Home Sweet Home

Today was a big day for our family, we closed on our new home this morning. Our for-a-very-long-time home. We're so happy to have found it.  We went straight 'home' after our closing. Piper held the new keys. It was a bit surreal going in by ourselves for the first time - we'd been waiting for this day for months now. It didn't have any of our stuff, nor our smell, but it was ours. 

We had cake, that Piper and I made yesterday, in celebration of our new beginnings in this place. I think us girls were the most excited about this celebration, as we planned it. Calder was just happy to have been given chocolate milk. Zac busily walked around documenting the house, which we didn't do in our last house and always regretted it, before we put any of us into it. 

Then we got right to work. The littles and I attacked this room while Zac pulled up the very (very!) old linoleum in the kitchen. This will soon be Calder's room. Very man's office-ish, no? 

All that not so cute wallpaper you see came down. We still have a bit of paper backing to scrape from the walls, then to wash them before we can start painting. But I already feel it's much improved. We forgot to take an end of day one picture, but will first thing tomorrow. 

Zac has already met neighbors on both sides of us and a few others from across the street. As my mom says, he's good for that. And many other things - of course.

The Good Stuff

When I look around I think this, this is good enough. And I try to laugh at whatever life brings. Cuz when I look down I just miss all the good stuff and when I look up I just trip over things.

- Ani Difranco

Strawberry Season

Sorry for the patchy blogging. I've been focused on other things, and just not feeling it. Anyway, last week we went strawberry picking. I'm guessing you know the drill: pick, eat, make a mess of your face and hope that you pick more than you can eat.

It's amazing how much just one year's time can make. Last year, Calder was a 'baby', I feel he's still a baby (my baby) but really he's a toddler. Calder didn't need me to carry him in the carrier. He wasn't helpful in picking but he didn't care too much for eating the berries either. Calder's so touch and go with his like of fruit. Which is shocking to me - I thought everyone loved fruit. By the looks of his face you'd never know he hadn't been shoveling them in hand over fist. Calder did find great entertainment in the flag we needed to place where we stopped our picking. Putting it in the ground, pulling it out and putting it in somewhere else. All the while wearing the sunhat I made for him for our GA trip. It's reversible! Piper's version of the same hat has chickens on it. Smile!

Piper on the other hand loves strawberries. She ate loads, although not nearly as messily as Calder. Unlike last year, she ate only what she picked. And she ended up with berries in her basket. She was so proud. So was I. We were there longer than I expected the two littles to last. I was pleased and we left while it was still fun for them.

We're almost out of jam making that the big project with our pickings. Piper woke really early one morning asking if I'd get up with her. We started making a batch of jam. How excited was she when I set her up with her own knife and cutting board. I gave her the big berries and she hulled them and put them in her own measuring cup. She ended up with one and a half cups and I had to reclaim some of the berry left from her cutting. She and I enjoyed our time cleaning berries.

As I prepared for jam making I realized that my canner was in our storage unit. I didn't feel like going out there to search for it. Instead I searched online (what can't you find online) and followed this honey sweetened no canner recipe. Much to my dismay as I readied jars and lids I found that, save two, my jar rings are also in storage, probably with my canner. Needless to say I had to make do and use pint jars instead of the smaller jam jars and scrounge up all the store bought jar lids (you can reseal those!). It worked, we have 7 1/2 pints of strawberry jam on the shelf and a bit of whole berries in the freezer.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and strawberry season. 

Welcome Summer!

With summer now officially here (Happy Summer Solstice to you all), I thought I'd put together a family to-do list for us. So as to not forget that picking paint colors and curtain fabric is not the only thing to be doing this summer. Not that some of those things didn't make the list. 

What is on your summer to-do list? 

Rainy Day Project

It was a rainy sort of day, so instead of playing outside like we've been doing, we did a project inside. One Piper has been waiting to do for some time now. Wool felting. My lady had high expectations for her, our, first time. She wanted to make felt balls, then turn those into flowers which she was going to make into hair clips. Yes, expectations were just a tad bit high. 

She loved the water and playing in it. She couldn't quite get the ball making technique down. And it frustrated her for a bit. But then she moved on to making other things, a bear, a scarf and a penguin. No, fancy flower hair clips, however, satisfied none the less.

And this guy. He didn't get anything felted, not for lack of trying. A few splashes in the water was all he needed to be satisfied with the project. But he did walk around looking all cute getting into mischief quite a bit.

Weekend Doings

This weekend we did Ride the Drive. It was our first year, and it was a lot of fun. We rode our bikes, Zac pulled the kids in the trailer, downtown to the event. Which turned out to be surprisingly easier than anticipated. Our ride home however, was wrought with hills. We made it, to find this...

Awe!

Spent a lot of time thinking about and planning for this place. Our soon to be new-to-us home. Yeah!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.