State of the Union - 50 days in

As with all new experiences, time seems to have picked up speed in the last couple of weeks, bringing up an important milestone of 50 days. Most government administrations release a press statement after 100 days in charge, but I'm too impatient, so I'll do one now and one then too. Beyond the important news of both of us getting jobs and the kids starting daycare, there's lots of smaller changes happening here too that I wanted to record:

Sophie Is On The Move

For those of you who knew Jake as a little kid, you'll remember with fondness the bum shuffling and the abrupt decision to stand up and walk by himself. Sophie shows signs of being very different to her brother in lots of ways, most notably that she's always been happy with tummy time and has started crawling army-style. This has led to the first cry of "Daddy, Pophins is taking my cars!", first of many I think! It's very cute to watch her move around and even start to push herself up ready to start cruising. A very different experience to Jake but equally as fascinating.

A New Car

Today has seen us drive home in a brand new car, and not just one that is brand new to us. Jake even commented on the smell of it, and I've never driven in something so clean. Annoyingly, Kelsey is the only one with a valid US license for insurance purposes, so we've had to leave me off for now, meaning that I only get to be a passenger. It's still pretty sweet though, with built in satellite radio and back up camera, but the best thing is it's a hybrid, meaning that I get to watch us drive around for free on the electric engine. Now comes the fun part of registering it and getting our own vanity plates - cheap at $40 per year!

Doggie Decisions

In amongst all of the excitement and happiness of the previous 50 days lies a moment of sadness. Hayden, the beloved family black lab, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away one Sunday morning. His loss is still being felt all round, most particularly by Brody (the other dog and his constant companion) and Jake, who describes him as his best friend, and who still talks about him several times a day. It was a crash course in dealing with grief and death for Jake, and for us, and he still talks about him daily. We've found the best approach is to let him talk, acknowledge his feelings and let him know that we're missing Hayden too. The family are also looking at getting another dog as a companion to Brody, who is slowly going stir-crazy by himself all day. Watch this space!

Weekend Routines

It's always interesting hearing another person's point of view on the same events, and so it proves to be when talking to Dan and Karyn (Kelsey's parents) about our move over. There's always a slight concern that we're imposing on them (with 2 small kids, their calm and tidy house has certainly changed somewhat since our arrival), but we are regularly assured that they take as much pleasure in us being here as we do.

This is particularly evident at the weekend, when both of them get to fulfill some of their grandparent dreams. Dan packs up the "Papa truck" with the recycling, loads Jake's car seat and they disappear to the dump and the baseball fields. This usually involves a smackerel along the way somewhere too, but even so, Jake is always keen to go, especially now that Dan allows him to sit on his lap and "drive" up the driveway.

Karyn has always been a big reader, so now that Jake is really into books, she takes delight in taking him to the library and getting a fresh set of books. This tends to involve a big reading session when they get home, going through each and every book. For me, it's a great way of keeping the bedtime stories fresh (even though we've now got all of Kelsey's childhood books to add to our selected favourites), and we're all impressed at how Jake keep tracks of who has read him which book at bed time.

Learning To Homestead

One of the biggest draws of America, for me at least, is being able to have enough space to start my own homestead. I've affectionately called this my "hippie commune" dream for years, and whilst I know I wont get close to being entirely self-sufficient, I want to live off what I grow as much as possible. To this end, I've got a lot to learn, given that my gardening experience so far has been a failed attempt to grow Yorkshire pineapples and some successful mint growing (and a heck of a lot of moss!). This weekend saw me (and Jake) help plant out the vegetables and herbs for the summer, and I've found heaven on earth at Wentworth's garden centre. It smells amazing and sells pre-grown seedlings of just about anything you could wish for.

The more interesting part of learning to homestead is the bee keeping course I attended a couple of weeks back. It was run by a fascinating woman who works on "permaculture" principles, which boils down to organic, pesticide free farming. It's definitely something I want to get in too, so my mother-in-law and I will be going to "bee school" in the autumn, with a view of getting bees in January of next year. It's great having someone else's garden to practice on!

I've also been talking to the assistant prinicipal at my school who has a big orchard with plenty of maple trees. Her husband has started a sugar shack to create maple syrup, and again this is something that sounds pretty fun (if not a large amount of effort!).

All of these things tick the box of "living the dream" an I know I'll be able to bring the family with me on these adventures as we take pleasure in eating food that was made in our very own garden.

The first 50 days have been an absolute rollercoaster, but a definite confirmation that home for me is where Kelsey, Jake and Sophie (and Hobbes) are. No matter what bit of life admin we're up to, I can always take a break to enjoy the trees and sunshine with them all.