Newsworthy

Today is my wedding anniversary. This means two things: first, that Nate and I have been married for six years, and second, that fall is really here. If we didn't know it before, the chilly and rainy weather this Saturday morning is driving the point home. Fall is here. We all slept in until 8, decided against a fancy homemade breakfast in favor of strawberry-banana smoothies all around, and we're planning on lounging in our jammies until at least noon. Why not? And this is why fall is my favorite.

As much as people love to obsess about the little details of fall (and, oh god, the pumpkin spice lattes-- blech), I think that the truth of it is that while the perks of sweaters and pumpkins are nice, what we really love is our return to structure. When we are working more, the breaks are so much sweeter. And for those of us with kids, this is true threefold. During the summer my kids would clamor for activities and fun and excitement from the first moment they opened their eyes. Now that it's fall and they are back to school and daycare and structured activities, they cheer when they learn it's a day off, and the whole family benefits.

So yeah, here's to schedules and paperwork and hard work! And also to our anniversary. While Nate drives me to the edge occasionally, most days he's my boyfriend and best friend and partner. There's nobody in the world I would rather love and compromise with, and over eight years into our relationship, that's a sweet place to be.

In house news, the hold-out permit has been approved -- the low spot on our land is actually a small bonafide wetland-- and now just needs processed. So fingers crossed that we'll be digging a hole in the ground in the next few weeks! In the meantime, we've got our well and some other secondary jobs to complete. Like gaining access to the part of our property where the house will be, which should be an adventure in and of itself. There's a whole lot of brush and hopefully not too many trees to clear. We've requested that if some mature trees do need felled that they get put aside. We have a contact who will kiln-dry and plane them for us so that they can still find their place in our home.

We've already talked about vinyl versus fiber-cement siding. Now onto our next debate: traditional hardwood versus engineered wood flooring.