Pumpkins, Chicken Wild Rice Soup, and Perspective on Stuff When Looking At an International Move

Pie pumpkins from Michael's parents.  I get to officially join the fall pumpkin baking craze.
We also have one massive one in our kitchen that wouldn't really fit on the bench for the picture.  (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)  It must be the year of parental pumpkin gifts.  Beautiful AND useful.

I tried a crockpot chicken wild rice soup recipe the other day.  It was a major success story with the boys, but it lacked seasoning in my opinion.  That's a picture of them happily having their fourth bowl in the last three days.  (It made a LOT...) Just thought I would share for those looking for crockpot recipes....Because you're probably not going to get any original recipes from me.

It's been a season of things falling apart.  My favorite pair of jeans tore a little bit on Saturday.  They've held on for a while.  Now I'm down to one pair of jeans after I finish wearing maternity jeans.  Our food processor broke.  My sewing machine broke.  A sentimental jar that held all my antique buttons broke.  Our coffee pot broke (thankfully, we have one on loan from my parents.)  Our cars always seem to be in some sort of trouble.  Pages in books get torn.

But we're happy.
And content.
And that's what matters.

We learned last night about the spatial requirements for a family of six (for that's what we'll be) living in France.  560 square feet is all that's legally required....and from what I've been reading, we'll be lucky to find 700 or 800 square feet.  For the record, most places in the States require 650 square feet for a family of six.

I've recently watched several families paring down all of their earthly possessions as they prepare to make international moves.  It's scary when I remember the mass of things that we've got in this house.  But I'm also viewing it as a challenge.  It really puts all of our broken pieces of earthly trappings into perspective.  "Well, we wouldn't have space for that in France anyway..."  "Can we use something else to perform that job?"  It also helps me be more controlled with my wants.  "Would this serve us in France?  Or is this just a temporary buy?"  

Perspective.