Settling in Just Fine

Well it is official!  We have been here and in a home for a week now! it seems a little crazy to me, because it seems as though we have been here for much longer.  Not in a bad way by any means! But it seems like we have moved in and settled down quickly!

We have been so lucky to have such great landlords.  They are so kind and giving!  Tonight they came by to fix a downspout and finish just a little bit of painting.  After a while they came back with 12 ears of fresh corn!  Boy was it so delicious!  They live about an hour away on a lot of land.  She is a fountain of information and has taught at a community college.  She helped point me in the direction of a homeschooling group.

As of now my kids are registered for school.  I have only had a few nightmares about it, not because public schools are horrible and awful, or corrupt and wouldn't prepare my children for "the real world".  They are all just fine, but after our experience this past year with homeschooling, we have found it to be so enlightening!  We work at the pace of our children!  We play to their strengths and help strengthen their weaknesses.  We can self guide according to interests.  We learned to work as a family, play as a family and most importantly serve as a family.  I am not convinces as of yet what we are doing.  I will be prayerful and careful in this most delicate of decisions, but I am excited that the option is once again on the table.  I do know how valuable it is for the kids to get out and make friends and participate in activities other than what happens in the home.  I am excited to find out what I can about their community here!

Just behind our house is a trail called Huckleberry Trail.  It is so much fun! (Click the link to read about it!)  I am excited to get all the kids on bikes and take trips to the library!)  Today the kids and Martin went on a bike ride all over.  You can get almost anywhere in town!  It is mostly flat and well maintained.  Parts of it follow along a river,  lots of rolling green hills and thick green canopies of trees.  Tonight as the kids were watching a movie with Martin for their Saturday night treat, I ventured out for the first time alone and enjoyed a nice brisk walk, waddling down the path.  What a spectacular sight to see!

I really love the humidity here.  I know that might make me sound a little nuts, but it is true!  It doesn't feel overly wet and miserable as I anticipated.  A light breeze is all you need to be instantly cooled off.  Along my walk there was this nasty fly-ish bug that was freaking me out!  It looked like a black golden snitch from Harry Potter, a littler smaller perhaps, but it would zoom by your head, almost as if trying to tempt you to a game of Quittage!  Then, it would stop and hover right in front of you with it's long wings that flapped so hard it created a fuzzy illumination around it's entire body.  I am sure I will get use to the bugs, but for now, they are they only thing from keeping me inside more than I would like.  Pathetic?  Probably so.

Walking home, I was thinking to myself how different each day has been so far.  My overall feelings are those of positivity and excitement!  I have always felt like I belonged somewhere like here.  It is so gorgeous!  SO Green!  The trees are magnificent!  We feel so secluded, yet are only about 10 minuets from anywhere.  As I walked home I couldn't help feel like this is where we are supposed to be!  Through the thick trees, I could eventually see the lights of the house, and everything just seemed right.  From the dirt driveway to the rustic barn to the house we are making a home.

We are doing much better at sitting down for each meal together!  It is so fun to have a set table and meal planned for my family.  Before, with Martin schedule, we hardly knew when we could sit down together.  But with his only focus being school and dealing with one schedule makes all the difference in the word!  Carlee asked to listen to a specific song at the table a few nights ago, usually we wouldn't turn it on, but we were feeling goofy, so we did.  (Can you tell she is our little diva?  We love it!)  The song seemed so fitting for us during this time!  We listened to it over and over and over again!   Now you can too... Here you go.  You and I