First Dispatch from KY

Team Miner,

We've now been in Kentucky for approximately a month. Stella started Kindergarten. Jeff begins teaching Monday. I turned 33. Lydia is talking up a storm and can walk up and down steps. Jeff was issued another clean bill of health after his last check-up and has now been cancer-free for a whole year. Good, good, good news.

There is so much to report, I hardly know where to begin other than listing those big ticket items. I don't want to turn this into just a home improvement or DIY blog, so I'll refrain from going down that path right away, other than to mention that I am posting this while I take a short break from assembling stools for the kitchen counter. I'll also note that my days are sort of a blur of childcare, squeezing in a little work, and unpacking/doing nesting stuff. Hopefully this will change soon when I find someone to watch Lydia and my to-do list shrinks a bit.

I am missing friends/home (SF)/and Bay Area weather. In that order. The people here are very welcoming, but I don't have any close friends yet, of course. That said, I've met some incredibly generous and nice people who have introduced me to others, welcomed me into their circles, and even called me up out of the blue. Now I need to work on getting out of my shell and out and about. Having a new house gives me a few too many opportunities to stay busy at home. The heat advisories which have been in effect the past couple of days have also given me absolutely no incentive to leave our air conditioned house. It is a furnace outside.

Before I sign off, as a brief update on the hippie goals, I've overcome my fear of baking with yeast and made successful loaves of bread. I also made yogurt. I succeeded in both of these endeavors thanks to my resourceful and amazing sister.* Neither of these items (bread or yogurt-making) were on my list, but I'm glad I'm able to do them now. The store-bought yogurt options are either subpar or pricey here and the bread is jet-puffed and nasty. Thus, even my paltry attempts are an improvement on what is available to buy. I have also made strides towards #8 (by buying and using cloth napkins), #7 (vinegar, vinegar, vinegar), and I am cooking a lot (#6). We probably eat out once or twice a week here. There are some great restaurants, just not too many of them, so eating out a lot would result in very little variety.

I can't promise that future posts will be more interesting. But I'll work on that. And I'll work on writing more frequently as well.

So long for now y'all.

K

*My sister, her husband and kids, my mother, and my brother came to visit already. It was so awesome to have them here and I adore having space to actually have people stay with us. (Lizard - following our HWW introductory course I made an oatmeal bread that turned out well. Wahoo!)