Strawberry picking = jam making

When we lived in Bucks County PA Terry and I discovered a fabulous pick your own place, called Penn-Vermont after the native states of the couple that owns the place. They have the best peaches and blackberries you've ever had, and are probably the only place anywhere to pick black raspberries. So, as we're finally into strawberry season and our kids don't handle hanging out at home very well, we went to pick berries.

We left the camera in the car so no photos of Alex's red hands or Zoltan's Little Sal-like performance (kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk). However, I can report that we picked 5 quarts of berries, which turned into 2 batches of jam and enough leftover berries for snacking for the next day or two.

The other highlight was our quick pit stop at Bolton's Farm, home of all-good-stuff chickens and turkey products - anything you'd see as a processed pig product they will do with turkey. The best turkey bacon I've ever had. They even get their milk from a farm in the next town and uses glass containers, discount when you bring them back when you buy the next gallon.

More than any other thing ever has, today made me nostalgic for our Pennsylvania life pre-FS. 

The Miracle of Lollypops

My kids totally dig lollipops  I am sure part of the appeal is that they are only given pops in times of desperation - doctor visits, flights, etc. This is a deliberate strategy to keep the value high.

This weekend we were at Terry's niece's graduation. A class of 500+ students (larger than my entire high school!) called for a large venue, so it was at the Giant Arena in Hershey. It was loooong. You'd think it would take a while to hand out all those diplomas, but that was actually the speediest part of the day. Zoltan of course got antsy but we could get him out to the part of the stadium where there's concessions, bathrooms etc. Alex, however, was the model child she always is whenever we're in public. She sat in her seat, sometimes watching and listening to what was going on, sometimes coloring or having a snack. The only time she got up in the 3 hours of the ceremony was when I encouraged her to go to the potty so we wouldn't have any issues when we sat in parking lot traffic at the end.

Not suspecting the ceremony would go so long, we had been a bit too parsimonious with the snacks. So, by the time we were sitting in aforementioned traffic an hour past normal lunch time and creeping up to nap time, the kids were understandably crabby.

I had a glimmer of a possibility, and ransacked my purse to come up with 2 lollipops. Instant happiness.

About 2 minutes after handing over the pops, I noticed Zoltan's eyes were closed, with the pop dangling out of his mouth. Apparently, at least one kid would get a nap!

We've been thrilled to discover that Zoltan does actually have the ability to sleep in the car, an ability his sister lacks and has always lacked. The unfortunate part is that he usually wakes disoriented and unhappy and there's nothing very soothing we can do as we're all seatbelted and such. But, on this day, when he woke about 1/2 hour later, this happened:  he opened his eyes, took the lollipop out of his mouth, looked at it, smiled and put it back in his mouth. Easy-peasy.

The Money Pit

Terry got his first look at the house this week. The more I am there the more I realize the good things are very good (recently refinished hardwood throughout the house) and the bad things are very bad (the pond that appeared during the rainstorm right at the walkway to the house from the front yard).

Our first thought, last month when we bought the house, was that the kitchen was top indoor priority. The stove violates code and the previous owners slapped a granite counter on top of 50 year old cabinets. However, we've since decided the top priority needs to be the bathroom with the nasty tub. We're hoping to shame the contractor who did the kitchen into at least moving the stove for us - it involves running a gas line, which we aren't thrilled to do ourselves - and I know he cares about his Angie's List ratings. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

The trees are down and the electrician is done other than having the city come and do the inspection to certify his work. We've chosen the company to do the bathroom although installation won't be until later this summer. So, things are moving along .....

Wordless Wednesday hiatus

Wordless Wednesday is on vacation, at least until UAB arrives with a computer bearing editing software.

adorablisms again

Playing I Spy in the car. Alex spies something brown. Zoltan's guess "Is it the tree holder?"

Reunited and it feels so good ...

The Poczak-Madnick clan is once again under one roof. I can't believe how much I missed my boys and I am so glad Zoltan is still small enough to smother me in hugs, not being "too cool" to hug mom yet. The 4 week separation makes me, once again, marvel at all the foreign service and military families that do this for longer stretches, and more often, and when someone is in actual danger. So, yay! and thank you (as I never said it on Memorial Day)

Goodbye Piter

Four years have now come and gone for me in St Petersburg.  I have now lived in this city longer than anywhere since I lived with my parents almost 20 years ago.  Zoltan has never lived anywhere else and Alex has lived there as long she can remember.  The last two members of the family now will say good bye to you.  There will always be a special place for me in my heart for this city.  St Petersburg and Philadelphia are the two cities that most touched me, and I will always slight miss being in each of them.  So until I return Goodbye Piter and we will all look forward to when we can return.

До свидания Питр!

It's not all bad

Some of the highlights of our new home, as I fear I'm focusing too much on the negative:
1. Lots of kids in the neighborhood, and at least a few friendly neighbors.
2. Alex's school will be walking distance for when I am not yet working.
3. The local civic center is walkable and seems geared for children, with youth orchestras and art shows, a really nice playground on its grounds, and for the adults (well kids too, but not our kids yet), community tennis courts.
4. The yard, where we can plant stuff. Especially now that the trees are gone, thus allowing sunlight to penetrate.
5. The deck, where we will grill at least every other day. Once we buy a grill as the previous one went to the cabin.
6. The ton of shops, restaurants and metro that are all within a mile. We walked to the library today and got our library cards. Right in front of it is a great little splash park 

Wordless Wednesday

 

The work begins

Today Alex and I spent the day at the house. Promptly 1 minute after I arrived at the house (and 15 minutes early!) the crew came to remove the 2 large trees in the back yard that were too close to the house, endangering the foundation and for all I know being the route the termites took to get in. Alex was fascinated watching them, actually I was too but I was also quite busy. The house had been what my mom would call filthy, what other people would call a bit dirty, so I cleaned bathrooms and swept. I had gotten those Windex wipes so Alex could help with windows and mirrors, and she really enjoyed it for about 15 minutes. When I realized that we had no drinking vessels, we ran to the nearest grocery store for provisions. During the day I also fielded 3 electricians for their estimates. This was actually my most critical task, however I got to the tree stuff first because they didn't need a person to let them into the house to see what the work would look like.

I had also completely forgotten to call the utilities to set up accounts in our names. And apparently the sellers got right on having the gas shut off when I didn't take care of that detail on Day 1, so they have to come turn the gas back on and of course they can't get to it for a few days. At least now I know the heating system isn't broken, it just isn't getting any fuel.  It was chilly inside the house, even Alex happily changed from shorts into the pants and socks I brought for her. Tomorrow is supposed to get close to 90F so it will be interesting to see how well the house stays cool without a little help.

Now I'm trying to contact the selected electrician and get him in ASAP to fix the bad and allegedly dangerous wiring. Tomorrow we get to go to Lowes and buy a hot water heater. If my bank account didn't take a hit every time I accomplished a task, I would probably find this way more fun than I am :-)

Here's an important question to anyone who might be reading: the bathtub has those anti-slip decals, I even remember them being marketed in the 1980s, they look like flowers. I need to remove them. Comet didn't even touch them, any suggestions??