21st century homesteading - part 1

One of the big drivers for me moving to the USA is the idea that I could move towards self-sufficiency in terms of growing my own food. Regular followers of my blogs might recall my lack of success growing a pineapple in Yorkshire, and my previous garden wasn't conducive to growing more than moss and an enormous rose bush. So I start on my homestead dreams with little in the way of experience, but lots in the way of manpower, enthusiasm and people willing to help me on the way.

I've forayed recently into growing veg and herbs in a ready made garden (thanks to Karyn) and learned a lot about planting distances, mulching and the use of black plastic. Only 3 plants (out of several dozen) have failed to transplant successfully, and the carrots, basil and sunflower that we're growing directly from seeds are all growing well, apart from the sunflower seeds that were eaten by animals unknown one night. We've bought some floating covers to put over the rest for protection, so we'll see how they progress.

I'm constantly in awe of the fact that you can put stuff in the ground, give it some dead stuff (compost) and water, and the seeds just do their thing, providing us with things that we can eat.

Today marks the biggest project that I've embarked on independently (or as independently as possible). Jake has been fanatical about watermelon from a young age, and for some reason it just tastes better and juicier over here, so naturally when we found plants at the world's most amazing garden shop, we bought one. Watermelons apparently need a lot of room to grow (they recommend 6 feet(!) between plants) and the vines can grow around 1 foot a week...yikes!

We didn't have space to do this in any of our current garden beds, so I made a new garden (the benefits of having 17 acres of land is you can just repurpose land as you see fit). It was a guided adventure, with plenty of advice and support from Dan and Karyn, but it was still easily one of the satisfying things that I've ever done. I'm documenting it here because a) this will be the basis of my future homesteading so I want to remember how to do it and b) I'm seriously proud of what I produced. Whether it makes any watermelons, and whether they're edible or not, will be another question, but one that is sort of beside the point. Cue photos!

The start (not this particular patch, but I forgot to take a "before" photo!

Step 1 - rototill on the R setting. Measure out the area first so you know where to go, and make sure that each pass overlaps the previous for better coverage. 

Clear out all the grass. This is time consuming and works better if you have some sort of sieve (I used a plastic bucket with holes in) and someone like Jake to talk to. This was the best part of my day, if not my entire time here, spending an hour with my hands in the dirt and my delightful son chatting away and "helping"

Rototill again, this time on the L setting. The soil should be much looser after the first pass and the grass sifting. Rake through to clear out any missed clumps of grass, rocks and other debris.

Add compost or similar. We also added a whole pack of peat moss and spread it around. Again, a helpful four year old with their own garden tools makes this a lot more fun. 

Add loam. In the end, we had about 5 buckets worth. A big tractor helps here. 

Once everything is all piled up, give it a mix and roughly spread it out. Don't make it too perfect as you'll want to add the ties in around the edge. 

Measure out the area, preferably by using the length of one tie (in this case, 12 feet) as a guide to make things easy. If you need to make some shorter, find a helpful man with a chainsaw. Make sure they are all level, which can mean digging around and straightening out for a while. Keep at it, because it looks good when they're all in the right place. You can fill in underneath and around with the mixed up dirt. 

Almost finished! Try to have the corners overlapping so you can screw them together (important when your four year old likes to walk along and balance on them!

One last rototill, made easier by a smiling baby on your back. Watch out for the ties if you haven't screwed them in yet!

Completed! Just need to plant up the watermelons now (more of which in another post perhaps)

Daycare

With Kelsey starting a new job and me filling my weeks with some 1:1 SEN work and training for September, we've now got the kids into daycare (though part of my brain still insists on calling it nursery from time to time!). At the very basics, there's a lot of similarities between here and the UK as it's a service designed for small children ranging from babies up till school age, so the focus still remains on social skills, following rules and routines and (for Jake at least) a gentle introduction to letters, words and numbers. However, there are some differences with our daycare that I want to look at (NB: some of these will be particular to the experiences we had with our particular daycare in Leeds, some may be more widespread)

Outside space

This one I know is particular to our nursery in Leeds, which was in an industrial area of the city, and whilst there was a little muddy patch outback, there was only a small space to play outside. This used to be tarmac, but got covered by outside carpet, and whilst it did the trick, the combination of small space and poor weather meant it didn't get used that much. At our new daycare, they spend most of the time outside, even if when it's poor weather (no such thing as poor weather, just poor preparation!). There's lots of little sections, including a little forest of trees perfect for climbing, a massive sandy area (which Sophie loves) and a small obstacle course. The effect is that whenever I pick up Jake, he's running around playing some of creative game with his friends, and this for me ticks one of the boxes for why we moved over here (to give the kids an outside lifestyle).

Cost

This is one aspect that has made us gasp a little. We looked at 4 places, and chose one that best matched our needs for location, quality of provision and cost. Now, I think we got lucky in the UK as we had a teacher's contract, so we only paid 75% of the fees as Jake was only in for 75% of the time, and we had a year or so of 15 free hours, and we had pre-tax childcare vouchers to help cut costs. Even so, it felt like we were getting a good deal. However, here we have 2 kids and no discounts, so we're paying what feels like an eye-watering amount. Fortunately, we only have a year (!) till Jake goes to kindergarten and I'm pretty sure there's some sort of tax credit help out there. Watch this space.

Resources

What doesn't help with mentally dealing with the cost of the provision (or tuition as it's called) is that nothing is included with it. We have been used to diapers and wipes being provided when Jake was small, and all food and drink being cooked on site (meaning that we'd rarely pick him up before 4.30 so he could eat a proper tea there!). Here, nothing. We have to send Sophie in with food, diapers and wipes, and Jake with a packed lunch each day, and we end up playing up safe with both of them to make sure that they'll eat during the day (as well as having to remember to pack bottles for Sophie's formula...only forgot them once!). We're getting used to the routine of emptying and restocking their lunches the night before, but there's part of me that is annoyed that we're paying such a large amount of money and have to provide these resources too.

Parent contact

This is another area where I feel that we've got an improvement. Information at pick up at our old day care would very much depend on who was around and whether that person had seen Jake in action at all. It would always be "he's had a good day", but some of the stories that Jake would tell on the way home about being hit or getting in trouble would have been better coming from an adult so we could follow up from home. Here, Jake's teacher is on site at the end of the day and will take the time to talk me through what he's been up to. Fortunately, there seems to be a lot of less rough and tumble and the bruises on Jake's legs are coming from falling off things. Sophie's communication is fantastic. Around 5pm (so as I'm driving home with them), I get a detailed email about her day, including the precise timings of naps and nappy changes, and what and when she ate. This is a huge bonus as I can tell when she'll be ready to eat, how tired she'll be and what to pack her for lunch the next day. For both of them, we have given photo permission to the daycare which means that most days, I get a photo sent to my phone of my kids in action. Now, I'm not a nervous parent, and I fully trust the daycare staff to love, care for and nurture my kids, but when Sophie cries when I drop her off, something inside me breaks, and it's really tough to walk out of the door instead of scooping her up and taking her with me. I know it's good for her, and the photos I get sent of her smiling and playing make the drop off process a whole lot easier.

Overall, though, it's a positive experience! The kids are making friends and coming home tired enough to sleep all night (especially Sophie!). We've already had one birthday party invitation, and there's a party for the kids leaving the daycare next week, which will be a good opportunity to meet some other parents and start making some new friends over here.

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.

Job hunting - me

I started to write this post to keep in theme with my "one post a week" start, but quickly realised that I would have had to come back and edit it multiple times as our respective job hunts have evolved. I want to document the processes that we've gone through so far, noting some of the differences between the two countries.

I worked hard to get my NH teaching qualification ahead of time with the aim being that I would catch all the job adverts for a September start. The main issue is that whilst New Hampshire as a state has a similar population to Leeds (and thus a corresponding number of schools), and much smaller class sizes, the land area is roughly the same as the whole of Yorkshire. This narrows down the list of possible schools for me to apply to considerably, but I found 3 or 4 to apply to. There is no common application process, though most have an online application form system, but still require you to upload your resume, cover letters and reference letters (again, I had all these prepped ahead of time). I submitted 3 applications in the first of week of being here, and was suprised by the quick response rate. One school replied the following morning after my submission and the other replied within 2 hours to ask me to come into school for an interview.

In the UK, I've been used to having the whole interview process happen in a day (teaching practice, meet some teachers, interview) and a decision being made by the end of the working day one way or another. It's been a very different experience here. Firstly, with both schools, I had the formal interview first. I guess this is a good way of seeing if someone fits the school ethos and team set up before checking if their teaching practice matches their resume. It still felt odd to be in that situation as a first introduction to each school. However, I progressed past both stages and spent a while trying to toss up which school I would pick if both offered me the job.

The next step was different at each school. One had me come in and teach a lesson (it felt good to be back in charge of my own lessons after days of teaching from other people's plans!) whilst the other had me come back for another interview, this time with teachers as well as the SLT (8 people in total!). These were within a day of each other, but both principals left me with a "we'll get in touch soon once we've had seen all the applicants". I had felt both interviews had gone well, so I was pleased when I was called by the DJ Bakie school in Kingston the following day to offer me a job.

Well, when I say offer me a job, it was merely the start of a new process. Firstly, they had to confirm my references (not easy to do with a 5 hour time difference!) and wanted a personal reference of someone in the USA who knew me who wasn't family. Once those had been checked out, I then had to make an appointment with the superintendent for the district (the big boss of around 5 schools), who would review my application, interview me again and would be the one who could offer me a job. I duly did this, feeling slightly intimidated by his big mahogany desk and Alan Sugar-like demeanour. It's hard to say whether this is a formality, or whether he could have turned round and rejected the principal's recommendation, but fortunately he offered me the job at a considerable pay rise to my UK teaching position. However, it's got to go before the district board next week, which is a formality, before I get a contract.

You may have noticed that this school didn't once see me teach, which I find interesting. They were very keen to see if I fit into the mold of their team and I guess they made the assumption from the way that I talk about my practice that I would carry it into the classroom. Who knows. All I care about is that I've got myself a job for September, some permanent supply work till the end of June and a glorious relaxing summer (with sunshine!) with my family before the craziness begins again!

PS an addendum. The school who did see me teach took over a week to get back to me. We've played phone tag today, but as they haven't replied to my answerphone message, I'm assuming that it's a non urgent phone call. Fortunately, I would have turned it down anyway :)

Week 3 - things that I didn't know I liked

Week 3 seems to have hurtled by, which is surprising given that it's a vacation week from school, so I've been at home with my wife and the kids. The main focus has been on getting her a job, and we finally have an interview in hand for her. It's next Thursday (after mine on Tuesday and Wednesday) so watch this space! Things are slowly coming together on the job front, and we've decided to end the kids' endless holiday by signing them up for daycare, more of which when they actually start. 

For this post, I wanted to focus on some of the smaller things that I've found that I like about being here:

1. Driving

Whilst I've driven before in America, it's been very infrequently and usually only a short drive to the shops and back when we've forgotten something. Now I'm out and about by myself (or with the kids) a bit more, I've found a lot of joy on the roads. For example, there's right on red, which means that if you're turning right and there's a red light, you can go as long as it's clear. There's cruise control (I know this isn't particular to America) which I love, as well making sure I don't get done for a ticket. Finally there's the slower speed limits. I thought this would annoy me, but it feels quicker than the stop start nature of Leeds traffic and means I can enjoy the beautiful scenery whilst I'm driving.

2. Supermarket bag packers

Again, I've been in supermarkets before over here, and always felt a little silly/frustrated that there's someone packing my bags for me. However now with 2 kids in tow, it makes my life unbelievably easier to have someone else sort the food for me (including using different colour bags for cold and dry food!), leaving me to play with Sophie, chatter with Jake and pay at my leisure. Take note, Sainsbury's!

3. Manners

The number of random people I've talked to over the last few weeks has been incredible, and everyone I've met is so polite. It's strange that there is a perception of British people have impeccable manners, but I know that I couldn't strike up conversations in parks and shops as I'm able to do here. My accent definitely helps, as does having a couple of cute kids, but even so, the response has been great. My favourite part of all is being welcomed to America by every person I talk to. A typical conversation goes like this:

Them: So where are you from?

Me: England/across the pond

Them: How long have you been here?

Me: Oh a couple of weeks now

Them: When are you heading back?

Me: We're not, we've moved here permanently.

Them: Well, welcome to America!

I've had this conversation at least a dozen times so far and I'm still not bored of the friendliness and manners yet. 

4. Predictable weather

I realise that there is a lot of smugness in most of the photos that I send to my friends and family back in the UK, mainly based on the clear blue skies and sunshine that we've had nearly every day since we've been here. However, what I like most about the weather is that a week in advance, the weather apps tell you what it will be like and lo and behold it is. Makes planning outings much easier. My favourite example is last week, when it said it was going to snow on on Tuesday. I sat there incredulously on Monday afternoon playing with Jake and Sophie in the glorious sun thinking that there was something wrong with my phone. It was cloudy when I woke up on Tuesday and it got progressively colder. By lunchtime there was sleet, and when we were driving home in the afternoon, we got about half an inch of snow, as predicted. 

5. State quarters

The inner geek in me finds money, and in particular coins, fascinating. I like it when new designs come out in the UK and always have a soft spot for the old 50p pieces, mainly from the book The Queen's Nose which I always wanted to be real. However, here, whilst I disagree with having the largest coin being 25c, they have gone to town in recent years by giving each state a quarter to decorate. You can then collect the whole set and mount them (and by "you" I mean "I"). I've started raiding the change slots in my wife's family's cars as well as the penny jar upstairs. I got Jake and his cousin to help, and I think I have around 40 already. I like the little challenge that goes with it, as well as getting people to help out.

As with all of these posts, there will be more to add to this list.

Week 2 - reflections on American education

Today sees the end of our second week in the US, and it's been a busy one. I've managed to notch up another interview, and have 2 second interviews scheduled for the first week in May (next week is a school vacation week...good to know for next year!). I've also done my first paid in America as a substitute this week, as well as spending two whole days in different schools shadowing teachers and asking lots of questions. There's a lot of familiarity in schools (after all, kids are kids the world over, especially in the West) but there's a lot of differences. Some are positive, some are negative, some will need me to be a teacher here for a while before I can gauge my opinions about them. Here are my top 5 observations from this week:

Uniforms

In the US, there are none. Each school has guidelines that run along the lines of no midriffs, no offensive words and no jewelry, but everything else is fair game. It feels strange after the uniformed order of English schools to see children in what I see as weekend wear and my gut instinct says to prepare for a slack day as this is generally what happens in the UK on non-uniform days. I guess that it's normal for them, but apparently there are discussions regarding uniforms. I'm undecided on this, time will tell on my thoughts.

Unified Arts

In the UK, an elementary school teacher is expected to be a jack of all trades; teaching core subjects of English and maths in the morning, then juggling a hefty load of foundation subjects in the afternoon (art, music, science, PE etc). Here, they have specialists for the Unified Arts (art, music, PE for definite, schools vary on the others) and classes attend these without their regular teacher. In one respect I think this is great: you get a good 45 minute chunk per day to mark, prepare, have meetings as opposed to one big chunk of PPA each week, and the kids get specialist teaching (great for my classes in art where I always felt they got short changed!). On the other hand, it's hard to create any flow and limits the amount of true cross-curricular learning that can take place. There doesn't seem to be many opportunities for discussion or liaison between the specialists and class teachers, so it's hard to see a way in which they don't operate independently. Again, time will tell which of these viewpoints I side with more.

Class Size

The average class size that I've seen this week has been less than 20, making me feel as if I've lost a large number of pupils, setting off a mild panic. This I can only see as a positive, as immediately I felt like I had a better handle on the kids even as a substitute (18 names are easier to remember than 30, especially with gems like Talon, Kennis and Tallis...) and I could give more individual attention over the course of a lesson. The smaller class size will hopefully have a knock on effect on my workload, though talking to other teachers this week makes me think that there are other pressures on their times if their stories are to be believed. In any case, the smaller class sizes will make a positive difference to my teaching and I'm looking forward to this closer approach.

Day Timings

Not all schools run to the same timings, but there is a definite preference for an early start and early finish. In both schools I've been in this week, pupils start arriving around 8/8.15, but due to the staggered nature of the school bus routine, there is an awful lot of time wasted (or what feels like wasted time) waiting for everyone to come in, given that the end of the school day is 2.30/2.45. You also end up with ridiculous things like the first graders eating lunch at 11am (though this may explain Kelsey's preference for early meal times) and no morning recess across school. Again, I will adapt to these things, and I've thoroughly enjoyed being home before 3.15 (though this will change when I'm teaching full time), but the pace of the day seems intense for such young children.

Technology

Even what I was assured was a not well off elementary school this week, there was a fully functioning computer suite of new iMacs, a set of iPads and Chromebooks shared across the school and a few netbooks in each class. In one school that I'm interviewing in, their computing budget is $100,000, well over the total learning resource budget for all subjects from my previous school. There is a big push in all schools to incorporate technology, to the point where all pupils have Google logins, and Google Drive and Classroom is being used to share work. I'm keen for to be part of this and to see how my knowledge and expertise can be used to push things even further.

Behaviour Systems

Finally, whilst the general standard of behaviour has been good (polite manners, kids responding to adult instructions, helping each other), there seems to be a massive slackness on allowing kids to talk at any time, and not pay attention. I've had to bite my tongue when shadowing on numerous occasions on things that I wouldn't accept in my class, and when I was in charge, I laid my rules out quickly and clearly at the start of each lesson. I'm not sure if it's across all schools, or just in the classes that I've seen, but it's more commonplace than I would have imagined, or maybe I'm just going to be that strict teacher from England. I think in part it's due to the fact that I've not seen a discernible reward system in place in any school (I'm thinking Class Dojo or house points for example) to give quick boosts in class and focus positive attention on the kids doing the right thing. On the flip side, there seems to be no formal visible system of consequences either, so it may be that schools don't feel they're necessary. However, with the amount of low level disruption that I saw and clamped down on, I may have to dig further as to why I've not seen these things in place.

A "week off" next week in which we'll step up the job hunt for my wife and start talking serious day care, then on with the interviews and further substitute work towards the end of the school year.

My first week in numbers

We've been here a little over a week now, which seems crazy given how long the lead in to the move seemed to last for. It's flown by in a flurry of new experiences and setting up of our new lives, so rather than try and write it all down for a mammoth post, I want to give a flavour of what we've been up to in numbers:

Days of substitute organised: 2 (got these on Monday after talking to the principal of the local elementary school)

Number of interviews attended: 1 (I submitted it on Tuesday night and got the phone call on Wednesday morning. Had the interview on Friday, waiting to hear back whether they want to see me teach! Watch this space...)

Sunny days: 7 (out of 9. Additional stat: I last saw a cloud 5 days ago. It makes a massive difference to how we play with the kids, and it's lovely being able to spill outside armed with towels, toys and suncream with no intention of coming back inside because it's too cold or cloudy)

Tractor rides by Jake: 7 (this includes both tractors. We arrived 11pm last Friday, and by 6.05 the next morning, he was up and asking about a tractor ride)

Times I've opened the passenger side door to get in to drive: 14 (I still can't make it look deliberate. Additional stat: Number of weird looks I've got for doing this: 3)

Times I've cracked my left hand on the door trying to shift gear: 8 (My brain is slowly adjusting to the fact that everything is in the same order (pedals and gears mainly) but just on on the other side of the car)

Cost to fill up the car (a Honda Fit over here, Jazz in the UK): $18 (I couldn't believe this when it happened, given that the tank was pretty much empty. Makes the idea of a long commute a bit more palatable)

Number of favourite foods/restaurants eaten from: 2 (Dos Amigos burritos and Calef's sandwiches. It's a nice change of pace not to have to rush round everywhere because we're on a time limit. We've also had Chinese and pizza, both of which I prefer over here. Slimming World diet starts next week!

Points scored by me in Ultimate Frisbee: 2 (additional stat: Number of times I felt like throwing up during the game: 12. I forgot how fit you need to be to play and how much sprinting was involved! It will act as a good motivation to get fit, as well as a way to make friends).

Uncomfortable yoga positions attempted: 4 (across 2 sessions. My wife's parents bought me an extra long mat that feels like I'm practicing on thick carpet, so I'm hoping to offset the pain of Frisbee (and rowing) with some relaxing yoga too. Not the same without my regular yoga buddy Matt, as there'll be no-one to stop me from falling asleep at the end!)

Hours spend playing outside on the dirt pile with Jake (and Sophie on a towel): 15 (and counting. Jake is loving the ability to be outside all day, and we spend all morning this morning playing on the massive mound of soil that's sitting waiting for gardening season. He's turned it into a regular construction site, complete with toy vehicles and access paths. I don't want to be the one who starts to use it for it's intended purpose.)

Number of virtual babysitters: 2 ( Moving across the world in 2016 is made much easier by being able to reach out to anyone with an internet connection (and in these days of cheap data, that's nearly everyone) with a decent quality video call. I've  been on Skype with my parents twice now where I've needed to go do something, and the quality of the video and the fact that Jake and Sophie understand video calls means that I've left them alone with my parents. This has led to some very cute moments, and Jake insists most days on calling Granny and Grandpa to show them his latest block creations.)

It's been another busy week, but much less stressful than our last in the UK and much more enjoyable (perhaps because we got out to a movie on Tuesday, perhaps due to the sunshine, perhaps because the job situation is moving quicker than we thought!). More to come this week as I venture into the world of American education...