Oh the times, they are a-changing

A lot has changed for us in the last couple of months. We moved back to Ithaca (hip, hip, hooray!). Brian started his first year teaching 5th grade, and is extremely busy with that. I am busy too with Graduate school. I'm trying to front-load all of the big projects now before our little one arrives in 3 weeks or so (minor freak-out). Oh yeah, speaking of which, we are having a kid in November! I feel like I'm entering uncharted territory with this new endeavor, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Otherwise, we are doing the best we can to balance work and life, getting outside in this wonderful place as much as we can. We thank our lucky stars every day that we are able to live in such a perfect place. Amazing hiking, swimming, camping, local culture, events, and a great community. I know it's a little weird to love a place so much, but I really do.

I've been keeping up with the snapshots idea that I started in June-ish. Here are some recent favorites:

Above is my view when I look down, lol. 

Isn't he just the most beautiful dog in the world?

I know some of you want a more recent belly picture. Brian took this yesterday. My innie is becoming an outie.

 

It has been a beautiful fall. We collected leaves yesterday (above). I love every season when it arrives. There is something particularly inviting about fall. Somehow, I welcome the long sleeves, jackets and sweaters. 

Summer Fever

I wish so much that I had the time to fully explain everything that has happened in the past few months. It being our last summer before Brian started his career in teaching, and our last summer childless, we played all summer. Literally. I don't think we were home for more than 3 weekends between June and September. The biggest highlight was our trip to California. We visited my sister Sariah and her husband Brett. It was so much fun.

We went to this place called "Burger", and Brian had a Donut Buger. A Glazed Donut cut in half for the bread. "Weird", I said. "Awesome", Brian said. He loved it. I prefer to separate my meat from my dessert.

It was an awesome trip, and so great to see them!

While we were in California, we went to Yosemite. I love Yosemite. I wish that I could express the incredible-ness of this park.

The huge rock faces always entrance me. It is just magnificent and surreal.

We went swimming at the bottom of Yosemite Falls (above). Coldest water I have ever been in (despite the smile on my face). Your wrists hurt immediately. We also swam in the most beautiful lake I have ever seen (below) at 10,000 ft. The water was cold there too, but it was worth it.

We went down to the Mariposa Grove in the southern-most section of the park. I had never really seen many sequoias, so it was  new to me. The bottom picture is of the Grizzly Giant. That was a huge, tough-looking tree. It's definitely seen hard times. The pictures just don't do it justice. None of them do actually. That park just has to be experienced to be understood. Definitely one of the most magnificent places on earth.

It was such a great trip. Can't wait until we go back!

Snapshots

I've recently fallen in love with a book called "A Year of Mornings". It's a photography book done by two women living across the country from each other. One lives in Portland, ME; the other in Portland, OR. Each morning for a year, they took a picture of something, a snapshot, of their daily life. The book is beautiful. They have a blog; you should check it out: 3191 Miles Apart.

The reason why I love it so much is because they don't take pictures of anything spectacular. There's a picture of the corner of a gingham napkin on a worn table, crumbs on a plate, or just a simple window frame. My friend Stephanie, while thumbing through the book, pointed out a picture of an air conditioner...an air conditioner of all things, somehow made beautiful. Every picture is finding beauty in the everyday; the ordinary. I love that idea, and I feel a need to find beauty in the small things in my life as well.

So please forgive my incredible lack of experience, but I would like to occasionally post these photos on my blog. Brian's joining me on this occasionally, so some of the pictures are his. We want to share what we see. 

Here are a few from the last couple of weeks:

For those of you who know me well and are thinking, "Holy crap, Esther painted her toenails!" It's a good thing my toes are under water in this pic, so you can't see the crappy job I did. There's practically more paint on my skin than my nails. It's been well over 10 years since I painted them, so give me a break. I like the orange.

My Quarter-Life Crisis

The past year has been a year of learning and experiment for Brian and I both. We moved to a small town in western NY, and Brian got a position teaching Kindergarten for the year (the regular teacher was out on maternity leave). We remodeled the house we were staying in (see "The Remodel"), which we discovered we like to do.

It didn't take long however, for us to miss Ithaca. We were selling Brian's photography (see link on the right of the page for his website) at a farmer's market in the area, and someone we've known for years approached us and asked us, "Why on earth did you leave Ithaca? That place was perfect for the two of you!" Well, it didn't take us long to realize that they were right. It's the perfect blend of nature, outdoor opportunities, photo ops for Brian, community culture, and beauty. We set our sights on coming back home.

Then, not long into our stay in Canisteo, I had what I call my "quarter-life crisis":

As many of you know, when I left my job last July I was planning on farming for a living. Well, I gave that a small try this past summer, and here's my prognosis:

Firstly: Although I love gardening, I don't want to grow any crops in mass.
Secondly:I'm more of a social carnivore, so raising livestock isn't worth it.
Thirdly: I am neither entrepreneur nor saleswoman. You have to be able to sell what you grow you see, and that would be hard for me.

So to sum it all up, the truth is that I love to garden. I want a good berry patch, orchard, and garden. That's all. It's a hobby; not a living. 

So I went to the drawing board ... for many years I have thought that I would be a great HS Earth Science teacher. Brian suggested though that I sub at the local school so that I could be 100% sure about my decision. I thought this was a good idea, so with the beginning of 2013, I began subbing with all grade levels at the local school. Two things happened: 1) I gained a ton of good experience and learned to work better with little kids. 2) I discovered that I do not want to work exclusively with 14-year-olds for the rest of my life. I'd end up being one of those teachers who hates kids. You've all met one of those, and I just didn't want to be one.

So...back to the drawing board again. I reviewed my past experiences. I loved my undergrad, but who wouldn't? Recreation Management and Youth Leadership is quite possibly the coolest major ever. I loved my job at Ithaca College; especially working with college-aged students. I don't want to sit down all day though, and I didn't want to work full-time; too hard to keep up with housework when we're both working all day. I couldn't come up with a plan until Brian gave me the idea: Go back to school to get a masters, and then teach at one of the schools in Ithaca. There are 4 schools in the Ithaca area, and all 4 of them have a Recreation program. I could adjunct and get an instructor position when I felt I could take on the time-commitment. Perfect.

After that, things kind of fell together:

Brian got a job at Ithaca City School District as a 5th Grade teacher.
I was accepted to SUNY Cortland in their Recreation Management Master's degree program.
We moved back home to Ithaca.
And ...

So we begin a new leg of our journey.

Gorp Bar

Brian and I are on the go a lot. We hike every day, and we tend to road trip at least once a month (this weekend: Boston and the REI Garage Sales!) This kind of lifestyle can make meals difficult sometimes, so we snack a lot. Even on non-travel days, Brian and I both snack between meals to keep our blood-sugar levels even. Brian is hypoglycemic, so that's pretty necessary, and I turn into a monster when I'm hungry; snacking helps.
There are lots of snack options, but gorp is our snack of choice. Gorp stands for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts", but we use the term to refer to our homemade trail mix. It started with raisins and peanuts, to be sure, but it's expanded since then.

This is our gorp bar. In the picture below you can see each jar more clearly:

 Our ingredients:
Almonds
Butterscotch chips
Raw Peanuts
Dry Roasted Peanuts
Dried Cherries
White Chocolate Chips
Dried Craisins
Cheerios

The jar on the top left isn't part of the gorp bar. It's mate. I have a small tea bar next to the gorp bar. I love tea.

Anyway, back to the gorp bar. We found that raisins stuck together way too much, and they didn't last long before they tasted super grainy. Craisins, on the other hand, last as long as we need them to, and they taste better. I like raw nuts better, so I have raw nuts, and Brian likes the roasted ones. Cheerios are really added more for texture than flavor, but they're a nice addition. Dried cherries = heavenly.

I like the bar idea instead of just having it already mixed, because Brian and I can then have trail mix the way we like. For example, I usually stick with dried fruit and nuts, and Brian spices his up with chips and cheerios.We can also change out ingredients as we feel the desire. It's fun. It also looks nice. I love functional decorations.

Recycling Old Glass

Several decades ago, garbage disposal wasn't as convenient for country people as it is today. Now we just pay someone to pick up our garbage weekly, or we deliver it to the dump ourselves. I don't know if farmers weren't able to dispose of garbage elsewhere in the old days, but back then it was not uncommon for a farm to have a garbage pile. Usually, that pile would be separated into several piles: metal and glass, compost, and burnables. There used to be a burn pile on our property from the past farmers that owned the place, but the river washed it away (thank goodness). These garbage piles (the metal and glass ones in particular) are still out there, randomly placed throughout the forests of Upstate NY.

 Most of the State Land here used to be farms. When the farms failed, the state took ownership of the land and turned it into State Land, which is just basically free land for anyone to use. Although 50 or so years ago the land was bustling farm land, you can't tell now. The woods spring up quickly here. But occasionally you'll run into some vestige of the once farm. While we're  hiking along, we'll often run into an old road, a rock wall that once marked property lines, a house foundation, an ornamental pond, or a glass pile. One day, we decided to investigate one of these glass piles in the hope of finding some decorative glass.

You've seen old glass bottles at Antique shops. They sell them for $10 a pop! We like the look of antique glass bottles, but weren't willing to pay the price. Well we were in luck. This pile was full of great bottles still in one piece.

 

I obviously procrastinated finishing this job, since it's been 6 months since we did the picking, but a little cleanup (a few of them soaked for a while), add a few corks if you want, and voila! Antique recycled glass as a decoration.