Hurts so Good

A new video of my happy boys dancing. Maybe they're happy about having a little sister!

Etsy Shop Open

Here is one of the many projects I've got my hands in now. I'm hoping to eventually move to selling mostly handmade items, but am currently unloading my stash of vintage goodies and some supplies.


A custom order item:


(Metro Luvie, all rights reserved)

Exodus

Maybe we’re hiding in the country because we’re a little city shell-shocked. Maybe we’re hunkering down in our farmhouse and have had so much exposure to people and places and things in the last few years that we’re just lying low and recovering. Maybe our experiment in mini-homesteading is a retreat like taking a cool shower after being out in the hot sun all day...

But sometimes we need to lie low. And slow down. And retreat.

For now, our days go a little something like this: We get up and do our outside work early in the morning before it’s too hot. The boys help until they get too hot and tired, then they hop in the kiddie pool and splash around until I get too hot and tired then we all go inside for lunch and naps. We work inside until it cools down and then we go back out and finish outside work.

Outside work has, thus far, consisted mainly of yard and garden chores. Corey built raised beds and a compost bin for a little Fall kitchen garden. We’ve tried to plant only what we anticipate being able to eat, share, or preserve. I’m actually pretty excited about canning. I’d never done it before, but the experiments in pear butter and watermelon rind pickles have gone well.

(The beans wanna grow)

We are looking for, “real jobs.” Though we would both be happy to be homesteaders and small farmers or craftspeople, that’s not a sustainable option for us at the moment. At some point the pear butter is going to run out.

Then there’s the problem of friends. Well, I should say lack thereof. We’re about 45 minutes from our former hometown which seems like quite a drive for most of our friends. In regard to travel time, most of our NY friends were 45 minutes away, but it didn’t seem like such a big deal. We didn’t have as many friends as when we had the house in downtown C-ville, but we did have friends. That’s why “Friends” tops my list of things that I miss about NY. If I were to make a list, it might look something like this:

Friends
Wind
Food (the Piggly Wiggly does not carry ginger root)
Proximity to the beach (even if I only went one or two days in a year)
Walkability/Sidewalks and Crosswalks

We have visited a couple of nice churches in our area. I am sure when we get settled and find a Sunday School class we like and get some of those, “real jobs,” that the friends will come along with. Acquiring weird grocery items will take a bit more doing.

The Last NYC Post

Wow. Things are moving fast!

Our great friend Boris came and took all our stuff from us, so now we have but a few things left. We've been house-sitting in Brooklyn at this incredible brownstone.

Our emptied out apartment. How did

we do it!?

We leave New York in the morning

after two years of serving the Lord as missionary support here at the Gallery Church and teaching at Evangel Christian School. I pray that God will multiply our small sacrifice as we move on to the next phase of our lives.

We did some fun stuff in the last week. Here are some pictures.

We had help loading from the Pattons and the boys enjoyed staying up late.

Our great friend Grace went with us to Governors Island.

We rode the Prospect Park carousel.

Leann went to the Brooklyn Museum and saw many cool things. Above is my favorite of what she showed me.

Today, we went to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the NYC Transit Museum.

We're all packed up, ready to go, and will see our ancestral home again probably by monday if not sooner. Bye New York, and God Bless.

Draw-down of Troops

Just a quick update. We'll do a final, big, pictures and video type update before we go, but this is just to say that our time as New York Boyds is drawing to a close. Pray for Leann and our fetus as we make the transition. The boys are excited about the move. We load the ABF truck on July 13 and will leave town probably the next day. We will probably keep blogging, but we're not sure if we will be able to get internet in Bumpus Mills, TN.

Pray for Freddy T. and the Gallery Church as God continues to work in and through them.

Square Feet and Square Dancing

Why is she smiling?! Because she just took the blue ribbon in the "Jello Surprise" category at the recent Brooklyn Family Hoedown and Potluck. The winning entry? Lemon Chile Pepper and Cream Cheese Gelatin.

It wasn't half-bad. Grace, Becky, and I had a great time at the shindig, but I couldn't help thinking, "I came all the way to New York, and end up at a hoedown." The irony. But it doesn't stop there. I was informed that the southernness of my dish was in question. Apparently, some thought it was "Too New York" to be eligible for the prize. So, to recap: I'm at a hoedown in New York with a bunch of New Yorkers whom are pretending to be Southern. And my Southernness is being called into question by said New Yorkers.

We're beginning to think about packing up our things. I'll be going to get a few boxes tomorrow so we can start packing a little at a time and hopefully save the last few weeks of our time here to spend with friends instead of stressing over the move. Since we're almost ready to move out, here's the tour of our place I've been promising.