A night alone

Last night, I had a night alone.  This is a very rare occurrence for me and it was lovely.  There were so many useful things I could have been doing but I sat down and watched movies I wouldn't get to watch with the girls home...Pretty In Pink and Notting Hill.  At least I worked on my recipe binder and budget book a little while I watched the movies, as much as Romeo would let me.

Ironically, I slept like crap due to missing my nightly snuggle bug, the little girl.  I'll be so sad when she decides to sleep in her bed.

2014 in review

 The significant moments of our year in pictures...

January 6

A dumpster and port-a-potty in front of our house...let the demo begin

January 8

It doesn't take long to gut a house...too bad rebuilding isn't so fast

January 25

Checking out progress on the house on a nice day led to some time on the trampoline

February 15

My mom, the little girl, and I took a shopping trip to Ikea to get ideas for the new house

March 29

Bathroom tile is in

April 8

Kitchen cabinets are in...

...and the pantry is built and ready to be installed

April 30

Paint...

...doors...

...and a sunroom ceiling!!!

May 1
Kitchen drawers (I LOVE my corner drawers!!!)

May 7
Disaster #2
A paint fume explosion in the kitchen
Blew out the back window...

...and a hole in the dining room ceiling

(It also cracked some rafters and did some other damage.)

May 10

We rescued a turtle off a busy street.  The girls named her Sparkle Betty and we set her free where she could roam without getting in the street.

June 29

We took a roadtrip of a lifetime with my parents

Big girl got to check off a bucket list item

We saw this too

And this

And Old Faithful, checking off one of my bucket list items

Dinosaur National Monument was almost the end of our road trip sight-seeing

July 12

We moved in!!!

July 14

The first artwork was hung

July 19
Thrilled to have been reunited with our sweet Izzy, who stayed with a friend during the rebuild (we also had my grandmother's dog, Molly, but we lost her in May)

September 6
This sweet little boy joined our family and made himself right at home on my bed.
His name is Romeo and he lives up to his name as a heart stealer.

October 26
Great Pumpkin Sunday...the big girl in costume

November 30
We decorated for Christmas.  Romeo still chews, hence no ornaments on the lower part of the tree.

December 22
The big girl's gingerbread house (an annual tradition with Nana)

December 25
The big girl folded the napkins for dinner...

...and the little girl demolished her gingerbread house to eat the candy

There were other good moments that would have been included if I had pictures that didn't include the girls' faces.

All in all, it was not a terrible year.  It wasn't a great one.  It had some of the hardest moments I've been through, although not the hardest and it could have been much worse.  Nonetheless, I'm glad to close the door on a year dominated by the fallout of fire.  Here's hoping for a much calmer and smoother 2015.  So far, we're starting off right.

Goodbye holidays

I put up the Christmas decorations today.  It took about 20 minutes.  All we put up this year was a tree and one other decoration.  I couldn't find the stocking holders in the garage so we just set them out on Christmas Eve and put them up on Christmas Day.

The tree was lovely.  It was smaller than our pre-fire tree and fit perfectly into the space we now have for it.  We bought new ornaments on our summer travels and a weekend get away, plus we had a few gifts.  It was full, except for the bottom which was left empty to keep the pup from eating any ornaments, but not overly full.  All the ornaments are now tucked away in a box in the dining room bench.

I loved not being overwhelmed by decorations during the season and by the thought of undecorating.  We had enough to look like Christmas and now the holidays are done and put away.  Lovely!!!

2015

We made it.  2014 was a long and sometimes difficult year.  Still, we made it through and are now relaxing away the first day of 2015.   I like new beginnings.  We had a new beginning in July when we came home but now we get a bigger one...starting the first new year in our rebuilt home.

Unfortunately, procrastination is my BFF and I still have A LOT of paperwork to do related to the fire.  I'm determined to get it done as soon as possible because I need the weight of all of it off my shoulders and mind.

I'm not one to make new years resolutions because I never keep them.  However, I do like to make goals.

My goals for the year include the following...

1. Finish all paperwork related to the fire by the end of February.
2. Get back to a strict budget.
3. Continue to help the little girl on her journey to emotional peace.
4. Support the big girl to continue the success she's achieved in the last part of 2014.
5. Figure out a way to regularly incorporate exercise into my daily routine (I can do it for short times before the little girl loses it do to such rushed and late evenings it creates for her).
6. Start a veggie garden and grow some of our own food.

I would also like to blog more regularly, which seems to be an ongoing, unmet goal.  For now, I'm setting the goal at once a week.  My goal for the blog will be to document our (my) journey to maintain a life of only what we need.  That is a challenge while living with a young hoarder but we'll do our best.  I will also chronicle just a little of our day-to-day lives to have a record for the girls.

Happy 2015 and wishing for a peaceful, healing, and healthy year for all!!!

Buying stuff...or not

I'm planning to do as much of a "no spend" October as possible.  By "no spend", I mean not spending on anything unnecessary.  I will still buy groceries and gas.  We will make one trip to our favorite restaurant an hour and a half away (this is a mental health expenditure as much as a food one...we'd have to be on the verge of bankruptcy to give it up and, fortunately, we're not.)

But, as I'm planning this, I see things coming to derail me.  The little girl is selling stuff for girl scouts and school.  The girls want halloween costumes.  I'm sure some other school stuff will come up.  Birthday party invites.  Stuff like that.  It's amazing how easy it is to get derailed.

Right now, I'll just enjoy the fact that both dogs are asleep on the floor.

Walking

I have been majorly stressed and on edge lately for a variety of reasons.  I know something needs to change for me to improve things for all of us because it's not fair for the girls to have to tolerate my bad moods.  I'm going to try to start walking again.

When we moved back into our home, my parents gave me their treadmill since my dad can't use it anymore.  I used it for a bit right after we moved in and then life got in the way.  I've decided that I really need to figure out a way to make time for it if I want to maintain any sense of sanity.

Life is not quite normal these last two weeks because my parents have been out of town.  As a result, I've left work earlier two days a week and we've been home much earlier since we're not eating at my parents' house.  I like getting home earlier but I'm not so thrilled about not being fed and having to cook myself.  Fortunately, I have the help of the big girl and I do a lot on Sunday to prepare for the week and minimize cooking time on week nights.

Anyway, last night while the girls were eating after tutoring, I came and walked for 30 minutes.  Also, last night, I charge up my fitbit and put it back on my arm.  Today, I walked again for 30 minutes and then, after dinner, we all took the dogs for a walk.  (Romeo needs to be worn out so we can all sleep.)  So far today I've walked 7,907 steps.  I may get a few more but my day is essentially over at this point.

Still, I've felt much calmer this afternoon.  I'm trying to implement a couple of other things to help with the stress - mostly things I'm learning in a series of parenting classes I'm taking - and the little girl and I talked about it this afternoon.  Of course, right now it's all new and fun to practice but hopefully that practice will carry over into the time when it's not so new and fun.

I know I won't have time to walk in the afternoon since we're going to get my parents at the airport after work but I am going to try to walk at lunch.  It's so nice here right now, I think I can just take my tennis shoes and get outside without getting too sweaty and stinky.

We'll see how it keeps going!

Going crazy...must blog

I've got to get back into the habit of journaling or blogging.  I feel like I'm losing my mind and need to deal with life's craziness.

The house is getting better and better.  The girls' bedrooms are completely done.  My bedroom is mostly done.  I haven't found any artwork but there's no rush for that.  The kitchen is completely done.  The living room and dining room are mostly done.  I need a tv for occassional family movies and some artwork.  Also, 3 chairs for the dining table and get the artwork hung.  The sunroom is completely done.  There are a few things in the garage to put away still but very few.  All of this is so much easier when you don't have much stuff.

The girls are in school and it's going great and so-so, depending on the child in question. The little girl had a birthday recently and turned 8.  The big girl will be 14 soon.  We added a new family member at the beginning of September.  His name is Romeo and he's a 1-year-old chug.  I'm not thrilled with his presence currently and he's been much more work than the big girl expected but I know it will get better with time and we will love him to bits.  It has been weird having a dog who can hear!

As I try not to bring more stuff than we really need back into the house, how did we handle the little girl's birthday?  Well, we didn't have a party.  That was for reasons other than minimalism but it helps with that too.  From me and the big girl, she got a dress and a bracelet.  From the grandparents, she got two books and an Elsa hat with a long blond braid.  That's it!  These are all things that 1) don't take up much space, 2) that she will use, and 3) that she loves.

Now I must contemplate the big girl's birthday.  It's coming soon and she never asks for anything so she's much harder to shop for.