Outside on a Fall Day; Reflections on Where to Live

It's been so so long since I posted anything.  I wanted to get pics of the kids out in their warm clothes on a somewhat crisp morning after relatively warm days.  This week is kind of a big week for us with symphony rehearsals and birthdays.  We just had our back yard fenced in and I love it.  I don't have to tell the kids to stay in our yard and I don't have to worry about them getting into our large window well. It is nice to be able to send them out and have them be contained.  

We are considering moving from our little house.  We are trying to fix it up so it is nice for us at least and then if we want to we can put it on the market in reasonably good shape.  If we stay here we will have this place paid off in 11 years, my husband can continue to bike to work, we have the option of taking bikes on various errands.  We could move to another house in the city and that would be alright but I think our property taxes would be much higher than they are now.  We often consider moving to the country which would be a big change for us and it would mean a second car and husband driving much farther to work.  

In the country we would have more area for a bigger garden, we have options for things like keeping bees, chickens, quiet, more space to run, implementing homesteading ideas.  Of course keeping animals does come with added responsibilities and less opportunity to roam and come and go as you please.  I haven't traveled much in my life and I wonder if I ever will go over seas.  We also talk about going to Main and French Canada and speak French.  

We do live in a pretty little neighborhood with lots of trees and chipmunks, squirrels, birds, sometimes deer in our back yard and I also like the idea of making do where we are.  It would be less trouble; but going for the option just because it "less trouble" isn't how we want to live life is it?  

Seven Quick Takes Vol. 14

1.  I posted about Angelboy and my husband putting together a frame for a raised garden here.  Well here is a picture of the garden with the dirt in it just waiting for the plants to come and live there.  Hmm...I guess it depends on how fond of gardening you are as to whether or not you find this picture very interesting.

2.  There is a woman I know who just had her 9th child at the age of 42 and she had her first child at around the age of 30.  Isn't that amazing!  I love it when older women are able to have large families.  It's unorthodox to have nine chlidren in todays society, but it is even more unorthodox to do so beginning in your thirties and continuing on into your forties.  I can appreciate this as I had my second and third child at the ages of 37 and 39 and am hoping God gives me the strength I need to accept more if it be his will.

3.  I had a really bad attitude last week.  Then I saw the above mentioned woman with all her nine children and her new baby and my attitude changed.  If she can have her 9th baby at the age of forty-two with the oldest child being 12 how can I claim to be stressed out as a housewife with two little ones who gets mostly plenty of time to herself and has plenty of help.  (O.k...I don't have nine, but it is still hard to get it all done sometimes.)

4.  Speaking of older women having children...I had an ultrasound done of my ovaries on Tuesday.  It was kind of depressing as the ultrasound technician told me my ovaries were small.  She then said that this was good in that it is normal for your ovaries to get smaller as you get older, and then added, "unless you want more children."  Ugh. 

5.   We finally got an offer on our condo and the closing is scheduled for May 25.  I pray that it goes off without a hitch... or at least minimal hitches, anyway.  I dream of the day when we will be paying only one mortgage.

6.  We got a Brill reel lawn mower today (Those are the push lawn mowers without motors).  Our power lawnmower died and we had been thinking for a long time about getting a reel lawnmower.  Our grass hadn't been mowed yet this season so our grass was pretty long and we had even longer gone-to-seed Dandelions  sticking out of the grass.  The mower did great with the grass but it didn't mow the dandelions so we have a yard full of dandelion stems sticking up.  Very ugly.  We may have to power mow these some way and then start over again by mowing them with the reel lawnmower before they get very long again.  I guess you have to mow your grass pretty regularly as the manual lawn mower doesn't do as well with tall grass as the power lawnmower.  We'll give it a chance.

7.  Tomorrow is May 1st and the feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  Wow!  Goodbye April.

Thanks for reading!  You can read more qt's at conversiondiary.com.  Have a good weekend!

A Few Scenes from the Past Two Weeks

Our first big snow of the year on December 12.

Buttery sugar cookies ready for the oven.

Espresso cutouts drizzled in white chcolate.

Finally a chance to go out and play in the snow.

Snowflakes made by Dad (the one at the very top and third from bottom), Uncle B. (the one at the bottom) and Angelboy (the rest of them).

Got some presents wrapped!

Dryer Isn't Working and That's O.K.

Yesterday for the feast of the Immaculate Conception I made Blueberry Muffins from this receipe at Catholic Cuisine. They were very good and rather decadent with the crumble on top even though I made the muffins with half whole wheat flour. I may leave the crumble off next time and see how that works for a somewhat healthier version as they seemed plenty sweet enough. I know--I'm no fun.

We had a busy day after mass and muffins. I went shopping for boots for the kids and bought some pants for my husband. I wanted to get this done before it got snowing too hard.

In the evening I found that my dryer wasn't working. When the towels didn't get dry the first time I thought my husband forgot to turn on the dryer; when they didn't get done the second time I knew something was up. The dryer was spinning but there was no heat.

At first I was a little bit distraught by this as I had a fair amount of laundry, but then I rememered a post I read by Heather at A Quiet Place of Rest where she talked about hanging up her laundry inside because the weather was overcast that day and how this also helpped with the dry air inside. So... I have been doing laundry and hanging things up to dry whereever I can find a place to hang them. I hung diapers last night and I couldn't believe how quickly they dried. It is the dry air I am sure. I love the fact that we are getting by (for now) without our dryer.

This seems like such a small thing to get excited about; but my excitement may be due in large part that doing without a dryer (even temporarily) can be counted as one of the many small steps that are leading us to live a more homemade, do-it-yourself, thrifty kind of life. I may try to find a place to hang a clothesline and try to do this on a more permanent basis. We'll see.

On another note...
Here are pictures my husband took of our back yard this morning. Yes, it snowed, and I think many people will have similar pictures on their blogs today.

The Last of the Tomatoes

Here are the last of the tomatoes that my husband picked last month(not that there were very many this year). He wanted to get them before the first frost and perhaps do something with them. Right now they are on a table in our basement and our cat knocks them off and plays with them. We may just end up throwing them out but I thought that they would at least make a rather striking photo.