Ten Little Celebrations – August 2022

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The celebrations I noted in August 2022 are part of the continuum of transition to Missouri – our new home.

A neat garage. I celebrated how organized our garage looked after we set up the bunk bed frame for all the camping gear! Sometimes a quick and simple task can have a bigger impact than expected on our perception of place.

A rainy morning. It was a relief – and celebration - when we finally got some summer rain. The August temperatures have also been a little cooler than in July….and our grass has turned green again.

Roadtrip home. I celebrated my shortest time ever for the drive from Carrollton to Nixa. It was a Sunday so traffic was light…and the weather was dry.

Finding boxes of Atkins shakes. My husband only likes one flavor of Atkins shakes and I’d been challenged to find them in prior grocery shopping weeks…and then there were two on the shelf at Walmart! I celebrated (and put both of them in my cart).

Sooty, Pooky, and Puma. Celebrating new pets. Their antics are fun to watch…they demand interaction…challenge us to make small modifications to our household routine for their safety.  

Kittens napping. After times of high kitten activity (with 3 of them there are frequent chases, tussles, and a general tendancy to move small toys everywhere in the house), we celebrate some quiet time when all three are napping.

Mango chicken salad. I selected something new from the menu my daughter was ordering from….and celebrated the result!

Spider bite not infected. I went to Urgent Care with a bug bite different than I had ever experienced (painful and it looked different). They identified it as a probable spider bite and cautioned me that it might get worse before it got better. I got a tetanus shot and perscription strength topical antibiotic…celebrated that they said it did not look infected (and it never got infected although it is taking several weeks to heal).

Taking pictures through my office window. I like taking pictures through my office windows. A storm blew off one of the screens…and I’ve left it off. I haven’t taken many pictures through the window yet…but I am celebrating that I now have the physical setup to do it. I’ve seen chickadees and finches on the bird bath about 4 feet from where I sit….and a hummingbird investicated a plant nearby.

Coursera anatomy course. I celebrated completing another anatomy course (Anatomy of the chest, neck, and abdomen) from Yale on Coursera. Every module was well presented and interesting.

Repurposing a Bedframe

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Before we moved from Maryland, I contemplated donating the frame of the bunk beds my daughter had enjoyed until middle school; it had been disassembled – stored in a basement closet for longer than it had been used! Then I came up with an idea to repurpose it and included the bedframe in the furniture to go on the truck to Missouri. So – now we’ve followed through on my idea.

The frame along with all our camping gear was unloaded into the bay that would not be used for a car in our Missouri 3-car garage. Last week we got around to assembling the fame (very easy…took a few minutes) and loading the camping gear onto the frame. The before and after pictures are below and there is still room for more gear!

The advantages of the frame are:

  • it gets everything off the floor,

  • handles the larger items very well, and

  • has plenty of room for lighter items (like ice chests) on the upper bunk!

The idea also appeals to me because the frame reminds me of my daughter’s early years…and how much fun she had with blankets hanging from the top bunk to enclose the bottom where she and all her stuffed animals slept.

Unique Aspects of Days – May 2022

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The majority of unique aspects of May involved our move….but I also treasured the ones that could have happened independently.

Paper or bubble wrap. After a few days of packing, I discovered I like paper better than bubble wrap most of the time. I thought when I starting packing that I would use both --- whatever I had --- and was surprised that the paper ‘won.’ As an added bonus – I bought paper made from recycled materials and it can also be recycled after our move!

Finding the top to my cake container. I had lost it several years ago and thought maybe it had somehow been discarded….but I found it again as I unloaded the old China cabinet. I’d already packed the other part so I’ll endeavor to get then back together in my new kitchen.

Last macro series of the Maryland yard. As I walked around with my macro lens…I realized that next month I’ll be doing it in a whole new place!

Selecting a real estate agent/starting the process to sell our house. While not totally unique since we have sold 3 houses previous…it was the first time in almost 28 years!

Arranging for our house to be re-carpeted. It is the first time we’ve ever replaced all the carpeting in a house.

1st box packed from the garage. I was surprised at how much of the garage fit into just a few boxes.

Getting the karate kick bag out of the basement. It was quite an effort with sand in the base…much easier to move once the sand was out.

Finding an iris that was getting ready to bloom in the chaos garden. Usually I forget they are there and the garden is not in my normal line of sight.

Male goldfinch at the feeder. I haven’t been watching the feeder as closely since we started preparing to move…so I was thrilled to glance out at the perfect time to see the bright yellow bird. I’ve seen them occasionally in previous years but this is probably my only sighting for this year.

Broken molar. It was my first broken tooth since my dentist has generally anticipated problems. I discovered when I went to the dentist that it was actually a large filling that had cracked. The solution was the same….the molar got a crown!

Preparing to move (2) – May 2022

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A lot has happened since my last post about preparing to move back on 5/5.

We have packed a lot more boxes, of course. Our goal is to minimize items to go in the cars (precious/high value things, liquids, key documents, and whatever we need while the truck in enroute).

There is still some ‘messiness’ around the stacks of boxes but it is gradually being cleared away…with the rooms beginning to look ‘all packed.’ The very last will probably be the kitchen since we continue enjoying cooking/eating at home; about half the kitchen is already packed.

The boxes have been cleared from around the grand piano to make it easier for the crew that will prepare it to go on the truck. The box move was hard work since they were filled with books…the heaviest of our boxes. We managed to remove the humidifier box (which stuck out from the bottom of the piano).

I have developed a lot of skill in reusing packaging material like Styrofoam, foam squiggles, bubble/pillow wrap and paper. For example, I cut up a foam board yard sign to pad the top of a box, disconnected strips of Styrofoam from a larger piece/bent them to fill an odd space in a larger box and used squiggles to fill small spaces around paper wrapped breakable items to keep them from moving too much. I’m also realizing that plastic hangers work well to fill the top of a box without adding more weight.

The last ‘rooms’ to get packed (and the ones we are still working on are my husband’s office and the garage. We’ve made a good start and they will be packed more fully before this weekend. The before and after picture of my first round of garage packing is shown below.

We are getting rid of things we don’t want to move:

We’ve taken multiple loads of recycle and trash to our local facility.

Almost all the hazardous waste has been taken for disposal.

My husband called the county for curbside pickup of a ping pong table, glide, lawn mower, and karate punching bag for later this week – stay tune for pictures of the pile!

And I’ve scheduled another donation a few days before the movers come

Maintenance

The radon remediation has been completed.

The screens that were damaged/worn in the screened deck were replaced.

A light new bulb was put in the light fixture over the basement stairs (with some trickly ladder work).

Carpet replacement has been scheduled for after the movers are done (i.e the house is almost empty).

Overall – the progress we are making appears to be on track to be ready for the movers…and to be almost totally focused on our house in Missouri rather than the one in Maryland by mid-June!