Fall in Georgia

I'm using the term "fall" to loosely refer to the final third of the calendar year. Since October, it's really felt like one endless fall with a few cold (and warm!) spots.

Earlier this year, we purchased an annual pass to a nearby-ish resort & gardens and we made good use of it during the not-so-hot months. Our favorite thing to do there is ride bikes.

Three generations on bikes!

Georgia offers endless opportunities for pumpkin patching and we definitely had our share of hay rides, corn mazes, and pumpkin purchasing.

 

Ahh...a Southern autumn...where you can enjoy the fall without fearing the winter.

Halloween was crazy. We live in trick-or-treating central and the running estimate is that our street saw about 2,000 trick-or-treaters this year. We had enough candy because our neighbors started warning us in July. We experienced a similar thing at a nearby area of NY, but attending and hosting such an event are waaaaay different. 

Candy shopping at BJs obviously.

These pictures of Halloween day are pre-craziness because by the time the crowds ramped up my phone was dead and I was handing out candy with both hands. Our neighbors did an amazing job with their decorations and a couple of post-holiday visits to Party City means we'll be in better shape for next year decoration-wise.

We celebrated Small Bear's 2nd Birthday. It was a low-key affair where we ate cake and gave him a T-ball set.

And the bump has continued to grow. This is 26 weeks when I thought I was big vs. 33 weeks where I'm really big.

 

Aaaaand...#youshouldseemenow!

A hidden cost of home ownership is holiday decor! I took this picture on luminary night which happened to fall right after a rare Georgia snowstorm. We made a rookie mistake and got our icicle lights in "cool white" instead of "warm white." One day when they burn out we'll correct that!

Georgia Living 101

We're going on 11 months of Georgia living and things are going pretty fantastic. Adjusting back to our home state has been quite a bit easier than getting used to NYC was many years ago.

I always found New York to be full of un-answerable conundrums. Such as:

• Why have I been hearing sirens for 2 hours straight?
• Why is there a helicopter with search lights outside?
• What is that terrible smell?
• Did someone pee on this subway car (recently, I mean)? 

But I've been surprised to find plenty of Georgia mysteries as well:

• Where are all these ant hills coming from?
• Are those rotweilers fenced in?
• Why is it 78 degrees in November?

No really, why is it 78 degrees in November? (Hat is for fashion purposes only.)

House Ownership

We bought a house. It's historic. We know that subdivisions are the American jam but after a decade of urban living, it didn't feel like the proper next step. So we bought on a downtown street where we can walk to shops and restaurants and church. Sort of like NYC but with our own space and 100x less crazy. So far it's been just right. Quite but not too quiet. Close enough to our neighbors to shout between porches but not sharing any walls. Lots of modern American conveniences but not so many that we lose that "edge" we worked so hard for! :) :)

Yard Work

This might be shocking, but guess what comes along with owning a house??? We're in our mid-thirties and have never owned a single yard tool. We had an initial reprieve at our rental house because the yard work was included. After buying a house we bought a lawnmower, rake, hoe, shovel, and a trimmer. We've done some grass cutting and weed pulling but most of the work is thanks to our yard guy who comes every other week.

Although I'd be remiss if I didn't give Randy credit for an amazing grass-growing feat in our backyard this fall.

Monogramming

I knew this was a Southern thing because as a kid my Northern parents never got a single thing monogrammed for me. But you guys. Monogramming has gone on steroids! People are now monogramming their cars and water bottles (in addition to clothes and bags)!

What I drive behind all the time. Get it on Etsy y'all!

The Carpool Line

Also on the car topic...the kids are at two different schools and it turns out my patience can't handle the carpool line. When I'm just sitting there idling I feel like I'm wasting time and polluting the air. Small Bear's school is a short walk from our new house so that's easy. With Tiger Cub, I drop him off in the morning (for some reason there is no line) and either walk to pick him up or drive but park nearby and walk up to the school. I don't actually save time with all the walking but it feels like a better use of time than sitting in a car.

Where Did Brunch Go?

I looked pretty hard for a place to eat brunch and came up empty. Is brunch a big city thing? It's such a kid friendly meal and cheaper than dinner. Not to mention flexible menu options where one person can have a hamburger and the other order pancakes. So perfect!

Adios brunch, you were good to us.

Having a Superintendent was Pretty Super

NYC living definitely came at a hefty cost - in either exorbitant rent or high maintenance costs as a homeowner. But having a staff of nearly 20 people taking care of the building complex we lived in was a-maz-ing. When the grass grew, they cut it. When it snowed, they shoveled it. They took care of our trash and disposed of basically anything - old stove, computer, furniture, you name it. Taking responsibility for these sorts of tasks (well not the snow shoveling - thank you Georgia!) has been something of a burden. However, as we approach the holidays I will not miss tipping that enormous building staff!

Proximity to Florida

Also we went on an awesome family vacation to Destin back in September...

Final Thoughts on a Decade in New York

New York City

2007 - 2017

In January we moved from New York to Georgia and my Instagram account quickly went from:

to:

I took an unplanned break from blogging because getting used to a new and different life was so all-consuming! Months ago, as we were leaving New York for Georgia, I recorded some final thoughts on living in NYC for 10 years. I've finally fleshed them out!

I've said it for a long time, but no one lives in NYC because it's comfortable. Because it's exactly the opposite! We live on top of each other. We drag groceries through the snow and sweat in the subway stations and stand up for 45 minute commutes on public transportation. Everywhere is ridiculously crowded and you're pretty much never alone. Inconvenience is an accepted part of life. New Yorkers are hardy people who choose to live without modern American comforts.

For example, sometimes you need to move things and you don't have a car.

If this looks crazy, I'll tell you that I have twice seen people riding a bike while carrying a piece of furniture in our neighborhood.

As I was saying, no laundry room in our apartment meant frequent trips to the basement...

Just a family trip to Costco in the bitter cold, nothing to see here!

If you're not familiar with an NYC galley-style kitchen, it's a kitchen so narrow that only one adult can comfortably occupy it at a time. If you're making dinner and your husband comes in to get something, you'll bump into each other several times before your hangry selves start snapping at each other. Just sayin.'

Our first Christmas as a family of four. Eating breakfast in our living room/dining room/playroom/office.

Then sometimes at work I would see this view where everything looked so perfect and peaceful from above...

And living in such an exciting city comes with access to a lot of cool experiences too. 

We went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (here I am with my brother) a few times but drew the line at New Year's Eve in Times Square.

We often visited Bryant Park, aka the gem of Midtown Manhattan.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge in one of our early years of NYC living:

Next to the Brooklyn Bridge in one of our final years of NYC living:

Climbing boulders in the "wilderness" of Central Park.

Lots of people take their 5-month-olds to the Met. Really!

New Yorkers are nuts but we like them anyway. Their "tell it like it is" attitude was a little startling when we first arrived but there's something to be said for not having to wonder what they really think. About anything. They have their endearing qualities and we're pretty sure their negative traits are more survival mechanisms than true character flaws. New Yorkers also tend toward being super accepting and open to all types of people and situations so once you get past their crazy, they're easy to get along with.

If you think New Yorkers can't be total sweethearts at times, check this out:

My first winter in New York, I declared that if there is one thing about the city that breaks me it's going to be winter.

I realize there are much colder places to live than New York. Places like Canada and Minneapolis. And I mean it when I say this: I do not know how those people survive. We would be out in the elements every day and with kids and all their winter clothes and the stroller would track snow into the apartment and winter is just A MESS. And that wind chill! Seriously, January was the easiest time to leave NYC.

Exhibit A: First day of Spring 2016

Exhibit B: Pushing a young Tiger Cub through 1 foot of snow.

As Christian as we are, I'm going to be wistful of some of the things I've grown used to living in a Jewish neighborhood. Like menorahs lit up in the windows in December, large families dressed up and hustling to synagogue on Saturday mornings, and mezuzahs in the doorways of so many homes and businesses. Overall it was super easy and natural to constantly interact with people of different races, religions, and nationalities as part of daily life and it's hard to find that elsewhere.

Tiger Cub attended a preschool across the street that was "a cultural institution with a Jewish identity." He schooled us on King Antiochus and the Maccabees and Jewish holidays. I had to Wikipedia stuff all the time.

Some of Tiger Cub's holiday crafts:

That's not to say that we didn't get a few Santa kicks as well. I'm not sure we'll be able to find a suitable Southern replacement for the Macy's Santaland Santa.

Our 'hood was heavily Jewish and heavily Russian, with a large number of Bukharian Jews from the "-stan" countries (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc.) of Central Asia. This definitely had it's culinary perks and I'm not sure of the next time I can expect a good lagman soup.

Speaking of food, we're six months into being Georgian and one of the things I miss the most are the bagels and other delicious baked goods of NYC. If I could transport myself back to one food spot it would be a tough call between my favorite bagel shop and the local French bakery. We ate this stuff every week and now my body is wondering what happened to all the doughy goodness. Does anyone know of a bagel shipping service or maybe a bagel subscription? These are tough times yo!

Totally worth the almond croissant even if we did have to sit on top of each other to fit inside the bakery!

The kids were super chill about their city kid status.

I'm glad we hacked it out for 10 years and I'm glad we had kids there because it feels like we experienced a full spectrum of life in the city. Over the years we were able to hit up nearly every major attraction (although you can never see everything) and saw around a dozen Broadway shows plus Cirque du Soleil and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  

But...we reached a point where living in close proximity to others was no longer ideal for us. Our wild animals sweet children could really use some space to run around in. Preferably in the form of a grassy yard. Because "we have neighbors below us" means less than nothing to a 3-year-old who wants to knock over his blocks.

After adding one child and then another, we got to the point where we were living in the city but not getting to experience the best of it anymore. Going up and down the subway steps and onto the train with two kids and a double stroller (or two strollers) is enough to discourage the most exciting outing.

Fine, I'll give you visual...

After 6 months of not-New-York living, something that has really hit me is how specific the urban lifestyle is. Survival skills gained there are meaningless outside the city and vice-versa. For example, while becoming fluent in the subway system, I lost the ability to identify poison ivy. We now spend less time thinking about how to get a table at a coffee shop and more time thinking about about yard work and what day the trash needs to be at the curb.

Some things we have for the first time in 10 years:

- Cars
- Walls that don't have people living on the other side of them.
- Yard
- Garbage disposal
- Washing machine and dryer
- More than one bathroom
- Supermarkets
- Space!

These luxuries (or what other Americans would just consider part of normal life) are definitely luxurious! We'll always be wistful of our city days, but the time was right for our family to hit the eject button and go back to a more typical American lifestyle.

On a closing note, the last pictures of us with many of our NYC friends...