The perfect New England fall day

Today was one of those infamous New England days. The sky was an amazingly vibrant blue, the air crisp but the sun warm, some colors still on the trees. Perfect. We went for a refreshing hike around our neighbors' property through peaceful hemlock and pine groves (as peaceful as a 1 and 3 year old will let you be). Then we came home to be greeted by some of the staff bringing us butternut squash soup and homemade pumpkin pie. Yummy!

What could be a better close to the perfect autumn day than carving pumpkins, eating warm, crunchy pumpkin seeds with friends?







This pumpkin was carved by a friend of ours. Abigail has been obsessed with the Bearenstain Bear books lately. And this is a "Space Grizzly" character from the book Bad Dream. Awesome work!

Matt and I are leaving for NYC tomorrow for an overnight. Post some stories and pictures when we get back.

Cures for a case of the breakfast time blues

Anyone with small children can relate to the struggles that often arise around meal time. Breakfast is one of the hardest for me and the kids. Well, not Tristan so much, he is ready to eat anytime. But Abigail is often too excited to start her day to stop and eat a meal. So I have been experimenting in ways to make breakfast, if not fun (I am not a morning person:), at least enticing.

One that, I am sure many parents have tried, is playing restaurant. We do this all the time for all kinds of meals! I am often the waitress and Abigail (again Tristan doesn't need any prompting to eat!) gets to choose her food and drink from a verbal menu and her place at the table. She also likes to be a waitress herself and deliver food to her brother.

Lately, however, I think she is catching on to this playtime and is realizing that is it actually a parenting methos getting her to eat. So, we have also started eating breakfast with her tea set. I put juice in her tea pot and she pours it into her cup herself. She chooses which plates hold what, etc. I think having control over her meal helps her want to eat well.

Also, I often allow her to eat non-breakfast type foods if she requests them. Does it really matter if she eats mac-n-cheese or PBJ sandwich for breakfast? Not in my mind. She is eating!

Finally, our latest breakfast has been the stuffed apple. Great for preschoolers. Here are the instructions:
1 Take 1 apple and slice it in half.
2 Core it but do not quarter it.
3 Leave skin on or cut off, depending on child's perference.
4 Fill the whole left by the core with peanut butter or jelly (I know it sounds a little gross but they like it!). Nuttella may also be good although I have never tried it myself.
5 Put the two halves together (Peanut butter helps them stay together the best) and viola, a fun new breakfast with a surprise in the middle.

If you have any meal time secrets, please share them.

Happy eating!

Pictures of the homefront

Finally, as promised, here are some pictures of our new home. Welcome to the Birches!

The front of our house that faces the driveway.


Two views of the back of the house and deck, which is a great spot for entertaining.


Our kitchen is through the front door. A good amount of cabinet space and a dishwasher!


Our woodstove which is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the cabinets. You can also see into the kids room from here and the door to the bathroom where our washer and dryer is located.


The living room/dining room area looking from the living room to the dining room, kitchen around the corner, office and stairs to loft bedroom at your back.


Love the fireplace and stonework.


Our bedroom on the second floor. Is a loft (excuse the unmade bed but that's the way it always looks!)


Now for some outside shots. An amazing solid stone bench. The stones are just stacked on top of one another, no mortar and let me tell you this thing does not move.


View of back yard from deck.



A firepit complete with benches. Matt's handiwork with a chain saw, of course.


Named as our guest cottage. There is a room inside the building that takes up most of the space. That is where we are attempting to clean out and put a bed as well as some wall and shelf storage. We are also looking into options of heating it with a wood stove. The other space is used for a small woodshop, a chest freezer and animal proof trash storage.


The back of the cottage overlooks a small brook. There is also a narrow covered balcony in the back known by the previous owner as the gentleman's deck.


For a more detailed description of the house and property, see previous post.
We are so blessed to live in this beautiful place. Thanks be to God!

Watch out world!

It has finally happened...our satellite internet was installed today!! My world is changing! I just had a web chat with a friend, a web chat! I couldn't even download a picture and now I am chatting. Crazy. So expect pictures, videos, madness.

For example, we are storing up like squirrels here. We ordered 5 cords of wood for the winter which is being delivered 1/2 a cord at a time. I don't even really now how much a cord of wood is but I am learning. Here is a picture of one row of our wood stock which is 1/2 a cord. There is another row behind it and several stacks of wood in the back that are waiting to be split.


Here is Tristan taking after his daddy hefting logs bigger than himself.


We also picked up a bushel of pears yesterday. The orchard was in a beautiful spot right at the base of Greylock Mt which is the highest mountain in Mass. Here a a picture of 3/4 of the bushel stashed our oven to ripen for canning. I have to keep reminding myself not to turn on the oven or we will have a lot of baked pears instead of canned pears. More pictures to come of the canning process itself later this week.

Cool sewing patterns, anyone?

I am on a search for a company that makes easy to moderate level of difficulty sewing patterns that are somewhat hip and not something that my grandma would wear. A bonus would also be if they had small petite sizes (like 4 or smaller). Anyone have any company suggestions? I look forward to the brainstorming!

Long trip home and still no satellite

Sigh, just an update and the reason why I haven't blogged in a bit. Still, no satellite internet. Sigh. Long story short, we canceled service with the company because of promising something they couldn't deliver and not showing up several times when they said they would.

We went with a new company and they were supposed to install today. They called while we were in PA to say they don't have the equipment yet. 2-3 weeks. I am not getting my hopes up but I will keep blogging in the meantime. And delight in the day when I can post pictures and download my email in a reasonable time.

We returned yesterday from our first trip back to PA since we moved in April. It was a good all around good trip but bittersweet. It was so uplifting to see family and friends and spend time laughing and hugging and visiting. But also disheartening knowing that these people are not a part of our daily life anymore. I can't just call them and get together for dinner or stop by their house on my way home from wherever. We have lots of friends with kids and it was hard to think that they won't grow up playing together. And that our godson won't grow up really knowing us.

I have not once questioned whether we made the right decision to move here. This is where we are meant to be, I am sure of that. God has good work here for all of us. But what we have left behind is significant and will never be able to be replaced. I am not always very good at keeping in touch but there are too many important relationships for me in PA to be lazy.

It did feel , however, so right to come back to the peace and quiet of our home, our woods. I love the city but this land, this house, this mountain feeds and soothes in a way concrete, buildings, and busy-ness cannot. Still settling in, still transitioning to this new place and new life.

A faster speed in less than 24 hours...

Oh the possibilities! We are getting satellite internet in less than 24 hours!! Imagine posts more often than every 10 days because that's all I have patience for, pictures (!), and now that blogger has video unloading, who knows what I might subject you to - (boring) videos of my kids doing oh-so-cute (yet still boring because they are not your kids and you don't necessarily think they are the cutest, smartest, wittiest, most creative being ever to live, unless you are their grandparents of course) everyday things like eating breakfast or sleeping. But I know you will humor me and tell me how wonderful they are anyway. Thank you!