Off the grid

Our move to our little country house was successful. And went quicker and smoother than expected. There's still a few boxes of random junk to go though in the basement and I haven't yet set up my sewing studio, but mostly we're settled. Let the guests come!

We've dug up a nice little herb/flower garden so far, with hopes of getting the main garden tilled up in the next week. I have a tray of various herbs started in our hall closet and they've sprouted nicely. I think this set is bound for a nice big terra cotta pot for the porch so it can be brought in for the winter. The basil I have growing supposedly sprouts lovely blue flowers in the winter, so I'd like to see them. The next batch will be bound for the garden along with a darling pot of tiny mums that my mom got me for my birthday.

Oh yeah. I turned 26 on Monday. Goodness. Where did the time go? Mom scooped up Finn for the night so Steve and I could go out to dinner and relax. As much as I love the little man, oh was it ever nice to sleep straight through the night. Funny how last year when Mom and Dad took Finn over my birthday weekend I cried and cried and cried. I sobbed uncontrollably for hours and couldn't even watch him go with them. This year though, we had him in his shoes and coat a good 30 minutes before she pulled up. Of course this could have been in part to me making the crucial mistake of telling him he was going "byes with Nana" early in the afternoon. From then on he marked every 10 minutes by running to the door yelling ad waving "buh-bye! buh-byes! Nana! Buh-byes!". By then time Nana did show up he was fairly perturbed. And he gave her quite a night too I hear. At 3 AM he woke up and just HAD to dance. He saw the radio in the room and woke Nana up insisting "Nana! Dant! Dant! NANA! Dant! DANT!!!" So she had to turn the radio on and he danced and spun himself around for a half hour before finally passing out again. What. A. Nut.

Finn's vocabulary is astounding. We did a tally after Easter dinner and came up with 25 words. At home we added a few more. So he has 30 words. And even more noises. When someone burps he whispers "Buhp!" He'll drag the hand mixer out of the cabinet and sit on the floor whirring it about like he's making a cake going "wwwwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrr". And then in the next minute the mixer becomes a race car and he's dragging it along the floor going "rrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmm". At night when he's ready to do his nighttime routine he'll find us and yell "BATH!!!" and run towards the bathroom and wait for us, tapping his little hand impatiently on the tub. He impresses and amazes us every day. Seeing him constantly growing and learning makes me anxious to make another baby. Will our next be so outgoing and adventurous? Or will they be quiet and studious? A mix of the both maybe. Sigh. Our attempts at number two are months away but I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune when I'm puking my guts out every morning and trying to manage a toddler. Haha.

What else...what else.....
Oh! The much coveted retro oven is turning out to be a big pain in the ass. It burns everything to a crisp. Even with reducing the temperature by 75 degrees it burnt my loaves in 10 minutes. Seriously. I made sourdough yesterday and turned the heat down 100 degrees. It still baked the first loaf in 20 minutes (and I had to wrap it in foil after 10 minutes to keep it from over browning on top). The second loaf got over browned on top after 8 minutes (too late for the foil to do much help). I need get a thermometer this week and check what temperature this oven is actually going to. And then call the shop we got it from and get their repair guy out to fix it. Thank god for one year warranties. Luckily my attempts at homemade pasta do not require the aid of an oven and hence turned out beautifully. Yummmm