Sunny and 75..AMAZING Day!

Don and I grew up in Chester County, PA.  A gorgeous area of South-eastern PA, parts of which closely resemble J.R.R. Tolkien's Shire.  One of my most favorite places in the world is located here: Longwood Gardens.  It's over 1,000 acres of botanical loveliness, established by Pierre S. duPont in the early-1900's.


My family visited the gardens several times during my childhood and adolescence, but it was the times I visited in my adult years that I truly came to appreciate it.  And, boy, have I missed it over these last several years that we lived in New York state.  Our last visit was autumn of 2011....until yesterday, that is!

Since our return to PA back in May, I've been talking about my desire to spend a day at Longwood, but I wanted to share the experience with someone special.  Finally, both of my girls and my mother-in-law were available...and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!



What a welcome break from....well, EVERYTHING!  While our lives are a little less chaotic than they have been, there remains a degree of dissonance and stress...I'm quite sure you know what I mean, right?!  Even though we know we will be closing on our construction loan in approximately one more week, knowing that we have 9 more weeks in the campers feels a bit overwhelming.

Grace is doing well in her new job (she's a server in an Italian restaurant), as am I in mine...but coordinating transportation and finding time to get other important things accomplished is a challenge.  Plus, we've started our homeschool year.

We've also been experiencing some automobile troubles.  Grrr.  And, some days I can't help but worry about the health and well-being of some family members, even when I've already prayed about it...given it to God...more than once!

Most of you have been there, too, at one point or another, I'm willing to bet.

Anyway, yesterday, I could just enjoy the beauty of Longwood and the company of my loved ones.

So, I must've taken about 45 pictures....putting this awesome camera, a special gift from my hubby and kids, to very good use!  I already shared a few on Facebook, but I wanted to share my most favorite ones right here.  Enjoy, Friends!

These fountains just got an upgrade...they've been totally refurbished over the last two years - magnificent!

We caught the 1pm show, in which the fountains are choreographed to classical music in a 12-minute orchestration.

Exhausted and thoroughly satisfied, we ended our day by meeting Don and his dad for dinner in Thorndale, PA at Coppa 82, an Italian restaurant that we frequented back in our youth.

I hope my mother-in-law and my girls enjoyed the day as much as I did!


If you ever happen to be in South-eastern, PA, especially during the summer and fall, don't miss Longwood Gardens!

Waiting...

Not much going on in the new house department right now...at least, nothing concrete...visible.  

The proverbial ball is in the bank's court at the moment.  We sat down with the "construction loan specialist" the middle of last week, hashed out the details, and now we wait on them.

The appraiser was here today, which means things are moving forward.




Patriot Homes acts as our general contractor, and our bank has worked with them before, so it seems we're all on the same page now.


As soon as everything is approved, a crew will come in to build a new foundation.  In the meantime, we will just be cleaning up all the trees!  Several are already down, and a couple more NEED to come down.












Our peach tree produced quite well despite years of neglect!  The rain was not our friend, however, and we lost quite a few to rot.  What we did harvest is very tasty, though, and we froze several quarts for later use.

In other news, Don and Rosie finished building her jumps!  I'm glad she can do that with Lexie, at least.

This summer has been so crazy that she hasn't gotten to participate in any competitions this summer, nor have we been able to transport Lexie to our friend and trainer in Lancaster County because our horse trailer is still full of furniture!

Grace had her wisdom teeth removed two weeks ago.  Huge relief!  They were causing her pain and sinus pressure.

Last Friday, we went to our new favorite Italian restaurant for dinner and discovered that they were hiring a new server.  Grace applied and had an interview the next day.  She's been training the last couple of days, and began serving today!  The best part?  Well, besides the discount...and the tiramisu... It's less than 2 miles from our property, so she can bicycle to work on nice days!

I am thoroughly enjoying my 25 hours per week at the salon.  I feel so blessed to work with such genuine, talented stylists and such nice, "down to earth" clients.

Felt like Christmas in August today, as I tore open a box of brand new books for our homeschool year!  I'm going to really dig into those this week because we're starting school next week! Then, our co-op classes begin the week after Labor Day.

Labor Day.  I can hardly believe that it's right around the corner!  Wow!

Hope you enjoyed my pictures today.


I'll be sure to share when the next "visible" part of the this home-building process gets underway.



In the mean time, if you have a hankering to chop up trees, give us a call!

Mid-forties? What?!

How did I wind up here?  Yes, I just had a birthday...number 44...Yikes!  Another year older, and hopefully, a bit wiser.


I often say I don't feel a day over 25, but that's not entirely true.  For much of my 25th year I was pregnant, and weeks before 26, I suddenly found myself the mother and primary caregiver to three children under the age of 3 - I actually feel BETTER many days now than I did back then!  That was an exhausting time in my life...wonderful in its own way, but exhausting, indeed!

And, of course, there are the days, lately, that my physical body reminds me that my twenties are looong gone, lol.  All-in-all, I think I'm holding up fairly well, though.








If you asked me in my mid-twenties what I'd be doing in my mid-forties, what my life would be like now....definitely a far cry from what my life ACTUALLY looks like today.

I had no clue.

No clue of the twists and turns my path would take.  

I just assumed, back then, that I would return to teaching other people's children once mine were school-aged.  I didn't even know what home schooling was! Farmer's wife?  No idea I'd become that! Run a horse-boarding stable?  Doubt it.  Move out of PA? Nah.  Become a cosmetologist at the age of 42?  Yeah, right.  

Crazy!

The Pagoda

No regrets, though.  Sure, there are situations...times that I look back upon with my wiser, more experienced eyes and wish I'd handled them differently, but I know in my heart that God's plan is much bigger than little ole me, and He knew what my path would look like before it happened; the choices Don and I would make, the circumstances we would face...


Each of my birthdays since my fortieth, has been uniquely special in its own way, thanks to my beloved.  Years ago, Grace dubbed Don, "Jelly Bean" - tough and crunchy on the outside, soft and squishy inside!  Believe it or not, he has a romantic streak!

This year, he took me to Olive Garden on Saturday evening, then Sunday morning, we made the hour drive down to our former church in Strasburg, PA so we could worship with our friends.  Sunday afternoon, the weather cooperated with us for a leisurely motorcycle ride up to the Reading Pagoda and along Antietam Creek near our new home.  And, finally, an evening of pizza, my favorite red wine, and hanging out with the family!

Amazing view of the Reading Skyline!

Zoomed in view

While I was at work on Saturday morning, Don and Nate began the process of tree removal, ultimately making space for the excavation and preparation of our home site.  They took down 5 trees, so far, and we decided two more must go, as well as a couple of overgrown, leggy bushes.



Don drove up to New York, recently, to retrieve his sawmill.  Our good friends have been storing it for us up there!  We plan to mill the trees we chop down, using the wood for run-in sheds and some barn improvements.

Worst case scenario?  We settle on our construction loan the second week of September.  The house arrives mid-November, and we move in a few days before Thanksgiving.

I'm praying the bank can move this process along more quickly, though...The sooner we have our house here, the better!


I'm greatly enjoying my role as a hair stylist at Holiday Hair right now, and I am looking forward to beginning our homeschool year in just a couple of weeks, including teaching a literature class for our new co-op!

These things keep me occupied while I wait.  Soon, I'll be choosing cabinetry, flooring and lighting from the options provided by the builder.  Sure looking forward to that!


Have a great week, Friends! 

No More Old House!

Lots of progress this past weekend!  





And, much more to come, now that we have direction and a concrete plan.  What a relief!

Friday.

Don finished disassembling the old house, while the girls and I gathered up the small debris for the burn pile.

My pile is much smaller that Don's!

We have to leave this one little corner of the house standing because of the power lines...already had one issue with that, so Don is being extra-cautious around that area!

Sunday.

In order to set our new house in its place, we have to do some tree removal...5 or 6 trees, actually.      

Sadly, this pretty, mature Japanese maple has to go.  Don tried to find a way to work around it.  If only it were three feet to the right, we could do it....

Thankfully, there are several other nice Japanese maples on the property, so letting go of this one isn't a huge deal.  And, Don thinks he can make something cool out of the harvested wood...bar stools or something.

One of the compromises with bringing in a modular is not having the ability to build our character into the house as it comes together.  However, I am impressed with the choices and flexibility we do have, and there are many creative ways for us to add character to our home in the coming years...adding hardwood floors, a front porch, a deck off the kitchen,  even just painting, since the house will be all white when it is set in place.  We'll also be finishing the second floor on our own...

Among other things, I found this old door that is definitely going to be re-purposed for decor in our house!  I'm going for that "farmhouse" feel inside, and the open floor plan is perfect for it!

Our peaches are ripening!  They are super sweet, too!  I've never canned peaches before, but I may just have to learn this year.

There's an air of both relief and excitement around here these days...less tension, Thank the Lord!

We'll continue to prep the property for what's to come, as we wait on the bank to give us a settlement date.  Here's hoping they can get it done by mid-August, so we can keep this project rolling in the right direction.   In the meantime, I am looking over the builder's options for cabinets and flooring and such...😊😊  From the settlement date, it will be 8-10 weeks until our house is set in its place!  Yipee!