As the end of October approaches, the days are getting cooler and the leaves around the lake are blazing red and yellow. This is our first fall in our new house and our new town and we are loving it. Jove started at his new school and has a wonderful teacher. Jove and Miranda have become fast friends with the kids next door and they have many outdoor adventures. It is the childhood I dreamed my children would have: catching frogs, building rafts, making shelters in the woods and riding bikes back and forth between houses. The girl next door spends hours playing school with Miranda and Miranda loves it. We also have very lovely, retired neighbors in between the two houses of kids and they delight in all of the activity and have sacrificed their back woods to the cause of adventure. We are grateful every day that our two neighbors are good people.
Next week our wood stove is being installed and our pastime for September was picking up free firewood that people are trying to get rid of after Hurricane Irene downed so many trees. Our house has electric heat which is prohibitively expensive to use. We will have to let a large amount of our firewood season for a few more months but next year we shouldn't have to buy any wood. I grew up with a wood stove and we are so excited to have one for ourselves. Jupiter has always liked to keep the house warm and we could in the old house, but this one is too big (a first world problem for sure) and we are trying to keep the heat off for as long as possible. Jupiter has achieved a new level of cold tolerance.
Our local nature center is a favorite spot of ours. We stopped by for a fall hike a couple of weeks ago and built a scarecrow to enter into a contest to be held at Harvest Fest. We didn't win, but the whole process was pure fun. Harvest Fest was a blast: the kids got to walk llamas, try out antique farm equipment including a goat treadmill that Jove said we could use at home to burn off some extra energy and do all of the traditional fall fare.
Our new hobby is crafting with wool by wet felting and needle felting. The kids and I are obsessed. It is something that even I can do with my very limited crafting abilities. We primarily make people, things for the people like blankets and we are venturing into seasonal decorations like pumpkins. I thought I was actually getting pretty good at it until I taught our nine year old neighbor and after about an hour she was much better than me. Oh well...
Our last bit of exciting news is that we got some help from Jupiter's cousin, Joselito, to remodel our upstairs rooms and Miranda's bedroom is ready to be set-up. She is very excited. We have Jupiter's dad coming to visit this weekend and the following weekend Maggie and Bruce will be here (cant wait!!) and then after that the spare bedroom will become Miranda's room. We're not sure how the kids are going to manage sleeping apart for the first time ever. Maybe sometime before 2012 we'll get our bedroom done as well. We're going slowly, but eventually the house will be all fixed up.
