The best in the land!

Just in case anyone was wondering, Emily is the best source for unusual knowledge....can't say useless since it came in handy today,

Since getting home our garbage disposal wasn't working. Odd since it was put in only two or three years ago, and I actually splurged for a good one. Emily came to the rescue and over the phone told Ryan and I how to fix it. She saved us just in time since I have to clean all of the CSA stuff in the morning.

Thanks Em, you are my hero!!!!

Food... glorious

I love CSA day. Today we had herbs, cabbage, chinese cabbage, lettuce, what looks to be the end of the broccoli raab for the season, fresh dug potatoes and blueberries! The berries came from another farm, so I called and we are headed out there later this week since I can't pass up PYO berries! We want to get 10 lbs of blueberries, five will become jam and five will be frozen for blueberry pancakes, scones, muffins, etc. The berries we received today will become pancakes tomorrow morning if I get some decent sleep :)

Today, while chatting with Em on the phone, I was organizing my freezer(s) and discussing the fact that we have quite a big stash. While talking, she and I both commented that we were due to get our next delivery of beef, and where it would fit. Just then, Farmer Ben beeped in to tell me the meat will be there on Wednesday!! With some pushing around, I now have the room for my meat and anything Emily needs me to store. Then we will be packed to the gills in the freezer....now we need to start canning!

I also placed an order for more green coffee beans since I am out. I decided to try a different supplier, if I like them, I will link to them :) Next big order will be for wheat and white flour. I found a place to buy in bulk in special storage pails to keep the moisture and critters out. They also have wheat that I can grind into flour, I am planning to try that this winter if I have the time. The final items I need to purchase this summer are the cheesemaking supplies (for Mozz and ricotta) and some cheesecloth for yogurt making.

Home, happy and exhausted

Yesterday husband and I enjoyed the wedding of a good friend of his from HS. Interestingly enough, he married a girl that went to MY high school, and we are from Long Island so there are lots of schools and people!

The wedding was very nice, and I even got to catch up with some people who I have known since elementary school :)

Post wedding, we headed back to Ryan's mom's house and met up with Kristin and Matt who had entertained the tribe all afternoon with pizza and swimming. We decided that it would be best of we did the hell drive back at night so the kids didn't have to spend the whole day trapped in a car again. We planned to go to dinner in Port Jeff with Ry's mom, brothers, Kristin and his friend Erik then leave straight from there. Dinner was hell as it took TWO HOURS to get the food (and it was wings, burgers, etc) so my poor babies were so tired and hungry and barely even ate when the food was served at 11 pm!

After dinner, we made a potty stop, loaded the sad tired kids in the car and took off. I ended up driving all but the last two hours (and remember I slept only 3 hours the night before) and handed over the keys when I couldn't see straight anymore. Three hours of sleep in a 48 hour period is just not fun.

We got home at 6 am and everyone went to bed for a bit. I got up at 9:30, woke Ryan and went to pick up the dog at the boarders, dropped her off, went and picked up the CSA (more on that later), then had to go BACK to the boarders since she gave me back the wrong medicine for Rosie, then to the grocery store and whew, then home.

Now I am wiped and going to lay down for an hour on the couch. I still need to cook dinner, switch laundry and write a paper, and then I am in bed EARLY!!!

Grades

You know what rocks?

When you blow off an assignment because you are at the beach on vacation, knowing full well that it would mean you only get a B+ in the class....and then you check your grade and find out you got the A anyway.

Woooooohooooo

In NY

We made it to NY, although it was a LOOOOOOOOOOONG NINE HOUR CAR RIDE!!!

Needless to say, by the end of the trip, we were all falling apart. I was in tears, Grayson was screaming, Britt was whining and Haven was sulking. Good times for all!

We made it to Ryan's friends house, and I think we were overwhelming him a bit. I suggested I take the kids to Ryan's mom's house, and sometime around 11 pm, we got there and settled in. I couldn't seem to fall asleep and was up until after 4:30 am, and was not thrilled when Gray woke at 8. Now the kids need to eat, I NEED coffee and we need to pretty up for a noon wedding.

I cannot express to anyone just how thrilled I will be when I lay in my bed Monday night. Tuesday I will need to get up early and get the dog, and we will need to go to the farm to get milk, but that will be all and I will be happy to stay home for awhile.

Sea, sand, sun and sound

We are back home....for one night. The kid's had a blast on the beach trip, and they were so sad to have to come home. We enjoyed playing in the sand, watching kite surfers, splashing in the sound and the ocean. Tomorrow we begin stage two of the vacation, with a seven hour drive to NY. Ryan and I will be going to a wedding Sunday afternoon and the kids will hang with Uncle Matt and Kristin, probably at the aquarium or *GASP* THE BEACH!!!

The kids are total beach bums now, begging to head down to my parent's house ASAP, little do the folks know that the kids want to head to the beach at 8 am and home at dusk.

Off to write a paper and repack!

The best pic I could get

The kids were a bit excited, so this was the best I could do. At least I included the important elements, the kids and the ocean!

Five little ducks on their way to the beach

The sixth was behind me :)

Salty and sandy

On the right track

I knew we were onto something when we joined the CSA and got our meat direct from the source. Not only healthy, but now more economical too! Check this out

So everyone knows, we MADE IT!!

We are here at the beach all settled in. We spent today at the beach in the morning and the pool in the afternoon. The kids are having fun, although they were up really late last night and are a bit overtired today.

Pictures and videos to come...tomorrow we go to Ocracoke Island, which should be lots of fun.

Whew, off to prep dinner for the growups :)

Tomorrow we go!

The big day is upon us, tomorrow we leave for our trip!

We are almost ready to go, Ryan just needs to pack himself up. Tomorrow I will drop the dog off an run a few last minute errands, set the cats up (our neighbor is checking on them) pack the cold food into the cooler and pack the car. My goal is to be on the road by noon, at the beach by dinner time. We plan to lay low, mostly hanging at the beach or the pool, maybe a quick outing or two. Then we head home Friday, and are back on the road on Saturday to drive to NY for a wedding. Then home on Monday. Whew, it will be busy and fun and we are all so excited it is VACATION TIME!!!

Back in the berries

So since I, ahem, cannot blog about what "we" have to do, I figured I would blog about what I did do.

Today we ventured to the farm for milk, eggs, yogurt and berries. The plants were sparse, and it took some work, but we got five more pounds of strawberries. Emily took some of the more firm ones home for her kids to eat, and I packed up two bags to be frozen. When we get home, I will make those into about 12 jars of jam, yumm!

Rush rush rush

I feel like this week is barreling by!

Today, as promised, I am taking the kids to lunch and the pool. We decided to go to the farm tomorrow as they have a special on pick your own strawberries ($1 a pound!) and the weather looks to be perfect tomorrow.

I am still not anywhere near packed, but I will start today when we get home from the pool. The Fallon kids will be here, so I am hoping they will entertain each other while I finish laundry and pack for Ryan and I. Tomorrow morning I will pack the kid's clothes, have my conference call and then we will head off to the farm. Thursday Haven has a riding lesson at 9:30, then we will go to Brittan's birthday party at noon, then home to finish getting ready for the trip. Friday, if husband will watch the kids, Emily and I can get the rest of the food we need, and I can get the car cleaned out and ready to go. Saturday morning I will pack the food, we will pack the car, drop the dog off and we will be on our way!

Cooperation and CSAs

So, today has not gone as planned. I had instructed the girls to clean their rooms yesterday, so that today we could have had a fun day. This morning I saw that the rooms were not only not clean, they were TRASHED. Needless to say, the outings were cancelled. Grayson is also upstairs napping because he couldn't say a single nice thing today, gotta love 3/4 year old boys!

We did however get to pick up our CSA stuff and had a surprise, blackberries! We also got some beautiful kale and cabbage. The cabbage has already been made into coleslaw to go with our BBQ chicken and beans tonight. The kale will be grilled and served with a vinaigrette, and the blackberries will grace our table tomorrow night when the Fallon kids are here for dinner. Tomorrow will be breakfast for dinner, sausage, eggs, biscuits, hash browns and fruit salad including those delicious blackberries.

Also in the haul were some herbs and bunch onions that will go into the vinaigrette, lettuce, chinese cabbage and my eggs. Tasty!

Hopefully today we can get started on packing, finish the laundry and a few other odds and ends. Tomorrow we need to go to lunch, the farm, I need to grab a few things in Fredericksburg, the pool and then the Fallon kiddos will be here while their parents are at a swanky event :) Wednesday I will clean the car, get extra litter boxes for the cats and get ready for Britt's party on Thursday. Friday we will finish packing, and Saturday we are off!! We will come back the following Friday, then Saturday morning leave for NY, returning on Monday. Whew!

Countdown

We are leaving for the beach in FIVE DAYS!!!

As we count down, I am also feeling a bit stressed about getting everything ready to go. I have some last minute things to do at the house... I need the house clean before we leave, I need to set the cats up, drop the dog off, get and pack the food, pack the kids and us, etc.

I am a list maker, so I have my lists ready to go!

Let the fun begin!

Trapped

As I have posted a lot lately, I have the itch to get out of Virginia. My job is one that I take with me, so I can live anywhere we want and still have the same income. Ryan is ready to leave his current position, but with the unstable market, he is just staying put since he knows he has job security. It kills me that we are sitting here wasting time just because of the housing prices. If this were one year ago, we could have sold our house, paid off a little debt and moved.

We are still planning to stay put until the doctorate is done, or close to it, but my fear is that two years will not be enough to fix the drop in housing. It just stinks as the kids are getting older, and I don't want to wait until they are in middle school or high school to move them. Haven would be in fifth grade in two years, and I think that is the best time for us to go, but housing has to get better. Soon right???!!!

The best Daddy ever!

My husband is by far the best daddy ever! Since the day we found out we were expecting Haven, to today when he is willing to indulge me in trying for #4, he is a dad who is always involved with the kiddos. He may not know everything that is going on, but he is the first to hang with the kids, play with them and I trust that he will guard them with his life. The kids adore him, and as we speak, he is following the treasure hunt the kids made up for him, even though he is exhausted and hungry. He makes the kids laugh, he was always there to rock them as babies, and he changed a mean diaper, and the kids and I know that he loves us all deeply.

My children are very lucky to have such different parents, I am more rigid and uptight and he is all about fun. They are very lucky to get a dad who loves them as much as he does.

Happy Father's Day!

Pears

When we bought this house, the previous owners told us that they had two pear trees in the front of the house. We have been here almost 5 years and never saw any pears, probably because the trees were planted in the shade and in the worst spot ever for fruit trees.

Today I was driving by the front of the house and I saw bulbs on the trees. Further inspection showed pears, lots of pears! They are a few weeks off from being harvested, but if they continue to grow we will have a ton of fresh pears to eat and can, right from the front yard!

Need an adventure

Ryan and I have long known that a deadline is approaching. We know that when my doctorate is done, we need to make choices about where we live and what we do, and it has been a source of excitement and stress. The deadline is still about two years away, but we have a few ideas on the table.

One is that I will look for a full time teaching position here and that we will stay in VA. That is great since the kids are happy here and we own a home, etc, but we really don't have much tying us to this area -except the Fallons of course.

The second choice is that I look for a FT teaching position somewhere else. The problem with this is, we are not sure I would make enough to support the whole family or if Ryan would easily be able to get a job. We are also not sure if we would be near friends and family, etc.

The last choice is that I go back to the corporate world, and teach on the side. My degree really is meant to be applied in the field, so this would be an asset for me when looking for a job. We know that the best place for me to work in NYC, so we are considering moving back up north if I find a job in the city. We are even thinking of living in the city for a year and think it would be a really neat experience for the kids! We also know that the NYC school system has lots of opportunities for our children, as do the cultural events, museums, etc. If we do this, Ryan will probably stay home with the kids and finish school.

Ah, the joy of the unknown!