Tag: learning

February goal check-in

by Ariana Peters, posted in books, food, healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, school/studying, training

 

Blog at least 3 times a week- I need to do 12 posts minimum this month Actual number of posts: 21

PROPERLY train for and run a half, full and ultra marathon- Half marathon training continues, I need at least 64 miles Actual number of miles-5

Revamp my diet and STICK TO IT!!!! –

Breakfast-juice and muffin or toast and coffee

Midmorning snack- Slimfast or smoothie

Lunch- Soup or salad (since I’ve been sick I have been having a lot of soup hahaha)  

Dinner- Anything I want as long as it is make at home

After dinner- tea or hot chocolate

Did you stick to it? Yes and No, my eating definitely improved this month but there is still much farther to go.

Get A’s in all my classes this year. Keep track of current % Current % 80

Drop two clothing sizes, go from a 10 to a 6. After this month my clothes should be fitting really well and maybe even loose. How are clothes fitting? the same lol

Stop overspending!!!! Still not keeping any form of payment with me I also want to consistently send $10 a month to my tiny Edward Jones acct and my savings account that I do not have a debit card for. Money saved: $100 about

Take a few minutes every day to sit in quiet reflection, meditate, and do something spiritual. Keep the goal of last month of 5 minutes a day. Out of 28 days I did: maybe 5 but I have seen a therapist 3 times so that is 150 minutes of self reflection…..

Continue to work on and grow my relationship with Brandon. Keep the goal of last month or getting out once a week.

4 weekend outings: we went to the movies for valentines day (the rest of the weekends have been working on house. I will be very happy when we can settle back in to some couple time.

Read 1 non-school book a month.

Books read this month: Quarter acre farm

We picked a date

by Ariana Peters, posted in House/dating/life

Good morning!

Artemis loves riding in the car. Normally she is relegated to the back seat or laying down in the front but we were parked so she stood up.

The bathroom no longer looks this bad which is amazing

The kitchen is slowly coming along, I got all the top cupboards cleaned

We have a tub!!!! We carried that tub back and forth several times to make sure everything would be right when he mortared it in. I got very lucky with this guy, he is amazing! Doing this whole thing himself.

she is finally starting to feel a little more comfortable in the house, coming out to explore a little more instead of staying tucked in the corner.

the floor we chose for the bathroom, its tile!

I got one of the bottom kitchen cupboards cleaned and painted. There were at least 3 different layers of wall paper/contact paper glued in there.

Free fridge from Brandon’s parents. We got really lucky with this one. Its in good condition too.

Building a little half wall behind the tub.

and step 1 for my coffee bar, a new (to us) Keurig!!!! I got it slightly used on amazon but it came in the original box and had the filters and stuff still so it was barley used and I got it for $50 bucks less than the same one new.

I have given notice to my roommates, I now need to be fully moved out by the 15th of March. Sh*t just got real!!!!!

 

Snow and the bathroom

by Ariana Peters, posted in House/dating/life

It may suck to drive in the snow with a bunch of people who don’t know how (cough cough, PORTLANDERS!!!!) But it sure is beautiful to see all those trees covered in snow and the river lined with snow on the banks.

Trying to defrost my car this morning. And I clocked in almost on time woohoo!!!

Artemis LOVES the snow!!!!! She loves to run around in it. And look you can actually see her against the white backdrop haahahhaahah

He is replacing some of the old floorboards that didn’t hold up quite as well as others.

We spend a great deal of time wandering around Lowes and Home Depot now. That is currently our version of a date out of the house.

This was only a few days ago! Scroll back up to see the progress.

Oh look more Home Depot!!

YES we are finally finished with the taking down part of the bathroom and are starting the building back up! As is evident by him putting flooring stuff back in. I even hammered a nail and screwed in 4 screws Monday night Woohoo! Now I can pretend that I have actually helped.

We have bought the flooring already, a dark wood-looking tile. I think by the end of next week we will at least have a working bathroom and be able to move in!

So we have the new flooring, new bathtub, new sink and vanity already bought. We still need to buy the wall tiles and are trying to decide if we want to keep the old toilet or buy a new one. I guess we will decide that after we bleach the crap (no pun intended) out of it and see what it looks like. We also still need to buy a shower curtain rod, shower curtain, shelves and decorations along with hand towels and wash cloths (we bought new towels for pretty cheap at Costco but it was just the towels).

I think within 2-3 weeks the bathroom will be done and I think within 1-2 weeks we will be moved in!!!!

We move really soon!!!!!

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life

WOW so we thought we had at least a week but we got the keys last Friday!!! We immediately got in and started cleaning. We got some basic cleaning done, a little mopping and wiping down of things. We are borrowing Brandon’s brother’s carpet shampooer washer thing and I have managed to get 2 rooms done so far.

And we started demo on the bathroom!!!! It was pretty bad so we are gutting it and redoing it….on a strict budget lol.

Before:

Currently:

Check out my YouTube for a few videos that I uploaded there but didn’t get a change to add to this blog.

I also got a pear tree ordered as well as a fig tree/bush and a raspberry bush. They will ship out to us the 1st week of March. Slowly but surely we are picking things up. Brandon researched internet companies and picked up a modem for us as well as new locks for the doors.

I have also been picking up fun but cheap decorating ideas on pinterest, can we say coffee/tea bar!!!!! Yes!!!!

I have also been working on the layout for the backyard garden. I can’t wait to see everything come to life!

I have been having a lot of fun practicing my mini-farming/homesteading skills. Last week I took the leftover stuff from the roast chicken I made and threw it in a pot, added a little extra seasoning and the tops and bottoms of some of the veggies I juiced, covered it all with water and made some chicken stock to freeze for later. I also made slow cooker dog food to mix with Artemis’ dry food and shook whipping cream into homemade butter hahahahaha! Then I split that butter in half and made some honey butter to freeze! Now I can’t wait to try and get some raw milk and try to really make our own butter, the hunt is on! It was actually really fun and a good workout.

I think with school though I am going to have to ease into the mini-farm a bit slower than I would have liked, we might hold off on chickens until next year when I have a rhythm down a little more and we are more settled. But I will still be planting a good amount.

I will keep you posted!

Week 4 of A&P

by Ariana Peters, posted in school/studying

I enjoyed last weeks lab a lot, we got to look at some bones (granted they were fake but still) and start to see what the terms that describe bones really look like along with some fascinating slides. The first lab I went to was all slides and I wasn’t focused and just did not really enjoy it but this lab was the opposite, I loved every slide we looked at. I got to look as some fake bones and some real animal ones.

They had a long bone cut down the middle so we could see the marrow, the epiphyseal line, sharpey’s fibers and so on. It was really interesting. I am slowly getting more and more interested and engaged in this class which is great. Considering the circumstances if I was taking a boring class it would be much more difficult to make myself go and do the work.

But overall I am loving it! Studying is definitely a necessity, somethings stick in my head quickly and easily and others take some time for me to really grasp them but overall I love it!

February goals

by Ariana Peters, posted in books, food, healthy lifestyle, House/dating/life, school/studying, training

February

The goals for the year broken down for this month:

Blog at least 3 times a week- I need to do 12 posts minimum this month

PROPERLY train for and run a half, full and ultra marathon- Half marathon training continues, I need at least 64 miles

Revamp my diet and STICK TO IT!!!! Revamp my diet and STICK TO IT!!!! –

Breakfast-juice and muffin or toast and coffee

Midmorning snack– Slimfast or smoothie

Lunch– Soup or salad

Dinner– Anything I want as long as it is make at home

After dinner– tea or hot chocolate, popcorn is ok as well.

Get A’s in all my classes this year. Keep track of current %

Drop two clothing sizes, go from a 10 to a 6. Clothes should be starting to fit better along with less bloating.

Stop overspending!!!! Still not keeping any form of payment with me I also want to consistently send $10 a month to my tiny Edward Jones acct and my savings account that I do not have a debit card for.

Take a few minutes every day to sit in quiet reflection, meditate, and do something spiritual. Keep the goal of last month of 5 minutes a day.

Continue to work on and grow my relationship with Brandon. Keep the goal of last month of getting out once a week.

Read 1 non-school book a month.

I have sugarplum fairies dancing in my head

by Ariana Peters, posted in food, House/dating/life

or more factually correct I have images of fresh baked bread and delicious meals and gardens and chickens dancing in my head.

I cannot wait to break out my bread maker for some fresh amazing bread. Sandwiches our first week in the house on fresh baked bread…..yes!

Brandon already said he would build me a chicken coup from some repurposed wood. In Salem you can have up to 6 chickens without needing any permits. I think we will start with 3-4 this year and see how it goes. Then maybe add the other 2-3 next year. Spacing them out like that will be good for timing too. They don’t lay eggs for about 6 months then they produce for about 2 years then it will be harvesting time. So each year we will have to order 2-3 new chicks (after the first 2 years) and I I’ll need to learn how to butcher a chicken.

I have already placed an order to the Burpee seed company, I will have 6 heirloom tomato plants shipping to me around April 9th ready to be direct planted when they arrive. I think I will pick up 1-2 cherry tomato plants just from the grocery store, not heirloom but that is ok. That is perfect timing and should give us about 2-3 weeks in the house to get the yard ready for planning. I will continue ordering plants over the next few weeks.

Ahhhh about 5.5 weeks at the most!!!!!

 

 

……………..Well we got a call and that 5 or 6 weeks we had until we got to move in just went down to 3! We just got notice that the tenets are moving out early! Which is amazing and moves our timetable up about 2-3 weeks.

We are hoping to start moving things in over presidents day weekend. Brandon gets that Monday off and he would like to refinish the tub that day so it has the rest of the week to “cure” and we could start using it the next weekend. The bottom of the tub is wearing off and pealing away a little bit, so Brandon bought a refinishing kit. This is much cheaper than buying a new tub (which one day we will do, hello claw foot soaking tub!!!! one day lol) Having the tomato plants delivering in early April means we have that as a deadline to get the backyard ready for planting. Spring is also when baby chicks are born and delivered so a chicken coup will be near the top of the list too.

It is going to be a busy but amazing few months as we move it, get everything up and running and settle in!