Train wreck's ripple effect

I'm sure by now you've heard about the NY train derailment that happened last Sunday morning, it's been all over the national news. That is the very same train line that goes by Beacon, the same train that Liam has commuted on a million times, that Graham and I have taken into NYC for trips to the museums and Central Park. One of the victims who was killed was a man from Cold Spring NY, one town away from Beacon. I did not know the man but several friends here in Beacon did. I just found out today that we know his 17 year old son Finn. He know him as "Coach Finn", he helped out with kids sports programs at the Philipstown Rec Center where Graham first played soccer, baseball and basketball when he was 3. A wonderful kid. My heart goes out to Coach Finn who just lost his dad and to his family. I am especially sad that during this horrific period the family is constantly having cameras shoved in their faces not being given the peace to grieve. I feel a little guilty knowing as much as I do about their personal lives now because of this accident. Liam and I are both both very sad about this. It's hard to believe this happened so close to home for us but goes to show how tight our little Hudson River communities are.

Thanksgiving and onward!

After all the little boys left and the cleanup was done, we were ready to host Thanksgiving with our friends who live up the street. Liam got a monster bird-a whopping 24 pounder!-which he smoked on the Big Green Egg. Our friends brought about half the dishes and we had a very nice Thanksgiving evening with them. Check out the pictures:

Getting the holiday table ready

Liam carving The Beast

Liam and Harrison getting in touch with their inner and outer wolves

Graham and Alden playing a game. 

Thanksgiving is over and now its full on Christmas, people. Are you ready? I am slightly ahead of schedule since I bought many presents already through a fundraiser at Graham’s school. I’m participating at a pop-up shop here in Beacon that features all locally made goods so I will be looking there first to fill the rest of my needs. I am selling a few of the tables I’ve been making. Click the above link and scroll down the page to see some examples of my work.

One of my biggest challenges of winter is keeping a very active boy busy indoors during the long winter months. The novelty of all the Legos  he got for his birthday has worn off a bit, I’m sad to say. Our house is full up with Legos, we don’t need any more so if you were contemplating getting Graham some Legos for Christmas please don’t! He really likes board games, especially ones that are challenging. He has a game called SMART by Brainquest that is like a kid version of Trivial Pursuit that he is crazy about. He also LOVES math and is doing very well in science so anything that is an activity involving math and science that he can play at home, like this for example, is something he would love. Of course, baseball is still #1 with him. We just shelled out for a membership to a place called Extra Innings, where he can go during the winter for indoor batting practice.

     

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving will be having a wonderful holiday season!

They said I was crazy....

They said I was crazy to have 8 first grade boys at my house yesterday. And it was a little crazy for a while. Graham and I decided it would be fun to have a few of his school friends over the day before Thanksgiving. We would decorate cookies, play some games and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

There was a lot of screaming, a lot of tearing around the house and o by the way it was pouring rain all day so i couldn't send them outside at any point. But everyone had a great time. Nothing broke, no one cried and most kids did not want to go home when their parents came. These cookies you see here? NOT decorated by the boys, this is my work. When the boys sat down at the table to fix up their cookies there were blank cookies shaped like maple leaves, stars, snowflakes and Christmas trees. There were bowls of colored icing and 5 or 6 types of sprinkles. I am still trying to sweep up all the colored sprinkles on the kitchen floor. One boy who Graham was on the fence about inviting due to his acting up in school, poured a huge mound of icing on one cookie then dumped a mountain of sprinkles over and buried his face in the whole concoction. Even this kid's mom questioned whether he should come but despite that I like this kid. 

Pin the Feathers on the Turkey game made by me & G

After everyone left I picked up the Legos and other stray toys from the floor and once I vacuumed most order was restored. And those parents who said I was crazy? I noticed that they dropped their boys at the door and disappeared in a flash. Graham was sad to see everyone go but today is Thanksgiving and there will be a new crew of visitors in the house in a few hours. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Lately

Here are some things we've been up to lately...

playing board games on a rainy Sunday afternoon

leaves have been falling in our yard

our cat Pedro thinks he's hiding in the leaves

we went hiking on a trail called The Trapps last weekend in an area west of New Paltz known as the Gunks

you can see a view of the Hudson Valley from where we hiked

rock-ing out

this is a collaborative drawing of the sun i help Graham's 1st grade class do.  

Air guitar

Just another evening in our kitchen with Queen

Fear the ManWolf

and a Happy Halloween to you!

Fear the beard!

As you well know, Red Sox took game 1 of the World Series last night. The bearded excitement is high around our house. Graham has his whole class rooting for the Red Sox including his teacher who is a Yankees fan. Graham has a really wonderful teacher this year who has told her whole family of Yankees fans to root for the Sox because she has a little boy in her class who is a big fan.

Today is picture day at school but we made him leave the beard at home. 

6 years old

There was cake, there was baseball...

Of homes and phones

If you get a random call from an (845) number don't ignore it, it's probably us calling from our new old rotary phone. We recently got cable tv installed after years without it. Part of the package was a land line which we do not want or need. But they gave it to us anyway even though we don't even own a phone. So I went down to the local antique store and bought this beauty. If you email me I'll give you the number but there is no answering machine so if we are not home it will just ring like the good old days.

Last summer we stopped in at the Telephone Museum in Ellsworth Maine which has all sorts of historic telephones, switchboards, etc. and they all work. Graham really got a kick out of calling people on the old phones they have there. He is equally tickled when we use our very own rotary phone to call people.

Look what I made!!!!

I made this 7 foot table for our kitchen and finished it today so we can eat on it tonight. So excited! This is one of the final pieces in the puzzle of fixing up our kitchen. Next up: butcher block countertops and backsplash.

I made this table from 3/4" plywood which I sanded and stained, then coated with a polyacrylic. I bought the powder-coated steel legs from a table leg maker and screwed them in to the underside.

Today was quite a banner day. We got the green light from the Building Dept. to continue work on our deck, we got cable installed so we can watch post-season baseball, I finished the table so we can eat in our kitchen now. Hooray!

Birthday Season

September begins a season of birthdays in our house beginning with Liam Goodman's on Sept 17th. Yesterday was a totally manic day with Graham's packed activity schedule-piano lesson and soccer practice after school but with a little pre-planning we were able to have a nice celebration at home last night. Here he is blowing out his candles. Just in case you were wondering, there is only one place to get birthday candles in Beacon and it in NOT the drug store. I had to find this out the hard way by making several stops yesterday. 

Next up is mom's birthday tomorrow. Then comes Graham on Oct 12. I recently purged a lot of Graham's baby (or baby-ish) toys but I then realized he has very few toys left to play with indoors. We have lots of sports equipment but not many toys for a 6 year old and winter is coming folks! Graham would like you to know he likes Legos, especially Star Wars legos, Harry Potter Legos and Chima Legos.  ;-}

October is chock-full of Goodman-Post birthdays. Let me know what you want for your big day!

1st grade-yes we can

Right before we got out of the car this morning outside of school Graham squeeked a tiny little "I'm scared". By the time I picked him up he was all smiles and said he had a great day.

Here he is on the morning before his first day of 1st grade:

1st grade-is this possible?

Tomorrow morning this kid starts his first day of public school-1st grade at JV Forrestal Elementary in Beacon. I can't really truly believe it and it gets me a little emotional thinking about sending him off into the world like this. When he went to kindergarten it was at the same Montessori school he had spent his pre-K year with the same teachers and most of the same classmates. But this is public school now, a whole new setting. A game changer. After the safety of his sweet little private school this is public school we are committing to. I have the utmost confidence in his abilities-he can read like a third grader and asks me to call out math problems to him while we are riding in the car so I know he will do fine academically. Will he make friends? Will he like it? I am not freaking out.....

Our summer in photos

This summer has been an exceptionally busy one. We spent 2 weeks in Maine, made a trip to the Adirondaks, another trip to Cape Cod, had our kitchen renovated (still in progress), Graham went to 2 baseball camps and 2 weeks of farm camp. Now we are counting down the days until first grade begins (Sept 4). With all this running around and living without some of our usual luxuries like air conditioning in my office, I have been slack about keeping up the blog but here i sit in my new kitchen ready to keep you updated with the best photos my iphone will take. This time with captions! Enjoy.

We've gone to several Hudson Valley Renegades games this summer, our local minor league team. Graham got a ball from one of the players. Here he is on the field after a game. 

On our way home from Maine we went to a Portland SeaDogs game which was a bit cold, rainy and a dull game.  

Our kitchen reno as of about a month ago. Accent wall is painted, new cabinets are in but old flooring is still there. 

This is what new bamboo flooring looks like.

Deck in progress. Should be completed in the next few weeks. 

Morning in the Adirondacks. I think they were concentrating on a game, not staring blankly into space. 

Sing along at farm camp

Cape Cod trip with the Terry family of San Anselmo, CA. Graham and Isaac chillaxin on the beach. 

Graham and Isaac in a friendly light saber fight. Star Wars jokes are big with these kids. "What do you call it when Darth Vader serves food? Darth Waiter!"

Johnathan Terry aka Jive Turkey aka JT

Carrie aka Care Bear

G masters another sport

The Cyclist and the Slugger

Our last morning on the Cape spent at an I-Hop in Yarmouth before the brutal 7 hour drive home.  It should have been a 4 hour drive but summer traffic had other plans for us. 

Back in Beacon, another summer night...

Graham at the riverfront in Beacon

We discovered a wonderful place to go canoe-ing near our house called Stillwater Lake. 

Silly kid at the Met in NYC. Our water was turned off yesterday so our contractor could install the new washer in the basement. Graham and I decided to skip town rather than pee outside all day :-)

My cherry tomatoes have gone crazy this summer with an unbelievable bounty.  Every day I pick at least a pint, usually more. Friends and neighbors have been very lucky. 

2 weeks in Maine