[Sylvaa]

It's been a hot minute since I've interacted on the boards with anything more than a like. I'm still struggling with the forum updates. I'll just leave it at that.

 

The house is due to be finished the week of (American) Thanksgiving, so we are looking at moving the first week of December. This means that we have a lot of things to do in the mean time. We've already started compiling a list of things we need to purchase (like mounting brackets for tv's) and cleaning out odd corners. Most of our stuff is still boxed up (unless we use it regularly), but we definitely have random things to do to get ready (I have a huge pile of shredding to get through!). Goal is to complete one task weekly to prep for the move.

 

Work has been busy - not so much like overwhelming, just lots of little things that keep piling up. I've rebooted my tomatoes. The goal is 8 tomatoes a day (meetings are included as a tomato). At least one tomato task has to be for each of my service lines. 

 

I've also started instituting tomato tasks for household chores / tasks. This is separate from above. Cleaning the bathroom is a household chore, not a move prep chore. Goal is to complete 40 work tomatoes (8 x 5 days a week) and 15 house tomatoes every week.

 

I was doing really well on my running plan until I completed it. The next plan in the series includes adding in an additional run day (which gets me up to 5 / week). My mind has literally gone "screw this, I'm out" for no good reason. Now my average daily steps are significantly lower than they should be. I'm going to aim for 3 - 4 runs a week (at least a base run, and interval run, and a long run), but the least I need to do is hit my weekly minute goal (150 minutes). Also, one yoga day. Goal is to hit 150 active minutes plus one yoga day per week.

[Sylvaa]

Weekly Tracking:

 

Week 1:

• 1 move task (packed up a box of things I won't need from my bedroom)
• 41 work tomatoes
• 11 house tomatoes 
• ?? / 150 active minutes

 

I just realized that I have to update the week before it rolls over because I 100% do not know how to get my past data off of Garmin. My watch is also starting to decline (and needing to be charged more often), so I don't know how often it actually tracks. I could have been more active this week though.

 

Week 2:

• Does buying a washer and dryer count as a move task? Because that's what I did!
  • (I also went through some papers, I need to do some shredding, but I haven't yet. I do have piles ready to go though!)
• 44 work tomatoes
• I'm getting a pass on house tomatoes
• 150 / 150 active minutes

 

So the washer at the rental needs a new belt and I'm going to have to use the laundromat until my new washer and dryer get delivered to the new house (12/6). This put a slight speedbump on house tomatoes. It was a really busy weekend and having to spend time away taking care of clothes wasn't helpful.

 

Week 3:

• Got a mini fridge returned, figured out our window treatment situation (curtains, not blinds). Organized some boxes and started moving the garage around to make it easier to get the boxes currently in there out. Oh, and bought a snowblower.
• 40 work tomatoes. I almost didn't finish all my tomatoes, but I saw I was one short and finished a task Friday night.
• 15 house tomatoes. Hitting my house tomato goal is much easier when the dog is going through her shed. I'm finding chunks of dog hair that need picked up.
• 150 / 150 active minutes.

 

Week 4:

• Move task ended up being related to our range; the oven light stays on all the time, so we had to have a technician out to look at it. Originally, our builder said that the cleaners would be there that day to let the tech in, but he called me when he got there and they had just left. We aren't sure if they were done for the day or if they had an extended lunch, but our schedule got rearranged to be there for the call. It's still not fixed, but he ordered new circuit boards, which will hopefully solve the issue.
• 42 work tomatoes. 
• 10 house tomatoes. I didn't quite hit all my goals because we moved some tasks around to the next week to be prepared for Thanksgiving. 
• 150 / 150 active minutes. I might have committed to doing a yoga teacher training class, which recommends 6 months of regular yoga prior to beginning. It's for my mom, because she's struggling to find somewhere to take yoga. 

 

Week 5:

• No move tasks this week. Originally, we were hoping to be able to start doing some move activities this past weekend (my husband was going to install network equipment on Saturday while I brought over some boxes that are currently in the garage of the rental), however cleaning was still going on Saturday, so it did not happen. I did buy two rugs (for our living room and dining room) and a new standing desk for myself (my husband and I are both getting new desks and giving our old ones to the boys).
• I ended up having off Wednesday (my work gave everyone off as a bonus), so I only achieved 16 work tomatoes last week. It's fine, that's all that was reasonable.
• 15 house tomatoes. With all the getting ready for Thanksgiving, I did extra cleaning
• 120 / 150 active minutes. I missed yoga because I wasn't feeling well. 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Hi there. Long term forum usage can lead to feelings of monotony, it can be difficult to keep posting. I'm here no matter what.

[Shello]

I'm so excited for your move!  It is always tons of work but hopefully the excitement will keep you going.  I'm here too for whenever you get around to an update.  In the meantime I'll just imaging running tomatoes to sum up your goals.  

 

[Sylvaa]

So what else have I been up to recently?

 

Last week, I was in Denver for work. We're only going every few months, so it's a super exciting and busy week. But I did get to hang out with an internet friend from World of Warcraft that I hadn't met in person until last week! It was really really fun. We've known each other since 2004 or so, which is crazy. 

 

This week is our quarterly check-in week at work. This is my first time being responsible for other people (since I know have people who report to me) and I'm pretty nervous about making sure all my people are on target. I also got chosen for a new program my company is doing, where I have a mentor for a 10 month program to develop myself. I have all kinds of training over the next two weeks. 

 

We are also getting the cabinets delivered and installed this week. Our bathroom cabinets are already in (which was a surprise, we thought they were all coming this week). This is super exciting because we had to order our appliances like two months ago (not knowing when they would be available) and they've been sitting at a warehouse waiting to be delivered for over a month! 

 

This weekend coming up is super busy. We have D&D on Friday, trick-or-treating on Saturday (since I live in an area that doesn't believe on doing so on a Sunday), and then dinner with my parents on  Sunday. We are planning a Halloween themed meal, so I'm really looking forward to putting that together. The next weekend, we are doing a Sip and Stroll with a group of people, then doing a Halloween themed one-shot. 

 

My daughter got her surgery pre-authorized, so now that is scheduled. But it's not until July 2022, so we have plenty of time to prep for that. 

 

The baby is being Batman for Halloween. He's been practicing, so we are totally ready. I forgot how much fun it is to have a baby in the house, so it's exciting now that he's old enough to really enjoy holidays.

 

We are also trying a new food waste strategy (since we waste a lot of food). We are only planning 6/7 days of food. One day is dedicated to leftovers. If we've eaten through all the leftovers, then we get to eat out instead. We may make exceptions if we end up with anything that is really bad, but TBD on that. 

[Shello]

48 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

trick-or-treating on Saturday (since I live in an area that doesn't believe on doing so on a Sunday)

Sorcery!  

 

I really like your food waste strategy.  I went through a process a few years ago and this is pretty similar to my strategy.  I batch cook enough for 4-5 meals and then fill in with leftovers or 'wing it' food that I always have in the pantry.  It's been very successful.   Good luck with yours. 

[athousandwords]

So much good stuff going on! It's exciting that your house is getting so close to being finished - plus now you get to do all the fun finishing touches (in between boring move prep).

 

I think the mentorship program is such a great opportunity - congrats on being chosen! Here's hoping you get a lot out of it. 

 

Also your weekend plans sound super fun - I don't know what a Sip n Stroll is, but I'd totally be in.  

[Sylvaa]

On 10/25/2021 at 2:17 PM, athousandwords said:

Also your weekend plans sound super fun - I don't know what a Sip n Stroll is, but I'd totally be in.  

 

It's just as fun as it sounds. It's a fundraiser for our downtown area where local breweries / wineries / distilleries are partnered with a local shop and you walk around getting samples of the alcohol while in the different stores. A friend of ours lives in the area, so we park at his place, walk around, then go back to his place to hang out. This time, we might go back to my parent's house for the one-shot, but that is TBD based on alcohol consumption. 

 

Week 1 update:

I did update on my tracking post, but figured I'd go into more detail here. Having to "report back" on my success made it easier to keep up with my work tomatoes. This was a super busy week because it was quarterly check-in and now I have people who report to me, which made it a lot easier to hit my goal. 

 

I didn't quite hit my home goals. My plan was to put two daily tasks on my weekdays and then have 5 tasks for the weekend. I'm pretty sure I actually hit this goal, but I didn't track well and forgot what I did or did not do. I'm struggling to focus on a weekly packing task. My husband and I both scheduled 10 days off of work for the move itself, plus we are planning on moving the beginning of December and we have rent paid through the end. So we don't really have any urgency on our side. I'm sure we'll probably regret it, but after packing and moving our house in less than a week to move into the rental, I'm appreciating the long time frame. 

 

As I said above, I think my Garmin is starting to die. I've had it for a while now and I'm pretty rough on it, so I'm not surprised. I don't remember getting the buzz that I hit my active minutes last week though, so I'm pretty sure even if I did, it doesn't count. I'm going to work on being better about tracking workouts regardless of whether the Garmin counts them. 

 

On 10/25/2021 at 1:14 PM, Shello said:

I really like your food waste strategy.  I went through a process a few years ago and this is pretty similar to my strategy.  I batch cook enough for 4-5 meals and then fill in with leftovers or 'wing it' food that I always have in the pantry.  It's been very successful.   Good luck with yours. 

 

The first week, it went fairly well. By the time we got to Friday, we didn't have enough leftovers for the family, so the kids got to eat out (which was a pretty big treat for them). The only leftovers we had were from this pork chop dinner, which didn't turn out well anyway (so I'm not surprised that no one ate it). I'm not going to fault them because we decided as a family that was a no go (also, part of the issue was that when I ordered groceries, I asked for 6 pork chops and the shopper gave me 8, so technically, we had extra pork chops out of our control). 

 

I also had a really fun conversation yesterday with my parents about deer control strategies. A slight update for new people: my parents are building a house on the lot next to ours. Between our two properties, we have 5 acres of land (our property is 2.2 and my parents have 2.8). Our overall goal is to have large gardens and fruit trees. However, there is a significant deer population in the immediate area (while we are technically in a neighborhood, each lot is >1 acre, there is a nice size creek meandering through many of the properties, and while our property has zero tree cover, many lots have a lot of trees). So next year is going to be a "plant and see what the deer don't eat" year. We've been reading about strategies for keeping deer away from food, so it'll be a fun experiment to see what works. On a side note, we are also planning on planting a large amount of milkweed. You know, for the butterflies. 

[athousandwords]

Nice work hitting the goals this week!

 

10 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

The first week, it went fairly well. By the time we got to Friday, we didn't have enough leftovers for the family, so the kids got to eat out (which was a pretty big treat for them). The only leftovers we had were from this pork chop dinner, which didn't turn out well anyway (so I'm not surprised that no one ate it). I'm not going to fault them because we decided as a family that was a no go (also, part of the issue was that when I ordered groceries, I asked for 6 pork chops and the shopper gave me 8, so technically, we had extra pork chops out of our control). 

 

Oh man, I hate it when you make something and it's not... not great. Feels like a total waste of time and food - and with extra chops on top of that! Hopefully you at least enjoyed eating out on Friday and the leftovers plan is more successful next week. I've started planning in leftovers for dinner as well, especially on nights when we want to try and get stuff done after the kids go to bed and don't want to be bothered with cooking cleanup.

 

10 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

So next year is going to be a "plant and see what the deer don't eat" year. We've been reading about strategies for keeping deer away from food, so it'll be a fun experiment to see what works. On a side note, we are also planning on planting a large amount of milkweed. You know, for the butterflies. 

 

I've heard some hilarious stories about deer mitigation.. apparently predator pee is a big deterrent?  And yay butterflies! 🦋

[Sylvaa]

Unrelated story time:

 

Story #1: The baby woke me up this morning by walking into my room and announcing, "it's good morning time" then crawling up next to me and asking for a mandarin. When I got out of bed, he promptly stole my spot, ate two mandarin oranges, then fell asleep. For three hours. Life is so rough.

 

Story #2: As I mentioned, my parents are building next to us. Yesterday, excavation was supposed to start. However, the neighbors across the street stopped the work as they told the excavators my parents were actually on our property. This led to a flurry of activity (including a surveyor visit) to determine exactly where the property lines were. The neighbor was correct and my parents had to move their house over a bit, but it was kind of weird as we are uncertain HOW exactly the neighbors knew exactly where the property lines were (as we obviously did not). 

 

This led to my parents meeting their builder this morning to re-place their excavation stakes. Well, same neighbor walked over to complain about the placement of my parents house on their property because the spot my parents chose would ruin the views from the neighbors house. Please note that the neighbors bought their property first. They could have chosen the lot my parents ended up picking, or buying it in addition to their own to preserve the view. My parents picked the spot they did (even after the shifting due to property lines) because it made sense to build there (it requires less excavation and grading for the garage / driveway, which leads to a lower cost). 

 

The builder let my parents know they will still be blocking the view. But this is an amazing way to get to know your neighbors better. 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

1 hour ago, Sylvaa said:

This led to my parents meeting their builder this morning to re-place their excavation stakes. Well, same neighbor walked over to complain about the placement of my parents house on their property because the spot my parents chose would ruin the views from the neighbors house

One considers the irony of how the view might have been uninterrupted had the neighbor kept their mouth shut in the first place. That neighbor is going to be FUN.

[Sylvaa]

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

One considers the irony of how the view might have been uninterrupted had the neighbor kept their mouth shut in the first place. That neighbor is going to be FUN.

 

The view would have been worse without them moving. So it did a little bit (I guess?).

 

We already call this house the salty house. Because of a façade incident.... Just more fuel to the fire.

[Shello]

4 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

But this is an amazing way to get to know your neighbors better. 

Or a way to know you don't want to know your neighbors better. 

[Jarric]

Large gardens, fruit trees, and deer sound like an idyllic place to live - hope all goes smoothly with the final bits on your house.

[Sylvaa]

On 11/5/2021 at 9:17 AM, Jarric said:

Large gardens, fruit trees, and deer sound like an idyllic place to live - hope all goes smoothly with the final bits on your house.

 

It's getting so close! We will find out soon enough.

 

This weekend was SO BUSY. Saturday morning, we met my MIL at the new house (she wanted to go see what was new), then we ran to get dinner for the kids (snacks they would heat up themselves later), then met my parents to buy a washer and dryer for the new house. My parents got us them as a combined birthday / Christmas / Housewarming present. This left us just enough time to meet some additional friends (the majority of our D&D group) at the Sip & Stroll. It was a lot of fun (we always have fun) a lot of walking, and a nice way to just spend some time with friends. We then went to my parents to do a Halloween one-shot, which wasn't as fun as it could have been (the story was a bit one dimensional). 

 

Sunday, I woke up, went to run errands and grab groceries with my husband. Then I realized that there had been an issue with one of the grocery websites (we shop at two) and I hadn't actually put in my order! So we actually had to shop there. Luckily, it was a quick trip; our list was less than 15 items. After that, I grabbed the clothes and went to the laundromat (I explained above, but the rental washer needs a new belt and sounds like it is going to explode. So we are just going to let the owners deal with it when we move out and laundromat it for the next few weeks). I got back with enough time to make some brownies for dessert, then hang out with the baby before going over to my parents for our weekly dinner. I need a vacation from my weekend!

[Sylvaa]

Week 3 Update:

 

T-minus 19 days until the move. The house isn't quite finished yet (the plumbers still have tasks to complete that will take them a few days), but other than that, it's just cleaning. Everyone is super excited and it looks even better than I imagined. Update: my husband just talked to the builder and there are two days of work left before cleaning, but still. Apparently, we are waiting on our hot water tank, which had to be ordered from Washington state. 

 

Next big thing is prepping and cooking Thanksgiving. But Sylvaa, you may ask, why would you commit to hosting a large family gathering one week before you move into a new house? Well because, there would  be too much drama associated with any other decision. See, my parents offered to host and would do a really good job with it. Except, then we would deal with my MIL being hurt because it wasn't at her house. Mind you, my parents house is definitely the better choice, but *sigh* parents. In reality, it's fine, since we wouldn't pack up our kitchen stuff that early anyway. 

 

Last week, I also went with my girls, my mother, and my MIL to a night at Board & Brush (my daughter works there and she gets a free sign to make every month). It was actually a nice evening with the girls and not something I'd normally do. The girls (all of them) are ready to go back and do it again. We've already figured out where the sign I made is going to go.

[athousandwords]

6 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Next big thing is prepping and cooking Thanksgiving. But Sylvaa, you may ask, why would you commit to hosting a large family gathering one week before you move into a new house? Well because, there would  be too much drama associated with any other decision. See, my parents offered to host and would do a really good job with it. Except, then we would deal with my MIL being hurt because it wasn't at her house. Mind you, my parents house is definitely the better choice, but *sigh* parents. In reality, it's fine, since we wouldn't pack up our kitchen stuff that early anyway. 

 

Oh man, this sounds like the kind of drama my MIL would bring. Best of luck hosting and with the move!! So exciting that y'all are finally going to get to live in this house you've been working on for so long.

[Sylvaa]

19 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Oh man, this sounds like the kind of drama my MIL would bring. Best of luck hosting and with the move!! So exciting that y'all are finally going to get to live in this house you've been working on for so long.

 

Don't get me wrong, my MIL is super nice and would do anything for anyone. She's just feeling kind of left out recently with my parents being back in the area and the kids not wanting to be as involved with her as they had been when they were younger. 

 

Plot twist that I forgot on my initial weekly update:

 

Does anyone have any good recommendations for induction cookware? I didn't pay attention well enough to the range I selected and it's induction. 

[Sylvaa]

So I am super impatient and I know that there are very few additional steps that need to occur, but I am so ready to be able to start working on the new house! We have a laundry list of things we want to have done before we move the furniture over. We also got our mailbox set up this weekend, which ended up being a more difficult process than we initially had hoped (my husband found this piece that basically screwed into the ground to hold the mailbox - instead of the traditional dig a hole method. However, our ground ended up having too many rocks for us to be able to use the piece properly, so we ended up taking two days and going back to the basics to get our mailbox in). 

 

We also had a fun talk with one of our neighbors. His kids are around the same age as the grandbaby, so he'll have kids to play with! This is the neighbor who also "paid" for the land and worked on the development (we bought our property from him). He thanked my husband and I for going all brick (if you remember that rant from like April of this year). It was nice to have the acknowledgement that he understood it wasn't our first choice, and he appreciated it. 

 

Speaking of the baby, his favorite thing to do when he wakes up is to come in and see me (i.e. wake me up). It's fine mornings like today, when it occurred at like 9:30, but not so great when it's 7 am and I am still sleeping. (It is impossible to get mad at a baby that walks in and informs you, "it's good morning time" though). 

[athousandwords]

32 minutes ago, Sylvaa said:

Speaking of the baby, his favorite thing to do when he wakes up is to come in and see me (i.e. wake me up). It's fine mornings like today, when it occurred at like 9:30, but not so great when it's 7 am and I am still sleeping. (It is impossible to get mad at a baby that walks in and informs you, "it's good morning time" though). 

 

I feel this every morning when my 4yo crawls into our bed. Like, no, I don't want to share my pillow with an octopus, but how can I be mad when he still wants to snuggle? 🥺

 

I can only imagine how impatient you must be to get fully into the new house!! You're so close now!

[Sylvaa]

On 11/22/2021 at 12:17 PM, athousandwords said:

I feel this every morning when my 4yo crawls into our bed. Like, no, I don't want to share my pillow with an octopus, but how can I be mad when he still wants to snuggle? 🥺

 

This morning, the baby came in at 7 am to inform me that his momma was being mean. He made me put on Spidey, then promptly fell asleep. I ended up falling back to sleep and got up late for work (luckily, all work is occurring at home, so I don't think anyone realized it). 

 

We are still waiting to hear that we can start moving things into our house. It's not the end of the world that we haven't heard yet, it's just that we are all impatient. Also, the girls are getting on my nerves because not only are they impatient, they are irritated that they want to do things they can't. Last cleaning was on Saturday, so it's not like the builder isn't doing anything. 

 

Thanksgiving went off without too much of a hitch. Apparently, my BIL didn't know when or where we were celebrating, so it took us a bit to get him sorted out, but he showed up. We are also actually running out of leftovers, which is really nice. Usually it feels like I throw away so much. 

 

This has actually been one of my more productive challenges in a while. I think because I tried to keep it super easy. With everything going on, getting back to basics was really the way to go. I still don't feel like I'm interacting enough here, but I think it's just because I don't want to.  

[Sylvaa]

It's been a hot minute, because I've been moving. We are officially moved into the new house. I have two tasks to complete at our rental and we'll be out of there (cleaning out the fridge / freezer and getting rid of some trash that is in the garage). 

 

We don't currently have internet. Our neighborhood is so new that our ISP hadn't fully completed setting up the lines to houses (luckily the lines have been run, it's just a matter of finishing them). So we aren't sure of a time line, which hasn't been super fun. 

 

If anyone is curious (and not my FB friend - since it's already been shared there), I'll post the link to our builder's FB. Our house is the post from 12/3/21. https://www.facebook.com/armstrongbuildersllc/?ref=page_internal

[Shello]

I saw the pics on Facebook.  Absolutely gorgeous!  Happy Moving!