Lazy Days of Summer

Just kidding.  Things have been anything but lazy around here these last few weeks.  The new house is just buzzing with activity.  The good news:  Jon has off the whole summer and is home all day to give me a hand.  The bad news:  Even with him home I still can't seem to get ahead.  We've been living here for over two weeks now and shock of all shocks, I have yet to clean the bathroom.  I did manage to mop the kitchen floor the other night though, and keep up with the laundry.  It took me all day to wash, dry and fold two loads, but at least I got it done! Jon, on the other hand, has been relishing his outdoor space.  This guy has definitely missed his landscaping days, as evidenced by the fact that he mowed the lawn three times before either of our neighbors mowed their's once.  He's also been very busy growing a beard since, during this time off from work, "he can."

We've been spending a lot of time just trying to getting to know the area.  Something as simple as grocery shopping takes on new challenges when you move.  I was just getting familiar with the sales and coupons policies of the store nearest us in Virginia Beach when we found out we were moving.  So I spent a few weeks researching which stores were in the new area and looking for the best "deal blogs" to follow.  My first grocery trip was a big FAIL.  Since then I've found a better store and once I get back into my meal planning groove soon! One of the nice things about this area is that farm country is just around the corner.  Literally.  We took off to find the nearest Rita's the other night and then just kept driving, and driving, and driving.  It was so pretty and peaceful, with stretches and stretches of land between houses.  Almost as nice as Pennsylvania but not quite.  So with all the local produce I thought we'd have a good farmer's market nearby.   I checked the one out right in town, but wasn't overly impressed.  We enjoyed the fresh corn on the cob, italian green beans and green peppers, but I was hoping for a bit more than a handful of tents in a parking lot.  Where were the eggs?  And cheese?  Those famous Maryland blue crabs?  And the guy with the table full of items for $1?  Well I've heard there's a bigger market two towns south so that'll be my next goal. In addition to grocery stores and farmer's markets, I've got a new place to get some grub.  My very own garden!  It was left behind by the owner's and, by the time I got here, contained a few tomato plants and a whole lotta weeds.  For my birthday my parents bought me some other veggies and herbs, and flowers for my patio.  So the night I turned 27 I got both kids to bed by 7:30 and spent the entire evenings weeding, cultivating and planting my little garden, then again at the time it seemed very big.  I was out there with my hands in the dirt until it was so dark I couldn't see the weeds.  Of course, within 10 minutes I had a huge blister on my thumb.  But the hard work was good for me.  We've already enjoyed some of the delicious bounty.  Okay, well Jack picked two green tomatoes off when I wasn't looking, so I put them on the windowsill to ripen for a few days before sampling.

So this is my garden before, when even the weeds were thriving:

And this is my garden after all my weeding and cultivating, now that we're in a severe heat wave and drought.  Hopefully my plants can survive it!:

We've also been on the hunt for a new church.  I've spent HOURS checking local places on online, for months and months before we moved.  And never saw anything to get excited about.  It also made me realize how important a website is.  Churches seem to be everywhere these days, and we don't have time to visit them all.  So we narrowed them down based on what we saw/read on the website.  And then I took those church names and Googled the heck out of 'em.  I read every worthwhile entry I could find.  If someone mentioned that church on their Facebook page, I was there, reading their biographical info and trying to peek at pictures that were viewable to the public.  Sometimes I creep my own self out.  We visited one last Sunday.  It was okay.  Jack seemed to enjoy the nursery, he was blowing kisses to the ladies as we left.  And we met some friendly people.  I was a tad distracted by the big timer on the back wall, counting down exactly 60 minutes, the precise length of the service.  We're not used to such shortness.  On the way  home we passed a sign for a church that, amazingly, I had not come across in my extensive searching.  So it is now #1 on our list of places to check out.

These days, I'm pretty much occupied with keeping Jude's tummy full and keeping Jack busy.  The latter is no easy task.  He's at that age where he's not able to occupy himself for long periods of time.  And when someone is there to entertain him, it's never long before he's ready to move on to the next activity.  Unless it's swinging.  I think we've already established that Jack would be happy to sit in his swing the entire day if he could.  But lately it's been much too hot for that.  So we hang out inside, where Daddy put together Jack's Thomas the Tank Engine set he got for Christmas and that we've been saving for a day that Jack needed something new. 

And we've been experimenting with play-doh.  He's not able to do much with it at this age, but it at least keeps him busy for a little while.

And when Mommy's back is turned we've been getting into trouble.

And most importantly, we've been learning where certain body parts are.  Actually, I was trying to get a video of Jack babbling away as usual.  But, also as usual, he goes silent as soon as I get the camera out. (Note the post-nap hair-do.)

And that is how we spend our lazy summer days.  Actually, things are about to get a bit crazy around here, like it does for most people in the summer, so forgive me for being too busy to blog and I'll forgive you for being too busy to read!