Hublein Tower Trail

Heavenly.  That is the word I would use to sum up the weekend.  The sun was shining, it was about 72 degrees outside, and the colors on the trees were the most vibrant I have seen anywhere my entire life.  We made the best decision ever and hiked up Talcott Mountain to see the Hublein Tower.  I don't think I've ever beheld more spectacular views!  

Afterwards, the boys wanted to be dropped off at home, but the girls, Dave and I all went to the Avon Picking Patch.  It made my heart happy to be enjoying such beauty and time with my family this whole weekend.  I can't wait to see Dave's parents later on today.  I have been dying to share some of this splendor with our loved ones.  Even though the colors peaked this weekend, it is still so lovely here!  I feel so, so blessed!

I hope more of the people we love will make it here soon!  In the meantime, I'll try to keep up on this blog. :)

I Love Fall!

I love Fall!

Oh my, it is so beautiful here right now!  Here is the view out my front door:

I am finding that I am happier and happier here all of the time.  I feel a sense of purpose and peace.  I looked at my sweet Alice this morning and thought, "How did I get so lucky?"  I love the people, big and small, that I have in my life.

Speaking of little creatures, we happen to have quite a few around here.  We have seen a lot of wildlife in our neighborhood since we moved here including a raccoon, a possum, two bears (one was right in my own front yard!), several birds and many, many squirrels.  

When we arrived home from church on Sunday, we noticed that the pumpkin on our front porch had been moved.  

We knew that some little critter had to have been the culprit.

  

We went inside, grabbed the camera, and waited.  Sure enough, the little thief came back for some more pumpkin seeds!

 He is actually rather cute.  At least a lot cuter than the mouse I found in my house a few weeks after we moved in.  This is what we get for living in the "country" as the man from Connecticut Power referred to our neighborhood a few weeks ago.  If this is what you call country, I'll take it!  I am just glad that I am close enough to get to the store within five minutes. 

 I have a lot to get done this afternoon so this will have to be it for this week. :)

Take care you all!

Another Week Has Gone By

We have had another wonderful week!  There is always a lot to do when there are eight people in the family.  It makes the days go by so quickly.  The highlights for me were listening to LDS General Conference, going to a soccer game, having some friends over while the men (including Thomas for the first time!) went to the Priesthood session, going to a play date at the church on Columbus Day with all of my kids, and watching my elementary school kids bike to school this morning with their dad.  Many days here are overcast, so I am especially happy when the skies are clear and the sun is shining like it is today.  I am so loving the beauty that surrounds us here. 

The front, back and side yard of our home.

Of course, there are still challenges.  Though I really, really enjoyed Conference this last weekend, I did feel homesick I think for the first time.  I am sure I felt that way because I always associate Conference with spending time with family.  Since then, I have been praying for peace and seeking again to know what faith should look like for me at this time in my life.  I received some neat personal answers and have been reminded of true principles.  One of them is to take life one day at a time.  I have been too overwhelmed at times with thinking of all of the things that I want to do for the house and all of the things I want to do/provide for my family, and my lack of energy, resources, etc.  I believe I can credit President Monson with the saying, "By the yard, life is hard.  By the inch, it's a cinch."  There is a lot of truth in that.  I tried to apply that principle better yesterday and was surprised to discover how much I like grocery shopping!  Again, not thinking too far ahead and focusing on the task at hand can do wonders for someone who could be thinking about a lot of things at once!

I also decided to exercise my faith that, in time, I will get my home remodeled.  As I mentioned in my last post, we now have some damage to our ceiling in the living room.  I have been wondering what the best thing to do about it would be.  My son Thomas remarked the other night about how dark the living room feels at night.  That room doesn't have any lighting, other than the two lamps that we placed in there.  It dawned on me that we really do need to put in some recessed lighting to brighten up everything.  I really do love light!  That is something we wouldn't have done if it hadn't been for the water damage.  Last night, my husband told me that he had already called the "ward handyman" to come and look at our living room and see what he could do to help us.  I think things will work out just fine.  

As far as this morning goes, we thought of having the kids bike to school because yesterday was Bike/Walk to School Day.  Dave was going to take all of the kids yesterday, but there was a lot of rain coming down when he took Jonathan to seminary that morning.  He was quite sure the event would be canceled since there was less rain the week before and the event was postponed then.  Surprisingly, everything went forward as planned.  We had already told the kids in our family that they could ride to school today with Dad instead.  However, at the last minute, Thomas decided to bike to school yesterday since there were prizes that the kids could win if they went on Wednesday.  It was a little bit of a crazy morning since I had to follow Thomas to school in order to pick up his bike.  The fun part is, that Thomas actually won something!  He now has a gift certificate for a $65 tune up at a local bike shop.  Another blessing that came from participating is that our neighbor gave Sarah Jane a bike!  Her daughter had outgrown the bike years ago and only has two younger brothers.  We were thrilled to take the bike off her hands since it had recently been brought to my attention that the bike Sarah Jane already had, was too small for her.  She was so excited to ride her bike to school today, that even though it was a little chilly and a long way to go for such a little girl, she refused to ride in the car with me.  She insisted that she could do it. . .and she DID!  She was so very proud of herself.  I am proud of her, too!

Our Adventures in Connecticut Have Begun!

I had a hard time for months whenever I would ponder moving to Connecticut.  All I could think about was what I would be leaving behind.  That includes my parents, most of my nine siblings and several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters-in-law, cousins, friends, etc.  At the same time, I couldn't deny that it felt right to come.  It took faith, but I am so glad that we made the move. 

There are still many, many challenges facing me right now, however.  I am now a mother of six children and I am feeling it!  On one end of the spectrum I have a 14 year-old teenager who's in high school and at the other end, a 6 1/2 month-old, crawling, baby girl.  All of the kids seem to have bigger appetites these days and the cost of living is definitely higher here in Connecticut.  I am looking to save money however I can.  We also have a home that has a beautiful, classic look to it, but still needs a lot of updating.  It also is in need of repair--right now there is a huge watermark on the ceiling in the living room and the paint has started to peel off in a certain spot.  The damage occurred after an extra long and steamy shower one of the kids took one evening.  We are thinking that this is what homeowner's insurance is for?

Anyway, even with all of the challenges, I have discovered that I can still be happy.  I am loving being a wife and mother, a homemaker and living in Connecticut.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I especially love taking outings to discover new places here on the East Coast.  Recently, my children got a day off from school for Yom Kippur and so we went to pick apples and visit a dairy farm nearby.  We also bought some pumpkins at a farm called Meadow View just over the border in Massachusetts.  I sure do love spending time with my kids!  See some of the pictures we took below:

I hope to consistently make entries on here for myself and for any of my friends or family that may be interested to see what we are doing back here.  I feel like now is the time to finally start a blog since I don't get to see many of the people I love (besides my own family) in person very often these days.  I also have a bit more free time on my hands since all five of my older children are in school all day.  There is a time and season for everything and now seems to be my time for this.  I hope to record the challenges, but also the blessings and miracles, big and small, that will come our way while we are living here.  I think that this will have to do for today--the kids are about to come home from school!

Update:

I realized later on yesterday that I did have a sweet blessing/miracle occur the day we went to pick apples that I should have recorded.  When we arrived at the orchard, we were told to only pick apples from trees designated with a yellow ribbon and that we could pick up as many apples as we wanted to from the ground.  The apples were $1.00/lb for the ones picked off the trees and $.50/lb for the "drops".  Since it was a holiday, there were several moms and kids at the same orchard.  Two moms were ahead of us in the apple-weighing line.  Apparently, their children picked apples from the wrong trees because the woman helping them was not too happy with the way their baskets looked.  When we got up to the counter, she remarked at how nice the apples in our baskets were and said that she could tell that we followed the rules.  Our first basket was nearly 15 lbs.  The woman said she would only charge us $10.00 for those apples!  Then she looked at the drops and said they would be free!  We got two large grocery bags of apples for a total of $10.00!  The best part was that my children knew it was their obedience that got us that blessing.  It truly was a delightful day and a good lesson for my kids.