a few fun things. Last Monday we found our local library and signed up for cards (it's a different county than where we lived before). That branch is pretty big, and had several computers and a train table (as well as books), so the three of us spent a happy two hours relaxing and came home with a dozen books (and two movies). That afternoon, we had the local YMCA pool nearly to ourselves during open swim time. Most of the local schools were in session, and I suppose swimming isn't top of the Thanksgiving week activity list for most people.
Tuesday we mostly shopped for our Thanksgiving dinner. Unlike my friend Bethany, who made hers from locally-sourced and home-grown ingredients, ours was pretty commercial. We did buy a hormone-free, fresh turkey from a local small grocery store (the turkey itself was probably not local). The rest came from Target.
The kitchen in our new house has double ovens. I love having two full-sized ovens. Yes, I'm showing off, but I really love love having two full-sized ovens. My husband dressed the turkey and had it roasting at the same time the kids and I were making pies. After the pies were done, we made green bean and sweet potato casseroles. Most years I have to practically make a spreadsheet to schedule oven time to make sure everything gets done. This year, no problems.
We saw The Muppets this weekend. I think I was more excited about it than the kids were. Fabulous movie, btw, especially if you grew up on the Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhatten, etc.
Let's see, what else...Trystan had a soccer game on Black Friday. I did some after-Thanksgiving shopping, but mainly online (I do not care to fight a crowd or stay up late..there will be more deals coming..there always are).
We picked up more drapery rods and one of the sets hung. Slowly we are whittling down the list of naked windows in our house. I have bought very few actual drapes, just hardware. I had a rather substantial stash of non-neutral fabric panels from the old house that work rather well in the new one (though I might need to buy more sheers to finish out the last few windows--those were neutral enough to leave in the old place).
We started decorating for the holidays. I am disappointed to say that I couldn't find a 9-12 foot pre-lit tree that was sufficiently discounted (we have high ceilings in our living room, and I was hoping for something really tall). Regardless of height, the cats love the Christmas tree. It is 1) a tree to climb 2) covered in toys (all with tails), and 3) has a soft velvet tree skirt to nap on. As long as they don't 1) knock it over 2) chew through the lights or 3) break any irreplaceable ornaments, we will all have a happy holiday season.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Are you done moving yet?
I think that when we look back on 2011 from a safe distance of, say, fifteen years, that my husband and I will believe we made the right choice. I think that we will pat ourselves on the back for buying at the low point of the market, thereby gaining our family a much nicer home than we would have achieved otherwise. I hope.
So, we have owned the new house for three and a half months, and occupied it for two and a half. Surely we're done moving. Right?
Um...um...sure.
The old house still holds one thing of value to us: a really long stepladder that is a pain to transport (and I have no idea why the movers didn't put it on their really long trucks to transport...). There is a pile of junk that I need to give to some charity (junk meaning outgrown clothes, coats, extra dishes and knick knacks that we haven't had a place for in years and didn't feel like lugging along to the new basement). Obviously, the old house is still on the market. (And the price is going down folks...did I mention how this was a good time to buy? Like, you're getting a ton of house for the money...).
The new house is slightly organized. There are a few rooms that don't have cardboard boxes in them anymore. There are a few rooms that do have curtains on the windows (namely the bedrooms and master bath). I don't think we have hung anything on a wall yet (except those few curtain rods). We haven't done any landscaping yet. Our patio furniture lives temporarily in our garage, awaiting a patio to call its own. But as of this past Saturday, we can finally park two cars in our new three-car garage. We haven't yet convinced our in-car automatic garage door openers to talk to the new garage doors. We have installed cat-doors to allow the fur dudes access to the basement litter boxes.
It's a work in progress.
So, we are getting to the part of the year where people don't like to buy houses (I guess they don't fit under the tree very well), so our old house may get offered for rent if it doesn't find a buyer soon. I'd rather sell than mess with a renter, but I'd rather rent than continue paying for a vacant house. We have holiday time coming up and don't (so far) have any major travel planned, so there is hope that we can get a few more things out of boxes and hung onto walls and generally spruced up.
I am still clinging to hope that in a few years we will fondly look back on our move and be so glad we put ourselves through the trouble. The thought keeps us going through payments and raised-then-dashed-hopes of buyer interest, through phone calls to old neighbors to help with trash cans and lawn companies to mow before open houses, through the hauling of boxes up and down stairs and the filling of trashcans with stuff we probably shouldn't have packed in the first place.
It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it. (I hope).
So, we have owned the new house for three and a half months, and occupied it for two and a half. Surely we're done moving. Right?
Um...um...sure.
The old house still holds one thing of value to us: a really long stepladder that is a pain to transport (and I have no idea why the movers didn't put it on their really long trucks to transport...). There is a pile of junk that I need to give to some charity (junk meaning outgrown clothes, coats, extra dishes and knick knacks that we haven't had a place for in years and didn't feel like lugging along to the new basement). Obviously, the old house is still on the market. (And the price is going down folks...did I mention how this was a good time to buy? Like, you're getting a ton of house for the money...).
The new house is slightly organized. There are a few rooms that don't have cardboard boxes in them anymore. There are a few rooms that do have curtains on the windows (namely the bedrooms and master bath). I don't think we have hung anything on a wall yet (except those few curtain rods). We haven't done any landscaping yet. Our patio furniture lives temporarily in our garage, awaiting a patio to call its own. But as of this past Saturday, we can finally park two cars in our new three-car garage. We haven't yet convinced our in-car automatic garage door openers to talk to the new garage doors. We have installed cat-doors to allow the fur dudes access to the basement litter boxes.
It's a work in progress.
So, we are getting to the part of the year where people don't like to buy houses (I guess they don't fit under the tree very well), so our old house may get offered for rent if it doesn't find a buyer soon. I'd rather sell than mess with a renter, but I'd rather rent than continue paying for a vacant house. We have holiday time coming up and don't (so far) have any major travel planned, so there is hope that we can get a few more things out of boxes and hung onto walls and generally spruced up.
I am still clinging to hope that in a few years we will fondly look back on our move and be so glad we put ourselves through the trouble. The thought keeps us going through payments and raised-then-dashed-hopes of buyer interest, through phone calls to old neighbors to help with trash cans and lawn companies to mow before open houses, through the hauling of boxes up and down stairs and the filling of trashcans with stuff we probably shouldn't have packed in the first place.
It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it. (I hope).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)