You guys. We are rapidly approaching Go Time, aka Moving Day and I am FREAKING OUT. I need the normalcy of planning and making dinner to tether me to the ground.
But I am also a little at loose ends, when choosing meals. Will I still be able to access my Instant Pot, or will it be packed? What about my air fryer? What about my wok???????
Dinners for the Week of August 28-September 04
- Sheet Pan Hot Honey Chicken and Zucchini: Sheet pan. Check. Chicken. Check. Zucchini. Always check. This sounds easy and spicy and it features my good buddy zucchini. Done and done.
- Japchae (inspired by this post from Birchwood Pie Project, although she also more recently linked to this Japchae recipe as well): This sounds different from our usual but also delicious and also fairly easy.
- Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tacos: You know tacos are one of my top ten comfort foods. But… will we even HAVE a slow cooker, or will I have packed it away????
- Take out, and more take out.
Please. For the love of meal planning, tell me a soothing food story. Or a soothing moving story. Or ANY SOOTHING STORY AT ALL. I hate this. This is too much transition.
Transitions are so hard and moving might just be the hardest of all the “non-grief” oriented transitions. Gah. I’m stressed for you, but I hope the littlest of details all fall into place and moving is as seamless as possible. You can do this!
We’re hosting new friends (we’ve actually never met them but they recently moved to our area and they have kids our kids ages and they are trying to network) for supper. We’re doing BBQ and salads, and then maybe s’mores for a mid-evening dessert?! I’m even going to use paper plates. No sense trying to set the bar high for their first visit, right?!
I applaud your meal planning at this moment!! I think the only thing on my list would be takeout and maaaaaaybe frozen pizza. You are next-level prepared, and that’s so awesome. Slow cooker tacos are on my list every week– such a time saver, the house smells good, and there are leftovers. Perfect!
Hi Suzanne, you asked for a soothing story. My lesson from moving to various places is that the most important thing is to be relaxed the day before so as to be able to SLEEP. You need to be super focused on moving day and so you need your sleep. That’s by far the most important part. Good luck and can’t wait to read your impressions from your new home 🙂
Here’s a soothing move story: IT WILL ALL BE OVER SOON!!!! Once it’s in the rearview, it is going to feel SO good, Suzanne! I feel so settled and at ease in the house, and since we knew we were moving so far in advance, this is a feeling I haven’t had in a really long time. The big move day is so stressful, but then it’s OVER. My advice is to unpack the kitchen first, as much as possible, and the bedding so that you can sleep and eat. Then tackle the rest of the house.
Good luck! I have been thinking about you all this past week. Wishing you a smooth moving day and remember, it’s going to totally suck for a while (let’s say a couple of weeks) and then it’s going to feel absolutely wonderful. Things will be chaotic and then they won’t be and it will be SO GOOD. And you’ll be in your beautiful home WITH A MUDROOM SUZANNE HAVING A MUDROOM IS GLORIOUS.
Here is my soothing moving story:
I have done it a zillion times. It always sucks. It also always goes fine. Nothing bad has ever happened that hasn’t been fixable.
Have I strenuously urged you to get packers a day or two before yet? Pack everything you can for the upcoming weeks and then at the last minute, have some professionals come in because MY GOD they can pack faster and better than you can and it is not an unreasonable cost. It will feel like an unreasonable cost because you are thinking “but we can pack” but then when you do it, you will think “I would have paid triple this amount.”
When we moved from Minneapolis, I was pretty distraught. I didn’t want to move to the small town where we were moving. I was visiting my mom and sister a couple of weeks before we were moving and that’s when I adopted Baby Zelda the Cat. I drove with her from Michigan to Minnesota and then she lived with us in Minneapolis for a couple of weeks before we moved to the new town. And Zelda the Kitten was such a perfect little angel during those drives. She didn’t cry, didn’t get sick, and was just a little fuzzball of delight.
Now she throws up every time she gets in the car.
Wishing you Zelda the Kitten good moving vibes!
Here’s a funny moving story, maybe I’ve told you this before. When we moved from TX to FL, when I was a kid, a moving company did most all of the box-packing (props to my mom for that bold choice). When we arrived, we kept seeing boxes labeled, “Ida.” We were like, WHO is Ida? There is no one here by that name. What in the world?! Then we noticed descriptors: “Glass Ida.” “Playroom Ida.”
…ITEMS. IDA was short for “items.” lololol.
It will all be done soon, friend! Kiss all the things you dislike about your current house goodbye, and keep breathing! I am so excited for you to have a new home! (I also vote for some frozen pizzas.)
I think you should make it as easy on yourself as possible during this time and lean heavily on easy dishes like frozen pizza and take out! I would not be doing much in the way of meal prep if I was on the cusp of moving because it would just complicate matters. So this is me giving you permission to take the easy way out! I get tired of take out very quickly but would give myself permission to get it daily if need be!
This is a weird week as i got back around dinnertime last week and then Will and I will head to my parents on Thur night or Fri morning. Usually I make a big meal on Sunday night but that wasn’t possible. I am in the office today but need to make a leftover-generating dinner tonight so I am making that chicken tikka w/ cauliflower instantpot recipe tonight. We will get home around 5-5:15 so it will be a later dinner but oh well. And then another night we are having ground turkey tacos. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Then Phil is on his own when we leave!
Yay moving day!!!
And also yay japchae! No matter what the recipe, it’s going to be good. I really need to make up a batch for lunches soon.
Short term hell but you’ll come out the other side soon. I know, not much of a consolation!
Deep breath. Transitions are so hard. I have to always remind myself to take it one day at a time – and I am giving you that same advice (I know, still very hard to do).
Not sure if this qualifies as a soothing story, but I moved when I was 6 months pregnant to a rental apartment on the 5th floor. 2 weeks later, the building elevator broke and was unable to be fixed, so I moved again 7 weeks after the initial move (then 7.5 months pregnant). Here is the soothing part: your move should be easy in comparison!
GAH! Moving and the start of the school season all at once; no wonder you are freaking out. That is a LOT to deal with at once. Sending hugs!
The end is in sight. You’ve got this.
Since 2015, I have moved … 6 times, facing another move in a little under a year. It sucks, every time, but it also has been fine every time. (yes, it was very annoying when we were unpacking at one point and discovered that the headboard to the guest bed was missing, as was one leg to the coffee table, and a few other random assorted items that weren’t really replaceable – we would have needed an entire new guest bedframe as IKEA doesn’t sell just the headboard (and we were in the UK and it was a US sized bed, so they didn’t have it to give us even if they wanted to!)) but again, it was fine.
I recommend a day-of box that has shower curtain, shower curtain hooks, toilet paper, toothbrush, toothpaste, sheets, and your required charging cables. Because being able to shower, clean your teeth, and collapse into bed is going to be the big reward at the end of move day.
If you’re not throwing things into boxes as the movers literally try to take the unsecured boxes from your hands, you’ll be doing better than we did in our last move. And even that was okay, because it was a short-distance move, like yours, and we just drove the stuff we didn’t get packed in time to the new house. It all worked out.
Take out and more take out sounds just about right! Here’s my moving story- we moved into the house we’re in now
when my son was an infant. Actually, he was crawling and in that phase where I couldn’t turn my back on him for a minute. It was so, so hard, and took me forever to get everything unpacked and the new house put together. But, I did it (eventually) so I can tell you that it all works out in the end. I’m looking at Alison’s post above where she recommends a day-of box. I tried to do that, but of course did it poorly. The first day in our new house I couldn’t find any utensils, so I remember my husband and I were eating cereal- he had to use an ice cream scoop and I used a baby spoon. Anyway… I’m looking forward to the day when the move is behind you! Everything will be okay in the end (and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end… according to John Lennon.)
I’m in awe that you’re even trying to meal prep. Why not chicken strips? Mac and cheese? I agree, the end is in sight. It’ll all work out.
How about a funny moving story? Lad had a baseball game on moving day, so I set his uniform aside. He was in 4th grade. Someone packed his uniform and the dad who agreed to come and take him to his game showed up and I had a player with no uniform. That day had older boys, so he scooped Lad and took him to his house to dress him in recycled uniform pieces.
Also, I unpacked the stopper to the tub. That was my dad’s way of ‘helping’. I was like DAD, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO STAY WITH THE HOUSE. What on earth? We drove over and delivered it to the new owners.
You will have funny moving stories too. Good luck.
Moving is the worst and you will be through it soon. Promise!! XO
You’ve got this, Suzanne! Moving is so stressful and it’s very anxiety-inducing for people like us. But there will be a time after this, and you WILL feel settled and at home in your new space. I promise! <3
My soothing moving suggestion is that nothing beats the moving anxiety blues like a delicious bowl of ice cream, eaten for medicinal purposes of course. It slows you down, it nourishes body & spirit, and reminds you of being a carefree kid– at least for the length of time it takes to consume it, all is well.
Soothing story about moving… I am 18 years old, and after coming to the US for a few summers in a row, I arrive the third time and never go back to Russia. I stay and take classes at Kean U. I have classes that run till 10PM. In the mean time I am working at Stop and Shop in a fish department where I am always freezing, and live with an alcoholic, old man who loves me like a father. I save pennies I find on the sidewalk when I sweep the Stop and Shop front walkway. I work so much I take naps in the bathroom. Fast forward 20 years… I am an established person, a professional that loves her job, the old man passed away back in 2016… The move from Russia to the US shows my grit. Sometimes I am scared when I look back. But I also congratulate myself on overcoming so much.
You got this!