Fall Flowers and Cookie Powers

The weather cooled off to the mid-70s last week, and I wondered if anything would be in bloom at the Botanical Gardens in Clemson.

My sister-in-law was in town, so she helped us "saddle up" Borga before hitting the trail.

It's still amazing to this Midwesterner to see, at the end of October, ferns unfurling their new growth.

So many flowers are still in bloom!  Mainly shades of purple...

...but also bright yellows and reds.

Still lots of bees at work.

Still ducks and geese in the pond.

For all my moaning and groaning about the continued warm weather (and yes, it's supposed to be 88 by Wednesday), I love these particular benefits!  The cats love the extra sunshine, too.

One more thing - I've been holding out on you.  For years I've been searching for the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (my favorite variety).  I've tried coconut oil.  Melted butter.  Browned butter.  Various combinations of brown and white sugar.  Various cooking temperatures and times.  All completely unsuccessful.  I'm terribly picky about it...I can't stand a flat cookie.  I can't stand a crispy cookie.  My perfect oatmeal chocolate chip cookie must be soft in the middle, firm around the middle, and fairly hefty.  The chocolate to oatmeal ratio has to be perfect - an overabundance of chocolate can easily overwhelm the latter.  Recipe after recipe has failed to live up to my exacting standards.

Until now.  I give you:  the perfect oatmeal chocolate chip recipe. 

Now, this recipe is heavily modified.  Based upon recommendations from other bakers and my own preferences, I increased the baking soda to 1 teaspoon and the flour to 1 3/4 cup.  I reduced the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup and the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.  I added 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes.  I swapped out old-fashioned oats for the quick-cooking variety recommended.  I increased the baking temperature to 335 degrees.  And...perfection.

They don't look fancy, but I will never try another recipe.  I have achieved oatmeal chocolate chip perfection.  Give them a try!

Have a great week! 

Blessings, Boxes, and Bumble Bees

The first CS Lewis book I ever bought was Surprised by Joy.  I suppose that if I were writing the story of my life, this chapter would be called Surprised by Grace.  For two years, Todd and I wrestled with the uncertainty of our futures.  Should we move to the Pacific Northwest, where his family lives, and hope that God provided a job?  Would that act constitute ‘blind faith’ in God’s providence, or just plain foolishness on our part?  Should he give up the job search and put his energies wholeheartedly into our home business?  In that case, should we stay in Indiana, where the cost of living was much lower than out west?  Or, if he continued to look for work in his field, should we be less choosy about where we were willing to live?  Just how bad could Fresno be, anyway? 

As we struggled to decide, Todd continued to work hard on his dissertation, and we continued to pray for God’s guidance.  He obtained his PhD in November 2011, and we committed to one more year of job searching before reevaluating our options.

Suddenly, surprisingly, everything fell into place.  Originally, the timelines of the two schools that Todd had interviewed with didn’t line up, and in the spirit of A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, we had committed to taking the first offer.  We had a definite preference for Clemson, but I had a sinking feeling when viewing the timeline…if the first school made an offer, there’s no way that Clemson would have had time to interview all the candidates and make a decision.  The first school had some delays in their process, though, giving Clemson the necessary time, and when Todd got both offers, we were able to decide quickly. 

The idea of living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by lakes and forests, with a moderate climate, and the job itself, made the decision to accept an easy one.

We found the perfect house for us, and our offer was accepted.  Todd spent a week at a toy show in Florida, and made the exact amount of money needed for the down payment on the new house.  Five days before his relocation, Todd was able to find a 2-month rental just 3 miles from the university, and yesterday, we accepted an offer on our house in Indianapolis. 

My grandpa used to call me a worrywart when I was growing up, and it’s true that I typically worry about everything I can’t control.  When Todd goes somewhere, I worry about drunks and crazed gunmen and half-asleep semi truck drivers.  I fret about social gatherings and mysterious pains (Todd:  “It’s NOT a tumor!”) and our dog’s obedience…or lack thereof.  Yet, throughout this entire process:  contemplating a long-distance move, being separated from my husband for 6 weeks,  running our business and packing up the entire house by myself, finding a house in Clemson, and selling this one, all in a very brief – and specific – amount of time…I’ve felt entirely calm.  A strange sense of peace has pervaded my life and as I sit here, watching my cats doze in the sunshine, with butterflies flocking to the flower beds just outside the window, I feel as if God is ticking off items on a checklist for us.  Perfect job?  Check.  Clemson house?  Check.  Down payment?  Check.  Selling the Indianapolis house?  Check.  I love this serene feeling, so atypical for me, and I feel completely awed as I contemplate these blessings from God. 

It doesn't happen all the time, but I love the times I can actually see God's hand in my life.  God is good!

Of course, it hasn't been entirely stress-free.  Our weekend looked like this:

Oh, and this:

And a whole lot of this:

But Todd finally got on the road and made it safely to Clemson yesterday.  Meanwhile, I took over his office.  I noticed Bosewichte looking wistfully at the sunny window formerly occupied by Todd's file cabinets, so I set up a little chair for him.

Someone became jealous, so soon the space looked like this:

It gives me great pleasure to type away at my desk while two cats snooze in the sun just over my shoulder.  

I've had just a little time for working in the yard, but I've seen quite a few interesting creatures during that short time.  A few mantises...

...and lots of butterflies.  Yellow ones...

White ones...

  

...and lots of Monarchs.  I love Monarchs, with their cheerful dotted bodies and their indifference to humans.  

If you move slowly, you'll be able to get quite close.  

Speaking of dotted, I've seen a lot of cucumber beetles...

 

And, of course, the usual assortment of bees.

I'm so glad that the drought is over, and that I'm able to spend a little bit of pre-autumn time outside, enjoying the sights!

I hope you can too...have a great week! 

Home Sweet Home

I did something a little unconventional yesterday - I committed to buying a house that I've never actually seen.

Really!

I joked to Todd that the next time I play the party game "Truth Truth Lie", I'll have another outlandish "truth" that will help me win the game (besides "My parents used to hunt rattle snakes in Death Valley", "I once drove over a cliff", and "My high school friend once worked with an infamous serial killer"!). 

It's in Anderson, South Carolina, about 20 minutes from Todd's new job at Clemson University.  He was there last week with the son of a family friend, who videotaped their experience. 

The house was built in the 1940s and has a lot of charming features, I think.  There are four large bedrooms:

Bedroom and Patio

It has a cheerful kitchen with a big greenhouse window.  Just beyond the kitchen is one of my favorite features, a big sun room that overlooks the back yard and the 11-acre pond that borders the back of the property.

Kitchen and Sun Room

The house has a big finished basement with another bedroom and bathroom.

Basement

Beyond the basement is a one-car garage (perfect for storing our business) and a two-car carport (beneath the sun room).

The house sits on almost 1 1/2 acres.  A little white fence encloses a small area by the house - perfect for a vegetable garden!  In the front and side yard, I'll slowly start building a cottage garden!  I love the thought of being able to sit in the sun room and look down on the garden.

Front Yard

I'm so excited to really get settled in.  I feel like I've been a nomad for quite a while.  After high school, I moved several times:  to Indianapolis/Broad Ripple for 4 years, then to the south side of Indianapolis for 4 years, and to Portland, Oregon for several months before buying a house on the south side of Indianapolis about 8 years ago.  I moved into each of these homes with the knowledge that I wouldn't be staying for too long, which felt a bit unsettling because I'm the sort of person who has a very strong desire to put down roots somewhere.  For the past three years, while Todd has worked on his dissertation, we're talked about this:  where do you think we'll end up?  Now we know:  we're going to be in South Carolina, and in this house.

I can finally plant roses in the garden!

In my mind, I'm going to...

I didn't make my regular post last week, but it was because our lives got a lot more exciting in a very short time!  Todd has been looking for full-time work in his field for the past year while finishing up his dissertation.  After obtaining his Ph.D. at the end of last year, he started his job search with renewed vigor in 2012.  Two weeks ago, he received TWO job offers!  After much prayer, we now know and can announce...

WE'RE MOVING TO SOUTH CAROLINA!!!

We'll be settling in the Clemson area in the upcountry, the far northwest corner of the state.  It's a beautiful area in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by lakes, and we are beyond excited.  Todd will start work at Clemson University the second week of September. 

So, we took a little drive down there last week.

It's interesting to see how vegetation varies by region.  We saw a lot of the same trees that we have in Indiana, but we also saw quite a bit of cactus and bamboo.  Crepe myrtle trees were in bloom everywhere, and I saw several magnolia trees, too.  As a gardener, I'm especially excited.  Making the jump to Hardiness Zone 7 opens up a whole new world of gardening possibilities!

Did I mention...magnolia trees?!?

Clemson is a small town of about 12,000 people.  The university is beautiful, with a lovely landscaped campus bordered by large lakes on two sides.  There are several other small towns only 10 or 15 minutes away in each direction.  For someone who's used to concrete and traffic, this sort of town-to-town drive is very refreshing:

You can just see the mountains in the distance!  Just beyond the main streets and housing clusters of each small town is this:

Quiet, tree-lined streets.  A little further out, farms.  It's so pretty!

One of the reasons for our trip was to look at houses.  We looked at some more modern homes...

...but we mainly saw old-fashioned ones.

It doesn't look big from here, but this is a 5-bedroom farmhouse, built in the 1930s!

Oh, it's so green.  I've missed the grass.

This farmhouse is partially remodeled...

...but other areas need some work.

This is not the house, of course, but one of the two barns on the property.  Todd is imagining a place to store our business...while I'm more focused on the other barn, which would house animals.

It's a little ramshackle, but it is a barn with 4 stalls and plenty of room to move around.

A beekeeper must live nearby, because we saw these down the street:

They were full of very active bees!

It was fun to look at houses, but we wanted to see the natural beauty of the area, too.  We drove about 20 minutes north of the little town with the farmhouse, to the Jocassee Reservoir.  It's amazingly beautiful, and seemed so large.  I couldn't believe it when I looked on a map and saw that we were only at one tiny finger of a much, much larger body of water.

The water was so warm and inviting that we immediately peeled off our shoes and socks and went wading.

This is one body of water that Todd has agreed to snorkel in!  Scuba diving is very popular here too, as well as all types of boating, swimming, hiking, and bicycling.

It was great to take a break...

...but now we're home and in a flurry of activity.  We've patched and painted the interior of the house, hauled loads and loads of things to Goodwill, and filled a second storage unit with miscellaneous non-essentials.  We're putting our house up on the market this week and are then going to rush to get ready for a toy show we'll have a booth at later this month.  Then packing, finding a place around Clemson, and finally, hauling two cats and a very nervous dog on a pretty long drive!

Phew!

We're ready for the challenge, though!  Todd and I are both excited about this opportunity and are really pleased about the area we'll be moving to.  Moving is never fun, but we've gotten a lot of great advice from friends and family and I think we'll be able to keep things pretty low-stress.

I think.

I'll be sure to post regular updates.  Have a great week!