On Easter Day

 

 

It felt like Holy Week and Easter were just a whirlwind this year, due in large part to the stomach bug that took out the family one by one in the week preceding it and then the post-Easter migraine I went down with after going on a very inadvisable sugar bender the day of.   We had a very scaled down event this year with just four extra adults and four extra children at our annual Easter party but it was still a lot of fun even if I didn't manage to put up any decorations or take pictures of the food. 

I guess you'll just have to take my word for how amazing the food table looked, even without decorations.  Also, I really overestimated how much food we were going to need.

When I asked David what he wanted to wear for Easter he said that he wanted to match Timmy and Christopher which was too sweet not to agree to.  When I asked Henry what he wanted to wear for Easter he said he did not want to match anyone which was too typically Henry to also not agree to.  David was less thrilled with the whole coordinating outfits situation when he realized he would also be matching his mom :) 

At the end of the day I asked everyone what their favorite thing was and it was a pretty even split between the egg smash and hunting for their baskets after mass.  This year I hid Henry's basket in the china hutch and no one could find it even after we told them it was in the kitchen.  It was pretty hilarious watching everyone checking the freezer and the oven and the spice cabinet all to no avail.  It took some very, very pointed hints before Henry finally figured it out. 

Being a parent sure can be fun. 

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter day and are keeping the celebration going into the whole Easter season with lots of fun and treats!  I mean, I won't be because I'm officially, really, I mean it this time, off of processed sugar so that I don't sabotage my migraine prevention plan again.  But you!  You should definitely go celebrate with treats!

Happy Easter!

On Watching the Sap Run

In an effort to both do all the Vermont things we can before we move this summer--and get in some organized nature study--we set off for a visit to the nearby Sugarbush Farm last week so we could see where all of our delicious maple syrup comes from.  Well, it currently comes from the Sugarbush Farm because we bought some there to support the local farmer and all that--before it came from wherever the TrueValue hardware store got their amazingly reasonably priced gallon jugs from. 

We go through a lot of maple syrup here. 

It's the healthy sugar.

Stop judging me.

They weren't actually making the syrup the day we were at the farm because apparently making maple syrup is a more fly by the seat of your pants endeavor than I had imagined.  We did get to see the sugar house though, even if it wasn't in operation, and we got to walk around and check out the crazy amount of lines they had up emptying the sap into giant barrels.  I had always imagining maple sap to be something akin to pine sap but that couldn't be further from the truth.  Maple sap is basically sugar water, which is why you have to boil it outside because most all of it evaporates away and it would be a disaster in your kitchen.

We got to learn all about that when a friend turned up at our house with about a gallon and a half of sap that she tapped from one of the trees on campus.  Obviously Chris took this great good fortune as a sign from above that we should learn how to make maple syrup right that second. 

And so he did.

Luckily, that also meant that he needed to finally burn the Christmas tree that has been residing in our fire pit since before Candlemas.  At the last minute he decided not to set the thing ablaze in it's entirety, though the glimmer in his eyes told of his burning desire to do so (see what I did there?).  Instead, he very responsibly chopped it into three pieces first. I think this was a wise choice judging from the raging inferno he had going from just the top section of the tree.  I'm not sure our Adirondack chairs would have survived the whole tree going up at once.  Certainly the fire department would have hastened over when they saw the flames shoot up over the houses in between our home and their building. 

The actual making of the maple syrup was much less eventful and by the end of the process we went from a gallon and a half of sap to a teeny tiny little jam jar of syrup.  If we were actually going to live in Vermont for any length of time we would definitely need to have a large number of sugar maples on our property because making your own maple syrup is just about the most satisfying way you can welcome in spring.  I'm so glad we got to try it for ourselves. 

On Small Town Living and Moving to Virginia

Well, we have official orders taking us back to Virginia this summer and in the past few weeks we've driven down from Vermont not once, but twice, as we searched for the perfect house/town to live in.  This time Chris will be stationed in Norfolk and we decided the time was right to finally buy a house of our own.  Originally we thought we should live right in Norfolk so that Chris wouldn't have to commute through tunnel traffic, we'd be close to base amenities and friends, and we would be able to easily rent the house out if we needed to--and with military life being what it is, you just never know. 

After driving around the area however, Chris declared that he didn't care how long his commute took--he just absolutely did not want to live there. 

So we switched gears and if everything keeps going according to plan we will soon be closing on a house on almost two acres of land way, way, way out in the country.  Which really is our favorite place to be.   Hopefully Chris will still feel the same way when he's sitting in the Midtown Tunnel during rush hour. 

Regardless of how much we like Virginia though, we will certainly miss living in Vermont.  I know I've complained about the cold--and the snow in October--but I kind of love it here.  Who would have thought I could make it as a New Englander?  Granted a New Englander who lives in town and whose husband shovels all the snow, so not a particularly hardy New Englander, but a New Englander nonetheless!  There was an article in the WSJ recently about a surge in people wanting to move to quaint New England towns* and it really struck home to me.  Village life is the best.  Living right off the green and walking everywhere is the best.  Sending the children to the post office and the market by themselves is the best.  Knowing everyone and having people just stop by because they were walking past is the best.  We love small town living!  Some people have been horrified by our complete lack of big box stores and fast food chains, but who needs a Target when you have Amazon Prime, am I right? 

I'm really hoping we can capture some of this same village feel at our new house even though we won't be living in the actual downtown area.  We'll be close enough to walk to church if not the actual grocery store so that's something.  And we already found our favorite hole in the wall fish shack so we're practically locals already. 

We are looking forward to our next move (and hopefully after three moves in three years it will be the last one for a while!) but even more than having our very own home to do what we like with, we're looking forward to spending one last summer together in Vermont in our very favorite village. 




*Sorry if you can't get behind the paywall!  If you don't subscribe to a paper already you should totally subscribe to the WSJ or whatever other legitimate newspaper of your choosing.  A functioning press is a cornerstone of democracy and they can't publish if no one is paying!  Get a real in-your-hands paper while you're at it so the man isn't tracking which articles you click on and you have a finite end to the day's information.  I have a lot of opinions on this!  Don't get me started on the disappearance of our local papers and the state of investigative journalism in general.  (Or maybe do if you'd like a nice long rant!).  I guess what I'm saying is, be a patriot and buy a paper--or at least an online subscription :) 

**Pictures are from the actual Jamestown settlement (as opposed to the nearby reconstructed settlement which is also fun but spendy).  It's a national park and so free to military.  Winning.