House Sold

I'm coming to terms with the fact that someone else now owns what was once my family's home.

5 Days Left...Love Weekends!

I've been tired as I've mentioned and I'm so glad it is the weekend now! It means I even got to lay down for a while during the day because my husband was around and able to keep an eye on the girls (who were happily outside playing in the mud!).

Some bumps have come up towards securing the payment we need next week for the new place we have put in an application though but I am still hopeful it will work out, and also keeping my eyes open for ways to make some extra money and/or another solution to our predicament. I really hope the bumps are surmountable and will hopefully know by Monday afternoon.

I'm focusing my attention on keeping the vision of being in the situation we desire, safe, stable, and lots of green garden space. Also a peaceful birth that goes smoothly any day now...I'm starting to get regular contractions off and on which is exciting too.

Six Days...

I now have 6 days until I am due to help this baby into the world outside of my body. As one of those people who really hates to admit to just about any kind of weakness I am having a hard time. Money is tight. Now our phones are out of service. We might get a check today that will cover our phone plan as well as a down payment but who knows...maybe we won't!

This on the edge life of not knowing when how much money is coming in is a lot more fun when I'm able to get out there and make some of the money. At this point I have some things I'd like to sell on eBay, lots of clothes to be gone through to take to consignment, and that sort of thing but the energy drain I am feeling is totally totally insane and SO SO frustrating.

I feel like if I could just have a few days of this energy referred to as "nesting" I could easily pull in a couple hundred bucks or at least set the foundation to. Not to mention downsizing like I want to.

Beating myself up for being tired doesn't do much to boost my energy though so I'll just leave it at that. I'm trying not to freak out too much on my husband either as I want his focus to be on making it happen more than calming me down.

We have come up with a new goal as far as the housing situation we are looking for, we have realized that with so many BIG places for rent, we could combine resources to get into a sort of cross between a communal and co-housing living situation.

We posted an ad with this intention in mind and have been contacted by somebody who wants the same thing, yet is actually the owner of the property as well which is HUGE...now we really just need this elusive check to appear and seal the deal.

Part of what we really want is to have a nice gardening area and so I have been spending time in the garden to up the intention on this...right now my daughter is out there watering plants too :-)

I really hope we get this place, though it'll all work out even if we don't as I'm sure we will find something better.

I haven't written for a few days as I've had internet trouble and blogger.com doesn't have an iPhone app far as I could find...now I have internet and no phone service, go figure!!

Oh well.

I feel like baby could come just about any day...and also know that if history repeats itself that it would be July when our baby is born, so we will see...we will see.

First Viewing Delayed...More Coming

Our first viewing was delayed this weekend, we are still hoping it will happen though, keeping in touch with landlord.

We have found a few more places that look really good, we are opting for moving further out and having more space to do things like garden and play outside. We will miss some things and people in our neighborhood though, I'm focusing our search on south King County and Kitsap County just west of West Seattle.

We need at least 2br, preferably and definitely want a yard suitable for playing and gardening. Being close to transportation that can take us back to Seattle is important as well. Price close to $1,000/mo.

Due in 17 Days...Elusive Calm

Yesterday was like living in a pressure cooker.

Aligning priorities and how to make them happen is very difficult to do sometimes, in particular for me it is difficult when I am pregnant and consumed with wanting a safe stable place to live and rest once baby is born.

My husband, who is ever insightful and a big picture thinker wants us to focus on our big life goals and believes that doing so will lead us to finding the ideal stepping stone to that place. Normally I would very much believe in this. Right now though, I am tired. Thinking of packing absolutely exhausts me, I have not moved forward with much organization even. I feel huge, dependent, and so tired, so so tired.

I'm not sure if I'm depressed or if this is just because I am technically ready to give birth any moment.

My thoughts are focused on staying rested, fed, and hydrated because birth could start at any moment. I am very consciously NOT worrying too much about how the next two months will pan out though sometimes, especially late at night, I pretty much am a basket case thinking of how/where/when we will be able to move.

Part of my stress is that my husband, who is wonderful, is taking on so much. Of course this is kind of expected since I'm not able to do as much as I normally would. I wish I had energy to help more. I wish I was more domestically and organizationally inclined. I wish that my body didn't get tired simply standing up doing things like typing this blog post or looking at rental listings online.

Other parts of my stress are all of the "to-do"'s that are piling up it seems each day, for example we need to:

• Find a pediatrician for the girls and new baby
• Find someone to help/do the placenta encapsulation
• Pack
• Gather things to be given to Goodwill
• Photograph and list things to be sold on eBay (ideally before moving so that items are gone and we have some extra money)
• Compiling a list of all our magazines and accounts to be informed of our new address
• Compiling the contact information for the kids at my daughter's school so we can stay in touch
• Writing a letter to my daughters teacher that yes we are moving though do not know if we will or will not stay in the same school district
• Baby announcements? We will be doing these through our SendOutCards account which I'm not allowed to link to here but if you comment with an email I can send you a link if you like. I'm grateful that all relevant addresses are already in there so it will just be uploading a few pix!!
  

Then of course there are the things I want to get done for other reasons, like making money!

• Draft the ebooks I have been meaning to write
• Update my personal site to be more succinct and organized in a way to more consciously attract the kind of clients I am looking for.
• Write up the review I've been asked to write for a salad dressing
• Write up more articles and blog posts relevant to the market I'm focusing on and the ebook content deep dives.

Oh and the whole summer thing...

• Find and pay for a couple weeks of fun summer camps, probably focusing on bugs and swimming for my daughter
• Find sitters/friends/family to help with the kids etc. during the moving and post birth recovery time

So yes, I'm thinking a lot about these things, but after each thought "calm down, it will all work out, just stay calm, it will all work out" I have even taken to saying the serenity prayer at times which is not something I normally do, it is a good message though and I do feel a little bit calmer when I say it aside from the strange memories I have that led to me learning it.

Okay, that was a good dump of what's going on. Today is better than yesterday, I'm more tired, but getting some alone time which is nice. My husband and I haven't argued at all which is also nice. I'm glad there are leftovers from dinner last night to reheat and feed the kids with. I'm feeling more at peace right now than I have been.

Probably the biggest stress is:

• How the heck will we get any place to rent to us when we have totally lame credit scores including a foreclosure and bankruptcy and no 'steady' income as it all comes from contract gigs?
  

That's the kind of how I'm not to worry about though...just to focus on the outcome and the universe will make it happen. I'm looking forward to telling you about when that happens.

20 Days Til Baby Expected!!

SO...it is looking like we will have to be out of here by August 1, the goal is to find a place by July 1 and then to move as fast as we can with me in a post-birth state over the next month.

I have been increasingly tired and fighting depression...hard to find balance between obsessing over 100's of things to do and focusing on peace and serenity in preparation for our home birth.

First Viewing...

Next weekend we are looking at a house we found on Craigslist. It's outside the city limits of Seattle though not very far out there. It would be peaceful and a different way of life for sure, close to the water, transportation, and lots of gardening space.

I have not been doing well with the 'organizing' part of my plan, ADD mixed with being insanely tired from the pregnancy/stress etc. has not really been very helpful. Dirty dishes are piling up and it's hard to think of doing much other than sleep and keep the kids safe. Keeping the main living area clear has been a priority.

My husband is working on Ramit Sethi's plan to find contracting/freelance ways to earn an extra $1,000+ a month so I am hoping that works out. I have skills I'm looking to market as well so I'm creating lists and doing some research as well. If we can make the money we can pay someone to help with packing and organizing I figure. It's not my strength to organize 'stuff' so it would be soooo helpful.