1- Why are we buying a home ?
I actually did a post detailing the reasons in October — it’s here! The summary is that even though we really enjoyed the flexibility of renting, we did not bank on accelerating inflation and real estate prices in our prior calculations. It just doesn’t make sense financially to rent anymore.
Bonus is that our new home will have better hurricane protection, a bit more space (no room sharing!), and I believe it is still reasonable in price for South FL standards — ie, we will be able to continue to save/invest and spend out on other things that we value more (basically anything related to the kids, travel, experiences).
2- What gifts are the kids getting?
Haha. When we recorded the BOBW that aired yesterday, I hadn’t started shopping. Guess what? This is still the case. I’m having major approach avoidance about this. Maybe I will just put Josh in charge. I anticipate a few Target/Michaels runs in our future. I do think we may lean into craft/art supplies (consumable at least).
3- How is COVID these days where you are?
FL is still on yellow and rates appear to be still trending down! We are planning family travel for the holidays and I am grateful that our family is getting closer to fully vaxed, though of course G has not yet met age requirements.
For our family Thanksgiving in Miami Beach (we are flying back Weds so we will be here!), there is a PCR + rapid test “requirement” to help the event be safe for all. Looking forward to a more normal holiday (assuming we all are negative!). Generally, I am not finding COVID-19 to be impacting as much of what we do. The kids’ school still requires masks, though some of the FL schools are changing policies.
4- Are you still doing the Carline Girvan workouts?
Yes! Still plugging away at her EPIC I program. Today is workout #20/50. However, I am not entirely sure I will finish it. It’s so hard and some of the workouts are so long (an hour+) that I am just not looking forward to them very much. I also have been mixing in short runs ~2-3x/week so instead of 5 CG workouts a week, it’s more like 3-4 though I’m still mostly going in order.
Today is this one.
I might pivot back to Sydney Cummings, Peloton OR even back to Beachbody for the new year. I can’t decide. Someone get me excited about something!
5- Have you LOCKED IN your 2022 planner system?
Yes but I’m having mild planner angst because I am just feeling like I am going to miss the Full Focus system so much! Currently planning on:
Hobonichi Techo Cousin
Hobonichi A6 (for work meetings, note taking, etc – not really as a planner, more of a notebook)
Cultivate What Matters (goal setting)
I think that’s it? Maybe intermittent use of a wellness planner or journal? But the FF layout is so functional for me and I really like the paper (particularly in the versions that use the brighter white paper). Too many good choices 🙂
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So excited to start my Full Focus planner (bought through your affiliate link!) on Jan 1! Certainly understand why you don’t want to leave that system. I also can’t seem to leave my previous planner unfinished for 2021. I have changed systems before but for some reason I can’t do it this year. It am having obliger anxiety about my planner. Ha!
Really wanted to be on Patreon meet up last night to get me going on gifts but couldn’t get away from the kids and work. Hope it went well!
It was great! The recording should be up if you want a fun soundtrack while doing gift wrapping 😉
Great idea!
I know you love Autumn C – I ignored 9 Week Control Freak because of the equipment but there is a second “off the wall” track that is weights only I’ve been loving lately!
Oh good to know. I do like Autumn’s workouts too.
I have really been loving my Peloton subscription. The options are plentiful and even on days that I accidently sleep in, I can usually still jam in a 10 minute workout which is still helpful mentally. Plus, every autumn I kind of go through a phase where I hate exercise and the options like yoga and Pilates that don’t feel quite so intense are very helpful to get through that.
All such good stuff. It’s so exciting about your house!
On the workout front I am with you on finishing something that i am just not into. I just gave up on Liift4 which i know SO many people who love it. I got through week 6 and my upholder tendency really wanted to see it through but I was dreading the HIIT portions and even though i was lifting heavier i didn’t feel stronger if that makes sense. It’s weird. I also committed an early season half marathon and started heart rate training and it didn’t really fit in with my overall plan. I struggle with trying to do all the goals at once and still don’t like that i didn’t finish it.
I’m doing the beachbody morning meltdown program, although not 100 days straight through because I run some days. It’s too much to run + do a workout in this stage of life. An hour+ workout would be a hard pass for me right now! Even 45 would be too much. But again, I’m in that really little kid stage of life. But I really like Jericho. I want to say you do not care for her, though? For some reason I prefer her to Autumn! I’m on working #34. I do not do them in order always since I’m not doing them every day. Every 5th workout is a recovery workout so I will save those for a rest day or do them on a day when I run.
Yay for your covid cases trending downward. MN has the highest # of 7day avg cases so we are hitting our peak but hopefully it will burn out fast? We are going to my family’s Thanksgiving. I haven’t done a family holiday in 2 years so it’s time but I am pretty anxious about it… All the adults are vaxxed and all but 3 kids are vaxxed (ranging from 7-17; my sister does not agree with vaccines for kids…). Given the dynamics in my family, asking for everyone to test would be a no go. Plus, I had a false positive from an at-home rapid antigen test recently (followed up with a PCR that was negative) so I can’t suggest we use those (I would have been willing to buy tests for the whole family if they were more reliable). So I guess we just have to hope for the best? My little family is the outlier within my family re: the seriousness of covid. But I can’t avoid family holidays forever so I am just hoping we all stay safe. There will be 4 siblings + my parents from 3 different states… I am thinking our family will do at home rapid antigen tests on Sunday evening as that will be 5 days post initial exposure just to make sure we didn’t pick it up over the weekend. But it’s hard to think about doing those with a recent false positive experience. Eeks. I got my 3rd dose in August and my husband got his booster yesterday so at least we are extra protected? Hopefully our kids stay healthy. The vaccine for their age group can’t come fast enough. I am hearing maybe by Feb. Fingers crossed.
I love that your family is willing to do a test etc to keep everyone safe. We requested the same for our family dinner (and offered to provide the rapid tests ourselves) because we have a few adult family members who are still not vaccinated and people were offended. I honestly don’t know if we will go- we are reasonably low risk but a positive case in our house means two weeks with no child care which is hard anytime but would be SO hard this time of year. I’m mostly so exhausted by how different opinions have hardened into conflict and offense no matter how hard I try to be pragmatic. I still love my unvaccinated family members and want to see them and frankly feel the actual risk to our health is pretty low at this point but it’s frustrating they won’t even take a test or discuss.
It helps that our family is quite politically homogeneous. (On both sides). The testing was not my idea (we are not hosting) but we were happy to comply!
I am still loving Sydney Cummings. I like that her workouts are *always* under an hour and sometimes as short as 30 minutes. I always get excited when I pull up the workout for the day and see that it’s a 30-minute one haha. She’s so encouraging and I find that even though if you do her workouts for a long time there is a significant amount of repetition, she mixes new things in too, and gives you suggestions for progressive overload that include not just going up in weight (although I have gone up in weights too since I started her program). I think Accelerate is my favorite program of hers so far.
Try Epic Heat by C. Girvan. It is a 30 min/daily program, that is very effective.
I’m terrified that it will be too torturous but I guess I could try 🙂
I 2nd Epic heat! Why do you think it will be torturous? I have a feeling it’s a similar style as her other epic programs
I read somewhere it was even more intense and I can’t imagine more intense 😂😂
Love the aesthetic of that front door!
My husband just got back from his first trip out of the country and it was such an unusual experience to have to arrange COVID testing. To get into the US he only needed a negative antigen test ($45), but his same-day PCR test in the Denver airport (required to get back into Canada) was $325 CAD! These were all business expenses, so it feels a bit moot…but incredibly cost prohibitive for leisure travel with the whole family, and I know people that have cancelled trips because of the cost of all the testing. Eeks. So hard to believe we’re almost 24 months into this…!
So glad you’re going to be able to see some family in such a safe way. Hope it’s a wonderful time for everyone!
It’s not just the cost but the uncertainty for international travel. We have a long booked trip away from the UK to Mauritius in December and have to take PCR tests to travel and antigen tests while we are there (with quarantine for those who test positive). My son is 10 and not eligible for vaccination in the UK so could catch it at any time (he’s in in-person school unmasked and travelling on London public transport with the majority unmasked). There’s little I can do but, as an upholder control freak, it’s very challenging!
I love Bodyfit by Amy workouts. She has a ton of free workouts on YouTube as well as a paid membership.