We are cartwheeling down the last grassy hills of summer – exhilarated, off-kilter, trying to soak up as much summertime fun and relaxation as possible before school begins (Fifth grade. FIFTH. GRADE. Eeep.) while also dealing with all the chaos of moving. My mind is going in a million different directions, which calls for some Randomosity.
We finally told our neighbors that we were moving. I don’t know why we waited, but we did. But we thought we should give people a heads up before the realtor stuck the for sale sign in our yard. The ones we told were a gratifying mix of sad that we are leaving and excited for us. One neighbor seemed genuinely distraught, but when I told her that we’ll be moving to a neighborhood where there are other ten-year-olds on all sides, she visibly relaxed. “Oh, I’m so glad,” she told me. “Every time a house on our block went up for sale, I used to pray that the new family would have someone her age to play with.” I found this so touching – that she would not just think about Carla, but that she would go out of her way to pray for her. This is the kind of neighbors we have. This is why I have such mixed feelings about moving away.
Our house has never looked better. We cleaned and tidied our house to the hilt for the realtor photos and it looks SO GOOD. It has never looked this good. It is impossible to keep this way. Poor Carla. She has been enjoying a TON of screen time because she can’t do anything to make a mess. So much of our stuff has been put away for the sake of tidiness, too. Our realtor specified that we needed to clear off the counters as much as possible, so in the kitchen I had to hide my tea kettle away along with the paper towel holder and the dish scraper and the hand towels. In the bathrooms, we have to put all the shower items (shampoo, conditioner, face wash, razors) under the sinks and swap out our normal towels for “pretty towels” (which I interpreted to mean The Guest Towels, because I am not buying new towels for the sake of aesthetics). All of our chargers have been relegated to the nightstand drawers. Makes normal day-to-day living a little awkward.
Never have I been so thankful for my zooper. It is getting SUCH a workout. Potential buyers seem to completely ignore the sign we put up inside the front door that says “please remove your shoes or wear these foot covers.” I can tell because none of the shoe covers have been used (although I suppose people could be removing their shoes). And there is constantly grass and bits of dirt and other debris all over the floor. I am zooping all the time. Plus, I shed CONSTANTLY. I knew this about myself, but now that I have to tidy everything ALL THE TIME I am newly aware of how hairs seem to leap off of my skull every time I move. Thank goodness that my beloved zooper seems to have no problem sucking up the rogue hairs.
It is also good at sucking up gravel. Yes, gravel. I picked up our paper towel holder (similar to this one, if you want to picture what it looks like) to move it from the counter into the pantry where all the shameful things go and the bottom sort of dropped out. Later, when I told my husband what happened, he said, “Oh, that’s probably because I dropped it the other day.” The weird thing was: it was full of gravel. GRAVEL. Like, that’s the weight that the manufacturers used to fill the base. I guess it makes a sort of sense? Maybe gravel isn’t particularly expensive, and maybe it’s easy to access, and it is heavy. But what a weird thing to put inside a paper towel holder, amirite?!?!?! And the gravel got all over my kitchen. Everywhere. Fifteen minutes before Carla and I were supposed to leave for a showing.
One of Carla’s favorite birthday gifts was a dinosaur mask. I can’t remember if I told you this already? If so, you will just smile and nod through the retelling while you think of other things, yes? My husband and I got her these Therzinosaurus claws because she had specifically requested them. I guess a friend of hers had them? And she was excited to have them, but kept asking, “What about the mask?” (This friend apparently had the mask, too.) So we went to Target and she was able to spend some birthday money on the matching mask. The mask and claws come as a set, too; not sure why we didn’t get her the whole set to begin with. To be completely honest with you, I thought it was kind of a dumb present. But she asked for it, and I’m not sure how much longer she will want to play with toys, so we indulged the request. And I was WRONG. It is an awesome gift. The mask attaches to your face in such a way that the jaws open when the wearer’s jaws open. And the claws go on over top of the hands, so your fingers are still free to do things. It is VERY cool and I think any dinosaur loving kiddo would love it.
I need to find a new favorite hot sauce. There has been a sriracha shortage for more than a year now, and I ordered a few bottles of my favorite sriracha sauce (Huy Fong) every few months while they were still available online, hoping to wait out the weather conditions that devastated chili crops and stopped production. But I am now on my last bottle. I am finally coming to terms with the fact that I will need to find a new favorite hot sauce. It’s sad, because it is really the perfect hot sauce. Sriracha is by far my most-used condiment. I eat it on tacos and salads and put it in stir fry sauce. This doesn’t convey just how dependent I am on sriracha sauce. We eat tacos pretty regularly, and I cannot eat a taco without hot sauce. Hot sauce is an essential ingredient. Although I haven’t been looking very hard for a replacement, I have tried some store brands of sriracha with no luck. Now that I’m on my last bottle of the real thing, I need to step up my search. I think that I need something that is not pretending to be sriracha. El Yucateco is my go-to hot sauce for enchiladas and nachos, but it’s too intense for me to put on tacos. Cholula is wonderful on burritos and black beans and rice, but I don’t like the way it tastes with ground beef. The Ortega and Old El Paso taco sauces are okay in a pinch, but not my favorite. Before sriracha came into my life, I used La Victoria hot sauce on my tacos. I suppose I could return to that, even though it’s not as spicy. But maybe this is an opportunity to try NEW hot sauces. I have read a few “There’s a sriracha shortage, try these alternatives” articles and none of them has been helpful. (It turns out that I am extremely choosy about hot sauce. Chile crisp and sambal oelek are textured, not smooth; Tabasco is thin and vinegary. None of these are adequate sriracha substitutes, even if they have their place.) But hot sauce is expensive and it’s hard to know where to start. Do you have a favorite hot sauce?
What non-essential-for-nutrition-or-life food item, if suddenly unavailable, would leave you feeling most bereft? Sriracha is mine, I think. My husband would probably choose peanut butter. My daughter would probably say ketchup – I don’t think she could live without ketchup. Do you have something you use ALL the time, or love so much that you would feel lost without it?
Speaking of food, as I usually am, I have reached the stage of packing where food preparation is becoming slightly tricky. I have been trying to pack away non-essentials, and have already put together several boxes of kitchen items. This came back to bite me this week when I tried to make paprikas and realized that I had packed the potato peeler. Hmm. Why did you do that, Past Suzanne? True, this is probably the one meal (besides Thanksgiving) that requires a potato peeler, but still. So I had to peel potatoes with a knife and it was not nearly so easy. Then I decided I was going to make muffins for my writing group. (One writing friend has moved to the city for the summer, so my regular writing buddy and I invited him to join us.) But… I had already packed away the muffin tins. THEN I looked for Carla’s dinosaur taco holder for taco night, and… I had already packed it. Womp womp. I wonder what essential non-essential cooking item I will need and be unable to use next.
My hair is driving me bonkers. It’s been nearly four months since I last had my hair colored, and boy can you tell. The grey is really insidious, creeping in around my ears and in patches at the crown of my head. The worst part, for me, is that the way the grey grows in, it makes me look like I am balding. My hair parts naturally on the right side of my head, kind of at the outer edge of my right eyebrow. But the hair on the bottom side of the part is so pale that it looks like scalp. I don’t think it IS scalp, although it could be that my hair is also quite thin in that spot (gulp!), but whatever is going on, it doesn’t look good. I have been increasingly self-conscious in photos, to the point that I have begun parting my hair on the other side of my head. This is WEIRD. It looks weird, it feels weird. My hair flips up where it shouldn’t. But at least I look less bald, I guess.
In other aging news, I have a new wrinkle. Wrinkle is kind of a charming word – that bright cheery i, the fun tongue-trip of nkle. But the object it refers to is less charming. This one is kind of like a double frown that bridges the inner corner of each eye over the top of my nose. I do not care for it. Also, I can’t figure out what facial expression is CAUSING it. If I knew what face I was making to develop this wrinkle, I would STOP DOING IT. I have sort of decided that it has something to do with my daily 3:00-5:00 am wakeup, because the wrinkle sometimes stretches over my eyelids into the portion that is swollen from lack of sleep. But I can’t correct THAT, lo how I’ve tried.
My husband and I have discovered a sad truth: we should have done a lot of these home improvements EARLIER, so we could ENJOY THEM. We have been enlisting a lot of professional help to get our home into selling shape, but we have also pulled out the old DIY artillery as well. He and I are GOOD at DIYing, and by “he and I” I mean that I am good at persuading him we can do a thing and then he is good at executing it. (DIY projects require a lot of skills that I lack, like patience and the ability to paint/cut/hang a straight line.) (I am, however, extremely good at driving to Home Depot and buying supplies.) One thing we did this weekend was to replace nearly all of our window screens. I am embarrassed to tell you the state of our screens, but they were ROUGH. And I have no idea why we never even EXPLORED the option of fixing them. Never! I mean, four or five years ago when I was determined to replace our windows, I guess I figured we’d replace the screens too… but beyond that, I never once thought about them except to lament the fact that if we wanted cool, fresh air in our bedroom at night we would also have to welcome a few bugs. The thing is, replacing screens is SUPER EASY. And inexpensive! I have gotten many, many quotes for screen replacement and they range from $42 per screen on the high end to $25 per screen on the low end. But we did it ourselves and it took maybe three hours and about $60 to replace seven screens. This has been the case for EVERY IMPROVEMENT we have done. Why did we wait until the literal last minute?!? When we move into the new house, I have vowed – to my husband, and now publicly – that we will fix things right away, not let them fester for a decade or two until we plan to move out.
Do companies ever listen to their own hold music? This question is brought to you by being on hold for 26 minutes with the electric company as I waited for a human to help me transfer our service to the new house. My local hospital system has a pretty decent hold line – music, regularly interrupted by brief ads for critical health services, like “make sure you get your colonoscopy!” or “regular skin checks are a great way to identify skin cancer early!” That kind of thing. But the electric company’s hold music is NOT good. It vacillated wildly between normal volume and way too loud. When it got loud, it was full of static. And the “song” that kept playing on repeat would stop abruptly as though a customer service agent were finally going to answer my call, and then start playing again from the beginning.
Have I mentioned how much I hate the idea of strangers TOUCHING my THINGS? Every time we get home after realtor showings, I feel like I should Lysol every possible surface people might have touched. Yuck.
Okay, that’s it for now I think. What’s on your mind today?
I love all of this, but my favorite concept here is the non-essential food essential category. SO MANY THINGS would fit into this category. I think I will dedicate a drawer to JUST these things and have Jack make me a label. Maybe 2 drawers, even.
Yes! And what would be in your drawers?
I’ve gotten caught with my pants down by the latest sriracha shortage. I actually don’t use sriracha very much but I’m obsessed with sambal oelek and it turns out that it uses the same peppers that srircha does. When there’s a shortage of one, there’s a shortage of the other. I finally bought another brand of garlic-chili sauce last night. Sigh. Tapito is my go-to hot sauce for all non-Asian foods.
Your words about regretting not doing home improvements earlier is hitting home. I’ve been putting off our kitchen renovation for 5 years and counting.
I will have to look into Tapito – thanks!
As far as the kitchen reno goes, I totally understand that bigger projects like that require quite a bit of prep and saving. But if it’s something you want to do, I would definitely recommend doing it now rather than waiting for later.
Oh, I sure hope your home sells fast because the listing thing and keeping the house in tidy order is SUCH a pain. Moving is dreadful, full stop, and the whole dinner thing is so awkward.
Hair! Hair. I DO have a bald spot and when my roots grow in it looks like I have many bald spots, and it is just terrible. It’s gotten to the point that if I am three weeks into the hair colour process and I need to put my hair up, I wear a wide hair band to hide the roots/ possible bald spots. I feel you, is what I am saying.
I don’t have anything but sympathy about the sriracha sitch, there is just nothing like it, is there.
Oh wait! Will you be moved out before listing the house?
Why does our hair have to MESS WITH US like this?!?!
When we went to CA/OR, I had to think about my must-have foods and I asked my mom to buy Greek yogurt and seltzer and I packed red zinger tea, chia seeds, and various nuts. Mostly these are foods I’ve been using to make high-protein breakfasts or snacks since the diabetes diagnosis.
We think our next-door neighbors are trying to sell their house because they seem to have vacated the house, but I see the wife occasionally either going in alone or letting someone in, though there’s no sign out front. We are definitely not on good enough terms for them to tell us. We have a shared driveway that’s been a source of contention the whole time they’ve lived here. (For a long time they insisted it was theirs and didn’t want us to park in it.) It’s nice you had friendly neighbors.
Well it sounds like it will be a good thing if/when these neighbors leave!
Oh yes- when we sold our old house (20 years ago now) we actually rented a storage unit and put a bunch of stuff there while we were showing the house. I feel bad for the person who bought it, because she was in for an unpleasant realization that there was in fact, hardly any closet space. And we did the same thing- fixed up the house just to sell it, and then were so mad that we didn’t do it earlier. i actually reminded my husband of that just recently when I was convincing him to re-do our kitchen. Anyway, i hope you sell it quickly because keeping the house clean and uncluttered to show it is exhausting.
I’m no help with the hot sauce- we use cholula. And, I think I’m with your husband on the food item- I would also say peanut butter.
Yes, my husband and I have VOWED that we are going to do all the projects we want to do in the new house in a reasonable time. Not waiting for twelve years.
Did you know that I did not know about the Sriracha shortage until about a month ago? I have a huge bottle that I bought a few years ago and it still has maybe a quarter left in it. I should sell that and I would be a millionaire. Although, I guess since it is old, maybe it is less valuable? I like my hot sauce HOT so am a fan of the El Yucateco line; the green one has really nice flavor and the Hab is very hot, which I like, but is probably not for everyone. I am not a fan of Tabasco, and will tolerate Cholula as it has a good flavor, but it has no kick at all.
I think that a lot of people fix up their house right before selling and then say that they wish they had done it sooner. However, aren’t we all kind of procrastinators to a certain degree? I think that although I consider myself organized and a “go-getter,” home improvement is not always fun, so it is definitely something I put off. That reminds me, I need to go scrape, fill and paint my front porch, although I would rather go camping for the weekend.
Yes, I love El Yucateco. I find that most hot sauces either aren’t spicy enough… or they are plenty spicy but don’t have a lot of flavor. I wish I liked El Yucateco on all things, but oh well.
I was once called “detrimental” to the selling process by the real estate agent who helped us sell our first house and move into the one we are in now. Partially anxiety, partially overwhelm at the packing process, but also a huge part of me not believing anyone would want to buy the house. (I mean, we were selling it because WE did not want it!) I think you’re doing amazingly working around all these non-essentials that are essential in certain moments and dealing with the people touching and gravel and shoes!
Detrimental to the selling process!!!!!! Omg! How harsh!
If butter was hard to get, I honestly don’t know what I’d do. I guess I’d learn to make it? I’m thinking of that book “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter” that suggested making butter wasn’t worth it for the home baker, but if I couldn’t buy it I would definitely HAVE to. I mean, I’m considering the price point right now and…ugh. I use so much butter.
Ditto. It’s not like a desert island survival food for me (at least not without something else to put it on!) but we go through a LOT of butter here and I would absolutely be making it at home if it was suddenly not available in stores.
That is a very good attitude. Perhaps I need to figure out how to grow the peppers that make up sriracha??? And then try to make it myself? This is a serious thought.
I have a recipe for sriracha, if you’re actually serious! It is not the same as store-bought, but I still enjoyed it. Ooooh, or you can try fermenting your own hot sauce! WAY more easy than it sounds and you can customize what you put in it!
YES. I am serious. I would love the recipe please. I found one from Serious Eats that sounds… complicated, but promising? I just need to find red jalapeños. (But maybe I will need to grow my own.)
I never enjoyed having strangers walk through my house when it’s been on the market, either. I realize that’s the way it has to be that way, but it is a little off-putting. What if they have bad energy and leave that behind? On a cheerier note, I love the claws! Oh so sharp!
Yes! Bad energy! But also muddy shoes and sticky fingers and just… yuck. We are a no shoes in the house family, and we are also a no street clothes on the beds family, so I feel very squicky about people wearing shoes in my house or maybe sitting on my bed in their street clothes.
Peanut butter AND ketchup are two of my favourite non-essentials. I don’t want to think about life without these items…*sob* I dislike Sriracha and my husband basically puts it on everything…
Good luck with the move!!! I can so relate to the DIY question of: Why didn’t we do this earlier?!
I am very sad about the sriracha situation. Very sad indeed.
Cheese is my essential, must have it around. I also love raw cauliflower and lately popcorn. Nothing super healthy, unfortunately. I don’t like spicy so I put lots of chunky salsa (medium) on foods, including eggs. When I had renovations done to my house (no DIY for me!), people kept asking me whether I was planning to sell. Now I know why! I told them, “No, it was for me to enjoy.” I love my new chandeliers, paint color, new carpet (in some rooms) and hardwood in the upstairs hallway. However, you mentioned screens and that’s definitely something I should deal with. Best of luck on the house sale and move. You’re doing great!
Yes, cheeeeeese!!!! And good for you for getting those renovations done so YOU can enjoy them!
So I have no hot sauce recommendations – you have listed out exactly what I have in my pantry (hot sauce sistas unite!), but I am full of commiseration and compassion, we are on our last half bottle of Sriracha as well.
It’s so sad, to see the Sriracha dwindle.
I hope your house sells soon so you don’t have to keep it in showing condition much longer! Our house had never looked nicer than when it was on the market. Our realtor brought in a ton of stuff for staging so much of the furniture and decor wasn’t ours. It pushed us to buy some nicer, more modern lamps at the new place.
The dinosaur mask sounds amazing! I can see Paul liking that when he is a bit older!!
It is really a fun mask, Lisa! I bet Paul would love it.
Hair – OMG, it feels like I am coloring it every couple of weeks these days.
I agree with your vow of fixing things instead of waiting until you move. In this same vein, I’m trying to convince my husband that we should make certain improvements now (eyeballing the master bathroom) so that we can enjoy them.
Do it, Gigi!!! Not least because my husband and I plan to renovate our new master bathroom and you and I can commiserate about what a pain it turns out to be!
I have the “gray hair that looks like I’m balding” issue too! I realized this after watching a video a friend of mine took at a concert earlier this summer. He is waaay over 6 feet tall and was behind me; I’m 5’1″. Although his video was of the band, I was distracted by the fact that I could see the top of my head and I totally looked like I had a bald spot. Ha!
I thought all hot sauce was vinegary so I’ve never even tried it after tasting Tabasco years ago. Now I’m curious to try it but apparently I won’t be able to find any. 🙂
Sending you strength to get through the selling phase – I always hated having to keep things unnaturally perfect.
Oh Wendy! Now I really feel invested in you trying hot sauces! There is such a wide variety of flavors and textures that are nothing like Tabasco. And there is still plenty of hot sauce on the shelves.
The thought of keeping a house clean to show is what keeps me from moving! I hope you are finished with it soon 🙂
Hahaha – yes, it is quite the deterrent.
I don’t know if you want to read another article about siracha (with both context and alternatives!), but I read about it recently and seems like it will be back before TOO long. And also seems like the shortage is unique to Huy Fong, and not siracha in general. Anyway, here’s the link to the NY Times article (long link because it’s the no paywall version):
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/business/sriracha-shortage-huy-fong.html?unlocked_article_code=zJTr4U0XLsNutrrcTZ7O7TneqKChx6x4V6vCvhddhnoBpnBcX9GSG9Pz5HKBPhnnwdJC1ocTBqNroP_1Sl6Hy-6KA5JEumhqdLWyO7k8YaX1hEw0nVuCICH3jy866fU1IfPpJztlGZl-mPGCNW-uDyAfDyY2SYsrnFi6791pFV-NjN6LICfYhu4rmytO1ceT405env_1N2FPWBgReNtUatlY7LA60JCdbgvnifN0cMoighJkhAy42SIryrCrk_ZCxatzcJrlszD3GaBHjIuGI_TxKdz1kYjjO_t7-rTgiBMFw1U2A4dea5vjeMGzaK5At2vwVAilKWqIypkOY3y73Ugu9t-i&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I do want to read another article about sriracha! Thank you! And I did notice that there are lots of “sriracha” options on the shelves, and many of them use red jalapeños, which I found curious. Now I am going to go find out why Huy Fong is having specific issues.
I TOO am having sriracha issues. I bought LOTS when I heard there was going to be a shortage—and then didn’t warn the children that it was SCARCE AND PRECIOUS because I didn’t realize the children were using it, but they WERE, and I didn’t realize that until I was on my last bottle. Anyway. I have tried two Other Srirachas, and they are Fine but Not Right. I have used cholula and it is nice but not the same. Frank’s Red Hot is…it’s okay. I do like it. It’s just not WHAT I WANT, which is the regular sriracha.
Our doctor’s office, which routinely puts me on hold for up to 20 minutes for even things as routine as “making an appointment” has SUCH TERRIBLE HOLD MUSIC. It’s, like, 15 seconds of WAY TOO LOUD music, followed by “Did you know?” and a dumb fact I DID KNOW, and then 15 seconds of WAY TOO LOUD music, and then “Thank you for holding! All of our customer service…” etc., and then 15 seconds, and SO ON UNTIL I WANT TO CHANGE PRACTITIONERS
I bought lots, also, Swistle. I had an embarrassing stockpile but… now it is pretty much gone. Even though I was the only person really consuming it. I mean, I put it in things like stir fry sauces that my husband and I both eat, but I was really the primary sriracha eater.
The hold music thing fascinates me. Because someone out there CHOSE THIS and designed it with… someone in mind, presumably the client on hold, and yet… it really seems like NO ONE has ever listened to it, as a client might? It just boggles my mind.
I love our neighbours so much, I don’t see how we can ever move, which might be a problem at some point, I’m going to live in denial about it for now.
I use Sriracha quite a bit, but I had a fair small tube of some kind of chili sauce that I loved even more that I have not been able to find again – we seem to have Sriracha on the shelves again here, but I often use Chipotle Tabasco instead. Side fun note – when Eve was making a cooking video for health class in grade six she was reading the ingredients list and said “siri cha-cha-cha” and then we died laughing and had to re-record.
The realizing you should have done the improvements earlier and having to keep the house spotless for viewings are probably two more reasons I can never move. Courage, dear heart!
I LOVE all things spicy, but I actually really, really dislike any of those bottled hot sauces! I think it’s because they are usually vinegar based and I hate vinegar. I would have a hard time living without either fresh jalapeno peppers though, or regular salsas (I make salsa verde frequently or we just cook things simmered in salsa made from jalapenos and/or dried arbol chile).
Good luck with the house sale! I have always wondered why people do all sorts of renovations just to then sell it, lol! I mean, I do understand certain renovations will help it sell, but sometimes it seems like a LOT of work and money and I wonder if they will really get all that back? Or would it be better to just sell it as is and move on? I’m no real estate expert in the slightest though, haha. We have several bigger projects that we really need to/ should do at our house, too. But my husband is not a “house guy” at all in that he has no desire to work on repair projects… but it’s expensive if you hire EVERYTHING out… so then things kind of just…. sit. Hmph. I am lucky that my dad is SUPER handy and has helped us a ton over the years with complicated projects we would have not known how to do on our own. (e.g. He completely finished our guest room which was concrete and wood studs when we bought it; he wired in ceiling lights, built a closet, drywalled, floors, the whole deal). My biggest wish list item is the boys’ bathroom. It needs a serious remodel. The previous owners did like a big “facelift” so it has always looked okay, mostly, if you don’t look too close (they painted the old cabinets, etc.) but it really needs to be basically gutted and redone. E is starting high school now though, so I’m feeling pressure to get this done so he can actually USE it before he is out of the house!!
I never understood the renovations just before selling thing either… but really, the “renovations” we are doing are fairly simple and inexpensive (as far as these things go). And things like replacing the screens really do make a difference because it feels like you are moving into a NICE place, rather than a ratty place that only has things you have to fix. My husband sounds similar to yours — he is actually quite good at home repairs, but he finds them stressful and has no desire to do them, so we end up hiring someone or letting things sit. My dad is also very handy and now he will live nearby, so I am excited about that!
YOU HAVE SRIRACHA ON YOUR SHELVES. Omg!!!!
Siri-cha-cha-cha is adorable, oh my goodness.
Have you tried Harissa sauce? Super-tasty! It doesn’t come in a bottle like Sriarcha, but is so good! Might be worth a try?
Good luck with your move. I vividly remember the “stress” to keep everything neat and tidy before selling (I am intrigued by your zooper! I don’t have one but it sounds like it would come in handy).
I have to agree with Engie that I would definitely miss butter if it wasn’t available. Fresh bread with butter is one of the biggest pleasures in life 🙂
Butter is also my food that I would hate to lose. I wait for the brands I like to go on sale and buy a bunch and freeze it. If it were unavailable, I guess I would also learn to make it, but perhaps then cream would also be unavailable…hmmm.
We fixed up our house in order to sell it, and then the bottom fell out of the market in the recession and we ended up not moving, so we have gotten to enjoy the upgrades. That was a long time ago now, so we are due for new paint, and I would LOVE new kitchen cabinets, and flooring…blah blah blah. So much money and energy and time. I feel you on having to keep the place spotless all of the time. We had our place on the market for 6 months, and it was HORRIBLE. We rented a storage space and put a lot of stuff there. We should probably have just thrown it all away, after learning we could do without it for that long.
Hang in there. I love that your neighbor is thinking kind thoughts for your daughter. Oh, how I wish they had had that dinosaur toy when my daughter was little! She LOVED dinosaurs!
Curly got into Friend Legos when she was 11 or 12 and I knew she was about to outgrow them but I bought a TON of them anyway. I think I was clinging to her childhood.
My non essential food item that I would miss is ice cream. GF ice cream.
Your neighbors sound lovely. I am sure they will be thrilled to see Carla when you stop back in the hood for a visit.
Good luck packing kitchen gear and continuing to prep meals. No fun. Our griddle went missing months ago and we were so confused. Lad had taken it to his work to make pancakes for coworkers. Of course he did. All that to say I have been thrown off before when I did not have a kitchen item that I expected to have. 😉
Have you tried gochujang? It’s Korean chili paste and my go to for adding spice to things. It’s a little thick, so not as good for sprinkling or squeezing on to something – though you can mix it with other things to thin it out – It has a similar sweet/spicy that siracha has.
I also really like Fly by Jing’s Zhong sauce.
Neither is really like Siracha, but they both have an Asian flavor profile that is less vinegary and more sweet than other hot sauces.
Fifth grade. *sigh* That escalated quickly.
I remember when we had our last home in AZ listed…my girls were 18 months and 3. I thought I’d lose my mind between having the house tidy and leaving for each showing. We spent time at the McDonald’s play area or library; luckily our home sold pretty quickly.
I would not be a happy camper if there was a sudden shortage of Oat Milk creamer. I love it so much.
Every time I do a task that will make my life better/easier/productive/etc, I’m always like, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?!” Sometimes, we just need that kick in the pants like “gotta get the house ready to sell.” But it’s always a good reminder to not let these home tasks pile up – do them sooner so you can enjoy them!
I mean, if I had to pick just ONE non-essential-for nutrition-or-life food item, it would be chocolate. Every time.
I don’t know why I’m leaving a comment when you are mid-move, but I just wanted to sympathize. Moving sucks. Packing sucks. And when you figure out that those random things that are SUPER IMPORTANT are packed? It’s one of the most annoying things in the world. (Says the person who had NO SOAP for her last shower in the old house because… it got packed. Sigh.) Hang in there.