Love Thursday - Soccer

Spring soccer is back!! Noah loves playing and I'm so glad he's getting a chance to get back on the field. We missed out on Fall soccer because of all the moving around we did so he was excited to be joining a new team. Noah scored the first goal of the season for his team on Tuesday in the pouring rain. It wasn't as dramatic tonight (just mud and clouds) but it was still fun. Go Bobcats!!

Spring Strikes Again

In the midst of allergy season, with my watery eyes and stuffy head, I've been loving the infinite shades of green that Ohio has given us. Maybe it's because the sky is so often gray here but the greens seem so much more intense than I remember. Or maybe it's because I was missing that color for so long this winter? Either way, it's beautiful. It seems like all the trees finally leafed out this week...even the oak in the front yard has tiny leaves covering it. The dogwoods are in bloom, the lilacs were a surprise I hadn't expected and we have peonies in white and yellow starting to show their giant flowers. The grass is high (again) and the dandelions are everywhere. The baby cardinals take up too much of my time. I just can't look away when their parents are feeding those hungry mouths. I'd take more pictures of them but the adults are very skittish and I worry about scaring them away for good. I need to get our garden planted this week and soccer is in full swing. It's been a lovely week so far and it's only Wednesday! I love Spring...the pollen filled, rainy day, erratic temperatures, chlorophylled joy of it all. I don't need to breathe freely anyway. I've always thought an unclogged head was highly overrated.

Bonus: Our bedroom has a lot of windows...french doors on one wall, 3 huge windows on another, and 3 small windows high on the wall over our bed. It's wonderful...lots of sunlight during the day and I can see the stars when I'm lying in bed at night. It's probably my favorite room in the house. It's just beautifully built and off in a corner of the house all by itself. Another thing I love about it? The Spring-y thing I love about it? A robin has built a nest in the corner of one of the windows over our bed. I watched her build the nest one rainy morning, slinging mud against the window, bringing grass up and turning it with her beak and body. It's a little weird to have her staring at you when you wake up in the morning but I'm excited to see her 4 eggs hatch within the next 2 weeks. And I love hearing her sing outside my window, sitting in the poplar tree close to the house.

Babies!

We came home from our weekend trip to Virginia to find these little cardinal hatchlings waiting for us. The kids instantly fell in love. Sure the birds are strange looking with closed up eyes and pink, featherless bodies but it didn't matter. The awe of having 3 baby birds pop their heads up and open their beaks after I started whistling made Noah and Olivia practically swoon. (And it made me look like "The Bird Whisperer" ;o)

Maybe I Should Call It Love Friday?

Because I can't seem to get with the program and get the pics up on Thursdays.

Anyway...the hairy beast needs a haircut (and a shave). I love that she looks like some sort of Yeti...a fuzzy ball of fur with polar bear feet...a shaggy, Beatles-esque version of a pup.

Here she's howling at me as I walk up the deck stairs. I'm not sure if it's because steep stairs still concern her and she wants to leave the deck (I'm dreading the day when she figures them out) or if it's because her fur is so long she can't see who is walking toward her...heehee :)

Love Thursday - Better Late Than Never

The problem with trying to start a new habit or project when your weeks are crazy busy is that you...um...tend to forget that you had wanted to start the habit or project in the first place. Oops!! So, without further excuses here's this week's overdue photo...

Pete is our oldest pet. I think we had been married only 6 or 7 months when we got him. We weren't really looking for a companion for our first cat (Moe...the cat that thought she was a dog. Smartest animal ever, I swear.) but we saw Petey in a pet store. A local owner had brought a litter in and the store was helping them get adopted out. My boss at the time had already claimed one of the kitties and when we saw Pete all alone in this huge cage we had to take him home. We named him Pete after Pete's Wicked Ale and because it's a joke that in my family all the men are named Pete (Seriously...my grandfather? His name is Eugene. Everyone calls him Pete. My Great Uncle on my mom's side? His name is John. Everyone calls him Pete. And there are several more examples. Big Pete, Little Pete, etc., etc).

Our Pete is getting older. He'll be 12 next month and he's very set in his ways. He doesn't like new situations or people (usually) or puppies (!) But, he's very sweet. Yes, he will lick your hand until you pet him in the middle of the night. Yes, he meows like crazy until you talk to him when you're in the bathroom. And yes, sometimes he eats too fast and throws it all right back up. But he's my baby and in some ways a reminder of who Jeremy and I were before kids (young and so, so naive!)



I love this picture of Pete looking as skeptical and as hopeful as I feel about this Ohio sunshine. Is it real? Is the sun really shining? Can I really come out on the deck? (Ok, that's his question, not mine but I do know how nice that late afternoon sun feels on your face...)

Another Reason Not To Mow The Grass

These grape hyacinths (?) have randomly started blooming in the yard without any seeming rhyme or reason...

Bird Watching

One of the things I thought I'd miss about our house in Ruckersville is the amount of wildlife we had the opportunity to watch right outside our back door. While the animals we see here are not very exotic they are closer up than I expected. The bird feeders I keep on the back deck keep me happily birdwatching during the day. However, the biggest joy has been watching the nesting season come in. While the birds feed in the backyard they seem to love nesting in the front yard. I'm guessing we'll have a bunch of little baby birds (fingers crossed) here in 2 weeks or so.

The pictures are terrible because I had to take them through the window and the days have been endlessly rainy but you'll get the idea.

On one side of the porch we have robins nesting. They built on top of last year's nest and it's a great big messy heap of grass and twigs. It's not pretty at all. I haven't been able to catch the parents on the nest because it's so high up. I can say that the Papa robin keeps a very close eye on his mate never going farther than the yard across the street.

On the other porch post a mourning dove has set up her nest. She also built on top of last year's nest. She coos throughout the day and although I have no particular love for doves I do love the sound of them especially on a rainy day.

We have a rhododendron in front of one of our windows by the front porch and a cardinal has built a nest there. She has 3 eggs and is constantly on her nest only leaving a couple times a day to grab some food. She seems to enjoy the blossoms on the apple trees which are less than 20 feet from her nest. The shrub is so close to our window that when looking through she's maybe 18 inches away. The kids and I can't wait until those eggs hatch!

Wish us luck that we'll have some bird babies at the end of the month :)

And Then There Were Two

Olivia finally wiggled that second loose tooth free at school...Yay!

Easter Weekend

I'm not sure where to begin. This weekend was just so chock full of perfect that it's hard to sort it into bite-size pieces. The kids invited Granny and Poppie to come up for a couple of days because their school was holding its annual "Grandparents Day." They drove the kids to school and spent 4 hours there with them. I was a little bummed to miss Noah's play ("Blame It on the Wolf" - Noah played Iggie the Piggie) and Olivia's grandparent-y songs but when I heard over 600 grandparents showed up and knowing how small the school is...wow...I'm not sure I could have sanely handled a crowd like that. The kids spent Friday night at a hotel with Granny and Poppie while Jeremy and I had a tiny date (shopping and coffee).

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to take a trip on the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway. This entirely volunteer run railroad has a depot in Logan County and hosts various trips throughout the year...including Fall foliage tours, Summer runs to Robin's Crossing (18th century reenactment village), a Polar Express ride at Christmas, and the Spring Easter trip. The train itself is really great...the engines are mostly old Army engines from World War II and the cars are restored passenger cars from the 20's. They refurbish them with comfortable seats and fresh paint for the passengers. There are even some open air cars which would be fantastic in summer and maybe even for the Fall tours. However, this April morning it was in the 40's and a little damp out from all the dew/melting frost so we chose a regular car with seats that faced each other where we could lean back, be warm, and chat while the scenery unfolded from outside our windows. On the way back the train stopped at a house which used to be an old schoolhouse for an Easter Egg Hunt. It was chaos and lasted about 2 minutes but the kids found plenty of eggs and even snagged a stuffed animal each (for finding "special" eggs).

Waiting for departure with basket in hand.

The sun rising over one of the refurbished cars.

Noah getting a train lesson (about coupled cars, I think).

Enjoying the scenery.

Noah thinking maybe no one will notice if he ducks under the "starting line"

Another egg!

After the ride, we spent the rest of the day in Logan - eating and shopping. We found some dusty treasures at an antique shop (including an old Dodgers pin for Jeremy and a wooden tulip for me that the kids are going to paint). We combed the corners of a craft mall filled with some pretty cool stuff made by local crafters (if you ever, ever, ever want anything that has anything to do with the Steelers, the Reds, or OSU this is your place. Sheesh!) There's also a glass outlet there where we searched for new glassware but found nada.

It was time for Granny and Poppie to head back to Virginia but we swung by to check out two guys that do custom carving with chainsaws on the side of the road. The carvings are actually really cool (they were working on a bear and a squirrel when we were there) and waaaaay cheaper than we expected. Hmm...surely I need a giant tree trunk carved into something, right? :)

This morning we woke up at the crack of dawn. The kids couldn't sleep any longer because they were excited to see if the Easter Bunny had visited. All I can say is that bunny is making finding eggs harder and harder as they get older. All four of us were wandering around trying to find the last few.


Jeremy had to leave this afternoon to head to Bluefield (I tried to convince him to just leave at 2 tomorrow morning to get there by 6am but somehow he didn't like this idea. Crazy!!). We decided to spend the day entirely on family things (except, of course, when he got called out to work for a few hours. Teenagers vandalizing train tracks hoping to derail trains. Nice.) We headed out to see the new Hannah Montana movie with my purse crammed with popcorn and Easter candy (what's more surprising...the fact that I snuck food in or that I carried a purse? :) The movie was cute and the music was surprisingly tolerable. I'm even gonna admit something...I teared up several times. The scene where Miley sings "Butterfly Fly Away" to her dad got me. It was one of those moments that every parent can relate to. The kids were snuggled up to us at a G movie and wanted nothing more than to spend the day with us. These moments aren't going to last forever and that makes me sad. I'm proud they're growing up and becoming independent but knowing that I don't have much longer to enjoy them sitting on my lap or wanting me to read bedtime stories or grabbing my hand in public just because they want to feel close to me makes me wish time could slow down for just a little while.

We got home and made our version of Easter dinner (which means we grilled :). Steak with fresh rosemary and garlic, grilled new potatoes and onions, asparagus sprayed with lemon juice, and buttery rolls. It wasn't ham or lamb but it was fresh and Spring like and lovely.

Jeremy headed out the door and the kids and I headed into the regular routine...straightening the kitchen, showers, laundry (made better by listening to Noah practice Scarborough Fair on the piano...I love that song), and making plans for the week. Sunday is over but, oh, it was such a good weekend.

Love Thursday...An Evening Walk

Love Thursday is a project, experiment, activity I read about here. Basically, the idea is to take a photo every Thursday of something that represents love to you. Whether it's love for a person, an idea, Thai food, whatever :) Obviously, I have no photography skills but I do love trying. And I like the idea of capturing the image of whatever is currently capturing my heart. So, I'm going to try Love Thursdays for awhile. Because isn't it always a good idea to take time to focus on what matters most to you??

My first Love Thursday is the habit we're starting of evening walks. The kids and Jeremy and I have started walking with Maggie every night after dinner. It's only simple strolls around the neighborhood helping the puppy burn off extra energy before bedtime. We get a chance to chat with the kids, talk to neighbors, look at the change in scenery as spring arrives and spend some relaxing time together free of obligations or responsibilities. For those 20 -30 minutes it's just the 4 of us, peaceful and happy with each other.

I realize it's only supposed to be one photo but there is so much I love about our walks I couldn't help myself.

I love this time of evening. The moon is out while the sky is still blue.

I like peeking in other people's yards to see what they have blooming.

Noah couldn't go out with us tonight. He wasn't feeling well and had walked with Maggie and I earlier in the day. So, at least for this Thursday, I don't have any pics of him on our walk :(

Livvie constantly bounces between exuberance and sweetness on these walks...both sides of her, perfect.

Here's hoping that Noah is feeling better tomorrow so that our after dinner walk is back to normal, back to the 4 of us, back to the way it's supposed to be.