Our First Guest!

Last Thursday our very first guest arrived!  Our dear colleague from the big city had a meeting in the next town over.  He is a brilliant phd biologist and runs a research lab at a university in the city.

Anyhow, it was such a blessing and so fun to finally get to show someone around our new town.  Here's a few of the sights...

There's our house!  Can you see it?

After a delicious breakfast up on the mountain we headed down to the shore and out to Jason's Church.  We drove along the beautiful coast.  I think our friend was surprised at the beauty of our new town.

I have no idea about mythology.  But apparently Jason and the Argonauts were some sort of something.  They landed here on the cape and a church was built here several hundred years later to memorialize it.  Or something like that! ;-)

Searching for critters with Uncle S.

Of course, Noah took advantage of every opportunity to be a total boy.
He climbed, he ran wild, and was altogether a feral child!

As we were leaving this group of kids showed up to fly kites.  They were so adorable.
What a fun idea!

We had a great time with our friend.  What a blessing it is so have friends to walk through this life with!

Trying to Keep it Cool

It's SUPER hot and humid here lately.  So I made these little ice cream sandwiches for the kids.  It was so fun to take them outside at the height of the day and pass them out to the kids.

YUM!  This is the best way to cool down in this heat!

Sunday Sneak Peek: Zucchini Yumminess

Time to meet some more neighbors.  You know what that means... more baking!!

A friend gave me this big boy...

This is the largest zucchini I have ever seen!

And Callie and I turned it into this...

Chocolate zucchini cake, zucchini bread, and zucchini muffins

Time to make some friends!

Home Tour: The Rest

When it became apparent that we were going to end up with a bit of a smaller apartment I was hoping to at least have two bathrooms.  I am so thankful that this apartment has two nice bathrooms.

This is the main bathroom.  It has a big, nice shower and plenty of room for a storage cabinet and our washer and dryer.

This is the second bathroom.  It is a sitty (YAY!!) not a squatty with a nice sink and space for storage.

This apartment also has two balconies.  It has a big beautiful balcony on the front.  We have already used it so much.  It is so cool and pleasant in the afternoons and evenings.

looking from the living room toward the front balcony

We have plenty of room for a nice size table.
We've already used this space so much!

This is the smaller balcony off of our room.  It's actually bigger than it looks.
We have a few big things stored behind the door to the left.  But, mostly I use this space for drying clothes.
Justin put up bars with a clothesline so I can hang big things over the edge and I have my trusty clothes rack out here, as well.  The best thing about this balcony is that it overlooks the areas in the back of the building where the kids tend to play the most.  So I can easily watch them play as I do laundry.

As we were searching for an apartment, I was asking the Lord for a comfortable place that had tons of outdoor space where the kids could play.  Praise the Lord, that is just what He provided... and more!  We are so thankful for this lovely apartment.  The kids have already made lots of friends and there is so much space for them to run wild outside!  It is such a gift from the Lord!!

Home Tour: My Room

Yall, I love my room!  At our other apartment we had an extra room for our huge black bookcase and desk.  Knowing this apartment was so much smaller we thought we would have to sell those things and make do without them.  Thankfully, when Justin was out here to get the utilities turned on before we moved he measured.  He figured out that although this room looked to be the same size as our old bedroom it was actually much bigger.  So, I got to keep my office furniture.  Yay!!!  It's not even cramped.

I picked the same blue that we had at our other place.  It looks really nice.

view from the doorway

looking right as you enter the door
We have our bed and side tables, a big black bookshelf/cabinet, a small dresser, a big wardrobe, the desk, and a small tall dresser.

We have more huge windows and a small balcony.
I couldn't wait to hang the special picture that the moms Lucy's class gave us.
It is such a precious reminder of them and the blessing that they were to us!

Just like the rest of the apartment, our room is just right- comfortable and well suited for everything we need.  We are so thankful for this lovely home!!

Home Tour: The Girls' Room

Lucy and Callie share a room.  We bunked their beds, and they are loving that.

entering from the doorway

looking from the window towards the door

They have a wardrobe from their hanging clothes, Callie has a desk, and they each have a dresser.

This is Lucy's dresser and the toys bins.

We were worried that their stuff wouldn't really fit into this room, but I think it goes nicely.

Apart from the normal trauma of having to share a room with your sister, the girls are enjoying their new space.  It's very usable and there is plenty of floor space for them to play.  Of course, the huge window is really nice, too!

Home Tour: Noah's Room

Hello!  Welcome to our home.  I hope this little tour isn't getting boring!

On the left is our front door.  The living room is behind you and the kitchen is on the right.
This is our main hallway.

Noah's room is the first one on the right.
This is the view from the door.  We let the kids choose their room colors and he chose bright green.

He has a big bed so when we have guests he is kicked out!  Ha!

Noah has a huge window, too.

For a small fee, I can hire Noah out to teach you how to make your bed!  Ha!
He's not in this bed.  The sheet is coving all manner of Legos, blankets, and whatever else he sleeps with.

Home Tour: Kitchen

Our kitchen is small, but since it's open (very rare here) it feels much bigger.  I've had to get very creative with storage and finding space to prep food.

looking from the living room into the kitchen

on the right we have a cabinet, our big water bottles (on the floor), and a little table with stools

looking from the far window towards the doorways

I love the huge windows throughout the apartment, and especially in the kitchen.  We get lots of great light.

The girls and I have had a little bit of a hard time getting used to the smaller space.  But, I know we'll find a rhythm and be able to work more efficiently in here in no time!

Home Tour: Living Room

Well, I figured I might as well give you a peek into our new apartment.  I've still got a few things that I want to do, but I think that will always be true, so here goes...

The dining area

looking from the dining area to the sitting area

the sitting area

looking from one of the doorways into the sitting area

we still need some big bookshelves for this area
I want to set up a little reading nook.

Looking from the front balcony door towards the kitchen and entrance
sitting area on the left and dining area on the right

This is where we have been spending the majority of our time inside.  It is a big comfortable space and we love it.

Speaking of Hot!

Have I mentioned a time or twenty that it's hot here?!  We were sitting around in a heat stupor today and finally mustered up the energy to get ourselves to the beach like everyone else in town.  We drove out of town a little bit in search of a different beach.  When we stumbled upon this place we decided to give it a try!

It was beautiful and interesting.  We had to hike a bit of a steep trail to get down to the beach.  The beach was rocky- big smooth boulders- up until a few meters out.  Just at  the point where I could barely touch it was sandy.  The water was crystal clear and absolutely beautiful.

Most families brought little grills and were cooking out.

Please don't tell anyone... Lucy is actually a mermaid!

The sun was partially blocked by the cliff so we were in the shade.

We didn't venture out to the island off the coast.

Much to our surprise, Callie wanted to follow in her brother's footsteps and jump off this rock.
We were so happy because she typically hates to put her head under water.

Of course, Noah is always up for an adventure.
He begged us to let him climb the cliff and jump in.  Um... no!

This little gem of a beach was just what we needed.  It was so beautiful, cool, and refreshing.  After sweating to death all morning, we came home with much better attitudes!

Sunday Sneak Peek: I Promise She's Breathing

Last night Lucy was too hot to sleep so she wanted to lay on the floor in front of the fan.  I tried to tell her that she would miss the breeze if she was on the floor but she was determined.  I guess she was finally able to sleep... or passed out from the heat!  Ha!

Family Fun Night in Progress

Yay!!  Life is finally in a routine and it's time to start Family Fun Night up again!  Every Friday night we have pizza and watch a movie.

Since we just moved, my tomato sauce supply is gone.  So, the day started like this...

After several hours and the immersion blender...

I let the sauce cook a bit more.  But it wasn't thick enough, so I had to transfer it to a pot and put in on the stove.  (I was trying to avoid this because it is too dern hot and I didn't want to waste tons of gas.  But, oh well, it tastes better if you don't add cornstarch so cooking it down is worth it!)

After several more hours of simmering on the stovetop it was perfect!!

Yum-O!

Pizza time!

That night after the sauce had cooled completely I doled it out into freezer bags in two cup servings- perfect for pizza.  Now I'm set for a few months!