As many of you know, I moved in a new home in November. That move was a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Our property managers were so upset at the homeowner for lying to them and moving their tenants into a project house that they immediately offered us a way out of our lease.
Unfortunately, it had cost us time and money to get into this moldy, money pit. Lots of it! It’s not like one can just pack right back up, spend another $1600 on movers and just hop into another house. The problem was, we looked for months to find this house. And this particular home was more of a last resort than any kind of dream come true.
So, for the remainder of November, we searched for other prospective homes. There were homes we couldn’t qualify for. We saw homes that were bigger dumps than this one. It wasn’t pretty. And in the end, the homeowner here met our demands after going back and forth for 30 days in deliberation about doing the right thing. By the last day of November, she fixed the major leaks, and the mold was remediated. A new vanity was installed, and the HVAC system was cleaned and treated.
After an entire month wasted, time just sucked away looking for other places to live, life on hold, still packed up in boxes and stressed to the point of a major health crisis, the property managers offered us a $400 rebate (should have been $1000), and we could finally move in.
In December, we started to move in and of course, I immediately got sick again. I was so confused. Assuming life was finally going my way, having no signs of a head cold, I had this dry barking cough. That cough turned into a productive cough, followed by chills, fever and three days of utter delirium. Then, another week coughing to clear the crap. All the while, getting moved in was not getting done.
So what could I possibly do to make this project go even longer, like as long as humanly possible? Well, I turned part of the moving in process into an art project! Cause, why not?
This house has ZERO built in storage. It doesn’t even have a proper kitchen. So, I’ve spent probably another grand buying a gazillion and one storage solutions for this house. You know what I really wanted? A new fucking couch and loveseat. Did I get them? No.
I just said, all my spare money has gone to a minibar to hold my wine glasses, booze and whiskey glasses. I bought a giant armoire for the kids’ board games. I bought a book shelf for Aaron’s office. I bought storage boxes for the kitchen. I got under the sink, pull out, storage trays. I bought new curtains and a rod for the living room. I bought a free standing flatware holder since there aren’t enough drawers in the kitchen for flatware. It’s that tiny! I bought a holder for larger utensils. I bought a buffet cabinet to hold the microwave and add more storage space. I bought a microwave, for heating up our little bed warmer socks. I bought a rug for the boys’ room because a 100% tiled house is cold and drafty. I bought new couch cushion covers. I still need to return and replace them because they don’t match. And last, I looked high and low for a suitable pantry, but even crappy plywood pantries cost over $400. So I finally settled on a hutch which cost me about $70 and decided to pull all the glass out of it and replace the glass with hand painted wood panels. Except, I didn’t have hand painted panels. I had to paint them, myself.
So, whenever I’m not sick and miserable in bed, I have been drawing and painting to create these very antiqued looking art pieces for my pantry in hopes of one day, installing the panels so I can put the shelves in the pantry and ultimately, get my food in the pantry and our family out of the last of our kitchen boxes. So, I can finally move in.
Feels like it’s never going to happen.
This has nevertheless been a productive Christmas. Money going out like crazy. We are still shy about 3 bookshelves from being able to really move in and get settled. I may never get new couches to replace my dilapidated set.
But I wanted to share some insights. One is that I couldn’t get all this done, boxes unpacked, staying focused at all, and getting my kids on a really good homeschool routine wherein they read and learn useful information every day, if it wasn’t for Extremists Being Awesome. That’s the productivity group I joined last year that has several daily Zoom sessions during the week for people to come together, be accountable and get shit done.
Another thing is that being sick all the time is a real killer. I mean this in every sense of the word. I’m tired of pretending you can be positive and motivational all the time when your life is being siphoned out of you gradually each month through another virus or whatever. It sucks. It sucks like that machine in The Princess Bride. You wake up every couple of weeks and find in the end of the year that more than half your year was focused on trying not to feel like absolute garbage. After a while, suicide starts to feel like a viable option. I wasn’t really living anyway. All this to say, I understand that life is harder than usual, even for naturally upbeat people with really great mindsets in play. I will not be condescending nor full of baseless platitudes if you need someone to lean on right now. It IS harder than usual. Whatever you are feeling is the right thing. But let’s feel it together and talk through it so we can move on. I’m here for you.
Last, whatever goals you make in the new year, make sure to start with some that are easy. You and I, everybody really, need the wins right now. Start out 2023 with some big, easy wins. I can’t emphasize this enough. So, if it is an art project, writing thing, whatever. Make it short and sweet. Keep it light. Keep it simple. Have yourself a quick one week goal. In fact, think of as many of those as possible and string them one after another so you can get win after win.
Long term goals are great! They can be accomplished by breaking them into small pieces you accomplish each day. But, you won’t feel any desire to keep working on them over the long run if you don’t see regular wins. So, use this next week or so before the end of 2022 to pull out a notebook and think up as many short, easy goals as you can dream up to pop in your week whenever you start feeling a little low, a little useless and just need to feel like you are worth something. It really helps.
Ok, so other than saying “Merry Christmas” and maybe sharing some epic photos of my finished pantry project in the next few days, I will bid you all a Happy New Year and a big, heartfelt, “Thank you” to all who stick by me, reading my whimsical musings throughout the year!
Good tidings in 2023!
Deep in it🧡