Progress Report

 The weeks are just flying by and blending together. 

We are in week 4 of kitchen renovation. The new cabinets are in. The floor is mostly done. The granite people came to template for the countertops. The new refrigerator has been ordered. 

On our to-do list for this week: pick out and buy faucet, select ceiling lights, decide on handles. 

Last weekend:

• Went to visit husband's family to celebrate 2 birthdays
• Kids had a sleepover with their cousins. 
• We got to chat and catch up with husband's parents
• Visited husband's grandmother
• Stopped by Costco and grabbed rotisserie chicken and a few other things for easy meals
• Finished the last season of White Collar with kids

March is almost over... I am not ready for April.

Thursday Thoughts

Looking forward to:

• Food. Especially chocolate. I've been craving sugar like crazy.
• Sitting on the sofa and watching birds at the birdfeeders.
• New soap that C and I got a couple of weeks ago - one bar smells like apples and another bar that smells like lavender.
• Organizing a drawer or two, or a cupboard, or the attic... I guess I need to feel in control?
• Visiting with my parents tonight while E is at violin lesson.
• Writing for fun.
• Opening windows.
• Sitting in the hammock and reading... or napping... 

Life in Progress

Kitchen:

• Cabinets have been delivered
• Old vinyl floor tiles have been ripped out - ready for new engineered bamboo flooring!

Family:

• E is back from Orlando - the orchestra and chamber group performance was solid and they won a bunch of awards.
• H is busy with Envirothon
• C is doing swimming, soccer, school musical, and robotics club
• Husband has oodles of work and is stressed out.

Self:

• Work has been on the slow side, which is in some ways good (I went on a solo hike during lunch) but also not good (will I be laid off?)
• Constant stress - hard to not be stressed out with the baboonery going on in the government.
• I am very sad that Voice of America is gone. Our radio was able to pick up VOA when we lived in the Russian Far East, around 1990-1991. The reception would cut in and out, and some days we couldn't hear it at all. My parents wanted to know what was actually happening as the USSR was on the verge of collapse. State-run news were a pile of doo-doo, so VOA was a critical source of information. I am hoping this shut-down is temporary.
• What's going to fill that void? Russian-run propaganda channels? 
• President shutting down news channels - next it will be "enemies of the state" for everyone who disagrees with him. Are we still in the US?
• Note to self: resist, don't give up, don't despair.

Wish List:

• Tidy, clean, mop, open windows.
• Fix up the garden walls and plant stuff
• Play more games with kids (H and I played hangman while waiting at the doctor's office - so much better than reading or playing on the phone!)
• Sleep more
• Get more treats

Books, Movies, Music, Mood

 Books:

• I started listening to Big Swiss. It's wonderfully weird and I love getting to know all the characters.
• Also reading Orbital. Beautiful language and descriptions (albeit sometimes kind of forced and overwrought) but not much is happening (yet?). I don't know if I'm up for a literary novel at the moment... will see how things go.
• Also have a couple of books by T. Kingfisher waiting for their turn (once I'm done with Orbital).
• I recently listened to The September House. Overall, I liked it, but at one point it got a bit too bloody and gory, and I wished I was actually reading a physical book so that I could skip to the next page. 
• (it's more complicated with an audio book - I need to stop whatever else I'm doing, find my phone, open the app, skip forward, etc, etc)
• (when I listen to an audio book while doing nothing, like lying in bed in the evening, I fall asleep and miss multiple chapters. It's a pain and takes me forever to figure out how far back I need to go...)

Movies:

• I really want to see Flow!!! Preferably, in the movie theater.
• The kids and I are still watching White Collar  - we are almost done with season 5.  Husband has been joining us - he likes that show.
• E and I will probably watch Reacher season 3 at some point.
• E has been watching Bosch and he really likes the show - I am not in the mood for it... E has also been listening to Michael Connelly's audiobooks.
• I watched River - liked it.

Music:

• C and I will be going to see Schumann's cello concerto in a couple of weeks.
• E had a school concert - he did well (played a solo piece by Bach that he learned by himself) - but my other favorite performance was a sax quartet (soprano, alto, baritone, bass). Those kids were amazing!

Mood:

• Tired, stressed, sad.
• I've seen a lot of articles and posts about the pandemic - I can't believe it's been 5 years... 
• In many ways, the situation now feels more stressful and dangerous. And hopeless.

Temporary

Week 2 of kitchen renovation!

We have a make-shift kitchen in our family room. We are using utility sink in the laundry room. It is all OK - I am getting used to it. Also, I keep telling myself - this is temporary. 

Some of the pain is totally self-inflicted - we could definitely go more with paper plates and disposable utensils. We could eat out more. I think I'll feel a little happier (and calmer) if I organize things a bit better... Now that I have a sense of how we are using the space and what's becoming an annoyance (limited space for food prep/cutting up things, lack of good places to conveniently store bread and produce) - I can definitely rearrange stuff to make life easier.

I miss having an oven and a dishwasher. I miss having everything in its place and easy to access. I miss knowing where things are. I miss having a (relatively) uncluttered family room. Ugh, this is why we waited more than 10 years to do this.

Temporary! This is all temporary! Even if the work takes longer than expected, eventually this will be over and we will be able to use our kitchen again!

I wonder how much of my self-pitying mood is directly related to the recent time change... I feel like a herd of elephants have walked all over me. I don't know how this shift just an 1 hour forward completely throws me off balance.

Welcome March

 Big news - we started our kitchen renovation. Demolition is in progress. We have a setup in the family room with a hot plate, microwave, slow cooker, coffee machine, waffle iron, and a toaster. We are doing dishes in the utility sink - but will also be using some disposable utensils and plates.

This March:

• Husband and I feel completely drained. Tempers are short. 
• Political situation... I feel like everything is falling apart. Or is being shattered. Our current president and his minions - are they Putin's assets???
• Lots of decisions to be made for the kitchen: counter, backsplash, floors, sink. 
• We have a pretty good idea of what sink we want - so it's just a matter of finding and ordering one.
• Counters: we looked at granite slabs last week and identified 3 top choices. Waiting for quotes and need to pick the winner... It's hard - I made some slides with photos of the cabinets (off-white) and slabs to help visualization... The kids have all independently picked the same granite slab as their favorite.
• Backsplash: subway tile but not sure about color vs white. Our contractor says once the cabinets and countertops are installed, we can get samples to see what works best. (Perhaps I'll ask H to take some screenshots of tiles she has already been looking at and plop them in together with my mock-up of cabinets and countertops...)
• Floors: we would like hardwood... or bamboo... but not absolutely opposed to some sort of high-quality vinyl, either. 
• We need to identify a few things we want to do in Lisbon in April - and make reservations at museums/sights if needed.
• If you have been to Lisbon - any recommendations?

Exciting Things for March:

• Schumann Cello Concerto - I am taking C and 1 other person (probably my mom).
• Trying out different diners in our town (while the kitchen is being torn apart)
• Getting Indian food takeout. Or maybe I can take our son for all-you-can-eat lunch buffet one of these days.
• E is going to Orlando and Universal Studios with the high school orchestra

March Goals:

• I want to give myself permission to relax about almost everything. I really need to chill and rebuild my patience/calmness reserves. Just thinking about letting go of things makes me anxious. So - definitely need to, as my kids put it "chillax". This is going to be hard.
• Be better about checking/updating calendar(s). I need to establish a routine where I check the upcoming week (or 2) on my google calendar (where I put all the events, including appointments, school days off, weekly sports and music lessons, etc - but I don't check it on a regular basis) and write things out in my physical planner (it is on my work desk and gets used daily, plus writing things down helps me remember stuff). 
• Get going with prepping the garden!

In other news:

Last weekend, we went to see my in-laws and celebrated husband's grandma's birthday (98!!!!). It was lovely.