Moran Family Fun

Last Saturday Jared and I went to Baltimore to participate in the Baltimore Running Festival. Jared ran the full marathon and I ran the half marathon. I can say without hesitation that the race in Baltimore was my worst running experience ever. At this point in my life I've only run two half marathons and a handful of 5K races so I'm not really much of a runner and I don't have a lot to compare it to, but it was pretty awful. Have you ever read the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?" It was a favorite of Madison and Emily when they were younger. I loved the circular way one action led to the next in the story and how the mouse seemed to have an increase in energy as the story went on while the boy became progressively worn down. Anyway, as I ran I found myself thinking about the race and the terrible running struggle I was having to the rhythm of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." It went something like this: If you sign up for a half marathon you shou...

I was talking with my mom recently and she mentioned that it would be easier for her to picture us in our new house if she had some pictures.  So this post is mostly for her but also for anyone else who might be curious about what the new place looks like and how we're making it work for our family.  I didn't immediately fall in love with this house, but it's been growing on me a little at a time and the longer we are here the more I really like this place.  Alright, here we go with our little house tour! Kitchen Just in case anyone is unsure of the purpose of a kitchen . . . a little wall decor to remind you to EAT. The colors here make me happy and I *love love* the fun colanders. Because we bought the house after seeing it just one time and we didn't even make an offer on the place until a couple of weeks after that first look, we didn't realize that our kitchen, while pretty, is seriously lacking in storage. Thankfully, the kitchen is spaciou...

Life hasn't been all business over the last three months, but the business of moving, finding and buying a house, starting new schools, and getting settled into our life here has taken center stage. We have been trying to have some fun as well though and we were lucky enough a couple of weeks ago to find an entire day mostly wide open and ready to be filled with fun! The morning was spent at home just being together, which really is the best fun of all.  Our cute little witch Natalie and her sweet black cat Abigail. Abigail is such a great sister, especially to Natalie and they have a great time together. They are both such fun girls with a love and excitement about them. They are also just kind, sweet girls who find joy in making others happy. I think these outfits were the Halloween plan for a couple days but we've since had three or four different ideas so we'll see what we end up with later this month! I can't take a picture of just two of our girls with...

There's something about this time of year that makes me feel more domestic than usual; I think it's because the girls are back in school and I have time to spend doing things like cooking, baking, and sewing. In the last couple of weeks I've spent some time trying new things around the house. After being so busy with all the work of moving it was really wonderful to get back to some of the things I enjoy the most and to see if I could be successful at some things I've never done before. I started with apples, a huge pile of apples, that I turned into apple pie filling, applesauce, and apple butter. The only thing I've ever canned in the past has been jam so I was a little worried it wouldn't turn out correctly. The best sound of my day was jar lids popping as they cooled on the counter. Canning success! I kind of hoped that 25 pounds of apples would make more than six jars of pie filling, six jars of applesauce, and the two jars of apple butter that a...