The snow is beginning to reach the windows...

This last storm dropped a foot of snow for a grand total so far of 3 feet, give or take where you are, with 7 more inches to come this weekend. The snow is to the top of the railing on our deck and has reached the windows in the back of our house. At this rate, I think we might float away when spring, aka mud season, actually does come.

Before



After


peace

A "family" recipe

Making this for dinner tonight gave me the motivation to do something I have been meaning to do for a while (the story of my life), post it!

This recipe is a favorite in our house. It's comfort food, warm, yummy and a good way to sneak vegetables into our daughter (one of many reasons I love soups). Perfect for a day like we are having today; snow, snow, snow. The best part, though, is the recipe itself. My dad gave me this recipe over the phone when Matt and I were first married and his description just cracks me up.

Wedding soup - Jack Russell style

-Chicken breast (cook a little by itself in water to get blood out) Dad, I am still not sure I fully understand what that means :-)
-Chop up small onion, saute in oil
-Throw in couple of cloves of garlic for 30 seconds
-Throw in 1 large can or 3 small cans of chicken broth
-Simmer
-Chop up a couple of small carrots and some celery including the leaves and some parsley and potatoes, if desired (although I usually don't include the potatoes)
-Once boiling, throw chicken and vegies in. Simmer for 45 minutes.
-Take chicken out, shred, throw back in pot (as you can see, there is lots of throwing going on in this recipe, watch out!)
-1/4-1/2 cup of acini di pepe pasta and some chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)
-Cook another 15 minutes
-Top with parmesan cheese

Enjoy! (Thanks, Dad)

peace

Trying to catch up...on life

It can be so hard to be consistent in life with two small kids. Lovely as they are, they sure can be needy sometimes, can't they?

All joking aside, we have been busy and not really in the best ways. The last few weeks have been filled with colds, snow, shoveling, ice, stomach virus (experienced by the whole family!), getting our vehicles stuck and unstuck, did I mention snow and ice? It really is so beautiful this time of year. The trees have been caked with a wonderful white coating for the last week, like they were all dressed up for a wedding. This last storm (or two) has brought an onslaught of ice, though, that is now covering everything. Earlier this evening I thought it was still raining out until I stepped outside and discovered the sound I thought was rain was actually the ice ridden trees moving and rubbing up against each other. I have not ceased to be amazed at the weather here. And the thing is that the mountain's weather really is quite intensified than the lower elevations (flatlanders, as we found out they are called). When I was talking to a friend who lives in town recently, she said "wow the weather really is a life style for you now isn't it?". And it is. We are at the mercy of nature, the town's road crew, and our own two hand's energy for the day. It is not a bad thing. Just tiring. Remember when I asked for a long winter? Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered!

With being snowed (actually more often iced) in, my creative juices having been flowing. The kids and I have been doing some fun projects and I have been sewing my rear end off any chance I get. My previous sewing machine was broken beyond repair and we were able to get a vintage Singer with cabinet and attachments for $50! It is a 1946 and it runs smoother than any machine I have ever worked on. It only does a straight stitch but it has lots of fun attachments and I am enjoying the challenge of sewing without the zig zag option. Here are a few pics of the beauty.



Here are also two recent projects I did. The first is a pair of pants made out of a Jon Check t-shirt my brother gave me that was too big (thanks, Jas!). They are great bumming around the house pants for Abigail.



This picture of a purse I made. The picture does not do this Goodwill-found-fabric justice. I love it and still have a yard and a half left over for lots of other projects... It's reversible with a red fabric inside and a pocket of the same patterned fabric as this side. As you can see, the colors compliment my coat pretty well. :-)



peace

Since it was warm today...

I thought I would post some pictures of our snowy winter wonderland. The temperature got up to 55 on the mountain today. Most of the snow is melted off our roof and driveway. Our road is a bloody, muddy mess but we still have 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. Even more in the deeper parts of the woods. But it does almost feel like spring. We even took the kids on a night hike this evening. It was nice to be outside and not freezing.

You know you live on the mountain when...

• You see more snowmobilers on your road in a day than you do cars in 2 weeks.
• The 5 ton plow truck gets stuck in the snow on your road and has to radio the highway plow truck to pull him out.
• You and your spouse stand admiring and talking about the positive qualities of your woodstove. This is after 2 weeks of a smoked filled house, CO2 detectors blaring, finding a manual online (who knew our stove had a damper? That's helpful to know!) cleaning out the chimney and buying a new one piece elbow for the pipe. And weeks later still periodically saying to each other. I love our woodstove, don't you?
• You have to transport the Home Depot employee and all his equipment to your house in your own truck because his won't make it and shovel a path around your house from the 2 feet of snow so that he can install storm doors.
• The UPS carrier leaves a note in your mailbox that says "Left your package at John Smith's house on the corner". I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors.
• You step outside to get your ash bucket for a morning's cleaning of the woodstove and think, hmm it's awfully warm out here. You check the temperature and realize, golly, it's a balmy 10 degrees compared to the -12 the morning before.

Drum roll please...

The total snowfall for Sunday night through Tuesday is .................................9-10 inches (depending on where you measure)! Even though it was a bitter and windy 16 degrees at 2:30 pm , we bundled up the kids, made snow angels

and did a little impromptu sledding with a garbage can lid for about 15 minutes.

It took us a half an hour to get ready to go outside. But the kids enjoyed it and so did I, except that my hands were freezing because I gave Tristan my gloves because I couldn't find his gloves (which I later found in my purse, of course that is where they would be) and the kids couldn't wait another second to play.



Walking in a winter wonderland....

And our mini-van got stuck in the driveway. I am getting used to driving the camp's 3 ton pick up. Except that I suck at towing. And I guess we might want to get winter tires put on the van. With studs. :-)

peace

NYC #3

So as Matt and I are anxiously awaiting our first winter storm on the mountain (we have literally been checking outside every half an hour to see if it has begun yet, and sadly not to this point. PLUS the forecast has changed for our area from a foot of snow to 4 - 6 inches with up to a 1/3 an inch of ice. Not as fun. Glad we went grocery shopping yesterday because I don't think we will be going anywhere for a day or so), I think it is time to do a drive-by update of our time in NYC!


We were busy during our time in the Big Apple! Part of the reason why I didn't blog much.
The night before we left we attempted to go the Rockefeller Center for the lighting of the famous Christmas tree having no idea what a big production it was. We got within two blocks of the tree and couldn't even move on the sidewalk. People were tripping over us, pushing our strollers, and Abigail fell asleep so we decided to give it up and walk back to our apartment to watch it on TV like the rest of the sane world!

We did make it to see the Christmas displays in Macy's windows, which were really cool and Tristan loved. He did not want to leave, the look on his face was precious. We then went inside Macy's visited Santa at one of the coolest North Pole's ever. I am usually not into the cheesy Santa setup but this was really well done with a walk through a "train" to get to the north pole and talking trees and all kinds of animals busy working and a great train set up. Santa even looked pretty believable. Abigail, however, didn't want to have anything to do with sitting even near Santa and Tristan wasn't too thrilled by him either. Therefore we have no pictures but it was fun anyway. Abigail decided to write him a letter the next day to say that she was shy but enjoyed her visit.

Went to the cemetery in Queen's where Matt maternal grandparents are buried.

Spent an amazingly refreshing afternoon at Rockaway Beach in Brooklyn, which I later found was a favorite beach of Matt's mom growing up. It was chilly but quiet and calm. And they had a really cool playground on the beach that the kids devoured.

We also visited the Manhattan Children's museum. We never made it to the children's museum in Pittsburgh so I can't compare but this place was so much fun. All hands-on, interactive, child proof and exactly what our kids needed. Experiential play and learning plus climbing and running.

Central Park was our safe haven! I could usually spot that "I need to run and be free!" look in their eyes and off to the park we went. Only 3 stops up on the subway and we were among trees, rocks, grass, birds, and squirrels. We went the playground the most. There I actually got to speak to other adults! We also walked around the Jackie Onassis resivour one evening with Matt and rode the carousel another day. I don't think we could have survived without the park. I can see why it is such an important part of the city life.

For Thanksgiving we, of course, went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Matt and I were so proud that we actually made it through the whole parade. We were expecting a melt down for sure. We woke up late so we didn't the spot we wanted but we had a great time anyway. After growing up watching the parade, it was quite a delight to see it in person. It is just unbelievable to see how much work (and money!) must go into those couple of hours. I then spent the afternoon cooking a yummy meal. I love the colors on the plate!


The first Saturday Matt and Abigail woke up early and went to the Empire State Building when in opened. Later that day we headed to Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan and walked past ground zero on the way. It was overwhelming to be there and remember the horror of what happened that day. Walking through the streets there, I just kept thinking about what chaos must have ensued. The confusion, the heart-wrenching powerlessness, and fear. I went from watching an event on TV to standing in the past-presence of the event. It was quite powerful and humbling.


Our plan that day was to eat lunch at Battery Park and then take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. The wait for the ferry was too long for our kids so we opted for the Staten Island ferry which was free and went by the statue. Perfect! Both kids enjoyed the ride but especially Tristan. He is just absolutely obsessed with anything mechanical that moves; trucks ("gunks"), buses ("bees"), and boats are his life blood. And the walk along the Staten Island boardwalk with so timely. It was the first time since we were there that life was quiet and still except for the sound of water.


We also visited Matt's great aunt and family in Queen's. She is quite the spunky lady and it was a lot of fun to see the kids with here.

We also got a behind-the-scenes tour of the New York Botanical Gardens and train show by an employee.

So that was our November in a nut shell! We had a lot of fun and experienced a significant amount of the city a short time. It was, however, a very challenging 3 weeks. Abigail had a difficult time with the complete lifestyle change which resulted in a lot of behavior problems. I am glad for our time in the city but it never felt so good to come home! We left Thursday night at 10 pm which put us in the Berkshires at 2:30 am. The kids slept the whole way but were so excited to be home when we got that they didn't fall back to sleep uintil4:30! We are settling in here nicely enjoying a slower rural life as well as a slower work season for Matt. I am really looking forward to lots of family time and time to craft and cook and play. The idea of eating in season has been working on me for about a year now. Now I am beginning to love the idea of living seasonally. Being snowed in is a wonderful force of hand for slowing down, reflecting on life, and snuggling with loved ones. I pray for a long winter of snow! (Remind me of that in February when I am freezing and sick of the snow!!)

peace