Leaves

It's been a year since I posted last. Oh well, I'm not even going to stress about everything I missed. Short version, the kids are nearly 3, started nursery school, and that 9 hours a week they're not home has made me somewhat sane again. Yay?

DS is off at a conference this week. It's been a while since his last one, so I'm a little out of practice. I think this might be the first once since they started school, so tomorrow should be interesting. He's getting out of autumn yard work.  I'd let it wait until he's back, but our town picks up leaves for us to turn them into mulch that we buy back in the spring for a great price, and unless they reschedule, this is the last week they're coming.  Of course, they were supposed to come once last week too, and they didn't. So maybe there will still be two, but I can't risk it. We have a LOT of trees, and I need as many of them out of here as possible before I'm stuck bagging what's left.

Since I was up at 6am on a Sunday (which is ludicrous), the three of us went outside to do full yard rake #2.  As annoying as it is to do it more than once, that seems to make it manageable. Our first year I think I tried to do it all at once in the short hours of the kids' nap and after DS got home from work. Which meant I did a lot of raking in the dark.  It was never ending and exhausting.  It still takes 3-5 hours to do a full yard sweep like this, but that's a lot better than it used to be. I can still have the entire afternoon free and be actually done (until the trees that still have leaves drop them again) instead of it all looming over me every night as I can't get finished.

Anyway, like I was saying, we did some raking.  The kids "helped," by which I mean they swung their rakes around and nearly decapitated each other and scattered my piles. And then they ran through them and jumped in them.  They had a ton of fun, and it was a rather amusing distraction for me so I didn't mind too much.  Enjoy some photos of them in leaves, including a gif that google made for me.

We bought a house

So... We bought a house.  We've been here several days and I'm still finding it weird to think that this is ours.  It still feels like we're visiting someone else.  This is the first time in at least 10 years that my residence hasn't been temporary.  I'm finding that I'm putting much more thought into what stays and what goes and where it will live.  It means unpacking is slow, but it feels much more important that things be right somehow than in our previous abodes.

DS entering the house for the first time after signing the paperwork.

There are a lot of things to love about this place.  We came for the school district and the walkability of the town.  It's a mile walk to the train station and downtown, which means I can easily meet DS on his way home from work or take the kids to the library without the car.  It also means DS can continue not driving to work.  Apparently, when he takes the express train the commute is about the same as when we were in the city despite now being 10 miles away.

The town itself is just gorgeous.  We joke that we have the crappiest house in town, because everything here is just so big and lovely and well cared for.  Not that our house is crappy, but in comparison.  I want my yard to be as lovely as the ones around us.  There are so many lovely plants and flowers here.  

The view out the front picture window.  Lots of flowering trees.

There are so many plans I'd like to tackle over time, probably in part because I've never been able to physically alter my living space before.  We'd love to add a second shower, add some cabinets to the kitchen.  If we decide to never move, I'd like to look into adding a master bedroom suite over the living room.  It's a split level house so it seems feasible, but in reality I don't know next to nothing about construction.  But first we need things like a lawn mower.  It's already past time to cut the grass, haha!

One of the flowering trees across the street after a good rain. Taken on today's walk to meet DS at the train station.

My mom is coming towards the end of May to visit the babes and I kind of wish she could come now. So many things are in bloom, and it just feels like a magical place when I'm walking around.  I want to share that.  I'll share it with you too, just come over and see us :)