Natural Wonder

There were a lot of things I loved about growing up in Southern California, but the barren hillsides weren't one of them.  I hoped I would someday settle in a place that was greener and felt more alive, where the yards didn't depend on sprinklers for their survival.  I assumed that place would be Northern California, instead of a state on the other side of the continent, but now that we're in Maryland I love how lush everything is.  There are trees everywhere, we spot deer in the woods regularly, and fireflies wink on and off in people's yards at dusk (I doubt I'll ever get tired of seeing them).   

This little natural wonder landed on our glass front door yesterday.  It was fun to point out to the kids how furry its body looks up close, and to explain that the feathery antennae were a good indicator that it was a moth not a butterfly, but the real giveaway was that it perched with its wings spread wide, not clasped behind it the way a butterfly does.  They all thought our little visitor was pretty cool . . .

. . . especially Todd.

Seed Sprinkles

What's even better than Nutella on homemade wheat bread?

Nutella on homemade wheat bread with raw quinoa sprinkled on it.  Joy was feeling adventurous and put some crunchy quinoa seeds on her Nutella bread, and she liked it so the other kids and I tried it too.  It's surprisingly good.  And hey, since quinoa is a superfood, that means Nutella-quinoa bread is healthy and we can eat it all the time, right?

Daniel decided to try putting Trader Joe's Super Seed and Ancient Grain Blend on his Nutella bread, and he liked that, too.

The kids call them "seed sprinkles."

Power Tools and Pumpkin Seeds

When we moved to Goose Landing, I glanced at the patch of lawn and the little shrubs near our door, and thought it was a shame that I wouldn't be able to plant a veggie garden here.

But you know me--I feel driven to garden no matter what space I have (or don't have) available.  First I staggered some pots between our little bushes (left to right is a Christmas cactus my visiting teachee Linda gave me in California, a peppermint plant we brought along from Arkansas, and a pot of basil, thyme, and rosemary I planted here earlier this week).  Then a few days ago I got to thinking that we could probably squeeze a little raised bed in next to those bushes . . .

. . . so I recruited my engineer husband and his power tools to make my dream a reality.

I wanted to cut up some cardboard to put under the raised bed, so it's Dremel time, folks.

Build raised bed--check!  Now I just need to go buy some tomato plants to put in it, and maybe some pumpkin seeds to plant at one end.  Pumpkin vines grow much longer than my little planter, but I figure only their roots need to actually be in the planter itself, while the vines can trail around in front.  Here's hoping I'm right, and we get a crop of pumpkins this fall!

Don't Eat Luke!

Maryland schools are now out for the summer, so we're seeing a lot more of Leila these days.

She and Joy really like to climb the trees near our building.

Anna and Todd prefer to climb on things that aren't quite so tall.

Another of the kids' favorite activities lately is "Don't Eat Pete!"  Usually they play with goldfish crackers, but today they decided to play with Star Wars graham cookies.  We agreed that we should use a Star Wars character name instead of Pete, but no one could agree on which name to use, so they each chose a different name.  Todd opted for "Don't Eat Luke!"  Anna went with Leia, because she's the only woman in the original trilogy with more than a handful of lines.  Daniel chose Jabba, 'cuz he likes things that are a little weird and gross.  Joy selected Lando, but requested that we use his full title: "Don't eat Lando Calrissian, former owner of the Millennium Falcon, and hero of the Second Battle of the Death Star!"  To Daniel's credit, he gamely tried to say that whole thing every time it was Joy's turn.

We Come Bearing Cookies

Back in Arkansas, we discovered that cookie baking was a great Sabbath activity because we could take some cookies to neighbors or friends from church and get to know them better.

This afternoon, Phillip donned his denim daddy apron and the kids helped him make giant peanut butter cookies.

The kids' favorite step of that recipe is the part where they get to pat mounds of dough into big circles on the cookie sheets.  Once all the cookies were baked, we took some to Leila's family next door, then we took another plate to a Chinese family Phillip home teaches.  The grandpa of the family returned our generosity by giving me a banana, and handing Joy a Fuji apple the size of Todd's head.  I've never seen an apple that big in my life.

Minimalist Lacrosse

This morning our neighbor friend Leila introduced the kids to a sport they had never played before, but which is apparently pretty popular around here:

Lacrosse

The kids thought it was pretty fun at first, but the game didn't last long . . .

. . . because that little ball really hurts when it hits you (as goalies Daniel and Anna can both attest).  When one of the goalies was reduced to tears in the line of duty, Leila commented that lacrosse is usually played with lots of padding.  Since no one had any lacrosse pads we could borrow, the kids decided to play something else.

The Entrepreneur Branches Out

Joy the Entrepreneur has found another thing to love about our new home: It is right next to a well-traveled sidewalk.  She couldn't sell many paper airplanes in Conway because there wasn't a lot of foot traffic in our neighborhood.

Now that we live less than a hundred yards from a fairly busy sidewalk, she has revived her paper airplane stand.  Since it was pretty hot today, she also decided to sell cups of water (straight from our tap--talk about a high profit margin).

She made fifteen dollars this week, despite the fact that her two assistants drank some of her merchandise.  She still paid them a dollar or two for their help (which they earned--I actually saw Anna make a paper airplane sale while Joy was away from the stand for a few minutes).

I Love to See the Temple

Phillip and I decided it would be a nice Sabbath family activity . . .

. . . to visit the Washington D.C. Temple's Visitors' Center this afternoon.

Thanks for getting the door for me, Anna. :)

Inside they had a cool cutaway model showing the inside of the beautiful temple.  I am so excited to live within an hour of a temple again!  I've missed the peace and clarity that temple worship brings into my life.

They also had some nifty tablets where the kids could digitally color scripture pictures, and we watched a couple portions of "Meet the Mormons," including a new segment I hadn't seen before.  I always find those bios of incredibly diverse saints really entertaining and inspiring.

After the videos, we walked the lovely temple grounds before heading home.  The sister missionaries at the visitors' center gave Daniel a "junior missionary" badge/sticker.  He really does look like a junior missionary (except for maybe the untucked shirt--we have a few years to work on that).

Unpacked, Sort Of

Before

During

After

Now we just have to unpack fifty boxes and figure out where to put everything. :-/

When people ask when we moved to Maryland, I never quite know how to answer.  Do I give them the date we left Arkansas, the weekend we checked into a hotel here, the day we got keys to our townhouse, or today when we finally got our beds, computers, and kitchen gear moved in?  I think I'll just say, "June."

Fun on the Floor and the Walls

The Good News: The trailer with most of our belongings is parked on the street near our new home.

The Bad News: People in our new ward aren't available to unload it until Saturday.  Fortunately, our Relief Society president loaned us an inflatable mattress, and a fold-up table and chairs for our kitchen.  Thanks, Sister Lund!!!

While we're waiting for our furniture and toys to be unloaded this weekend, we've spent the week reading library books and playing card games on the floor . . .

. . . playing outside with our sweet new neighbor Leila . . .

. . . and taking an urban hike to the grocery store . . .

. . . during which we passed a Fiat whose owner is obviously a BIG fan of Hello Kitty.

One of the things we picked up at the store was a package of magic erasers.  Todd got tired of writing the alphabet on paper, so he used a green crayon to write it on the walls of our second and third floors.  He got all the way through the capitol letters and made it to lowercase "h" before Joy caught him.

I had Todd "help" me clean the letters off our walls, and I was grateful that Anna and Daniel were willing to help, too.  Ironically, when our Arkansas landlord checked the condition of our old home before we moved, he cheerfully observed that there was no crayon on the walls.  I replied, "Yeah, for some reason my kids have never done that."  I should have added the word "yet."

Got Keys?

Our rental application was approved today!  We checked out of our hotel and made an appointment to meet our landlord and pick up our keys.

She couldn't meet with us until late in the afternoon, so we spent a few hours at a park near our new home.  It has a pond, about a mile of walking/biking paths, and a really cool playground with . . .

. . . a little zip line . . .

. . . fun slides . . .

. . . a climbing wall (race you to the top!) . . .

. . . and a panel with the ASL alphabet, in case you want to brush up on your skills.

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for!  We finally got the keys to our new home: a three-story townhouse on Goose Landing Circle in Columbia, MD.  It's even got a white picket fence.  Most of our belongings are still in a trailer in a nearby town, so we'll be sleeping in sleeping bags and eating dinner on the floor tonight, but at least we now have three bedrooms and three bathrooms instead of one of each at the hotel!

Lions and Reptiles and Crabs, Oh My!

We're still waiting for approval to rent the home we applied for.  In the meantime, our friends the Hoffmans invited us to come to the National Zoo with them this morning.  I made at least three wrong turns driving into D.C., and another two wrong turns driving out of it, but we did manage to make it to the zoo.

I have to say, it was pretty cool to stand just a few yards away from some honest to goodness lions . . .

. . . but my favorite part of the zoo was the reptile house.

It was fun to look in the terrariums and see if I could spot the lizard, snake, or other creature housed therein.

Plus, I like turtles.

Anna's favorite creature in the zoo was the sand cat (shown here taking a sand cat nap), which inhabits the deserts of North Africa and Central Asia.

I think Joy's favorite part of the zoo was the bamboo shoot she used to whack every hard surface we encountered on the walk back to the car.

Speaking of wildlife, Marylanders are very fond of eating crabs, which are plentiful in the Chesapeake Bay just a few miles away.  It's common to see cars with a crab-shaped sticker bearing the pattern of the Maryland state flag (which looks like a cool medieval crest).  As I see that unique symbol of state pride over and over here, and think back on many signs I saw in Conway showing the shape of Arkansas or its flag, I wonder why I don't recall such expressions of state pride in California. Do they not take pride in their state, or do they assume that everyone already thinks California is awesome and they don't need to state the obvious?

Searching, Reading, and Swinging

Well, we made it to Maryland.  Last year I looked up a couple interesting places to stop during our interstate road trip, but this time I just wanted to drive straight through to our new state, with occasional stops at Chick-fil-A to eat nuggets and play on their playgrounds. 

On Saturday we settled into our extended stay hotel.

Each in their own way.

Our rental search as turned up two good prospects, and we've applied to rent one of them, but while we're waiting for all the paperwork to go through it's hard not to go stir crazy in our little hotel room.  To stave off cabin fever we went to Barnes and Noble to buy a few good books . . .

. . . and paid a visit to a nearby park.

We may not have a home at the moment, but we still have the Lord and each other, and that's enough.