Planting & Playing

We’ve had some great weather here in Vermont the past few days and we try to take the opportunity to enjoy it every chance we can! We decided to plant a garden again this year, although not quite as big as last years’. We were told the best day to plant was June 1st. We took 2 1/2 hours on June 3rd and, with Leah & Andrew’s help, we had everything planted! (Well, Andrew mostly just wanted to use his shovel, but they really did help put some seeds in the ground.) We did onions, potatoes, squash, corn, a few pumpkins, tomatoes, and some herbs. We learned some lessons from the church friend who helped us till the ground about bull thistles (very sharp miniscule thorns that will burn your skin) and poison parsnip—two plants we never dealt with in NC.

As soon as we’d finished planting, the rain came down! And it poured! We should hopefully have a good crop.

The next day we played! And we were silly.

 

 

Our New House

 

Our new place in Vermont has been a HUGE blessing since we arrived. The fact that there was a parsonage already waiting for us gave us so much less stress. And the fact that many, many church members pitched in to make renovations and get it all cleaned up for us made it even more special. It was a labor of love and they showed us even before we arrived that they were willing to put forth an effort to make us feel at home in Vermont. The house seems a lot bigger than our old house and laid out in a much better way. There are two stories, so as we’re settling we’re running into the problem of, “Well, I could put this here, or I could put it here. Or I could really use this piece of furniture…” It’s a good problem to have.

I didn’t get a good picture of the front (except the snow one I took in March) but this is the back. We have loved our view from day 1. It’s nothing but farmland, no people or buildings to obstruct the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. We sit on about 6 acres. At night you can hear nothing but the wind blowing and the coyotes howling. The grass (right now, in spring) is beautiful and the kids love to run barefoot!

When you come in our side door from the driveway, there is a dining nook. We haven’t done much with it yet but we have a little dining area, and I added a little cart with coloring books & crayons & paper for the kids to play while I’m cooking dinner. They haven’t used it much yet, but I’m sure it will be put to use. We haven’t even really figured out much use for the built-in bookshelf yet, either.

 

The kitchen nook looks into the kitchen and straight into the dining room. The kitchen has plenty of cabinet space and countertops. We even added a little island for more cooking space. We have a brand new refrigerator and gas stove. We may soon get new countertops, although the old ones are just fine for me. I love that it is open to the living room and the kids’ rooms so I can watch TV and see all that’s going on while I’m in the kitchen. Plus, there’s a countertop right next to the dining room table that we use as a sort of pass-through to put dishes both before & after meals to make clean-up easier.

 

  

The dining room also has another built-in bookshelf which we haven’t yet made use of. It’s a bit narrow for a lot of things but we’ve put photos and candles and other decorations. The dining room table we purchased from the previous pastor and it is huge!

We’ve since added some photos to these walls, but this is basically our living room. We were given this beautiful serving table by a church member and it works perfectly right here, although it often ends up being a catch-all for junk. We were also given a beautiful Roland upright piano by the church! It adds such a pretty touch. Of course, we’ve left our view of the mountains untouched and never get tired of looking out these windows!

 

Off the living room is our master bedroom, which heads straight into the sink area of our bathroom & the walk-in closet. The closet is really pretty big, as is the bathroom. With no drawers, we’ve had to do some rearranging, but we do have plenty of space in the bathroom. The shower & toilet have a separate area with a door.

  

  

Leah & Abigail’s room is also off the living room. We were worried at first that the TV would keep them up at night because it’s literally right there next to them, but it hasn’t been a problem at all with their noise machine and heavy sleeping abilities! Their room was the most difficult to fit things in because they have two big beds and a small dresser, but they have a large closet and the way we arranged it they still have plenty floor space to play. Leah’s comforter is a loaner right now until we get her a new one but she loves her big girl twin bed. Leah makes it clear that “No boys” are allowed in her room!

The kids’ bathroom is also the main bathroom in the hall. You can’t see it, but there is a large cabinet to the right of the sink.

Andrew has tons of space in his room! He loves his new fire truck toddler bed and having all that floor space for cars & trains! (We’ve also gotten darkening blinds on the windows since this picture. Much better for waking up in the morning!)

     

At the bottom of the stairs is ONE of our storage rooms. (Yes, we have two. This is the smaller one.) I keep board games & educational tools on the front shelves and store baby clothes on the back shelves. We also have an extra freezer in here. Tons of space!

 

The office is still a work in progress. We have a couple boxes left, and things to find places for, but Brett’s desk is mostly done. There’s a large closet in this room, too, so we have extra space for storage there, as well. My desk is on the opposite wall in this room and space for my scrapbooking things! The middle wall will be our music area—the keyboard & guitar, plus any other art stuff we want to keep out. This room is so versatile!

The living area downstairs has two sections—really one large room but with a little division between. The first area off the hall is our school area. This is also a work in progress, but I LOVE having a designated area for school. You cannot see the TV from this area so it is not a distraction. I can put posters up on the wall and keep all the art supplies where the kids can get to them easily. Eventually there will be a reading area and hopefully a bigger desk space as they grow. The door in the picture goes to the other storage room, where Brett gets to keep all his manly things, including a huge tool table and work area.

 

The other area of the living room is the playroom. The toys are along one wall.

And then the couch and TV are in the other part. We set our TV on the gas fireplace (which is very warm, as well as pretty). This is more of the kids’ living space, although right now they’re not used to being somewhere we’re not. They would rather play upstairs when I’m upstairs so I end up having to watch kids’ shows on “my” TV. They are able to go up and down as they want and sometimes they do (even Abigail figured out quickly how to maneuver the stairs), but really they don’t want to play downstairs unless I am with them.

Of course, the sunsets are the best part of our day. We have experienced every kind of weather since we’ve been here: up in the 80’s, down in the 40’s, high wind (even a tornado), hail, sun, rain… But even on the cloudy, gray days the view is amazing.

 

And a quick shot of our new church. We are already starting to find our place, although there is so much to do and so much to get involved in. We are eager to see all that the Lord has in store for us here!

 

First Days in Vermont

After our incredible greeting Sunday night, things only got better. Each day Brett and I wake up and gaze out over our beautiful backyard in amazement that we actually live in Vermont and marvel at all the blessings we’ve received since we’ve been here. The church here knows how to take care of its pastor and we have been spoiled. I don’t think we realized how unhappy we really were back in Newton Grove—we really weren’t unhappy there, we’re just much happier here, if that makes sense. It’s as if we’re getting a break from all the trials we faced in the past few years. Brett no longer has to work two jobs just to make ends meet and only see us 2 or 3 hours a day with little time off. We no longer have to struggle with finances with no help from our church family.

We have an amazing home here, which has had a lot of love and time put into it over the past couple weeks since the previous pastor moved out. They cleaned the place from head to toe, tore out the carpets and put in brand new laminate flooring (and new carpet in the bedrooms). They replaced the kitchen appliances, even leaving the old refrigerator in our storage room so we have extra space. They are replacing the countertops with brand new granite ones. They painted all the walls with the colors we chose. We simply have to ask for something and miraculously it appears—like ceiling fans or blinds. The first day we continually found surprises in our cabinets, like food, paper products and cleaning supplies. The people are genuinely nice and it seems to please them to be able to help us. They took care of every detail for us so all we had to do was unpack the boxes. In fact, it seems like everyone we’ve met in Vermont has been especially nice, throwing the concept of “Southern hospitality” out the window!

In the midst of unpacking, we still have to live life and it’s been challenging to keep the kids busy. Of course, these kids have always been pretty good at playing independently, but right now half their toys are still in boxes because our downstairs (where the playroom will be set up) is currently in the process of being renovated and has no carpet. So I try to bring out new things each day to entertain them and we try to spend a little time outside each day (even the weather has been beautiful for us since we’ve been here—cold in the mornings but up to the 70’s by mid-afternoon). Abigail has been getting into even more and refuses to play with any toys—only getting into cabinets and things she shouldn’t. It takes twice as long to do things when she’s awake.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and as of now there are no boxes left in the upstairs portion of our house. There are no pictures on the wall, but everything else is done, straight down to the curtains. Downstairs is a whole other story, but we can’t do anything until they finish replacing the carpet. I’m anxious to get back to a routine and normal schedule, to explore the area and find new friends, but I know things like that take time, especially in the summer when school’s out. We did already get our Vermont drivers’ licenses, making us official Vermonters! I haven’t had to cook many meals yet, as our freezer was stocked, but Brett will start having office hours Monday and we’ll at least return to some sort of normalcy. The carpets and countertops will all be installed this week so before we know it, we will be unpacking downstairs and won’t remember calling any other place “home.”

  

  

The kids have adjusted amazingly well and things we were worried would be issues, like Andrew having his own room and the girls sharing, were not even issues. They have all fallen straight to sleep every night and slept straight through. Granted, the sun comes up much earlier here, around 5:30, so they’ve been up early, but that’s starting to get better, especially now that they have curtains. (Abigail has been napping on our bed most days because Leah wants to be able to play in their room during that time, but eventually they’ll have a playroom and be able to play downstairs while Abigail naps in her own crib.) They haven’t whined or complained hardly any and at church they’re excited about meeting new people and warming up to everyone very quickly! Brett & I even got to have date night last Friday and left the kids with a couple from church. They were completely comfortable and we felt totally comfortable leaving them. They are loving having their Daddy around more often and that’s probably part of the reason they’re behaving so much better.

And who could complain about this view we get to see every day from our living room window. Now I know 5 months of the year it will be covered in snow and we will long for warmer weather, but right now, we can’t get enough of the beauty of God’s creation and we can’t believe it’s actually real. We praise God for all we had to go through to bring us here!

Moving Day

 

May 10th was a beautiful, sunny day as the giant Penske truck pulled up in our driveway. We’d been packing up boxes for more than a week and we were excited about getting everything on the truck and getting on the road to Vermont. Aaron & Travis, from our new church, came to help us load, and it was a grand feat! It took them from about 10am until about 6:30 that evening to get it all loaded up. We barely fit everything into the truck & Brett’s car, which was being towed behind the truck. In fact, at the end of the day, I was throwing out food & cleaning products & anything that was not vital, just so we had room to fit everything!

 

It took quite a bit longer than we’d expected and the guys were exhausted, but after all the cleaning and loading was done, we got out on the road. We put Abigail forward facing for the trip, because we thought she’d be able to interact better and I could see her to keep her occupied. The kids were excited to get on the road.

 

We only drove about 3 hours the first day, stopping around 11 that night in Richmond, VA at a hotel to rest. We had originally wanted to get further, but it worked out just fine and the next day we started out early, around 8:30 or 9. It really did take a full day of driving. The kids did amazing. I had bought plenty of new coloring books and small toys for the car ride and pulled them out one at a time to keep them entertained. Abigail was a little trickier and whined off and on, but she did pretty good at cat-napping throughout the day. We also just bought a portable DVD player and more often than not, that kept them all busy. We took a long stop for lunch at Cracker Barrel (my Mother’s Day treat) and after that Abigail got really fussy. Finally she got sick and threw up all over her seat. Thankfully, we’d brought along her rear-facing car seat, so we switched them out and after that she fussed a lot less. It seems she’s still too little and was much more comfortable not all scrunched up in that new seat! That was really our only snag, besides a little traffic around DC and a whole lot more toll roads than we’d planned, but finally we pulled into Vermont around 9. Abigail was the only one sleeping but we didn’t want to get them all out for a picture by the state sign so this is all we got:

 

When we got to our house, there were at least 15-20 church people waiting for us. The moving truck had arrived only about 3 hours before us, but they’d already unloaded the entire truck, made our beds (including putting Abigail’s crib together), put our living room furniture in a really great arrangement, stocked our refrigerator & cupboards and even started putting together the kids’ swingset! They were so excited to greet us. So many of them have been working hard over the past few weeks to clean out the parsonage where we’re living and make it look amazing for us. I was overwhelmed with their warm welcome and all they’d done. We slept so well that night and the kids didn’t even make a peep!

Abigail @ 18 months

This little girl gives us a run for our money. She is by far the most mischievous kid we’ve had and gets into everything! She is silly and loves to explore and test her limits, yet she’s cuddly and super sweet when it’s time for bed and very much Mommy’s girl. She will grab on to my legs so I can’t walk unless I pick her up. She cries for a few seconds when I drop her off anywhere or leave her with someone, but then usually she’s fine. She still continues to be the best sleeper and goes to bed without any fuss. She will only let me cuddle her when we get in her rocker in her room at bedtime but its those times I cherish!

 

She often sleeps in well past her siblings and then is ready to sleep again by 11. Usually I push her to stay awake until after lunch, then she takes a good 2-3 hour nap. She still loves her bottle when she wakes up, although I really hope to get her off that. She does know how to drink milk from a cup, she just loves the security of that bottle. She’ll even go into the cabinet, pull out a bottle, hand it to me and grunt, apparently meaning I’m supposed to get her more milk in it.

 

Her favorite thing is probably climbing up on chairs. Also remote controls and phones. She’s starting to get interested in dolls and feeding them, but mostly she loves to throw them out of her crib. She LOVES to scribble, but mostly she just loves to take the tops on and off of markers and then color on her skin or clothes. She loves books and being read to, but only if they’re short. She loves to be sung to and is starting to “sing along” some by making sounds when we do. She knows how to give kisses, complete with a kissing sound. School with Leah and Andrew has been challenging lately because I’m constantly having to stop her from pulling things out of the closets or books off the shelf. When she’s awake, she’s awake and not easily entertained by playing on her own.

 

At her most recent doctor’s visit, she weighed 19 lbs., 6 oz. (the 10th%) and was 32 inches long (54th%). She eats really well but is getting pickier about vegetables and certain meats. And if she doesn’t like something, she will spit it out—you can’t make her eat anything. She still doesn’t say many words, and though the doctor wasn’t too concerned, Leah and Andrew were talking a lot more by her age. I know she definately understands everything I say and understands when I ask her to do things like, “put your clothes in the basket,” or “go throw this away,” or “It’s time to go take a bath…” (She even starts pulling at her shirt and taking her pants off when I tell her that!) She does finally say Mommy and Daddy and also has words that sound like Leah and Andrew. She has words that sound like milk and doggy but mostly she just points and grunts. I know she is taking everything in and will probably start speaking in complete sentences but right now I guess she gets what she wants without words. She can point to all her major body parts and can usually recognize several different animals in a book if I name them.