Settling In

Settling in to a new house is a challenging activity. In many ways it's fun, but it's also awkward and consumes more time and energy than seems reasonable. 

It's not just the physical activity of settling in, either. The more challenging part is teaching our minds to recognize opportunities in the new space. For instance, we tend to end up all in the office. Or at least the three guys are in the office and I'm nearby in the kitchen. At our old house we were always all together in one room because we didn't have any other option. Now we have to learn that it's possible and okay to be in separate spaces. Believe me, Ben and I have proved to be much faster at learning this than the boys have. ;-)

Settling in also involves making this house feel like our home. Our own space not only in the fact that we designed the space and decided on the paint and lights and trim and on and on, but a space filled with our things that makes us feel relaxed and rejuvenated. That takes time! And I gave myself that time this weekend. I was determined to put all my stuff (all the non-essentials that have been packed away for three years) to good use. So I unpacked it, remembered what I own, and put out the odds and ends of stuff that I wanted to look at. Then I turned my attention to the stack of artwork and other variety of things that are meant to hang on walls. I spent hours this weekend carrying artwork around the house, figuring out where it should go and then eventually getting it put up. Let me tell you, Command strips are where it's at. Love them. I'm not completely finished, but this house has come a long ways in the "feels like home" department this weekend.

Also...we're in the midst of a polar vortex, which brought a thin layer of sleet on Saturday morning and then a thin layer of snow on Sunday morning. The polar vortex can go back to the north pole as far as I'm concerned.

While Noah was at basketball practice on Saturday morning, Levi headed outside to shovel the sleet pellets off the driveway. I was hugely impressed with this since he rarely goes outside by himself. Bonus for me since I had plenty to keep me busy inside.

 Just after I snapped these photos Levi got the deck shoveled off. I hope he's this helpful when it snows more this winter!

 Inside, I'm holding on strong to fall. I refuse to make the season change inside the house until after Thanksgiving.

 Oh but outside it's looking quite bleak and frigid.

 By Saturday afternoon the sleet had melted away and the boys convinced us it was baseball playing weather.

 It was a struggle, but we stayed out long enough for each boy to get several good hits and then we ran back inside. Playing baseball when it's 30 degrees just isn't my idea of a good time.

 But see? The boys thought it was great and were not happy with us when it was time to go inside.

 The ladies were out and about on the farm Saturday afternoon too...so far we haven't had too much coyote trouble...although we know they're in the area.

 Soon enough we'll have to seriously restrict the amount of time the ladies get outside the barn each day simply to keep them alive.

 It's not only the four of us humans who are settling in these days. Our cats and chickens are also trying to figure out where we went and what the deal is. The cats immediately figured out where their food moved to, but where do they go when it's cold? At the old house, they could be in the garage, but not anymore. Now they claw at the doors to try and come in.

And I can tell that I'm spending less time visiting with my parents. At the old house, we'd often go over to their house just to be in a bigger space. The wonderful bonus was that we'd usually get to visit with my parents too. Now we have space, so we don't go over to their house as often and I end up feeling like I hardly see them anymore.
We're all adjusting, and there are times I can tell that the four of us are cranky with each other because we can't figure out what or where or how we're supposed to be. But we're figuring it out and new ways of life are becoming routine.

Halloween Party

The day after getting back from Pennsylvania was Halloween! Oh my. What a way to return home. There's nothing normal about Halloween. The kids were a little nuts with excitement and I had to provide drinks for the 1st grade class party. I thought Levi and I had agree on a green punch that we'd call "Bug Juice" but the night before the party he declared it had to be blood red. Ok! I was up to the challenge. :-)

The party was fun - Levi's got a fun class that was ready to have fun but were also patient and good listeners. 

 Levi, aka KC Chiefs player #13, and his classmates had fun with the games that were organized for them. Levi took the candy walk game very seriously.

 Actually, all the kids did! They concentrated on stepping on the squares they were supposed to and were careful to listen for when the music stopped.

 They were even patient while they had to wait for their turn at the next game!

 Ring toss was a hit. And who doesn't want a juice box as a prize?!

 Snacks were cupcakes with plenty of creepy, crawly critters on the table.

 Levi decorated the orange cups with googly eyes weeks before the party and was proud to serve blood red punch in them to all his friends. The punch was simply strawberry lemonade with strawberry Fanta mixed in. It was entirely too sweet for my taste, but it was the best I could do shopping in our little grocery store on the day of the party!

 He even managed to eat his cupcake with his helmet on. Ha!

And...I never got a photo of Noah in his costume. I know, parent of the year award for me! He decided to dress up as a Goessel baseball player.
Halloween evening was chilly, but we put a couple extra layers on and headed for town. We quickly met up with some friends and by the end of the evening we were a group of almost 20! The boys ran up and down the streets with their friends and after quite a while we all decided it was late, dark and cold so our Halloween came to an end.

10 days in PA

October flew by in the blink of an eye. We moved on Oct. 4, on the 20th I left for a ten day trip to Pennsylvania - a combo work/vacation trip. And just like that, it was Halloween and the month was gone!

All the photos here are from my phone. I didn't take my camera along, and I tend to snap few photos with my phone...so here goes!

Taking off in Wichita usually requires walking outside on the tarmac...classy. 

 No meeting at MCC is complete without chocolates (Wilbur Buds, a locally made chocolate), hymnals and agendas. I was in Akron, PA at MCC for four days of meetings with all the Communications and Donor Relations staff from from MCC U.S. and MCC Canada.

 Thankfully, our meetings are from 8-5 and then there are some activities in the evening that we can participate in or do whatever else we want. Lucky for us, Ingrid Michaelson was performing in Lancaster on Wednesday evening and we got tickets! The Chameleon is in downtown Lancaster, an old row house that's been converted to a concert venue. It was a fantastic break and Ingrid put on a low-key super-impressive show. One of my colleagues knew the manager of the Chameleon so he helped us get up close to the stage so we could actually see Ingrid really well. The photo below is from the back of the venue while we were waiting for her to go on stage.

 After our MCC meetings wrapped up, there was an Anabaptist Communicators Conference at MCC that I stayed to take part in. So after a week of meetings, I got to participate in two more days of meetings! That last sentence was complete sarcasm. I was so done with meetings....but they were still interesting and I was glad I took part.
On Friday our meetings wrapped up earlier than I thought so I took a walk in Akron and found this Amish roadside stand selling flowers, plants, fruits and vegetables. I wasn't sure how much of the produce they grew themselves and how much they brought in, but they had an impressive garden growing alongside the road and several apple trees too.

 As a part of the conference, I visited an organization that brings together Amish farmers in a co-op to sell their goods through grocery stores and CSA's. It was very interesting and eye-popping to see how much money folks are willing to pay for "Amish-made, home-grown" goods.

 On Saturday afternoon, Ben joined me in Akron and thus ended my week of meetings and my week of vacation began! We went to Lancaster to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary and had a wonderful time getting little bits of food at lots of places.

 Sunday morning, before we took off from Akron, we went for a walk. It was a chilly, but beautiful morning.

 We drove to Bethlehem, PA to have lunch with our friend Jason and after lunch we were surprised to find a parade going through town!

 From Bethlehem we drove up to Bushkill, PA where we stayed at a dilapidated resort that would have been in it's prime in the early 90's. Dilapidated or not, we tried to make the most of it, even though we had to go out and buy new pillows on Monday morning. After that we took off to go hiking at Bushkill Falls.

 There were lots of amazing waterfalls and the trails were nice and well cared for. Bushkill Falls is a privately owned area so we had to pay to get in, but after we hiked most of their trails we were glad we paid to see it.

 We ate our picnic lunch under these trees.

 Tuesday we took the train in to New York City. We left the resort early in the morning and safely made our way down Hwy 209 through the "Warning! Major Wildlife Collision Area" even though we saw about five dead deer and at least that many alive on the side of the road. We were both glad we didn't have to regularly make that drive!
Our time in the city was spent walking around different parts of town. We saw tons of interesting things and people, all of it seen as we explored here and there. Below is a picture of the High Line, a raised train track turned walking path. The last time I was in NYC this wasn't open yet, so I wanted to see it for myself. It was a lovely space and we only walked one section of it. There were lots of tourists, taking lots and lots of pictures.

 Chelsea Market had been one of my most favorite places the last time we visited NYC but this time it was so crowded with people it was hard for me to enjoy. I love this sign from the outside of the building, though.

 We rode lots of trains to the city, in the city and back out of the city. Thanks to Google and our phones we were able to navigate around the city without too much trouble. We got back to our room at the resort in the wee hours of Wednesday and rejoiced that we made it without hitting any of the five or six deer we saw along the side of the road!

 Wednesday morning we went to headquarters for the National Park Service to figure out the trail options in the Delaware Water Gap park.

 Our morning hike took us along the Delaware River and it was gorgeous! It was rainy in the afternoon, but in the evening we walked the golf course that surrounded the resort and got quite a workout. There were some steep hills on that course! Bonus: we saw another eight deer on the course.

Highlights of the trip: spending time with Ben, relaxing, figuring out how to bake a frozen pizza without an oven, seeing amazing nature all around us, eating wonderful food, catching up with friends, watching the Royals play in the World Series.
Low points: being away from home for 10 days and missing the boys, the shower was so loud it made our ears ring, the pillows, watching the Royals lose the World Series.
A huge shout out to my parents and to Ben's mom for watching the boys while we were gone! The boys loved every minute of it and we never had to worry or wonder because we knew they were in the best of hands! Thank you!!