The house is feeling ever more like a home. Just in time for us to head out the door. We're slowly cleaning up the yard, trimming the palm trees and raking eucalyptus, oak, and various other leaf debris from the ground. Florida, in case you do not know, is one big pile of sand. The grasses can take and cover here and there, but this yard is like the beach without the ocean. Sand everywhere. All around us, neighbors have geen lawns of thick grasses, but we know their secret: they spend a king's ransom on irrigation, making pretend that they live in a well watered soil district. We do not care to. We are making what will be a gradual transition to a xeriscaped yard, low water needs, native plants, etc., but it will take a few years. Last week we put two baby long leaf pine trees in the front. They have already started to shoot skyward. The kids are coming to like the new home. Some days they play in the back, under the carport roof with their various toys, but lately they have taken to playing on the front porch. The back get dusty and the surface is asphalt, the porch is tile. Maxim finishes her first year of kindergarten next week. Noah completes his first year of nursery school. They are both excited for the trip north and seem to look forward to our impending two months in California. Noah can pick out Massachusetts and California and Florida on a map of the United States. Maxim wants to know if there will be girls her age in California. We hope so, but you never can tell. Marcela has completed work on the books and materials she had from the Ringling Museum as well as just finished her work teaching book binding to the special collections librarian from Eckerd. I am done with classes this week and have two sets of final essays to collect next week. We head out two weeks from tomorrow! We cannot believe it has been less than a year since we moved from our home in Maynard and sometimes we all still think of this a little bit like a dream that we will wake up from to find ourselves again at Sudbury Street. Florida has been different, and interesting, and full of new experiences. We are happy to be settling into our new lives.
The house is feeling ever more like a home. Just in time for us to head out the door. We're slowly cleaning up the yard, trimming the palm trees and raking eucalyptus, oak, and various other leaf debris from the ground. Florida, in case you do not know, is one big pile of sand. The grasses can take and cover here and there, but this yard is like the beach without the ocean. Sand everywhere. All around us, neighbors have geen lawns of thick grasses, but we know their secret: they spend a king's ransom on irrigation, making pretend that they live in a well watered soil district. We do not care to. We are making what will be a gradual transition to a xeriscaped yard, low water needs, native plants, etc., but it will take a few years. Last week we put two baby long leaf pine trees in the front. They have already started to shoot skyward. The kids are coming to like the new home. Some days they play in the back, under the carport roof with their various toys, but lately they have taken to playing on the front porch. The back get dusty and the surface is asphalt, the porch is tile. Maxim finishes her first year of kindergarten next week. Noah completes his first year of nursery school. They are both excited for the trip north and seem to look forward to our impending two months in California. Noah can pick out Massachusetts and California and Florida on a map of the United States. Maxim wants to know if there will be girls her age in California. We hope so, but you never can tell. Marcela has completed work on the books and materials she had from the Ringling Museum as well as just finished her work teaching book binding to the special collections librarian from Eckerd. I am done with classes this week and have two sets of final essays to collect next week. We head out two weeks from tomorrow! We cannot believe it has been less than a year since we moved from our home in Maynard and sometimes we all still think of this a little bit like a dream that we will wake up from to find ourselves again at Sudbury Street. Florida has been different, and interesting, and full of new experiences. We are happy to be settling into our new lives. 
