Man, have I been spoiled today! Three years ago, this very date, J and I had our first date.. which in many ways has never ended. To celebrate, I was surprised with a professional massage (by a woman named Sage, natch!) and a dip (or three) in a hot tub. I'm already two Advil deep and still pretty sore, so there's no telling how much fun tomorrow will be, but the massage was absolutely wonderful. J was treated as well, so we spent most of the afternoon in post-rub bliss.

Mom and Dad also came down today. Because of our mornings plans, they weren't able to stay long, but it was so great to see them. We all went to the local pizzaria and ate dinner together. They headed home early since they've got a long drive to make.

I think that we may try to make professional massages a more regular occurrence. There's no better feeling than climbing off the massage table feeling like you've just taken the nap of your life.

Yesterday evening, we were invited over to a friend's for dinner and we had a great grilled meal, followed by a brief swim. We brought Q with us and the excitement of the new place (and his new admirer, M) kept him pretty sleepy for the rest of the next day.

Work starts again tomorrow and I imagine I won't have a moment's rest until next Saturday afternoon. I've got several swaps that need to be mailed out this week, so the pressure's on!

A good, productive week, I think. The compost bin has been ceremoniously started with its first offerings of strawberries caps. We're finally making "real" wedding plans (I think) and we've finally decided where we want to go for our HM. I've reintroduced my retirement plans (because I like planning ahead, lol) and begun dreaming of ways to make it happen, but I don't think I'll be happy with dying until I've succeeded in making this one dream true.

Oh, and I'm listing it now so when someone else beats me to the punch, I will have had proof I thought of it first, but I think someone should collect all the Super Friends slang to publish in a dictionary form.

Back to the knitting..

Strawberries!

I think this is the third year in a row that I've been begging to go strawberry picking, and we finally did! J said it was my three-year anniversay present (a week from today), but really, it was perfect. It's a beautiful day, the fields smelled of strawberries, and J and I just worked our way down a couple rows of wonderfully ripe strawberries. In maybe 45 minutes, we cleared around 20 lbs of strawberries--this picture representing only a fraction, really, of our total loot.



I've been working for the last two hours on cleaning & hulling the berries to prepare them for freezing. I've got four gallons of plain, frozen strawberries and one with sugared berries (these I also managed to sneak as small treats).



All of this cleaning/hulling/drying/freezing has made me very curious about canning. I love the idea that the labor I did this morning will keep me full of delicious berries for awhile, and I also like knowing that I am within a stone's throw of the fields. I am going to do some research on buying larger quantities of squash, tomatoes, and beans to can for the rest of the year. I may enlist the help of some maternal experts and lure assistance with the promise of a share in the bounty.

I can't tell you how extremely happy I am out here. It's so nice to spend my driving time driving through open fields, wooded, empty areas, and horse pastures, rather than stop lights, crowded neighborhoods, or businesses smashed together. I have a lot of plans for all of our extra space. I am going to try to start a compost bin out back (J will have to help with its creation) and to begin preparing an area for a proper veggie garden for the next year.

But aside from my nag-champa-burning-hippie-side, all is well.. I have been working on making soaps and I've conquered some new things in the knitting world..

Yesterday was also a pretty nice day. We tried to take Q out to the lake, but it didn't work so well. Of course, freak dog freaked out and we eventually just made one big country block loop back home.

It's been nice having a full weekend off. I hope I get more.

Country Living

Well, the "move" is complete. And when I say complete, I mean that the physical act of picking up everything from house A and moving it to house B is complete. There are still unpacked boxes, things without homes, and general state of chaos and disorganization surrounding the new house B. This work week's been a bit stretched, too, and I'm physically feeling the effects of everything weighing down on me.

There are several things about country living that hit me by surprise.

#1. The first night we spent at the country retreat, Q woke us up in the middle of the night with these baby barks. I hear walking around outside. Of course, I assume it's a person, but no.. four deer walking around our backyard.

#2. Walking Q after 8pm requires a flashlight because there are no street lights. Well, that's a bit of a stretch, there is one out on the street, but not close enough to do any good to see the yetti running around.

#3. No internet! I cannot tell you how this has effected my internet addiction, but I'm feeling the effects of withdrawal. It's been quite a royal pain to find a company that will let me connect with the rest of my digital friends.

Despite all this, it's so wonderful and peaceful where we're at. I couldn't be happier. Q loves to run around outside. There's less noise. You can hear crickets. More room in the house (can you say CRAFT ROOM!?).

I took a couple of pictures the day after we "moved." Things are still dirty and in the process of happening in these pictures, but here are some shots.

My favorite part of the new kitchen-a sink ledge!



Our huge deck! Trees are far as the eye can see! Where's my neighbor? That's right--I don't know either!




The side of the house:




Craft Brunch is tomorrow. I'm excited to see what everyone's been working on!