One Year

Today marks one year since we took our two year old and our two month old, boarded a flight, and started a new chapter in our lives. One year ago today, we moved from Boston to Houston.

Just this week, I picked up Nathan's Harvard diplomas (which we finally had framed), spoke on the phone with one of his old office mates on the eve of Harvard's Commencement, and wished one of my best Boston friends a happy birthday. I've listened to a sermon from our old church, discussed whether it's better to endure a sweltering Houston summer or a bitter Boston winter on Facebook, received at least two emails from my Beantown friends, and caught a glimpse of Anthony Bourdain eating his way through Southie on the Travel Channel. It seems appropos that this is the week that there's been a lot of Boston bouncing around in my life.

It's no secret that I loved that period of our lives. We spent six years in Cambridge and Belmont, MA; six years as members of the Harvard community and of Park Street Church. We made amazing friends, loved the intellectual culture, and gloried in the seasons. I loved the architecture, the walkability, the autumn, the sincerity and the intellectual depth and clarity of the brothers and sisters in Christ that we knew there. I made some friends with whom I laughed to the point of tears and with whom I bonded over books and our babies; we studied God's Word with a group of people who now live all over the world and with whom we hope never to lose contact; we linked arms with some friends to walk a rocky road and to ask God to bless faithfulness and perseverance. Because Nathan and I moved there less than a year after we got married and lived there for six years, our marriage was really established there. Our babies were born there.

For so many reasons, Boston--particularly our friends there--will always hold a special place in my heart.

But God brought us back to Houston, and the past year has been good. We love being closer to our families. Nathan really likes his job and is doing well, and the kids have adjusted easily, though Noah has been shy and has taken longer than I expected to make friends. As for me, I started to feel more relaxed and at home once I finally got my feet back under me around Christmastime. I missed fall terribly and had a pretty stinky attitude about the stupid Houston heat, but once January arrived with news of this year's bitter, bitter New England winter and memories of so much bundling up and the dreariness of the final months of winter when you just want it to get warm already, I got over pining for the Boston climate. (Athough I might be wishing for it again in a few weeks!)

Houston has been good to us. We love living in a house with plenty of space and a yard. We are exploring the city more this summer, we've got an incredibly long growing season for my garden, and we have a grandma who is off work for the summer. (Did I mention that free grandparent babysitting might be at the top of the "Pros" list for Houston? It is SO GREAT.)

I think that any time you spend significant periods of time living in more than one place, your heart will be forever divided. It is a bittersweet circumstance to love two places for completely different reasons, because you can never have all the things you love around you at one time.

A year can make a great difference in how you perceive your experiences. But for me, one year has not dimmed my affection for the place that inhabits a very particular nook in my heart.

Like a Bird

Noah loves for Nathan to toss him as high as possible.

He has recently taken to posing in midair.

This pose seems to be the current favorite.

And, yes, my son is wearing underwear. (Hooray!)

Kerasis

Noah told me a story today about an imaginary land that he invented. He made it up as I asked him questions about it, and this was what he said:

Everyone has a castle in Kerasis. And we get our food from the castle. Meatballs. And coffee and orange juice and carrots. And there is a forest. And there are dinosaurs in the forest--nice dinosaurs. And the people in Kerasis are short poo poo people.

And that is where we ended the story, my friends. It was only going to be downhill from there.

The Inner Workings of a Child's Mind

While running around naked after his bath, Noah sang a song which Nathan overheard:

I'm naked
I'm naked
My bottom
My bottom
Looking in the mirror
All the time
Ta da!
Bye bye.

--

n [matter of factly]: You have up hair, Daddy. [Kind of put out] I have down hair.
N: Oh really? What about the other boys in your class? What kind of hair do they have?
n: They have down hair, too.
N: Which is better? Up hair or down hair?
n: Up hair.

The next morning, he woke up with some of his hair sticking straight up.

N&L: Noah!! You have up hair today!
n: Yeah!!

--

Last night, I woke up because I heard Noah sobbing in his room. As soon as I walked in, he said, "I want my piiiiiine cone! I want my piiiiiine cone! . . . Don't make me eat it!!" He was nearly inconsolable, but I told him he was just dreaming, got him some milk, laid down with him for a while, and he quieted down and went back to sleep.

Then, this morning, he asked with some concern, "Mommy, where is my pine cone?" "What pine cone, Baby?" I knew that we have a pine cone bird feeder outside, and I wanted to see if he was thinking of his dream or perhaps of a real pine cone. "My pine cone, Mommy. The one with ice in it." Yeah, he was most definitely not thinking of the peanut butter pine cone in the front yard. "Baby, pine cones don't have ice in them." "Yes, Mommy. The pine cone with ice in it. From the building." "Baby, you dreamed that." "No, but yesterday, . . ." "No, Darlin'. There is no building with pine cones with ice in them. That was a dream." "Oh."

Nathan and I commented that it's so funny how simple kids' dreams are--there are no zombies or oddly behaving adults or frightening circumstances. Only pine cones. With ice in them.

The Fun Part

We have arrived at the fun part of gardening: harvesting!

This is a picture of what we've picked just since Saturday:

We've got basil and oregano for the pasta I made tonight, tomatoes galore, purple potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, and a red pepper. There are actually a lot more Yukon gold potatoes under there than the picture shows. Time for some potato salad!

So I know that my last gardening post was all about the pests and diseases affecting my plants, but for some reason each issue has pretty much gone away or proved itself innocuous. The tomatoes either responded well to my seaweed treatment or didn't have a significant problem, after all, because they are producing away. We haven't had any more caterpillars eating their way through my tomatoes, and all the varmints have been kept out by . . .

. . . the fantastic cage that Nathan built!
Here's a picture of the main plot as of last week.
The structure has netting hung all around it and a little netting door so that it keeps the squirrels, etc., from eating my nearly-ripe tomatoes. It is working like a charm. Yay Nathan!

Have I shown you the herb plot? We've got rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage. (The basil, parsley, and cilantro are in the main garden area.) I love having herbs on hand.

This is a cherry tomato plant I grew from seed. I didn't have a place for it, so I stuck it in this pot, knowing full well that the pot was too small. It is about at the point when I need to plant it in something bigger, but I don't have anything bigger, so I might just stick it in the overgrown bed that has received some of our other plants and see how it goes.

Here's the zucchini in that bed. It's actually doing quite well. It isn't as big as the plants in the main garden since it doesn't get as much sun, but it's quite healthy.

And here's the cucumber in the same area. You can see that it has started climbing the chain link fence. It's had a few blossoms, so I know that some sweet little cucumbers are starting to form!

This is an heirloom tomato seedling that I transplanted into this yogurt container so that the roots could grow a bit more before finding a place to plant it (I haven't figured out where yet, of course). The problem with it being in this container is that it is just a beacon calling out to Jane. She loves to get it, dig around in the dirt, eat some of the dirt, and take the poor seedling out. She's done this at least twice. I am surprised and happy the poor plant has survived such treatment.

The zucchini in the garden plot is doing well. Yes, some of the leaves are still silver, but since the plant is healthy otherwise, I've decided not to worry about it. My gardening friends and I have speculated about it: could it be the variety? the lack of rain (therefore the additives in the city's water such as chlorine making a difference)? Who knows? I'm just not going to fret about it anymore, especially since I have two big old blossoms on my plants and many more coming. Yay zucchini!

Our carrots are coming along--the ones that survived. A lot of the seedlings just didn't make it, but about four or five are chugging along. I heard that they do better in the spring and fall here; maybe they aren't really meant for the heat.

A yellow wax bean, turning yellow!

And some tiny beans forming (sorry for the blurry picture). Not having grown up gardening, a discovery like finding out that the beans I eat start out so tiny is really fun.

Yum!

Strawberry Picking

A few weeks ago, Noah, Jane, and I went strawberry picking with Courtney and Moriah. It was so much fun! And how can you not be excited about bringing home more strawberries than you can even eat?

Here are the girls.
That Moriah had Noah in the palm of her hand, I have to say. She was bossing him around, and he was perfectly willing to let her do so. Ha! I had not seen that behavior from him before, but it worked out great for the rest of us, because Moriah kept Noah in line, and I didn't have to worry about chasing him down across the field in fear that he'd be in some kind of trouble.

Noah did a great job picking only the good strawberries.

See?

My strawberry girl.

Cuties!


Our bounty

Yum! Thanks for arranging the outing, Courtney!

Easter

These are late, but here are some pictures of our Easter festivities.

The fam on Easter Sunday

Nathan's parents and brother, Andrew, spent the holiday with us. Here are a few of us and part of our feast.

We pulled the kiddie pool out for the first time over the weekend. Noah T. gave a funny smile and showed off his farmer's tan for the picture.

I know I'm her mommy, but I think she is pretty darn cute.