The Entwife’s Heart: To the Trollshaws

[Ann of Owlshire]

Dearest Adventurers,

 

It has long been the ambition of mine to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Fellowship of the Ring. And so, I have began something of a pilgrimage of their footsteps, from Bag End to Mordor.

 

But I also have long felt a connection to the lost Entwives, and I seek home, a garden to tend. I don’t think I will find the Entwives—no one else has—but I can find one in myself. (I already have an Enting, after all!) So it is while on this long journey I hope to find my place in Middle Earth to settle down.

 

During the last few weeks, I journeyed from Bag End to Bree. In the next few weeks, with my Enting on my back and friends coming and going at my side, I should make it as far as the Trollshaws.

 

 

Challenge:

Starting in Zero Week, begin walking. My goal is the Trollshaws, which is 221 miles. It doesn’t really matter how I make the miles—steps done on daily activities/errands, local walks, hikes, etc.

 

After more than a decade of trying and failing the record-keeping with this challenge (I certainly haven’t lacked the mileage), I believe the key to me completing the Walk to Mordor is really by making the bookkeeping as simple as possible. Whatever my Fitbit says at the end of the day goes into my handy WtM app. Easy.

 

Do something each day to help get the house sold and get me to that garden to tend. That will usually involve some sort of upkeep on the tidying, decluttering, or attacking the dust bunnies in some forgotten corner.

 

If we get an offer on the house during the challenge, I will outline new goals based on our next steps.

 

Skip Second Breakfast. I’ve put on a few pounds over the last several months (before Lockdown started, really), and I’d like to see them go. My goal here is to weigh less at the end of the challenge than I did at the beginning—as simple as that. It’s more about increasing activity than eating (I’m a pretty clean eater already), but they are of course intertwined and I need to be mindful I’m not just replacing every calorie I burn.

 

Starting weight: 126lbs. (Usual disclaimer—I’m quite petite, so that weight puts me nearing the top of my healthy range and when I see an upwards trend I like to nip it in the bud. I want to get back to the middling—somewhere around 115lbs.) 

 

And that’s it. Walk a lot, make the house look good, and say no to extra snacks sometimes. I can do that much, right?

[Snarkyfishguts]

 I like this challenge! I hope you find the Entwives! If you need help with goblins, orcs, and trolls(or just an open ear and supportive cheer) , my axe is at the ready!💚

[Ann of Owlshire]

0.1

 

Started the challenge off strong with a hike near the South Downs in East Sussex. We met with our friend who lives in Lewes and began a socially distanced ramble toward Newhaven. Most of it was along the River Ouse and in countryside, but of course the only photo I took was near the beginning in town. We did around 8 miles round trip. The Mr was powerful, and carried the Enting most of the hike. We thought he’d want to run around more, but I think he was enjoying the view from in his Emperor Seat for the first time in many, many months.

 

 

At one point, tired and sweaty and a bit behind the menfolk who were chatting away about whatever, I took a moment to be grateful about the twists and turns and missteps of my life, and how this weird little American girl ended up with this amazing husband and son, walking around the English countryside on our weekend. It’s been a wondrous, but also unexpected turn in my life story. 

 

211 miles to the Trollshaws. 

 

In a few months, we hope we can do walks like this out our front door. So when we got home, to help facilitate our move, I made sure to get (mostly) everything put away from the day out, instead of just letting it sit in the hallway to be dealt with “later.” 

[Ann of Owlshire]

7 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

If you need help with goblins, orcs, and trolls(or just an open ear and supportive cheer) , my axe is at the ready!💚

 

Every adventurer needs her Fellowship! ❤️

[Sciread77]

10 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

If you need help with goblins, orcs, and trolls(or just an open ear and supportive cheer) , my axe is at the ready!💚

And my hammer! 
 

I love your WtM. And I can’t get over the package of adorable the Enting is. He’s getting so much bigger! He and Bo Peep would have fun together.

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

0.2

 

I don’t plan to update every day. But it’s early in the challenge....

 

I walked a lot yesterday, both intentionally and in cleaning/tidying tasks. We have a viewing this evening (Tuesday) and the house somehow exploded in the last few days and I spent 9 hours cleaning (while Enting at nursery, around him afterwards when I could). There’s more to do today. I have a list. I still won’t get it all done, but hopefully enough.

 

I also made a sample rota of daily/weekly tasks because I want to keep the house situation under control so that I don’t have to do several hours of cleaning/tidying for every home viewing we have, because it’s just not sustainable. 

 

I still expect there to be some panic tidying right before a viewing, but an hour or two is much more doable than two days of cleaning.

 

Anyway.

 

204 miles to the Trollshaws....

[WolfDreamer]

On 6/14/2020 at 10:29 PM, Snarkyfishguts said:

 I like this challenge! I hope you find the Entwives! If you need help with goblins, orcs, and trolls(or just an open ear and supportive cheer) , my axe is at the ready!💚

 

And my sword!

 

Love this challenge. I am blessed to live in a state that has a lot of trails and really nice walking paths, with some great rivers, lakes, and streams, as well. My daughters are starting to request walks or hikes with Dad, so that's a blessing.

 

Great challenge and some really great progress.

 

I just looked at my progress on my walk to Mordor and back again, and I made it to Rivendell! I am 382.44 miles from Rauros. I joined the challenge back in January but did not input my numbers until last night. I think I'll incorporate it as part of my challenge.

[Ann of Owlshire]

Ranting ahead...

 

Okay, I know I’m just tired and frustrated today, I have at admit I find cleaning house incredibly unsatisfying. Like, I clean something! And then I notice something else dirty. I declutter! A major task! And then I notice there are spots on the wall. And, assuming I have time to try to get the spots off the wall, then I realize that the skirting paint is getting chipped, and then....

 

(And let’s not even talk about the kitchen. I could spend all day in the kitchen just cleaning dishes, putting them away, and then having to clean more dishes and put them away....)

 

Enting has been shrill and hysterical and demanding all morning. There has been yelling and crying from all parties involved, while I’m struggling to try to get the house clean and he wouldn’t let me. He’s collapsed into a nap now (I suspected this was part of the issue and tried several times to get him down without success earlier), I’m hoping that he and I can have a do-over when he wakes up. *sigh*

 

I won’t get to the marks on the walls today. I’ll just have to live with that.

[Ann of Owlshire]

41 minutes ago, WolfDreamer said:

I am blessed to live in a state that has a lot of trails and really nice walking paths, with some great rivers, lakes, and streams, as well. My daughters are starting to request walks or hikes with Dad, so that's a blessing.

 

In my younger adulthood, I was all about urban living, but now all I want is to have river and trails nearby XD I suspect this makes me a stereotype, but oh well.

 

I’m glad your daughters are enjoying it as well! I look forward to when Enting is old enough to go canoeing with Mr. And not just because it means I’ll finally get some peace (I don’t like being on the water, but like being near it with my feet firmly on the ground.)  

[Sylvaa]

11 minutes ago, Ann of Vries said:

Okay, I know I’m just tired and frustrated today, I have at admit I find cleaning house incredibly unsatisfying. Like, I clean something! And then I notice something else dirty. I declutter! A major task! And then I notice there are spots on the wall. And, assuming I have time to try to get the spots off the wall, then I realize that the skirting paint is getting chipped, and then....

 

#solidarity.

 

We've just recently decided to sell our house and move to something a bit larger. Our initial realtor meeting is this evening to find out if we can get the asking price we want for our house and we keep looking around going, "oh that needs fixed" and "that need cleaned". And we still have to live in it with 7 (7!) people. /cries. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

58 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

And we still have to live in it with 7 (7!) people. /cries. 

 

Yes, I know this feeling. There’s only the 3 of us, but Enting really should count for more than one. 

 

Good luck on your meeting! This is our first viewing. I’m hoping it’ll be the last, too—one can dream. But I’m not going to get to the spots on the wall today no matter what so I hope they don’t reject it on that basis. 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Follwoing along!

 

Hope the cleaning doesn't get too overwhelming! It's enough to have a little one needing yah, but all the  cleaning that is needed. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

First viewing survived.

 

They seemed keen, so we’ll see if that turns into anything. They had an adorable baby corgi with them ❤️ 

 

Our neighbour (bless her) saw me heading out with Enting in the buggy to keep him out of the way and ran out and offered to take him into her garden. So that was nice.

 

And afterwards we had Chinese takeaway and Mr told me to go upstairs and he’d take care of Enting for the evening. Which he did, until Enting went to bed at around 9PM (which is on the late end of bedtime right now). I laid down upstairs and read. It was wonderful.

[Ann of Owlshire]

I’ve been productive today, but taking it a lot easier than I did on Monday and Tuesday. I redid my daily upkeep rota to reflect reality. That is, to upkeep the rooms that are harder to do with Enting around on nursery days.  And we had a lunchtime thunderstorm! Exciting! 

 

Enting has crashed hard at 4PM, despite me and Mr trying to keep him awake. The mystery now is will he sleep through until stupid early tomorrow morning? Or will he wake in an hour or two and be up until midnight?  

 

ETA He woke after an hour and a half. It’s going to be a long evening... and Mr has his D&D game so it’s all me  

[Ann of Owlshire]

Today’s homefront productivity hampered by distressing dreams and a resulting 3 hour wake-up in the night. Can’t even blame the Enting for that one. *sigh* 

 

3 of the 5 properties we’d been eyeing now have offers on them. I know that there will be more coming on the market, but it still makes me anxious. We’re looking for a quite specific kind of property in a specific area that there aren’t tons of. There’s definitely a wave of people moving out of London right now—and while we have acted at the front of the curve, where on the curve we’ll actually be able to make an offer of our own I don’t know.

 

196 miles to the Trollshaws....

 

 

 

[WolfDreamer]

On 6/16/2020 at 4:21 PM, Ann of Vries said:

First viewing survived.

 

They seemed keen, so we’ll see if that turns into anything. They had an adorable baby corgi with them ❤️ 

 

That's awesome. I love corgis.

 

20 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

And we had a lunchtime thunderstorm! Exciting! 

 

Thunderstorms are always exciting. I get restless because I want to go outside and watch them.

 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

Today’s homefront productivity hampered by distressing dreams and a resulting 3 hour wake-up in the night. Can’t even blame the Enting for that one. *sigh* 

 

😔

 

1 hour ago, Ann of Vries said:

I know that there will be more coming on the market, but it still makes me anxious

 

I trust that something great will come up, and even if it isn't exactly what you want, I know you and Mr. will make it a wonderful home for yourselves and the little Enting.

[Ann of Owlshire]

My brain weasels are being really weaselly right now.

 

I haven’t posted an Enting-wearing selfie on this thread yet.

 

 

You’re welcome 😛 

 

So far today I have tidied up the utility room (got a bit messy what with rain and tracking mud yesterday) and contacted an agent about whether or not the vendor of a house we really liked would let us come for a second viewing. At the moment we could only do a contingency offer, but if we let them know we’re serious, maybe they will also take us seriously. 

 

ETA: Second viewing confirmed for a week Saturday! 

[Snarkyfishguts]

You have freckles! I have freckles too! I love freckles!

 

oooh second viewing! Fingers crossed for you!

 

Brain Weasels are jerks! *hugs*

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

2 hours ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

You have freckles! I have freckles too! I love freckles!

 

I get serious freckle face in the summer. I have learned to embrace them 

 

 

 

 

[Snarkyfishguts]

2 hours ago, Ann of Vries said:

 

I get serious freckle face in the summer. I have learned to embrace them 

 

 

 

 

Because freckle faces are the best faces 🥰  

 

including sideway freckle faces! Lol

[oromendur]

OH, hooray, welcome back to Middle-earth! As long as we remember them, the Entwives aren't truly gone  

 

On 6/19/2020 at 10:31 AM, Snarkyfishguts said:

You have freckles! I have freckles too! I love freckles!

 

On 6/19/2020 at 12:42 PM, Ann of Vries said:

I get serious freckle face in the summer. I have learned to embrace them 

 

I used to have freckles. I think my rosacea ate them.

 

On 6/19/2020 at 2:25 AM, Ann of Vries said:

 

I haven’t posted an Enting-wearing selfie on this thread yet.

 

 

                         

 

Good luck! I just might eventually get around to joining you on that Walk to Mordor...

[Ann of Owlshire]

I’m struggling a bit keeping up on the house, but that’s life with Toddler, Agent of Chaos. Did a long walk yesterday along the Southbank to meet my friend N who I haven’t seen in person since early March. We enjoyed chatting again in the sunshine, and then the long walk home. I may have gotten too much sun, though, as I have a bad headache (even this morning!) and minor sunburn. 

 

Enting slept for 15+ hours O_O He had been a little difficult all afternoon (morning at nursery) and wanted to go in the buggy around 4:30PM and I decided it would be a good way to keep him entertained until Mr got off work at 5. But by 4:45 he was crashed. I got him home, we tried unsuccessfully to keep him awake. There’s a point where we feel it’s cruel to keep trying, so we stopped and created all sorts of complex contingency plans for if he woke in a couple of hours and stayed up until midnight, or if he slept through but woke at 4AM, etc.

 

Except for one wake-up around 11PM where he wanted some milk and then went right back to sleep (reasonable, since he hadn’t eaten since lunch), he slept through until 7:30AM, and I think would have slept more if I hadn’t gotten out of bed O_O

 

We reduced the asking price on the house this weekend hoping to get more eyes on the place as progress has been much slower than expected. The agent had gone in punchy with the price—and maybe it would have been the right thing in a pre-Covid world or if we weren’t keen to get moved, but we are where we’re at. It’s still plenty to cover the homes we’re looking at + moving costs. We know the minimum we’re willing to go down to, and we’re still comfortably above it.

 

171 miles to the Trollshaws....

 

 

[Ann of Owlshire]

Just informed that the couple that viewed out house last week want to do a second viewing. This is very promising. 

[Ann of Owlshire]

On 6/22/2020 at 1:51 AM, oromendur said:

Good luck! I just might eventually get around to joining you on that Walk to Mordor...

 

Hopefully we can do some of it together! 

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 6/23/2020 at 4:09 AM, Ann of Vries said:

Agent of Chaos.

accurate

 

On 6/23/2020 at 6:12 AM, Ann of Vries said:

Just informed that the couple that viewed out house last week want to do a second viewing. This is very promising. 

YAY!

 

That's great news!