Tuesday, June 7, 2011

More guests and an interesting week...

Caleb has made lots of friends from many places and invited them here for a week to work on a project. So this past week we've had at least 8 people staying here, sometimes more. I think half are vegetarians so it's been interesting cooking. When I didn't cook something vegetarian Caleb would cook something for them.

They are all great kids-I say kids but all of them are at least 18. I think 18-24 is about the age range. I thought they'd have time while they were here to at least go tour Boston or go to Ipswich or somewhere but they really have been working hard at home here and have hardly left the house!

It's been interesting seeing the whole process of them writing, creating melodies, hearing them sing and record. Caleb just keeps telling me, full of awe, "I can't believe this is really happening, it's like a dream!" Or "I can't believe it's almost over". :(

Most of them leave tomorrow, some later this week. I will certainly miss the music, laughter and closeness of this group of friends!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

It's been a long, cold winter...

I survived Dave being gone for five weeks for training in California, and what a five weeks it was! Everything started to go wrong the very day he left. I spent a week in bed due to sickness, a major plumbing disaster happened, and we had so many blizzards/snow storms I lost count! I got a lot of reading done in bed at least. Thank you to my sister Laura who let me bawl on the phone to her at my worst moment. :)

The very first snow storm we just concentrated on getting the van, driveway, walkaway, mailbox, etc... plowed out and left all the snow around Dave's truck. We even dumped snow on and in the bed of it, thinking by the time he gets home in five weeks it'll all be gone! Little did we know we were going to get lots more and everything would get buried. We still have piles of snow in the street and yard that are over five feet high! The last snow storm I was trying to shovel snow but the piles I was throwing it on were much higher than I was, so that wasn't really working.

Erin and I have been watching a lot of that show about people buying International houses. We seem to gravitate towards the warm tropical island ones and southern Italy and Greece. Sure helps out in all the snow and bitter cold. Dreaming is good!! Even watching Mamma Mia helped. That and lots of hot tea.

Caleb's been busy with his band. He went from a one member band to six members, and is actually doing a tour for the first time ever this next month. All of them are going to Texas and then working their way back and playing in lots of cities. He seems very happy with all the new members and it sure makes it easier on him! He has been working so hard on writing, recording and putting out new albums.

Dave got home, finally and is back to work and working hard on the business too. Wish we could have been there for his graduation at the school in Ca. He wrote a speech and spoke in front of over 300 people, including the Admiral from D.C. He got a standing ovation but I have yet to hear the speech!

I need to find out how to put some dang pictures up on this blog! If anyone knows, do tell.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

New home, new church, new friends

I've neglected this blog! So much has happened since we moved. We've found a church that we felt right at home at, we've found the Healing Rooms ministry and some wonderful new friends.

Many friends and family came to visit us in our new house and we did fun things together like going to the apple orchards, visiting a stately mansion, and going into Boston. Erin and I drove Lindsay to summer camp in Maine and decided on a whim to stay in Kennebunkport for the night at a very old and beautiful B&B. We got to have breakfast on the porch and walk around the town. We happened to be there on the fourth of July so we went to the beach and watched the fireworks. After all of our fun, we took the long way home, stopping at many antique shops, and eating at a roadside restaurant, where we got to sit at a picnic table outside, overlooking the water in Maine. It was a perfect trip!

Which brings us to this year. We've already had one blizzard of this winter and are getting more snow today and tomorrow. We love snow! (except shoveling) Just not so wild about the bitter cold and wind.

We're hoping to make a trip to Florida this year to check on the house, see our old friends, and hopefully go to Disney. We have two kids who really miss Florida and do NOT like Massachusetts so they are wildly hoping for us to move back in 2012. We'll see! Most of us would rather have the seasons and cold than no seasons and heat and humidity!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Moving again and the new house...

Hard to believe it's been a few months since I've last updated my blog.

We had a vacation planned for California and two days before we went we received noticed the landlords would like to move back into their house.

Vacation was fun-very nice to see family and friends again and wish we could live closer to each other or at least see each other more! Oh how I miss Laguna Beach too. Wouldn't it be nice to live at the beach year round? Especially with daily room service. :)

So now it's time for purging excess junk, even though we moved in less than a year ago. We still accumulated things we need to give away so that's what I'm concentrating on now. I have packed a few boxes but most of it is going to have to wait until next week.

We came about the new house in a different way. I had been pouring over different sites for weeks looking for houses for us. All of them four + bedrooms. I was so frustrated over the lack of available rentals! We had gone to the base and seen housing, which, incidentally, is the nicest housing I have ever seen! But the one we would get would be between two units and no yard space! We have been very very blessed with a huge yard here and giving that up would be very hard indeed, especially with a huge dog.

So finally I had the idea of why not looking at a 3 bedroom with a basement that could be used as a bedroom? I immediately found one that we wanted to see. I called the realtor right away and she said she could show it to us in just a few hours. We already had four other houses to see that day in NH so we got ready and went to see that house first. We were amazed!

The house is high up on a hill with views of downtown Boston, Cape Cod, and in the other direction, the hills of New Hampshire. It has a huge backyard with forests on both sides and tons of huge stones. The house is only a few years old, as are all the houses in the neighborhood. The owners built a playhouse for their grandchildren (it's nice inside-they actually tiled the floor) and put lots of fairy houses around that area. The entire back yard has lots of little and mid sized statues, a waterfall, a view of the pond straight across the road that the kids can ice skate on in the winter and so much foliage it will be wonderful come spring again to see what she has there! She also said we can plant anything we want so I'm thinking blackberry and blueberry bushes. Mmmmmm.....

So back to the story of the houses. We did end up driving to NH to see the other houses but we couldn't stop thinking about that one. So I called the realtor at 9:30 that night and said "we want it, don't give it away!". It's a good thing too because a few days later when we were at the house with the realtor and the owners signing the lease the realtor kept getting calls about it and said "Ever since you guys called about it people have been calling non stop!".

We really feel this is where God wants us for right now and Dave says GOD gave me the thought of looking at three bedrooms since there wasn't much else. I'll go with that! For one thing it is closer to the church that He gave us clear direction on going to months ago. We weren't even looking in that area originally and didn't think we'd live around there. He also knew we didn't want to give up a big yard and privacy and boy does this have both! In addition, I had told Dave I wasn't sure I was comfortable with the girls living in the basement because I was worried about radon. When we were there with the owners, the lady owner actually brought up the subject on her own and said they'd had a radon system installed! This was just the final thing, and I kinda had to laugh and say "thanks God!" for taking care, once again, of all our worries and pondering and getting it all worked out.

The owners are very nice and actually spent three hours with us at their house, showing us around the house and yard and just talking. They don't live far and know everyone in the neighborhood because he actually built all of the houses in the neighborhood.

I'm excited that the house actually has a library, and the woman said she purposely did not put a phone jack or computer wiring or anything in there because it's supposed to be a retreat. It also has an office for Dave which will really help. I LOVE that the master bedroom is on the first floor, hurray, finally!!! I think the best room is a screened in sunroom she had built and is going to leave me the daybed in their with some furniture, a beautiful mirror and a few other things. I think I'm going to live out there in the summer!

The kids were excited (okay, I won't lie, I was too!) that while we were there we saw a chipmunk and a very big groundhog just out very leisurely moving around the rocks and yard. They did say there are foxes (I just pray no coyotes) and other animals around because of the forest. It's a nature lovers paradise.

It is a very beautiful house and has so many plusses about it that we are all just wishing the time would fly until we can move in! This house and the land is beautiful too but it's old so it has many problems, some of which were not fixed at all while living here.

I will definitely miss this house for it's beautiful yard, house and land, and proximity to Main St. which has Starbucks, a GREAT Mexican restaurant, and many other great things but I'm sure God has great things in store for us in the new house and area!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Of bands, breakfasts and bathrooms...

Sunday night Caleb went to a show and brought home the four guys in the band to spend the night.

They'd been here once before, again, after they performed a show in Boston.

It was good to see them and have them stay here again. It made me realize how much I miss having the kids' friends at our house all the time. In Florida, our house was always filled with the kids' friends. It wasn't uncommon for there to be 12, or 15 kids, but a lot of the times more than that. Some were playing video games, some cards, the others watching tv or in one of the kids rooms, or outside in the pool. Now, even after being here for six months, the kids still don't have friends. Well, there are the two neighbor girls, (that they rarely see) but that is it.

So we had a great time with the boys Monday after everyone woke up, which was around eleven or twelve. (I always knew I missed my calling to be a musician!) Lindsay and Erin helped me make a big breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns and coffee. One of the boys remarked that he saw it all lying out like that and thought it looked like a Little House in the Prairie breakfast. One thing I love, and that is to see hungry boys eat! What mom doesn't?! They even managed to sneak around and help with the dishes too.

During breakfast they found out we own a costume/party business and their eyes lit up. They couldn't wait to finish and get downstairs and try on as many costumes as they could. They had a great time and Caleb took a lot of photos.

They are a great bunch of guys, always very respectful, always even keeled and always grateful. This time, they had a bit of bad luck. First was the parking ticket they received outside my house, and second was the engine light on their van. So instead of leaving Monday night like they were going to, they ended up staying another night and leaving Tuesday.

They and Caleb had a great time together! They recorded some music together and jammed for hours. It was, literally, music to our ears. Dave, myself, and the rest of the kids sat on the porch in our rockers in the sunshine, listening to the sounds coming down from above from the open window on the third story, and heartily enjoying it.

I LOVED hearing the peals of laughter from many friends again. One of the times they were laughing was when one of them found a book in our bathroom, titled, "What your poo is telling you". He brought it out to share with all of them and they laughed for a good, long time.

It's a very humorous book with vivid descriptions, funny drawings and catchy titles, for each of the, uh...ways your poo is talking to you.

Tuesday they left a little later than they were supposed to but we did manage to get some pictures in and hugs. I was sad to see them go, but hope they will be back to stay next time they're in town.

I'll try to post some pics but I don't know how to do that on the blog yet. Isn't that one of the things your kids are supposed to teach you? :)

Monday, April 12, 2010

Spring in New England

Spring is beautiful here! I was able to go outside today in the morning, drink my coffee, do my daily reading, and sit in the warm sun.

I closed my eyes to take it all in because there were so many different birds out making all sorts of birdsongs. All I could hear were the birds, the squirrels and in the distance construction workers hammering away. I love that sound for some reason-the sound of hammers echoing off in the distance with just nature for the other background noise.

When I opened my eyes after several minutes, I was struck by just how beautiful it is! We have quite a big backyard with all these New England style houses all around, and it's very hilly. The owners here planted all sorts of gorgeous plants, trees and flowers that are in full bloom in the spring.

Bright yellow trees, bright pink trees, and tulips! Oh how I love tulips, they are my favorite flowers and they have planted them everywhere in the yard-side, front and back. They also planted a few flowering bushes that are different shades of purple. One of them has gorgeous purple flowers but smells like a lemon pez! Does anyone know what that one might be?

The sky was a magnificent color of blue and the clouds were white and fluffy. I was able to see a few cardinals today, a few bluejays (who were the noisiest!), lots of little birds, and Erin saw a woodpecker. I felt so grateful to God for making such a beautiful earth!

I can't wait for the ferns to continue blossoming and growing too. Soon all the leaves will be on the trees and I won't be able to see far off down Main Street anymore, but for now I'm enjoying seeing new buds and growth on the flowers and trees every single day.

Bellessimo!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Mystery Woman...

Most people have heard of Tasha Tudor, the famous children's book writer and illustrator. Her books include Pumpkin Moonshine and a Corgiville Christmas, among others.

I have a few books written about her-the ones where Richard Brown took the photographs. They are The Private World of Tasha Tudor and Tasha Tudor's Garden. These are always what I go to when I'm having a "technology fast" as I like to call it.  These books have lots of photographs of her house and gardens, which never fail to inspire me!

Tasha was born and raised in a prominent Boston family, but eventually settled in Vermont. One of her sons, Seth, built her a house that looked like it was from the 1740's, copied from a friend's house in New Hampshire. 

She purposely made her and her children's world an old fashioned world where children could still be children! She made a beautiful life for herself and them, and she even wore the clothes of a woman from the 1830's. Not just sometimes or around the house, but ALL the time.

She kept Nubian goats and used the milk. She churned her own butter. She spun flax and made her own clothes. She had her beloved Corgi dogs, a bird or two, goats, cats and other animals.

Tahsa loved doing simple things. Drawing, illustrating, and sketching her kids while they were down at the river playing. Puppet shows for the kids and the neighbor kids. Making dolls. Even going so far as making a real catalog where her kids could order doll clothes and they would arrive in the mail!

She made celebrations and holidays important yet simple. I love that she would go cut down a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, then decorate it with lit candles and then show the children when it was all done. (although, those of you who know me know that I could never wait that long to get a tree-I'd like one up all year please!)

She loved animals, her beautiful gardens, children and her farmhouse. She is such an example to the way I want to live: simple yet so purposeful. (Oh, and I wouldn't mind the house in farmhouse in Vermont either!)  Now, that being said, I don't think I'm ever going to live like that, but I do like the idea of making life more simple, letting children be children, and celebrating life.

I also have two dvds about her, that are comforting and peaceful to watch, Take Joy, and Take Peace (her Christmas one). Surprisingly, I like Take Joy better than her Christmas one.

Tasha just died in 2008, at the age of 92.  Although her life was no where near perfect, she lived a simple life and an intentional life, one that she was passionate about, and that's what I love most about her.