Cloudy Weekend Reflections
Hi friends, sorry I haven’t been posting much still. To be honest, the last couple months have been relatively boring- in a good way! Spring has come and gone in a hurry. Our gardens are planted and doing well. We are starting to see tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini growing, hopefully our cucumbers join them soon.
The first half of June was definitely busier! After Memorial Day came my birthday and a week spent at a work conference. I got home in time to celebrate Andrew’s birthday. Perhaps most excitingly, we saw Weezer on their indie rock road trip tour! They were amazing and we had a blast, plus I lost my voice. We have seen Weezer live multiple times and I love it each and every time. This one was especially special because it was our first big event we’ve gone to since COVID.
We’ve also been doing a lot of yard work. This spring we planted blueberry bushes, two in the front of our house and one on the side yard. We’ve also cut back the grape vines a lot in one corner of our yard to reclaim it from permanent shade. We learned that the vine growing on one side of our fence is invasive. It didn’t surprise us since it keeps trying to grow over everything— our grass, the fence, the gates, and the trees near it. So a couple weeks ago we spent a Sunday taking the whole thing down—it took hours and a ton of digging.
The last couple weekends we have been hanging out at home without having much going on. It’s felt like a nice break from being on the move. I’ve been doing more reading and a lot of hanging out with our pups. Last weekend we did a pet CPR and first aid class put on by our dog trainers.
We are looking forward to the next few weekends and being busy again! Next weekend most of the extended family will be at the lake and then we are off to Wisconsin to meet up with my bestie and her family.
~Natalie
It’s finally Spring!
Hello friends!
Andrew and I hosted Easter this year again, and it was a lot of fun (and yes a good amount of work). We had both of our parents and Andrew’s brother over. Goldy and Jake got to spend a bit of time doing an easter egg hunt (their prize for each egg were the cherrios inside) and we had just a lot of quality time with family. But there was still snow everywhere!
Then, almost overnight, spring came :). Since then, our front landscaping has come back to life and we have planted our gardens. It’s been busy! We ordered a few Blueberry plants this year to go out front and on the side— and two of the three have made it to our house so far! I’m excited to watch them grow to their full potential. I think the last one is coming tomorrow. We’ve also done spring cleanup in our yard and got our garden spaces ready for plants. I took about a day off work over the course of last week to get all my plants in the ground. This year we have tomatoes, onions, basil, zinnias, marigolds, oregano, homemade pickling cucumbers, national pickling cucumbers, dill, zucchini, garlic (planted in the fall), rosemary, tomatillos, butternut squash, pumpkin, and four different kinds of peppers. I’m sure I’m missing some of the things in our shared garden too. Only one plant seems to be suffering from being out earlier this year. I’m very thankful the weather has been good to us so that I could get all my plants in the ground early!! Each spring when I get ready to plant, I reflect again on our adoption journey and how much I am looking forward to being able to share this big passion of mine with our future child. I can’t wait for them to pick out flowers and herbs and vegetables with me.
Yesterday was Spring into Action! ‘23— an event Andrew and I planned to help clean up and get a park near us ready for the year. I’m very excited that after last year’s event with a storm, we still had people show up this year. Some of the volunteers gathered brush and pinecones from around the park— there were 25 large trash bags full of it for our parks department to pick up this week! We also weeded a garden area, had chalk and bubbles for kids to play with, and picked up trash. I think the biggest improvement for this year was sanding and painting a little free library in the park. Yesterday, we got the sanding and primer done but had to empty out all the books. I kept them in my car to put back today when Andrew and I went to paint it shades of green and someone had already filled the library up again! What a great community. After the volunteering part of our event, we had snacks and yard games out for people to play. Plastic axe throwing was the big hit of the games!
What are some of the things you guys like to do in spring to get ready for all the upcoming time we can spend outside??
~Natalie
March 2023
Hello Friends!
March was such a fun month for us. To start with, there was a family trip with my parents and sister and her families. We all went to Orlando for a week of fun in the sun! It was a lot of fun to hang out with Annabelle and the rest of my family for the week. Annabelle enjoyed doing stretches with Grandpa every morning and spending time at the pool. It was relaxing too! Plus… My dad and I went with Andrea, Christian, and Annabelle to Disney World. Magic Kingdom was AMAZING. We met Mickey and Winnie the Pooh and their friends, saw some parades, and rode some great rides. It was great to watch Annabelle light up as she experienced Disney for the first time and I cannot wait to bring our future child there.
Back home, we dealt with snow storms (ugh— isn’t winter over yet?). I’ve done some painting, made homemade paella, and finally got to make ciabatta! Jake continues to enjoy his Nosework and is doing so great at it. Goldy and Jake both had their spring grooming and look very dapper now.
What else do you guys want to see or learn about in future posts?
~Natalie
Winter Projects and Updates
Hello friends!
Sorry it has once again been a couple months between posts. For most of the winter we were busy and to be honest I’m not sure what my next series should be on. Please send me ideas of what you want to know— about us, our family, our neighborhood, anything! Here’s an update of what we have been up to and what projects we have taken on in our house…
December was busy for us! Andrew, Goldy, Jake, and I also got pictures with Santa thanks to our dog trainer—they weren’t super sure about it but warmed up to our trainer’s husband posing as Santa and we got a couple of cute photos.
We celebrated Christmas with Andrew’s family earlier in the month, which was a ton of fun. We saw a rock and roll Christmas concert/comedy show together and stayed with Andrew’s parents in their new house. Their house is beautiful and super nice down in the twin cities area, with their guest rooms in the basement— perfect for when we bring our future child along for a visit! Andrew’s mom got Jake a tornado puzzle feeder, which he loves and is a challenge for both pups.
Jake has been doing nose work training, and he completed beginners nose work in December as well. He loves having a job to do and hunting around for the right essential oil odors. It was fun to watch him learn this new game we play and see how much fun he has.
The middle of December brought a new event in our area— Christmas Caroling in Gregory Park! I worked some local organizations to plan this event and had four different groups come and sing by the campfire pits. While it was really cold, it was a big success and I’m looking forward to planning it again next year.
Andrew and I also tackled a small home improvement project in December— we turned a cupboard in our family room into a dog den! Andrew took out the doors and the pull out shelves while I made cushions for the space and curtains. They aren’t positive it’s where they want to hang out yet, but Goldy and Jake explore it every so often. I think our future child will also really like it when they are a toddler.
Just before Christmas, I was able to see a bunch of my dad’s extended family for a fun night of bowling down in the twin cities. We had five or six lanes at a bowling alley down there and caught up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins. It was a blast!
Finally in December, Andrew and I celebrated Christmas before going down and celebrating with my parents and some of my mom’s extended family. Jake is getting much better around little kids as he feels more secure in his new life with us.
January wasn’t quite as busy thankfully. But we started in rough shape— I had the stomach flu starting Friday before NYE and into the next week. Andrew was sick with a bad cold the week after that. We mostly relaxed and tried to get healthy. The pups did a craft project— painting by licking peanut butter— and their paintings are hanging in my office now. For MLK weekend, we were back down in the cities celebrating our final Christmas. This time it was with my sister and her family, my parents, two of my cousins and their families and their parents. It was a busy weekend but a lot of fun.
February was a month spent entirely at home and it was wonderful. I was able to finish a paint by numbers of the lake that took me almost a year to do. Jake continued to do nose work training and found his personality.
Andrew seriously updated the guest bathroom— a new color of paint (blue!), a new light fixture over the sink/mirror, and a new shower curtain rod. We also moved the piano from the library to the back of the family room, removing my desk that hasn’t been used since COVID (when my craft room became a home office). I continued to attend Sisters in Christ, which has been amazing.
We also had visitors in February— Andrew’s parents came up for a weekend! We had so much hanging out and catching up with them. We completed a Hunt a Killer premium game and then made a delicious stir fry dinner together. They brought us up a “watch me grow” planter from the cities full of different bulbs that we got to watch turn into beautiful spring flowers! This was especially nice, since we still have snow as I’m writing this and have had two snow storms in the last week or so.
While it still feels like winter, I’m calling March spring and will post another update soon!
~Natalie
National Gratitude Month 2022
Hello all,
This year for National Adoption Month and National Gratitude Month, I posted daily to our social media something I was grateful for that day. Here is the final list of my gratefuls:
Jake, our second rescue pup, who continues to come out of his shell as he adjusts to his new home
Goldy, our 10 year old rescue pup and our Golden Dude
Andrew, my loving husband who is going to be an amazing dad
the two bunnies who live under our deck
Sister’s in Christ, a women’s program I attend at my church
Hello Fresh, for giving us yummy meals and getting us out of our food rut
Auntie Beth, who is beyond supportive of our adoption journey and has always been a great part of my life
the ability to vote and have my vote counted
Christian (my brother in law) who is always up to try something with our family
dog rain jackets to help the pups be willing to go outside when its raining
Amanda, my coworker, who taught me how to easily grow sprouts for my sandwiches
my cute little tape measure, which helps me plan and diagram out changes we are looking to make in different rooms
Paint by Numbers from personal photos— getting to see some of my favorite things (like the lake and Goldy) come to life while painting is exciting and relaxing at the same time
Annabelle, my niece and possibly favorite person right now. She brings so much joy and love and always gets excited when she sees me
Bible study with my Bible Besties
my CPAP, which is a new addition to my life but makes so much of a difference to my energy levels
our fireplace, which helps keep us cozy and warm :)
my parents helping putting up Christmas- I know I go a bit overboard but it was so great to have a lot of help putting up 6 inside trees and lights and so much else
my mom, who has loved and supported me my entire life
my dad, who is supportive and the one who suggested helping put up our christmas decorations and made christmas candy with me
the progress on our dog den for the family room (turning a cupboard into a dog hang out area!)
our Santa decoration that is identical to the one I grew up with (and my parents still use)
the Bible in a Year podcast
Greg, Andrew’s dad, who made a great thanksgiving meal with…
Kathy, Andrew’s mom, who dotes on Goldy and Jake despite being allergic to them
Scalp massages and my haircut from Melissa. I go down to the cities for a haircut twice a year and she has already said she can’t wait to help pamper our future child
my extended family on my dad’s side, who I got to zoom with that day
Nose 2 Tail dog training and Brenda who has been amazing with Goldy but even more so with Jake
My sister Andrea, who is a great mom and role model
my cousins and their families, since Suzanne and Christina and their husbands are so ready to share the joy and love of their children with us all.
What are you thankful for this year?
~Natalie
Andrew’s Hobbies- Parts 5 and 6!
Hi friends and welcome back to my miniseries on Andrew’s Hobbies! I’m realizing I know VERY little about these last two hobbies, so I am going to combine Andrew’s final hobbies into one post. The final two hobby topics I have for Andrew are video games and airplanes.
The fifth hobby I have to share is video games. Currently, Andrew has been very into playing Destiny. Here’s the little bit I know about Destiny: it has four ‘seasons’ that come out a year, it has new raids that come out a few times a year, it is a first person shooter game, you can play it on your own or with other people online, and it makes for good background noise for a nap. Andrew plays Destiny most nights after I go to bed, since he is a night owl and I am a morning person. When new seasons come out, he tends to play a bit more for the first week or two. When a new raid comes out, they are apparently much more challenging for the first 24 hours. So Andrew plays for that period as much as he can, stopping only for sleep, food, and the bathroom. I don’t mind this, because I get a nice evening and morning to myself with the pups. Hopefully soon, I’ll also get to spend that time as special time with me and our future child.
Andrew loves everything about airplanes and airports. He gets excited about checking out the different planes we might take when we travel. Andrew knows the most recent models of planes, always reading up on what is coming out. He also loves watching them fly, land, and take off. If he has the choice and the time, Andrew would spend time at any airport— far more than I usually have patience for. Recently, he had some flight delays when he was traveling home from a trip on his own and missed a connecting flight. Instead of accepting the later flight bringing him home, he chose to detour through Orlando and take two flights instead of one. He thought it was a great adventure. Andrew’s love of airplanes has rubbed off on me a little bit as well— we enjoy going to air shows and the open house at the Brainerd airport. I think it’s fun to see the little planes and the older planes, while Andrew finds genuine enjoyment out of each airplane. We also both enjoy photographing planes (but Andrew more than me).
~Natalie
Andrew’s Hobbies- Part 4!
Hi friends! Thanks for coming back to continue to read my version of Andrew’s hobbies, today’s topic is computers! Andrew is super techy and knows so much about technology and how it all works. He is my go to IT guy and he was my grandma’s preferred tech helper. Last year, Andrew built himself a gaming computer from parts he got for Christmas or ordered online (yes this ties into one of his other hobbies—video games—but I haven’t written about that yet.). This isn’t the first computer he has built either— he and his dad built computers growing up. It's a great hobby that he shares with his dad and brother. Andrew helps keep our house up and running and current on technology, especially computers.
Andrew’s Hobbies—Part 3
Hi friends! Today’s topic in this miniseries of posts is home improvement. Andrew enjoys doing projects around the house to make things better or cooler or just helpful. He told me this is one of his hobbies, so I’m not making this up! He has done so much around our house since we bought it. Most recently, he made a gate for our back garden, which I love! We had some trellis left over after the grape project last year, so he cut that and some wood boards to connect the pieces and made such a nice, secure garden gate to help us keep critters out of the plants. He has replaced so many light fixtures in our home as well—our bedroom light/fan, the family room lights/fans, and our bedroom closet. In our closet, Andrew switched it from long florescent bulbs to a track light system that has a nice dimmer switch. He did all the plumbing for our kitchen remodel to get the new sink and garbage disposal connected. Andrew’s changed outlets and light switches as well. Andrew redid our bedroom closet and it turned out amazing! We are starting to look at redoing the flooring in our main level and Andrew will likely be involved if not DIY it himself. Andrew is super handy and seems to genuinely enjoy doing these home improvement projects around the house. He also helps at both of our parents houses if asked! I’m sure he’ll be happy to have a helper if our future child is interested in learning from him as well.
~Natalie
Andrew’s Hobbies— Part 2
Hi all! Today I’m going to continue my series of posts of what I know about Andrew’s hobbies. Today’s topic is photography! This is another common hobby that Andrew and I share. I actually turned Andrew more into a photography nerd than I am but I’m not sure how that happened. When we were dating, Andrew got his first DSLR camera (I think). A few years ago, we sold our individual DSLR cameras to get a nicer one that we now share (not our best when we both are into this hobby but it works). Andrew loves going to airports or airplane routes to photograph the planes. He also AMAZING at getting photos of birds in our back yard, our pups, and the littles in our family. He shoots in RAW rather than JPEG, and is much better at photo editing than I am. I asked Andrew what his favorite thing about photography is and he said “It encourages you to go find cool stuff to take photos of.”
Jake—Our New Pup
I haven’t been posting much for a few weeks, but I will get back to my interpretation of Andrew’s hobbies soon. This week I wanted to let you all know we welcomed a second pup into our lives and hearts! We adopted Jake from Underdog Rescue the weekend before Easter. We saw him on their social media and fell in love. Jake is about 19 pounds and is a miniature schnauzer. He appears to be a purebred since he was a breeder surrender at 7 years old. He might not have been abused but he was definitely neglected in his life. We are beyond grateful for Underdog Rescue for taking him in and to LuAnn, his foster mom, who was the first home to show him unconditional love. With LuAnn’s help, Jake started realizing that people are good and loving— he played with her pup, got fed good food three times a day, and had the love and attention he wanted. Jake took a couple steps backward in development with the change of coming into our home, but he is making more progress in just a couple weeks than I could have imagined! He is bonding with both of us, although Jake definitely takes to Andrew a bit more—not that I blame Jake, since he and Andrew spend all day together at home. Jake is learning how to tell us he needs to go outside to relieve himself, and we are learning what his cues are. Jake loves Goldy, but wishes Goldy would play in a different way—Goldy doesn’t play like most dogs though.
Jake is slowly showing us more of his personality too! He likes to curl up to sleep, but in the morning he wants to play. Yesterday we tried playing with a frisbee and a tennis ball—turns out Jake loves the tennis ball! He will chase it all around the backyard. Jake has a lot of things that trigger worry or a scared response, but they are slowly becoming less of a problem. He used to be absolutely terrified of the leash but yesterday we walked to the corner of our block and back home! He is learning a lot from Goldy and from us. In turn, we are learning a ton from Jake! Jake likes being carried and can’t quite figure out how to do these stair things yet, but he is curious about them. Over Easter, Jake even did pretty well with the littles in the family, choosing to escape to his crate rather than be aggressive when he needed alone time. Jake is so full of love and all he wants is love and attention in return—something we have plenty of! I think Jake will also be a great big brother to our future child—he is watchful and protective and wants to just be near his people.
~Natalie
Andrew’s Hobbies, Part 1
Hello and welcome to the new miniseries where I (Natalie) am going to write about Andrew’s hobbies. Disclaimer—I don’t know much about some of these topics but I’m going to try my best! Today’s hobby is reading. Andrew enjoys reading, as you know if you’ve read some of our other posts. He and I read a lot of the same books, which works out awesome for both of us. He tends to read a bit less than I do, but once he gets into a book you can’t get him to put it down in his free time. Andrew reads a lot of mystery and some nonfiction books. He is really into the Inspector Gamache series from Louise Penny. Andrew is also unique in my opinion because he will literally read through a cookbook when we get one and thoroughly enjoy doing so.
Andrew also gets excited about reading to the little children we know, and he can’t wait until we have an adoptive match so he can read to our future child as well!
~Natalie
Connections in Our Community
Hello again!
Recently I asked in our Instagram story (@_buildingournest) what you guys wanted to see me post about. One of the responses was our connections in our local community. As you likely know, Andrew and I live in the Brainerd Lakes Area here in Minnesota—and we love it! We initially moved into the area when I got a job as a prosecutor in a neighboring county about 5 years ago. Last summer I switched jobs and now drive a lot further to get to work. But we aren’t moving because we love our house, our neighborhood, and our community.
I’m connected with our local church, which is walking distance if the weather is nice. I’ve been registered with our church community since we moved and love the parish. I’ve participated in a few different activities since joining, but stopped with the pandemic for health reasons. I’ve been going to mass in person again though and am loving it.
I’m also on the board of our neighborhood association. We meet monthly as a neighborhood to learn catch up, hear from a speaker, and discuss what we want to be up to as a neighborhood. We are currently working on getting involved in cleaning up our neighborhood parks and streets in an event I’m planning called Spring Into Action! We will help out the park staff by picking up trash, trimming trees and shrubs, mulching, and planting flowers. We’ve asked the local park board to invite us for input when they do the master plan for our neighborhood parks in order to ensure we are working together to create the best parks we can have.
Andrew is on our city charter commission. This commission doesn’t meet frequently but they have been going through and updating our city charter.
Andrew has also joined the city park board! He is loving the involvement he can have in our broader community through park board. They have been busy lately creating master plans for the parks in our city in workshops between park board meetings.
We have both worked in the planning committee for the Brainerd Lakes Area Walk to End Alzheimer’s, but are taking a year off to focus on other things (like the neighborhood association and park board). We love volunteering for this event and raising money for a great cause.
Of course we also have connections in our neighbors and friends in the area, but those are less 'official’ things to share. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about some of our local area community connections in this post! Feel free to send us an email or contact us by this website if you want me to share about anything or you have any questions for us!
~ Natalie
Family Time, Part 7
Hey all, welcome to our last entry on my miniseries of things we enjoy doing as a family. Today’s topic is yard games! When the weather isn’t freezing and snowy, we enjoy getting outside in our own backyard or in the nearby park. While we are out there, we enjoy just relaxing and reading or playing with Goldy. But we also love playing a few yard games. In our backyard we play Bocce Ball (not regulation, which I’ve learned is apparently a thing). At the park we bring along Kubb, which is a yard game that involved throwing wooden dowels at pawns to knock them down. The last person or team without any pawns and to knock down the king wins. It is a lot of fun and can be played with two players or a bunch of players on two different teams. At the lake we also play corn hole with family, which is a lot of fun.
What outdoor games do you guys play?
Family Time, Part 6
Hi friends! Today’s topic in our mini series about things we enjoy doing as a family is traveling. Andrew and I love to travel together, whether it is to the lake, to Milwaukee or Eau Clair to visit friends, Hoboken or Hilton Head Island to visit family, or somewhere to get away as a family. We haven’t done much traveling during the pandemic but we took our first step back into traveling just after Christmas by visiting family on the east coast. Usually, we try to take a trip somewhere warm for a long weekend in late winter or early spring. We also love traveling the world! Andrew visited me when I lived in France and we went to the French Riviera and Monaco. We’ve gone to London and Italy together. We want to go back to France, back to Italy, and I want to bring Andrew (and our future child) to Australia. Andrew and I enjoy going new places and returning to favorites as well. We try to do a mix of relaxing and exploring where we are staying. If there is a zoo or an airplane museum of some sort, you will almost certainly find us there during our vacation. We are always open to new places to visit too! Where do you guys like to go on vacation?
~Natalie
Family Time, Part 5
Hello again, today’s topic is gardening. I know, what a strange topic to be writing about in February in Minnesota, but gardening is one of my favorite things. Andrew and I enjoy different parts of our gardening adventures. If you’ve read our blog, you know that Andrew built me raised garden beds last spring. Andrew also takes care of the soil—cultivating, adding new soil, setting up the soaker hoses and doing some of the weeding. We plan out the layout of the gardens together, after I’ve mostly picked out what I want to grow. We enjoy picking the vegetables, enjoying the flowers, and taking care of the gardens together. I love picking out the plants and seeds we are going to grow, thinking about what we might cook with, and trying new things. We’ve already started working on our list of what to grow this year and the first plant is in the ground! In the fall we planted a hardneck garlic variety. We’ll also grow loads of tomatoes, some zucchini, cucumbers, basil, onions, radishes, herbs, jalapeño, flowers, and we are going to try tomatillos. Watching the plants grow from seeds or seedlings to huge, healthy, and happy plants is so satisfying. Plus, we get enough to share with our neighbor and families!
What do you guys grow?
~Natalie
Family Time, part 4
Hi friends! Today’s topic in the category of things we do as a nuclear family is playing games. Growing up, my family had Sunday nights set aside for game night. And I loved it. I hope to continue that tradition with our future child as they grow up. For now, Andrew and I don’t play games as often as we probably could. But we love playing games together! We’ve got a nice collection of games that we can play just the two of us and games to play with larger groups. For Christmas, we got some fun new games too— A Little Wordy, Wingspan, Pandemic, and Code Names Disney Edition. A Little Wordy is a ton of fun and is just for two players. We played Code Names Disney Edition with my parents when they visited recently and it was hilarious! We also play mind-heavy games like 221 B Baker Street (similar to clue but with a Sherlock Holmes spin) and the subscription and premium services from Hunt a Killer, where we play detective and sort through clues to find solutions. Playing games together is definitely something that brings us joy.
What types of games do you guys like? Anything Andrew and I should try out?
~Natalie
Family Time, Part 3
Hi friends, welcome back to my mini series on things we do as a nuclear family. Despite the cold weather in Minnesota these days, one of our favorite things to do is walk and spend time with Goldy—our rescue pup! We call him a number of nicknames, but Golden Dude and Puppernut Squash are our favorites. Goldy, our rescue pup, is about 27 pounds of fluff and love. He is about 9 years old we think, has the cutest curls in his fur, and brings us so much joy. We try to take him for 3 or 4 walks a day during the workweek (morning, lunch, after work, bedtime) and at least 2 on the weekends (a long walk and a bedtime walk). When it is nice out, we go for longer walks and spend more time hanging out at the park with Goldy. We’ll also try to go to the dog park when it is warm out. Unfortunately, it is SUPER cold out, like below zero temperatures or just above zero. So for now, our walks might not happen first thing in the morning (but we still let him out), and our after work walks are shorter than we would like. Our neighborhood is amazing for walks—-full of sidewalks and parks, so it is an absolute blast to walk Godly around the area.
In addition to walking Goldy, we buy him way too many toys and treats. We have chasing play time, where Goldy always wins in the end. We also play tug and attempt fetch. Goldy doesn’t love bringing the toys back though, so fetch turns into chase usually. We also enjoy time outside in our own backyard. Goldy loves chasing sticks and apples, laying in the sun, and getting pets in the grass. Inside, Goldy loves to be in the same room as us, get pets and snuggles, and begging for food. Honestly, even if Goldy is just in a pupperball on one of his beds or a sofa, just being in the same room as him brings a smile to my face and happiness to my heart.
~Natalie
Family Time, part 2
Welcome back to our mini series on what we enjoy doing as a family. Today’s topic is reading night. Since we both love to read, we try to set aside one night or block of time on the weekend, to spend time reading together. This doesn’t mean we read aloud or read the same book, but that we take away distractions and turn off the TV to spend some time dedicated reading. Andrew and I do have a significant overlap in books we enjoy reading, so we do end up reading books after the other one has read something often. Reading night is one of my favorite nights together in the week, because we can discuss a book if the other one of us has already read it and we get to spend time together doing something calm but enjoyable.
I picture reading night continuing into our future, but obviously with some changes for a bit after we bring home our future child. We are excited to share our love of reading with him or her! Whether it is reading to them, listening to them read as they start learning how to, or having time set aside to read independently but together—there are lots of ways we can include our future child into this great family activity.
~Natalie
Family Time, part 1
Hello again! Today I’m going to start a mini series of posts about what Andrew and I enjoy doing as a family, so you can get an idea of what we are up to when I’m not posting. In this first post, I’m sharing how much we enjoy cooking together. Andrew and I cook together most nights (I’d be lying if I said all nights, but it really is most nights). It is just a blast in the kitchen when we are together—we are a great team. Whether we are cooking a meal from Hello Fresh, homemade pasta, bagel egg sandwiches for breakfast, pizza, or a new recipe we can’t help but love this time together. I think we enjoy cooking together because we both love to cook on our own as well. Our skills in the kitchen really compliment each other as well—I’m great at making homemade pasta while Andrew makes pizza look round and not like the shape of Ohio. We chat, chop, and cook while also giving Goldy vegetable snacks to see if he’ll actually eat anything besides meat and carbs. So far, Goldy consistently eats cucumbers, zucchini, and purple carrot skins. We love cooking delicious food for our friends and family too, like the saying from Penzy’s goes: Love people, cook them good food. One thing we are very excited about is cooking for and with our future child! It definitely won’t be the same but it will be even more amazing in it’s own way once we have a little one in the kitchen with us.
What do you like to do with your immediate family?
~Natalie
Time with Extended Family, Part 4
Hello again everyone!
Today, I’m finishing up our miniseries of posts about what we enjoy doing with our extended families. If you’ve read our blog in the past, you probably can guess that one of our favorite things in the summer is to spend time at the lake with my family! We spend time there from May through the beginning of September usually. While my dream is every weekend, the reality is that gets overwhelming. This year, we settled on a good mix of about two weekends a month down at the lake. We almost always see my parents there, plus often my cousin Suzanne and her family and my aunt and uncle are there. My sister and her family come when they can, as do my cousin Christina and her family. We even get grandma up there a few times a summer! It is so relaxing at the lake, it is just amazing. I love spending time on (and in) the water, cooking, or just hanging out and reading. When the weather is a bit chilly, we can light a fire in the basement wood burning stove to help us stay cozy. We have toys for the little ones, loads of books to read, TV, internet, and a beautiful yard. For the children, we have a kiddy pool and water table to splash around outside when we aren’t on the lake. For the water, we have a canoe, two kayaks, a speed boat, a pontoon, a lily pad, lots of tubes, some floaties, and water skiis. Honestly, with it getting colder out, I’m feeling a bit meloncholy that weekends at the lake are so far away.
What do you like to do around water?
~Natalie