I am now a fur mommy

 

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One of the things about being a single person with no children is you become a mommy to other species.  Let me explain today’s topic….

About almost 3 years ago, my nephew and his girlfriend came to me at the time and ask me if they could bring home a kitten.  This family, especially me and mom are not fond of cats.  I do not know what is it about cats, but the cats that were around mom when she was a child were outdoors cats, and they roamed where they wanted to roam.  They were not allowed in the house (both mom and dad were raised in a rural area, outside a small town called Moundville, Alabama).  Neither were dogs but they were tolerated for the most part.  The only cats I had been around as a child was a family friend’s cat named Monkey.  I was scared of cats because Monkey scratched me when I was 6.  I never had any cats around me until I laid eyes on Gizmo.

Meet Miss Gizmo Elizabeth

Anyway, up until today, I have always referred to Gizmo as my nephew and his girlfriend’s cat because they were the ones who basically took care of her, until their daughter was born in February 2020.  I knew they had to move to a new place because there was barely enough room for the 5 of us (me, Gizmo, nephew, girlfriend, and Strype, who is a miniature Husky), with the baby would make 6.  The baby is now 5 months old, and every day that she grows, she needs more room.  Eventually, this means her own room.

When she was born, my nephew and his girlfriend moved into my parent’s home with them.  They have more room than I need.  Gizmo stayed here, and I started feeding her, and my nephew came over once a week to change the litter box.  Now they are moving to a new city where his father and step-mom are staying, which is an hour and a half from here.

I got upset when I hear the news.  So, they decided to let me have Gizmo, and I am now officially a cat mommy.  I had hoped to be a human mommy first, with my child begging for a dog, cat, or the occasional hamster or gerbil (sorry future children, mommy does not do snakes, mice, lizards, or spiders), but I will take being a fur baby mommy as well. So, what does it take to be a fur baby mommy?  Well….

1. In the first two years, I learned of her temperament.  Gizmo is a pretty chill cat.  She wants to be cuddled, but she also is in a place that I could be sitting at my desk (like I am now) and she lays at my feet or goes someplace to lay in the sun.  She loves her sun.  She will lay there for hours if I let her.  I will get up on occasion to check on her. This includes what she likes and does not like.  She will scratch or slightly bite me if she does not like it (stroking her head for too long).
2. She loves belly rubs (but not for long).
3. She does not like her cat bed.  It is going back to Ikea.  She has not laid on it.  She will lay around it, but I have never seen her on it, even for a minute.  I gave her two months with it and nothing.  I am going to try a cat tree.  By the way, Ikea has a 365-day return policy.
4. She is not crazy about wet cat food.   I give it too her every once in a while, and I got a can with my grocery order this time.  I am going to try a Chewy.com subscription.  She has never had any cat treats before.  I am not sure how I feel about that.

So, now I have some tips for all you first-time fur baby parents.

1.  Know what type of animal you are getting.  Do you want a dog? A cat? A ferret? Fish?  It does not matter what type of animal you are getting as long as you do the research.  I knew Gizmo since she was 6 months old, but she was my nephew’s cat. I had dogs before…at my parent’s home.  Guess who took care of them.  Yep, my parents.  We were in charge of the feeding and the cleaning up, but it was my parents who took them to the vet, making sure they had the food to eat (the right kind), and where they were going to sleep at, not only at home (the dogs were mostly outdoors, except in really bad weather; Gizmo is an indoor cat) but where will they be boarded when we go out of town.  I have a retreat in January out of town.  Cats can take care of themselves for a week.  I will be gone for 3 days, but to be on the safe side, and since I will have a carrier to take her back and forth, I may take her to my nephew’s house.  If the family goes to Walt Disney World next year, I will have to board somewhere for a week because my nephew, his girlfriend, and baby will be at Walt Disney World too.  I have not seen any rules about boarding cats at Disney, only dogs.
2. Establish a routine with them.  Gizmo has a routine already, but I am changing it up a bit.  What I mean is I am getting rid of the current litterbox for a new one so that I can change it.  I got her a cat bed, but it is not working, so I am getting rid of it for a cat tree.  I will have a chewy subscription, and she will have a regular vet.
3. Speaking of which.  Like you need a regular doctor, so does the animal.  Get a vet that is friendly and board if you need it.  One of the dogs had a vet who also boards them.  Most will clean and groom a pet while you are gone. 
4. Finally, talk to it.  I have mommy and me time with Gizmo.  I will sit and cuddle her, and say something positive to her.  I tell her she is a pretty cat and a good fur daughter.  Not only it helps them, but it also helps you too.  cuddling a pet has been known to lower blood pressure.  This is why doctors and therapists use them in hospitals.  Call it animal affirmations.

Well, that is it for now on the pet end.  I will have more, since your pet is part of the family, and I do have family posts on here.  I will also talk about the adoption of a pet, rescue pets (Strype is a rescue mini Husky), and other pet care areas.

Until then, be well.

Food Delivery-One year later

 

Today, I am going to follow-up on a subject that I talked about two years ago.  At this time, I was not sure if I like the idea of having meals from my favorite restaurants delivered or not.  My feelings at the time were, if I could take the time to order from them, I could take that same amount of time to go into my kitchen and whip up a meal or two.  After all, there were three advantages of cooking your own meal.  One, I know what goes into my meals, two, I can shop my grocery store for those meals and spend less money on those ingredients that the restaurants have to buy in bulk and keep on hand because the entrée is on the menu, and three, I can portion control my meals.  In order for the person to get their money’s worth out of a meal, restaurants feel that bigger is better.  Not if you are watching calories.

I still have those feelings, but I now have a soft spot for companies like Uber Eats, Postmates, Grub Hub, and DoorDash.  You can read the original post, and see my results.

What’s changed?

Covid-19, that’s all I can say.  Before March 15, I ordered my meals to be delivered every once in a while.  I really did not have an excuse for ordering out. I had two other people living with me at the time.  It was my nephew and his girlfriend, and sometimes we would have a family meal, and sometimes they would have their meal and I would have mine.  We shared the groceries.  On February 23, 2020, they welcomed a baby girl into their lives, and they went to live with my parents while looking for a place of their own. So now, they live 5 minutes from me.  I have their cat, but as soon as they move, the cat goes with them. She is the sweet little thing. I am talking about both the baby and the cat.

When we sheltered in place, I was not sure how I was going to get my groceries.   This was new territory for me.  Luckily, I did start to order out, but I started getting bored with it. By July, when the governor said it was okay to open up the bars and other eating place back up, It was my cue to start getting back to normal. I was getting tired of pulling up the Uber Eats app on my Ipad, then I thought to myself that I really like this.

Uber Eats pros

Naturally, when I start to think about the pros of using Uber Eats (or any other delivery service) is the convenience.  Sure, there is the “I’m too tired to cook”, and when you have to deal with kids all day and you are sick of cleaning, and you feel like unappreciated by these tiny humans, the last you want to do is to cook for them. This option is also a plus if you are a single person like me who has no kids and you now work remotely from home. I usually order something that I would normally not cook in the kitchen like poke or sushi. Both are easy to make (I have made them before) I do not have the proper skills to make them.  After all, it is not easy cutting up raw fish.

The next pro is no cleanup.  It is nice to get out your paper plates or eat right out of the container, with the utensils they provide, then throw away once finished with your meal.

The last tip is to save on gas.  Most of our lives are spent traveling in a car unless you are unable to afford one.   One of the problems I have especially in the winter months is the routine one must do to prepare to go to a simple place a drive-thru.  First, you plan where you want to go, put on shoes, 10 points if it is snowing really badly, then it is booted.  Next, put on the outerwear, another 10 points if what you are wearing is a double-layered parka, I bought one at Costco last year, that thing is so cozy, too bad I cannot drive in it.  I will have to explain to you my whole winter month ritual while driving when January comes around.  If there is snow on the ground and roads, retreat, or risk doing donuts on black ice. Get to the fast food place and you better have exact change or your debit card out.  At the moment, coins are scarce in the United States.  Put in 10 more points if they get your order right, another 10 for a nice teen.

Cons of using food delivery by Uber Eats

I already mentioned two of them:

Not a good choice for calorie counting.  If you are looking to see how many calories your favorite sandwich in your favorite eating place, this is not it.  Even though they are required by law to disclose that information, sometimes they do not. The best place to find out is to go to the restaurant’s website and look around.

Same with Macro counting, which I will be starting next week.

Budget:  Not good.  Listen, if you want to save money, cook it yourself.  Your card gets charged twice.  Once for the food itself, then the fees for the service.  You will see it on your statement.  It is a small charge but added up over time, it can take a chunk out of your budget.

Items can go missing.  Three weeks ago, I order a drink with my meal.  I do not order one that often because I am trying to stay hydrated and have water with my meals.  Not only that, but it is also easier to have this stuff at the house.  Like I said, I only order food that I cannot recreate in my own kitchen.  Anyway, I felt like having some iced tea.  I did not have any in the house, not even a teabag.  I had sugar, but no tea. So, with my poke bowl, I place a bottle of iced tea in my cart and paid for it.  When the meal arrived, no tea.  I stated that on the review site.  I hope I get my $2.00 refunded.  This was the second time this happened.

So, the question remains today, do I still like food delivery despite the pandemic.  Um, yes.  I love it.  Before I can put this post away, I want to talk about the other type of food delivery.

Shopping for groceries…

You heard me right, having your groceries delivered, more important, delivered with other items.

I have used Target’s delivery for two months.  I miss going into the store, but you know, Covid-19.  So far, I love it.  The first two deliveries, I paid $9.99 for the delivery charge, and the third time, I signed up for Shipt.  The one thing that I noticed about Shipt is how inventive the driver is. I had been tempted to use Shipt for a while, but I never had the nerve to use them before now.  The first is free, and then it is $99 annually.

Likewise, I used Kroger’s delivery, and I was not pleased with it at all.  I ordered at the store that I normally shopped at (which was the one near my doctor’s office, while the one near my house sucks), and they switched the order to the one by my house.  They did not get half the items I asked for.  I knew now all stores are the same, even if they are from the same company.  I thought that at least they would have the substitutions, and they did for a few, but not all of the items I asked and paid for.   

One of the food services I did not mention that I used was Walmart.com.  I used them when the pandemic started.  I never got out of my car, and yes, they do deliver, but the store they would have delivered from, is like the Kroger’s close to my home.  It is not in a favorable location, and they do not care about the products that I would be looking for.  The reason I stopped picking up from the location was they too had a lot of substitutions or were out.

I think that most of the time, it was when I had the groceries delivered or when I picked up.  They were later on in the day when products have been picked over.  I work at home and I need my beauty sleep, which is no excuse for not getting the quality of foods that I seek.  This is not a problem for prepared food delivery, but keep in mind if you use Uber Eats that each restaurant does have an inventory of entrees that made for delivery. 

 

Sites mentioned in this post:

 

Uber Eats

Kroger’s

Target

Walmart       

New Series: 56 Home Prep things

I just celebrated my birthday.  Yeah, that one.  July 21 is the date.  I am not one to reveal my age because I do not feel it and I do not think it.  Let’s just say that I am a Gen X, the forgotten generation.  They talk about the Baby Boomers and they talk about the Millennials, and they talk about the older folks (my parent’s age group) but they never talk about mine.  I guess that we are the people that others warn each other about.  So, if you were born between 1964-1979, you know exactly what I am talking about, but this is not that conversation.  Not here, and not on this blog.  I can explain further as I go through “56 My Ambiance Life Things on that blog, or not.  You never know until you read all 4 blogs.  Did I say 4?

Here's to the start of a new series!!!

Hello, long time, no see, rather no write.  I have been thinking.  They say that if you think too hard, something ugly might come up.  OK, I am the only one who said it, BUUTTT….

So, today and for the next couple of week or so, I will have 56 Home Prep things on this blog, 56 My Ambiance Life things on that blog, 56 P. Lynne Designs things on that blog and 56 Miss Froggy Loves Traveling things on that blog.  Each series has no rhyme or reason except that it has to do with what each blog has in store for the reader.  In the Home Prep blog's case, it is home living, organization, and of a lifestyle of home, beauty, and product reviews. So here’s a start.

Today’s topic: Quarantine cleaning and organizing

I have been doing a thing that someone might consider “nesting”. I wrote about it some years ago in the My Ambiance Life blog, and the title at the time was, “Am I Nesting?”  At the time, yes, and now yes, but for a different reason, I am sick of the way that this condo has been looking since the start of Covid-19, and really before.  In fact, after re-reading my “Am I Nesting?” post, I am sure I am in the same position I was when I wrote it.  The only difference is the room intended is much cleaner, less cluttered, and will be ready for both baby/child and craftroom.  My nephew and girlfriend no longer live in the room, and they need to move the remaining stuff out of there. I am almost sure that I am in the mode that most people are in since March, and that is “quarantine cleaning” and “quarantine organizing”. 

I have been changing things in my kitchen as well, throwing out old containers and buying new ones for the sugar, flour, and other ingredients needed, and I have a cute little coffee bar.

So, how did I do it?  I would love to say that it is super simple, but it is not.  For this project, I would have to give it about a 5 (1 meaning you do not have to think just do, to 10 meaning you need an expert to help navigate).

Disclaimer:  There is no right or wrong way of doing this project.  Do not stress or overthink the project.  Do what makes you happy. These are only suggestions.

Project Needs:

Honestly, you really do not need a thing.  If you have been organizing before, you can “shop” from your home.

Education time:  When I say “shop” from your home, this means that you can literally take things from other spaces of your home and repurpose them to another space.  For an example:  I used to be a Longaberger Home Consultant (now called Longaberger stylist), I have tons of baskets from the time I started selling (October 8, 2001) to the time when the previous owners declared bankruptcy and were bought out (after court litigation)(May 5, 2018), and these baskets are versatile for many reasons in many spaces.  If I do not like the Medium Market Basket in my bedroom, I can repurpose it for the Master Bathroom or my car.  All I have to do is take it from my bedroom to the new space, thus the meaning of “shopping” in your own home.  You did not have to get dressed, check your bank account, and go to the store (or Amazon) to get what you need for space.  This saves time, space, and money.  You already have what you need.  I will further explain “shopping” in your home on a future “56 Home Prep things” blog post.

If you do not have what you need for the space that you are trying to clean and organize, you are welcome to go shopping for what you need or if you are like me, you will also shop your parent’s home to see if they are going to use something in the future.

Oh, I forgot… You will need a notebook or binder.  Choose your weapon of choice.  The reason? You will need to take some notes.   This is part of the planning process and you will need to write an introduction to your project.  What is included?  Write the following:

*  Any measurements

*  Your color scheme

*  Any styling you want

Prices of the items you buy in case you may have to buy something or do not want to shop from your home.

Note: If you do not want to shop from your home, I suggest that you get rid of some items in a giveaway to a relative or sell it.  If you sell the item, please put the money to good use (like a bill, towards the new item that is going in the space, or a charity).  It does not matter how much you are making already, you are going to need this money. 

Steps to completing the project:

Disclaimer #2: Shopping in your home (as explained earlier) also helps keep social distancing in check.  As I write this in July, one day after my birthday, the state and federal governments still are not sure what to do.  It is best to shop in the home until better solutions to this pandemic can be given without the government threatening. There is nothing wrong with going shopping, especially if the item is delivered or you do curbside pickup.  I want you to be safe and your loved ones safe.

Survey your room: 

In this exercise, you are not clearing out anything yet, You are taking notes.  As explained earlier, you are planning this project to turn out how you want.  During this process, you will be doing a little investigating.  Using my craftroom as an example, I sat down, and I thought about the following:

What I wanted out of the room?  That is simple, I wanted a room where I can create projects for myself and others.  My current space, which is in my dining room turns into a home office that is not working for me.  I need a space that I can spread out and be able to work without dealing with a cat that will not let me work.  Even before I got Gizmo, I wanted the ability to spread out.  My office is next to the kitchen, which on a good lazy day if I am eating at my desk (which I often do), I can throw a tissue into the sink from my chair.  That is how close I am to the kitchen.  This also separates me from getting any food on my work.  I also want a space to store my craft supplies. Currently, I am using my living room for that, and I would like to entertain without my company seeing all of my stuff.  I also like the idea of closing the door to work each day.  It reminds me to take a break and take care of some other item, and it symbolizes me getting into my “car” each evening and driving home.  The door closing is me walking out to my car, and walking down the stairs or going next door to my bedroom, symbolizes me walking into my home and going to the couch.

BTW, half of my home office is moving upstairs too.  what you want may be different than me, especially if you have been spending the last four and a half months working from home.

What do I want in the space?  I have mentioned everything as before, my craft and office supplies and a place to craft.

How big is the area?  It is slightly smaller than my master bedroom.

How many hours so I plan on spending there? I plan on spending about an average of 5-6 hours, some days more, some days less depending on the project or order.

Anything else? Yes, I have to be able to transition it back to a bedroom.  Did I mention that I still want to be a mom?  My child needs space and since I only have one extra bedroom (other than my own), it is paramount that my child comes first before my business.  Plus, I am in the process of looking for a new home anyway, child or no child. So this means no build-ins and nothing that is permanent to the walls or floors. Ikea has lots of furniture that makes it look like I have some build-ins, so that is what I am using in the room. I already have a Kallax 3 x4 unit.

Next….

Once you make these notes, now you are ready to measure.  Measure everything, the walls, closet space (if it is a bedroom), counters (kitchen, garage, office, and bathroom), and floor space.  You do not want to return anything unless the store made a mistake. 

Measure twice to make sure that you are not off in your measurements.  If you are not sure, ask for another person to help you. Write these down.  Screenshot them on your phone so you can take it to the store with you.

 

Further research….?

It depends on you.  After planning do you need more information?

Work in bite-size increments.  Even though things are not with they seem, you can still take it slow, since delivery is slow.  I am still somewhat quarantined.  I cannot go to a restaurant and have a sit-down meal.  I use Uber Eats a lot, even more so since I did that post a year ago on how I felt about fast food delivery.  My, oh how times have changed.  I love it now.

Putting it all together…..

You have planned, created a budget, check on the space, the measurements, and prices on the materials.  Everything has been delivered and it is time to bring this whole thing to a close.  You can change your mind on where everything goes in that space.  You can find more organization pieces and you can send things back if they do not fit your changes.  Again, there is no wrong way of doing things.  

Once the project is finished, are you satisfied with the result?  Please, do not lie to yourself and say “yes”.  If you can afford it, and it is within your budget, change it. Do not change everything, only the parts you do not like, and do not wait until the 30-day return policy runs out.

Tip: if you do wait until the 30-day policy runs out and you cannot use the item in another part of your house, do a quick sell of the item on one of the selling sites Mercari, Let Go, and a couple others like them that I cannot think of it.

Enjoy your new space.

Thank you for reading the first of 56 mini to full blog posts.  Please note that I am not an expert yet on everything regarding space and what has worked for me.  As I said at the beginning of this post, I will also do a “56 posts” series in my other respected blogs:  P. Lynne Designs, My Ambiance Life, and Miss Froggy Loves Traveling. I have decided for the moment that this series will be an annual thing, happening around July 21, which is my birthday.  This is something that will help me motivate me to keep more consistent blog posts, which has not been happening lately.  I am not going to lie about it. Covid had left me unmotivated.  This is also around the time that I want to change up my business, P. Lynne Designs a bit.  Not much, just little tweaks here and there.

If you have any questions or any topics that you would like to see me tackle in Home Prep, let me know in the comments below or you can shoot me an email to plogan721@att.net

The Shape of Things to Come…

THIS IS A SHORT POST TODAY!  NEW POST IS COMING AFTER THIS ONE!

The way that this world today is mind-boggling.  Never would anyone imagine that a little thing like a virus would stop the world as we know it.   

Two weeks ago, I was contemplating this stuff I had to do for my business, my home (spring cleaning), and time. 

I am not here to talk about the world and what COVID-19 is doing to it.  Unless you decided along time ago (as in 5-20 years) to isolate yourself from the world, to which congratulations are in order and live in a cave somewhere off the coast of The Caribbean on an island, I am here to talk about a different shape of things to come.

(c) 2020 by Pixistock.com

I am talking about this blog.  I have hinted this on the My Ambiance Life blog, and it is finally getting ready to roost. First off, the current blog of At Home with Tricia's Baskets will change names once again (hopefully this will be a permanent name-next time will be in the art of deleting it).  The reason has to do with how this blog was set up, and how it functions as of now. 

First off, I did a major scramble when Longaberger first closed its doors for what I thought was a permanent thing.  Anyone who has been following this blog for quite a while knows that I used to be a home consultant for the company, and the first thing I did after naming this blog was to get rid of anything remoting related to any sales on this blog.  I only left a couple that highly mentions Longaberger and any of its past products. I was not ashamed of selling for the company, I did not want to keep explaining to potential clients that the company was no longer in business, and I could not take their order if that was the end goal for that person.

I would like to invite you to look at the New Longaberger website, and the company will be run by Rachel Longaberger Stukey, another daughter of Dave.  When Tami was running the company, Rachel was behind the scenes running the Longaberger Foundation and attending the convention for consultants.   The company has a new owner, and currently, there are no consultants, only the website and QVC, that are selling the products.  As I stated in the past post, when the company starts requesting for consultant again, I will not be part of the salesforce.  I had my run, and I am working on my own company, P. Lynne Designs.

Second, The name will not reflect my name at all.  I know, shocking.  It will not contain the word, “baskets” in it either.  The name of the new blog is called, “Home Prep”.  It will be on the WordPress platform and it will talk about the home and family. 

Finally, the travel portion of the blog will have a new blog.  It is tentatively named D’Princesses Travel Blog.  You know what that means, Disney Travel first, the rest of the world and cruises later.  It will all be there.

This time, I will not be removing posts from the blog.  I realized that it was a big mistake.  I will not be changing the blog name on the old blog.  I am keeping the name, At Home with Tricia's Baskets and there will be a link to the old blog as well on the new one.  I fact, I will have a link to all of my blogs and websites on all of my blogs when I change, as well as affiliates. 

Here are the topics I have on Home Prep:

1. Organization:  This has been a running theme since I was writing in Simply Organized Crafts.  In this category, you will find:
1. Home-closet, kitchen, bedroom, and craft room (which was previously covered in my craft blog, P. Lynne Designs) are the main subjects.
2. Work-time management, office organization (which may be different than The home office)
2. Time management- Believe it or not, time management is part of home organization, and once you divide your time into manageable pieces, your life will be easier to manage as well.
3. Decoration:  Once you have organized your home, it is time to decorate, and not just any decoration will do, it must be on a budget. I am not talking about only Dollar Tree, but there are some really good deals in Target, Ikea, and even Pottery Barn, if you know where to look. There are also projects to make ordinary-looking items look like you spent thousands of dollars, when you only spent a fraction on creating them.

There is so much more.  These are only the major parts of the new blog.

New Name, Same Blog: Home Prep With Tricia

OK, you may have wondered where I have been for the past, oh say, a month or two, maybe three.  I have been thinking.  It all started when I changed this blog’s name from Tricia’s Baskets, home of all things Longaberger, including the products, sales, and whatnot, to At Home with Tricia's Baskets. I had said all this time that the name was a way to transition from the decorating with Longaberger feel about this blog to other brands, decorating with what you have, Ikea, organization, and traveling to name a few.  Well, it is time to abandon Tricia’s Baskets for real this time.  It all started with a journey, a Disney Journey. 

Planning for a change-Photo by
DarkWorkX for Pixabay

Back in September, I believe it was, I set out to talk about how to go from “I’m Going to Disney World with my family” to “We are getting ready to ride Dumbo”.  Let me tell you what a failure that was, and I very rarely admit to failure.  It was a total disaster on my part.  I will write about it later, but the problems stemmed from failure to inform a family member until the last minute and feeling guilty about it to enforce the money paying schedule to members who were paying, to finally swallowing my pride, and calling Disney World reservations to cancel the trip in October.  This to me was no way to do any type of prep, both in the home or getting ready for a trip.

This gave me an idea: Change the Name, again.

I know there are tons of information out there about preparing for something, like finance, Home buying, decorating, and travel, but in one place?  It is possible for me to entertain and to inform.  I have tackled this in the form of Simply Organized Crafts (Now Simply Organized Business on Facebook), where I covered these same topics, except travel, which was in the form of “Traveling to the Mouse’s House”, a blog about traveling to Disney World with a large family.  I really did not want to have 5 blogs also include My Ambiance Life, and P. Lynne Designs (which is becoming a selling website).  So out of the ashes comes Home Prep With Tricia.

Home Prep With Tricia is basically At Home with Tricia's Baskets and Tricia’s Baskets without the Longaberger products.  If you want to learn more about the blog’s purpose, you can read here.

The name is shorter for both me and you, but mainly for you.  I want you to remember the name, and the average human cannot remember a title any more than 4 words, and they have to be short and sweet.  The name gives purpose, even though there is some traveling sprinkled in there.  I will focus on budget decoration, budget organization, working inside the house (I refuse to say the “C” word (cleaning), and traveling.  It sounds like a lot, but really it isn’t.

come and relax a while -Pixabay

The platform is changing, and I have the groundwork for a WordPress platform, which is on the SiteGround hosting site, so that means that the blog is moving.  Yes, I know most people use Bluehost, but this comes highly recommended by one of my mentors, Renae Christine.  As a side note:  I do not recommend HostGator at all.  I had a really bad experience that I will and have talked about over on my other blog, My Ambiance Life.  This resulted in someone stealing my site, placing Malware on it, Google rejecting it, and HostGator not caring.  It was a terrible 5 months back in 2018. I also have some choice words for Google about Blogger, but they are mild in comparison to my choice words about HostGator, and I highly recommend the host site to someone who is just getting started with a website or blog, and they do not want something technical because WordPress can get very technical, and if you are not ready, then again, I recommend this website host. 

Well, I had said that this was going to be a “short and sweet” post.  The blog name will come when I switch over to the new platform.  I am typing after Midnight, Eastern standard time, so I do not have the time to set things up.  I will start placing this week, hopefully, no later than next week.  Once that is done, and the announcement of further changes and additions will be made on Home Prep With Tricia, and there will be some changes in the future as this blog grows in its new home.

In the meantime, thank you for being patient with me and this blog.  If you read my other blog, My Ambiance Life, I made the announcement of things to come on that blog as well.  Also, come and leave a comment or two.