Over the river and through the woods

Tomorrow morning we are headed out of town for our mountain adventure. four days in the mountains of West Virginia with no contact to the outside world. The perfect place to relax, work on Christmas Cards by the fire while my husband and his father have deep meaningful conversations about statistical analysis, and sip hot cider. Four days of hiking, fishing, and hanging out with the family. "Take me home country roads, to the place where I belong, Almost Heaven, West Virginia" sorry, I forgot myself there for a moment. I just can't help but sing a little John Denver every now and then. :) Here is a little taste of our view out the back door. We will be back on Monday!

We're not moving...

...until after Christmas! Can I just tell you how excited about this I am?!!! I was willing to do what my husband wanted, no problem we could live in an apartment, and start our life in New Jersey and frantically get this house ready to sell. BUT I was really disappointed about missing out on the Christmas festivities here.

You see, when we moved the last time it was our anniversary and the beginning of November. We spent our 7th anniversary on a plane, sitting on a runway for 2 hours, pregnant with three small children. Now how is that for romantic? Then we went to my parents for Thanksgiving so that wasn't to bad, but Christmas was NOT the same. We were staying in a small apartment with no extra space and all of our things mostly in boxes. Now don't get me wrong we still loved celebrating Jesus birth and worshiping our Lord as a family, but we knew no one, and it just didn't feel like Christmas and I was prepared to do that all over again(well not the airplane part), but I really didn't want to.

So I began praying asking God to show me a way to bring this up to my husband that didn't sound silly or not thankful for him providing for us and wanting to keep the family together during the transition.
On Friday he comes home from work and said, "I've been talking with out realtor and he thinks it would be a good idea to wait until the spring housing market to sell. Amen! I didn't even have to say anything! God is so good.
Yes, it's just a trivial issue overall, but God cares about all of the details of our lives even the trivial ones. This was such a wonderful reminder of that.

So we will be staying through until February. I will host Thanksgiving with my family, the annual Christmas tea for the ladies at our church, decorate my house, celebrate with friends and family, and not have to spent our 10th wedding anniversary sitting on a runway with 3(now 4) small children.

Rain Rain Go Away

It has been cold and rainy here all day. It's moving towards winter here faster than I would like. There are still many outdoor projects that need to be accomplished for the house sale! Instead I will have to focus on the inside this weekend. Here is a list of things that need to be accomplished. I figure if I keep track of them here they might actually get done!

*Paint school room,
*Paint girls room,
*Wash walls in boys room, fix trim,
*Finish laundry room; drywall, paint, shelving
*Pack up some of the toys in girls room,
*Paint chairs so I can park in garage and it looks spacious,

*Wash cabinets in kitchen and all appliances inside and out,

*Touch up front door and trim in foyer,
*Wash floors and railings on stairs,
*Cook for the months so I can do all of these projects!

There is always something that needs to be done and all of this on top of school and "normal" life.
Uggg I really don't care for this part of moving. Its the searching for a new house, finding a new church, and meeting new people that is fun. Yes it's stressful also but having moved five times in the past 10 years, I'm getting pretty good at it. There is always something new to learn and things that you learn from past moves to make it all easier. I pray I won't have to do this to many more times but with a husband who loves these kind of adventures, we will see. I always tell him he would have made a great pioneer!

Applesauce Makinng

Here are a few shots of our applesauce making this year. It was lots of fun and we finished it all in one day! This year we made 84 quarts of sauce and I hope its enough. We were down to 2 jars at the end of September and had to make it stretch!

"I be the bad guy"

...and she played her role to perfection

Fall design

Just some photos of the fall decor in my home. This is the first year I feel like I have enough things to go around and make it look well thought out. It is so cozy and the cool temperatures are wonderful for gathering around the fire.

This is the centerpiece on the breakfast table. I just love decorating with candy, especially in the kitchen!

On top of the kitchen cabinets.

On the railing going upstairs.

A carved wooden pumpkin on a stack of old children's books.

This is one of my favorite new things, glittered pumpkins in little white pots.

A Finished Project

Remember this? I bought it back in June for 10.00 at a yard sale.

I finally finished it last week!! YAY! A project done! I added feet and painted it black, leaving the back unfinished. I gave my Mom back the bookcase We had been borrowing and replace it with this piece. It is a bit bigger so it holds more of our growing collection of books. I just need to get rid of that one white spine on the third shelf! It's driving me crazy!

I got the slip covers for the chairs and a coffee table. I just need a slip cover for the ugly blue sofa in this room and it is ready to go. As soon as that is done I'll take pictures. I even took down the family picture and put up a painting so you don't see it first thing when you come in. It's gotta look like someone else could live here now. We are almost ready to put it on the market, hopefully one or two weeks worth of work left!
Anyone want to paint trim?

When in Rome...

Miles loves Roman history and decided way back in May that he wanted a "Roman" birthday party. At first I wasn't sure about the idea but it was SO much fun to put together! Miles loved it and had a blast. My mom made him a tunic and a toga with the purple edge which stood for the senate(or wealthy Romans). I found a pair of strappy sandals in the girls section for his shoes. A belt and dagger completed his costume.

In his tunic and toga.  For the cake we couldn't decide on anything that was to difficult to make or stood for something rather evil. So eventually we went with a picture of some of the architecture. I piped the image of the Constantine Arch.
Not my best work but it was so last minute!

Cutting the cake with his dagger.

We dined on pillows around the coffee table. I served food that would have been eaten back then but sightly updated, for example we had cheddar cheese instead of sheep and goat. Boiled eggs were common but usually cooked in wine, and for the chicken I used rosemary instead of coriander and cinnamon. I also served pita bread sipped in yougurt. Yummy! I also had almonds and olives, but no one ate any of those.
All of the boys thought it was so much fun to eat with their fingers on the floor! With his dagger that was supposed to be plastic, but when it arrived it had a rather sharp stainless steel blade!

I am now an expert at toga wearing and feel like I took a course on Roman history. Who knew birthday parties could be so fun and educational?!

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