Nothing to do but rake.

The leaves are just about gone. Fall color is a fleeting thing! I don’t think we got many photos and I am sure we did not take enough country drives. We didn’t get back up into the Alleghany National Forest to visit family; next spring, I hope. It’s already snowing up there.

So there are leaves everywhere! The township comes through with the vacuum truck periodically so we try to get them out to the curb. This is a far cry from the old days when we could just let them lay (lie?) there all winter, or rake ‘em up and dump the wheelbarrow full into the woods. Passive composting! We are thinking of building a worm bin in the back yard. It bothers me to toss veggie scraps into the trash here.

Last Saturday we spent most of the day raking our front yard. Then we moved over to the neighbor’s. After Cris mowed, the lawns looked gorgeous! We should have taken a photo because they are already covered with leaves again.

The kids were thrilled that their labors netted them a peach pie from our neighbor. They are still marveling over the “honesty candy” we received a few months ago. When we were driving here, we stopped at a little country store in northwestern PA and bought a few things. When we got home 2 days later and opened the bag, we found some extra things we hadn’t bought. I remembered how cluttered the counter was, and how confused the women ringing up our purchase had been. It took a while but we sent those little things back to the store. (I wasn’t going to bother but how could I, with the kids reminding me that it was the right thing to do?) Anyway, a few weeks later we received a little box of “penny candy” and a note thanking us for that. They were enchanted with the candy dots on paper. I guess I have been remiss in providing them with old-fashioned candy…

Anyway. There are more leaves to do. Tomorrow morning, though, we are going to see a production of The Wizard of Oz with our homeschool group. Then we’ll come home and get some energy out with the rakes.

Cris sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a few more days of classes, a paper to finish and a few finals. No pressure.

I guess winter’s here.

It’s 25 outside.   I think we got the daffodils planted just in time – they went in this afternoon.  I guess we won’t know till spring if it worked out!

Are you missing a purple fleece jacket?

OK, this is probably a useless exercise but here goes anyway. While going through our winter clothes we found a jacket that is not ours. Yes, we moved from Oregon to Pennsylvania with someone else’s jacket! Maybe it’s yours?

It is a maroon/purple fleece zip hooded jacket, brand name SO… GSJC, size 14. Inside the pocket is a cute little fold-up scissors.

We’ll donate it to a good place if no one claims it.

A new kind of Thanksgiving

Tomorrow will be the first Thanksgiving since 1995 that I have not cooked dinner.   We are going to the home of some new friends, a seminary student, his wife and 4 kids.   It will be very different!  But we are happy to have someone to share the day with.

And though we are far from home and missing everyone, we have a lot to be thankful for.  Cris is doing well in school, though he is busier than he has ever been in his life.  We are making new friends and don’t get lost every time we get in the car.  The kids are settling in.  We might get the rest of the daffodil bulbs planted before the first hard freeze.  Our little house is starting to feel more like home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Downtown adventure

Oh, I forgot all about our downtown adventure last week. We are headed down the road of orthodontia with James. Oh joy! Cris talked to a few people who recommended the dental school at the U of PA. Before our first appointment, the kids and I took a practice trip downtown. Even natives here shudder when talking about driving downtown. They don’t necessarily recommend the train, though. It can cost more to take the train than to drive and park.

After about 2 miles I realized that while Google maps are accurate, they do not always choose the best route. We drove a long way down Germantown Avenue, which is partly paved in cobblestones. Very narrow, too. I could not imagine driving along there during rush hour. We only got really lost once, but quickly recovered. Got into the parking garage closest to the dental school building; followed the signs and found ourselves back on the street without ever having seen any parking spaces, empty or full! The garage is several stories high, so I must have missed a turn along the way. We went back around the block and chose a different garage (same price). Started walking, discovered we’d gone the wrong way, went back and started over… fortunately it was a nice day.

Finally found the dental building and wandered around trying to find the patient area. After we passed the same group of students twice, one of them separated herself from the group and offered to lead us. I felt like such a country bumpkin. But I was happy for the help and happier that we had come on a day without an appointment. We would have been hours late.

After that we went a little further into the city to see the Liberty Bell. Yes, this has been on our list for a long time. We found Independence National Park without incident. Parking was another adventure… all the garages were full. We finally found a place to park, $12 for 90 minutes. So we dashed to the visitor’s center, found our bearings and headed to the Bell.

It was more exciting than I’d anticipated. The bell is larger than I thought it would be. That is probably because so many people have told me it was smaller than they expected. It was very crowded. The kids noted (indignantly) that people were touching it even though there were signs telling them not to. Yes, well.

We had hoped to get over the Betsy Ross’s house but it was a little too far in the wrong direction. We did step over to the grounds of Independence Hall but did not take a tour this time. We stopped into the museum of the American Philosophical Society. Interesting little place; we became acquainted with a few explorers we’d never heard of (and now have a list for the library, natch), and saw some more Audubon art.

On the way home James hoped for a glimpse of the Battleship New Jersey. He has been wanting to see it since we first talked about moving here, but is waiting quite patiently for Cris to have a break in his schedule to take him. Battleships are much more fun with Dad. As we drove along the waterfront I could see some places I could have turned in to get closer, if I’d only known to do that. But even without stopping he got a good look at it and was so excited! I had been worried it would just make him more anxious for the tour, but he was happy with what he got.

So, we made it downtown twice now. We’ll be going frequently once the braces are on, so we’ll plan to take advantage of the sights on appointment days.

Beautiful Fall

It is so gorgeous here! Really like the falls I remember as a kid, back in Buffalo a long time ago. Crisp, cold air. Leaves crunching underfoot. Red and gold on the trees everywhere we look.

It will be very bleak this winter. In the Northwest there are so many evergreens, so, um, it’s always green. Here, the deciduous trees outnumber the evergreens, so when those leaves are gone, it’s pretty gray. That I remember from our house-hunting trip in February. Wow, that seems like a lifetime ago.

Today the kids and I went to Pennsbury Manor, William Penn’s only home in the US. They had a homeschool event today, so we got to go around to various parts of the estate as volunteers (in period dress) taught us about the house and life during Penn’s time. The house was a recreation; the original had fallen into disrepair and was demolished long ago. It was really interesting and just beautiful, there on the Delaware River.

Cris is still studying all the time. We are all very busy. James is enjoying Cub Scouts, and Eleanor is joining a newly-forming homeschool Girl Scout troop. We’ll see how that goes; I’ve always been a little dubious about the Girl Scouts but decided we can give it a try.

Our one-car family experiment will be coming to an end soon. We have been doing OK sharing the single vehicle, but it’s getting more difficult as the kids have more separate activities. This Saturday James has a scouts hike and Eleanor has a birthday party! So we’ll be looking for a used car soon.

Tomorrow night I am starting a very part-time job as a tutor/companion/encourager for a 12-year-old girl. Staring at 3 hours per week (one evening). She will read to me, I’ll read to her, she’ll play the harp for me. Should be interesting.

Audubon’s first home in America

That’s where we went today.  It’s called Mill Grove and it’s about a 35 minute country drive from here.  The house and grounds are open for hiking, looking at the birds in the rehabilitation center, and looking at lots of stuffed birds and Audubon prints in the museum – which is Audubon’s house.

We got a few of our friends from our homeschool group to join us there.  They all think I’m very adventurous now.  Most of them had never been to the place or even heard of it, and they found it amazing to have someone who’s been here only 3 months invite them.  But, we visited the Audubon Center in Portland frequently, so it was natural to look for one here.  We like looking at dead birds, I guess.   And they don’t know how many places near Portland we never made it to…

The grounds are beautiful.  The pathways were just covered with golden and red leaves.  I’m told this is a pretty bleak year for fall color.  I’m told we should go up to New England.  But it looks pretty good to us here.

After we got back from that adventure, James and Cris headed off on a cub scout campout.  It’s just a quick overnighter, more of a sleepover than a campout.  They left after dinner and will be back in the morning, just after breakfast.   We were told that someone from the pack makes a Dunkin Donuts run early in the morning.

Eleanor and I spent the evening doing crafts together.  Fun.  When the boys get home tomorrow, James will have time to get cleaned up, then he heads out to a class at a local arboretum to work on his Forester badge.   He’s pretty into this badge thing.  I still find the scout manual mystifying.

Cris may be reading Greek by flashlight as I type… well, probably not.  He didn’t take a thermos of coffee with him.

A house full of kids

One of the great things about our life in Beaverton was having friends over.  We had space and people to fill it.  Finally yesterday we had a house full of kids.   3 girls, 5 boys (plus my own), 3 moms.   It was interesting finding places for everyone to play; we are still used to a lot more space.  The weather was good so the boys mostly played outside; eventually the girls joined them after they examined Eleanor’s room and dolls sufficiently.

Our property here is between 1/3 and 1/2 acre; paltry compared to what we had before: James does not let us forget that.  But, oh, seeing a different perspective can do a lot for a guy.  When he took the kids out back, he was surprised to hear them all marvel at our huge back yard.  “Wow, is that all yours?  Up to the fence?”  “It just goes on and on…”   “Look at all the trees!”    We have told him that his yard is bigger than most; maybe now he believes it.

………….

Last night was Halloween.  We had always just ignored the day; no trick or treaters braved our road and the friends who did trick or treat didn’t talk much about it.  Hard to ignore it here in the suburbs.  James was feeling a little odd when the kids from the homeschool group talked about their costumes.  It’s a pretty big deal around here.  But some neighbors had an event they call “Light the Night” which is basically nonscary Halloween with games and VeggieTales movies.  James helped them out at the inflatable obstacle course.  Eleanor and I handed out candy.  She was OK with it till the end of the night when the teens dressed like hoodlums (ie. in their regular clothes) came by.  After that she wanted the door locked and the night to be over.

James had hoped the ickiest of the neighborhood decorations would be down this morning, but they were still up when we drove Cris to school.   They’re happy that it’s all over.

They’re not unhappy about the leftover candy, though…