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?

whew

Today I think I will make a 3rd cup of coffee (decaf bc I like myself) and enjoy it with a cupcake.

I have been very into small indulgences lately. Taking the moments of peace where I can get them. A nice stretch, a mud mask, a tiny nap... etc.

This summer flew by in a blur of juggling work and houses. It was so damn hot and we worked really hard, and now much of the work is done and I'm looking forward to a little bit of calm. 

I keep using that phrase.

The hummingbirds have arrived! I counted 6 this morning. They are so much fun to watch.

We are about to go on vacation to Mexico and I'm SO ready for it. There is a walmart near the resort so I can get a few groceries. I'm still not ready to trust the restaurants after the last glutening.

When we come back I suppose it will be time to switch into fall mode. I believe I heard that pumpkin spice is here, but it's so hard to get into the mood when it's still hot outside. Give me that first cool morning and then I'll be happily busting out the scarecrows.

On a slightly deeper note, here's something I've noticed: I've gotten very good at choosing what to care about. I'm not sure if this is due to years of cultivating my own thoughts, or age = acceptance, or simply lacking energy and brain power to devote to dumb shit.

This is especially noted when it comes to self-consciousness. I simply have stopped caring what other people think of me, and it's AWESOME. I have let go of hating certain parts of my body, I rarely worry if people like me, and I'm just ME. My body is what it is, my personality is what it is, and there is no point in stressing over it. 

I guess I got tired of going through life worried that someone won't like my outfit or will critique my big crooked tooth, or will think that my jokes aren't funny, etc. 

Instead of devoting brain waves to those types of thoughts, I've found myself focusing on the nicer things that come with everyday experiences. And it's really easy. I'm so happy that I got to this point in my life.

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.

It's May.

Ok! *cracks knuckles*

Where were we?

Oh yes. I moved past my anti-social stage. It was glorious to hide out for a while but I'm ready to socialize again. Once I get some free time. Weekdays are tiring and weekends fill up so fast.

I was using that natural deodorant but I started to dislike the wetness from occasional sweating. So I layered on an unscented antiperspirant before applying the same deodorant. You know what? I smelled! There's something about antiperspirant that makes my sweat smell bad. So I'm back to using just the deodorant and dealing with occasional (non-smelly) sweatiness.

The lake house search continues. In fact, it has evolved. We are currently looking at an area that's on the way to the beach, along a river, so we have that fresh water view and amenities, but if we want to go to the beach it's an easy option. The market was super slow for a while, but it seems to be picking up again.

Still getting hives on my arms & legs but not as frequent. The doctor was not much help (shocking), but I've narrowed it down to a few triggers.

Going to take a self defense class. I want to be able to kick someone's ass if I need to.

I've been avoiding corn (see two topics above), so in place of tortilla chips I tried bean chips. Dude. They are so good. I mean, I love beans in practically every form, and these are no exception. I'll take ALL THE BEANS please.

That's all for now. Got a busy week ahead of me so y'all have a good one.