Heartsong

Tomorrow my first baby turns 7.  Each year as she grows one number it feels shocking.  Seven!!!  Seven is so very big, but so small too.  I've had so much time with my girl these past weeks, lots of one on one and thoughtful moments.  I love her so much.  I can't wait to celebrate her tomorrow. But first!!! A little catch up.

I feel like we are really sinking our toes into life here, getting in the new groove.  The girls take the bus at 8:10 every morning, running down our backyard hill across the street to our neighbors' driveway.  They get back at 3:40, jolly driver Elmore waving and smiling away.  It's a good system.  Ian is back just after 4 from work so we have the whole evening together.  I'm excited to get into a better groove with Felix during the days he doesn't have preschool.  That boy's whole life has been packing and unpacking for the last 3 months!

And this place, our home?  Well there is so much to look forward to here.  I've spent lots of brainpower already planning our summer garden.  One of the first things I noticed about this house is that our 1/2 acre has both woods and full sun.  I know right?  This feels like a small miracle, but wait, there's more.  Days after moving in I inspected our two 30 foot raised beds more closely and discovered mature raspberry and strawberry plants.  I don't know if you can see into my soul from the inter web, but mature berry plants are pretty much my heartsong.  I still feel like wetting pants every time I think about July and August next year.

And our garden?  Well, the one house-y thing we've done so far is to have some tree guys come out and have discovered THREE sugar maples and ONE each Norway and regular maple!!! (SYRUP YOU GUYS, or at least THE HOPE OF SOME SMALL AMOUNT OF SYRUP!!!!) and Burr Oaks and a honeylocust and a blue spruce and just all that TREE in our space is so exciting to me it's unreal.

The previous owners had a trampoline that we asked to be removed and in it's place is a large round patch of dirt that I feel is the perfect jumping off point for a giant enclosed garden.  We're plotting how big we can go and what's reasonable but with so much other yard for playing I'm thinking a generous 25'x10' or even 30'x15' space is just what we need to really make a dent in our food stores.  The girls are almost as excited about seed catalogs and harvest canning as I am.  It's like Christmas already came and went 17 times.  For real.

Add to that all the wood in our woods.  A fire pit was added to our backyard just this summer and I'm assuming they cut down a few dead trees to do it and all that wood is nicely piled in two giant stacks just waiting to be hacked down a bit more for our winter fires.  I've already lost track of how many fires I've made and that's just how it should be in Minnesota in the winter.  We have no fireplace tools though so for now I'm making due with my hands as brooms to sweep the ash into the pit and our grill tongs as pokers and pincers.  It's actually quite the system.  And after just a few rounds of pathetically chopping wood with my dad's axe can I just give a shout out to the pioneers etc who need/ed to chop enough wood for whole winter warmth?  Goodness gracious.  My forearms have never been so sore.

So in addition to chopping wood and making fires and dreaming of our harvest time garden we are enjoying our new insides too.  The kitchen will take some major getting used to for me.  I'm switching from a gas to an induction stove which is pretty much the biggest first world problem I can imagine.  Over half of my pans don't work on it and it makes this buzzing noise when it's on high and really I miss my 1960's magic chef 4 burner quite a bit.  Everything else in the kitchen feels so fancy too.  A pull out drawer microwave with sensor reheats and cook modes, a double oven with convection capabilities.  The large granite island is everything we thought it'd be.  I can cook and bake with the whole family gathered around with room to spare.  We actually eat dinner there most nights.  I love it!

In fact the great room is the place to be in our house right now.  I don't know if it's simply because it's such an awesome space or that we're so used to being in close quarters (a lot of both I'm thinking) but that's where you can find us.  It also may have something to do with the fact that our living room has only two rocking chairs for seating right now.  Upgrading house problems!  Though! Our living room does have two Christmas trees.  Ainsley's birthday tree and our 2nd tree with white lights and homemade decorations. So that kind of makes up for the lack of furniture in my eyes.

Right now I'm in a quiet house.  Ian's out doing a last minute "errand" with the kids and I'm trying not to be skeptical.  Oh that boy.  I'm thankful for my quiet house and a moment to reflect on all the goodness around us.

Merry Christmas to you all!