Rutabaga Dreams

All paperwork has been completed and the purchase has been recorded in the county office. Yippee, we are now property owners!!!

Matt’s going up this weekend to go to a SIP workshop and to do a little bit of work on the property. He’s also going to spend the night there on Saturday night, which I think is really neat.

Emma, Gregory and I are going to stay here because I’m just beat - and the things he needs and wants to do are things that are better done without the entourage. I’ve had a busy week - something going on every evening, and one or two things every day. That combined with trying to get dinner on the table, children fed, bathed and schooled at regular intervals and the house somewhat clean has just about done me in. I did manage to recover from that horrid laryngitis/chest cold earlier this week though, so that’s a big plus.

This weekend I’m hoping to do a little cleaning and then do some fun stuff with the munchkins. Tomorrow I think I’ll take them to a fall festival and then we’ll have homemade mac n’ cheese for dinner (we usually have something with lots of milk and cheese whenever Matt isn’t home *grin*) and maybe we’ll watch a bit of a movie in the evening. We’ll have church on Sunday, but I’m not sure what we’ll do after that. I’ll try to think of something they’ll enjoy though - maybe a picnic down by the creek or a trip to a neat park. We’ll see!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

I have no idea what he’s doing or thinking here, but this picture sure makes me laugh!

So, yes, this whole blogging thing has really slipped way off the radar. A lot of things have slipped, actually, and I’m really trying to get a handle around things again so that life can feel a little more in control and fulfilling. Ah, yes, things. Lots of things.

Ahem. Anyways.

We signed the papers on Friday without mishap, and the loan is on target for funding on Friday. So, come Friday we should be the proud owners of 9.8 acres of land in Nevada County. Woo hoo! Then the real fun begins. We think we figured out where the house and driveway will go, and the future workshop too. (anyone want to take bets on how long it takes to get that built??) It looks like we’ll be having someone come and put in the driveway, building pad, and trench for the water and electrical sometime in December or January. Matt talked about our plans at length with Craig (realtor’s husband, long-time local contractor, all-around great, friendly, and knowledgeable guy) and he thought we were doing a good job and gave Matt lots of useful information.

I spent the weekend with a delightful case of laryngitis, which was a rather thought provoking experience. I was hoarse and deep voiced on Friday, then spent until Monday night speaking only in a whisper. I can talk reasonably well at this point, although it does hurt a bit and my voice still doesn’t sound right. I’m hoping I didn’t stress it too much today and it’ll be better tomorrow. Being effectively voiceless was an interesting experience. It was very difficult to participate in conversations, and nearly impossible to get someone’s attention without being right in front of them. It felt akin to living in a country where you don’t speak the language well, but you understand it perfectly. There were times when people misunderstood me, but it either was impossible or just simply not worth the effort to try and make myself understood. It made me focus on saying only what really was necessary, and interjecting only when required. This was frustrating at first, as I kept thinking “oh, I could say that! I could say this!” but eventually I just settled down and started to listen more. The most difficult aspect was not being able to read to Emma. I had never really thought about just how important that is to us. There were some funny moments with it though - I think my favorite was at church on Sunday when the choir started up with “How Can I Keep from Singing”.

Alright, time to go to bed. I really want to get up before Emma does tomorrow morning!

Have you ever looked at the Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs) on Amazon for a Bible? It kind of throws a whole new light on the Scripture now, doesn’t it.

Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
one silver plate weighing, filled with fine flour, deuteronomistic writers, fine linen twined, their cereal offerings, established holocaust, fourteen unblemished yearling lambs, sanctuary standard, silver basin weighing seventy shekels, tahash skin, meeting tent, hymn inviting, sacred tract, favoring hand, guild prophets, smelling oblation, one young bull, cherubim embroidered, chase after wind, important textual witnesses, scarlet yarn, outer tabernacle, fulfillment citation, horrible abomination, ears ought

We are scheduled to sign escrow papers on October 13th at 10:30 a.m. The final closing should be at the end of the following week, which coincidentally is also Matt’s birthday. What a birthday present!!

It still seems a little hard to believe, but I’m sure once we make that first mortgage payment it will only be all too real. We’ll be heading up early Friday morning, then staying at Matt’s Aunt & Uncle’s again that weekend. I’m not sure what we plan to do other than sign papers and visit the property, but I hope that perhaps we can make a start on the site plan or do some other useful preparatory work. I guess we need to start thinking finding some contractors so we can get a septic system and a driveway in, preferably before it starts raining in earnest.

We also will need to find someone to work with to help finalize the plans - we’re hoping we can get some recommendations from the realtor’s husband who is general contractor and builds homes. I can’t remember if I’ve said anything about him before, but he’s a really nice, friendly, and knowledgeable guy and I think he’ll really be a big help in this process. There’s so much to think about these days, it is hard not to let everything else go by the wayside.

I put the house plans, such as they are, in a 3D home architecture program a couple nights ago and I’ve come to the conclusion that I need windows - lots of windows. (and what does it say about me that I just typed “winders” twice and then corrected it? I swear, I grew up in California, really!) This house that we’re designing feels huge - it is looking like it will be 2600 sq. ft. or so. Given standards of new construction in the US and are general cultural trend towards super-sizing everything, it really isn’t that big, (we just visited with some cousins out from Virginia and they just bought a brand new 3800 sq. ft. house for the two of them - yeesh!) but 2600 sq. ft. seems really big to us. It will be about 1200 sq. ft. bigger than anywhere we’ve ever lived together, and (hopefully!!) a lot more thoughtfully designed. I hope we aren’t biting off more than we can chew… or afford to finish… Both of these things are probably true, but I think we’ll still find ways to make it work. And in a few years, when our family is bigger (both in numbers of members and size of munchkins) and the house is at least somewhat finished, we’ll be really glad for the space. But somehow I don’t think these next couple years are going to be easy…

try playing nightingale sounds loudly over your computer speakers. It was rather humorous to see their heads perk up in unison and their ears swivel back and forth trying to locate the source of the sound.

And why were we looking up nightingale calls? Well, we just finished reading Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale” and Emma and I wondered what a real nightingale sounds like. So I hopped over to the computer, pulled up Google, and a couple seconds later we were listening to nightingale calls. I love the Internet.