A Post from North Carolina!

I'm at the two week mark again! And this time writing from the cozy living room of my second cousin's home! Alida, Terah and I embarked on our first ever road trip just the three of us yesterday. Jason chuckled as he remarked that the two chill family members were staying at home. I imagine things are pretty calm at Tangly Woods!!

I'll share more about our time here in a future post, but here's some highlights from the end of January and beginning of February.

Thursday, January 25 - We had our first "Family Fun night!" And it appears that I didn't take a single photo (so I must have been very present just having fun)! Alida had brought the idea to a family meeting and it was approved unanimously to set aside one evening every other week to just enjoy each other's company. I know that some games and homemade soft pretzels were involved, but all the other specifics are fading into the background. What remains is that it was a hit and everyone is glad we are setting aside that time together on a regular basis. 

Friday, January 26 - Our "prepare yourself for the deep clean" day! I took before-photos and wondered if I'd get called to a birth right in the middle of the process (which Alida was sure could not be done without me!). I, for better or for worse, was able to get in on the whole process! I'm putting the before and after shots right next to each other here. As you can see, we did some rearranging:

Corner 1:

Corner 2:

Corner 3:

Corner 4:

Saturday, January 27 - The above pictures were taken multiple days apart and do not capture the endurance it took some of us to get from beginning to end! But, as has always been the case, it felt SO worth it and I'm now itching to do other rooms (not this winter!). Mom graciously helped with the clean out and deep cleaning of the room. That part only took us a number of hours and then the sorting, sorting and sorting began. Understandably, Kali had the most stuff to sort and was tasked with finishing it up in our absence this week!

I think we all had our moments in the process, but we did our best to keep it fun and we all love each other just as much at the end as we did at the beginning. And we didn't cut any corners - Kali and I were both using a tweezers at some points to get dust bunnies out of cracks! Kali was the only one that got richer in the process, as she found some money along the way (including a $20 bill in a birthday card she had forgotten to remove when she initially read it). 

Sunday, January 28 - The rain graciously held off until Saturday evening after all the bedding was off the lines. And then it rained and rained! When I looked out in the morning while Jason and the girls were doing chores, I was delighted to see the ducks having a wonderful time in the fire ring! They were so happy!!

We enjoyed a belated birthday brunch for Emily at her, Jonas and Ivy's home that day - the weather shooed us inside.

Monday, January 29 - Jason and I started our day by applying to be part of a Conservation Stewardship Program (another possible funding source for some of the farm/land stuff we are most excited about putting our time and energy into)! We then continued our tradition of Monday family work days - we are doing a much more thorough winter cut back this year since Jason is not on to do it all alone. And I once again am shocking myself by realizing I didn't take a single photo of that days' projects! In the evening, we finally de-decorated from the holidays. We started what I think will be a new annual tradition of taking the old Christmas tree out to the brush pile all together in the dark. It was very entertaining for us to watch Kali try to hoist it up on the top, only to have it come tumbling back down on top of her.

Jason was spared de-decorating since he had been tasked with drawing us a groundhog photo to have a new decoration to put up to ease the sadness of taking the Christmas ones down. He succeeded in drawing a very cute groundhog that makes me smile every time I look at it!

It was around 11 p.m. when we realized we were about to miss putting a puzzle together for National Puzzle Day. We worked together to complete Kali's Christmas wooden giraffe puzzle and got it done just under the wire!

Tuesday, January 30 - After a morning walk with Christen, Luca came back to Tangly Woods with me for the morning. I love our walks back up to Tangly Woods with him chatting with me about all sorts of things. His vocabulary is exploding and it's so fun! We were enjoying the thick frost coating on everything. 

In the evening he came back, with his parents this time! They joined us for the monumental moment of starting to disassemble (eat!) the pavilion!

This day also marked Jason starting a 4-day stretch of working away from home for Sassafras Enterprises! I tried something new on this day, putting soup in an insulated mug for him. The experiment was a success - it was still steaming at lunch!

Wednesday, January 31 - After weeks of eager anticipation, I finally got the call I'd been waiting for early in the morning! After many phone calls and check ins as the desire for labor to start got coupled with covid complicating the picture, it appeared this little one was going to finally be in their arms soon. I was only at RMH for an intense 4+ hours before this sweet healthy one emerged curious and ready to explore his surroundings. I returned home another 3+ hours after the birth in time to shower, take a short snooze and go on a date night to the American Shakespeare Center to see the dress rehearsal for Pride and Prejudice. It was a big day! 

Thursday, February 1 - This was a delightful day of getting reacquainted with Bear, after covid kept us apart for 3 long weeks! He seemed to remember us and we had so much fun watching him delight in his favorite toys or chew on the rocking chair or entertain me in the kitchen while I did some cooking. It felt so good to have him snuggled sleeping on me again! I had missed him so very much! 

Friday, February 2 - I had a full day in town for errands and more Bear time. I was not at all disappointed to have two days in a row with him! 

Jason came to the end of a LONG week of working away from the farm. It was a week with a lot of moving pieces - him juggling some other meetings/appointments/car maintenance and a construction job. That, combined, with a birth also landing in the week made us eager for a chance to reconnect over the weekend! 

We did start a new possible family tradition - root beer floats on Groundhog Day. Get it?!

Saturday, February 3 - It was catch up day around the home for me and Jason and Kali spent a good part of the day revamping the white raspberry bed and trellis. We now know that we like raspberries where we have them and so it was time to put in some solid and long lasting trellising!

Sunday, February 4 - This was mostly a "normal" Sunday with our new routines. The girls continue to outdo themselves week after week - we were treated to breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas for our brunch! Then Jason and I had time with just Alida! Then Jason and I got a delightful and unexpected opportunity to have time alone when all three girls went to a play at Blue Ridge Community College. We may have watched multiple episodes of This is Us (the show we are both currently a tad obsessed with). 

Monday, February 5 - This was to be a travel day for me, Alida and Terah but we delayed our trip by 24 hours to give covid just a little more time to show up, if I had picked it up at the birth. With each passing day and each negative test, my anxiety went down a tiny bit (and I'm more ready to sing the praises of a good N95 mask). So we spent the day continuing on winter cut back together, working on the revamp of the red raspberry patch, selling 23 hens, and getting parsley started (to join the perky little onion starts on the seed shelf). 

We had our first unmasked time together with Mom and Dad since I was at the birth and, after enjoying a delicious meal together, our family took off for a night of ice skating. Terah was bouncing off the walls with excitement. I felt decidedly middle-aged when I first donned my skates and went onto the rink. By the end I was moving ok, and all three girls had also improved dramatically over the course of the 1.5 hours. They are very much hoping we'll go again yet this season!

Tuesday, February 6 - And, finally, here we are now in North Carolina. We held the trip pretty loosely not knowing if good health would prevail, making it possible to gather. The trip was delightfully uneventful, probably mostly because I did a first for me - stopped at a rest stop for a cat nap when I got sleepy. It's not getting any easier for me to drive for long distances without getting sleepy - mostly getting worse! 

It's now nearing 11 p.m. and the kids are gonna down some popcorn and then we'll call it a day. They have played and played and played and played and another day of play is right around the corner!