Unless you count all the mask-wearing and the fact that Halloween parties were staggered with who was coming when, this last month was the most “normal”-feeling of any month since March, at least as far as what we did as a family. There was a trip to the pumpkin patch, trick-or-treating (albeit a socially-distanced version), a field trip to the Aviary, pumpkin carving, time with family and extended family, and busy weeks and weekends. I was almost getting used to our calendar being so empty all the time that this month felt like a whirlwind!
And, on top of all the fun holiday celebrations, we also celebrated finally closing on our house! We still haven’t moved down south yet (more details on that below), but we’re about *thisclose* to closing the chapter on this limbo state that we’ve been in for the past few months. Definitely lots of exciting and big changes coming up in the Meidell household.
But for now—let’s recap the goals!
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October Goals
Close on our new house!- The actual closing actually ended up being kind of a stressful / not great experience, but at the very least, we got a house out of it! Yay!
Pick a moving date for November + book moving van- We have officially locked in our moving date, and the moving van is booked. This is the month the new adventure begins, friends!
- Sell or
figure out what to do with chicken coop- Um, we figured out “what to do” with the chicken coop (yes, we are going to sell it), but I haven’t listed it yet. This is a top priority goal for early November.
Decide on paint colors, flooring, lighting for new house- Done! I met with my cousin–who does interior design professionally–and she helped me finalize some plans for the main floor that we’ll be starting to put into effect this month. I’m super excited to show you guys when we’re finished! (If you want to see specific plans before I do the final reveal, you can read the details about some of our current projects in this post.)
Finish The Age of Innocence- I got this done, and just in the nick of time to count it towards not just one, but TWO goals on my first 101 in 1001 list. And, while it took me a looong time to get into it, once I was about halfway in, I was REALLY in. I ended up enjoying this one a lot, and I was pleasantly surprised that the story ended up going in a direction I hadn’t expected at all.
Finish the 1,000 Book Challenge with Raven- Another goal I finished in the nick of time to count towards the last 101 in 1001 list! Raven loved being able to average about 8-10 new picture books a day the last week of the challenge, ha ha.
Do a Halloween craft with the kids- We ended up doing multiple, most of which I blogged about in my latest What the Kids Have Been Loving Lately post. (Sounds like a lot of you were interested in trying out the simple pumpkin patch painting yourselves!)
Finalize next 101 in 1001 list and post about it- Complete! You can see the new list HERE.
Go on day adventure- My mom treated the kiddos and me to a day at Tracy Aviary for a “field trip” during the homeschool week. The weather could not have been more perfect, and the kids relished all the time outside looking at all the different birds and gardens! We were also able to take a trip to a local pumpkin patch on the weekend when Matt was home, which was a blast.
- Call about van key
- This is the new eterni-goal, apparently. No progress.
- Request updated car title
- Nope, and I kind of don’t think I need to right now. The credit union sent us back a copy of the title with their signature saying the loan was paid off, and even though we’d need to request a new title (I think) to sell the car, I figure we don’t need to worry about doing it since we have no plans to sell this vehicle anytime soon (if ever).
Send in gym receipts to insurance to get reimbursed- Complete! I thought it was a straight-up reimbursement that would come back to my checking account or something, but it ended up being in the form of gift cards. Seeing as we’re racking up quite the tab at Home Depot lately (thanks to all the house projects), it was nice being able to get my reimbursement in gift cards from there, since it helped offset at least a tiny portion of the costs.
- Finish editing the first three photo shoots of the fall photography season
- I only finished one, but my third photo shoot of the month ended up getting pushed back quite a bit later in October, and I had a fourth session on Halloween as well. I’ll be needing to complete all of these in November for sure.
- (If you want to see some of the photography work I do, follow me HERE on Instagram! I’ve been posting a lot lately from my recent shoots.)
Other Successes:
- Mailed in my ballot early!
- Set some quarterly blog goals for the first time in…a really, really long time 🙂
- Posted to Instagram with some regularity as part of one of my new 101 in 1001 goals for my photography business! (You can follow my photography business account HERE and my personal/blog account HERE.)
- Set up all utilities at the new house
November is going to be busy, busy, busy, and it will feel even MORE busy since we’ve kind of gotten used to the very laidback, stay-at-home vibe that 2020 has been. Basically all of our weekends will be taken up by working on the new house, with a small break for Thanksgiving celebrations (which we still haven’t finalized plans for, what with the rising cases and all).
I have a lot of posts I’m PLANNING on doing in November, but between homeschooling and major house updates and moving…I make no promises 🙂 However, if you want to stay a little more current and up to date on our happenings (including our house projects), I’ve actually been pretty good at posting to Instagram lately, so give me a follow over there!
November Goals
- Move to the new house!
- We’ll be going to the new house frequently throughout the month to do some work on it (more on that below), but our official move-in date is on Black Friday. We’re so excited to finally have a firm date!
- Clear out storage unit and cancel lease
- Overall, the fact that most of our stuff is in one large storage unit should make this move a bit easier, but I will say, I’m definitely not looking forward to having to dust and clean everything after getting it out…
- Pick up couch from my cousin
- While my cousin was helping me pick out some of the paint and floor choices for our house, I commented that I really liked the couch they had on the showroom floor, and she said they were looking to replace it soon as a matter of fact. So we’re getting a beautiful couch for $50 that I’m super excited about!
- Complete flooring, paint, and lighting projects on main floor of new house
- I *believe* we’ve finalized what we’re going to try and complete before we move in—updated paint throughout the main floor, replace the tile and carpet in the kitchen and back family room with LVP, and switch out the lighting in the kitchen, eat-in area, and front entry. I’m excited to post updates when we get further along! (More specific details about the paint choices and such in this post.) Also, this got really real, real fast when I just dropped over $2500 on our flooring (we chose this one) this last weekend…it’s really happening, folks!
- Start the process of painting the kitchen cabinets
- The original plan was to have the cabinets totally painted before we move in, but I just don’t think we’re going to have the time. However, I AM planning on having the stuff bought already to do the job, and I also want to at least have started on this by the end of the month (even if it’s not finished yet).
- Sell chicken coop
- This is high priority, so I’m planning on listing this in the next few days for sure and crossing my fingers that the low asking price will get it sold quickly.
- Call about van key
- If we don’t do it this month while we live close to the place where we bought our car, we probably never will.
- Finish “big” Christmas shopping
- We’ve completed all the “big” Christmas shopping for the kids already (we splurged more this year to get them this little playhouse to share — which we know they’ll absolutely adore — as well as this fun play washer/dryer (since they’re obsessed with helping me with laundry)). We wanted to get a lot of our Christmas shopping done and out of the way before we had a mortgage payment to make every month again, and I’m soooo glad we did—it’s such a weight off knowing that the kids’ gifts are pretty much done, other than stocking stuffers!
- Note: I’ve linked to the actual playhouse we bought up there, but the price right now is INSANE—much, much higher than what we paid. We paid around $120 for ours, which is what this other version of the house is listed for.
- Finish up editing photo sessions + share galleries with clients
- Fall is always crazy-busy when it comes to my photography, and I’m going to have to hunker down several nights this week to make sure these all get out this month so people can have them for their Christmas cards and such.
- Print updated pictures for my stepgrandma + mail/deliver
- My stepgrandma has been requesting updated pics for awhile, so since we finally got a decent family picture of everyone looking at (or near) the camera and making a pleasant-enough face as part of my #52familyphotochallenge (see my Instagram for details), I’ll just use that one.
And there it is—The Official Plan for the month! What have you got going on in your corner of the world? Anyone decided what to do (or not do) for Thanksgiving yet?
