Christmas tree

On Friday we left Plymouth to drive back home. We planned a stop at a tree farm in Northeast Connecticut to surprise the kids and get our Christmas tree.


Rhode Island is wedged between Connecticut and Massachusetts, so we stopped by this beach at a lake in Rhode Island to take a picture. The kids wanted to stay longer, but it was chilly.

Then we drove on to the Geer Tree Farm in Griswold, Connecticut. It was perfect. There were acres and acres of beautifully shaped Christmas trees.

The kids went crazy running all over the farm, in and out of trees, pretending to be deer running from a hunter...

...while Kent and I decided on the perfect tree. It's a Fraser Fir tree. Isn't it pretty?

We cut it down with their saw, then a guy comes and picks it up in a truck to bring down to the barn area. They put it on the shaker machine and then bale it for you. They had complimentary hot chocolate and cookies. It was a lot of fun.

Now we have our Christmas tree!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with a trip to Plymouth where it all began? Plymouth is about a 3 hour drive from where we live. We stayed over at a hotel on Wednesday night and got a nice early start on Thanksgiving day at the Plimoth Plantation.

Plimoth Plantation is a historical re-creation of the Wampanoag native people and the Pilgrim settlers who arrived on the Mayflower on December 21, 1620. The first winter 1/2 of the colonists died. Who planned a trip to land in America in December?! Anywho...this place lets you explore the different cultures of the people back then. The native people (you're not allowed to call them Indians) speak in modern times and tell you about their people back then and today. They actually build/make everything at the plantation authentically. It was really interesting!

They burn out the trees to make their boats. It takes about 2 weeks from start to finish. Men were in charge of taking life (hunting, cutting down trees, etc.) and women were in charge of making/nurturing life.

Here is the Plymouth settlers village with a view of the cape behind it.

The workers here spoke as if they lived in the year 1630. So everything they said or questions they answered were as if they were those settlers. I wish I could have sat and listened to them longer, but little kids aren't really into holding still house after house.

Next on the ticket was a visit to see the Mayflower II. It is a recreation of the Mayflower that the Pilgrims came over on. The real Mayflower sailed back to England and is gone now.
The Mayflower had 102 passengers on it. My great-great-great-....grandfather Kenelme Winslow's brother Edward Winslow was a passenger on the Mayflower. Kenelme (my ancestor) joined the colony a few years later.

It was a chilly day. I wished I had brought gloves for everyone. Here is the Mayflower II in the background.

And here it is up close. Quarters were tight. Amazingly only 1 person died on the trip, and 1 baby was born. I can't imagine having a baby at sea! Let alone having to live at the colony in December building everything from nothing!

After that we walked over to view the "Plymouth Rock". There was an annual Thanksgiving day Protest going on. Whatever. Until one of them started talking to McKinley and pushing their propaganda on my child, then I was annoyed.

Here is Plymouth Rock. Kind of a let down. It's about 4-5 feet long. Not really the grand rock in the ocean I imagined.

Then we took a drive around Cape Cod, a looong drive. Some of my ancestors are buried in a small cape cod cemetery that has no address, just vague directions. We finally found it near 5 Monument View Road, Dennis, MA (that's for reference if I need to find it again with my GPS).

It is a small square of fenced land surrounded by homes. I had to cut through someones yard to get into it. It is the Old Worden cemetery, aka Homer cemetery, aka Winslow cemetery. But we found it!!

The cemetery was mostly comprised of Wordens and Winslows (my family) and Millers, and Homers.

The headstones are deteriorating which made it very hard to make out many of the names. This is one of my ancestors (one of the Kenelme Winslows) who died in 1715.

Here is a more modern plaque marking the three stubby worn headstones of Peter Worden (Sr), Peter Worden (Jr.) and Mary Worden. They died in the 1630's and 1680's. It was crazy being at the graves of my ancestors who lived over 300 years ago. I can't wait to show my grandpa and grandma these pictures.

After the cemetery it was 4:30 and dark. So we drove to a restaurant in Cape Cod that I had looked up online. There was no mention of being closed on Thanksgiving, but it was. So was pretty much every restaurant in Cape Cod. Darn small towns. So we ended up at McDonald's for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids got to get happy meals though, which they loved. For the record the cup in the picture is hot chocolate. It wasn't very good.

They have an authentic dinner at Plimoth Plantation but it was $60 a person.

That's a far cry from our little McD's dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Manhattan

I made my official first trip to NYC early this morning. Some ladies in the ward went to the temple today while husbands watched kids. I woke up a 5 am to meet at the church at 6:15, to drive to NYC for the 7:45 session. I am so glad I went with people who knew what they were doing because it made me really anxious just riding in the car. I'm glad I didn't have to drive!
It was good to go to the temple and regain perspective on everything. Sometimes I need to reset my focus. The temple is a short walk from Central Park, so we drove by it and it got me really itching to go walk through Central Park in the spring. Now that my first visit is over I'm hoping to be brave and take myself there (by train---yikes!). There are a few Christmas things I want to see.





We found a Dutch store in Norwalk that we visited to pick up some things for the upcoming Sinterklaas coming in December (sneakily of course). We also treated ourselves to stroopwaffels (honey wafers sandwiched with caramel).


The kid's were excitedly pointing out the Sinterklaas' in the window. I really want some wooden shoes someday.

A peek of the house

For those who have expressed interest in seeing the place, here is a part of the house. I realized that I didn't take any whole room "before" pictures. I was too focused on capturing all the wrong things close up so we don't get held liable when we leave.

So here is the bathroom "before". It was a nice shade of peek-a-boo peanut orange with green (notice the door trim) peeking through. The worst paint job I have EVER seen!

And here is the bathroom after I painted it a lighter creamy-ish tan color and painted the trim white. That green haunts my dreams. By the way, this is the master. It's a little "cozy".

Here is the dining area before. I know it's a great shot of the floor. The walls here were also peanut orange. There were "touch-ups" on the wall they did so there were splotches of different shades of peanut all over.

Here's the before of the family room area. It was painted in this lovely hue of green. It was darker in real life than it shows in the picture.

And here's where we live "after". It's an open concept living area. So on the left is an entry table, then the family room straight ahead. Turning to the right is the dining area, then turning right again is the landlady's bookcase that we weren't allowed to move out, in a nook . And then there is the front door area. And there is your 360 degree tour.

that's our thankful tree on the side table :)

I hung the silhouettes of the kids in here. I'm kind of getting sick of the black furniture trend I was in...oh well. Things look very minimalist. But I hear that's all the rage now right?

Behind the bookcase is a little doorway to under the stairs storage.

Weird, especially since you can access it through the walk-in closet in the kitchen.

I painted all the walls, closets, shelves, baseboards, trim, and doors. Oi vay! It is certainly still not the condition we'd like, but since it is a rental we are just shooting for liveable. And I think we've finally achieved it. We feel comfortable, and we don't want to pour any more money into a house that isn't ours. So when people come to visit, just remember it is liveable, not 5-star.

Grateful

Today I am grateful for the journey.

Things are not perfect here, but I am happy. I am happy to be on this adventure. I'm glad we took the leap.

Here's to the next 2 years!

The Master's Hand

I'm starting to plan my Christmas advent calendar activity list.

I stumbled online across this exhibit that is down in Provo right now. This would have definitely been on my list. What could be better than taking your kids to a world famous artist's (Carl Bloch) exhibit called "The Master's Hand" with many renderings of the life of Christ. Perfect for the Christmas season.

Tickets are even free.

Unfortunately it won't be on my list this year. I'm completely bummed. Someone better go for me.

http://www.carlbloch.byu.edu/

First day of preschool

Things are finally sort of under control here, so I was able to start our home-preschool for Hayden.

I have a lot of worries about doing this myself. My overall main goal/prayer is that I don't mess this poor kid up. first day of preschool picture

Today we had a teddy bear picnic (I'm trying to provide some similar experiences that the older kids had in preschool).
We brought a stuffed animal and ate on a blanket in the front room for our picnic. It is also our "circle time" blanket. Hayden liked choosing a square to sit on.

We finger painted with pudding on a bear. Now it has to dry and then it can be decorated with eyes and a bow tie.

We made "bear paw" cookies. Hayden is putting on the chocolate chip claws.

We made a bear headband. Hayden loves panda bears so this is a panda bear one. I had to remind myself to let Hayden do it his way and not cut in and "fix" it for him. I tried to be in teacher mode, and not mother mode.

Then we cleaned up, packed up, and lined up to "go home". He said he had a lot of fun and was excited to call daddy and tell him about school and his teacher. I'm not necessarily sad about losing my free time that preschool always brought. I'll still miss it, but I was most saddened today that he didn't get to have the social aspect of preschool. *sigh* I hope I don't mess this poor kid up.

it's been another long week

This week has been spent doing more back breaking painting. This time I've been working on my baseboards. What a difference it is making! We're still missing some baseboards, but as I'm coming to learn here there comes a point you just have to let go. We'll see how long I really let us not have some because it REALLY bothers me.
I also have to repaint most of the doors because of the SUPER job the previous painters did. I am nearly done (relatively speaking). I still have to do the sunroom area.

I am getting really sick of painting, but I am really loving the improvement it is making in our living condition. In fact Kent said on his "thankful" leaf that he is thankful for a wife who can transform a not-so-nice house into a home....homemaker.
And I have a little message to the kid on the bus who gasped in surprise that someone's mom was still in her pajamas (I paint in my pajamas so I don't get the good stuff ruined), causing a certain 7 year-old to be horrified with embarrassment...back off kid. You don't want to start with me.

No pictures of me in my pajamas to post because I don't want to "embarass" a certain 7 year-old. She makes sure to tell me that none of the other moms wear their pajamas in the morning when the bus comes. What? It's 8:15 am. What is wrong with these people?

Better

Finally! 2 beautiful loaves of bread. They rose to the right height. They formed to the pan. They cooked to a beautiful golden brown.

I can't cut into them yet. I'm enjoying their beauty. They are my first loaves of bread that haven't been hideous misshapened monsters.

Practice is everything!

A poem

for Daddy:

by McKinley

Our Thankful Tree

While the kids were off for the day we made this thankful tree. Every November we do something crafty to remind us to count our blessings. One year I taped "thankful" leaves on the window. Another year we did "thankful" feathers and taped them to a turkey. This year we cut out leaves and added wire to fashion thankful leaf ornaments. I grabbed a twiggy branch from the yard, filled a mason jar with acorns and "planted" the tiny tree in the jar. Every day the kids tell one thing they are thankful for, then hang it on the tree. I love to hear what they are grateful for each day. Today's list was: mama, grandma, and lots of food. Kent and I have to participate so we remember to count our blessings too. It's a fun way to lead up to Thanksgiving.

Kid's day off

Today the kid's are out of school. It is a "professional day" for the teachers. Sounds good to me. It's been nice to have the kids around today...really. I don't have any errands or tasks on the list.
We made cupcakes...






Chilled out and played games or watched cartoons. In fact, I'm still in my p.j.'s!

We also did a little November craft. I'll post that tomorrow.

It's been a nice "no work" day!

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man...it is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone." ---C.S. Lewis

"Fifty was my favorite age. It takes about that long to learn to quit competing-to be yourself and settle down to living. It is the age I would like to be through eternity." ---Marjorie Hinkley



I want to settle down to just living.