I like anniversaries. Whether it's commemorating the fact that my wife and I have been a couple for 5000 days recently, or celebrating birthdays, there's something satisfying about marking the progress of time and reflecting on the changes since the last celebration. Which is why I'm slightly disappointed with the timing of this post. April 8th will always mark the date that we moved here and started the next big chapter in our lives, but as always with these posts, there is a delay between thinking "I need to write" and finding the headspace to do so. I would also imagine that there's a fair correlation between my blog posts and when I'm off school, as this is when time slows down a little.
Anyway. I still want to mark 2 years of being here as it represents a full year in our own house and the starting up of traditions and habits that will become part of our kid's earliest memories. What I want to do here is revisit the 1st post of this blog which talked about the 5 things that I was most excited for our move. I want to look at how each of these has played out, and the next things I'm excited for.
1) The space
In the original post, I had my heart set on a 3 or 4 bedroom house in the woods, with a couple of acres of land that we could grow vegetables on, have the kids play and keep chickens. With the exception of the latter, we are truly living the dream. Yesterday, Jake got up from rest time and decided that he wanted to go and do some gardening, so we went and planted pumpkin seeds. They then drove around in their four wheelers, played in the sand pit and happily played in the house on the deck. It was simply delightful to have that much outdoor space. I'm also planning on expanding to grow blueberries and cherries this year, with half an eye on a peach tree. I give this dream 10/10, even without the chickens.
2) The people
We see an awful lot of my wife's family, especially her parents which isn't surprising as it's less than a 5 minute drive to their house (which was all part of the plan of buying this place!). I had talked about the friendly customer service and small talk, and this is definitely true, even though I've had to train myself in becoming proficient in small talk to strangers (tip for other aliens: start by finding a common link, whether it's where you're from, where you've been or someone you know). We're still working on having friends outside of work or our kid's situations, but with 2 small people and the desire to hang out with them a lot makes this harder; that and I sometimes feel that we're always going to compare them to our our solid group of friends back in the UK. In terms of the gist of the original post, my overall impressions of New Englanders is that they're polite, friendly and very earnest (I've had to tone my sarcasm down several octaves): 10/10 for the prediction!
3) An outdoorsy lifestyle
Last summer saw me conquer 4 of the 48 mountains in New Hampshire that measure over 4,000 feet, as well as starting to get to know some of the local trails. I also used some of our tax return money (still don't quite understand the tax system here, but it seems to pay out in our favour!) to buy a canoe, which we have used once. When it's not bitterly cold, we do spend a good chunk of time outside which will only improve as Sophie becomes more confident and Jake allows himself to become braver with some of the activities we like to do. However, I've been made aware of loads of kid friendly hikes and trails, so I can't wait to explore more this summer! 9/10
4) Exploration and adventure
I think I probably underestimated how big America is and how little vacation time Kelsey would get when I wrote this. We also have the old trap that has dogged us for years that we want to spend all of our vacation time visiting friends and family in the other country. So our biggest trips so far have all been to England and to visit my wife's sister in Connecticut. However, my wife is training to become a teacher this year, so while it's going to make things tight financially, from September 2019 onwards we should have more time and money, and kids that are old enough, to start to explore more of this side of the ocean. 5/10.
5) Living on vacation
I still get a little giddy going to Calef's for lunch as it feels like I'm on holiday rather than just grabbing a sandwich for lunch. My vacation time with the kids is spent doing mini tourist things, and the ability to be at the top of Bluejob mountain within 30 minutes of leaving my front door still feels special. It's an interesting flip to watch the routine things of our time in Leeds (Greggs, going to the pub, hanging out with our friends') take on the mysticism of "holiday activities"; things to be excited about rather than just day to day activities. This one is hard to score as it's not vacation any more to live here, but I still enjoy the treats and the experiences that are now available to us daily.
So all in all I feel that my predictions about what I would find the most exciting over here are pretty accurate. It's also pretty satisfying to see that we've managed to make just about all of the dreams that we had for our life here come true, or at least have a plan to make them happy.
Some of the other things that I didn't realize that I would be excited about:
My job - teaching over here is a completely different experience and one that has truly set me free to be the creative and caring teacher that I dreamed of being at the start of my career. I know I'm lucky with my school district, but I get a lot of professional and personal satisfaction from my day to living.
Enormous snowfalls - any time when we're expecting over a foot of snow, the small, childish part of me gets all giddy at the prospect of such a scenery changing amount of snow. Even having to snow blow multiple times doesn't get me down, and there's something awe inspiring in putting your foot down and having snow come almost up to your knees. That, and the sunny days that immediately follow are some of the most spectacular times.
Sophie at day care - when we moved over, Sophie was 9 months old. She's now almost 3, and it's crazy to think that she has lived almost 75% of her life here! I love her daycare's outdoor section and the fact that she comes home covered in paint, food and with leaves in her hair, gabbling incomprehensibly about her day. While I'm excited to have her at Jake's old day care in the autumn, I will miss our car rides together.
Jake at school - I know Jake wold have thrived in any rule bound school environment, but when we moved he was still only 4 and school seemed like a long way away. Watching him develop into a learner who can read, write and count is just wonderful, and I love listening to his stories about what he did at school.
Fruit picking - we spent a lot of time at Butternut Farm last year picking each of the seasonal fruits, and there is something just incredibly exotic about picking a fresh peach off the tree and biting into the juicy goodness. I love the connection to the land, and while the produce will be more expensive than at a store, I fully intend to spend hundreds more there this summer to support local growers and to make sure my kids have a full appreciation of where their food comes from.
There are more, many more (grilling, lake life and free sports on TV to name but 3), but a) I don't want to sound like I'm boasting, b) this post has given me such a big smile and a true appreciation of our life here and c) I need to go wake Jake up so we can go to the trampoline park, because it's April vacation week, because we can, because life here is good.
