life appreciation post

You know, sometimes I have to stop and take a deep breath and re-center myself. Been feeling a little off lately.

I have been traveling a lot, which inherently creates a need to adapt, and I've also been navigating the shifts that come with perimenopause. Yes, I saw the doctor and they said that I basically have 2 options. Either get my levels tested and take hormone therapy, or deal with the natural process and take good care of myself in the meantime. Of course I chose the crunchier option.

This week, when I left for the airport for the second Monday in a row, I really didn't want to. But since there was nothing I could do to change the situation, I had to change my mindset. I could be sad that I have to leave home, or I could re-frame my point of view and be excited for the adventure and the opportunity to see a new city. Why spend the time being upset when I can choose to change my mood? 

Fortunately, I've had practice with shifting my focus to appreciate the present. And I'm so glad. Because even though my days were filled with layovers and work, it really is cool to visit a new city. I didn't have time to do much, but in the last couple of weeks I was able to do some recon and see if these cities were worth visiting again. And, they were.

How lucky am I that I get paid to travel? I've been to some really cool places and met some cool people. My company pays for my snacks. I get to keep my airline, hotel, rental car, and parking points, which enables us to travel for fun on a budget. I get to come home to a house in paradise with a wonderful husband who carries my luggage upstairs, makes sure the toilet is clean (LOL I'm not mad at it) and fresh flowers are ALWAYS on the table. I get to sleep in a comfortable bed next to him and wake up to scratchy beard kisses and drink my coffee in the morning with views like this.

So yeah, life gets busy and I get tired, but when I stop to take it all in, it's all pretty damn good. I am SO lucky.

snow dayyyy

We got proper snow in Houston for the first time since I've lived here. And the first snow at all (for us) at the river.

Even though we're further south, we got enough snow to make it worth a trip outside. Some evidence:

I was thankful for our ski clothes at this point

We had to do a lot of prep to make sure the pipes didn't freeze (the well is more complicated than city water), and we prepared for the power to go out. It did, but not for a long period of time. Thank goodness, because even though we ran it a few days prior to test it, the generator wouldn't start. It was too cold and the battery died. Lesson learned.

Skillz

Add "replacing a threshold" to the list of things I now know how to do.

The youtube videos described cutting out the old threshold, but this one was so rotted and wobbly that I could almost kick it out. Too bad, I was looking forward to using the hammer and crowbar.

The frame was pretty rotted on one side and that required some creative repairs. Three different caulks and 2 types of paint later, we're all pretty and new. And functional. The air used to blow right through that door and with the *snow* coming, the timing on this project was perfect. 

a few things

Today I mopped the floors for the first time in 2 months. The dog puked a few times last night, and after cleaning it up I decided it was time to give the floors a proper clean. I counted it as cardio.

I had to change the water 3 times it was so dirty. Which surprised me because we run roomba several times a week and the floors didn't LOOK that dirty. But I guess they were. Now my back hurts haha

Tomorrow is my bachelorette party! I opted for a low-key, dress up in your sparkles and bring a bottle of wine for a MEGA-tasting with my favorite gals. Should be a blasty blast. 

Work has been mega busy lately and I'm involved in an initiative that should be good for my career, but because of it I've been right in that "Tired but Not Burnt Out Yet" zone. Basically I'm done trying to hustle in my professional life. I'm happy to coast until retirement, but they've been making me work and I'm not used to it. In the last 2 weeks, I've visited each coast. Talk about jet lag.

Wedding planning is in crunch time. We're in that time frame where a lot of stuff has to be checked off the list and it's kinda stressful, kinda fun. I did the alterations on my dress, which was nerve-wracking but adequate. I'm still adding the beading to the bodice, which is tedious but actually relaxing. You know, lots of immediate contradictions going on here.

The river house is deep into the negotiations of getting raised. We've met with the architecture company, and if we can get some details ironed out, the project could start as early as mid-October. Which, between that and the wedding and upcoming taxes and FF's lack of income, we could be pinching some pennies pretty tight for a while. Good thing we like beans.

That's all for now.

crabs and dresses

This afternoon we checked the crab traps and were delighted to find 7 crabs waiting for us. So instead of meatloaf for dinner, we dined on crab on the back porch in our bathing suits. Does it get any better than that?

Then we headed down to the water and fished for a while. Caught a few things that didn't matter, but it was fun anyway. 

Also notable:

-Sewed a few more pillow covers for some new-to-us pillows that a friend gave to us. Brainstormed how I'm going to fit a craft area into this house once we're here full-time. Have not come up with a solution yet.

-Wedding dress: I inspected my it and determined that I can probably take the straps up. I've done it before and it's a more delicate fabric situation, but I think I can handle it.

I also noticed that the stitching around the armholes is scratchy- they used that clear thread that is never comfortable and I only wore it for a few minutes and my skin was red. I might have to take that out and re-sew it with a softer thread or I'll wind up with some irritated arms. That should be fun- ripping out clear thread sounds SO easy.

The bling situation is definitely happening. I bought some glass beads to sew onto the bodice and I think it's going to add that little oomph. 

Here's hoping that I don't fuck it up, ha!

I ordered some silver shoes (flats because let's be real here) to wear, and a veil. It's getting closer and so real yay!

It was a really great weekend, so relaxing. 

hi/high

Sittin' on the couch at the river with a huge glass of wine and Punk next to me and I'm so very happy.

Life is busy, but life is so, so good. 

I have everything I ever wanted, and I'm enjoying every second of it.

FG got laid off last week but to be honest his job was getting so toxic and I am certain that this is one of those blessings in disguise. Manifesting a job with a better work life balance and lots of money. :)

In the meantime, he has lots of free time to hang out with me, and he's in a much better mood now that he's not carrying so much work stress. Plus I've got a to-do list a mile long with his name on it and he's checking things off every day.

It's also made it easier to spend more time at the river. In fact, we brought Punk here a while ago and we haven't spent enough time at "home" to justify bringing her back so she's been kickin' it at the river with us. I love having her here instead of sitting alone in an empty house. She's done lots of exploring but isn't a huge fan of the water and keeps her distance.

Did I mention that I pinch myself every day that I wake up, pour myself a cup of coffee, and sit outside on the swing watching the sun rise with the breeze and the birds chirping and the fish jumping out of the water, and the hummingbirds buzzing around? Because it's truly a dream. 

I know life is full of ups and downs, and right now this is clearly a high point. Let's see how long we can stay here, shall we?

The secret to cleaning glass shower doors

I found it. 

The secret to cleaning glass shower doors aka the 2nd most annoying chore in the world.

Glass shower doors suck. Not only do they always leak, but cleaning them is a nightmare. 

I hate HATE trying to clean hard water deposits off of glass shower doors. To the point where when I had them, I would clean them, then shower in the other bathroom so they wouldn't get dirty again. To the point where it was a deal breaker when we were looking at vacation houses. I have tried (almost) every product out there to clean glass shower doors and was never very happy with the results.

Tell me why I wound up with glass shower doors and VERY hard well water with this house. (Ironically, this house is full of deal-breakers but I do love it)

I remember when we first looked at the house, I noted how clean the shower doors were and wondered... HOW? 

When we moved in, I found something curious: the previous owner left a box of these sitting under the bathroom sink. I wondered why he had such a heavy-duty product in the bathroom, but the guy did some weird stuff so I tucked the information into the back of my brain, ignored them, and left them there.

After we moved in I procrastinated cleaning the shower doors for about a month and by then they looked so bad that I had to do something. So I tried a bunch of stuff that I knew wouldn't work, just to get the majority of the scum off. 

Fast forward to a couple weeks later and the shower doors were, again, disgusting. At that point I was so fed up. I remembered the curious box under the sink and decided to give them a try. I was afraid they would scratch the glass so I did not scrub, just lightly wiped them over the wet doors. 

Y'ALL. Y'ALL! 

These are it! I didn't even scrub and they took the majority of those blasted hard water spots. I couldn't believe that after YEARS and trying SO MANY PRODUCTS that these humble little pads did the trick. My life is CHANGED.

I can't wait to try these little miracles to clean other things.

Double meaning

Look what I made!

I got my inspiration from this pin that I pinned a long time ago in the original Lake House board:

Sure, I could have ordered a poster for $30, but where's the fun in that??

I made it using old fence boards and craft paint so I spent nada, and I now have a pretty cool piece of art to hang above the bed at the river.

hey I'm tired

Dude. Apparently it's too much for me to manage one household and establish another at the same time. We've been spending every weekend at the river, trying to get things in order, and during the week we're so busy that we can barely figure out what to eat for dinner.

I have been working nonstop. Between actual work and projects at home and the river, I haven't had a moment's rest. Well, not if you count the alternating afternoon power nap or iced coffee to get me through the rest of the day. I'm stretched pretty thin lately.

I need a relaxing day where I don't do any work or host- just laze around and read magazines and do a craft and take naps. So I looked at my calendar, hoping to schedule it on the weekend or take a PTO day, and I'm looking at August before I can catch a break. Oh. Okay.

I'm so tired that I told FG to call the house cleaners. This is a big deal. He used to use them a lot but I do a better job than they do and I enjoy cleaning, so we haven't called them in a long time.

I'm at the point where I don't have the time or the energy and the house is a freaking mess and it's stressing me out. So they came today while we tackled approximately 1,000 projects that we've been ignoring at home while focusing on the river house. And you know what? It's not perfect but it's clean enough. I'm noticing clean things that I didn't have to do: There's no cat hair on the lamp shade on my desk! Nothing sticks to my bare feet as I walk around the house! They even cleaned under the couches, which I would never do. Well worth the money. I'm so grateful.

In the meantime FG and I (and the cat) are covered in sawdust but we put thin strips on the new fence between every picket so it has privacy and I can garden naked if I want (and I do), and the flower beds are actually going in, yay!

And the bedsheets are clean and the bed was magically made while I shoveled dirt and picked up stray nails and cigarette butts in the backyard in the 100+ heat.

Tomorrow we pick back up on the projects bright and early, but because of the insane heat we decided to take a mid-day break and I get to go see my sister and parents. I'm embracing these mini-breaks where I can.

Also, I mentioned before that FG and I have been snipping at each other a lot lately, and it's started to put a strain on our relationship. I'm trying to nip this in the bud and have really tried to maintain a positive attitude and treat him with more kindness than usual, especially when tensions start to get high. 

And it's working! It turns out, when the cycle of crabiness is broken, it's broken. 

...thank goodness.

oh hey it's june

Two days after my last post, we looked at a house on the river, put in an offer (lots of $ over asking), and after a LOT of drama, we closed in 13 days (to keep a decent interest rate). Whew.

But Woo River House! I love it. I want to be there all the time. It's beautiful. It's been a lot of work so far, but the major stuff is almost done and then the ratio of work: relaxing should be a little better.

Probably due to the amount of stress in the last month, I've found myself more cranky lately. FG and I have definitely been on edge, in general and towards each other. Great, we buy a house together and NOW we start not getting along.
A big one lately is that his smoking has really been bothering me. Not that it's my business but it gets on my nerves, for many reasons. Currently attempting a relationship reset. Sex is usually a good place to start- we generally bicker when it's been a while...

Pumpkin has tolerated her new pain meds very well. A few times I've wondered whether it's time to put her down, but she bounces back and I change my mind. Some days are just rough when you're old.