We've had some cold days this week. Jack is going to be able to tell his kids he had to walk home from school in freezing hail, uphill both ways. Really it's just uphill on the way home and not too far, but it's a pretty steep hill. We're building character.
Sometimes it feels like we've got a really long ways to go until we're unpacked and settled, but Tim and Abby came over to help us bring in more boxes and unpack one evening this week, and just that one evening has me feeling way further along. I love living near family. Our kids all played great together during the witching hour, so it was a win-win-win for everyone.
Speaking of family, my brother Peter got us a plumber discount on a 20-foot copper pipe to use as our curtain rod in our great room. Now we just need the bell hangers to arrive and we'll have window coverings on all the crucial windows.
Most of my "free" time this week was spent (a) hyperventilating because I am surrounded by a thousand little projects I'm dying to get to but can't because kids. Specifically, kids in the peak of the toddler stage. And (b) becoming a landscape designer. Jared is starting to get bids to have our backyard done this summer. I figure if we're starting from scratch, now is going to be the most cost effective time to get it right. We will have to do the backyard in chunks over the next several years because it is sloped and therefore expensive, but knowing what we want it to look like down the road will influence what we need to do this first year. It's fun work to dream it all up, but it's taken several late nights to pour into several landscape design books and figure out the logistics. Hoping to get the ground leveled/terraced, some grass and patio put in, and fence up this year. Fingers crossed. And now for some pictures from our week:
