Our 100th Post

We started this on-line chronicle of our personal family life just over a year ago and we've now come to post 100 entries. We hope that you've all enjoyed the belly laughs, the handmade projects, and the corners of our home as much as we did while we discovered them along the way. With Noah beginning to explore the many wonders of the world, Jen becoming more lovely as ever, and another little miracle on the way, it's exciting to see what the future has in store for our family.

Thanks to all who have visited our blog and supported us this past year. We hope you'll continue to check-in from time to time; we'll do our best to share whatever exciting news we can. Just know that you're always welcome to visit Our Quiet Place.


-Curtis

Pile O' Leaves

Today was a sunny, crisp, fall day. It seems we have had very few of those sorts of days this fall, sprinkled amongst many cold, rainy, gloomy days. Those gloomy days have allowed me plently of time to work on my 'knitting/sewing for baby' list, but not much time for playing outside. Noah and I took advantage of today's beautiful weather by going for a walk to a nearby park so he could play in some leaves, as we don't have any trees in our yard mature enough to produce a pile large enough to actually play in. There we found a big pile ready to be jumped into!

As it turns out, Noah wasn't too interested in playing in the leaves. After it was clear that he was not going to move beyond a few tentative kicks around the edges of the leaf pile, I figured he just needed some encouragement and picked him up and plopped him down in the middle of the pile. He was not too thrilled. He spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get up without actually having to touch the wet leaves. Sometimes, he really is his father's son.

He did eventually make it out of the pile. And the first thing he did when we got home was drag a stool over to the sink to wash his hands.

He is probably hoping for more cold, gloomy days...

-Jen

"Pumkin Buddy"

Ah, the air is crisp and cool once again. Trees are turning colors, Jen is knitting hats, and pumpkins are in need of carving! That’s right; it was time to go pick out our pumpkins for this year’s Halloween. Awesome!

It was a good year for growing pumpkins, despite rumors due to the dry summer weather. Noah and I hopped out of the van and darted towards the pallets of pumpkins. We quickly glanced at the trailers of smaller pumpkins and gourds, but then decided to race towards the larger Noah-size ones. How were we to decide?

We wandered amongst the pumpkins for awhile. There was a rather special pumpkin sitting on one of the trailers. We had to be sure to take that one home with us.

We finally picked out the ones we wanted, thanked the local farmers, and my ‘Pumkin Buddy’, Mom, and I headed home.

-Curtis

Simplicity

Sometimes we need to take a step back and think what life would be like if it were more simple. Noah often challenges us with this very idea daily. As he continues to try to learn and understand the English language, he decides to take a simpler approach when speaking. Why have multiple words to describe the same basic concept? If you say a single word often enough, people will begin to understand all of the many different connotations behind it. Maybe it's his way of procrastinating at such an early age.

For instance, here are a few words in which Noah decided to generalize:

• Cold: An extreme temperature change; either hot or cold.


• Car: Anything that has wheels OR makes a loud grumbling noise, such as a vacuum, lawn mower, or a bike.


• Bees: A non-smooth, often abrasive, texture OR maker of pain; Also, any insect, spider or creepy, crawling object.


• Down: Any movement in a vertical direction.


• Moo (Cow): Any object that has light color with dark spots, such as a cran-raisin muffin or a wedding picture of a couple on a beach with black lava rocks.


• Sauce: Any mushy substance, such as oatmeal or yogurt. As in "Goodnight comb, And goodnight brush, Goodnight nobody, goodnight sauce."


• Call: Any object that resembles a phone, can fit in the palm of your hand OR has multiple buttons, such as a remote control, calculator, or fingernail clipper.


• Bobbo: Any object that resembles a rabbit, such as kitten, squirrel or mouse.

Although we often smile and hold back from laughing when he looks so seriously into our eyes and mentions one of these words with dramatic hand gestures, he has a point. Sometimes we try too hard to get our point across. It's true. A single word can have multiple meanings and it's often more effective spoken alone.

• Love: Noah, Jen, Baby, Chocolate, Family, Life

- Curtis