It is so amazing what you can get used to. When we first arrived here, the whole world seemed like a different place. It was so dark that I could see so many stars, the sky seemed to go on forever. The air smelled different and the water tasted funny.When we awoke the first morning here, the sounds we heard were brand new and sounded so strange. There were cows mooing, a weird howling sound which we now know as dogs barking (it just seems to echo strangely). There was even the sound of a donkey braying! Now, as I stand on the front porch and watch the sun rising up through the trees alighting all the morning dew and mist, I realize the biggest and strangest sound of all. The silence. The quite stillness of a standing tree or a blade of grass as the warmth of the morning sun encourages it to move. It is so healing.
Back in CT we lived right off of busy Route 6 and there was a constant stream of traffic, from 2 in the afternoon to 2 in the morning. You would always hear someone driving. On some days we were lucky enough that the traffic was light, but there was always the other sounds that people make. Saws, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, people arguing, music (good or bad!), dogs barking. Then, we have 4 kids! Like we ever get a moment of silence LOL!
Out here in the boonies, well close enough to it, I get to remember what silence is. Right after Jesse leaves for work, and after I have nursed both little ones back to sleep for a little while, I can hear the silence. I am so lucky to have the opportunity. I can let it enter my being to help quite all of my internal chatter. For a few moments anyway. Then I hear “Fee Fi Fo Fum, watch out cuz here I come! “ echo through the house and I know my therapy session has ended. But the great part is, it is right outside my door whenever I need it.
OT- A very interesting story!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Exploring North Carolina
We have gotten out exploring this week. We took a drive downtown to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and were thoroughly overwhelmed with all that we saw. The drive to Raleigh was an eyeful in itself.
There is so much building going on in Wake County. It seemed like every 2 miles down route 401 there was a new plaza being built with a Food Lion (a local grocery store chain) on one side and a Rite Aid on the other. Never mind all of the housing developments! There were townhouse developments and large house developments all over. This place is really growing. The driving is fairly easy. Since everything is spread out it makes things easy to find and get to. Down town was easy to drive through and easy to park in.
The science museum was awesome with 4 floors of fun stuff to explore including a new Dinosaur exhibit that left us with our heads spinning. They have a butterfly room, a toddler room with a huge active beehive to check out and tons of hands on stuff for all. One room I want to go back and explore is the Naturalist room. It’s for kids 8 and up and is filled with museum specimens that you can touch and tons information on them. That was the last room we went to and the kids were just too beat to even look at it. The museum is so chock full of stuff that we could visit every week for 6 months and not get bored. And it was free! Then across the plaza they have the North Carolina Museum of History. We will tackle that another day.
Yesterday it poured like crazy for most of the morning so Jesse got the day off. He took us to the farm that he is working on and we went on a shopping trip to Walmart Supercenter. I can’t believe I am shopping here on a regular basis! It is the only place, well besides Super Target, to buy things like clothing and pillows. But we took the long way to Walmart and had another look around.
Now we just need to find some people to play with:)
There is so much building going on in Wake County. It seemed like every 2 miles down route 401 there was a new plaza being built with a Food Lion (a local grocery store chain) on one side and a Rite Aid on the other. Never mind all of the housing developments! There were townhouse developments and large house developments all over. This place is really growing. The driving is fairly easy. Since everything is spread out it makes things easy to find and get to. Down town was easy to drive through and easy to park in.
The science museum was awesome with 4 floors of fun stuff to explore including a new Dinosaur exhibit that left us with our heads spinning. They have a butterfly room, a toddler room with a huge active beehive to check out and tons of hands on stuff for all. One room I want to go back and explore is the Naturalist room. It’s for kids 8 and up and is filled with museum specimens that you can touch and tons information on them. That was the last room we went to and the kids were just too beat to even look at it. The museum is so chock full of stuff that we could visit every week for 6 months and not get bored. And it was free! Then across the plaza they have the North Carolina Museum of History. We will tackle that another day.
Yesterday it poured like crazy for most of the morning so Jesse got the day off. He took us to the farm that he is working on and we went on a shopping trip to Walmart Supercenter. I can’t believe I am shopping here on a regular basis! It is the only place, well besides Super Target, to buy things like clothing and pillows. But we took the long way to Walmart and had another look around.
Now we just need to find some people to play with:)
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Meet our new neighbor. We originally met on our front porch but we also met while hooking up our hammock. The website states that they grow to about an inch long, but they are much longer. Probably around 3 inches! It’s about 70 today and there are so many insects and butterflies around. They mowed the foot long grass today so we have been outside enjoying this wonderful weather.
It is sort of strange in this piedmont region. It reminds me of Cape Cod how the trees are smaller and the earth is shades of tan and red. I keep expecting to see the water right around the corner but we are in a drought so it is more like the desert. The house is large and is basically a fancy double wide trailer home. There are lots of them around here. It seems like in the last 5-7 years there have been a lot of housing developments that have popped up using these pre-fabricated homes on large properties. We can’t even see our closest neighbor with all the distance and trees between us. But there are plenty of grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, and vultures to keep us company LOL! Thank goodness I haven’t seen any fire ants as of yet. It makes me wonder what the spring and summer weather will bring.
We didn’t make it out of the house today. The kids are still in settling in mode and aren’t very interested in going anywhere to meet anyone. I have checked into homeschool groups and we are going to have to travel at least 30-45 minutes to see anyone. Something that has kept them comfy and feeling like home is the fleece blankets they got right before we left CT. Our good friend Jen makes them and they are soft, cozy and fabulous. Each child has their own and I have been sharing with Shillelagh! They snuggled with them the whole way down and have been seen wrapped in them in some fashion on a daily basis. I will have to post a picture!
It is sort of strange in this piedmont region. It reminds me of Cape Cod how the trees are smaller and the earth is shades of tan and red. I keep expecting to see the water right around the corner but we are in a drought so it is more like the desert. The house is large and is basically a fancy double wide trailer home. There are lots of them around here. It seems like in the last 5-7 years there have been a lot of housing developments that have popped up using these pre-fabricated homes on large properties. We can’t even see our closest neighbor with all the distance and trees between us. But there are plenty of grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, and vultures to keep us company LOL! Thank goodness I haven’t seen any fire ants as of yet. It makes me wonder what the spring and summer weather will bring.
We didn’t make it out of the house today. The kids are still in settling in mode and aren’t very interested in going anywhere to meet anyone. I have checked into homeschool groups and we are going to have to travel at least 30-45 minutes to see anyone. Something that has kept them comfy and feeling like home is the fleece blankets they got right before we left CT. Our good friend Jen makes them and they are soft, cozy and fabulous. Each child has their own and I have been sharing with Shillelagh! They snuggled with them the whole way down and have been seen wrapped in them in some fashion on a daily basis. I will have to post a picture!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Louisburg, North Carolina
So here we are in Louisburg, NC. I am still somewhat in shock that we are here. The drive took us about 16 hours including stops and was absolutely beautiful. We drove down the mountainous routes instead of I95 and it was well worth it. From the mist filled valleys of Pennsylvania to the gorgeous mountain ranges of Virginia. Everything was so colorful and rich. I rode with the dog, Athena, Fiona and Shillelagh. Jesse drove the moving truck and Huckleberry rode with him. The truck was extremely heavy. It was filled with tools and scaffolding from the construction company, plus our stuff. At best he traveled 70 mph down hill while at worst 30 mph. Never mind the constant shaking! It was definitely a stressful drive, but it wasn’t much different that any normal bad day at our house. I’m not quite sure what that says about a typical Gallagher day LOL!
The house is enormous and so is the yard. We are having fun stretching out and exploring. We are about 10 minutes from just about anything. Everything is so spread out and very rural. That also means that dial up is our only internet option. UGH!
Athena isn’t too happy about the library in Louisburg. It is so much smaller than Bristol, but it has an amazing array of books that you wouldn’t necessarily find on the shelf in CT. It has been 2 weeks since we arrived and I am trying to get us to a play date with some other homeschoolers around here.
It is just so weird, but I haven’t seen many children around here. Perhaps we just have to travel to Raleigh to see some. We plan on getting to the science museum tomorrow and will explore Raleigh then. I can’t believe that it’s actually free to get into the museum! There seems to be so much going on in the triangle area. Unfortunately, gas prices aren’t too different around here. Although, I have to be careful. I traveled 5 miles yesterday and the prices varied by $.10 a gallon. I also haven’t found much of a difference in grocery prices. The dairy prices are definitely higher here.
We celebrated Athena’s 13th birthday last Thursday. It was fairly simple, like usual, but she seemed very happy. When Jesse and I used to talk about what our lives would be like when Athena turned 13, we never envisioned this!
Athena and Huckleberry are truly enjoying the luxury of having their own bedrooms. After all the years of sharing, the rooms are their retreat from the world and from each other. The only rule I have is no food and that isn’t any problem for them. Fiona has resorted to watching every movie we own and rarely wants to leave the house. Today we are going to go out and buy some more movies. That will get her out!
The house is enormous and so is the yard. We are having fun stretching out and exploring. We are about 10 minutes from just about anything. Everything is so spread out and very rural. That also means that dial up is our only internet option. UGH!
Athena isn’t too happy about the library in Louisburg. It is so much smaller than Bristol, but it has an amazing array of books that you wouldn’t necessarily find on the shelf in CT. It has been 2 weeks since we arrived and I am trying to get us to a play date with some other homeschoolers around here.
It is just so weird, but I haven’t seen many children around here. Perhaps we just have to travel to Raleigh to see some. We plan on getting to the science museum tomorrow and will explore Raleigh then. I can’t believe that it’s actually free to get into the museum! There seems to be so much going on in the triangle area. Unfortunately, gas prices aren’t too different around here. Although, I have to be careful. I traveled 5 miles yesterday and the prices varied by $.10 a gallon. I also haven’t found much of a difference in grocery prices. The dairy prices are definitely higher here.
We celebrated Athena’s 13th birthday last Thursday. It was fairly simple, like usual, but she seemed very happy. When Jesse and I used to talk about what our lives would be like when Athena turned 13, we never envisioned this!
Athena and Huckleberry are truly enjoying the luxury of having their own bedrooms. After all the years of sharing, the rooms are their retreat from the world and from each other. The only rule I have is no food and that isn’t any problem for them. Fiona has resorted to watching every movie we own and rarely wants to leave the house. Today we are going to go out and buy some more movies. That will get her out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)