one year in new england

We rounded our first year in New England in August. It's hard to believe that last August we pulled into the North Shore of Boston and it was all new. We have adjusted and...are continuing to adjust. It's funny to me how whenever a season changes I feel a little anxious. It's like a reminder of the change and how much really feels new here. I have mixed feelings about fall coming. The winter was really hard last year. It was dark and snowy and icy especially after Christmas, but when it finalllly got warm (ish) in May, it made me a little queasy just because it reminded me of what it was like when we moved here. Weird?

With that said, here are five things that I am loving about living here so far...

1... I am so grateful that we have a house we really love here. There is still a lot to do, but generally it's great.

just bought the house! (left)                     nemo snowstorm (right)

2...Fresh local food. My two favorite spots are Richardson's for fresh milk and eggs (& ice cream) and Tendercrop Farm in Newbury. Both are a bit of a drive (about 20 minutes in opposite directions) so I make these trips on different days. But both have tractors and cows to look at - which Jude loves now. Richardson's sell a gallon of whole organic local milk for $2.60....can you beat that??

3...The people. I feel like because of the type of neighborhood we are in we are more social than we were in Virginia. We love our neighbors. We take turns grocery shopping for each other. We spontaneously eat meals together. We love being near to Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Seminary and the community of people that are here because of those two schools. We love the leaders we are working with from both schools too and they have already become so dear to us.

4...Living near Boston. We do not get into the city all that much. We live about 30 minutes North, but we love having the train run through town. We can hear it from our house and Jude listens for it as it chugs by. And a trip into the city is always fun.

5...There's probably other things, but for five I am going to go with flea markets, awesome antique stores and free stuff. I find more things on the side of the road than I know what to do with. Often they are things we could really use and it's great. 

Life is different here in a lot of ways, but as Philip reminded me when we moved initially, we still end the day together and that does not change. 

feeling settled.

what does it take for you to feel settled somewhere?

i have moved quite a few times in my life, like most people in their twenties i would guess. college, post-college at least allows for a few moves. at times i feel fairly settled in our new place, but then sometimes i get really irritated that i am using a cardboard box as my night stand.

i am not sure how bloggers like young house love live with a portion of their house feeling not like you want it to feel and just having to wait until you have time to do the next thing.

we are making progress. yes. remind me that.

our living room. rug still not staying. just something old to fill the space for now. still to do: add a mantle, mount tv above mantle. figure out what to do with the fabric on the chair.

ugh. this will change within the next month i think. finish the hardwoods on the stairs. table the discussion on putting in a real railing for now. we also have a nice coat closet, but honestly, i don't like having to hang up coats all the time. we may consider opening it up and doing a bench and cubbies and hooks.

dining room is feeling a little better. still need a buffet or china cabinet, but i think we have settled on a rug. it is thin, but cute. from here. 

started to feel settled, but certainly not there yet. hopefully i will find some settledness in the progress we have made. craft room pics coming soon!

xo

our life in a few snapshots.

i hate rubbing it in that i love my iphone, but i am loving snapping shots of our little mcnugget (i have approximately 100 nicknames for him) and now 1000 pictures in the matter of weeks. 

here are a few pics (insgrams) of the last few weeks. they have been great. not sure if it's the mild winter or the sweet baby, but i am usually not this happy this time of year...

let's recap. 

{ disney. }

magic kingdom is not quite what i remembered. it's different when you are a kid, but it was still great to get to go with our little family (& some of our best friends)

{ running. }

trying to run again. starting with 10 min jogs. bonus is i have a jogging stroller and little jbird can come along for the ride!

{ j's first swim! }

 pretty sure jude was thinking...what's the big deal. it's like a lukewarm bath. 

{ been making lots of earrings. }

(new favorite item - vingo bingo! earrings)

{ knitting. }

i have a secret goal to actually use crafting supplies i buy without continuing to by new ones. (anyone else have this problem?) i made an infinity scarf that has been keeping me warm and happy lately. 

 { pants on the ground...pants on the ground... }

actually pants on the head, but still so cute. 

{ lucy + jude }

lucy has taken quite a liking for little j. she lets him grab her and i snap a pic of her resting her head on him. this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. 

happy thursday ya'll.

still sick

hello blogging world. i have not felt like saying much. i am still sick with the sweet little baby. i guess that is good, right? she or he does not like what i am having for breakfast. and i am trying to stomach some carrots as i type. yuck.

but its the weekend! yahoo! sometimes i think i am looking pregnant, but then sometimes i'm not sure. i'll be 17 weeks on tuesday & we go to the doctor on monday. i am still wondering if they will do an ultrasound or not....but in some ways i do not feel ready to know the sex. i kind of am ok not knowing now, but it will be exciting whenever we find out.

ere i am at 16weeks - a few days ago. i always look at other pregnant people and compare myself, but hopefully i will feel better after the appointment monday.

Pardon my appearance...for some reason I always have Philip take a picture at the end of the work day & I am never looking my best. Oh and I just had to add soft serve to the list of things not to eat....I appreciate all the encouraging comments about my posts a few weeks ago. But seriously, soft serve? There is a secret really long list of things you should not eat somewhere, but I don't know where to find it. 

Enjoy your weekend! 

i'm still here.

My sister asked if my blog had died. No. It hasn't. I just have been busy and haven't been able to carve out anytime to blog/I haven't felt like I have had anything to say. Here are a few pictures to catch you up. 

Big news! The island is almost finished. And I love it! I was nervous about the butcher block and if we were making the right decision. Also nervous because Philip found a deal online. He tends to do this and it usually works out fine, but I was nervous that I wouldn't like it. We are really happy with it & with some paint, caulking & oil for the countertop it will be ready to go in a few days. 

I still need to find some stools though...

In other news, we had a lovely little snow a few weeks ago & it was a gift to me. I missed the big snow in Virginia Beach over Christmas so I enjoyed having a day off school & sleeping in. Fortunately it melted quickly & we've had a few warm days lately....hopefully more to come! 

That's all for now...enjoy your week!

grab bag.

 sorry emily. my sister has been bugging me about blogging, but i just have had too much going on this week. but finally...we will have a weekend home! we have been out of town the last two weeks & it makes the week feel so much busier. i have a list of things i want to do like bathe lucy, but i mostly want to relax and spend time with my boo. oh and i guess watch the super bowl, but i don't really care about the game.

lucy is bugging me as i am typing...

i am also hoping to make so chili since i haven't been cooking a lot of soup lately...& this is my favorite time of year to make soup. 

i also want to try & sew like i had mentioned last post. i was playing with shipping tags & made these little gift tags. i haven't decided what i'll do with them yet though...

they may be something i list or just use myself. i also have had fun making these aged shipping tags...

i am selling those in my pipe + dream shop though. 

anyways, hope your weekend is restful + fun!

my life is sweet.

i just had a great weekend in the outer banks with our friends...here are a few snapshots of the weekend.

we stayed here...

 

played ridiculous games...

played more normal games...

enjoyed being together....

laughed a lot...

danced...

woke up very tired on sunday from staying up late all weekend...

but it was great.

philip's birthday

I had a previous blog that I have canceled so I wanted to re-post one of my favorite memories of my wonderful husband in honor of his birthday today....{it was from July this summer}

So here I am...in the lovely state of New York. My life is so strange sometimes. My husband and I work for Young Life. And we get the privilege of working at the beautiful camps Young Life owns during the summer. Some would not consider this a privilege, but we do. We have to uproot and move our lives for a month, live in a house with other families, share meals together... And I love it...well usually at least.

Philip loves it, too. I think he feels more free to be himself here. Perhaps too free. While out to dinner last night, with some of our friends, we noticed it was karaoke night at a small local American bar on the river. Philip loves karaoke, but I have never seen him do anything like this before...he requested the song, "Pour some sugar on me" and as he approaches the mic he just goes ahead and takes off his shirt. What?

There were about 40 people in the bar, maybe more. And he belted out the song...a few of the waitresses brought some handfuls of sugar and threw it on him. A local woman came up to him afterward and said,

"That was a treat. I haven't seen that much skin in quite some time."

I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.

happy birthday philip! 

i love you. 

{ 2011 to do}

{2011 Perplexed Birdies Calendar by Collete Papiere}

I do not really like resolutions, but I do like goals & to do lists...so I have a few for 2011 & thought I would share. Perhaps this will help keep my accountable to doing some of them.

{1} learn to sew - I know the basics, but want to sew a pillow sham & learn how to do the basics
{2} only go to the grocery store once a week - odd goal, but I ALWAYS end up having to go several times & it takes so much time & energy.
{3} live a neater/cleaner life. okay, totally not measurable, but I have noticed that I have this cycle of my house/car/etc gets messy as I am busy during the week & then it takes me all day Saturday to clean it up. I want to figure out how to live a more organized day to day schedule where I am not letting everything pile up.
{4} read a book a month - could be a spiritual book or a book for fun, but once a month
{5} get into two more local boutiques with my button jewelry
{6} exercise 3x a week - enough said.
{7} continue to blog on a semi-daily basis
{8} journal & remember what God has done - my friend reminded me this week how important that is
{9} redecorate our master bedroom - we love the colors, but Philip wants to build a new bed with  storage & I love that idea.

...so that is a start...i'm sure there's more...

blogs i love.

I know this is weird, but I have been falling in love with some blogs lately. Since I started blogging more frequently, I have started reading more blogs also. There have just been some stories that have gotten to me. I wanted to share them because they are so sweet & powerful.

{ Libby's }

I have been reading my friend, Libby's blog this fall as she is going through chemotherapy to fight cancer. As I would read her blog every few days, I would find myself thinking about how she has so gracefully fought this terrible disease, without complaining or grumbling, but trusting that God is in the midst of this really hard stuff...


 & then I found {Edie's blog }

I just stumbled upon it while browsing some blogs before Christmas. I fell in love with the turquoise cabinets, but it was her perspective on life that peaked my interest. I looked at her blog again a few days after Christmas and discovered that her house had burned down over Christmas. And then she shared her perspective on life in the midst of losing her entire home days before Christmas. Can you imagine? I cannot...


Then I found Kelle Hampton's sweet photography blog...

I noticed quickly that one of her daughter's has down syndrome. Kelle wrote up the birth story of her daughter Nella. Wow. It was just incredible. I have just started to explore her site, but I have thought about their story since I found her site. Really. I can't explain how good it is. Just read it.

See I make plans for my life all the time. And frequently they do not go as I hope. These women have felt simliarly, I'm sure. Our expectations are not fulfilled, which can cause us to be angry, disappointed...or you can choose to trust that God knows what he is doing. In the midst of all this hard stuff, I see these women rejoicing. I think that is what gets me. The belief that God is still good & is still God no matter what life brings...

What are you reading that is inspiring you?

oh  & i dropped Philip's name...since I am really the blogger...sorry boo... 

christmas to do list

...our front window decorations...

Only a week until Christmas! I love this time of year, but it always seems to come faster than I expected. I decided to make a list of things I hope to do. Is that bad? I mean I know its a break, but I always wish I had got certain things done.

• Start exercising over break {I have been meaning to get back into it & maybe having free time will help!}
• Sleep in {this will be easier for me than for Philip}
• Finish Christmas shopping before the 23rd...
• Find a new tv series to watch {Philip + I watched Grey's Anatomy from season 1 this fall and we are all caught up}
• Enjoy being with our friends & families
• Start some traditions 
• Find a refrigerator on sale so we can put it in when break is done
• Watch at least one Christmas movie
• Find some good music we both like {we have $15 to itunes...any suggestions??}

...so I realize some of them are not specific or measurable, but oh well.