Jump to content

Menu

Donna

Members
  • Posts

    3,663
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Donna

  1. I think it depends on personal situation. We moved to another less expensive state and, not on purpose, almost doubled the size of our home though due to the change in location it cost us the same as the home we left and taxes are half what we where paying. We chose this larger home because (when there's not a pandemic) I host house concerts so wanted a large living room and it's a rancher so will serve us well as we age (hallways and bathrooms are large enough to make handicap accessible and floors are all hardwood or tile). DH has RA so these were important considerations. I do also have dreams of our home being a place everyone can gather for holidays. As they start building families, we'll see how that goes.
  2. We moved to a new state almost three years ago. We sold one home on a Friday morning, stayed with a relative for the weekend, and made settlement on our new home (7 hours away) on Monday. For me, organization was key. We packed our first home and put everything but essentials into storage so making sure everything was labelled was key. We drove down to make settlement with a large enclosed trailer with everything we could fit (and deemed essential) then dh flew back up, rented the largest moving truck, packed up the storage units, and drove to the new home. It went very smoothly. One thing I am very glad we did was sell a lot of our possessions like large furniture pieces--less to pack and allowed us to move with one large truck. My grown ds's stayed in the state we moved (they were there to help dh pack the moving truck on that end) so leaving them was the only emotional part for us and we've handled that with lots of video chatting and frequent visits. Dd moved with us but she was older/not emotionally attached to our old home and her friends are all over the world so she was excited about moving.
  3. Dd and I always sing in the car (especially on long road trips) until our throats are sore.
  4. I am in living in my current dream home...children grown and all but one living on their own. It is an L-shaped rancher built in 1954. I love the woodwork, original kitchen cabinets, hardwood floors throughout, and built in features. It has a large enough living room to host house concerts, a yard just big enough for a small garden but small enough to not require a lot of work, and a nice deck for sitting outside. One story will serve us well as we age. It's in a nice neighborhood about a mile from the center of an historic town with a beautiful downtown and two rivers not far from the beach in NC. We will eventually remodel the bathrooms and include handicap accessible features in one...and possible put in a small pool as it's kinda hot here in the summers.
  5. Tomorrow night I get to watch my dd performing in the Irish dance show she was touring with (until Covid stopped everything) on PBS. The 25th Anniversary of the show was recorded in Dublin back in February. It's been playing on PBS around the country for the last month and finally getting to our area tomorrow.
  6. When I took DD to the cardiologist two months ago, only one parent was allowed into the building for the appointment with the child. We had to wait in the car until they texted to let us know it was our turn to enter the building. Prior to entering the building, someone called to do the intake procedures/paperwork over the phone. Our temperatures were taken, masks were required, and we had to use hand sanitizer. The doctors and nurses were masked. The waiting area had seats in groups of two, placed six feet apart and there was only one other parent/child pair in the area while we were there. We only waited for 5 minutes for our appointment (when usually it might be an hour) and we were in, she had an echo, and the doctor talked to us about it....all within 90 minutes. Very little waiting.
  7. We kept chickens over winter when living in NJ. DH set up a light bulb inside a cement block then we placed their water container on it to keep the water from freezing and another inside their coop which they sat on to keep warm when the temps got really low. They generally roosted together and their body heat kept each other warm.
  8. We received chicks through the mail from the hatchery. The post office called us that Easter morning to have us come pick them up so they wouldn't spend an extra day at the distribution center.
  9. My DH takes turmeric for RA on the advice of his doctor. DD and I add some to our smoothies in the mornings (along with fruit, protein powder, hemp seed, spinach/kale, and whatever else we decide to put in there...don't even taste it that way). We also use it when cooking.
  10. We live on a corner lot. Our house is an L-shaped rancher which along with a fence across the back yard, makes for privacy in the back yard. Both streets are very quiet (very few cars in a day) which helps as well.
  11. We are social distancing but not completely staying home like we did the first few months. We go to a local beach (to the quiet access area) and maintain distance from everyone. We mask and maintain distance when shopping. We have seen a few friends or family here and there (2-3 at a time) usually outside and went to a family funeral outside on the beach. No hugging or sitting close when talking. We have not eaten inside a restaurant. My book club meets outside in someone's yard sitting 6 feet apart and bringing our own drinks. We were supposed to go to Florida for a few days at a resort with friends next week but decided to err on the side of caution and cancel the trip. Editing to add case numbers in our town/county are very low.
  12. Right there with you here in Eastern NC. We will be moving some potted plants and putting the deck furniture away today. Supposedly it will "only" be a tropical storm by the time it hits here but this is 2020.
  13. Don't have time to read all the comments so someone might have said this already. There are some items that would be difficult to stockpile like bread, fresh fruits and vegetables. I do keep a full pantry with extra non-perishable items like rice, canned tomatoes, salsa, pastas, peanut butter, nuts, quinoa, and beans (not the full list) plus always have extra spices we use regularly on hand...items we could put together in an emergency situation like another lock-down or hurricane. I keep extra bread and frozen vegetables/fruit, home-made vegetable broth, and a few other items in the freezer. We tend to try to keep a huge package of toilet paper stored and that would keep three of us for a good 3 weeks. We definitely eat a much wider variety in daily life than we would in a situation that would require us to eat up my stash.
  14. We took in two international university students unable to return to their home country due to the pandemic and have been trying to give them nice experiences doing safe things like going to the beach (very quiet beach and easy to socially distance), crabbing, fishing, going out on the boat to see dolphins, etc... I've been able to take care of my garden and yard much better than usual and have been reading obsessively. DD has been doing a weekly collaboration she calls COVIDuets. She invites musician friends (and dancers) to send her tunes/music to learn then she puts the videos together and posts on her Instagram and Facebook fan page. She normally sticks to Irish music but has been branching out into different genres such as jazz, Swedish polskas, and genre-bending by mixing genres (house music and Irish music or classic rock and Irish music). She's having fun working with others she normally wouldn't have time to work with, learning new music, composing, and being creative. She also taught herself to play piano--at least well enough to chord along to songs she wants to learn and sing. We are learning to use Final Cut Pro so she can do more of the editing.
  15. I eat a variety of things for breakfast. We eat a plant-based diet so no eggs or other animal products. Also no processed sugars. oatmeal with some combination of nut butter, nuts, fruit, seeds (chia, hemp, pumpkin, etc...) granola or muesli with fruit and oat milk or coconut milk yogurt avocado toast on sourdough bread with Yuzu sauce or fresh lemon or lime juice, some combo of spices (right now I'm liking Everything but the Bagel Seasoning and sumac), some type of seed, micro greens or fresh parsley or cilantro or rocket, and sliced cherry tomatoes tofu scramble with stir fried veggies (mushrooms, onions, garlic, broccoli, asparagus, zucchini...whatever we have) buckwheat pancakes with nut butter, maple syrup or fruit (blueberries or grilled bananas) chickpea omelet with veggies smoothie (ingredients depend on what we have available)
  16. My washer just went (of course when we have two houseguest for the foreseeable future). I decided on a Maytag top loader though I looked at the Speed Queen. The Maytag had a larger load size. I really wanted a front loader by GE but the washer and dryer just would not fit in the space.
  17. The hardest thing about watching other people taking chances and not following the rules is that it affects us all, not just them/their families. It affects how long this lasts...how many people get sick/hospitalized/die (who knows how they will pay for those long hospitalizations if they don't have insurance), how long people are out of work, how many small businesses cannot hold out long enough to remain open, the lives of people in industries (like the arts) who have no way of going back to work and often times no option for unemployment/assistance due to work situations that don't fit the norm (ask me how I know), etc.... The long-term consequences will be horrible for so many people. It disgusts me how little regard people in the country have for others, actually.
  18. When dd was a younger teen, she was making quite a bit of money from gigs...too much to allow her to spend it all. She put 90% in her bank account and kept 10% to spend at her own discretion. The money in her bank account might be used for certain purchases (like a computer, iPad, new violin or bow, etc...) but those were discussed and we helped her research those decisions. Other times, her money might pay for travel/expenses for her gigs (though the gig money would pay that back eventually). Mostly, her savings were just that...savings.
  19. I second this...watched it numerous times and sob like a baby every time.
  20. Though it's somewhat of a balancing act, we waited for the home we were selling to be under contract then put an offer in on the new home (this kinda stunk at the time because there were homes in the meantime we liked and missed out on but we love the home we are in now so it all worked out for the best) so both were under contract at the same time. We moved all our belongings into storage to get out of the home being sold, packed our vehicles with everything we'd need in the short-term, went to closing for the sold home on a Friday, drove to the new state, stayed two nights with family, then went to closing on the new home. DH then flew back to original state, loaded everything from storage into a U-H*ul, and drove it all to the new home. It was a balancing act because had something fallen through on either sale....well, I'm just glad it didn't.
  21. I have to remind myself how important it was to me to be able to make my own decisions and mistakes when I was in my early 20's. I also find mentally distancing myself from their decisions (positive and negative) helps. I only give advice when asked and I do not take it personally when they do not take my advice (my parents did that and it led to relationship issues). When giving advice, I try to make my comments more about the decision than about them and try to help them look at the big picture/long term consequences because it seems they have a harder time with this. I struggle. My DSs are much more inclined to be risk-takers than I am and it is hard for me to watch sometimes.
  22. Babysitting as a teen was my first job. Data-processing and working intake for the X-ray department at a hospital was my first job where I got a weekly paycheck during my senior year in high school and when home during college.
  23. We eat vegan, gluten-free (mostly for me but DD is completely gluten-free), and sugar free. We've been eating this way for almost three years. The first month was the hardest for us as, I think, our bodies were adjusting to it and we needed to figure out exactly how many calories we needed. DD blogs and shares vegan recipes at www.theversatilevegans.com and we did a post on different ways to ensure you get enough protein/sources of protein. There are lots of recipes on Pinterest as well. DD enjoys experimenting with vegan baking with gluten-free flours. Make sure you take B12.
  24. I turned 50 in January. I eat vegan (whole foods/plant-based), no processed sugar, and mostly gluten-free. I walk 2-5 miles a day and do 40 minutes of yoga at least 3 days a week, usually more and work outside, gardening and weeding, when the weather is nice.
  25. Our house has been nice during quarantine. We have plenty of space both indoor and outdoor and a neighborhood where we can walk while maintaining social distancing. The layout inside is perfect. Our backyard deck has been lovely when the weather is not too humid and we have room to garden but not so much yard that it seems like work. The only thing that would be ideal is--a pool would be nice now that it is hot outside.
×
×
  • Create New...