Chatty

 

 

Rising early can be such a pleasure.  It changes your outlook and perspective on the whole day.  How could it not when you are so often greeted with dense fog, deer lifting their heads in curiosity, and gorgeous silhouettes.  When you are very lucky, you see the curtains begin to have an certain pink glow about them and you race outdoors to find the sky gilded with gold and tied in a pink ribbon.  Just for you. (Or so you tell yourself.)

This hasn't been the case THIS week, mind you.  Matt has been out of town in Maine this whole looooooooong week, and as I always do when he is away, I crawl into bed around 1am and then read until my eyes finally shut for good.  I can't sleep well without him and avoid the bed until I can do so no longer.  No pink sunrises for me this week.  Only a bleary-eyed beginning to another long day without Matt.

He comes home today!  YAY!

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We made a new Hopestead improvement this month!  One that we had to hire out.  We got five new windows installed!  No more boarded up windows in childrens' rooms during the wintertime.  No more old broken windows that freeze you to death with the winds that blow through them while you sit on the couch.

We are doing this as we can afford and five was our lucky number this year.  I hope that we will be able to do a few each year until they are all done.  The five windows that we replaced were the worst of the windows.  I am certain that this will help retain more heat this winter.

FIVE windows replaced!  Only 20 or so to go....

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I made cheese!  I finally did it!  Granted, it is yogurt cheese, and is super simple to make.  It doesn't even require rennet.  BUT.  It has the word cheese in it; it involves hanging to drain; it is made of milk and it tastes cheesy.  Therefore, it totally counts.  It tastes almost exactly like cream cheese only with a bit more tartness.  Cheesemaking, along with soapmaking, sewing, canning, yogurt making (and many others) was a major goal of mine that was put off and put off because it seemed too hard.  I do this to myself: convince myself that I cna't do it before I even begin.  Such a foolish way to be.  Had I begun to do the things I longed to learn to do waaaaaaayyyyy back when I wanted to learn them first, I would be experts at all of these things now.

Mozzerella is next.  When I finally get my hands on some rennet.

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Our apple trees did INDEED survive my brutal trimming last year.  (May I take a moment now to flub my tongue at the Mister?)  One, in particular, is absolutely GORGEOUS with dripping apples!  Of the three apple trees that were here, this is the only exceptional one.  The one that looked the healthiest as a tree has brown and spotty apples, the other tree that was barely alive grew apples but they only got a bit bigger than walnuts.  I think that one just wants to die peacefully.  But THIS gorgeous one makes up for the others.  I hope to make some cider and dried apple slices this weekend.  If there are any apples left- the children eat about ten a day.  EACH.  

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Judah has been potty-trained pretty much all summer.  In the spring I let him walk around in his skivvies so that I would have to wash fewer "accidents".  But then, I guess he just got used to walking around in his skivvies, even when no accidents were happening, and I guess I totally let him.  Because hey!  We live in the country for goodness' sake!  Nobody would see him anyway!  And because the boy gets dirty five seconds after waking up!  I could just save of the pants laundry.  (Though I did feel guilt knowing how horrified my Mom would be, knowing this fact.)  Now that the weather is colder, I am insisting the boy put his pants back on.  But I must admit, I will miss those adorable legs and tush.  Really, he has the cutest tush in.the.world.

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My sister is coming over for lunch in precisely 24 minutes and here I sit blabbing about backsides and apples.  Really Rebecca.  

I must now go and scramble to tidy up this house and bake something yummy.  

Now it is 22 minutes.

Have a great weekend and 

thanks for always listening to my random chattiness.