Domestic Life

Now that "real life" schedules have started and we're starting to see what ^J^'s schedule will be like during school, I'm getting used to this home-maker/house-wife/stay-at-home-mom thing and liking it. I've been working part-time and going to school for the past few years and although it seems I would have had time to become "domestic", I really haven't. Plus, a change of scenery has really helped. As much as I loved our old house, I always thought it was too small for us and I love being able to spread out and take care of things properly (even if that means (H) is still surrounded by boxes as he sleeps). Today the kids and I just took it easy and organized their toys. We took everything out of where it's lived in chaos and put it all back (except for the 20 or so dolls/animals in *A*'s bed right now while she's napping) in organized baskets, bins, etc. ^J^ does not see the value of this, but I try and appeal to his Montessori-trained mind. When he cleans up toys, he puts(throws) them where ever there is space which means the books and markers and legos and doll clothes may all go into the same basket. This is how I found everything today because approaching our move we really didn't care how things were organized as long as the house was showable. The toy box (which I do not like on principle because it becomes a bottomless pit) was overflowing with toys of all types so we took it all out, and now it's the home of all stuffed animals which seems much more manageable.
All this to say that I had a really good day working and playing with the children. Admittedly, some days at home are a chore and you have to find excuses to leave the house, but today we all played nice and I was able to do laundry and straighten in between organizing toys. After all that, *A* helped me load the dishwasher. It was classic Montessori practical life, except it was just life. She scrubbed and rinsed the dishes and then set them on the counter for me to put in. Her new favorite "practical life" activity is "Doing the Ice". We don't have a water line hooked up for our ice maker so we have trays and she loves cracking the tray, dumping the ice and then refilling the trays. She would do this all morning but we only have 4 trays so it's a short activity. I am feeling more confident about homeschooling them while we are here. If we can just stay civil and sane towards each other during the morning hours, we can do lessons and learn just from what needs to be done around the house everyday.

Like feeding the pets, helping prepare meals, setting the table, etc. (H)'s favorite domestic activity is putting wet clothes into the dryer. Then I have to lift him up to push the start button (or "poosh butt, butt!" as he says). And, because we're all hippie-fied and domestic, we've started hanging a lot of our clothes outside. We've had our AC off for about 2 weeks now and there is always a pleasant breeze. We plan to have a bigger clothes line outside eventually, but that would mean driving 30 minutes to the nearest hardware store, so for now we'll use our makeshift porch version. I need to get the kids in on this and have them start hanging them, this is a classic Montessori activity.

Being "domestic" has negative connotations for some, but I disagree. I think I am enjoying it so much because #1 it is so new for me to be home all day with no papers to write, j.o.b. to worry about, etc, and #2, because I chose it. This is what I want to be doing, and in the process I'm creating little Miss Suzie and Mr. Sam homemakers who are learning to love life at home too.

A Typical Walk

To the library and back...










And home to feed the birds.

Morgan's Steep, real steep

We went for a long hike yesterday on one of the many campus trails. There is a main trail running all around the "domain" (the 10,000 acres of the campus) called Perimeter Trail and there are various points to access it, usually these points are at a vista. They all have names like Green's View, Morgan's Steep etc. since we live at the top of a mountain and they look out at the towns below. Anyway, we had heard that Morgan's Steep was part of the Perimeter Trail but that it branched off onto a secondary trail called Bridal Veil Falls Trail and at the end there is a nice waterfall. We packed up water and the kid backpacks and we were prepared to do a "real" hike. We looked at the trail map and decided it might be a mile one-way trip and we thought we could handle that so we headed out.

The scenery was amazing! The first part is at a cliff edge looking into this rocky valley area, you hike around all that and, if it had rained recently, there would probably be a nice creek running along side you the whole time. Then you come to these huge rock faces and cave areas, The vegetation is much thicker down here and very high on both sides which makes the trail a little less than single-file. J&A hiked up to the cave area, but I was afraid we'd disturb some coyote den or something so (H) and I stayed below. It was SO wild and undisturbed that I was afraid a couple of times about what we might run into when we turned the next corner. It's the same feeling I get when I'm way out in the ocean, like I'm trespassing into another world and I'm not really supposed to be there. I love it, but it's scary too sometimes.
Some parts of the trail we're so dense you couldn't see very far ahead of you, but some areas were more open forests with tall trees and less undergrowth. It's strange how much the landscape changed as we changed elevation.
We finally got to this split in the trail and didn't know which way to the waterfall so we went right. After a few hundred feet we found our path blocked by a huge fallen tree. Josh hopped over it, and of course the kids wanted to too.
He discovered the trail was pretty much completely covered by the tree so we stopped and took a water break. We'd been hiking for over an hour and (H) was getting tired, so we decided to go back down the other side of the trail and see if we could get to the waterfall quickly. Once we got to the fork in the trail, we went a little bit further but couldn't see any area that looked like there might be a waterfall nearby. Our bodies were already a little tired and we knew most of the way back was VERY steep uphill climbs, so we headed back. (H) fell asleep on the way back up which was slightly uncomfortable
(his head was resting on my neck and not allowing me to look all the way up) and we started to hear thunder, so I think it was good thing we headed back when we did, although I am disappointed we didn't get to see the falls. When we got to the top, huffing and puffing, I looked at the map again and I think if we'd just have gone a little further down we would have been there. Apparently there are a lot of caves there too. It started raining so we hopped in the car and went home (but first we stopped by the library for free movie rentals). It was a lot of fun, and now that we know the trail and kind of what to expect, I know we could do it again and make it easily to the waterfall. Coming back up is a real challenge though and our muscles are a little sore today.
The rain yesterday cooled things off considerably. It's in the 70's today, we have all the windows open and tonight it's supposed to be in the 50's! Yay! It's that little taste of Fall that makes you want to make soup and curl up under a blanket. Next week life will be pretty different for us, not as much playing and freetime since ^J^ will be starting orientation. It'll be good for us to get into a routine, but I know we'll miss seeing him all the time like we've gotten used to.
We'll just have to live it up this weekend...the unpacked boxes can wait.

Nature Girl...now with visual aids!

O.k., our mail is being delivered and our dsl is up and running so no more angst (at least for today). Oh, and hero husband found the camera battery charger so you can finally enjoy some of what we experience everyday.
We are living in such an amazing wilderness! I've always loved most-things in nature (not so much ticks or spiders) and I do have a dad who my pal Kelley dubbed "Nature Man" (this was after he taught her how to wear a lizard as an earring), but even ^J^ , Mr. "I hate Science", has caught the nature-bug (ha! I'm punny!). We went to the library and got field guides for mushrooms (^J^'s idea of course), trees, birds, wildflowers, and insects. We've seen so many beautiful and strange looking new bugs that we never saw in Georgia. There was a huge Katydid on our porch last weekend, a stick bug that was on our car and drove with us about a mile, a luna moth on our bathroom window, shiny large green beetles in our yard, butterflies galore, and not so fun things too like big flying ants in our kitchen and a too big red centipede in the yard. *A*'s been collecting cicada shells she finds and the bug sounds at night are deafening, and that's with the windows closed!
The birds are wonderful too, our most recent finds have been these pileated woodpeckers. I think there must be a family of them up in our trees, they make this crazy "chuc, chuc" sound and I followed the sound one day and saw three of them hanging on the side of a tree. They're really big, crow-sized and they have that distinctive woody-woodpecker red tuft and beak. As I'm typing this, I can look out the window to the treeline of the woods and make one out on the base of a tree. We also have a consistent hummingbird population. I know of at least one pair that chases each other around the feeder and they make this cute squeaking noise. We've seen bunnies and deer all over the place, in broad daylight even. One night I went out to the porch to feed Gracie(dog) and Ella(cat) and this wave of skunk spray smell came in. It must of happened pretty far out in the woods and travelled to our house, but that is a new thing to think about when we go out for hikes or let the animals run around in the backyard! This morning Ella brought us a present...a bird. When ^J^ went to take it outside, warning *A* it might die soon, it flew off. I guess Ella just played with it and then got bored. As he was coming back in I saw a field mouse running around in the grass, or it could have been a vole...I don't really know what that is, I guess I need to get a mammal guide book too.


Anyway, we're all so into all this wildlife. *A* gets so excited when she discovers something and she's usually the one who points something out to us. She's the one who found the stick bug and she comes running inside in a panic screaming "a tick bug, a tick bug!" I didn't even know she knew what one was. Yesterday she took a walk with ^J^ and our next door neighbors who are 6 and 7, and she told them in her stage whisper "Shhh, we have to be quiet so we can see the deers and bears.". The seven year old informed her that she had been living here almost 3 years and she had never seen a bear. Well, that's good news but I'm not convinced they don't live somewhere on these 10,000 acres.
I'm reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and it's so perfect. It takes place on a mountain in Southern Appalachia (I think it's supposed to be Virginia, but it's so similar; the county they live in is even Franklin, which is where we live) and it talks about all the creatures that live in the woods and about life in the country. People who live in the country are a whole different can of worms, I'll just stick with the animals for now...they're much more interesting.

Mail Blues

I'm sad...we don't get mail here like I want to. I'd even take credit card junk or flyers from wal-mart but we get nothing. It's so upsetting to open the mailbox and have it empty. Part of the problem is that we are considered a "rural route". We actually had to call the local post office on two different occasions to ask them to deliver our mail. I guess typically this is not a normal service and people just come pick it up from the post office. When the post office finally got the message (or when we finally got some mail to deliver), we got a form in our box that we had to fill out to give permission for them to put our mail in our mailbox...so strange. The form also let us know that we can use our postal carrier as a post office, we can order stamps, get things insured, and pretty much do what a post office would do through our carrier. When I called the 2nd time to find out why we had no mail I found out our carrier's name is "Billy", of course it is.
But here's the other problem, we aren't even getting the forwarded mail from our old house. I just don't get it, I feel so helpless, like our mail is just out there somewhere and no one knows what to do with it. It's a strange disconnected feeling. Another thing that's irking me mail-wise is that it seems to take forever, we opened the box yesterday and had one lonely postcard from my mom that she sent last Wednesday...4 days for a post card? Doesn't that seem odd. I know I'm just spoiled by my suburban life but I feel like my postal carrier, you know, Billy, just randomly decides when he is going to hop in his UNMARKED truck and put what he pleases in my box. My final mail-related rant is that we ordered DSL last Wednesday and still have not received the equipment. I'm going crazy not having quick, accessible at a moment's notice, Internet access. I can live without a lot of things: cable, a grocery store that carries unsalted butter (What's up with that? Do people in the country HAVE to have salt in their butter?!), a garbage disposal, etc. but I've quickly learned how much I rely on the Internet for access to information. Maybe it's my library/information science background, but it keeps me connected with the world, especially now that our cell phone service isn't so great and our home phone is long distance. Anyway, I'm sorry if you read this whole post because it was really just a place for me to vent, now let's see if dial-up can handle uploading all these words...I promise I'll post pictures (as soon as I find that damn battery charger) and positive fun stuff about our new home soon. We really do love it and have had an "adventure" (as *A* calls it) everyday.

A Quick Hello!

We're here! We have very slow dial-up access for the time being, so I'm not going to write a lot. I just wanted to give everyone a quick hello and say that we're loving it so far. Our house is even better than we thought, we have so much room (except for the closets) and the porch, view, and quiet are amazing. We've eaten most of our meals on the screened in porch and saw a deer or two in our backyard while eating. We're slowly unpacking, but most rooms are set-up and livable. We discovered the university library and it's small children's section but huge video collection, I don't think we'll be needing Netflix. We went hiking this morning and it was breath-taking. The kids loved it, (H) in the backpack and *A* was a champ going up and down the trail. She hiked out to this ledge of rock as my knees were knocking together and looked at the view proclaiming "Beauuuuutiful!". We discovered the school's fitness center: Olympic pool, indoor track, etc. *A* ran 3 laps around the track and thought she was an Olympic track star, ^J^ gets in free and I got a family membership for 5 bucks...nice. O.k., I really should keep this short since I'm not sure how long it's going to take to upload.
We are having a great time, but we really do miss everyone. It's hard to meet new people. *A*, the social butterfly that she is, has made some new friends and we went to a playdate this morning with other seminarian babies and preschoolers. But she had a hard time the first few days not having anyone to play with, and I think she still thinks we're on vacation. As for adult friends, I just want to get over the "hey, how are you?" phase and have a real conversation. I know it'll come. We met some really great people on move-in day. There were about 12 seminarians waiting for us when we pulled in and they had our huge truck unloaded in less than an hour. Some of the spouses and kids came by to meet us or help as well. There's a cookout every Friday night, so we'll be able to see everyone again then and get to know people a little better. Everyone knows each other so well and I know once school starts we'll all be together constantly, but for now we are sort of outsiders looking in and trying to figure out where we fit. It's a really strange feeling, kind of nice, yet kind of unnerving too.

"Bye, Bye, Bye!"

Just like *NSYNC, we're saying "Bye" a lot this week. Lots of visits to our house, other people's houses, school, the public library (^J^ is really torn up about this one), favorite eateries, etc...It's hard, but it's nice too. We've made some really wonderful relationships here and have loved living here; saying goodbye helps us remember all the fun things we did, people we met, and important life-changing events that happened in the 3.5 years we've lived here.
All these events means we're feeling kinda crunched for time with getting packed though (if you're having a meal with us in the next 3 days, don't worry, we really do want to see you). We're in pretty good shape, I packed away all the dishes tonight and we're living on paper and plastic, but there are always those last minute things you forget and those dreaded strange objects you just don't know how to pack so you throw them in a crate and put them in the truck right before you drive off. ^J^ hates those miscellaneous last minute boxes and I hate the last minute crunch so we've decided our best time to get things done this week is after the kids are in bed. We figure we've been staying up 'til midnight anyway, we should maybe start being productive instead of watching reruns of The Office. We actually kept *A* up through her nap today so she'd go to bed early. This is a big deal considering we were risking the behavior that comes with missing a nap, but she did great actually. She told me today (after playing independently for over an hour), "I'm a big girl now Mommy, I can play nice with (H)!" O.k., sounds good! Let's see if it lasts 'til tomorrow.
I'm off to pack some more while I've got a sugar high (we got a lot of cake from church Sunday), but, because I know you want hear it and because I know you've been singing it since you read this post title, here is the lovely Mr. Timberlake and his boys sayin' "Bye, Bye, Bye" from us.