Brown

Making dinner with these cremini mushroom babies tonight. Wild Rice Casserole and roasted brussel sprouts. We have guests this weekend and so far have enjoyed them completely! Here's to good friends, to new friends, to living in this beautiful city, and fall.

Apple Picking

They just about fell off into your hands.

 Oh hey there handsome guy...

Our friend Bri (also our wedding photographer, for those of you who were there) has a tradition of celebrating her birthday with donuts instead of cake. Brilliant. This year she decided on fresh apple-cider donuts from this local apple orchard.

We all drove up last Saturday to wander through the orchard, plucking ripe apples off of the trees. We wandered through Gala, Macintosh, and Honey-Crisp dreaming of all the things you can bake with such yummy fruit. I think James and I combined at five apples just walking around! We packed a picnic lunch, bread and cheese, fruit, olives, and the like. Finished off our afternoon with a visit to the farm animals and some fresh donuts.

I think they melted in my mouth.

I'm so glad fall is here, and I'm absolutely thankful for these friends.

Back to School

Summer is officially winding down around here. It's brisk this morning. 

School began last week for me (for real this time) and my Book Publishing Overview class is more than I could have ever dreamed for. I feel like I have a better grasp of the industry as a whole after one class than I ever did working in a publishing house. 

These are pictures of the garden at our church. The ladies there designed it themselves and take care of it as a hobby and a way to get together with each other each week. As I lack a space to dig in the dirt this has created a space for me to do just that. It is a full garden. There are plants that bloom each season and each time I crawl around in it I feel rejuvenated. 

My work load this semester should be pretty manageable. With just two courses I'll have the opportunity to focus a lot of attention to reading. Two courses is about half of what I'm used to having. However I am also working, wanting to be involved with Emerson's literary journal, have time for friends and enjoy my first year of marriage. 

Back To School...Well, Almost.

I got up and went to work early this morning, trained a new employee to put our big order away and decorated the store with the Fall set. Happy.

School starts tonight...

I got ready, all cute with my new school clothes. I had the laptop charged, a notebook and pen, money on my Charlie Card. As Bostonians say, I was all set. James saw me off with a perfect soup and grilled cheese dinner complete with a sweet good-bye kiss. I caught the bus and walked to Emerson through China Town and downtown Boston. Found my class a few minutes early even.

But then 6:00, 6:03, 6:04 came around and no one was there yet, not even the teacher. Another student poked his head out of the classroom across the hall and said, "Where is everybody??"

At least I wasn't completely alone.

He called a friend and she explained that classes in fact begin tomorrow, so there are no Tuesday night classes this week. We laughed and introduced ourselves heading down to the lobby together, both lamenting about how excited we were to start tonight.

Hey, I'm ahead of the game.

Finally Home

The last few days when I'm not home, home is all I think about. We've managed to create this space and it feels relaxing, cozy and completely us. I'll tell you how much money we've spent on it so far at the end of the tour. ;)

 This is the living room. It looks out over Plympton Street. The couch has a pull-out bed (hint). 

 When you sit in the chair this is what you see. Into the study we go! 

 This is our bookshelf, mine and James' books co-habitating. My dear friend Amanda came over to visit a few days ago and helped to arrange this shelf. She arrived the same day most of this furniture did.

 With these beautiful flowers! This is going to function as the desk. I'll have a place to work and study at one end and James on the other. Also it can serve as a dining table when we have more than just us over (hint). 

 Here is the kitchen! Pretty much the same except with some things on the counters and all of our dishes in the cupboards. 

 Next to the oven I added a little breakfast table. Its perfect for early in the morning before I catch the train, or sometimes James and I will make a big dinner and pull it out into the middle of the kitchen for some extra space. 

All these little details make this place our home. Pictures and things from our life before here. We've become rather fond of mail here as well, especially from these little ones. Their letters hang on our fridge. 

So there is the tour! Minus our bedroom of course, but its pretty messy so I left it out (and yes, I did clean up before I took these-- our home does not always look like this). We have had an incredible amount of blessings since moving here. Even my want of a garden is filled with weekly gardening with the ladies at church. Oh, you want to know how much we've spent so far? Well, the only thing we purchased was the rug, for about 90 dollars. The rest was given to us by friends here and family. Couches and bookshelf from the Toccis, tables from the Ellerbees and Hudsons, chairs from the Rolfs and Starbucks, many wedding presents and some side-of-the-road finds. 

I love our home. 

Come visit?

Life is Sweet

I feel like I've finally arrived.

I am currently sitting in our living room, the cool summer breeze floating in, music streaming, and our little room is full of warm light. There is a wedding photo on the wall and a pile of laundry to my left. The books we are currently reading sitting together on the coffee table and there are little pieces of both our lives separate and together scattered around the room.

I feel so blessed to fold laundry.

There is chicken defrosting in the kitchen, I'm making chicken enchiladas tonight. There is no real Mexican food in Massachusetts--never mind, a good friend taught me how to create it once. We, Californians to the core, need Mexican food like air. James loves her chicken enchiladas and guacamole; actually I miss it/her a lot as well. Thank goodness for recipes.

Maybe its because this is all new, maybe one day I'll tire of things like folding laundry. But right now I love it. Shorts, work shirts, towels, chonies, t-shirts from the college we attended, cute tops mixed in with christmas pajamas. Its our lives suddenly mixed together in one basket.

I am a blessed lady and I love my husband.

Some Exciting Things

1. We acquired furniture today. We finally have a real living room!
2. Only one more week of having the opposite schedule of James.
3. A friend from Oxford visited today, she is a blessing. We laughed a tun!
4. I have three friends who are pregnant.
5. We have internet hooked up in our house, thanks James!
6. Tomorrow is Sunday and we are free the whole day.
7. I am reading a great book.
8. I received a sewing machine to borrow this week.
9. We've seen lots of friends in the last few days, yaay community!

I'd say it has been a pretty great week.

Summer Retreat: Wrap Up

At the top are some shots of little John David Kopechek. He just turned one year old and shares a birthday with James. So sweet. There is a picture of our little cabin and then some more of the details around the camp. We felt at home the third morning and it was quite hard to leave. Surrounded by so much green, so much beauty we could have hid away for weeks. It would be a dream come true to go back next summer and work for a month.

We'll see.

In the meantime it's back to reality around here. This last week seemed to drag on, not full of activities with amazing people. It feels as if summer is coming to a close and signs of fall are beginning to show up here and there. As an avid follower of seasons I can just feel it in the air, and notice little bits of the changes around.

But for now we're going to try and soak in summer a bit longer. We had a picnic in the park with some wonderful friends last night. James and I went on a walk through the woods this morning and I'm going  gardening with some church ladies later in the week.

Summer Retreat: Late Night Games

This is a game that requires speed, quick thinking and knowledge. These kids were dedicated. James and I got wrapped up into many games of it, and let me tell you, they often beat us. Us, with college degrees. After this game we took them on a night hike down below the camp. They are a blast and I'm excited to get to know them all better. I love these pictures because you can see the speed, some frustration, and complete consentration.

Summer Retreat: New Hampshire

James and I went on retreat with our church here in Boston. It was the most fun I've had in a long time. A family in our church owns this camp and we were blessed to visit for the weekend. A place of running, exploring, eating together, outdoor activities, and games late into the night. This is the first instalment, more to come!

On the first afternoon we arrived and I was immediately whisked off to a craft show, and after a hike up the mountain behind our camp.  Check out the view!

 James and I got to stay in our very own little cabin. They are what we call rustic, and we put matresses from the twin bunk beds on the floor with sleeping bags on top. No electricity, and the bathroom is across camp. Yup, even at night. 

 We performed and watched lots of skits over the weekend. This first one is Song pretending to be thrown up by a whale. The next, a morning broadcast of the camp "news".

 Bear loves it. 

 On the second day we hiked to the top of Foss Mountain. Its in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and what a lovely hike it was. The one on the left proves that James needs a dog.

 View from the top! 

 That same day we were in the lake canoeing and swimming in the afternoon. Look at us go! There were places on the lake where the wind wasn't blowing, and the water reflected the clouds like glass. Our oars rippled through the water almost silently, creating whirlpools as we went along. I was full of joy and so relaxed.

 This is our friend Jeena. She's so sweet and loves to share everything with us. We've been getting to know her and her family since moving here, what a joy.

There was so much food. The kitchen was open always and the breakfast menu was about 7 items long. Desert was fantastic, as you can see and to top it off, these people know how to make good, strong coffee.