Wednesday, November 30, 2011

some sweet fall pics!












Making applesauce at Bacca's from her trees.


Eating outside, miss the nice fall days!

being honest

Feeling more in the mood tonight to write a post.

We have been going through lots lately.

The biggest and most emotional for me was that back in September we found out that we were going to be parents again.  We were shocked a little, but excited.  At the end of October we lost the baby.  It was very sad for us.


The morning I found out, I woke up knowing something was wrong.  I had a dream that night about the baby for the first time.  I woke up and knew.  Cried to myself a little, and waited till the morning to tell Zeb.

We still went to get an ultrasound just to make sure, and that night my wonderful midwife came over to help us through it.

I had many unexpected emotions. I was not ready for that, not thinking too much of being attached to the baby already.  I feel bad now, knowing other moms who have gone through that and I did not know what to say to them.


Another sadness for me, though less tragic, was the ending of a good friendship.  I am still shocked and a little bewildered about it, but completely hurt and missing her terribly.

More pleasant news for us was that our apartment is finished! We moved in for the first of November and it was so exciting.  I could fill many more blog posts about the tribulations this apartment has caused for us, but I won't get into that now.  Anyway, it is DONE!  And we love it!  I will do an apartment post on its own with a tour...coming soon!

Hmm... what else, oh I started baby sitting for some friends who have a sweet little girl Fabian's age.  It is fun to watch them together.  They are cool people (a breath of fresh air for us), and I enjoy being with their family.

The last few weeks have been a birth-assisting marathon!  I am loving it and am convinced this is one reason God put me on this earth.  A sweet little girl the other night, love it!

All this in the last few months!  I haven't felt like writing and to be honest, have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster.  I sure do love my husband though.  He has been right by my side and has shown me love even in my darkest moments, watches the kids when I go to a conference or birth, and keeps me laughing without complaint.  I am thankful for him.

I have been feeling better lately.  We are healthy and life goes on.  Getting our apartment all cozied up is good for me.  Feels good to get this off my chest a bit.  I feel like I will sleep good tonight.






Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Bus - y - ness

It has been a while.  What have I been up to lately?  Well, I will tell you...

We had a b-day party for Addy.  Big #7, hard to believe!





There was a yummy cake from the new Rosie's Bakery in Clarion, it was awesome!  and all natural! We had a raspberry lemon cake for her and they use real raspberries and lemon peel in the cake, not red food coloring and raspberry flavoring!  It was so good. 

Also there was a hayride, well two or three.  So fun! My Mom was the driver and we even got my Grandparents to go for a ride :)

Other than that we have been busy with work stuff.  Harvesting, planting, canning, planning. Also we are having our apartment finished finally!  It has been pretty sweet because these contractors are really moving it along and getting stuff done.  Our upstairs is ready to move into now!  But I did not realize how much time it would take me.  I am not complaining, just justifying my busyness.  I need to meet with them and call them and pick stuff out for them.  They explain everything to me which takes some time.  But yay!  Glad it is getting done.  I will post pics of the apartment soon.

The week we arrived back from vacation we realized we were losing our driver.  We have since found a replacement but there were about two solid weeks in there where Zeb and I were doing everything ourselves.  I won't go into the details because that would be boring but we were pretty much working from the time Adela went to school until we went to bed.  I was working with a child on my hip.  The house work suffered because of that and I am still playing catch up.

On a nicer and lighter note some friends formed a playgroup and we had our first playdate this past week!  Love it!   We really are craving some socializing with friends. 

That is all for tonight, take care!






















Tuesday, August 30, 2011

On the way back home

 On the way home we drove north through Virginia.  We needed to stop every so often because the kiddos would get so restless.  When we reached Richmond we decided to take a nice meal break,  something good that we can't normally get... sushi maybe?

We were not within walking distance to a sushi place where we parked but saw across the street a cool looking African place.  Man was it good!  The dishes had very interesting flavors, somewhat curry-ish but with lots of roasted onions and different spices I had never eaten.  We had some fish and rice and a shrimp dish with the best cabbage in the world.


As we walked to get some coffee we passed by the Edgar Allan Poe museum!  Eeeek, what a surprise!  We checked out what we could but didn't want to invest too much time going through the whole place.  It was pretty cool though. 

Don't I look like a beach bimbo next to EAP?  We don't look good together, sigh. 
 The small part of Richmond we were in was nice.  I liked it there.  We made it to a very hip coffee place that did french press coffee, and only had the super-fair trade kind that I had never heard of.  It was good!  We would like to go back sometime, do the complete EAP museum tour and discover Richmond a bit more.


Back on the road.  Now there was another surprise.  We passed by the exit for the Skyline drive through Shenandoah National park.  Zeb had driven it on his cross country trip years before and said we had to do it.  It probably added a good hour to our trip but it was worth it.  So beautiful!


 Every 100 yards or so there was another overlook. 





This deer did not care that we were right there.  I bet they get fed a lot. 

We made it back late.  It was a good trip.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Our Vacation in Photos part 2


Water spout seen from our balcony. 
The waterspout! An exciting surprise to watch during a cloudy day. 


 I had never seen one of these before.  It was cool to see the clouds and water spiral strongly.  It was a little scary because it kept getting closer but then headed south until we could not see it any longer.  



 Video shot by my father in law.  It is good but kinda long, if you don't watch the whole thing at least watch the end so you can see how close it got.  It is fun for me to hear everyone's comments while watching it.  At some point you can hear Addy say "I have never seen one in my whole life!"  haha :)
I am sure it will be a nice memory in years to come. 





Early morning walk.


Mine, Addy and Fabe's footprints.  Can you see them?


Addy and her cousin.
They really loved swimming in the ocean,  jumping in the waves and everything!  I can notice a difference in Addy's swimming ability after last week.  What a good daily exercise she got!




Monday, August 22, 2011

Our Vacation in Photos part 1

 On day two we went to the aquarium. It was fun and we saw lots of cool fish, sharks, turtles, eels etc.


 
you could touch the horsehoe crabs!


 Just a few hours after this photo was taken was when the sickness hit.  Yes, we all had either a virus or food poisoning.  It was horrible and knocked us down one at a time like we were dominoes.  What a bonding family experience!

Thankfully it was only a one day sickness.  The next day we were trying to enjoy ourselves again, a little slower moving but still having fun!


Fabe taking his daily nap on the beach.



 My father in law, brother in law and Zeb went fishing.  They brought back some great fish, Spanish Mackerel, and some shrimp!  It was the freshest, best shrimp I have ever tasted.


Computer is being weird and won't let me upload my pics quick enough.  Time for a virus scan and SLEEP.  More pics tomorrow!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Exciting Stuff This Week!

Guess what?



We got a new car!

It is WAY better on gas than my old car and super cute and fun to drive!  We decided on a Honda Fit. After driving three cars and looking at several others, the Honda seemed to be the best choice. It was recommended to us from several people and it had the most roomy interior of the cars we looked at.  We love it!

Also we took the new car somewhere special yesterday... the beach!




It was a long drive, but it was worth it!  Adela and Fabian were just about going wild in the ocean with excitement.  I am so glad Fabe likes it, the waves and sand seem to be just enough action and entertainment for him.

More lovely beach pics coming soon!  I can tell I am going to love it here.  It is not commercial at all, lots of little privately owned businesses and restaurants, and a little carnival in the town area.  We are right on the ocean too.  I can't wait to go exploring!


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Yellow Gazpacho


Today after church I wanted to make something quick, we had all these tomatoes...gazpacho!  I love a good gazpacho.  This one is made with Peach Tomatoes.  They are lovely fuzzy little yellow tomatoes.  They made the soup a creamy yellow color.  It was a beautiful and easy soup.  Just put it all in a blender, chill and it's ready!  Actually we were so hungry today we did not wait for it to chill, and it was still good.

Yellow Gazpacho: serves 2
  • 4 peach or golden tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 2 purple scallions, roughly chopped (you could also use 1/4 of an onion, the purple and green from the scallions just look pretty)
  • 1/2 cucumber, skin and seeds removed
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a few fresh herbs, I used sage and lemon mint (optional)
 Put everything in the baby food processor blender and blend till smooth. Chill in fridge.  Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some crushed black pepper

We had this with some popcorn while we watched Romancing the Stone.  Yay for lazy Sundays!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Time with Daddy

These pictures were so cute, I just had to share them.



 Two cute guys!


That's enough dad, I have to climb!  

Fabe has been climbing everything.  He learned how to climb onto the chair, and from there onto the table!  So now we leave the chairs on their sides when not being used.  Yeah, chairs laying all over the floor, that looks really cool.

Also, he said "mou" today, meaning mouth, and "so" meaning shoe.  Exciting!

What a rainy Wednesday it has been!  Have a nice mid-week! 

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Garlic




After curing.  Here they still have their twig-like stalks.

Trimmed

All cleaned up and ready to go!

 Our garlic is almost done.  It is looking pretty good this year. Relief!  We grow 11 varieties of garlic and now I am busy making sure they all dry properly, cleaning them up, keeping records of how each variety did, and shipping them out of here! 

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Beasts of Burden

Oh, quite a dramatic title, I know.  But... well 2 butts...

 We have been practicing here and there, borrowing some horses for cultivating.  One day on our own farm we want to be all animal powered.  Baby steps, that is our motto.



 It is really amazing how they plow through the earth like it is sand in a kids sandbox. 


 Meanwhile just controlling the plow and walking beside the horse, Zeb and I are dripping in sweat.  It felt good though to work that hard and get some real exercise.



 Adela liked riding the horses.


 Here is some of our garlic :)



Done for the day, time to go home!